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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	ceremonial_a	law_n	moral_a	3,536	5	9.8204	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52802	A Christians walk and work on earth, until he attain to heaven which may serve as a practical guide, and a plain direction in his pilgrimage thither, through his personal and relative duties : marvelously useful to all persons, and families of all ranks and qualities, both in city and country / by Christopher Nesse ...	Ness, Christopher, 1621-1705.	1678 (1678)	Wing N443; ESTC R3369	121,975	273

keep them in the legal way This is the one thing needful Luk. 10. 41 and 't is the bonum hominis the good of Man as well as the whole of Man to do justly to love mercy and to walk humbly with his God Mic. 6. 8. 'T is not only the good but also the chiefest good of Man attainable in this life to wit Conformity to God and Communion with God in the Duties of the first and second Tables of the Law 12. This whole and good duty of Man to God hath commonly three Names 1. Religion 2. Godliness 3. Christianity 1. 'T is call'd Religion a Religando from binding as it is a sacred bond that binds Man in his Duty to God There is indeed the cursed bond of iniquity Act. 8. 23 which binds the heart of Man to Sin and Satan But that may seem needless seeing Man's heart doth so naturally love the service of sin and you do not find your heart so apt to slip from the service of Satan so less need of this bond of iniquity as you are apt to slip from the service of God As therefore you cannot love the service of God unless it be supernaturally given you so a Religious principle must both bring you near to who in the fallen nature are afar of from God Eph. 2. 13. Psal 73. ult But also must bind your shppery heart fast to God that you may be Gods bundle tyed up on Earth to be carried up to Heaven Religion is the girding up of the loins of your mind Luk. 12. 35. 1 Pet. 1. 13 and he that is thus ungirt is certainly according to the Proverb unblest also 13. There is 1. A Natural Religion whereby Man fashions his thoughts words and deeds according to the light and law of Nature hereby also he hath a good or a bad opinion of himself according to the Conformity or Inconformity to Natures light and law And the more that the understanding of Man is enlightned the stronger is the obligation or bond to all duties of this Natural Religion But alas such darkness hath befallen the Gentile Natural Religion that they have made Gods of men and when they have so done brings down those Gods to play the men in murders thests and rapes as their own Poets are not ashamed to tell us 2. There is the Jewish-Religion which binds them to conform to all those Laws Moral Judicial and Ceremonial and to observe them according to the intention of the lawgiver and to judg of themselves by their having or wanting Conformity to those Laws 3. The Turkish-Religion in a word makes sensuality the best happiness and therefore to be abhorred by all that love Holiness 14. 4. The Popish-Religion which is almost as bad as the Mahometanism or the Turkish as Opander in his Epitom 12. Centur. pag. 275. large quarto sheweth by its Doctrine of Merit and Supererogation c sets up Man and not God yea makes God a debtor to Man to say nothing how it is pompous and flesh pleasing allowing of equivocations of buying and selling of pardons how it relies on the Infallibility of wicked Popes it hoodwinks the Laity it worships stocks and stones it overthrows Christs Humanity by giving to it ubiquity it destroys Christ's Satisfaction by purgatory and perfection it befools Temporal Princes it denies assurance it tolerates open stews it damns all Infants that dye unbaptized and much more of the same bran therefore it is not obligatory or binding to you as the word Religion signifies being a mere cento of Judaism and Heathenism and a composition of lying Doctrines 'T is Divine Truth and not Humane Error that binds the conscience 15. 1 There is the Protestant-Religion which truly abases Man and exalts God Those be the two Properties of the true Religion and such as do not so are always to be suspected for false Religions This last teaches us that a man being united by faith to Christ believes in him both for Satisfaction and Salvation though he come short of Gods Glory and his own Duty hoping to be saved by the Righteousness of Christ and not by any Righteousness of his own It holds out reconcilement to God and communion with God as the end and the Covenant of Grace as the means to that end Thus doth it bind God and Man together after the great breach by the fall yea it binds Man to God after his breaking from God and teaches him rightly to worship God the Father Son and Holy Ghost according to the holy Scriptures 16. There is but one true Religion that is binding to your soul Diversity of Religion is against the Essence of God which is but one there is but one Truth one true Religion that hath life and power in it all other are but carcasses yea spectrum's and phantasms You must know every difference in opinion makes not up a false and a differing Religion Those that agree together in fundamentals cannot be said to be of different Religions there may be a ruffling the Fringe in circumstantials where there is no rending the garment in substantials Abraham and Lot may take several ways yet be brethren still yea and be ready too to rescue each other from the common Enemy 17. Plato blessed God for three things 1. That he was made a man and not a beast 2. That he was a Gracian and not a Barbarian 3. That he was a Philosopher and not a Rustick You may add to this God-blessing work not only that you are born in a Region of Religion the land of Goshen and valley of Vision but that you are acquainted also with the power of it in your own heart For 1. Religion is the beauty and bulwark of your Nation 't is to it what the Palladium was to Trey which could never be destroyed so long as they possessed it 'T is as Sampsons lock which while he retains he retains his strength also and is unconquerable therefore as the Gracians first stole away that Image of Pallas from Troy and then destroy'd it and as the Philistines cut Sampsons lock and then conquer'd him So the Enemy of Truth would rob our Nation of Religion which is its muniment as well as its ornament Zeph. 2. 5. and then destroy it Religion is our turris a tuendo a Tower of defence Isa 5. 2 which is a Fort Royal against all Invaders So long as the Tabernacle stood in Shiloh the Kingdom flourished and there were no Ichabods in it but the Canaanites were subdued before them Josh 18. 1 c. as if the stability of the Tabernacle had given stability to the Kingdom The fall of the Tabernacle was the fall of the Kingdom Psal 78. 60 61 62 and that tribe perished first that lost the tabernacle first ver 67. Sion was double-top'd on the one hill stood the Temple and on the other the Pallace of the King as if the latter had its lustre and safety from the former that Nation that hath God nigh them in