Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
religion_n call_v church_n true_a 5,947 5 4.9197 4 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A32794 Eben-ezer, a thankful memorial of God's mercy in preserving England from the gunpowder-treason, 1605 being a sermon on 1 Sam. 7:12, prepared for Novemb. 5th to be preacht at the cathedral, but preacht for the most part of it at the parish-church of Temple, in the city of Bristol, on the 6th of Novem. being the Lord's day / by John Chetwynd ... Chetwynd, John, 1623-1692. 1682 (1682) Wing C3796; ESTC R19751 30,602 46

There are 4 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

Eben-ezer A Thankful Memorial OF GOD'S MERCY In preserving ENGLAND from the GUNPOWDER-TREASON 1605. Being a SERMON on 1 Sam. 7. 12. Prepared for Novemb. 5th to be Preacht at the Cathedral but Preacht for the most part of it at the Parish-Church of Temple in the City of Bristol on the 6th of Novemb. being the Lords Day By John Chetwynd M. A. Prebend of the Cathedral and Vicar of Temple in the City of Bristol Psal 118. 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made we will rejoyce and be glad in it LONDON Printed and are to be sold by Tho. Wall Bookseller at Bristol 1682. To the VVorshipful and his ever Honoured Friend and Kinsman John Harington of Kelston Esq one of His Majesties Justices of the Peace for the County of Somerset SIR I Have made bold to direct these Papers to you as a Testimony of my respect and as being assured that you are a true Protestant of the Church of England established by Law As for such as falsly and with a contradiction so term and call themselves Roman Catholicks I expect no such Readers As for Protestants in Masquerade whose worldly designs make them sit loose to all Religions they may see what may reform them if not convince them But as for your self and such as are Protestants out of conscience you and they who are peaceable Sons of the most Apostolical Church of England may read what may confirm them in their true faith and Worship and what may comfort and support them under any fears dangers hardships that may attend them in and for their so being and doing God being still the same yesterday to day and for ever He that hath delivered doth deliver will deliver To his blessing I commend these Papers To his protection and guidance your self and second-self with all your Family And subscribe my self Bristol Novemb. 16. 1681. Your most Resepctful Kinsman and humble Servant John Chetwynd A Memorial of God's most gracious preservations of England from the Spanish Invasion and Gunpower Treason Of an unknown Author Found by me among my Father's Papers thus directed To my Posterity GOD's ancient Church Two solemn Feasts did keep On Two set days by his own word directed When Pharoah's Host was drowned in the deep And when proud Haman's Treason was detected Two works of equal grace but greater wonder The Lord hath done sor us past all mens Reason When Papist did attempt to bring us under By Spanish Armado and by Piercy's Treason I and my house these great things will remember And in remembrance sanctifie two days In Augustone * 3. the other in November † 5. Both made by God for us to give him praise Dear children charge the children after you Still to observe these Feasts as I do now Eben-ezer A Thankful Memorial of God's preserving England from the Gunpowder Treason 1605. 1 Sam. VII 12. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpeh and Shen and called the name of it Eben-ezer saying Hitherto hath God helped us TO regulate my discourse I have made choice of this Scripture as being in many particulars parallel to the occasion of the day and suitable to this great and solemn Assembly whose outward lustre and grandeur and other circumstances and expressions of rejoycing testifie our apprehensions of this day to be as it deserves to be with us a High Day a Holy day even a day which the Lord our God hath made marvellous in our eyes a Day to be had in everlasting remembrance never-to-be Ps 118 23 24. forgotten a Day of Gods making Some days may be said to be made by Gods flat Let it be made as all creatures besides man were But other days in which notable and memorable occurrences fall out may be said to be made with Gods faciamus Let us make as man was And such was this which God by saving preserving and delivering our King Church and State made marvellous in our eyes and calls for our rejoycing in it Such was the Jewish Passover such the day of our Saviour's Exod 12. Resurrection to which this Scripture is applied and such is this day The Memorial of the mercies on which exhibited we now celebrate Foelix fausta dies lux flava quinta Novembris And may it be for ever celebrated by us and our Posterity as long as the Sun and Moon endureth For this was the Lords doing and let it still be marvellous in our eyes So it was in David's day Thus it was in ours In David's a deliverance from great dangers all by Gods might all by Gods mercy and that not in small things as yet in them God is to be seen but usque Ps 118 12 15. ad miracula and that not only marvellous in it self for so all Zech. 9. 