Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	church_n	profess_v	3,448	5	8.0722	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36925	Evangelical politie, or, A Gospel conversation a sermon preached at St. Paul's, London, May 20, 1660. : being the Sunday next (but one) before His Majesties happy return to his said citie / by James Duport ...	Duport, James, 1606-1679.	1660 (1660)	Wing D2650; ESTC R17238	21,197	39

tables of the money-changers and exchangers when I see and consider this methinks it is no very comely nor handsome sight to see so much ivie cleaving and twining about so royal and stately an oak till it eat the heart out To see either Church-isles exchanged into shops or Church-yards into markets with submission to better judgements in my apprehension I confess is a thing not much becoming the Gospel of Christ I put no holiness in wood and stone nor yet much less do I place any holiness in pulling down Churches or letting them fall or taking away wood and stone and lead and all I never read of any that envied the cost and comeliness bestowed upon Christ and his Church but a Iudas or a Iulian * Ut quid perditio haec said the one Ecce qualibus vasis was the speech of the other by the mouth of his Treasurer Felix back-friends I assure you to the Gospel both And truly I cannot count them any fast friends to religion to whom the beautifull gate of the Temple is so great an eye-sore And it would be considered in sober sadness whether they that have been so forward to demolish our Churches have not gone the ready way to ruin our Church at least occasionally if not intentionally For my part I clearly profess I cannot yet see any sufficient grounds to secure me from my fears but still to me it seems very suspicious that our fanatick Hieromastix hath been plowing with the Romish heifer and the hand of Ioab hath been in all this Yea sure Hoc Ithacus velit For did not they that cried down our Churches and Parishes cry down our Church and our Ministry yea and Universities too and then the work is done welcome you know who Venient Romani certainly for once take away an able and a learned Gospel-Ministry and who shall hinder them or keep them out But blessed be God who hath disappointed the hopes of our Adversaries and infatuated the counsels of our Achitophels and put a stop to these furious hotspurs in their full carere Blessed be God of whose onely goodness and mercy it is that our poor Church though by the rash indiscreet and intemperate heats and unruly passions of men like Moses's bush it hath been all this while a burning yet it is not consumed And blessed be they of the Lord who have been any way instrumental in quenching these flames and giving check to those wilde exorbitant phrenetick spirits who being in all probabilitie prompted and put on by some Popish emissaries under pretence of a Gospel-purity would have brought in the greatest deformitie even a chaos of confusion by subverting all order and decencie and government both in Church and State But if this be the way of the Gospel if this be the genuine issue and fruit of the true Christian religion Sit anima mea cum Philosophis As God is the God so the Gospel is the Gospel {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} not of tumult and disorder of unsetledness and discomposure as the word signifies of confusion as we render it {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} but of peace and order And Ministers of the Gospel have their spiritual power given them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} 2 Cor. 13.10 for edification and not for destruction in a proper literal sense too for building and setting up and not for demolishing or pulling down That such places as these should not be pulled down or suffered to drop down but be kept up and maintained in a comely decent and orderly manner questionless is very agreeable to the rules of Christianity and altogether becoming the Gospel of Christ There is a decorum certainly a decencie and comeliness to be used and observed as to the time and place and manner of Gospel-worship And now if after all that hath been said this must needs be counted and called superstition who can help it I am sure it will be hard to prove it to be so and I dare boldly say That among those who exclaim most against superstition our Separatists I mean and Sectaries not one of an hundred knows what it is either name or thing But whatever it be truly I think as the case stands there is little fear of it now adays For were we not rather in the other extreme were we not run so far from the Scylla of superstition that we were fallen into the Charybdis of Atheisme and profaness Did not ataxy and confusion rudeness and irregularity irreverence and irreligion swell and overflow and break in upon us like a land-floud or a mighty torrent High time I trow to mend the banks and put a stop to the inundation if ever we look to have an orderly decent comely face of a Church and such a publick worship as becomes the Gospel nay if ever we look that holiness and righteousness true religion and the fear of the Lord should get up and grow and spread and flourish among us And indeed this is that that I drive at in my discourse all this while for to this purpose onely it is and for this reason and no other that I commend order and decencie and comeliness in a Christian Church and a Gospel-worship because I conceive it really makes for the advancement of godliness and hath a natural tendency to the encrease of true pietie and religion so far am I from thinking it bears any antipathy or repugnancie to it or any the least inconsistency with it And therefore upon these grounds I shall once be bold to ask the banes If any one can shew any just cause why outward decencie and inward devotion bodily service and spiritual worship due reverence without and true religion within the comely face of a Church and the heavenly heart of a Saint the beauty of holiness and the power of godliness may not-be joyned together let him speak for my part I must needs profess and declare before God and man that I know none no reason in the world that I know why they may and ought not joyn hands and be linkt as it were together in the bond of wedlock seeing they are such a mutual help and advantage one to another Did I think otherwise far be it from me to further or favour the match or to speak the least word in behalf of external reverence order and decencie in the worship and service of God But being verily perswaded and clearly convinc'd of the truth hereof viz. that outward comeliness doth very much conduce to inward holiness and that order and decencie in worship is a great help and furtherance to religion and godliness and a means to kindle and encrease true pietie zeal and devotion upon this account and upon this occasion at this time and in this place especially I could not choose but set my seal to it and give this fair testimonie of it and recommend it to you but still in order and reference to the main end

