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
A58813	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and Court of Aldermen, at the Guild-Hall Chappel, the 16th of December, 1683 by John Scott ...	Scott, John, 1639-1695.	1684 (1684)	Wing S2067; ESTC R14440	16,814	42

Religion pure Ordinances and a thorough Reformation and therewithal have drawn in our discontented Sects into their Party and listed them Voluntiers to their Revenge and Ambition And indeed while Men live in Dissent from the established Religion it is impossible but their Minds should be in some measure prejudiced against the Government especially if they are restrained from propagating their Dissents as they must expect to be under all wise Governments for to be sure this Restriction will be accounted by them an injurious Persecution and 't will be hard for them to refrain hating their Governours whilst they look upon them as their Persecutors and when once their Passions are armed against the Government they are half way onwards to an open Rebellion And 't will be an easy matter for any Cashier'd Grandee or Politick Demagogue that has but Wit enough to Chafe their Discontents and Credit enough to head their Cause to form them into a resolute Faction against the Government so that it will be impossible either for the Government to be safe or for us to be secure from the Mischiefs of Faction whilst we affect to dissent from the established Religion And therefore it concerns every Dissenter as he vallues his own Safety and Innocence to use all honest ways to satisfy his Conscience in the Communion of the established Church where he will not only be secured from those Disaffections to the Government which he is lyable to whilst he continues in any discountenanced Sect but also instituted in such firm Principles of Loyalty as if he follows will for ever secure him from ingaging in Factions For this is the Doctrine of our Church expressed in the Homily of Obedience We may not in any wise withstand violently or rebel against the Rulers or make any Insurrection Sedition or Tumult either by force of Arms or otherwise against the Anointed of the Lord or any of his Officers but we must in such case that is when we are commanded unlawful things patiently suffer all Wrongs and Injuries referring the Judgment of our Case to God And in this as well as in her other Doctrines her Government and Discipline our Church doth exactly copy after the Primitive Christianity If therefore we believe this Doctrine our Consciences will never consent to our listing our selves against the Government but if instead of Believing it we openly Contradict and Oppose it as all those do who pretend Religion for their Faction we are so far Dissenters from the Church of England for Conformity to a Church consists not merely in frequenting its Prayers and Sermons and Sacraments and complying with its Rites and Discipline but also in believing its Doctrines or at least not openly Opposing and Contradicting them But whosoever sides with a Faction against the Government upon pretence of Religion doth thereby openly renounce the Doctrine of our Church and becomes a profest Non-conformist how Conformable soever he may be in other particulars So that tho there are too many Men who to credit their ill Designs against the Government shelter themselves under the Wings of the Church yet it 's evident they are either Non-conformists to the Church or Conformists that act against their own Principles which is such a Fault as no Church can prevent so long as there is such a thing as Free-Will in the World Wherefore as you would preserve your selves from those manisold Mischiefs that Faction draws after it do not found your Loyalty upon Humour or Fashion or Interest which are fickle and variable things but upon the Religious Principles of the Church whereof you are Members which will keep us stedfast and immovable amidst all the Mutabilities of the World For whilst you have no Principles to lead you and you reserve your selves to follow Fortune and the Turns of outward Affairs you will be shifting your selves upon every Change and in a very unscriptural Sense putting off the Old-man and putting on the New And whilst you thus transform your selves into a Thousand several Shapes as you run through the still Changing Fashions of the World besides that it will expose ye of all sides to the Odious Character of Turn-Coats and Runagadoes that are constant to nothing and to the Bosom Satyrs and secret up-braidings of your own Consciences Besides this I say it will Eternally perplex and intangle your Lives For upon every new Alteration of Affairs you must act a new part and put on a new Garb of Conversation And whilst you thus shift sides upon every turn new shape your Humours and jump from one extreme to another you will be always doing violence to your Natures because you will act no part long enough to render any natural and easie to ye so that when all is done the easiest way of Living is to Live honestly that is to set down honest Principles in our Minds and then resolve to follow them through all Events so shall we live Consistently with our selves and whatsoever happens from without be always the same and in all Conditions still know where to find our selves because we shall always act upon the same Principles and so there will be no Cross Deliberations in our Minds no Mazes or Intrigues in our Lives no By-ways of Actions upon 〈◊〉 Emergencies but whatsoever happen we shall still be going on through the same Path towards the same end and whatsoever befalls us from without whether it Rains or Shines Prove Calm or Tempestuous we shall never be at a loss how to behave our selves but our Principles will still Chalk us out the way we are to walk in and though in following them we may sometimes indanger our worldly Interest and fall under the disgrace of a Rable and the Persecutions of a prevailing Faction Yet our very Enemies will be forc't to revere and honour us to acknowledge that we are Constant and brave honest and resign'd to our own Principles and which is better than that we shall revere our selves and be supported under our Sufferings with the Applauses of our Conscience and the Hopes of a Glorious Immortality which will render our Condition not only Tolerable in it self but much more desirable than the Crowns and Triumphs of prosperous Hypocrites and which is best of all God himself will Honour us before Angels and Saints and plead our Cause and Vindicate our Innocence and reward our Sufferings for Righteousness sake thus by persuing the honest Principles of our Religion we shall be inviolably secur'd against all the mischiefs of Faction and immovably confirmed in our Loyalty both to God and the King which in all Probability will render our Lives secure and easie in this World but to be sure Everlastingly happy in the World to come FINIS