Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	scripture_n	sense_n	true_a	4,624	5	5.7921	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45740	A sermon preached at the Oxford-shire feast, at St Mary le Bow, November 29, 1683 by John Hartcliffe ...	Hartcliffe, John, 1651-1712.	1684 (1684)	Wing H968; ESTC R19398	18,299	43

implicit Faith that we are Members of such a Church as is uniform in all its Devotions whose avowed Principles and Practices disown all Resistance of lawful Authority our Saviour never warranting the shedding of any Blood not of his own most implacable Enemys Let men look but into its doctrine and History and they will find neither the Knoxes nor the Junius Brutus's on the one side nor the Bellarmin's Escobar's or Marianna's on the other This is the Church that makes the Protestant Religion considerable in Christendom because it doth not confound us with the many Postures and Garbs of Worship or with the continual starting up of new Lights because it doth not approve of Enthusiastical Heats of sudden Impulses of Spirit of Zeal without Understanding nor of any such extraordinary Calls whereby some men have thought themselves authorized to overthrow Kingdoms because there is somewhat to be found in the Revelation concerning a Beast little Horn and a fifth Vial. But in the room of wild and unaccountable Conceits our Church settles in us clear and certain Notions of Religious Duties forbids us to make false Interpretations of Scripture to countenance any evil Design charges us to place our Religion in the Practice of true and real Goodness not in Forms and Schemes of Speech or unintelligible Words that have no meaning or Sense belonging to them but in the Heart and in good Affections issuing thence By these means we are brought to the Exercise of substantial Virtue having no hope of Salvation unless we work it out with Fear and Trembling For no man is in any thing more certain than that he ought to be sober and temperate in reference to himself that he ought to deal righteously and so as he would be dealt by that he ought to carry himself equally and fairly and that he ought to fear and reverence the Deity Now the Church where we were Baptized plainly tells us what we are to do what sober righteous and godly Lives we are bound to lead and sets before our Eyes the danger of neglecting these Duties So that we are not deceived by any ways of Fraud or Falshood we have no such Cheats put upon us as the Doctrine of Merit or the delivering Souls out of Purgatory by Masses But we are dealt Honestly withal for without Flattery our Church declares no man shall be saved without personal Holiness and unless he be renewed in the Spirit of his Mind that no Sacrifice shall attone for his Sin altho he make his whole Body a Burnt-Offering He shall not hide his Iniquities by the greatest Fire and Smoak he can raise unless he deny his most beloved Appetites and cast off his choicest Lusts He may go a great way from home in Pilgrimages and wander thro Desarts in Sackcloath and Hair being clogg'd with heavy malancholy Blood he may retire to a dark religious Room and lock himself in with many Keys But all will not do unless he part with the sins of his Heart come abroad and practise the active Virtues of Christ's Religion Unless he fashion his Life according to the Laws of it and takes not up his Religion for Mode-sake or because he was born where it is professed Thus I say our Church deals uprightly with Mankind by telling them that here they ought to fit and quafie themselves for the state of Glory and Blessedness that here they should get themselves discharged of evil Habits which the repetition of Ave-Mary Prayers or the Absolution of a Priest at the last cannot wipe away especially when they have long abused themselves by ill Practises and Customs Wherefore being Members of this Church which shews us the best way of Worshiping God by a reasonable Service which teaches the surest Principles of Peace and Charity that tend to reconcile the Differences of Men which prescribes the best Methods of propagating Love and Good-will in the World Being Subjects to that Government by whose Laws this Church is established where the Supreme Ruler enjoys a Capacity of doing all the Good imaginable to Mankind and is in his Nature inclined so to do I must say we are a happy People both in the Constitution of our Church and State That this Happines may abide for ever with us we are obliged Fist To keep up a friendly Society and Correspondence with all Men. Secondly We are more particularly engaged to love and help one another as we are Country-men born in the same Neighbourhood First We are obliged to keep up a friendly Society and Correspondence with all Men because without this Society and Correspondence no Man can possibly live happily or well and we know every man hath a natural desire of his own Happiness the sense whereof results from the first and strongest Instincts of Nature In that it is without doubt natural to Men as to other Creatures to seek after their own Welfare Consequently to consider by what means it is attainable Which particular Welfare of every Man is not to be had without mutual Benevolence and a common regard for the prosperity of the wole Body of Men This preserves them Honest and Virtuous in all the entercourses of Life For should human Society disband and betake themselves to Woods Men would be quickly turned into wild Creatures and must subsist by preying upon each other Then the most Innocent would be least secure because they are not apt to Invade other men's Rights and are ever exposed to Wrongs and Injuries This therefore is the proper and useful end of Society to institute a common Friendship among Men that they may be endeared to each other by mutual Offices of Kindness and Love The Angels teach us this Lesson that we should condescend to the meanest Office for the good of our Brethren The work of these ministring Spirits is to promote the Welfare of Mankind so that to employ our selves to do good unto Men and to further them in the way of Salvation is to be as good as Angels unto Men We hope to be one day like them in Happiness let us now make them the Examples of our Duty and Obedience And indeed were Men as faithful to one another as the Condition of their Nature requires and the Author of it expects there would be no need of Civil Laws and Penalties We should be all then like our Country-men of Brightwell where it is observed there hath been no Ale-House no Sectary nor any Suit of Law within the Memory of Man VVould every single Person take right Measures of himself reflect seriously upon his frail and helpless State in this VVorld consider how insufficient all his personal Strength is to secture him he must believe that if there were not a common Assistance if he had not Friends and Acquaintance to fly to upon all Occasions nothing could be more wretched and forlorn than the life of Man For as the Malmesbury Philosopher says could we suppose a Man out of Society he must live in perpetual Fears and Jealousies