EVANGELICAL POLITIE OR A GOSPEL CONVERSATION A Sermon preached at St. PAVL'S LONDON May 20. 1660. Being the Sunday next but one before his Majesties happy return to his said Citie BY JAMES DUPORT now D.D. one of his Majesties Chaplains in Ordinary GAL. 6.16 As many as walk according to this rule peace be upon them and mercie and upon the Israel of God CAMBRIDGE Printed by JOHN FIELD Printer to the Universitie Ann. Dom. 1660. To the Reader Courteous Reader I Suppose I shall do but justice both to my self and thee if I give thee an account why I let this poor inconsiderable piece go abroad into the world especially now when there is such a swarm of printed Sermons flying up down already Know then that I thought my self concerned to give some publick testimonie of my thankfulness to that Honourable Audience to whom it was preached particularly to the then L. Major who was pleased freely and of his own accord without any motion or seeking of mine to call and invite me to that service And I have the more reason to acknowledge his respects to me herein because heretofore for several years last past it was otherwise with me For when some offers and overtures were made in my behalf by some friends for my preaching at St Pauls which I was bound to do once at least in two years by vertue of a place I hold in the University yet I found not a door open unto me nor had the favour to be admitted or accepted of I speak not this by way of complaint nor with any unkind reflexions upon any particular man or company of men whatsoever as imputing it wholly to the common distractions of those times but the more to testify my gratitude to the aforesaid person for his great civility to me and so undeserved good opinion of me A further evidence whereof he was pleased to give me by his favourable and candid acceptance of my weak unworthy pains with an intimation of his desires to have them made publick by recommending my Sermon to the Press Now though this indeed alone might be a sufficient motive and encouragement to me for this publication yet there were other arguments and inducements moving me thereunto Not to mention that stale and common midwife of the Press importunity of friends though of them there wanted neither godly nor judicious to solicite me to it That which somewhat prevailed with me was the seasonableness of the argument both as to the former part of it concerning Evangelical walking or a Gospel-conversation as also to the latter touching Evangelical worship or a Gospel-adoration both which rightly and duely preached considering the profaness of some and the hypocrisy of others and the un-Gospel-like lives of the most I conceived to be very usefull and necessary doctrine for these times either from Press or Pulpit But next to Gods glory and the common benefit and good of the Church which I desire to make my principal aime in all my designs that which most of all perswaded me to present this rude unpolisht discourse to the view of the world was I confess partly for my own vindication and partly for the further satisfaction of some who as I am told seemed to take a little distast and offence at a passage or two I then delivered concerning the misuse and profanation of that famous Cathedral wherein we were assembled and the burying-place or Church-yard adjoyning thereunto As to this I must needs profess I have been so much affected to see and observe the ruins and devastations of that Church that of late years as I could never pass through it almost without fear least the stones should drop down upon me so I could never pass by it without pity and regret to behold so sad a spectacle Whereupon I resolved with my self I had almost said solemnly vowed and I hope in the fear of God and out of zeal to his glory that if ever providence called me to that place I would speak my thoughts freely and plainly though soberly and modestly as to that particular And now if by any thing I have said I have cast in any the least mite into the treasury of the Church or contributed the least stone to the rebuilding of the house of God or rather thrown the least stone that may sink into the forehead of that great Goliah of this latter age I mean Sacrilege that hath so defied not onely the hosts but the houses of the living God then I shall think my self abundantly happy However I have paid my vows in thee O Paul's I have discharged my duty liberavi animam and must leave the success to God to give a blessing as it pleaseth him My witness is in heaven and my comfort is the singleness and integrity of my heart that my earnest desire and endeavour was to deliver such doctrine as might be most suitable and seasonable to the time and place I appeared in and that I aimed at nothing in all my discourse but the glory of God the good of souls and the honour of that renowned city whereof that once magnificent and stately Cathedral hath been accounted and I hope shall be again both at home and abroad the chief beauty and ornament But wo and alas that ever it should be said to the shame of Christian religion yet say it we must for so it is Pudet haec opprobria As things consecrate to God and his Church are indeed a Noli me tangere not to be medled with by rude and sacrilegious hands so is sacrilege it self with some a Noli me tangere too a tender and delicate sin not to be toucht If upon this account I am become any mans enemy because I have told them the truth as becometh the messenger of Christ in the spirit of meekness then I must count it my unhappiness but not my crime I would not willingly offend nor displease any but then again I consider it is impossible to please all {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} and so I sit down with that of St Paul Do I seek to please men For if I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ How far from any personal reflexions or harsh and bitter invectives my expressions were what tenderness and moderation I used in disapproving rather then reproving the sacrilegious encroachments made upon Churches in these latter times more particulary as the place put me in minde upon that of St Paul's I say quàm molli manu hoc ulcus tetigi I appeal to the judgement of all unprejudiced and impartial Readers Who I verily believe will be apt to think that I rather toucht this sore too lightly and gently then rubbed or grated too hard upon it Nor am I altogether out of hopes but that they if any there were who for want of due attention or consideration either mistook or took amiss what was then delivered will upon second and more mature thoughts