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	great_a	part_n	5,180	5	4.2008	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09013	The rose, and lily Delivered at the lecture, in Ashby de-la-zouch in the county of Leicester. By William Parks, Master of Arts, and curat of Chelaston in the county of Derby.	Parks, William, curat of Chelaston.	1639 (1639)	STC 19303; ESTC S102532	67,453	210

THE ROSE AND LILY. DELIVERED AT THE LECTVRE In ASHBY de-la-zouch in the County of Leicester By WILLIAM PARKS Master of Arts and curat of Chelaston in the County of DERBY 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Discendum propter docendum LONDON Printed by JOHN NORTON for GEORGE WILNE 1639. ❧ To the Right Honourable HENRY Earle of Huntingdon Lord Hastings Hungerford Botreaulx Molins and Moules and Lord Lieutenant of his Majestes County of Leicester and Rutland my Honoured Lord. Right HONOVRABLE IT is not any want of Bookes in these daies of ours wherein they doe so much abound that moves mee to publish these my weake labours nor yet any desire I have to shew myself in Print J am too sensible of mine owne imperfections to be desirous to shew them to the World But considering my engagments especially to your Honour and not willing to be altogether guilty of that hatefull sinne of ingratitude but knowing no other way to expresse my thankefulnes J have pitched upon this chooseing rather to shew my selfe a weake man then ingratefull J must confesse I had rather be silent then be seen in Print And my small fortunes had made me as dejected in person as J was in place untill it pleased your Honour to cast the beames of your countenance on mee in giving mee part of this Lecture where these Sermons were preached which made me a little erigere caput to peepe up and shew my selfe if to no other end then this to expresse my thankfulnes it were a sufficient cause to move mee to it J have heere endevoured to give unto your Honour not only what Aeschines gave unto Socrates me ipsum but even Deum ipsum for it is an unfolding of some part of those Mysteries that concerne Christ of whom your Honour is a livelie member in his Church militant and will be untill you are a full partaker of all his benefits in the Church triumphant which that your Honour may be is the prayer of Your Lordships dayly Orator and most humbly devoted Chaplaine WILLIAM PARKES The Praeface to the Reader I Will use no Praeface but onely say as Ruffinus did to Laurentius a Interopa Cyp. habetur pag. 543. Mihi quidem ad scribendum animus tam non est cupidus quam nec Idoneus scienti non esse absque periculo multorum judiciis ingemum teme exile committere And indeed when I first pend these sermons I did not intend to put them to the Presse nor to expose my selfe and them to that which the World is too full of censure But finding some part of it in the delivering of them as namely for the urging of fathers in Latine in my Sermons c. for which I have beene traduced behinde my back and perswaded to my face to leave them I could therefore doe no lesse for the justifying of my selfe and the satisfying of others then commit them to the eye as I did to the eare to see whether they deserue any Pragmaticall censure It is a true observation of Macrobius b Lib. 6. Satur that Multa ignoramus quae non laterent si veterum lectio nobis esse familiaris wee are ignorant of many things which would not be hid unto us if the reading of ancient writers were familiar with us yet such is the humor of some that nothing can please them except it be plaine and delivered ex tempore from mens owne braynes without any ground or light from any ancient fathers Though nullum est jam dictum quod non dictum sit prius c Terent Eunuch prolog There is no new thing under the Sunne d Eccles. 1.9 yet such is the condition of these Athenians that they are altogether for novelties which makes their itching eares to be delighted with new fangled teachers which preach the Chymaeraes of their owne braynes altogether neglecting the fathers of the Church If Prayers or Sermons be pend they are presently sleighted and the more paynes are taken in them the lesse acceptance have they with these men I know no reason he had to teare out the Athanasian Creed out of his bible when it was read in the Church but onely to satisfy his owne humour and as little that our Novelists have to except against our Church liturgy except it bee for that suffrage from all blindnes of heart from pride vaine glory and hypocrisy from envy hatred and malice and all uncharitablenes Good Lord deliver us which is a great part of their Religion And I know lesse reason for any to censure so rashly as to say that a pend Sermon never converted soule for I dare presume to maintaine that many have beene converted by reading and I thinke it must bee pend before it be printed and written before it be read Wee read in the Gospell e John 3. that Christ turned water into wine hee might as easily have filled the vessels with wine as made them to bee filled with water first but to signify that hee will not fill those empty vessells that come unfurnished into the pulpit and looke then for Revelations But if it were lawfull at other times to preach quicquid in buccam venerit yet is it very unfit for a Lecture in Divinity for a Lecture doth consist of a mixt auditory and must have as well meat as milke that the learned may have strength by the one as the ignorant have growth by the other Againe a Lecture as I conceave was at the first founded for the explayning of the fundamentall poyntes of Religion and the handling of controversies in the University and so are continued by men of great learning and eminence the publique professors And in Queene Elizabeths dayes as I conjecture Lectures were permitted in Parochiall Churches not commanded or injoyned for I read of Parsons Vicars and Curates in the booke of common Prayer but not of a Lecturer neither were they suffered to this end to draw eare-Christians and lip-professors together to parlee in a parlour of poynts of Divinity which they understand not and of matters of Church discipline that doe not concerne them but to build the people up in knowledge and to handle matters of controversy and then in points of controversy and explicating of difficult points of Divinity the fathers are very fit to bee urged Ob. But it is an unknowne tongue and the Apostle sayth f 1 Cor. 14 24 that edifyes not and therefore Latin is not fit to bee used I answer Ans it edifyes the learned if not interpreted but if interpreted it edifyes the Church g Arct in 1. Cor. 14. and if it were unlawfull to speake in an unknowne tongue altogether why should S. Pauls practice contradict his precept for hee writes to the Romans and Hebrewes in Greeke when Latin was the language of the one and Hebrew the language of the other Ob. But it takes up a great deale of time Ans Not so much time as many usually spend in vaine Tautologies and idle

