Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	catholic_n	church_n	communion_n	2,927	5	9.4030	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61609	A sermon preached on the fast-day, November 13, 1678, at St. Margarets Westminster, before the Honourable House of Commons by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1678 (1678)	Wing S5649; ESTC R8213	27,301	58

be the paternal affection of the Holy Father at Rome if this indeed be zeal for the Catholick Cause if this be the way to reconcile us to their Communion have we not great reason to be fond of returning into the Bosom of such a Church which may strangle us as soon as it gets us within her Arms But there are some whose concernment it is to make men believe there was no such dangerous plot intended I meddle not with that evidence which lies before you but there is one notorious circumstance obvious to all persons and sufficient to convince any which is the horrid Murther actually committed on one of his Majesties Justices of Peace in cold blood with great contrivance and deliberation Do men imbrue their hands in blood for nothing Why no other Person why at such a time why in such a manner There was a Reason for all this he had taken the examinations he knew too much to be suffered to live and they hoped by his death to stifle his evidence and to affrighten others from searching too far and they managed that matter so as though they had a mind to convince the World they had no other end in taking away his life but to prevent a further Discovery And they whom his Death doth not convince neither would they be convinced though he should rise again from the Dead God forbid that we should charge such barbarous cruelties such wicked conspiracies such horrid designs on all who live in the Communion of that Church but we must distinguish between the seduced party who are not thought fit to be trusted with such things for fear their Consciences check at them and their good nature disclose them and the busie Active Faction who are always restless and designing and act by such Maxims of Morality as the more sober and modest Heathens would abhor What hath this Party of men been doing among us this last hundred of years and more but plotting conspiracies inflaming our differences betraying our liberties heightning our discontents and in short undermining the Foundatior s both of our Government and Religion And shall such men alwayes triumph that they are too hard for our Laws and that like the Canaanites and Jebusites to the Children of Israel they will still be as scourges in ●●r sides and thorns in our eyes If these things must be I hope God designs it not to destroy us at last by them but I am sure it doth prove and try us whether we will hearken to the Commandments of the Lord or to the vain Traditions of Men. God knows I speak not these things out of any malice or ill will to the Persons of any for that I may use St. Paul's words My hearts desire and prayer to God for them all is that they might be saved And although I cannot bear them witness yet my hopes are some even of these may think they have a zeal for God in all this but we are sure it is not according to knowledge Such a blind zeal as the Jews had who when they killed the Apostles thought they did God good service But it is so furious so inhumane so unchristian a zeal that it is charity to them as well as necessary care of our own safety to keep them from a capacity of doing themselves and others mischief But before I conclude the Text suggests to us three things very pertinent to the duty of this Day which I shall briefly recommend to your consideration 1. Matter of humiliation for our sins as they have an influence upon the Nations suffering 2. Matter of Advice Only fear the Lord and serve him in truth and with all your heart 3. Matter of encouragement For consider what great things he hath done for you 1. Matter of Humiliation for our sins Which have been many and great and aggravated by all the Mercies and Deliverances which God hath vouchsafed to us and therefore he may be justly provoked to punish us proportionably to the measures of our ingratitude and disobedience Let us lay our hands upon our hearts this day and seriously consider what requital we have made to the Lord for all the benefits he hath bestowed upon us For the Light of his Truth the Purity of his Worship the Power of his Grace the frequency of his Sacraments the influences of his Spirit and the continuance hitherto of our established Religion in spite of all opposition whatsoever But have we not been guilty of too much slighting that Truth neglecting that Worship resisting that Grace contemning those Sacraments quenching that Spirit and of too great coldness and indifferency about matters of Religion I do not fear that ever the Church of Rome should prevail among us by strength of Reason or force of Argument with all its specious colours and pretences unless it be among those who understand neither one nor the other Religion but if men be loose in their principles and unconcerned about Religion in general there will not be courage and constancy enough to keep it out I do much more fear Popery coming in at the back-door of Atheism and Prophaneness than under all its false and deceitful pretences of Universality and Infallibility And this those have been aware of who have been so industriously sowing among us the seeds of Irreligion knowing that if men be unconcerned as to all Religion they will never have the courage to oppose any but will be sure to close with the prevailing side Next to this I know no greater advantage that they take against us than from the unnatural heats and unchristian divisions which have been among us If men were wise they would consider at least in this our day the things which do belong to our Peace How can men answer it at the great day if in such a critical time as this is they stand upon little niceties and punctilios of Honour rather than Conscience or upon keep up the interests of their several Parties and do not those things which themselves think they lawfully may do towards an Union with us I pray God the continuance of these breaches may not look like an argument of Divine Infatuation upon us But what can we say to that looseness and debauchery of manners to that riot and luxury to that wantonness and prophaneness to that fashion of customary swearing and Atheistick Drollery which have been so much and so justly complained of among us I hope there are many thousands at this day in England whose souls abhor the abominations that are committed and who mourn in secret for them and therefore our case may not be so desperate as that of Jerusalem was May we all this day so heartily repent of all these follies and impieties that the Cause of our Fears which our sins give us being removed we may hearken 2. To the matter of Advice here given Only to fear the Lord and to serve him in Truth and with all our heart As though Samuel had said Your hearts