11. Gods works are which seem small because usual but wonderful in our eyes because rare In which we cannot but say Digitus Dei est hic And such was this our day In a most eminent manner Gods day both for the exceeding greatness of our danger and Gods gracious and wonderful deliverance when the Devils and the Jesuits and their bigotted Proselytes had laid their heads together to destroy our King and Church and State our Religion Liberty Lives when the Balak of Spain and the Balaam of Rome Thus far was the Preface to my Sermon prepared for the Cathedral on the 5th but our Reverend Diocesan preaching upon my desire in my turn I thought fit to preach it at Temple on the 6th being the Lords day in the afternoon omitting the foregoing Preface had conspired together our utter destruction We read Esther 9. 20 21. that Mordecai and Esther sent Letters with all Authority to all the Jews nigh and far that they should keep the 14th and 15th of the month Adar yearly as the days wherein the Jews rested from their enemies and the month which was turned from sorrow to joy and from mourning to a good day that they should make them days of feasting and joy and of sending Portions one to another and of gifts to the poor because the Plot of Haman the enemy of all the Jews which he had devised against them was b● Queen Esther's mediation to the King turn'd upon his own head and the Jews had ruled over them that hated them and Haman and his Ten sons were hanged Therefore the Jews ordained and took it upon themselves and upon their seed and upon all such as joyned to them so as it should not fail as it doth not to this day among them wherever dispersed though it be two thousand years since that they would keep these two days according to their writing and according to their apppointed time every year And that these days should be remembred and kept through every Generation every Family every Province Est 9. 27 28. and every City and that these days should not fail from among the Jews nor the memorial of them perish
from their seed Thus it was with the Jews And have not we as much cause to remember with thankful rejoycing the great deliverance vouchsafed our Fathers and in them of us Certainly we have and therefore God having by a Miracle of Mercy prevented the barbarous and inhumane Design of the Papists the implacable enemy of all Protestants especially of English Protestants it was then lookt upon as a principal part of their thankful resentment by King James of famous memory and the then sitting-Parliament To enact the observation of one day viz. the fifth of November yearly to be observed as a thankful memorial of that wonderful Mercy Now God having by his Providence so ordered that this present year his day the Lords day the day which he hath made for the Remembrance of Christs Resurrection and all the Blessings that accrue by him and all we enjoy whether spiritual or external temporal or eternal are all from him deliverance from Hell Death and Damnation of soul and body deliverance from slavery and bondage and all external pressures are all from him and it being the principal work of this day Gods Holy Rev 1 day the Lords Holy-day to celebrate the thankful memorial of his Mercies And this day of Gods appointing immediately succeeding the day of the Kings appointment I have not thought it unfit nor any way inproper to lay before you what was prepared for yesterdays Solemnity in another place That so though the outward Pomp a necessary circumstance in that day may be left Yet the reality of our thankfulness might be expressed in this more private Assembly and we all put in mind and be stirred up as the Jews by the two days of Purim so we of England and we now present by the Solemnity yesterday according to the Law of Man and by what shall be now spoken on this day the day of our Rest and Rejoycing according to the Law of God may be stirred up to rejoyceful thankfulness for Gods goodness vouchsafed to us And indeed the remembring declaring and rejoycing in Gods wonderful works of Creation and providence as well as of Redemption are to have a principal part in the due Sanctification of our Christian Sabbath For the helping you wherein I shall lay before you what the Text first read presents us with Having first shewn you That we of England have as much reason and as great cause to celebrate two days yearly in the memorial of our deliverance from the Powder Treason as the Jews have for their deliverance from Haman The design of Haman and prosecution of it against the Jews was not so dangerous and mischievous as this Conspiracy of the Papists was against the English and Protestant Religion as will appear by many particulars parallel Circumstances in their Purim and our Powder Treason And indeed ours may be called Purim from the Greek word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies fire as that from the Hebrew word Pur that signifies a Lot 1. Theirs by the sword from whence some might have escaped Ours by a blast of fire that would have spared none 2 Theirs would have destroyed Queen Esther and her people ours King James Queen Prince Lords Commons the whole Flower of the English Nation met in Parlament 3. They had a set day which all knew ours uncertain secret known to none but themselves 4. Theirs was but an ordinary day ours a most magnificent day when the Kings Majesty and all the great States would have been in their Robes and greatest Glory 5. They poor captive Jews scattered and dispersed without power or policy living in subjection We a most flourishing Kingdom for wealthl power and policy under a most magnificent King Illustrious Nobles Reverend Prelates Honourable and worshipful and wealthy Knights Citizens and Burgesses even the Cream and Flower of the whole Nation 6. Consider the parties by whom their enemy was but one Haman a stranger by Nation a stranger in Religion