Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	discipline_n	doctrine_n	4,176	5	6.2312	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43127	A sermon preached in the parish church of St. Giles in the Fields at the funeral of Bernard Connor, M.D., who departed this life, Oct. 30, 1698 : with a short account of his life and death / by William Hayley ...	Hayley, William, 1657-1715.	1699 (1699)	Wing H1214; ESTC R412	16,421	37

digested if the patient will not receive and keep it 't is in vain to expect any benefit from it 'T is as plain an argument as sense and reason can invent against the worship of an image that it is a thing insensible and uncapable of adoration and yet not only the Gentile world but the Israelites themselves and I wish I could not add some Christians have been drawn into the folly and the Prophet Isaiah in his 44. Ch. and 19. Verse gives the reason for it And that is that none considereth in his heart I have burnt part of it in the fire and shall I make the residue of it an abomination shall I fall down to the stock of a tree And thus the certainty of death and the brevity and vanity of life are as strong motives to vertue and piety as can possibly be given to men but yet they can never have a due effect if Israel will not know if the people will not consider And therefore it is that the mercy of God breaks out into that pathetical wish in the 32. Deut. 29. O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end 2. If there are many that will not consider at all there are many likewise that baffle their consideration with the hopes of such advantages as possibly may happen They know and consider too that they must die and that their life is short and uncertain and they are not ignorant that they must make their peace with God before they depart this life or perish everlastingly but yet 't is possible they may live to a good old age and wear out by degrees may have leisure to think and be good when they are no longer able to enjoy the pleasures of life and then they resolve to lay aside all other business and think of eternity They see there are some that God blesses with a gradual and a sensible departure and therefore they hope for the same mercy which God vouchsafes to these some and do therefore abuse his patience and long sufferance because they hope for it I do not now urge the unreasonableness and ingratitude of such a carriage nor contend that the goodness of God should rather lead us to a speedy reformation I am only now noting that how unreasonable soever it be yet still this is a great cause of the backwardness and roerastination of repentance Hope is a flattering passion it will represent what is possible as if it were certain and what is sometimes given as if it might be always expected and so by pursuing these vain hopes men loose their real ones and are overtaken by evil when they promised themselves peace They hope death will not come quickly and so squander away life and by expecting a longer duration of their being in this world are not hasty in laying the well grounded expectation of bliss in a future one Now if there be any here present who have hitherto deferr'd their preparation for another world who are in the strength of their youth and resolve still to put off this work 'till old age I need not send them far for arguments to convince them of their folly Our deceased Brother God has called away in the vigor of his youth about the thirty third year of his age when the world was in expectation of great things from him and when possibly improvement in natural knowledge reputation in his profession and advancement in his fortune filled and employed his thoughts He had liv'd a vertuous and a sober life free from those extravagancies which men in the luxuriant bloom of youth and wit are too often carried into and by which they run into a hasty decay and yet God has been pleased to call him away in the midst of his course and to make him our warning of the uncertainty of life Thus his fate is one argument for us and if we regard his judgment in this matter that will be another for though he had been free from the debauches of the age yet what he seem'd most to lament at his death was that he had not been better prepared for it and that he had not employ'd more of that time which he spent in the search of nature and the entertainment of Philosophy in the more useful search into the state of his Soul and the concerns of a future life so that both the persuasion of his mind and his early departure strike in with my main design to press men to apply their hearts betimes to this piece of true wisdom the early preparing for eternity But before I come to the close application of this it will perhaps not be unacceptable to you to have some short account of his life and death who gives the occasion of this present Admonition He was born in Ireland and educated in the Communion of the Church of Rome and remained in his own Country as I am informed by his Friends till about the twentieth year of his age when in order to cultivate his Studies and to apply his mind to Physick and work out his fortune he betook himself to travel His parts and conduct were soon taken notice of in the Court of France where the Care and Government of the Sons of the high Chancellor of Poland who were then in that Kingdom was committed to him and he attended them in their travels into Italy Sicily Germany c. which gave him opportunity of making many considerable Observations in those Countries At his arrival in Poland whither he accompanied these