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	faith_n	teach_v	4,044	5	6.3549	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59567	A sermon preached before the Lords spiritual and temporal in Parliament assembled, in the Abbey-church at Westminster on the fifth of November, 1691 / by the Archbishop of York.	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1691 (1691)	Wing S2995; ESTC R15085	12,865	30

Instances But it is an unpleasant Argument and therefore I will pursue it no farther Only one instance more of the Jewish Zeal I must not pass by because it comes up so fully to the business of this Day So zealous were they for their Religion that they did not care what sort of means they made use of for the promoting of it were they never so wicked and unnatural Our Saviour they hunted to Death with false Witnesses Stephen they stoned out of pure zeal in a popular tumult Forty of them solemnly bound themselves under a Curse that they would neither eat nor drink till they had killed St. Paul But all this and a great deal more our Saviour had foretold they would do when he told his Apostles that the time would come when whosoever killed them should think that he did God good service A Blessed way of doing God service is this to act such wicked inhumane things as these But such inhumane things as these doth a Blind Zeal for Religion sometimes put Men upon And that it doth so we cannot have a greater proof except what I have already mentioned than the practices of the zealous Men of the Church of Rome How many unlawful Arts have they used to subject all the Christian World to their Lord and Master How many Forgeries for this purpose have they been the Authors of and maintain'd them afterwards How many disturbances have they given to the Peace of Christendom in the most unjust and unnatural ways for the advancement of the Papal Cause It was Zeal for Gods Service and the Interest of holy Church that so many Princes have been Excommunicated and Deposed that so many Tumults and Rebellions have been raised that so many Crusados for the extirpating Hereticks have been sent out By which and such like means it may justly be computed that as much Christian Blood has been shed for the establishing Popery as it now stands nay and a great deal more than ever was during all the times of the Heathen Persecutions for the supporting of Paganism But if there were no other instance extant in the World to shew what is to be expected from a blind Zeal especially a blind Popish Zeal for Religion that instance which the deliverance of this Day doth give us occasion to mention would be alone sufficient to inform us When for no other end but for the advancement of Popery and the rooting out that Pestilent Heresy of the Reformation which infested these Northern Climates a Company of Popish Zealots enter'd upon the most barbarous and inhumane Project that ever was undertaken by Men even neither better nor worse than the destroying the King and his Parliament at one blow and had put all things in such a readiness in order thereunto that they certainly had effected it as on this day had not their Conspiracy been detected in a wonderful manner But thanks be to God their designs then and ever since have been defeated and some of them even miraculously and we trust in the Mercies of God that they will ever be so God hath been wonderfully Gracious to us in the preservation of our Church and Religion from Popish attempts to destroy it ever since it was setled among us How many Plots and Conspiracies were laid in the time of the glorious Q. Elizabeth to put an end to her Life and with it to our reformed Establishment What a dreadful one was this of the Gunpowder Treason in the reign of her Successor How many dangers have threatned us since that time from that quarter What a horrible storm but of late did we apprehend and justly enough too was impending over us And yet blessed be God who hath never failed to raise up Deliverers to his People in the day of their Distress that storm is blown over And we are here not only in Peace and Quietness in the full possession of our Native Rights and Liberties and in the Enjoyment of the Free Exercise of our Religion which is one of the most desirable things in the World But such is the deliverance that God hath wrought for us that we also seem to have a fair prospect of the Continuance of these Blessings among us and according to humane Estimate to be in a good measure out of the danger of our old Inveterate Enemy Popery I mean which one would think had now made its last effort among us Is not this now a great Blessing And must not all sincere Protestants of what perswasions soever they be in other respects necessarily believe so Certainly they must if they think it a Blessing to be delivered out of the hands of our Enemies and to be in a Condition to serve God without fear Let us all therefore own it as such to God Almighty let us thankfully remember all his past Deliverances from Popery and especially let us never forget those of this day neither the former nor this late one We have reason to believe that God hath a tender Care of his Church and Religion in these Kingdoms not only because he hath so many times so signally and wonderfully appeared for the preservation of it But more especially because we know and are convinced that our Religion is according to his Mind and Will being no other than that which his Son Jesus Christ taught unto the World that is to say no other than that which is in the Bible which is our only Rule of Faith It infinitely concerns us all therefore so to behave our selves as to shew that we are neither unthankful for Gods past Mercies nor unqualified for his future Protection And in order to that I know no other way but this that we all firmly adhere to the Principles of our Religion and that in our Practices we conform our selves to those Principles That is to say In the first place That we sincerely love and fear God and have a hearty sense of his Presence and Goodness and Providence continually abiding in our minds That we trust in him depend upon him and acknowledge him in all our ways That we be careful of his Worship and Service paying him the constant Tribute of our Prayers and Praises and Thanksgiving both in publick and private And then secondly that we be pure and unblameable in our Lives avoiding the Pollutions that are in the World through Lust and exercising Chastity and Modesty Meekness and Humility Temperance and Sobriety amidst the sundry Temptations we have to conflict with And thirdly that we have always a fervent Charity to one another that we love as Brethren endeavouring to do all the good we can but doing harm to none Using Truth and Justice and a good Conscience in all our dealings with Mankind Living peaceable if it be possible with all Men. And not only so but in our several Places and Stations promoting Peace and Unity and Concord among Christians and contributing what we can to the healing the sad Breaches and Divisions of our Nation And then lastly that we pay all Submission and Duty and Obedience to the King and Queen whom God hath set over us endeavouring in all the ways that are in our Power to render their Government both as easy to themselves and as acceptable to their Subjects and as formidable to their Enemies as is possible If all of us that call our selves Protestants would charge our selves with the Practice of these things how assured might we rest that God would bless us that he would continue his Protection of our Nation our Church our Religion against all Enemies whatsoever and that we might see our Jerusalem still more and more to flourish and Peace to be in all her Borders May God Almighty pour upon us all the Spirit of his G●ace and work all these great things in us and for us And in order hereunto may he send down his Blessings upon the King and Queen and so influence and direct all their Councils both Publick and Private that all their Subjects may be happy in their Government and lead peaceable and quiet lives under them in all Godliness and Honesty And after such a Happy and Peaceable Life here may we all at last arrive to God's Eternal Kingdom and Glory through the Merits of his dear Son To whom c. FINIS Advertisement TEN Sermons Preached upon several Occasions With two Discourses of Conscience By the Most Reverend the Lord Archbishop of York Printed for Walter Kettilby

