Selected quad for the lemma: majesty_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
majesty_n	honourable_a	lord_n	viscount_n	3,313	5	11.4579	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43254	A call to a general reformation of manners and manifesting in several particulars the great lets and hinderances thereunto / preached at the arch-deacon of Sudbury's visitation, holden at Kentford in Suffolk in April last, 1700, by Clement Heigham, Esq., now rector of Barrow in Suffolk.	Heigham, Clement, d. 1714.	1700 (1700)	Wing H1370A; ESTC R36595	13,878	32

A CALL To a General Reformation of Manners AND Manifesting in several Particulars the great Lets and Hinderances thereunto Preached at the Arch-Deacon of Sudbury's Visitation holden at Kentford in Suffolk in April last 1700. By CLEMENT HEIGHAM Esq now Rector of Barrow in Suffolk Prov. XXVIII 4. They that forsake the Law praise the Wicked but such as keep the Law contend with them LONDON Printed by John Darby for Richard Thurlbourn Bookseller in Cambridg 1700. To the Right Honourable and truly Noble CHARLES Lord Viscount Townshend Much Honoured and Noble Lord HIS Majesty's Proclamation against Immoralities and the Honourable Houses of Parliament piously concurring by some good Laws to assist and strengthen the Ministry in the suppressing of Vice as it gave me a secret Pleasure so it did encourage me to frame and preach this following Discourse and for exposing this Sermon in print to a more publick View I am not without hopes it may do some good upon such as shall cast their Eye upon it the Discourse being on an Argument wherein all good Men do agree but more especially it may let some that are in great Authority see that there are great Lets and Hinderances amongst us as to an universal Reformation of Manners and some of them are such Lets and Hinderances as only the Wisdom of the Nation in Parliament can remove And I am the more emboldned to make use of Your Lordship's Name and to crave Your Patronage not only upon the account of Your great Honour eminent Parts and most agreeable Virtue whereby You shine amongst our Nobility and do attract the Affections of all Good Men but because great Examples are powerful and have a mighty Influence to bear down Vice and to encourage Goodness And I am fully persuaded Your Lordship will in Your High Place endeavour to promote that Great Design which this Discourse points at which is to promote the true and lasting Happiness of our Church and State and which can be effected by no other means than by making the Almighty God our Patron and Friend which can only be by depressing Wickedness and encouraging Piety and universal Goodness And upon these accounts it is that I pray for Your Lordship's Health and Happiness in this Life and Your endless Glory hereafter and shall always approve my self Your Lordship's most honouring most Faithful and most Obedient Kinsman and Humble Servant CLEMENT HEIGHAM MATTHEW V. 16. Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your Good VVorks and glorify your Father which is in Heaven THESE words have a reference to the three foregoing Verses in which our Saviour applies himself to his Disciples and all sorts of true Christians and requires them to set forth the Purity of their Doctrine and the Purity and Exactness of their Lives to that advantage that by the authority and soundness of their Doctrine and goodness of their Conversation the Nation or the World might be kept from putrefying or stinking And he compares the Christian Church to a City set upon a high illustrious place which is easily seen by all that travel near it which City if it be kept clean and beautiful will attract and draw Travellers to it but if otherwise it will make them shun and abhor it Wherefore our Saviour requires them all to set forth such an eminent Light to the World both by their Doctrine and sutable Life that by their bright shining Lustre the thick Mists of Ignorance and the grosser Darkness of Sin and Wickedness might be dispelled and that others seeing and beholding this Glorious State of the Christian Church might be invited thereby to glorify their Father which is in Heaven These words then of our Saviour with respect to their Connexion with the former Verses do contain First A Precept or Command to all sorts of Christians to preserve pure and sound Doctrine and to lead exemplary Lives sutable to their holy Faith and Doctrine Secondly The words contain a powerful Argument to enforce good Christian Practice that others seeing your good Lives may glorify your Heavenly Father or that the ignorant sinful part of the World may receive saving Influences by virtue derived from the Purity of your Doctrine and Goodness of your Lives and so Glory may redound to God First For the Precept or Command in general to all sorts of Christians to preserve pure and sound Doctrine to see that their Copy be pure and fair and good and this is of great import for if our Faith or any allowed Doctrines of our Christian Society be stained or corrupted especially if ill Practice in any kind be the natural consequence of such allowed Doctrines or matters of Faith this tends to destroy the great end of all Religion But God be thanked our Articles of Faith and the allowed Doctrines of our Church are sound and good neither is our Publick Worship of God corrupted so that the publick Assemblies are become Schools of Idolatry and Wickedness as perhaps may be with great truth said concerning some other Church that exalts it self and looks big in the eye of the World Here now if time would permit me I might take a very fair occasion to represent the Faith and Doctrine and Government of our Church which we all own our selves Members of and to set forth the Purity and Soundness of it and shew the agreement of it to all that was owned by the Primitive Church in its best estate to convince how full it is to all the purposes of a good Christian Life and to manifest plainly that neither our Holy Worship and Services are corrupted nor doth the Church of England give any one License to Sin But this is a large Field to enter into and our Faith and Doctrine and way of Worship and Government hath been sufficiently set forth and justified by many Learned Men of our own Communion and sealed and confirmed by the Blood of Holy Martyrs And therefore I shall say no more of the Copy but I shall insist upon that which our Faith and Doctrine and Discipline points at which is to influence all Christians so to live as our Faith and Doctrine and Government enjoins them to do and thereby to manifest to the eye of the World the Excellency and Goodness of their Faith and Doctrine by their regular and holy Practices For what will a good Copy signify to them whose Lives do not write after it and so adorn it What doth it signify to talk of a good Way of Worship if we do not frequent it and join in it as devout Worshippers too What doth it signify to commend our holy Religion which requires strict Sobriety Chastity and Modesty of Life and a due Fear and Veneration of God and yet at the same time to lie wallowing in the Sins that are contrary to all this What doth it signify to commend the Government of the Church and yet at the same time to despise and disobey it At the rate that most Christians live