Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	jesus_n	lord_n	8,211	5	3.8236	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40371	A sermon preached in Christ's-Church, Dublin, on the 23d. of October, 1698 being the anniversary thanksgiving for putting an end to the Irish Rebellion, which broke out on that day, 1641, before the House of Lords / by Nathanael Lord Bishop of Waterford and Lismore.	Foy, Nathaniel, d. 1707.	1698 (1698)	Wing F2046; ESTC R33792	19,692	32

A SERMON Preached in Christ's-Church DUBLIN On the 23d of October 1698. Being the Anniversary Thanksgiving for putting an End to the IRISH REBELLION which broke out on that Day 1641. BEFORE THE House of Lords By NATHANAEL Lord Bishop of WATERFORD and LISMORE DVBLIN Printed by Andrew Crook Printer to the Kings Most Excellent Majesty for Samuel Adey Bookbinder in Copper-Alley and are to be sold by the Booksellers of Dublin 1698. Monday the 24th of October 1698. By the Lords Spiritual and Temporal in Parliament Assembled Ordered ON Motion that the Lord Viscount Loftus of Ely the Lord Viscount Charlemont and the Lord Baron of Strabane do give the Thanks of this House to the Lord Bishop of Waterford for his Sermon Preached at Christ's-Church Yesterday being the Anniversary of the Three and Twentieth of October And that his Lordship be desired to Print his said Sermon Jo. Smyth Cler. Parliamentorum Acts Chap. 19 ver 28. And when they heard these Sayings they were full of Wrath and cryed out saying Great is Diana of the Ephesians THAT Ephesus was the Metropolis of the Lesser Asia and one of the most Celebrated Mart Towns of all the East seated on the Shore of the Archipelago renown'd for its Riches and Antiquity as having been founded as 't is said by many of the Ancients by the Amazons not long after the Trojan War but for nothing more Famous than the Worship of the Great Goddess DIANA with her Image which fell down from Jupiter as 't was Superstitiously believ'd and the Incredible Structure of her Temple as having from time to time been no less than Two hundred and twenty Years a Building at the general Charges of the whole Province and for that Reason call'd by Pliny Admiratio Graecae Magnificentiae The Wonder or Astonishment of the Greek Magnificence and ever reputed One of the Seaven Wonders of the World is unknown to none who are any thing conversant in Heathen Story To this City Proud and Insolent to the highest Degree Superstitious and Idolatrous and hugely addicted to the Study of Magical or Infernal Arts St. Paul in his Apostolical Travels about Fifty two Years after our Lord's Birth comes to Found or rather Establish a Christian Church The Rudiments of which seem to have been Imperfectly laid in the Chapter before And here he continues by the space of Two Years Baptizing Disputing and Working Miracles of all sorts not only when personally present but by Touching the Handkerchiefs or Aprons of such as were Sick or Possess'd so that the Diseases departed from them and the Evil Spirits went out of them Upon this certain Vagabond Jews Exorcists or Conjurers who had improv'd themselves in these Arts of Magick and Incantation whilst they were at Ephesus as being a City particularly under the Jurisdiction of the Devil perceiving how that no sooner St. Paul call'd upon the Name of the Lord Jesus but the Evil Spirits flew like Lightning from the Bodies of Demoniacks they thought to do the like and the Experiment being made by no less than seaven Sons of one SCeva a Jew not being willing it seems to trust themselves singly all Students of the Black Art in this Form of Words We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul Preacheth i. e. to depart The Evil Spirit answer'd and said Jesus we know and Paul we know but who are ye And the man in whom the Evil Spirit was leaped on them and overcame them and prevailed against them so that they fled out of that house naked and wounded So Remarkable an Occurrence as this could not but be soon Noised abroad in so Populous and Inquisitive a City and the event was answerable For Fear fell on all dwelling at Ephesus both Jews and Greeks and the Name of the Lord Jesus was magnified And many that believed came and confessed and shewed their deeds And in farther token of the reallity of their Conversion and utter Abhorrence of their former Life many of them who had practised these Magick Arts of their own accord brought their Books and burn'd them publickly which had they been sold would have yeilded no less than Fifty thousand pieces of Silver So mightily grew the Word of God and prevailed But Demetrius a crafty Trades-man and Master of the