Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	church_n	doctrine_n	rome_n	9,664	5	7.6656	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59651	Divine providence, the support of good men under all events a sermon preached before the Lord Mayor, &c. at Guild-Hall Chappel, June 20th, 1680 / by William Shelton, rector of St. James, Colchester.	Shelton, William, d. 1699.	1680 (1680)	Wing S3098; ESTC R37383	13,523	41

malevolent men Instead of taking the advice that was here lately given whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule let us mind the same thing Instead of uniting as far as we can some there are that take a pleasure in reporting us to make advances towards Rome Alas There is another peece of Popery in which the Nation does indeed advance I mean in the Licentiousness of our Morals They by their Doctrines of easie Confessions ready Dispensations and plenary Indulgences tempt men to be securely wicked But how many among us practise as if they believed the same Doctrine Were we as reformed in our Lives as we are in our Established Doctrines for there is no reason the Church of England should be responsible for all that particular men may rashly say But I say were our Lives as sincere and uncorrupt as our Established Doctrines we would fear neither Rome nor Hell The Providence of God would be a wall of fire round about us God would defend this City and this Nation and would save it for his Name 's sake He would hear the Prayer we this day make and would still keep us under the Protection of his good Providence But if neither Plagues nor Fires If neither Wars nor Conspiracies will reform us though religious and holy men may hope well that God will never cast them off but whatever befall them the good hand of God shall be upon them and therefore they rejoyce because the Lord Reigns Yet all wicked men have as much reason to tremble in dread of the displeasure of Almighty God What then remains but that we should search and try our ways What are we and how do we live If we endeavour to serve and please God then will God watch over us for good and then all the Comforts of this World are not comparable to the satisfaction we may take in this that the Lord our God who loves us and has a kindness for us that he Reigns in the World It is a word too big for a Heathen Horat. Carm. lib. 3. Si fractus illabatur Orbis Impavidum feriunt ruinae Nay every pious good Christian cannot reach Saint Paul's triumphant unconcernedness who says None of these things move me neither Acts 20. count I my life dear to my self But this our Religion teaches us to aspire to and as we grow strong in the Faith we shall with the greater Constancy of Mind resign our wills and our enjoyments and our designs to the wise disposals of God and if we be true to our Religion we shall always rejoyce that we are under his care But if our Consciences reproach us that we take no heed to walk in the ways of God then woe be to us that dare contend with the Almighty We are then upon our good behaviour in this matter God will be to us a Friend or an Enemy we shall inherit a Blessing or a Curse according as we obey or as we contemn God Thus I have set before you Life and Death a Blessing and a Curse Chuse you this day whether or no you will serve God but according as you chuse as you do so God will requite you Judg. 1. The Lord Reigns let the Wicked tremble The Lord Reigns let the Righteous rejoyce FINIS The Reverend Author hath lately Published a Treatise Intituled A Discourse of Superstition with respect to the present Times wherein the Church of England is Vindicated from the Imputation and the Charge retorted not only on the Papists but also on men of other Perswasions Sold by Jonathan Robinson at the Golden Lion in St. Paul's Church-Yard

into the Nose of the Leviathan Rabshekah's swelling words shall be but impotent Rage Haman shall build a Gallows for himself No weapon form'd against God shall prosper Isa 54. it shall not be as man pleases but as it pleases God No man indeed should be unconcern'd when either Sin or Judgment for Sin rages in the world but still keep we within our own bounds of Patience and Faith and Prayer endeavour we all to mend our selves and then whatever happens rest it not all on second causes The over-ruling of Gods Providence is no manner of excuse for wicked enterprises but if by a faithful discharge of our duty if in Religion to God in Loyalty to the King in Peace and Gentleness and Brotherly Love one to another we do what in us lies that the state of things shall not grow worse by any default of ours if others take not the ●ame care though they shall find no extenuation of their faults nor mitigation of their punishment from this Doctrine of Providence yet we shall gain a world of case and satisfaction from it It is not for us to know Times and Seasons which the Acts 1. Father has put in his own power we would fain hope well that God will never forsake those that seek him But whatever we may live to see or feel We commit our selves and all our private Interests we commit the Peace and Prosperity of the whole Nation we commit our King our Church our