Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	build_v	church_n	rock_n	7,063	5	9.4065	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42155	Clarior e tenebris, or, A justification of two books, the one printed 1680, under the title of The Grand inquest, the other in April 1682, under the title of The royal favourite cleared with several other reasons in vindication of His Royal Highness ... / by J.G. of the Inner-Temple, Esq.	Garbrand, John, b. 1646 or 7.	1683 (1683)	Wing G202; ESTC R8046	6,968	25

face of the Earth But speaking after the manner of Angels Christ has said his Church is built upon a Rock and that it shall never be destroyed And therefore we ought not to trim the Business who profess faith in Christ and good-will towards men lest it prove worse with us who have enjoyed the Gospel above 1500 years than with Peter who curs'd and swore and even in the High Priest's Hall deny'd his Master or with those who to this day usurp St. Peters Chair yet still lay under the Reproach of excluding the Faith and making Good Works the only way to Heaven But by the Wisdom of our Governors the Measures of our implacable Enemies are broken and thanks be to God there is now no danger of Spanish Pilgrims French Invasions Romish Priests or Geneva Presbyters Nor of any that are so malitious and base as to detract from the Honour of the King and his Ministers of State which gives me a Remarque of the Grandeur and Stability of our Government when those who stand at the Helm are able to withstand through Generosity and Courage the Calumnies and Slanders of their Enemies and by true Rules of Vertue render themselves as it were Tempest Proof Yet to prevent the Inconveniencies that may arise hereafter by the Ignorance of simple People who of late run too much after State Quacks upon the least motion of the Government fearing it should lean to Popery or Tyranny I say when any such popular Distemper shall happen and the Nation stand in absolute need of a Physician I question not but these several Applications will be as well if not better approved of since the nature of the Disease which tends only to Faction and Sedition will be so well known that scarce one in the whole Colledge of our wise Physicians but will easily apprehend it Thus I have endeavour'd to strengthen my former Impressions with such farther Reasons as I did not think fit to make use of in those Times lest by endeavouring to support I might have contributed to the disadvantage of his Royal Highness whose Wisdom seems to be like that of Noah who after the Flood began to abate did not presently open the Gates of his Ark but at a Window sent forth a Dove that brought him back an Olive Branch by which he had hopes the Deluge was retired into its proper place and boundary and after that he sent out a second that never returned again which gave him assurance the Insurrection of the surly Waves was appeased And sometime after that he uncovered the Ark and then the Heavens were clear and the Earth as when created seem'd to rejoyce and God spake to him to come forth which he no sooner did than immediately he was seen to be upon his Knees praising God and built an Altar on which he sacrificed and with which God was well pleased and said in his heart he would not curse the Ground any more for his sake And now lastly for my self who have undertaken these Discourses under the hardest circumstances imaginable having none to encourage me but my own Observations and those when ever argued opposed by the Multitude with the greatest Heart-burnings and Malice that misguided Zeal could invent tho' Ignorance and Malice may sit upon and censure this Treatise for a Time yet I have sufficient hopes God will put it forth at one time or other with the Comment of my honest meaning upon it not tortured and wire-drawn with false or Ignoramus Expositions And in the mean time I hope wise men will take me into their serious consideration and conclude what I have wrote is my real Opinion not biassed with Flattery as some say or clogg'd with hopes of Preferment as others pretend and then what the Roman Catholick or Roundheaded Whigs shall determine of me whether as a Papist for justifying of the Duke or an ill manager of my Pen I shall not matter either or all of their Condemnations since I see before me the whole frame of their Proceedings to be as it were but one grand Mistake and their Counsels to be despised and rejected like that of Achitophels but as a man I wish them not the same Fate and as a Christian I hope they may live to make amends or at least repent of their Contrivances that so we may at last see our weather-beaten Government freed from those Storms and Tempest that were ready to overwhelm it and unanimously magnifie our God who hath brought us into a safe Harbour maugre all the power of outragious and blood-thirsty men And now having no more to say upon this Subject other than that no man is infallible in his Opinion I shall humbly beg that I may be received by the kind Reader with that candor as every one would expect to be dealt with in the like nature And that every one laying his hand upon his Breast would not obstinately disbelieve his Friend when in his own Conscience he cannot find any thing to oppose him even in his most secret thoughts Withal I am not a little anxious to think that these Discourses may seem precarious by some as well as prejudicial by others to the interest of his Royal Highness but it is impossible to please all or to escape without censure in this detracting Age tho' our Actions were regulated by the strictest Reason Yet what I have said carries the face of so much Justice and Honesty that I would not change my Opinion without greater Demonstrations than I have yet had to the contrary however were I obliged to believe that the Duke is a Papist which no man yet has sufficient grounds to think I hope I am so well satisfyed in the exercise of our Protestant Religion that I would do every thing becoming an honest man and a good Christian and then I am sure I should never do evil that good might come of it which Observation I recommend more particularly to those who are so fond of the Bill of Exclusion FINIS