is not fierce nor furious against them He doth not excite any person to use force or violence to them But he rather pities them He makes their Zeal that they had of God an Inducement the more heartily to pray for them that God would direct them in the right way that leads to Salvation Tho' he is far from approving their blind Zeal in so obstinately opposing the Righteousness of God that is that method which God had prescribed for the attaining of Righteousness by the faith of Jesus Christ and setting up a Righteousness of their own which consisted chiefly in observing the Ceremonials of Moses his Law and the Traditions of their Fathers as it follows in the next Verse after my Text Yet he thinks them the more pitiable and the more excusable in that this their Opposition proceeded from their Zeal of God tho' it was a mis-informed irregular Zeal This practice and carriage of the Apostle towards these Ignorant Zealots ought to be a rule for us to walk by in the like Cases If Men be of a different way from us as to Religion if they hold other Opinions or though they be of another Communion from us and though too we are sure they are mistaken nay and dangerously mistaken too yet if they have a Zeal of God if they be serious and sincere in their way if their errours in Religion be the pure results of a mis-informed Conscience Let us as the Apostle here did take occasion from hence to pity them and to put up hearty prayers to God for them and to endeavour all we can by gentle methods to reduce them to the right way But by no means to express contempt or hatred of them or to treat them with violence and outrage So far as their Zeal is for God let us so far shew tenderness and compassion to them and if their Zeal be in such instances as are really commendable let us in such instances not onely bear with them but propose them for our examples This I say was the Apostle's practice and I think it is so agreeable to the Spirit and Temper of our great Lord and Master Christ that it will become us in like cases to act accordingly But then after I have said this These two things are always to be remembred First That our Tenderness to mistaken Zealots must always be so managed as that the true Religion or the Publick peace suffer no damage thereby And therefore how kindly and compassionately soever we as private Christians are to treat those that differ from us and pursue a wrong way out of Conscience Yet this doth not hinder but that both wholsome Laws may be made for the restraining the exorbitances of mistaken Zeal and when those Laws are made that they may be put in execution The consideration of Law-givers and Magistrates is different from that of private Christians Their business is to see that Nequid detrimenti respublica capiat to see that the Government be secured that the common peace be kept that the Laws of God be observ'd that God's Religion as it is delivered by Jesus Christ be preserved sincere and undefiled and that the solemn Worship of God be purely and decently performed And therefore there is no doubt but that in all these matters the Government may make Fences and Securities against the Insults of intemperate Zealots and when these Fences are made it should be at their Peril if they transgressed them supposing Magistrates did their duty And all this we say is very consistent with that tenderness and charity that all Christians and even Magistrates themselves in their private Capacity do owe to misperswaded erroneous Consciences And then Secondly it is to be remembred that that Kindness and Tenderness to mistaken Zealots which we are speaking of from the Text is not to be expressed to all alike but to some more to some less to some perhaps in no degree at all according as the nature and quality of their Errors are and according as the Men that are guilty of them may more or less or not at all be thought to have a real Zeal of God and to act out of principles of Conscience Thus for instance In the First place Those that set up for Patrons of Atheism or Epicurism that make it their business in their Conversation to expose all Religion and to bring it into contempt that ridicule the Professors of it as a company of easie credulous Men that make no Conscience of blaspheming God and all things Sacred as occasion is given them Why these Men may have Zeal enough for their Opinions and we find that they often have a great deal too much But are such to be treated with that sort of Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of No by no means For they are quite out of the bounds of my Text They have a Zeal indeed but it is not a Zeal for God but for the Devil and the Interests of his Kingdom And if one were to measure the greatness of Crimes by the mischief they do to humane Society I should think that this sort of People were not to expect so much favour and respect from mankind as some other Malefactors that yet by our Laws are to pay for their offences at no less a rate than their Lives Again Secondly If there be any Men that under a pretence of Religion do teach or encourage or promote any sort of Vice or Immorality or whose Principles do necessarily lead to debauch Mens manners in the plain matters of Sobriety Chastity Truth or Justice or the like such kind of People are by no means Objects of that Tenderness and Compassion that we are now speaking of For the Laws of Nature as to moral Virtue and Vice are so plainly writ in every Mans heart that he must be supposed to be an Ill Man that can easily entertain any Principle let it come never so much recommended under the name of Religion that contradicts them And whatever allowance may in charity be made for a Man's mistakes there is no reason that much should be made for his Wickedness Again Thirdly If there be any Men that whilest they express a great Zeal for the Purity of Religion and exclaim against the Corruptions of it as they term them which are introduced into the Publick Establishment and turn every stone to have all things setled in another method yet all this while God and their own Hearts know that all this concernment and Zeal of theirs for Religion tho' it make a great shew is only pretended and that there is another thing that lies at the bottom that is to say Worldly Interest and Dominion and Power which they hope to compass by such a Regulation of Matters as they desire I say if there be any such Men they are likewise no way concerned in that compassion my Text speaks of For tho' they may be very Zealous yet it is a Zeal for their own secular advantages that