Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	divine_a	reason_n	revelation_n	1,589	5	9.4988	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47212	A sermon preached at the consecration of a chappel in the house of John Collins, Esq., of Chute in Wiltshire, performed by the Right Reverend Father in in [sic] God Seth, Lord Bishop of Sarum, on the 25th of September, 1673 by Joseph Kelsey ...	Kelsey, Joseph, d. 1710.	1674 (1674)	Wing K249; ESTC R2647	19,026	38

frequently the dying person commended his Soul to God by bequeathing his Estate to the encouragement of Religion So the House of Pudens a Noble Senator mentioned 2 Tim. 4. and of Theophilus of Antioch St. Lukes most excellent Patron were converted into Christian Temples Within an hundred years after the death of our Saviour we read in the Dialogue ascribed to Lucian called Philopatris 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sayes Critius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Representing the Assemblies of the Christians we passed through iron Gates and brazen Thresholds when after many winding Ascents we came to an House whose Roof was overlaid with Gold Nor is the Authority of this Book made less by any thing that either Blondel in opposition to the Antiquity of Churches or the Socinians in favour of their Antitrinitarian Opinion have disputed seeing it is certain whoever was the Author it was written if not about the time of Nero as some think yet in the Reign of Trajan Marcilius adlocum whose conquests over the Parthians he plainly doth congratulate He that considers the several Classes of Persons to every of which was an appointed Station in the Church and the distinct degrees through which they passed in the primitive discipline before they were accounted perfect must conclude that not a confused assembling but a designed methodized place was onely capeable of so regular and orderly proceedings The poverty of their affairs did not discourage the Christians nor the rage of their enemies affright them but they met together in hallowed places where they prayed for the lives of their Persecutors and did no other hurt than what Pliny relates ' in his known Epistle But if at any time either policy of State or the goodness of the Emperour gave them release from their afflictions and exercise of their religion then could they not rest satified to serve God amidst ruins and desolations but with sumptuous charges they reedified the fallen Churches which for ought they knew the next breath of an angry Tyrant might again throw to the ground When the Empire turned Christian then was there an Emblem of the general resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb lib. 10. c. 2. Religion seem to be clad in the joyes of immortality their Temples ascended above all clouds and tempests not afraid of a second death Then was there in every Town and City lasting monuments raised to that God who had at length tamed the madness of the people had spoken the word and delivered them from further fears of Stormes and Shipwracks Then might you have Seen the Splendor of Paulinus his Cathedral at Tyre 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the first sight to attract the eyes and hearts of the enemies of the Faith Cap. 4. as the Panegyrist at that Dedication doth express it From thence that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 great and heavenly quire made hast to perform the like solemnity at Jerusalem De v●● Constan Cap. 43. Jernsalem the City of the great God he was once well known in thy palaces and in the gates of Sion The glory of all nations the joy of the whole earth where the Lord said he would dwell for ever in thee was he worshipped with the beauty of holyness till by the rebellion of thy people the wicked obstinacy of thy Priests and Rulers when they truly murdred the Lord of life and glory the vail of thy Temple rent in sunder the gates flew open on their own accord and a dreadful voice was heard let us go hence Then did the Scepter and the Glory depart from Israel then was thy holy place prophaned with all impurities and buried in the dust Behold now thy King cometh whom thou wouldst not to reign over thee in greatness Power and Triumph over the despised lodging of his birth shall be built a glorious Temple to his Name Every place which formerly entertained his Sacred Person shall be turned into an Oratory every spot of earth whereon he stood shall for ever be accounted holy ground Here will we raise Altars to the memory of every action which he did and consecrate to eternity the particulars of his Sufferings hither shall resort from the utmost ends of the earth the wearie Pilgrim and prostrate pay the Vows which he made in trouble at his shrines here the mournful penitent shall power fourth floods of teares where He wept shall love the place where He was scourged and by those stripes shall be healed Here shall the disconsolate spend his life in sacred retirement and all devout employments here lastly shall men dedicate their time to Diviner Studies write Commentaries upon his Life and defences of his Religion To this new Jerusalem it was they made haste from Tyre to the Encaenia of a Magnificent Temple where was a concourse of holy Confessors and Bishops from all parts of the Christian World attended by an innumerable company of every particular Nation Some sanctified the Solemnity with devout prayers and pious exhortations some made Orations upon the virtues of the Emperour extolling the sincerity of his love to Religion and the honour he paid to Martyrs Others composed devout meditations from passages of holy Scripture to the occasion They who were not of such attainments made their Devotions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with unbloody Sacrifices Ibid. cap. 45. and mystical Services praying for the peace of the Church and Happiness of the Emperour The frequency of after-Dedications are not here to be mentioned nor need we add any thing in defence of them it being so much a part of natural Religion and Gods ready acceptance of this in the Text so solemnly performed is an infallible Argument that many Ceremonies in divine Worship are approved by him for which no particular command can be produced It is childish impertinency when God hath given us sense and reason besides general rules in Scripture for our direction to expect a divine Revelation to lead us by the Hand and mark out every step we are to go I have hallowed this House that thou hast built that is what you offer I do accept and will bless it for those ends you have designed it But some people are so afraid of the Law of Moses as if they had been present at the Thunder and Lightning the Shakeings of Mount Sinai So terrified are they at the very name of the Ceremonial Law that they are not capable of understanding what it is nor will learn to distinguish betwixt what is so indeed and what are truely the results of nature and common reason 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazian Orat. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of so undoubted Antiquity it is in Christianity that Blondel himself who writ an Apology for his own opinion rather than St. Hierom's acknowledges Dedications to have been performed with the Solemnity of Prayer onely he urges against the Superstitious Ceremonies of the Romanists and will be sure not to allow the Bishop the chief disposing of the Office which yet is ever