Corporation of Silver-Smiths who made Silver Shrines for Diana or little Temples with her Image in them and had all this time been a Spy on the Words and Actions of St. Paul finding that his Religion and Fortune were both at stake and would certainly be lost were not some timely stop put to his Preaching and Miracles he calls together the Workmen of like Occupation and in a Riotous Assembly for Trades-men are no proper Reformers he tells them There was one Paul who had not only at Ephesus but throughout all Asia perverted much People Broaching a most Unreasonable and Heretical Doctrine That they be no Gods which are made with Hands That the Divinity of the Great Goddess Diana had been Universally Acknowledg'd by all Mankind and that her Worship had been Establish'd upon the Universal Consent and Practice of all Nations whom not only all Asia but the World Worship'd But if what Paul said was true both the Temple and the Goddess would soon be despised and her Magnificence destroy'd This had he said no more must be acknowledg'd to have been a good sort of Metaphysical Argument but Demetrius knowing that Trades-mens heads lie not much that way was too wise to venture the Worship of his Goddess and along with it his All upon such a nice Speculation and therefore to make Sure work of it he first prepares the way by a right faithful Argument which he knew amongst such Auditors would never fail him Sirs Ye know that by this Craft we have our wealth which now is in danger to be set at nought And when they heard these sayings they were full of wrath and cryed out saying Great is Diana of the Ephesians the Uproar continuing about two hours the Beasts of Ephesus all that time bellowing nothing out but Great is Diana of the Ephesians Great is c. So that the Words are a perfect Inference from a heap of Arguments which went before Demetrius Argues stiffly for his Goddess the People repeat his Arguments and infer the Conclusion Doth Paul say they be no Gods which are made with hands and is the Ruine of our Goddess involv'd in this single Assertion Has her Divinity been Acknowledg'd and Ador'd by all Nations and by the Romans themselves receiv'd into the number of the Deae Majorum Gentium and is our whole Fraternity supported by her and do we and she fall together Why then Great is Diana of the Ephesians From the Words thus knit together we have these Three very Observables First That there is no Evidence of Sense Reason or in consequent thereto Scripture so plain and undoubted against which Education and Interest are not of force enough to byass and

carry the Judgment Secondly The exact Harmony or Agreement betwixt the Religion of the Heathens and that of the Romish Church at this day Thirdly The wonderful Force of a misguided or ill-grounded Zeal which usually is fiercer and more impetuous than a true one First There is no Evidence of Sense Reason c. Of the truth of which First The whole Heathen World is an undeniable Evidence who before the coming of Our Blessed Lord were sunk and degenerated into such gross sottish Opinions and Practices relating to God and Humane Nature as were altogether inconsistent with either and did thereupon Impair and Endanger the whole Law of Nature which as to the Moral World is no other than a System of Opinions and Practices appertaining to God our selves and one another But to keep to the particular instance in the Text what can be more evident to Sense and Reason than that the Goddess the Silver-Smith made did not make the Silver-Smith Notwithstanding which and tho' the whole Corporation of Silver-Smiths got their Livelihood by doing Work about her nay tho' perhaps these very individual men had mended or adorn'd her Goddesship when Ruinous or Rusty yet Saint Paul must be exclaim'd against and brought in danger of his Life for saying They are no Gods which are made with Hands To this may be added that inhumane Practice which did of Old and doth at this time prevail amongst some Heathen Nations of Sacrificing the Wife the dearest Friends and most faithful Servants at the Funerals of their several Relations And what renders this Practice more wonderful is there is nothing of Interest in it beyond the avoiding Shame and Disgrace which by long Use and Practice is clearly of their own making The like may be said Secondly Of the Jewish Church which would not believe that Jesus of Nazareth was the Saviour of the World but Crucified him as a Malefactor tho' the Prophecies of the Old Testament foretelling him to come joyn'd to and explained by the History of Our Lord's Life and Death did so plainly Describe and Point out his Person that it was not