Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	believe_v	faith_n	infallibility_n	5,890	5	11.4885	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30445	A sermon preached at the funeral of the most reverend Father in God, John, by the divine providence, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury, primate and metropolitan of all England, who died at Lambeth the 22nd day of November, in the 65th year of his age, and was buried at St. Lawrence Jewry, in London, on the 30th of that month, Anno Dom. 1694 by ... Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1694 (1694)	Wing B5902; ESTC R22882	18,942	42

the Design seemed to be laid to make us first Atheists that we might be the more easily made Papists and that many did not stick to own that we could have no Certainty for the Christian Faith unless we believed the Infallibility of the Church This gave him a deep and just Indignation It was such a betraying of the Cause of God rather than not to gain their own that in this the Foundation was laid of his great Zeal against Popery This drew his Studies for some Years much that way He looked on the whole Complex of Popery as such a Corruption of the whole Design of Christianity that he thought it was incumbent on him to set himself against it with the Zeal and Courage which became that Cause and was necessary for those Times He thought the Idolatry and Superstition of the Church of Rome did enervate true Piety and Morality and that their Cruelty was such a Contradiction to the Meekness of Christ and to that Love and Charity which he made the Character and Distinction of his Disciples and Followers that he resolved to sacrifice every thing except a good Conscience in a Cause for which he had resolved if it should come to Extremities to become a Sacrifice himself His Enemies soon saw how much he stood in their way and were not wanting in the Arts of Calumny to disable him from opposing them with that great Success which his Writings and Sermons had on the Nation His Life was too pure in all the Parts of it to give them a Pretence to attempt on that So regular a Piety such an unblemished Probity and so extensive and tender a Charity together with his great and constant Labours both in private and publick set him above Reproach That Honourable Society which treated him always with so particular a Respect and so generous a Kindness and this great City not only the Neighbourhood of this Place which was so long happy in him but the whole Extent of it knew him too well and esteemed him too much for those his Enemies to adventure on the common Arts of defaming subtiler Methods were to be used since his Vertue was too exemplary to be soiled in the ordinary way His endeavouring to make out every thing in Religion from clear and plain Principles and with a Fulness of demonstrative Proof was laid hold on to make him pass for one that could believe nothing that lay beyond the Compass of humane Reason And his tender Method of treating with Dissenters his Endeavours to extinguish that Fire and to unite us among our selves against those who understood their own Interest well and pursued it closely inflaming our Differences and engaging us into violent Animosities while they shifted Sides and still gained Ground whether in the Methods of Toleration or of a strict Execution of Penal Laws as it might serve their Ends those calm and wise Designs of his I say were represented as a want of Zeal in the Cause of the Church and an Inclination towards those who departed from it But how unhappily successful soever they might be in infusing those Jealousies of him into some warm and unwary Men he still went on in his own way He would neither depart from his Moderation nor take Pains to cover himself from so false an Imputation He thought the Openness of his Temper the Course of his Life his Sincerity and the visible Effects of his Labours which had contributed so much to turn the greatest Part of this vast City to a hearty Love of the Church and a firm adhering to the Communion of it in which no Man was ever more eminently distinguish'd than he was He thought I say that constant Zeal with which he had always served such as came to labour in this great City and by which he had been so singularly useful to them he thought the great Change that had been made in bringing Mens Minds off from many wild Opinions to sober and steady Principles and that in so prudent a manner that things were done without Mens perceiving it or being either startled or fretted by the Peevishness which is raised and kept up by Contradiction or disputing in which without derogating from other Mens Labours no Man had a larger Share than himself upon all these Reasons I say he thought that his Conduct needed no Apology but that it was above it After the Restoration of the Church Anger upon those Heads was both more in fashion and seemed more excusable Men coming then out of the Injustice and Violence by which they had been so long ill used and were so much provoked yet neither that nor the Narrowness of his Fortune while he needed Supports and saw what was the shortest way to arrive at them could make him change his strain A Benefice being offered him in the Country he once intended to have left this great Scene and gone to that Retirement where he spent almost a Year But he was happily recalled by that Honourable Society for whom he always retained just Impressions of Gratitude And though in the Intervals of Terms he could have given a large Part of the Year to his Parish yet so strict he was to the Pastoral Care in the Point of Residence that he parted with it even when his Incomes here could scarce support him I need not tell you for how many Years and with what Labour and Success he divided himself between that Society and this Place I am confident you have profited so much by it that you will remember it long and that you do reckon it as a great Item of the Account you must all one Day give that you were so long blessed with his Ministry The numerous Assembly that this Lecture brought together even from the remotest Parts of this wide City the great Concourse of Clergy-men who came hither to form their Minds the happy Union that thereby the Clergy of this great Body grew into and the blessed Effects this had are things which it is to be hoped an Age will not wear out of Mens Minds Some great Charity some publick Service or good Design was the Work of most of those Days Every one saw him considered as the Head of this learned and eminent Body he was the only Person that made no Reflections on it himself he was still so affable and humble so modest and so ready to serve the youngest and meanest in it that such as saw all that must needs feel the Impressions of it go deep and stick long with him Those great Preferments to which his extraordinary Worth seemed to have forced some who had no Kindness to him to advance him afterwards had no other Effect on him but to enlarge his Capacity of doing Good He neither slackned his Labours nor advanced his Fortunes by them he did not content himself with such a Residence as answered the Statute considering his Obligations to attend at Court but gave as much of his Time and Labours to his Cathedral as could