Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A41707
|
The primitive Christian justified and Jack Presbyter reproved, or, A scripture demonstration, that to be innocent and persecuted is more eligible than to be prosperously wicked delivered in a sermon in the Abby-Church of Bath by William Goulde.
|
Gould, William, d. 1686.
|
1682
(1682)
|
Wing G1441; ESTC R9434
|
18,041
|
33
|
Will ye speak wickedly for God or talk deceitfully for him If not for the glory of God then not for an inferiour End not for the saving of a Life or the peace of a State Nay as Anselm Austin and others observe we should rather hazard the Salvation of mankind than commit a sin to save it If St. Paul say true and 't is hard to say he does not Damnation is due to such as do a present evil upon the prospect of a future good Rom. 3. 8. Suppose there were Presidents to justifie a Bill of this nature by the Laws of England shall humane Laws evacuate the Laws of God How often hath Jack-Presbyter the framer of that Bill pleaded that God must be obeyed rather than man c. Let him stand to his own Argument or give a Reason for the why not 't is strange to me that men calling themselves Protestants can be guilty of such Votes as these which are disowned by the true Protestant Religion by Law established in this best of Reformed Churches I am neither Papist nor Popishly affected but I assert a true Protestant Principle founded on Holy Writ that Sin is not to be elected if there be no other expedient left to avoid being Persecuted As for the distinction which some make that we may not do evil that good may come that is not for a private good end but we may for a publique benefit I have not so learned Christ I thank God and I desie the Jesuitical and Presbyterian Brotherhood to give me one Scripture Text or any one sound Reason to justifie that Distinction aforesaid and till that be done let the lawful Successor be Zealot for the interest either of Kirk or Conclave as I will not reade Mass nor swallow the Covenant so I will not Rebell against the Ordinance of God but leave God to govern his own World Who restrains the spirit of Princes and is wonderful among the Kings of the earth God who turns the hearts of Kings as the rivers of Water as it pleaseth himself the God who remembers mercy in his wrath and punisheth less than our sins deserved and this was the judgment and practice of the Saints and Churches Apostolically Primitive A Parisian Masacre a Guiscan League a Powder Treason a Covenant Reformation a Spanish Inquisition House and an English High Court of Justice the fighting for Reformation and bidding Defiance to Heaven by whom Kings reign these are Abominations so scandalous and Antichristian as do non-plus Hyperbolies and silence Invention and next to these there is scarce any thing more Criminal than the equally sinful and ridiculous Bill against the Succession of his Royal Highness in case he survive the King to the Crown and Sceptre of this Nation I wish the King may out-live his Brother and put a Period to this Question but I believe the framers of that Bill had a farther Design than the Dukes person and am clearly of opinion that there is both a Popish Plot and a Presbyterian one at this time against the Church or the King or both in Conjunction and hath been more or less so ever since the Reformation and I am heartily sorry that since Papists and Presbyterians call themselves Christians that by their Seditious Principles and Actions they should rather seem Proselytes to Mahomet the Victorious than to the Humble Innocent and Persecuted Jesus and yet that the latter Saints should be so far insensible of this as to call all that will not concur with them in their actions Tantyvies and Tories and French Pensioners is very insolently Ridiculous 2. Afflictions are the Exercises of our Graces as Faith Patience Humility and Charity in which Christ in his life who was a man of Sorrows and acquainted with Griefs was pleased to be exemplary to us and we should and ought to look up to this Jesus who endured the Cross c. Heb. 12. 2. 't is an excellent Expression of Charles the Martyr to his Son our Sovereign this advantage you have above other Princes that you have begun and now spent some years in the experience of Troubles and exercise of Patience wherein Piety and all Vertues are commonly better planted to a thriving as Trees set in Winter than in the warmth and serenity of Times He gives instance in David and Rehoboam the one prepared by many Afflictions for a flourishing Kingdom the other unsoftned by the unparallel'd prosperity of the Court of Solomon and this is indeed the great advantage of Afflictions above earthly Greatness that this last makes us Proud and Insolent and to say who is the Lord and by the other our graces are exercised and increased Ye have heard of the patience of Job saith St. James but we had never heard of any such thing but for his afflictions and we have heard of Job saith though he kill me yet will I trust in him but this was the fruit of his patience in suffering St. Stephen's Charity had never been upon Record for our imitation but for his Persecution Had the old Army of Martyrs took up Arms against their Emperors being Heathens instead of being Patient and Charitable and Humble and Meek like men that understood Christ's Religion they had neither been Presidents to us nor found for themselves a place in Heaven The assaults of Affliction may be terrible like Sampson's Lyon but they yield much sweetness to those who can encounter and overcome who know how to out-live the witherings of their Gourds without Discontent or Peevishness whilst they may yet converse with God as the Royal Martyr Charles the First rarely expresseth it 3. Afflictions wean us from the World and bring us nearer to God and Sin makes us earthly minded and makes a separation between God and us The sufferings of the Saints are the summ of Christian Philosophy they are sent to wean us from the vanities and affections of this World and create in us strong desires after Heaven whilst God here treates us rudely that we may long to be in our Country where God shall be our Portion and Angels our Companions and Christ our perpetual Feast and never ceasing Joy the entertainment of all injured and patient Sufferers Oh Death how bitter art thou to a man that is at ease and rest in his Possessions but he that is uneasy in his Body and unquiet in his Fortunes vexed in his Person and discompos'd in his Designs who here finds no pleasure or rest he will be glad and rejoice to fix his heart where he shall have the full of his desires and what can only make him partaker of real Happiness As long as the waters of Persecution are upon the earth the Allusion is pardonable I conceive so long we dwell in the Ark but where the Land is dry the Dove its self will be tempted to a wandring course of life and never return to her house of safety this blessed effect afflictions had upon Job in making him bid adieu to the World Naked came