Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A67563
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The case of Joram a sermon preached before the House of Peers in the Abby-church at Westminster, January 30, 1673/4 / by Seth, Lord Bishop of Sarum.
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Ward, Seth, 1617-1689.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing W817; ESTC R19529
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17,156
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39
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our bones And if we be not more mad than Joram we cannot but acknowledge them to have proceeded from the hand of God This would evidently appear if I might be permitted to insist and animadvert upon the evils which have befallen us and trace them backward to that great and prodigious Judgment which was the cause of this days observation I shall not need to spend time to prove that our threatning and growing Famine our present Murrein or late Pestilence have proceeded from the hand of God Such plagues as these are so plainly and confessedly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that David being left to his choice betwixt the Sword the Famine and the Pestilence thought it a plain expression of his mind when he only desired he might fall into the hand of God I shall therefore proceed to a few particulars of another nature That a novel and upstart Commonwealth of a Nation lately feeble and poor whining and submissive should in the space of not many years arrive at the ungrateful boldness to provoke a powerful and mighty Kingdom a Kingdom to which they had been in their weakness and minority so much obliged That they should be permitted to disappoint and baffle their strongest Preparations and come to such an height as to attempt and endeavour to fix upon them marks and characters of perpetual ignominy and dishonour That a fire should proceed out of the Bramble which should consume the Cedars of Lebanon That a spark should kindle in a corner and should be permitted to destroy all the stately Palaces publick Buildings and venerable Churches in one of the most considerable Cities of the World besides 12000 private habitations This certainly is Digitus Dei This evil is from the Lord. When after the miseries of 20 years the Lord had caused Light to spring out of Darkness and Order out of Confusion Reduced all things to that state and position out of which they had been distorted Had Restored our Religion our Laws and Liberties Had Established the King the Church the Nobility Gentry Populacy in their ancient Rights and legal Stations Had fortified all these by new additional Laws and a Loyal and worthy Parliament That after all this without any disturbance by Foreign Invasion or intestine Rebellion meerly by the application of our own wisdom and policy and our most industrious endeavours in the short space of about a dozen years the same Parliament still continuing This goodly Fabrick should be shattered and all things e'ne ready to drop into Disorder and Confusion That out of Depth of Policy and Mystery of State the foundations of Government should be subverted and the Ligaments of it dissolved That for the establishment of Government every one should be permitted to do that which is right in his own eyes as if there were no King in Israel That for the Advancement of the Established Religion there should be permitted to assume to themselves a Toleration of all Religions or rather irreligions Schisms Heresies and Blasphemies in the world That out of Indulgence to tender Consciences the Principles of Atheism and Anarchy should be permitted to be disseminated countenanced watered cherished and fostered and all means used that conscience it self should be eradicated out of the Souls of men WIth fear and trembling horror and amazement to come up to the prodigious instance of this day That the vilest and the worst of men should be permitted in the most horrible and most impious the most impudent and brazen-faced manner under a form of Godliness and Justice in the sight of this Sun in contempt and defiance of Providence and of God himself to shed the Royal Blood and take away the Sacred Life of the Lord 's Anointed and of him that was the most Harmless and Innocent the most Meek and Gentle the most Virtuous and Religious the most Sober and Prudent Prince that ever sate upon the English Throne Lastly That after all this and all the rest that our eyes have seen After the Massacre and Rebellion in Ireland The Covenant contrived in Scotland The Bloody Wars and Sacrilegious Judgment and Execution made here in England That after we have seen the end of the Lord the Vengeance of God so signally executed upon the Principal Authors Actors and Promoters the Judges and Executioners of all those things Matters should in so short a time be brought to that pass that according to the various Inclinations of men some should Fear and others Hope that the Monarchy of England and that Religion and those Laws and the very persons which uphold it should now be abandoned And that the great Interests of Religion and Government should be delivered up into the hands of the Irish or English Papists the Scottish or English Covenanters or other Sectaries and Fanaticks Are not all these things strange and wonderful are they not marvellous in our eyes In all this is not the hand of God clearly to be seen certainly we cannot but acknowledge that This evil is from the Lord. So that in respect of Judgments and Calamities you have seen the correspondence of our Case with the Case of Joram 2. Let us now reflect upon the National behaviour and examine Whether hath this been ordered according to the way of Elisha or the way of Joram When the Judgments of God have been so many so grievous so visible amongst us have the Inhabitants of the Land learned righteousness or unrighteousness Have they prevailed upon us to break off our sins by Repentance or to continue in them and increase them with a brisker and sturdier resolution As the Lord's hand hath been more and more lifted up have not we endeavoured with an higher and higher hand to sin against him As he hath smitten us more and more have not we revolted more and more Instead of being made a Religious and a Praying People are we not become an Atheistical and a Scoffing and Blaspheming People Instead of being a Sober and Fasting People are we not become a Riotous and Drunken People Instead of being made a Chast and Modest a Meek and Humble a Gentle and Composed People are we not become a Shameless and Immodest a Ranting and Tearing a Hectoring and God-damning People Briefly Instead of turning to the Lord with all our hearts and with Fasting and with Weeping and with Mourning for our Sins Have we not turned from him with all our hearts and with laughing and with scoffing and with jeering at all Humiliation and Devotion and Religion It is not here my intention to charge every individual Person with these things No doubt there are thousands in this our Israel who have not bowed themselves to these enormities And it is well for them and happy for the Kingdom that there are so for Except the Lord had left us such a remnant we should have been as Sodom and made like unto Gomorrha Yet the exception of this remnant notwithstanding may it not be fit to consider whether we be not truly and properly