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
A66118	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of ... Lady Mary, daughter to Ferdinando, late Earl of Huntingdon, and wife to William Jolife of Caverswell-castle in the county of Stafford, Esq. ... Decemb. xii, 1678 by Samuel Willes ...	Willes, Samuel, 1611-1684.	1679 (1679)	Wing W2305; ESTC R20634	16,458	38

these Qualities of a cultivated and enlarg'd Mind excellent Understanding and a commanding Reason she supperadded a Holy Pure and even Angelical Life To know God and to be like him was her first and great Endeavour She lived always in prospect of Heaven and thither did her Devout Spirit evermore aspire This made those Temptations which prevail so fatally upon others prove only Molestations to her This World as it was to Monica discoursing of Heaven with her holy Son S. August Conf. s 9. c. 10. was vile and dispicable in her Eye whose Contemplations and Longings were directed to things Eternal She wisely concluded that a meek and quiet Spirit a true Devotion and severe Vertue were more excellent Acquisitions and more lovely Ornaments than any of the gaudy Vanities wherewith vulgar and narrow Souls are so unreasonably transported Nor did she only approve the things that are Excellent but she practised them also to such a Degree that in her Primitive Christianity was revived and she lived as those first Christians did and as we should And this by the Grace of God preserved her from those low conceptions of Religion which many have taken up Who would make it to consist in the little badges and cognizances of a Party in angry Disputings and foolish Wranglings in bringing all things into Question and projecting eternal amendments in Spiritual Affairs in zealous contending about Words and Names c. Talk and Pretence she never esteem'd worthy her Consideration and was not to be impos'd upon by the sleights and ostentation of the Factors for other Churches But having upon Principles of Judgment and Conviction fully satisfy'd her self she conscienciously and devoutly adhered to the Doctrine Worship and Discipline of the Church of England And though like Mary in in the Gospel she had thus chosen the better part making Religion her great Business and Employment yet she was sensibly offended when she found it taken notice of unless it were by Imitation Her design being to provoke others to good Works not to flattering Attributions Not that she was asham'd of being thought Religious but she dreaded the Hypocrisy of a designed Publication that she was so And as a further Evidence that she studied the Power of Godliness not the Form of it she labour'd most in the retired intimacies of true Religion This appear'd in the constant frequency of her private Devotions which she perform'd three times a Day at the least Using to that purpose the most private Concealments not only to avoid Disturbance but what she more shun'd Discovery And to assist enlarge and enforce her Devotions she added to them frequent Fasts Wherein she held her self to our Saviour's Rule Mat. 6. 16. When ye Fast be not as the Hypocrites of a sad Countenance For they disfigure their Faces that they may appear unto Men to Fast But when thou fastest anoint thy Head and wash thy Face that thou appear not unto Men to Fast but unto thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly Thus upon such occasions she would seem to eat and to take her usual Repast that she might escape Observation Nor would any thing more discompose her than an inquisition into her Abstinence To her Prayers and Fasting she added as a necessary Concomitant Alms to the Poor in dispensing whereof she was extermely Kind and Bountiful and was somewhat severe to her self oftentimes that she might be the more Charitable to them that were in Need. And her Liberality in this kind was always accompanied with such a condescending and obliging Compassion as render'd her Reliefs of the Distressed doubly comforting to them But in these Pious Distributions she used such means of secrecy that no more particular accounts can be given than such as can be gathered from those Persons who to manifest their Gratitude have made trespass upon their promises of Concealment To sustain and nourish this constant course of Piety and Devotion she drew daily Succours from the Holy Scriptures beginning and concluding every Day with some Portion of them And this not as a Task and to maintain a Custom but as a peculiar Delight and the most agreable entertainment of her Mind Which appeared in her Youthful time when about Twenty Years since she resided here in this Town the Bell at Four in the Morning even in the Winter Season was her certain Summons to her Devotions which were seconded by diligent Reading and Meditating upon the holy Word of God Wherein she assisted her self not only by Public Sermons but by the best and soundest Expositors which our Church affords And all this not to give her self a mere intellectual Improvement and Satisfaction But she suffer'd the Divine Law to pass into Government It ruled and commanded her in all her Actions and she adorned the Doctrine of God our Saviour by a suitable Conversation But it is not to be omitted that the principal of all her Joys was the blessed Sacrament Her devout Soul finding the most satisfying refreshments in the Spiritual Feast of the most precious Body and Blood of her Saviour which made her most earnestly embrace every Opportunity she could lay hold on to partake of that holy Mystery Accordingly she Communicated once every Month since her Residence in London fitting her self before-hand with all possible preparations due to the Dignity of that Divine Celebration And herein she exercised such Acts of Devotion and Religious Austerity to her self as if it had been the last Act of her Life And that she were to pass from the Altar to the Tribunal from the Table of our Lord to his Judgment-Seat Neither was this with the neglect of other Duties For she loved to draw nigh to God in all the Ways of approaching him She attended the Church upon all Occasions with a zeal like that of holy Anna who departed not from the Temple but Luk. 3. 27. served God with Eastings and Prayers Night and Day And so much was her Mind fixed upon the Offices of Religion that as soon as ever she could obtain Release from Business or from Company she took up some work of Devotion and return'd to those Spiritual Fruitions with new Appetites and impatient Desires Yet did not all this Retirement and the Devotional Employments of it contract any moroseness of Humour in her Herein she also imitated her Saviour Who though He spent whole Nights in Prayer and lived as became the Son of God and the Redeemer of the World yet was pleased to Converse with infinite Benignity and Condescention even to the meanest People For her Religion was of such a Complexion that she never lookt upon rigid Sowrness and censorious Austerity to be any Ornament to it The Holy Spirit she well knew produces Fruits of another kind Namely Love Joy Peace Long-suffering Gentleness Goodness c. Gal. 5. 22. Which Fruits all that had the happiness to know her will acknowledg were eminently visible in her Life