Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
faith_n church_n scripture_n tradition_n 15,184 5 9.5685 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A67827 A sermon preached before His Majesty at White-Hall, 29 Decemb. 1678 by Edward Young ... Young, Edward, 1641 or 2-1705. 1679 (1679) Wing Y66; ESTC R34112 12,763 35

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

gives us this Reason for it Men says he must be governed as they are and not as one could wish them to be Now we know that Men are generally born with corrupt inclinations and therefore the Gospel strictly taken being too rigid for corrupt Nature to observe it was necessary to constitute such a Vicar here upon Earth as might temper Religion and accommodate it to Humane Affections and abate remit dispence and give grace upon occasion as Temporal Princes do to their Subjects so that if at any time Men would not live up to the Rule the Rule might ply down to them and so God still be served and Men kept good Catholicks upon such terms as they would bear This is the import of what the Cardinal says more at large And surely in this he spoke more truth than he intended for although it be profane to say that this was Gods reason to constitute a Vicar for he had no hand in the Constitution yet doubtless this was the reason that set Men on work to constitute such a Vicar that thereby they might better bring Religion to serve their Carnal Ends. For though they were pleased in an unmannerly comparison to call the Scriptures a Leaden Rule yet they found it wanted flexibility enough to comport with their Designs and therefore the only expedient was to set up another Authority Under the Countenance of this New Guid began a Casuistical Divinity to direct Mens Consciences without the Rule of Gods Word the chief effect of whose Doctrine is to destroy the Nature of Truth by distinguishing Words from Meaning and to confound all Morality by distinguishing Acts from Ends by teaching to sanctifie ill Practices with good Intentions and to make Religion a Cloak for Sin though my Text says that the Religion which our Saviour delivered had left all Sin without a Cloak And then to what purpose is it that our Saviour came Or to what end that he spake As one of the Mediterranean Pirates told Cesar Sir If you kill the little Pirates and set up for a great one your self what is the World the better So if Religion come armed against all Vices and beat them out and yet may bring them in at the Back Door to serve her own turn how is the World amended To what purpose is it that according to the Principles of Christianity we renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil if yet we may plough with all these to bring in a Harvest to the Church if this World may be hook'd in in order to the next and it be lawful to debauch Nations in order to proselyte them that when their Consciences are distracted with Guilt and Fear they may run into the Arms where they find most Indulgence and catch at a Plenary Absolution as a drowning Man will catch at a Floating Twigg Nay If Religion may be made a Cloak the World is the worse for it and Men would have been less barbarous had they continued Infidels For the Florentine Politician makes it one instance of Humane Weakness that Men cannot be thorow-pac'd in Villany and the reason is because the natural fear of Conscience baffles them and makes them Cowards and so for not acting their Mischiefs home they commonly lose both themselves and their Designs but this Check of Consciencious Fear can have no place in the Case of a Religious Villain who has the ill of the Action reeonciled to his Conscience in such a Case Men have no restraint they dare be as Mischievous as Machiavel or the Occasion would have them to be This bold Treatment of Religion to bring it to serve to Carnal Ends made others conclude it a more ingenuous way to the same Ends fairly to renounce Religion and so Italy became at the same time the Mint both of Faith and of Atheism And indeed the New Guid and the Atheist seemed to proceed upon some Parity of Reasons For the One would new model the Church and govern it without the Scriptures and teach for Doctrines the Traditions of Men And the Other would new make the World and govern it without a Providence and teach instead of Scripture the Projects of his own System The One found out Methods to forgive Sin without purging the Conscience and the Other found out Methods to commit Sin without affecting the Conscience The One disposed of Heav'n and Hell for no seeming Reasons but that he was Arbitrary and the Other as arbitrarily laught at the supposition of the places The One invested himself with a Divine Attribute that is Infallibility and the Other devested himself of the Chief Humane Attribute that is Immortality And now who can tell whether Nebuchadnezzar's fancy was more extravagant when he believ'd himself to be a God or when he believ'd himself to be a Beast I shall not meddle with the Decision but only observe this from the Instance That When God once leaves Men to their own Affections there is nothing so absurd but they may believe it As like wise When Men once leave the Scriptures the Rule of Truth there is no end of their Erring From what hath been said we can infer nothing more naturally than our Duty and manifold Obligation to value and revere the Holy Scriptures as our Guid and our Blessing and Gods powerful Ordinance for our Sanctification 'T is the Holy Scriptures that entertain our Minds according to their proper worth for they inform the Understanding with the most sublime and important Truths they work upon the Conscience by the strongest Convictions and they enlarge our Bowels by the most affectionate Motives and Instances so that no Man can read them without finding himself in a nearer Disposition both to Wisdom and to Piety As on the contrary those Legends which have sometime been substituted in their place for the Entertainment of Devotion do so debase the Majesty of God by unworthy Condescentions and so impose upon Mens Understandings by vain fantastick unprofitable irrational Idea's that no man can read Them without finding himself in a nearer Disposition both to Irreverence and to Folly 'T is by the Holy Scriptures that our Saviour comes and speaks to us as he did heretofore to the Iews And forasmuch as it is the Effect of his Coming and Speaking that We have now no more Cloak for our Sins 't is in our hands to make good Use of this Effect by considering that Sin is now no more to be covered but to be purged All things are naked and open before the Eyes of Him with whom we have to do Why then should we think of a Disguise Why should we cheat our selves into Boldness by putting on a Vizard To dawb and palliate our faults is but like keeping our selves in the dark that the Sun ●●● dazzle us the more when it breaks in U●●● us All the Discretion we can shew 〈◊〉 to expose our selves to the Light to our selves thorowly and to let others 〈◊〉 us too For If we are Good Exampl 〈◊〉 the best lustre of Vertue and If we 〈◊〉 Bad Shame is the best step to Am●●●ment FINIS * Esse aliquos Manes c. Nec pueri credunt nisi qui nondum aere lavantur Sed tu vera puta Iuvenal Sat. 2. * Plato in Phoed. where Socrates is introduced saying I hope there is a place where I and good men shall meet yet I cannot affirm it Cicero Tusc. Quest. I wish you could prove to me that our souls are immortal and that we do not wholly die Senec. Epist. ad Lucil. If wise men have said true and there be a place to receive us after death St. Matt. 16. 26. Palavicin in his Introd to his Hist. of the Coun. of Trent * See the Iesuite Writers of Practic Divinity * Machiavel Disc.