Gentlemen in their return he was made Physitian to the late King and by him recommended to his Daughter the Electoress of Bavaria to have the care of her health After some stay at the Elector's Court he departed thence with several marks of esteem and favour as he had before done from the Court of Poland and he came through Holland into this City where he was admitted into the Royal Society and the Colledge of Physicians Whether it were only to perfect himself in Physick that he came into England where our Professors have deservedly the reputation of excelling those of our neighbouring Nations or whether his riper years gave him other Opinions in matters of Religion than would have been tolerated in the Courts whence he came I had not opportunity of informing my self In fact he had not been long in England but he became so far acquainted with our Doctrine and Discipline and approved of both so well that he professed himself a Member of our Church what were the main arguments and inducements to his conversion though I could wish they were publick I could not particularly examine for I knew not of his sickness till two days before his death when he was very weak and I was then ignorant of his having been bred up in the Roman Communion and had I known it I should still have thought it more necessary to employ that little time his weakness would enable him to

that the Doctor thanked him for it and desir'd that none of those persons adding a reproachful word which I do not think decent to publish should be admitted to him and that it was the Doctor 's own desire that I should attend him in his sickness and I cannot see what occasion there should be for such a piece of dissimulation if he had been of the Roman Communion Now if the case were thus that he was really past his senses it cannot but give us some resentment of the confidence of persons who will take such liberties in our Land as to obtrude themselves upon the dying Members of our Church when they know what severities any Protestant must expect who should dare to do any thing like it in a Popish Country And it must give us some indignation against the vanity of that Church which hopes to save a man by words said over him in which he bears no part and against the prophaneness of those Priests who prostitute the most Sacred parts of their Religion to those who have no faith in them or regard for them However it be I thought it a sincere part to lay the thing open as it happen'd that it might not be pretended that any thing was concealed which should argue him of the Roman Communion or that we do what we justly reproach our adversaries for endeavour to gain credit to our Church by feigned and pretended conversions IV. It is time now to hasten to the last thing I proposed to conclude with an earnest exhortation to all that hear me to make that due application of their hearts to wisdom which the Text directs us to pray for and the present occasion does so movingly recommend to us Does the numbring of our days then afford us the most moving and prevalent arguments to a pious course of living and does the shortness and uncertainty of life and other reflections drawn from it naturally excite us to caution and vigilance let us then for our own interest and for the glory of God be perswaded to fix it in our minds and meditate upon it Nature has written it in legible characters and providence gives us frequent demonstrations of it in the Funerals of our friends and acquaintance and this day affords us a fresh instance to awaken our memories Let not this occasion then be unprofitable and vain let it not add to our condemnation by proving a new slighted call to conversion but let the natural death of our Brother be the commencement of our spiritual life and if we have not yet considered of our great change let us now begin and let not business pleasure or time obliterate the thought or stop its growth but let us constantly recall it upon all occasions in temptation it will help us to fly and resist in business it will prevent immoderate care and anxiety and in pleasures it will make us cautious to guide them by innocence and confine them with moderation Thus will it be of use in all the scenes of our life and keep the judgment steady and the passions in sobriety But above all let us take care that our meditations on this subject be not bare thought and persuasion but that they have their due energy upon our manners let not actual amendment of our lives be put off till another day nor Iet vain hopes of future opportunities which may be will never come make us loose the present which God has put into our hands If we know we must die let us live as men that expect it if our time at best cannot be very long let us not give idleness or sin any share in it and if our end for ought we know may be now at hand and no one can tell but his turn may be the next let us endeavour to leave behind us a pattern for imitation and love and not for terror and abhorrence And in the last place since we have no other time allotted us but this mortal life to provide for eternity and to secure our happiness let all our actions speak that we think of it and are preparing for it So shall our life here be a blessing to our selves a joy to our friends and a benefit to the publick and our death when ever it comes shall be acceptable and welcome not attended with anxious distrust and doubtful expectations but chearful and resigned and such as gives a blessed presage of a happy immortality Which God of his mercy in his due time grant unto us all Amen FINIS