Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	catholic_n	church_n	universal_a	3,343	5	9.1066	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43697	A sermon preach'd before the Lord Mayor and Court of Aldermen, June 27, 1680 by Charles Hickman ...	Hickman, Charles, 1648-1713.	1680 (1680)	Wing H1895; ESTC R18596	14,790	42

that make Virtue utterly unnecessary to the life of a Christian and confine all Religion to a bare relying upon the merits and mercies of our Saviour and because God has predestinated some to be saved they resolve to put themselves in the number and register themselves Saints in spight of all their sins they work not out their salvation with fear and trembling but with impudence and presumption make God the Author of their sins and give him the whole trouble of their salvation And there are many such that make great profession of Zeal and a noise about Religion yet never trouble themselves with the duties that Religion lays upon them 'T is this that profanes the worship of God and brings his Gospel into contempt Not all the Blasphemies of the Heathens not all the Usurpations of Antichrist no nor all the powers of the gates of Hell can so far offend God or prejudice his Church as the scandalous practices of his false pretended Servants The back-slidings of Israel were notorious and she plaid the Harlot upon every high Mountain and under every green Tree and yet for all this the Lord said The back-sliding Israel hath justifi'd her self more than her treacherous Sister Judah who turn'd not unto me with her whole heart but feignedly We must therefore first advance the Kingdom of God in our hearts and seek his righteousness and then all these outward things the beauty of holiness and the flourishing estate of a visible Church shall be added unto us II. If we be truly zealous for the worship of God we should also be zealous for the honour of his holy Name we should not with a sordid compliance bear the reproaches which are daily cast upon him nor see his honour laid in the dust by the prophaneness of every hypocritical pretended Saint and every lewd Atheistical unbeliever we should not with patience hear his Name traduc'd to authorize the sacrilegious rebellions of the one and the impious exsecrations of the other but if our presence cannot suppress nor our exhortations reclaim their vice we should flie from the tents of wickedness and avoid their company like an infected place III. We must be zealous also for the honour of Gods holy Temple When we come into his House we must so behave our selves as shall befit the Majesty before whom we appear and the place where his Honour dwells We must here put off all Pharisaical greatness and all dissembled humiliation all sinful desires and all wandring idle thoughts otherwise we profane that place which God has sanctifi'd and make his Service an unhallowed thing The very laws of nature enforce a reverence from us to the places of devotion and the Angels which here attend the prayers of the just will certainly avenge the contempt of the profane There is a reverence due even to misguided piety and Histories relate unto us the Judgments which the just and true God has inflicted upon those that defil'd the Temples of their own invented Deities Whatsoever therefore our Religion is let us adorn it by an ingenuous profession thereof let our practice be according to the tenour of our faith yea and if Baal be God let us follow him which is the last part of my Text and affords us these three considerations 1. How the Jews came to doubt whether the Lord were God or whether it were Baal 2. Since they did doubt how shall we be assur'd hereof And 3. Supposing the Lord to be God yet what use may we make of the Prophets words that if Baal be God then follow him And 1. 'T is strange that the Jews should so soon forget the Lord after he had brought them out of Egypt with a strong hand and led them through the Wilderness with a stretched-out arm that they could blot out the remembrance of his loving kindness who cloath'd them by a miracle and fed them with food from Heaven 't is strange that this People unto whom God had so often manifested both his goodness and his power should yet fall away from his worship to follow a sensless Idol yet this they did not out of any real belief of its divinity but only to gratifie their lusts according to the examples of the Nations that were round about them 'T was the Religion of Baal to eat and drink and rise up to play Whoredoms and Fornications are always the attendants of Idolatry and the worship proper to the Idol for this cause it was that the People bow'd down unto them and threreout they suck no small advantage Whilst men of vitious inclinations and impotent reasons indulge themselves in their sensual Lusts there will not be wanting those that shall bow the knee to Baal How far the Roman Catholicks have made use of this policy to establish their Church is notorious to all the world how they comply with every ones inclinations and allow the worst of men in their sins for their interest they can indulge and incourage too the highest enormities and live upon the sins of the People 'T is this that brings such crowds of Nations to their Temples and makes their Altars smoke 't is not the probability of their faith nor the antientness of their traditions that has advanc'd their cause but the looseness of their doctrines and the liberty of their practices the easie penances enjoyn'd to sinners in their lives and the ample indulgences allow'd them at their deaths Thus they egregiously promote a Christian Church by destroying Christianity it self and set up a faith of their own that makes void both the Law and the Prophets and frustrates the design of all Religion And now they may take to themselves their boasted Universality and glory that their doctrine is not only Preach'd but Practis'd too throughout the world for whilst sin is the universal distemper of mankind 't is to be fear'd that Rome will be the Catholick Church 2. How shall we know whether the Lord be God or whether it be Baal We do not now expect the spirit of Elijah to reprove us nor fire from Heaven to convince our unbelief and yet God has not left himself without testimonies even in these our days sufficient to assert the truth of his Religion I shall mention only two which are grounded upon the authority of my Text. 1. We have our Reason for our judge examine and try whether the Lord be not God indeed and whether there be any deceitfulness in him search the records of time and see if there be any that can perform those wondrous works which he hath done his truth will indure the severest tryal and he needs not the ignorance of his Servants to advance their devotions but delights in the understanding of his Saints and requires a reasonable service If Baal be God then in Gods name follow Baal The Prophet does not impose his own sense upon them nor magisterially dictate his own opinion but gives them commission to make use of their reason and the freedom of their