Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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B06039
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A sermon preached at Great Yarmouth, June 6th. By R.S., M.A. and rector of [illegible] in the county of Norfolk.
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Scamler, Robert, b. 1653 or 4.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing S807B; ESTC R183256
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44,829
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80
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A SERMON Preached at GREAT YARMOVTH June 6th By R. S. M. A. And Rector of Taverham in the County of NORFOLK Quos Amo Arguo Castigo Was the Way to Heav'n direct smooth and strait I should think Heaven to be a Counterfeit Great are the Troubles where the Prize is great For there 's no Virtue where we find no Sweat LONDN Printed for and sold by GEORGE ROSE Bookseller in NORWICH 1677. To the Right Honourable ROBERT Lord Viscount YARMOVTH and Lord Lieutenant of the County of NORFOLK My Lord HAD I been affected with that itching Humour of Ambition to raise an Obelisk to my Memory and to leave behind me some tokens that I have had a Being and Existence upon Earth I could have experienced no easier method or more advantagious Artifice to gain an immortality upon Earth than by fixing your Lordships Name to these my poor and weak endeavours But I am so perfectly sensible of my own Youth and unworthiness that far be it from me let others reflect with what eye they please to make any such thought the occasion of this Address though I have two urgent Motives which induce me to implore your Patronage and Protection Not to speak my Lord lest I affront the Modesty so innate to your Temper or come within the sphear of flattery so contrary to my Genius of your generous compassion and mighty condescention to all of the Ministerial Function which would have been too copious a Theam for my small Eloquence and Rhetorick to pitch upon I shall acquaint your Lordship with the Reasons of this my Humble Dedication First To congratulate the Honours our most Gracious Soveraign hath so worthily as well as freely conferred upon your Lordship More especially in that having so plentiful a choice of worthy Gentry in this County He hath selected you to lead the Van in that Honourable Office wherewith you are intrusted The Conduct and management of which I shall spare to tell the World because Fame hath already every-where proclaimed your prudent setling and which is highly considerable your great augmenting the Militia Go on then my Lord to perform as worthily as you have begun that your Lordship may be for ever famous over England for your Services to God the King and his Country and at last live eternally with that Glorious Militia of Heaven who continually attend about the Majestick Throne of the Lord of Hosts The other Reason of the Dedication my Lord is because it hath been the Lot of the later of these Discourses as well as its Author who blesseth God for it to pass through good report and bad report it hath been accus'd of False Doctrine because I somewhat glaunced at Election and Reprobation though my Friends judged so candidly of it that after many denyals their importunity hath wrought so effectually with me that I am willing it should appear in the World in that same impolite and unlick'd form it was delivered in either to clear or to condemn me If there be any thing discordant to Scripture or Reason I free every Reader from from endeavouring to justifie me But if they be angry with me because I have told them the truth of the Faith once delivered to the Saints and daily contended for by the Orthodox Divines of of the Church of England let Geneva account it my fault I 'll ever esteem it my duty and my Glory For a former Experience hath fully convinc'd me my Lord that the loyalty of a Sermon is more offensive than the Superstition and Popery thereof If we deny the Legality of the Scotch Covenant and will not comply with the Principles of Levellers but preach Subjection to the King and his Government what do they imagine it less than a Crime unpardonable If we stand up in defence of the Catholick Faith establish'd in our Kingdom and are earnest to maintain a Conformity to the Rites and Ceremonies of the same They presently cry out the Romans will come and take away their place and Nation But alas poor mistaken Souls how are they deceived When as the speediest Voyage to the Court of Rome is by Sayling the way of Amsterdam For I am bold to Challenge any man of reason to shew me a more Compendious way to erect a Papal Jurisdiction amongst us than by the destruction of the Religion of Edward the Sixth and confirmed unto us by Charles the Second For a strict maintaining the Doctrine and Discipline of our Church is the only Armour to withstand the Policies of the Papal Interest For nothing can endanger our Religion from abroad so much as our Contentions at home whilst we seperate our selves from our Churches and are crumbled into little Sects and Parties We give too great advantages and opportunity for a Common Enemy to break in upon us which the Romanists are so quick-sighted to espy that it is upon this account they send their little Agents among us who make it their sole business slily to insinuate themselves and creep into the bosoms and humours of our People encouraging and fomenting all publick differences pursuant to that secret End on which they are sent on Embassy Now that your Lordship may be more particularly satisfied in the verity of this confident Assertion I humbly desire your Lordship at your greatest conveniency to consult the History of Henry the Fourth King of France written by the Bishop of Rhodes and also that of the Spanish Monaachy whose Author is Campanella In both which I have observed that after a large Discourse of the intended Invasions of those two Potent and Mighty Princes on the Kingdom of Great Britain being incited thereunto by the forcible perswasions and commands of Rome as much as pricked forward by their own Ambition They especially declare their Judgements of the Means and Instruments to be applyed for the Ruine and utter Subversion of the Church of England in this manner That there was no better Artifice than by causing Divisions and Dissentions amongst the English and by a continual encouraging and fostering the same and that it was no easie Province to eradicate and overthrow their Religion unless by the Foundation of some certain Schools or Academies in Flanders that the Students thereof may disseminate and scatter abroad Seeds for Divisions in Natural and Theological Sciences which would disorder and discompose their Opinions and unhinge and unsettle their Judgements For say they the English are of a temper and constitution much tending to Novelties and inclining to changes and therefore the Effects of such a Contrivance will be very considerable Now I leave it to your Lordship's better Judgement and Experience whether this hath been put in practice or not and whether the Zealous Brethren of England be not industrious to forge Gives and Fetters to shackle themselves withal whereas poor deluded Souls they might see if they pleas'd they are the Agents imployed by Rome to defeat and destroy the Religion of Christ and to promote the Errors of Antichrist