for their amendment but when they added impudence to their obstinacy when they made sport with the Prophets and turned their threatnings into songs of mirth and drollery then the peremptory decree came forth and there was no hopes to escape But they mocked the messengers of God and despised his Words and misused his Prophets untill the wrath of the Lord arose against his People till there was no remedy There still seemed to be some hopes left till they came to this temper But when they burlesqued the Prophet Jeremiahs words and turned the expressions he used into ridicule crying in contempt The burden of the Lord which is called perverting the words of the living God when they turned Ezekiels words into pleasant songs and made sport with Gods Judgements no wonder he was so highly provoked For there can be no worse symptom to a people than to laugh at the only means to cure them and if this once grow common it must needs make their condition desperate For then it comes to Gods turn to mock and laugh too Because I have called and ye have refused I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded but ye have set at nought all my Counsel and would have none of my reproof I also will laugh at your calamity and mock when your fear cometh Wo be unto that people whom the Almighty takes pleasure in punishing 3. When there is an universal degeneracy of all ranks and conditions of men I do not mean such as is common to humane nature but from the particular vertues of their Ancestors or a common practice of those vices which do most frequently draw down the judgements of God and make him to have a controversie with a Land By swearing and lying and killing and stealing and committing Adultery they braak out and blood toucheth blood therefore shall the Land mourn It was a strange degree of corruption the People of Jerusalem were fallen to before God led them into Captivity when the Prophet Jeremiah used those expressions to them Run ye to and fro in the streets of Jerusalem and see now and know and seek in the broad places there of if ye can find a man if there be any that executeth judgement that seeketh the truth and I will pardon it Could there ever be a fairer or kinder offer than this But as Isaiah expresseth it the whole head was sick and the heart faint from the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it but wounds and bruises and putrifying sores It seems a very strange passage in the Law of Leprosie that if the Leprosie covered all the flesh the person was to be pronounced clean but if any raw flesh appeared he was unclean which it is very hard to understand unless it were that the power of infection was then gone Such a state the People of Jerusalem seemed to have been in there was no room for infection left the plague of Leprosie had so over run them that there was no sound part left in the whole body Thus I have considered the influence which doing wickedly hath upon the ruine of a Nation it remains now that I make Application of this to our own case We have been a People that have received wonderful Mercies and many signal Deliverances from Gods hand He hath placed us in a rich and fruitful Land and hath furnished us with so great plenty that even that hath been thought our burden hath blessed us with such an increase of Trade that our Merchants far exceed those of Tyre both in Riches and Number Our Ships of Trade are like a Valley of Cedars when they lie at home and when they are abroad they compass the earth and make the riches of the East and West-Indies to meet in our Streets And since like the Prince of Tyre our seat is in the midst of the Seas God hath thereby secured us from such sudden inroads and invasions of foreign Enemies as many of our Neighbour Countries do groan under at this day where the miseries of War are felt before they are seen and those who thought themselves at ease and quiet may be surprised in their Beds and before they are aware of it may themselves and Families and Goods and Houses and Country be all burnt and consumed together But God hath compassed us about with a deep Sea and a large Channel and given us such a powerful Navy as may be both a Defence at home and a Terror abroad As to our Civil Constitution if we consider the admirable Temper of our Government the Justice and Wisdom of our Laws and the greatness of our Liberties we have no reason to envy the condition of any people upon earth And after all our intestine broils and confusions which our sins had brought upon us God was pleased in a most surprising manner without War or bloodshed to our great satisfaction and the amazement of the world to restore our Soveraign to his Throne our Church and People to their just Rights and Liberties And while our Neighbour Nations have lamentably suffered under all the dismal effects of a lasting War he hath enlarged our Trade continued our Peace and thereby increased our prosperity after we had smarted under a dreadful Fire and a raging Pestilence Thus far all things tend still to make us a happy Nation if we did know and value our own happiness But that which above all other things should make us so hath been the great Occasion of our Trouble and is still of our Fears and that is Religion And yet in this respect we have advantages above any other Nation in the Christian World having a Church reformed with so much Wisdom and Moderation as to avoid the dangerous extreams on both sides But even this hath enraged our Adversaries of the Roman Church and made them the more restless to destroy it and to stick at no means which they thought might tend to its ruine O Blessed Jesus that ever thy Holy Name should be assumed by Traytors and Murderers or that the promoting thy true Religion should be made the colour for the most wicked practises Not that the pure and peaceable Religion of Jesus Christ doth sowre and imbitter the Spirits of Men towards each other or dispose them to malice hatred revenge and cruelty some of the worst passions of humane nature or to the accomplishing their own ends by secret conspiracies and open violence by treachery and falshood by Murthers and Assasinations either on the Ministers of Justice or on the most merciful and best natured of Kings But Be astonished O ye Heavens and tremble O Earth that hast brought forth such a Generation of Vipers who are continually making their way through the Bowels of their Mother and as we have reason to believe have designed to destroy the Father of their Country If these be the kind embraces of one that pretends to be the mother-Mother-Church if this