reckoned in the number of his Prerogatives They who first affixing a typical signification to every particular under the Law dispute that none ought to be retained as receiving their full impletion under the Gospel seem not carefully to have attended the consequence of the Argument whilest they endeavour to give it an unbounded force they make it altogether lose its strength encreasing the shadow to such a vastness as to take away the light of the very Sun and bring Universal Darkness upon all Divine Revelation If all shall be received for the sence of Scripture which the Allegorizing wits of men warmed with thinking have obtruded who sees not upon what a Rack the litteral sence will be put tortured into such confessions as will call in question its Truth and destroy its Being All Ages as our own have found that the immoderate indulging Spiritual meanings have rendered the Scripture but a dead Letter It seems a pleasant thing to make apt similitudes Allegories have been the entertainment of great wit and high Devotion too oft also the refuge of Heresie when deserted of plainer Scripture We give due reverence to the pious industry of those who by this method of Interpretation have performed any thing which may with pleasure perswade to Vertue or illustrate the Analogy of Faith Yet will not the quickness of Fancy be alwayes found to serve the ends of reasoning It may delight but not convince it may incline but not satisfie the inquisitive understanding Such do appear to have been the extravagancies of this kind that having treated Sacred Scripture with the like levity as the Jewes by their Gematria they have been little less ridiculous nor can they be entertained without prejudice to the common Faith and great inconvenience in believing the Egyptians and Greeks had their Mythology Theology moralized the Jews not without probability pretend an ancient Cabala they say from the time of Moses to which St. Paul seemes to refer well understanding the learnnig of his own Nation The Scripture alone must put bounds to our Faith in this particular nor are we obliged to acknowledg any other Types than what we find there declared As to our present instance the Temple or Tabernacle is not said by the Apostle Heb. 9.9 to be a figure but those Ordinances of worship therein observed Gifts and Sacrifices imposed on them till the time of Reformation St. John saw no Temple in the new Jerusalem that is as the Jewes in the dayes of the Messias expect a Temple but different from any they had before as is that described in the vision of Ezekiel 2. What Dedication doth imply as the reasonableness of it 1. That hereby the place becomes publick for Gods Service For the Church of Christ being Catholick and intended to include whole mankind it is no less honourable than necessary for the maintenance of Religion that the celebration be as publick as the design of it both the better to invite the unconverted to the same Profession as also to preserve it self entire from Herefie and Schism which private Conventicles have always bred and fomented One reason of those Heresies which much defaced the beautie of the primitive Faith was that they being denyed the publick exercise of Religion were constrained to divide into many little bodies whereby he who had a mind had the opportunity by his wit and ambition to tyrannize over the Faith of others and to compose a Church of Disciples peculiar to himself And it was great wisdom in the Dispensation of the Jews the institution of three general Festivalls every year at which the whole Nation was bound to appear whereby they secured the unity and integrity of the Worship whilst they had no long intervals to forget the constant setled method of Religion or to invent and propagate new They had also but one Temple in the whole Land which as it signified the profession of one God in opposition to the plurality of the Heathens so was it also an effectual Bar to all Schism and Innovation The Religion of Christ indeed is of another Nature of much larger extent than from Dan to Beersheba intending the advantage of more than a little spot of ground not two hundred miles in length for all Nations shall worship him and his Dominion shall be from one end of the Earth to the other And therefore our Saviour told the Woman of Samaria that neither in that Mountain nor yet at Jerusalem should they worship the Father but wheresoever a Temple was built there in the purity of his service might they find his presence Happy was that time when in what part of the world soever a good Christian might chance to be he might have found the doors of Churches wide open to his Devotion and God worshipped in that form and order to which without either scruple of his own Conscience or offence to others he heartily could conform when so inconsiderable were the differences of Worship that so prudent and pious a Bishop as S. Ambrose thought it his duty whether at Rome or Milan or any other place to observe its Customs and joyn in Sacred Offices when he might have travelled from East to West and as soon have discovered another Sun as another distinct allowed Religion Even in S. Austin's time if a man askt the way to a Catholick Church no Donatist that had not the ill humour of a Jew durst have presumed to direct him to his own But now into how many thousand pieces doth that Catholick Doctrine stand divided whilst it is forced to put on as many shapes as frail men are subject to imaginations How many Altars smoak to it with no other than the Sacrifice of Fools Strange Fire and Incense wherewith God is not delighted because himself did never kindle it As if the Holy Jesus had been designed ever to remain in Infancy no where to be found or worshipped but in Stables unseemly unhallowed places and his Religion never to take part of that Happiness which Inspired Prophets have foretold In Religion as in the Heavens were our understandings placed in clear and pure light undisturbed with passion prejudice or interest and Earthly affections we should soon discover the easiness and native simplicity of its motions no contrariety no irregularity there and that only man made Epicycles little fancies of his own and falsly said God lodged in them 2. Dedication doth imply that we part with our own right in the thing and make God the sole Owner So Solomon prayed Arise O Lord God into thy resting place thou and the Ark of thy strength And therefore at the Consecration both of the Tabernacle and Temple God by most manifest and extraordinary signs declared his taking possession of them for the Glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle and the Cloud filled the House of the Lord. God is the Lord of all the Earth and all that we have and by the particular assignment of some part we confess his Title to the