it the fitter for use but it makes the instruments the Anvill and the Hammer the harder so Gods children being heat red hot as it were in the fire of persecution it makes them the better and the more plyable to gods service but it makes the wicked which are the instruments to bee the harder First then it is for the benefit of Gods children Candidior tribulationum aculeis efficieris f Angelom●in loc The Church is more white and beautifull by the prickles of persecution The Church is compared to the Moone g Sol. Song 6. Ecclesia sicut luna defectus habet ortus frequentes sed defectibus suis crevit his meruit ampliari dum persecutionibus minuitur martyrio coronatur saith S. Ambrose h Hexam li. 9 The Church like the Moone hath risings and settings fulls and waynes but shee increaseth by her defects and deserves to be augmented while shee is lessened by persecution and crowned with Martyrdome We cannot bee crowned except wee fight neither can wee triumph except wee have got the victory when we fight and conquer then may tropheys bee set up In the shop of a Ieweller the Iewells would not bee so beautifull if there were no iron instrumens to furbish them Solomons Temple had never been so glorious if there had been no craggy stones to build it so Gods children would never be so beautifull in themselves nor so glorious in the sight of God if they had no persecution to try them When we sit by the waters of Babylon then wee remember thee i Psal 137.1 O Sion As the Prophet David sayes of himselfe k Psal 119.17 It is good for me that I have been afflicted so may many a member of the Church say it is good for mee that I have been persecuted Man saith one l Clem Alexand is like unto a vine now a vine as hee there speakes and we here know unlesse it be pruned it will streight way grow wilde so man if hee have no persecution no crosse layd upon him hee will bee ready to forget himselfe and to spurne against his maker Persecution then is like the wind which doth cleanse the good grayne though it blow cold like the fire which doth purify the good gold though it burne hot for the godly are bettered by it their knowledge is sounder then it was their faith stronger their humility lower their goodnes in generall is greater towards GOD towards their neighbours and towards themselves And as it is for the benefit of Gods children and tends to their salvation so it proceeds from the malice of the wicked and ends in their destruction Iniquitatis filii cum clarorum rum hominum virtutem repraehensionem quodammodo suae pravitatis existimant veluti immanes quaedam ferae crudeliter ruunt c. saith S. Cyrill m In Gen. lib. 10. The children of wrath when they see the vertues of good men reprove their vices they rage like wilde beasts for when by their works of light the works of darknes are reproved they cast the darts of envy and malice against them which doe oftentimes returne back on their owne pates The fire of martyrdome n S. Augustin which doth purify the godly doth damnify the wicked the one it doth enrich with eternall happines the other it shall consume to dust and ashes Ashur is said to bee the rod of Gods anger o Esay 10.5 and wicked men are but the rods of his wrath with which though he doth sometimes chastice his children and suffer them to bee persecuted yet at length hee will burne the rodds But some may object and say that in those dangerous times of the primitive Church the Church might properly be said to bee the red Rose of Sharon When a man might pay deare for Christ as Christ payd for him even his life it being then almost impossible to follow Christ without Martyrdome But now thanks bee to God there is no such danger no Christianus ad Leones let the Christians bee cast into the Lions den no pulling before Magistrates but every one may practise christianity as well as professe it without danger nay it is dangerous indeede to every one that doth not professe and practise it in our Kingdome and God continue it so long as the Sun and Moone endureth so that the Church may now seeme to bee free from the rednes and prickles of persecution To this answere is made p Chrys Theopl● apud Cosma in 2 Tim. 3 12● that to suffer persecution is taken not onely for that which Gods children suffer from open enemies but for that griefe and sorrow which they suffer in their owne bowells Patiuntur hanc persecutionem non in corporibus sed in cordibus saith S. Austin q De Civitat dei li. 18. cap. 5. they suffer this persecution not outwardly in their bodyes but inwardly in their soules And there is a persecution of the tongue as well as a persecution of the hand The Scripture prompts me to it where it sayes r Gal 4.21 Ismael persecuted Isaac when hee ſ Gen. 21.9 mocked him So that there is disguised as well as open persecution t Wissons Christ Diction by word as well as by Sword by deceit as well as violence from false brethren as well as from professed enemies And this kind of persecution I cannot say that our Church is free from for that Schismaticall brood that whips it in their words and scourgeth it in their Pamphlets written against the government and governours of the Church what doe they else but as much as in them lyes v Mat. 23.37 kill the Prophets and stone them that are sent them And who so patiently beare w Doctor Boys exposit of the Gospell on S. Steph. day those wrongs and suffer those dilapidations in their credits what are they else but Stephens meere Martyrs And this kind of persecution must the Church never looke to bee free from Though shee may sometimes bee free from stripes and strokes yet shee is never free from mocks and scoffs though shee may bee free from deaths and imprisonments yet never from raylings and revilings though shee may bee free from murtherings yet not from murmurings and so never free from the pricks of secret persecution By this wee may partly see whether wee belong to the Church or no. Wee live in the latter dayes wherein many that should countenance Religion do contemne it being like unto the Negroes x Heylens Geogr. that paint the Divell white and the Angels black because they themselves are so Dost thou then like the weather-cock turne thy selfe by their wind and conforme thy selfe to them for feare of losing a favour or getting a frowne thou art not a true member of the Church Againe we live in a scoffing age wherein true Christians are accounted by many as S. Paul was y 1 Cor 4.13 the filth of the World and the off-scouring of