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	government_n	3,314	5	6.9877	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66774	A prophesie written long since for this yeare, 1641 wherein prelate-policie is proved to be folly : as also, many notable passages concerning the fall of some great church-men / written by a modern poet.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1641 (1641)	Wing W3182A; ESTC R11664	44,260	90

promiscuously divulg'd and spread Among approved Verities that some Are in those Labarinths amaz'd become And such a contradiction is in that Which their confused Pamphlets doe relate That common Readers known not which to leave Nor which the Church of England doth receive And from this mischiefe many others flow Which will in future times more harmfull grow This spins vaine Controversies to their length By this most Heresies receive their strength And what distraction it already makes Our grieved Mother wofull notice takes In stead of active knowledge and her fruit This filleth men with itching of dispute And empty words wherby are set abroach A thousand quarrells to the Truths reproach The Sectaries the Munkeyes and the Apes The Cubs and Foxes which doe mar our Grapes The Wolves in sheep-skins and our frantick rable Of VVorship-mongers are innumerable And as the Churches quiet they molest So they each other spightfully infest We have some Papists some that halfe way goe Some Semi-puritans some wholly so Some Anabaptists some who doe refuse Black puddings and good porke like arrant Iewes Some also term'd Arminians are among Our Priests and People very lately sprung What most so call'd professe I stand not for And what some say they teach I doe abhor But what some other so misnam'd beleeve Is that whereto best Christians credit give For as we see the most reformed man By Libertines is term'd a Puritan So by our purblinde Formalist all those Who new fantasticke crotchets doe oppose Begin to be mis-term'd Arminians now And hence e're long will greater mischieves grow Then most imagine For the foolish feare Lest they to be Arminians may appeare Or else be termed Puritans will make Great multitudes Religion quite forsake And I am halfe perswaded this will one Of those great Schismes or earthquakes cause which John Foretold in his Apocalyps and they Are blest who shall not thereby fall away Some Brownists and some Famalists hove we And some that no man can tell what they be Nor they themselves Some seeme so wondrous pure They no mans conversations can endure Vnlesse they use their plaistrings and appeare In ev'ry formall garbe which they shall were There be of those who in their words deny And hate the practice of Idolary Yet make an Idol of their formall zeale And underneath strict holinesse conceale A mystery of evill which deceives them And when they thinke all safe in danger leaves them Their whole Religion some doe place in heating Some in the outward action of forbearing Ill deedes or in well doing though the heart In that performance beare no reall part Some others of their mor●all actions make Small conscience and affirme that God doth take No notize how in body they transgresse If him in their inward man confesse As if a soule beloved could reside Within a body quite unsanctifide Some not contented in the act of sin Aare growne so impudent that they begin To joustifie themselves in wickednesse Or by quait arguments to make it lesse And by such Monsters to such ends as this The Christians liberty de●amed is Newfanglednesse Religion hath o'rethrowne And many as fantasticall are growne In that as in apparell Some delight In nothing more then to be opposite To other men Their zeale they wholy spend The present government to reprehend The Churches discipline to villifie And raile at all which pleades antiquitie They love not peace and therefore have suspition Of Truth it selfe if out of persecution And are so thankelesse or so heedlesse be Of Gods great love in giving such a free And plenteous meanes of pulishing his word That what his Prophets of the Iewes record Some verefie in us Much praise is given To that blinde age wherein the Queene of Heav'n Was worship heare And falsely we extoll Those dayes as being much more plentifull Some at the frequency of Preaching grutch And tyred with it thicke we have too much Nay impudently practise to suppresse That Exercise and make our plenty lesse And that their doing may not want some fayre Or goodly coulor they doe call for Pray'r In stead thereof as if we could not pray Vntill our Preaching we had sent away As these are foolishly or lewdly wise We have some others wantonly precise So waywardly disps'd amidst our plenty And through their curiosity so dainty That very many cannot well digest The Bread of life but in their manner drest Nor will Gods Manna or that measure serve Which he provides But they cry out they starve Vnlesse they feed upon their owne opinions Which are like Egypts Garlike and her Onions Some like not Prayer that 's extempory Some not any that set forme noth cary Some thinke there 's no devotion but in those That howle or whine or snuffle in the nose As if that God vouchsafed all his Graces For fained gestures or for soure faces Some thinke not that the man who gravely teacheth Or hath a sober gesture when he preacheth Or gentle voyce hath any zeale in him And therefore such like Preachers they contemne Yea they suppose that no mans doctrine saves The soule of any one unlesse he raves And rores aloud and flings and hurleth so As if his armes he quite away would throw Or over-leap the Pulpit or else breake it And this if their opinion true may make it Is to advance their voyces Trumpet-like As God commands yea this they say doth strike Sinne dead Whereas indeed God seldome goes In whirlewinds but is in the voyce of those Who speake in meeknesse And it is not in The pow'r of noyse to shake the walls of sinne For clamors antique actions writhed lookes And such like mimmick Rhetoricke none brookes That hath discretion neither doth it move The heart of any when we so reprove Excpt it be in some contrary motion Which interupts the hearts good devotion The well affected Christian pitties it It makes prophanest men at naught to set Gods Ordinance Meere morall men despise Such affatection much it terrifies The ignorant but very few from thence Receive sound knowledge or true penitence Some relish nothing but those points that are In controversie some would nothing heare But songs of Mercy some delight in none But Songs of Thunder and scarce any one Is pleas'd in what he heares Nay of their Preachers Mechanicks arrogate to be the teachers Yea most of us what e're our Pastor shyes Keepe still our owne opinions and our wayes To heare and know Gods word to some among Our Nation seemeth onely to belong To Clergymen and their implicite Faith Is built on what the common rumour saith Some others fill'd with curiosity Affirme that ev'ry sev'rall mystery Within Gods Booke included doth concrne Ev'n each particular Christian man to learne Whereas they might as well affirme each guest That is invited to each Feast Is bound the sev'rall dishes there to heed And upon every meat before him feed Nay some have almost this imagination That there is hardly hope of their salvation Who