an heathen Idolater ours no strangers by Nation all English men no strangers in Religion professing the same Christianity not Turks nor Pagans Infidels Moors or Indians though indeed much worse but Christians and such as would be thought true Catholicks yea the only Catholick Christians yea some of them which is among them more than Christians Jesuits Haman was wicked that is his title but these exceeded him in wickedness Haman was a declared enemy but these secret Vipers that eat through the bowels of their own Mother The malice of all men calling to it all the malice of the Devil did never invent the like in all ill Circumstances A degenerate Christian is the worst of men and the worst of men is the worst of Creatures and it 's grown into a Proverb amongst other Nations and these cruel treacherous Powder-Traytors gave too much ground for it An Englishman Italianate is a Devil incarnate 7. Consider we the colour and the cause of both Designs As all evil things usually have one thing for their colour and other for their cause In Haman the cause was Mordicai his not bowing The colour was they were of a different Law Hereticks They were not for the Kings profit In ours the Cause is not bowing to one viz. The Old Gentleman at Rome one prouder than Haman who have had Emperors to hold their Stirrups Kings to lead their Horses and kiss their feet The Colour pretended is zeal for Religion we were and still are in their accounts Hereticks and therefore must be kill'd blown up destroyed and they think they have St. Pauls Warrant for it for so it hath been urged Hereticum devita which we make but one word and that a Verb which we rightly translate avoid and they two words viz. a Noun and Preposition and so would have it signifie to kill De vita to take from life They consulted their Oracle the Provincial who answered them as Ahasuerus did Haman De populo fac quod libet Do with them as it seemeth good unto thee Esth 3. 11. 8. Consider we the event The Jews delivered Haman hang'd we preserved the Traytors suffered God was otherwise minded than Haman he would have destroyed a Nation but God preserved it Haman put the Lot into the lap but God drew it out And in this event consider 1. Means 2. Manner 3. Time 4. Issue 1. Means They to God by fasting and prayer to man by Queen Esthers Mediation to the King We used none nor could use any neither fasted or prayed suspected no evil and so could use no means to prevent it 2. Manner Though no means to God yet we had from God and so had they too but ours better both from and by a King Theirs from a King but from him came the Danger his Proclamation under hand and seal without which Haman could have done nothing Ours from a King but no danger from him He was as deep in the danger as we were Theirs by a King set right by Esthers Information in a regular
honour me before the people The only way for Ministers to keep up their Reputation with men is to be careful of a blameless Conversation a faithful discharge of their Ministerial Function a constant Conversing in their studies with God by Meditation and Prayer and with the best Companions the holy Scriptures and the Books of learned and holy Writers no such Companions in Taverns or Coffee-houses and the keeping their Consciencies void of offence towards God and man which shall they do they will find love as Samuel from a David and Reverenee and Respect even from a Saul and Herod as Samuel and John Baptist did This by the by and I assure you spoke with no ill intent and I hope and pray it may be to some good effect To return 1. Samuel answers their desire makes testimony of his faith in the promised Messiah by his sacrifice and earnestly crys to God for them v 9. Faith and Prayer the pious mans best defence Preces Lacrymae arma Ecclesiae Prayers and Tears the Churches weapon Non vires non virus nec pulvis Sulphureus not Power nor Poyson nor Powder they are not the arms of Christs Followers but of the Jesuits and Romish Synagogue The success was God heard his Prayers thundred upon and discomfited the Philistines gave the Israelites a great victory whereby they regained the Cities they had lost so that afterward they flourished in peace Justice and Religion all the days of Samuel And what manner of people these were whom God thus helped we may learn from the Context and so we find them 1. A sinful people Idolaters 2. An assaulted people by the Philistines lording over them coming in arms against them 3. A penitent people as is evident 1. By their Obedience to Samuels summons coming to Mizpeh they were no Dissenters from the Magistrates-lawful Command 2. By their Reforming Putters away of Baalim and Ashteroth 3. By their Humiliation before God 1. Confessing their sins 2. Fasting 3. Praying to God 4. Praying to Samuel to pray for them 4. Using their own endeavours as well as depending on Gods Power They went forth Thus it was with the Israellites and hath it not been so with us in many particulars which time will not admit my speaking to Only in general Their enemies were Philistines Idolaters that worshipped Dagon and other Heathen Deities the first Inhabiters in whose room the Israelites succeeded but such whom God had justly for their sins when come to ripeness appointed to be rooted out and left Command to do it as the Land would bear left the wild Beasts should increase upon them and gave the Land unto the Israelites which did not or could not expel them so that they still continued amongst them sometimes in subjection many times in power