Seat where continually a Race of Men are bred up as liberal and ingenuous as the Arts and Sciences which they profess where a large and bountiful Provision is made for the advancement of Learning the noblest and best Work that can be in any civil Nation where are encouraged and maintained the Champions of our Religion a Religion that dares come not only where Men can Believe but where they can Discern and Judge The Kings of England ever since have made Oxford as it were their City of Refuge when they have been forced to fly either from War or Plague as if this place were only Inviolable by the Arrow that flyeth either by Night or Day No one therefore can upon just grounds challenge this for his Country who entertains any unnatural Conspiracies so much as in his Thoughts against the Order and Peace of the World or against the Safety and Honour of those whom God hath appointed Governours over it May we then still live as our Fore-Fathers have done without the Suspition of having any disloyal Principles to the Church or State may we ever have the Reputation of such Citizens as are associated by the common Tyes of Humanity and the Bonds of Peace May the power of that excellent Religion we profess be lodged in our Hearts so the appearance of it will be very exemplary and useful in our Conversations then we shall avoid all that Violence and Sharpness which accompanies the Differences in Opinion then none amongst us will be heard to pass any rash Censures upon the Actions of Superiors or to Controle any of their Resolutions May we all agree in Planting and Improving not only those moral Virtues which conduce to the Happiness and Tranquility of every private Man's Life but also those Manners and Dispositions that tend to the Safety and Peace of the Kingdom For the Constitution of the Country is generally the same with the Persons that compose it and where the Inhabitants or Native of any place are peaceable full of Charity and good Works their good Behaviour will be made visible by the continual and undisturbed Happiness of the Government to which they belong and of the particular Country in which they were born and that we are such peaceable Men and Charitable Christians I have a very sufficient Argument to prove it from the use of these Meetings For we assemble thus together not to indulge our Appetites or to gratify any sensual Desire altho none are so excusable as Men of much Care and Thought or of great Business for allowing some time to an innocent Entertainment that offends no Law nor hurts others or themselves This Diversion may be necessary for the repair of Spirits exhausted with Labor may serve to sweeten and preserve those Lives that would otherwise wear out too fast or grow too uneasy in the Service of the World But by these Meetings we come to know one another than which nothing can be more Beneficial because thereby we may be directed in the best ways of exercising Charity to our Brethren which Charity must be Universal and not limited to a Shire but we are to love honour and assist Men of all Countrys Thus altho we were born perhaps in the eighth Climate we shall seem to be framed for all By the practice of which universal Charity all Places all Airs will make one Country to us and we are by This among our Country-men every where and under every Meridian This is a peculiar Excellency of the Christian Religion to enlarge our Minds so as we can call every Man our Brother and if it be true which is commonly observed that Men are wont to prove such kinds of Christians as they were Men before and that Conversion does not destroy but exalt their Tempers It may well be concluded that the honest sociable Man who Communicates soberly with his Friends and is ready to do good to Mankind is neerer to make a Modest Meek and Humble Christian than the Man of speculative Science who is more Peevish Severe and Morose and hath better Thoughts of himself For if we are good Men the more publick we are and the more subject to the Notice of others our Goodness will thereby be the more diffusive will be of a more publick Benefit and Advantage If our Conversation be Bountiful Affable Cheerful and Friendly it will spread the Fame of the Gospel in the World by making it appear lovely in the Eyes of all Beholders and so alluring them to submit to the easiness of its Yoak and this methinks is evident in our Saviour's Life For whenever he intended to Convert any to his Faith he did it by some visible good Work in the sight of the Multitude So by Conversing lovingly together we may shew the World what good Success our Saviour's Doctrine hath had upon our Minds what a blessed thing it is to live without mutual Grudges and Animosities We may direct Mankind how they may live without Passions or Fierceness how they may firmly unite and agree together For it is not possible for those Men to be Perverse and Ungovernable who keep such Company as regard the Peace and Benefit of Mankind who are of amicable and conversable Tempers Such Persons are like so much Salt cast into the World to keep the Manners of Men from Stench and Putrefaction they are Balm poured into the Wounds of a Nation to Cure and Heal them They are so much Fire sent from Heaven so much Life infused into the World to kindle in others warm and pious Affections for God and his Religion That we may be of this Disposition so becoming our selves and so profitable to others let us not despond or be dejected whatever our Condition be in this World For by falling into Fitts of Unbelief we charge God foolishly as if he neglected the World we Usurp upon him and peevishly snatch the Management of Things into our own unskilful Hands so Malancthon was exceedingly troubled lest the Cause of God should sink for want of Instruments to carry it on Whereupon Luther in an Epistle to a Friend of his hath this Expression Our Friend Malancthon must be warn'd that he would leave off to Govern the World And how quiet would all things be if Men would not intrude nor set themselves at the Stern thereof but leave infinite Power and Wisdom to Govern the Affairs of it Then again we must not be apt to be affrighted at every little Symptom as we think of Change in the Government of things God's Providence and Mercy I hope will secure us from any more for if another should befall us it must be the Wrong-side outwards the Lowest Uppermost Yet there are some Historians that relate our forreign Wars who have this Objection against the Disposition of our Country-Men that they were used to order their Affairs of greatest Importance according to some obscure Omens or Predictions which passed about among them upon little or no Foundations But a firm Confidence