Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	best_a	course_n	great_a	161	3	2.0924	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53908	A sermon preached Feb. 2, 1689/90 with an addition of what was further designed on that subject / by Richard Pearson ...	Pearson, Richard, d. 1734.	1690 (1690)	Wing P1016; ESTC R38163	27,343	44

as 't is always necessary first to discover the causes nature and effects of a Distemper in order to its Cure wholly to make way for and in order to the better success of this my last both more pleasing and profitable undertaking To which therefore I shall now apply my self with all imaginable cheerfulness and Alacrity as deeply mindful of that excellent Rule of Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It becomes not a good man to spend his time so much in complaints of athers failings as in endeavouring to correct and prescribe Remedies And first Then this very consideration of the commonness of this evil may it self very well be made use of as no contemptible Remedy or Antidote against the scandal of such examples And since as I shewed before this is so far from being any new thing that scarce any thing is or has been more common almost in all Ages of the World than instances of such Persons whose Lives and Practices have been a flat contradiction to their own Doctrins so much the less reason then hast thou to take offence from thy own particular Observation of the same frailties For in this Case no temptation is suffered to befall thee but such as has been common also unto others before thee All holy men have been more or less exercised with gone through and nobly Conquer'd the same Tryals No Age or place affords not some such Doctors who act quite contrary to the Truths which they Teach others And if the Observation of this were indeed a sufficient reason to make men fall out with Religion and their Duty there could then scarce ever have been in the whole World from the very beginning of it so many Righteous Persons as that small number which would have saved Sodom and Heaven must have been without People So that whoever thou art that from hence endeavourest to excuse thy self from Duty and art resolved never to commence Saint thy self till thou canst first see all Ministers become such know this that thou art sure to continue both wicked and miserable for ever and wouldst no less certainly have been so even though thou thy self hadst had the liberty of chusing any other time or place of the World almost ever since the Creation of it But still you 'll say the extraordinary unhappiness of some particular Ages may perhaps enable a Man to object farther after this manner I confess indeed that what you 've said is very true and were they only some few inconsiderable Persons whom I saw thus acting quite contrary to their own avowed Doctrins this I could have made a shift to have born with as being no more than what I should in reason have expected nor could I therefore have been so much offended thereat But now that Case is quite different and when I behold a very great multitude of such offenders nay when I observe the far greater number of those who have been generally accounted the most eminent for Piety as well as Learning notoriously guilty of such a Defection What would you have me to say or think of this matter And how can I chuse but be most grievously startled and offended at such an amazing sight and monstrous conjunction of examples To which I Answer in the general that when the Case really happens to be thus as sometimes I confess though more rarely it does this is indeed enough to shock an ordinary Faith and greatly to stagger the weaker sort of Christians in their Religion and course of Duty nay perhaps it may well prove one of the greatest scandals and temptations that even the most experienced and best resolved Christian can likely be exercised with But yet when all is done I shall shew not such as is so altogether insuperable but that by God's Grace and the impartial use of reason and a thorough consideration of things we may be able to overcome and be gloriously triumphant over it In order to which blessed end I shall distinctly consider in the Objection three several things The Piety the Learning and the Multitude of such offenders First Their supposed Piety and Holiness In judging of which you may consider how very liable men are to be deceived For all is not presently Gold that glisters and 't is very possible that they whom thou so admiredst for their Piety were all along from the very beginning no better then mere Hypocrites Since even such many times are prompted through their Ambition and vain Glory industriously to make a greater shew and glare as to the external exercise of some Virtues than those modest and humble Souls whose Hearts are really endued with a sincere principle of Holiness and Religion And though thou and others did well and according to the Rules of Charity in believing them to be holy and sincere so long as in their Lives and Actions you could not discover any plain Arguments to the contrary yet after once these evidently appear and the rough hands of Esau give the lye to the smooth voice of Jacob the Hypocrisy of such Teachers is then sufficiently discovered and they become self-condemned nor does any Charity oblige us any longer to conclude that they were truly Pious before but rather mere Hypocrites who would have long before also have shewn themselves to have been no better had they been assaulted with the same powerful temptations which are now suffered to beiall them on purpose to unmask them to the World and that as I shall hereafter shew for the great benefit and the advantage of the Church of God and that they who are approved may also be made more manifest Or else if we will needs suppose such Teachers to have been formerly truly Pious and Sincere yet we may well credit our own Eyes and safely conclude that they are now ceased to be so For certainly 't is possible for Men to fall from Grace To be naturally and necessarily Good is the sole priviledge of God himself whilst no Creature is naturally impeccable nor has God made any sort of Men any more indefectible than infallible to their Understandings as to their Manners the Righteous may leave off to be Good and do that which is Wicked and Abominable and when he does so all his former Righteousness is to be no more remembred either by God or Man And when all is done that of St. John is the only firm and lasting Rule whereby we are to judge in these cases He and he only who doeth Righteousness is Righteous And since even the best have sometimes their failings we are not to follow them any farther or to be led by the influence of their Examples but only whilst we see them walking according to the Rules of God's holy Word But when we behold them acting contrary thereto to be so far from thinking this any licence for us to imitate as on the contrary to be excited therefore to greater fear and caution lest we also offend in like manner Secondly As to the Learning of such

