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	doctrine_n	england_n	6,989	5	6.3346	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45355	Deus justificatus, or, The divine goodness vindicated and cleared against the assertors of absolute and inconditionate reprobation together with some reflections on a late discourse of Mr. Parkers, concerning the divine dominion and goodness.	Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?; Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1668 (1668)	Wing H460; ESTC R25403	132,698	316

Hearers in the most difficult and many times disputable points of the Christian Religion and fill their heads with unprofitable opinions while they neglected the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the more serious and weighty matters of Justice Mercy and Compassion From hence came it that in their Catechisms and Confessions of Faith they crowded so many unnecessary and fruitless Doctrines under the name and notion of Indubitable Articles of the Christian Faith and which were necessary to be believed in order to Salvation such as are the Positions concerning Gods Decree of Election and Reprobation c. And here I cannot but with all due regard and honour commend the great Prudence of the Compilers as of the whole Liturgie and Service so particularly of the Catechisme of the Church of England for the Instructing of the younger sort in the Rudiments and Principles of Christianity wherein as there is nothing propounded as indispensably necessary to be believed but what is undoubtedly so in like manner they modestly contented themselves in inserting only such things as were by all the reformed part of Christendome looked upon as unquestionably true and the contrary condemned as false and adulterate so that I may say of it as David of Goliahs Sword There is none like it Thus Reader I have given thee a full Account and Reason of the following Discourse and of the Necessity of some such way and method of Instructing the People as I have here described which certainly is not to fill their brains with puffie Opinions and jejune Disputations but a zealous cautioning them against all Vice and Immorality whatever and a serious exhorting them to the practice of Holyness Justice and Equity Obedience to their Lawful Prince and to all inferior Magistrates to do good and communicate to the Necessities of the Indigent and Calamitous and when the case requires a further instruction in the Mysteries of Religion such a full and easie Explication of the several Articles and Doctrines contained in it as may best suit with their Capacities and the plain Texts of Holy Scripture which as it is recommended as most useful for the promotion of Piety by our Mother the Church of England so it is most agreeable with the Nature of the thing it self GODS GOODNESS VINDICATED Against Absolute Reprobation CHAP. I. Inconditionate Reprobation inconsistent with the Declarations of God in Holy Scripture THERE is scarce any Doctrine or Opinion maintain'd in the World be it never so Monstrous and Irrational but pleads Scripture to countenance and authorize it and though Truth be but one yet every Sect and Faction claims an Interest in it and that Error may pass more freely disguised and undiscerned amongst men it is now-become a fashion to alledge the Divinely-inspired Writings as an unquestionable Evidence for the reasonableness and Truth of whatever strange and uncouth conceits men please to divulge in the World Such is the Hypothesis of Absolute Reprobation we have in hand And he that shall peruse the Writings of those who desire to maintain it and consider with what wonderful confidence they assert it and how thick-set the Margins of their Treatises are with citations of Scripture to patronize and defend it and yet how little or nothing there is in that Sacred Volume that in good earnest looks that way will be soon perswaded that it is an inveterate prejudice rather then any probability of Truth which makes them such pertinacious Adherents to so ill-framed a Doctrine And that I may make good what I have affirmed I shall begin with Divine Revelation wherein God declares his gratious Oeconomy and Dispensation with mankind and Vindicates the glory and honour of his Nature and Attributes from the aspersions and imputations of cruelty and injustice asserting his Rule and Dominion in the World to be Righteous and Equal and perfectly agreeable to the highest Wisdome and Goodness so that none of his Creatures unless it be such who are desperately forlorn and wicked can possibly wish his Not-being in the World This is his Name whereby he proclaims himself to Moses The Lord the Lord God Exod. xxxiv 6. merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and truth and this Name God hath verified in the whole Oeconomy of his Providence to the lapsed World Deut. v. 29. Oh that my people had such an heart in them sayes he that they would fear me and keep my Commandements But why doth God wish this not for any self design or particular interest for our goodness extendeth not unto him nor can our sins detract any thing from the sedate and composed happiness of his everblessed Nature but that it might go well with them and their Children for ever Behold here the flagrant love and intense affection of the God of Israel to a stiff-necked and disobedient people Do not these passionate streins proceed from his whole heart and are they not Arguments of the greatest seriousness How then can he unfeignedly desire that they should walk in the wayes of life when his own good Pleasure from the out-goings of Eternity hath irresistibly determined their motion into the pathes of destruction Can a tender Mother expose her innocent Babe to be devoured by wilde Beasts or sawn asunder before her eyes Isai xlix 15. Can she forget her sucking Child that she should not have compassion upon the Son of her womb Suppose there may be some so obdurate and unrelenting that their bowels will not yern over such a dismal spectacle yet they are but few that have degenerated so deeply into this more then brutish stupidity and can we think the compassionate Father of Spirits who is infinitely more pitiful in all the degrees of intension and extension then the best of the Sons of Men will betray his own dear off-spring or prove so unnatural to design them to the most acute torments the wit and subtilty of Men or Devils can invent and that to eternal ages before ever their Existence gave them the least opportunity of offending him 1 Joh. iv 16. God is Love it self whose nature is ever to be diffusive and communicative to all the possibilities of beings and therefore glories not in this that he is powerful to slay to damne and excruciate in unheard and perpetual torments Isa lxiii 1. but that he speaks in righteousness and is mighty to save And that he might fully convince the World of this gracious property of his he hath pronounced Judgment to be his Strange work and his Strange act which mens Impenitencies only force him to for he will not that any perish but that every Creature should be happy in it's measure and capacity And lest we Sons of Darkness should entertain any such thought of the God of Light as if he pleased himself in our ruin he hath joyned an Oath to it Ezek. xxxiii 11. and hath sworn As he liveth he hath no pleasure in the death of the Wicked but that the Wicked turn from his