Selected quad for the lemma: glory_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
glory_n	face_n	moses_n	shine_v	2,681	5	9.0852	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41450	A serious and compassionate inquiry into the causes of the present neglect and contempt of the Protestant religion and Church of England with several seasonable considerations offer'd to all English Protestants, tending to perswade them to a complyance with and conformity to the religion and government of this church as it is established by the laws of the Kingdom.	Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690.	1674 (1674)	Wing G1120; ESTC R28650	105,843	292

Comparison as the Case in hand would admit of nor will I trouble the Reader with long stories of the admirable Conversation of those early Christians which whoso will take the pains may find in Justin Martyr A thenagoras Tertullian Origen and others And he that is willing to decline that trouble may find nearer hand in the Collections of a judicious and faithful Writer in his Book called Primitive Christianity But it may not be unuseful to remark some few particulars Of old to be a Christian was to be all that is holy just and good to be adorned with all those Virtues that can render a man acceptable to God or lovely amongst men Whereever this Religion came it was a Principle of Purity in mens Hearts of Honesty in their Lives and of Peace in Kingdoms and Societies It raised mens minds to a Contemplation and Pursuit of another World and inabled them both to despise the present and to be a blessing to it It did not teach men to speak great swelling words but to live to do and to suffer admirably that the very Pagans their mortal Enemies were astonished at them and some of them gave them this testimony Hi sunt qui vivunt ut loquuntur loquuntur ut vivunt These are the men that are as good as their word and live as high and generously as others talk The Christian Faith was not then a meer trick of Wit nor a bone of Contention but a Principle of sincere Honesty which guided men into the knowledge of their Duty and inspired them with courage and resolution to perform it Give me saith Lactantius a fierce and contentious man and if he will but apply himself to the Grace and Institutions of the Gospel he shall become as mild as a Lamb Give me a Drunkard or a Lascivious person with this Doctrine I will make him chaste and sober Let a Covetous man hearken to this Doctrine and he shall presently dispense his money as charitably as before he raked it together fordidly Give me a timorous and cowardly person this Religion shall presently make him valiant and despise death and danger And so he goes on In those dayes Believing was not an excuse for Disobedience or a commutation for a holy Life but a foundation of Obedience to all the Laws of God and man Then all the Professors of Christianity bad one heart and one lip and then they built towards Heaven in a good sense but since distraction of Mind alienation of Affections and confusion of Language hath made a Babel of a Church There was then but one division of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 were the only Sects the World was divided by all good men were of one way and evil men of another But now there are almost as many Opinions as Men as many Parties as Opinions and as many Religions as either Time was when men sacrificed their Lives in testimony to their Faith as frankly as since they have done to their Passions Revenge or Ambition Then was Charity counted as essential a part of Religion as Censoriousness is now with too many Brotherly love and mutual dearness was a characteristical Note of those then that now may be as well known by their distractions and animosities St. Gregory Nazianzen said of those Times That if one Christian took notice of the error sin or failing of another it was to bewail it to heal it to cover his shame and cure his wound and prevent a scandal to his Profession but he observed that after-times made triumphs of mens weakness and follies and men learnt to justifie their own wickedness by the miscarriages of their Brethren and that he that would prove himself of the highest form of Christians set himself down in the seat of the scorner Nothing was then thought too good or costly for the service of God or Religion Men would not content themselves to serve God with that which cost them nothing It was only Julian or such another that envyed the costly Vessels wherewith Christ was served Works of Piety and Mercy and Charity cost them as much as Luxury and Contention now a dayes When the Gentiles in Tertullian's time upbraided the Christians that they made choice of a Cheap Religion and renounced the Pagan Sacrifices because they would not undergo the charge of them and complained that the Frugality of the Christian Worship caused a decay of Trade for the Eastern Gumms and Spices that used to be spent in the service of the Gods and that by this means the Customs of the Emperors were also diminished To all this he makes this answer We Christians spend more in the relief of the poor than you Gentiles do upon your Gods And though we use not Gumms and Spices for Incense yet we as much promote Trade by the vast proportions of those commodities we spend in the imbalming our dead And lastly if it should happen that the Emperors Exchequer should lose any thing either by the temperance of our Lives or the nature of our Religion yet we make it up another way for we make conscience of paying him his just dues whereas you cheat and defraud him of more than the proportion of your expences above ours would amount to In those early times the Christian Assemblies drained and emptied the Roman Theatres and the multitude thronged into the Church as earnestly as now they crowd out Coimus in coetum ut ad deum quasi manu factâ precationibus ambiamus orantes said the forementioned Tertullian The confluence to the publick Worship was in those dayes so great and the consent of heart and voice so universal that St. Jerome said The Hallelujahs of the Church was like the noise of many Waters and the Amen like Thunder Heaven and Earth then answered each other in a glorious Antiphone and made up one blessed Chorus There was joy in Heaven and peace on Earth The Hymn sung by the Angel at our Saviours Nativity was verified in those first Ages of his Religion Glory to God on High on Earth peace and Good-will amongst men The Holy men of those times that approached our Saviour had as it were some Rayes of his Divinity shed upon them and their faces shone like Moses's when he came down from the Holy Mount A Christian Church was a Colledge of holy and good men and the Glory of God filled the place where they assembled and Fire came down from Heaven too but not to set the World in combustion but to exhale and lift up the Odours of pious and devout Prayers But since those times Zeal hath decayed as if it had not been the intrinsick Excellency of Religion but the fires of Pagan Persecution that kindled that heat in the breasts of Christians And the Church so divided and broken in pieces as if it was not one Lord one Faith one Baptism that united them but a common enemy Dry Opinions have been taken for Faith and Zeal of a