possible any thing to a Nation which acknowledg'd the Divine Original of them as the Jews did should be more Evident to Reason or more Convictive of the Judgment And yet alass all these signified no more against the Education and Principles which then prevail'd by which they were taught to expect a Temporal Messias nor against the sensual Interest and worldly Grandure of that Church than Bullets shot against a Marble stone Nay when these forcible Weapons were afterwards manag'd by an Omnipotent Arm and received an Additional Strength and a New Edge by the Accession of the Miracle of the Resurrection yet made they little or no Impression on the Jewish Church but a very Fatal one upon the Publican and Fishermen with their Followers who were the Preachers of that Divine Doctrine Of all which Our Lord has given a most Wise profound Reason How can ye Believe that receive Honour of Men That is 't is Morally impossible ye should But beyond these and all other instances in the World put together Thirdly The Romish Church is the fullest proof how much it is within the Power of Interest and Education to warp the Judgment against the clearest Evidence of Sense Reason and Scripture Of a great heap of Opinions to single out but a few What can be more against the clear Evidence of Scripture than half Communion What more against Sense and Reason than that Popes and Councils who for these many years have been doing little but contradicting not only one another but themselves should set up for Infallibility Reason tells they may be deceiv'd Sense and Experience tell that they are so and they have not yet been able to urge the least plausible Argument to prove their Exemption from the common calamity of Humane Nature What more against the common Reason of Mankind and the Evidence of Scripture than that since Prayer is a lifting up of the Heart to God giving Thanks for what we have receiv'd and imploring what we need men should not be permitted to pray to God in a Tongue they understand Or what more against the Evidence of Sense Reason and Scripture than the Monstrous Doctrine of Transubstantiation Which to go about to confute would be to abuse the Auditory A Doctrine which if any thing in Sense Reason or Scripture be true is certainly false A Doctrine which as one has most ingeniously observ'd if it be true 't is the most ill natur'd truth in the World for 't will permit nothing else to be true besides it self A and Lastly a Doctrine in favour of which were a Miracle wrought it could not prove it true in as much as after such a Miracle wrought we should have the same Reason to believe the Doctrine to be false that we had to believe the Miracle was true And yet to the Eternal Disgrace of the Romish Church they have laid the greatest Wits of Europe both of our Church and their own under an absolute necessity of spending the Flower of their Years and the Strength of their Parts in Reading and Writing great Volumes for and against this portentous Doctrine tho' after all their Labours and Study they can arrive to no more knowledge in the whole matter than what every Child of Six years of Age has viz. To know that Bread is Bread Thus much Interest and Education is able to do against the strongest and most uncontested Evidence of the latter of which I think the World has not a fuller proof than the gross body of this Nation in which we live affords us who have not the least imaginable shadow of Reason why they are rather Papists than Protestants but that 't was the Religion their Fathers profest before them pleading nothing in their Defence but this as 't is notoriously known to all who converse with them And now 't were to be wisht these were all that are concerned in this imputation but Fourthly Every Sect or Sept has a share in it more or less as 't were easie to instance in the several Factions which of late years have prevail'd amongst us well nigh to the utter desolation of one of the most Flourishing Kingdoms and Apostolick Churches in the World whose Wounds are yet Green and Gaping so that the Romish Church is more Catholick than we Protestants think of extending it self not only to Rome and other Places subject to the Papal Power but to Geneva likewise and those who value themselves most for having no Communion with her I say 't were easie to instance in the Opinions and Practices but I forbear this being a day hallow'd by the Blood of many thousand Innocents to the Romish Church and upon that account 't is great pity but it should be all their own Secondly The exact Harmony or Agreement betwixt the Religion of the Heathens and that of the Church of Rome And now we are