it will enabled a Man thoroughly to relish Duty and to Taste and see how good the Lord is he will be sure to experience such unspeakable Joy solid Pleasure and satisfaction therein that he would not for the whole World part with it and they must first persuade him out of his very Senses as well as his Reason who would prevail with him to do any thing by which he knows he must forfeit the same So that after thus antidoted with Godly sincerity let other men in whole sholes together or if you please in the most affected processions go to make shipwrack of their Faith and of a good Conscience let thousands daily fall on thy right hand and ten thousand on thy left the Plague shall not come nigh thee the Infection of such examples shall never once touch thee Thirdly Let the matter of scandal be in it self never so great yet consider that in such cases God many times permits a powerful occasion to be administred whereby so many Doctors and of so great a name though all along no better than close Hypocrites should at last unmask themselves and fall so foully on purpose to try the strength of thy Faith to make thee become a Spectacle to Men and Angels and that it may appear how sincere and well-grounded thou art in the Truth who canst not be shaken out of thy Duty and Religion by all the contrary Winds of false Doctrin or the greatest Earth-quake of a general Apostasie Why shouldest thou therefore be so much troubled or offended at that which if it be not thine own fault will certainly tend to the great encrease of thy Renown and Happiness For the more difficult thy Tryal and Temptation so much the more eminent and remarkable will be thy Vertue in the Conquest so much the greater the Honour of the Triumph and so much the more Glorious thy Reward and Happiness hereafter Fourthly It may very much help to abate thy Scandal when thou shalt consider the many and great benefits which usually redound to the Church of God in general whilst they who are approved or the contrary are hereby made manifest For First such discovery does for the time to come more effectually secure pious Persons from being any way misled out of their Duties by the corrupt examples or persuasions of concealed Hypocrites Familiar converse with ill men is very dangerous and infectious and apt insensibly to taint and make a man tread awry even before he is aware And when many secret Hypocrites are mixed together in the same Comunion with the Faithful and seem to worship God at the same Altar good men are apt to suspect no harm from them but to give ear to their Insinuations and Advices whilst false Friends are always upon this very account most dangerous to the Church and the true Members of it in particular But now when such men have discovered and unmask'd themselves by their open Apostasie every sincere person is enabled to look upon them as downright Enemies and is accordingly sufficiently prepared and antidoted against their Poison Secondly When sincere persons come once generally and certainly to know one another as by this means they always do they then become hereby the better enabled to love value and trust each other and have a fitter opportunity most closely and securely to combine their several Prayers Counsels and pious Endeavours for mutual edification and the Churches welfare Thirdly When by such Lapses the Chaff is well sifted and winowed from the Wheat so that they who still continue in their Integrity and stand to their Principles have sufficiently discovered themselves to be sincere and hearty then may that particular Church howsoever greatly decreased in the numbers of its outward Members upon good reason conclude it self in a more safe and hopeful Condition than it was before as more immediately entituled to God's favour and protection and now by such purgation become more strong sound and healthful in its Constitution is therefore far better qualified for a prosperous State Fourthly The discovery and manifestation which such Lapses make is of singular benefit to the Church of God as it tends most effectually to secure them from that dangerous errour and folly by which even many well-meaning men are sometimes liable to be overtaken whilst they are too apt to forget that their spiritual Treasures are conveighed to them through the mediation of earthen Vessels as the Instruments By the experimental frailty of which they are sufficiently instructed for the time to come not to depend so much upon any man's meer Authority or Example howsoever had generally in repute both for Piety and Learning to call or make no meer man on Earth the absolute master of their Faith nor to have mens persons so in admiration But to learn to esteem of Teachers chiefly for their Works sake In short when they who before were too apt to favour and follow slie Seducers shall evidently perceive how grossly they contradict themselves how foully they have fallen and that they really mind nothing but the World such men are from hence presently moved to forsake them and to betake themselves to more sincere Guides So that God's faithful Ministers notwithstanding as it sometimes falls out the weakness of their bodily presence or their less share of Eloquence become at last by this means to be more lov'd valu'd and duly rely'd upon by their respective Flocks Fifthly When God sees fit that such a Church shall come afterwards to be well settled and composed again that manifestation which the former Lapses and Revolts have made both of mens Integrity and Abilities or of the contrary must needs prove of admirable use the better to direct those who are in Authority so to do towards the choice of fit Spiritual Officers and Governours and to enable them to know what particular persons are to be rejected and who most safely to be promoted to places of greatest Trust and Eminency in the Church then which scarcely any thing can be of greater Consequence or Importance And accordingly they who either Lapsed from the Faith in the times of Persecution or were guilty of any heinous Crime were hereupon in the Primitive times for ever after held uncapable though they did repent of coming to any Office in the Church or were excluded and deposed there-from if before they hapned to enjoy such Dignity Whilst on the contrary no Persons were thought so fit to be promoted to Places Ecclesiastical though perhaps at the same time less eminent in Learning as they who had manifested their Firmness and Integrity under such Tryals For the first of these we may give credit to St. Augustin whose words are these in his 50. Ep. to Boniface Ut enim constitueretur in Ecclesiâ ne quisouam post alicujus criminis paenitentiam clericatum accipiat c. That Constitution of the Church by which it is provided that they who have been guilty of any heinous Crime should never even after their