Religion all that is dear to us to a wise and good God We will cease to govern the world but commit it to him whose right it is neither the indiscretions nor the extravagant passions of men shall over-rule nor Men nor Devils but the Providence of God is the Supreme Arbitrator This is our satisfaction a joy that no man takes from us The Lord reigns therefore does the Earth rejoyce May I exercise your Patience but a little longer till I have finished the third part of my Discourse 3. He must be a good man that may with reason actually rejoyce upon this account Gods Providence is not the peculiar inheritance of some few men but the earth may rejoyce in it i. e. all men every where unless they disable themselves But if men will live wicked and ungodly lives there is another Text not far off Psal 99. 1. that does rather belong to them The Lord reigns let the People tremble Every wicked man while he continues such has reason to fear rather than to rejoyce in the Providence of God For let it be considered 1. Only he who is in Gods way may hope for Gods blessing When men will walk contrary to God why should they hope but that God will walk contrary to them Must he be the darling Levit. 26. of Providence who scorns to submit to God but in pride and stubbornness contemns his Laws Who may flatter himself as if he were in a secure Station who may presume that God is on his side while he notoriously withdraws himself from obedience to his Commands He who waits on the Lord and keeps his way may hope well but to forsake God is the way to be forsaken of him No man may rejoyce in confidence that God will always watch over him for good who by running out of the way of a good life discharges Providence from taking any farther care of him 2. Who may rejoyce in Gods Providence that can make no Title to his Promises God is holy and just and true what he has promised he will perform But unto the wicked God Psal 50. saith What hast thou to do to take my Covenant into thy mouth There are Curses in the Holy Scripture as well as Blessings and for the same reason that Religious and Holy Men hope well that God will be merciful to them because he will be true to his word I say for the same reason may wicked men tremble God is angry with the wicked every day and he will be faithful Psal 7. to his Threatnings as well as to his Promises How then should they tremble who despise the Authority of God who forfeit all that goodness and kindness by which they live who are every moment obnoxious to Almighty Power who enjoy no Accommodations in this life but only by the long-suffering and patience of God which how soon it may expire no man can tell who if they continue in this sinful state must be miserable or God must lye who has told them so Let these things be well considered and then let wicked men say whether that Doctrine of our Religion which affords such unspeakable comfort and satisfaction to holy and good men be not otherwise very terrible and so much the more because he who can't take comfort in the Providence of God has nothing else to rejoyce in for all other things are under the dominion of Providence and controulable by it The greatness of his Fortune the multitude of his Riches the abundance of his Pleasures are all in the hand and power of God who can easily curse the blessings of men so that their very lives and all that was pleasurable in them shall be bitterness and a burthen to them This is a sad Argument so far as it reflects upon particular persons to whom while they continue in their Impieties the thoughts of God must needs be terrible But if we consider farther what influence growing wickedness has upon publick Calamities it will administer more sad thoughts to us We have been awakened to a sense of danger from an Enemy restless and daring we have prayed many and many a time that God would abate their Pride asswage their Malice and confound their Devices and hitherto God has been merciful to us But shall I be bold to say there is another Plot against the King against the Government and against our established Religion I say another Plot less feared but not less dangerous Every wicked man is a Traitor to his Prince and Country and by his doing wickedly provokes 1 Sam. 12. God to consume him and his King Every common Drunkard every bold Swearer every lascivious and unclean Person every dishonest Trader who postpones his Religion to Two-pence of unjust gain every man that allows himself in a wicked course of life is in conspiracy for the ruin of this Nation The Church of England the worthy labours of whose eminent Divines have made the Papists weary of disputing with them the Church of England whose regular Reformation is as strong a bulwark against the encroachments of Popery as any is this day in Christendom the Church of England who stands her ground and maintains the very same Articles of Religion that it did above an hundred years ago and who has not by any Rubrick or Canon or Constitution since those times corrupted our well-Reformed Religion yet this once glorious Church sometimes the Terrour of her Enemies and the Envy of her Neighbours cannot escape the Censures of