Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	lead_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	24	3	8.4984	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38451	Propugnaculum pietatis, the saints Ebenezer and pillar of hope in God when they have none left in the creature, or, The godly mans crutch or staffe in times of sadning disappointments, sinking discouragements, shaking desolations wherein is largely shewed, the transcendent excellency of God, his peoples help and hope : with the unparallel'd happiness of the saints in their confidence in him, overballancing the worldlings carnal dependance both as to sweetness and safety : pourtray'd in a discourse on Psal. 146:5 / by F.E.	F. E. (Francis English)	1667 (1667)	Wing E3076; ESTC R2623	160,282	286

Propugnaculum Pietatis THE SAINTS EBENEZER AND Pillar of HOPE in GOD when they have none left in the Creature OR THE Godly Mans Crutch or Staffe in Times Of Sadning Disappointments Sinking Discouragements Shaking Desolations Wherein is largely shewed The Transcendent Excellency of GOD His Peoples HELP and HOPE WITH The Unparallel'd Happiness of the SAINTS in their Confidence in Him overballancing the Worldlings Carnal Dependance both as to Sweetness and Safety Pourtray'd in a Discourse on Psal 146.5 By F. English The Righteous shall never be removed Prov. 10.30 But David encouraged himself in the Lord his God 1 Sam. 30.6 Quis ei metus est cui Deus Tutor est Non labefactat mentem human̄a molestatio quam corroborat divina protectio Cypr. LONDON Printed 1667. THE EPISTLE TO THE READER Reader THE vanity and emptiness of the Creature and the excellency and sufficiency of God the great and eternal Creatour are like two Chrystal Glasses which set one against the other give mutual light and illustration And our knowledge of God being more by negation than comprehension in this life the worlds blackness cannot but become a foil to set off his beauty with the more shining splendour and orient lustre These two first Principles of the Doctrine of Christ God ordinarily instills in our first conversion and convinceth us of with such light and evidence as they carry a remarkable accent with them and should leave upon us a more powerful and permanent tincture and impression Yet notwithstanding such is our dulness and stupidity in conning these our primary and principal lessons as we almost forget them as soon as we have learnt them For though at our first acquaintance and communion with God before our heads and hands come to be engaged in the world we are carried out with a vigorous prosecution of the one and led into an holy contempt and undervaluing of the base spoils of the other yet when once we and it come to grow familiars the interest of Heaven and Religion must vail and bow the knee to this our beloved darling and favourite How many set out forward and zealous Professors in the waies of godliness as if they had fully meant to have taken the Kingdom of Heaven by violence whose zeal and blessedness is now not to be found but of ring-leaders are proved ren●gado's and of first become last They began to run well until stooping to take up the golden Apples in their way they stopt in their Christian race and acted their parts on the stage of prosession like Princes till the Nuts of worldly pleasure and gain being thrown by hand-fulls before them they discovered themselves no better than Apes By venturing to nibble at Satans pleasurable bait we are often catched with his deadly and destroying hook and by overmuch incumbring our selves with the world we become the best of us like Anselms bird which had a stone tied to her leg and pulled her down to earth as fast as she attempted an ascent to Heaven This heavy weight so besets us as we cannot run with patience the race set before us So that besides our initiation and first indoctrinating in the things that are excellent God is forced ever and anon to become our Monitor and catechize us anew at the school of the Cross in his wilderness speaking to our heart and by his word and works rubbing up our memories afresh with the meditations of what we first imbibed though now have lost the scent and savour of And it 's no other than free grace and infinite mercy in our heavenly Father to recall his extravagant Prodigals who will change their Fathers bread for the worlds husks and thus go out of Gods blessing into the warm Sun Would we indeed make use of the spectacles of the word we might plainly read the inscription of vanity yea vanity of vanities written on the forehead of all creatures and though never so short-sighted see an end of all created perfection But alas commonly we look at the wrong end of the prospective or look on the world in a multiplying-glass which represents it to our fancy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some great matter and on the great God in an extenuating which makes him appear little in our vain imaginations and so we entertain debasing thoughts of that eternal verity while we have high conceptions of these low and sublunary vanities And seeing these ear-remembrances suffice not for our conviction it 's but necessary and requisite God should finde out some other way of instruction for us wherein both our ear and eye should receive an impression And that they who would not learn by the teachings of the Word should have the voice of the Rod cry to them which though less articulate may yet become more significative And hath not God been a long time teaching us by his Providence as Abimelech did once the men of Succoth by briars and thorns and reading us a large lecture of the uncertainty of all created beings and comforts Hath he not with fire and sword been pleading with all flesh by the sore and dreadful calamity of the pestilence been ushering us into discipline Hath he not in his greatest severity overthrown some of us as he did Sodom and Gom●rrah by a most deplorable and lamentable fire in whose ashes is buried all our glory and hope and the blisters whereof will rise in our faces when it's flames are both extinguisht and forgotten The very mention whereof can be no other than a fire in our bones and whoever hath the spirit of a Christian cannot but by sympathy suffer and be offended at such a burning What English mans heart so stony as not to bleed within him or can his eyes contain from tears either to have heard or seen the metropolis of our Nation the royal and magnificent City of the Kingdom once the wonder of the world and even mirrour of all Christendom so beautiful for scituation numerous in people famous for riches strength beauty and honour levelled with the dust so as one stone 's not left on another and become a burning pile an heap of rubbish a place of desolation even in a moment Quis talia fando temperet à lachrymis What ear was ever auditor of so awk and direful a knell as then alarum'd its Inhabitants What eye ever spectator of so dreadful and doleful a tragedy as was then acted on that noble theatre Who ever saw so devouring a fire or heard of such a dismal flame so sudden violent universal irresistible and to be feared irrepairable Surely what terrour and affrightment what amuse and amazement what horrour and even consternation of spirit this rueful spectacle seized the spirits of its beholders withall is impossible to divine and imagine Poor souls me-thinks I saw at a distance your pale faces trembling joynts weakned hands dedolent hearts who were in this so fatal a blow most nearly concerned methinks I hear you crying out to your friends and neighbours