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	great_a	life_n	2,755	4	4.1264	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23771	A sermon preached before the King at White Hall on Sunday Nov. 17, 1667 by Richard Allestree ...	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.	1667 (1667)	Wing A1167; ESTC R15229	19,264	41

the Lord Yet so coy is Idleness so apt to nauseate that they abhor the constancy of being pleas'd And though they were not sated neither he that gather'd much had nothing over onely to his eating God as well providing for their Health and Vertue as necessity and dieting their Temperance as he did their hunger yet their very liking does grow loathsome to them When their bodies were thus excellently well provided for having no imployment nothing to take up their minds and entertain their Souls they require 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 meat for their Souls meat not to serve the uses of their bodies but to feed their fancies their extravagant minds Thus Idleness requires to be dieted And all this but to pamper and feed high mens inclinations so to make Temptations irresistible and by consequence Vice necessary It were easie to recount more of those ways by which the Devil does make use of mens want of Imployment to debauch their lives and ruine all the hopes of Vertue in them S. Jude finds more of its effects at Sodome They gave themselves over to Fornication and went after other flesh and are set forth for a● example suffering the vengeance of eternal fire Indeed these are most certain consequents of not being imploy'd Quaeritur Aegysthus is too known an instance and great Holy David is another But it s dire influence is sufficiently visible in that which it rain'd down upon those Cities Since it did fulfill the guilt of Sodome and made Heaven furnish Hell for it and God himself turn Executioner of fire and brimstone to revenge it this shall serve to prove it is one of the Devil's Master-pieces 3. Next succeed his fiery darts as S. Paul calls them namely Persecutions or Calamities of any kind which he manageth either by inflicting pressures and he was so confident of the force of those that he did tell God he would make Job curse him to his face with them or if he find men in necessities and pressures then by tempting them to get from under them by methods which he shall direct and he had such assurance of the strength of this Temptation that by it he try'd our Saviour to find out whether he were the Son of God or no believing none but he that was so would be able to resist it Indeed the trials are severe which this Temptation does present to draw men from their Duty and to overcome their Constancy whether it solicite by inflicting punishment as on the Mother and her Children II Maccab. VII or by offering to withdraw it if they will submit to their unlawfull terms and so they try'd her youngest son there ver 24. or at leastwise by some feigned act some ambiguous words or practices will pretend compliance so they dealt with Eleazar Chap. VI. 21. whom they would have had to bring flesh of his own provision such as he might use without offence and so onely seem to eat forbidden meat Each of which is as great a trial also and to stand against them reckon'd up amongst as vigorous acts of Faith as those that held out in the greatest tortures persecuting malice could invent Heb. XI 37. They were ston'd sawn asunder were tempted Now to fetch an instance of the sad success of these I shall not need to go so farr as to those Persecutions of Antiochus nor those of the primitive times of Christianity when they had no other choices but these to deliver up their Bibles or their Lives either to sacrifice to Idols or at least procure a Ticket which should certifie that they had done it or to be themselves an Holocaust and give those Idols a Burnt-offering with their martyr-flames Which made the Traditores Lapsi the Thurificati and the Libellatici to be so numerous Through God's blessed mercy there is no use of such instances as there is no fear of such a trial 't is not death to be a Christian now For if the Son of man or Satan's self should come to try us at those rates 't were a great doubt whether the one or other would find Faith upon the earth whether they would sacrifice a life to our Religion who are not content to sacrifice a little interest or pleasure to it whether they are likely to resist unto bloud fighting against sin who will not resist to tears nor sober resolutions Alas what Religion should we be of if God should raise a Diocletian come to tempt us with the fiery trial Martyrs as we are to nothing but our Passions and our Lusts Nor shall I produce more known and near experiences when by reason of such storms of Persecution men ma●e shipwreck if not of their Faith yet of good Conscience When by order or permissions of Providence they were brought to such a streight that either they must let goe their possessions or their honesty acting against Principles and conscience of Duty I shall not remember how when God did shake his angry hand thus over them they fled to the Devil's kindness and made Hell their refuge to save them from their Father's rod how they grew so Atheistical as to believe a Perjury or other crime greater security that would preserve their selves and their condition better then all God had promis'd were such infidels that they did rather trust their being here to the commission of a sin then to the Providence and the Engagements of the Almighty For indeed what need I instance in these greater cases where the trial was so sharp as not to offer any easier choice then this either to part with Conscience or with all they had God knows we find less Interests will doe The Devil by no more then this driving the Gadarens swine into the Sea was able to drive Christ out of their coasts You have the story VIII Matt. from the 28 ver A legion of those evil spirits did possess two men and finding Christ would cast them out and by that Miracle so farr shew forth his power that in probability the whole Countrey would believe on him they fall upon this project to prevent it they besought him if he would cast them out to suffer them to goe into an herd of swine there feeding hoping by destroying them to incense the owners against Christ and to try them he permitted this The possess'd swine ran violently down into the Lake and perish'd Now a man would think the virulency of these Devils which were so destructive when they were at liberty and not restrain'd would have endear'd the mercy that had cast them out of the poor men and came to dispossess the Countrey of them and that their astonishment at so great a Miracle would possess them all with reverence and belief of him and that they would therefore seise and possess him also and not let the mercy goe But on the contrary the whole City and Countrey came out to meet Jesus and in consideration of the loss of their swine desire