over them but always because of a different Religion at an implacable enmity against them and still watching and taking all opportunities to destroy them And as for the Israelites though they had been Idolatrous Worshippers of Baalim and Ashteroth yet were now truly penitent had reformed themselves put away Baalim and Ashteroth and became sincere in their Worship of the true God and were now in the actual worshipping of him by Samuels Command which they obeyed congregated at Mizpeh unarmed and unprepared and not expecting of an enemy Mutato nomine Put we but Jesuited Papists in the room of Philistines and true English Protestants instead of Israelites and our excellent and learned Prince King James of happy Memory instead of Samuel Westminster instead of Mizpeh and the most solemn Assembly of Parlament brought thither by the Kings summons to establish and confirm true Religion and whence to come immediately from the actual performance of Religious Worship in the ancient structure of St. Peters And you have the true Case of the occasion of this times solemnity and therefore I shall not and I need not add any more only in general observe That quarrels that are grounded on matters of Religion are not durable most implacable most mischievous Philistines against Israelites Papists against Protestants For though it be true that many Atheistical Matchiavils that are of themselves of no Religion do make use of the name of it as a politick engine to work their own purposes and are otherwise indifferent to all And many crafty-pated or such who have small dealings do profess this or that perswasion upon a Design of gaining a Trade to advance their worldly Interest turn Dissenters of every sort to gain a Trade amongst those they turn to and are indeed crafty shavers that are of no Religion out of Conscience yet pretend to some out of their Covetousness Yet we know our Fathers have told us in their recorded Histories and we our selves have seen and known many zealous Bygots in all perswasions who have good intentions but weak Judgments that are indeed conscientious though erroneously so and will not by flattery or force be perswaded or prevailed with to forsake that perswasion or opinion they have espoused yea though their leaders who did seduce them into those seditious schismatical and phantastical Principles and Practices turn from them themselves and many times earnestly oppose them Thus it was with Brown the Father and Cognominator of our first Separatists who had seduced many to a Separation from our Church as Antichristian in her Doctrine Worship and Discipline yet himself returned and became Minister of a Church a place so named but his followers the source spring fountain and root of those many Hydra-headed Divisions in Religion which have abounded amongst us ever since still continued obstinate Now in those whose Consciences though erroneous and not their worldly Interest sway them in such the quarrel for Religion and upon that occasion becomes setled durable implacable and mischievous And such is and hath been and will be of the Bygoted Papists the old and greatest Fanaticks against the Protestant Church of England who ever since it hath had an established being they have and will oppose and set themselves against as the Philistines did against Israel Erroneous Consciences though in good men are apt to mistake their carnal passions for commendable zeal under which when their Interest lurks it drives on unto furious motions Thus the Disciples James and John being ignorant of Christs spiritual Kingdom dream'd of an earthly Kingdom And this soon made them ambitious as appears by their Mothers motion no question set on by themselves That the one might sit on the right hand and the other at the left in Christs Kingdom This Ambition makes them furiously zealous to call for fire from Heaven on the Samaritans that would not entertain their Master But herein they were not like their Master nor liked by him Christs Passions were free from Concupiscence wherewith ours are defiled Our Passions are like water that hath a muddy residence which when it is stirred every part groweth foul with it but our Savious Passions of grief and anger and sorrow were
Eben-Ezer In which words we have three things considerable 1. The sense of their deliverance Then 2. Their present thankfulness saying Hitherto 3. Their care for the continuance of the memorial of it Then Samuel took a stone Of each of these in their order and first of the 1. Their sense of their Deliverance implied in the word Then When God had thundred on the Philistines and discomfited them v. 10. When the men of Israel went out from Mizpeh and pursued them and smote them until they came to Beth car v. 11. My present business is to parallel their Case with ours The Israelites Case was whilst they were unarmed fasting and praying and Confessing their sins and in all likelihood met at Mizpeh for the consulting about their Concerns so then Samuel judged Israel v. 6. as likewise we read of Israels meeting there before that time Judg. 10. 17. not thinking or being suspitious or afraid of any danger near them but in profound Peace as to men and by humbling themselves before God making their Peace with him Then the Lords of the Philistines went up against Israel and drew near to battel v. 10. with which sudden and unexpected danger they were very much terrified and in that fear did not sink under and cowardly run away as the Emperor Ferdinands Popish Army invading the Hussites for their Religion twice did being stricken by God with a panick fear never striking one stroke but they bethought themselves and betook themselves to the best course they could for their own preservation they befought Samuel not to cease to pray for them they remembred most likely that it was Moses's hand lift up that gave their forefathers victory and they themselves went out of Mizpeh and pursued them and God himself thundred upon them so that the Philistines were discomfited and smitten before Israel until they came to Beth-car v. 11. Lo this their deliverance and their sense of it appears by Samuels setting a stone erecting a Monumental Trophy of Gods mercy shewn them in that place Now should we parallel our Deliverance from the Powder-Treason and Traytors and theirs from the Philistines we shall find many remarkable Circumstances that heightned the greatness of our danger and so the value of our deliverance above theirs Which I may but touch 1. Their danger was from open enemies from whom they had deserv'd and could expect no other Ours was from pretended Friends who lived yea flourished with Wealth and Honour under the Protection of that King and Laws that they endeavoured the Destruction of were secret enemies that lived as Friends in the midst of us 2. The Israelites danger was known to them and could not be hid from them the Lords of the Philistines went up against them in battel in an hostile manner as declared Enemies Ours was altogether hidden from us no sign token or suspition of any mischief towards all things calm and those that call themselves Romau Catholicks a Contradiction in the terms as a Particular Vniversal had a very great share in the Kings favour and pretended greatest satisfaction with it Then the Lords of our Philistines the enemies of our Peace and Religion did not go up with an Army at their heels though they had Provision to have suddenly raised one but they went down into the Vaults and Cellars with the Devil at their elbows Their under-ground-Contrivances prevented discovery till our great and gracious God whose name be ever magnified who is Pan Ophthaelmus and saw those hidden works of darkness made one of themselves an Instrument of revealing of them and their most mischievous design And hence may all Gods saithful Servants comfort themselves That though the Devils claws be in all our enemies Plots and our danger yet still God seeth them though they do not and hath and will have a hand in their Discovery and in his Servants Deliverance as he had in Israels Deliverance from the Philistines and in our forefathers and in them our Deliverance from the Powder-Treason 3. The Israelites Danger was what they knew provided against and that by all the ways that could be imagined likely to deliver them as 1. Humiliation fasting weeping 2. Their own Reformation they put away Baalim and Ashteroth 3. Their importunate desires of Samuels praying for them 4. Samuels answering their desire not only 1. Earnestly praying He cried 2. But likewise sacrificing a Lamb. v. 9. Samuel set Faith and Prayer on work first he sacrificed exercised and acted his Faith on Jesus Christ the true Lamb of God that was by the Levitical Lambs typified as being slain from the beginning of the World and then he earnestly and fervently not only prayeth but crieth to the Lord for them And having thus taken the right course to make God their friend for this is the course of his own prescribing 2 Chron. 7. 14. If my people which are called by my name shall humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked wayes then will I hear c. Having taken this course they then 5. Set themselves forth couragiously and valiantly to fight against them and God fought with them and for them and made them victorious over their enemies insomuch that they drove them clean out of the field into their strong-hold of Beth-car the consequence of which Victory was the recovering of their own City and Peace with the Amorites Having thus considered theirs let us now see what our Danger and so Deliverance was 1. Our Danger was not from open enemies but pretended and supposed friends who had been many ways obliged to gratitude and good Offices by the favour of their Prince and the courtesie and kindness of their fellow-Subjects Oh horrid and unnatural Ingratitude and almost incredible were it not that we have seen and known by woful experience that the blind zeal of Jesuit-ridden Papists carrieth them against all the tyes and obligations that flow from gratitude kindred friendship Relation and in the service of the Devil and the Pope makes them like Levi to know neither Father nor Mother Kin nor Relation Friendship nor Gratitude but tramples down all that 's sacred that stands in the way of their promoting of the Interest of the Roman Church and if that be the case then Tros Tyrius nullo discrimen agetur Let them be Friend or Foe Relation or Stranger their fellow-Catholicks yea fellow Plotters too it 's all one if they are conceived to be blocks in their way they must be removed if their strength teachers and the seasonableness of so doing prompt to it And our Progenitors found that observation before mentioned very true in those English Powder-Traytors viz. That an English man Italionated is a Devil incarnate 2. Our Danger was hid from us no suspition nor fear nor apprehension of it all secure Halcyon days of peace without any disturbance The fear of danger that possest the Nation in reference to the death of Queen Elizabeth was over Sol occubuit nox