Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	bishop_n	church_n	time_n	3,265	5	3.4917	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30434	A sermon preached before the Queen, at White-Hall, on the 16th day of July, 1690, being the monthly-fast by the Right Reverend Father in God, Gilbert Lord Bishop of Sarum.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1690 (1690)	Wing B5892; ESTC R21629	20,709	42

Corruption that this brought on the Church Then came the last Persecution which continued Ten Years with very little intermission and with so excessive a Fury that in the succession of the Persecutors every one studied to out-do all that had gone before him Yet these repeated Fires of their Martyrs kindling another Fire in the Minds of the Christians and setting them on to Fastings and Prayers God did at last arise and sent them a Deliverer from this Island Constantine who first gave them Quiet and Liberty and then Protection and Favour and then the Christian Religion shined with a new Lustre of Wealth and Prosperity But alas this was not so happy to it as that which the Fires of the Martyrs had given it The Church did soon degenerate and the Bishops of the chief Sees fell into Factions The History of that Time gives us but a sad viow of the governing Men of the Church But yet even there we have a Witness in favour of that Religion that is beyond Exception I mean Iulian who tells his Heathen Priests in his Zeal for the restoring of Paganism how both Priests and People ought to imitate the Lives the Temperance the Gravity and above all the Charity that was among the Christians But insensibly in the course of an Age Christianity did so degenerate that scarce any thing of the first Purity and Simplicity was left Great Disorders Irreconcileable Heats and Differences and Disputes even about Authority and precedence tore the Church and exposed it to the Reproaches of its Enemies And after that God had suffered that Apostacy for a whole Age it drew at last a Series of Plagues upon them that amazes every one that reads it The Western Empire was over-run with an Inundation of Northern Nations that came so thick one after another that whatsoever one had spared seem to be only reserved to be destroyed by the next that came In a word the Goths and Vandals and the Hunns brought an unheard-of Destruction along with them that was followed by Plagues and Famines to so high a degree that whole Countries were almost dispeopled The Eastern Empire was also long wasted by the Goths and Avares and then by the Saracens and finally destroyed by the Turks In this Island we received the Christian Religion very early We had our Martyrs as well as the other Churches and a particular simplicity of Manners which is remarked as the peculiar Ornament of our Clergy But this did not last long for there followed a vast Corruption among all sorts of People which is set forth very sincerely and pathetically by a very good Man that saw it and lamented it I mean Gildas after that we lost both our Religion and Liberty and fell under the Saxon Tyranny than Christianity got footing again among us within an Age and an half after that but it was much allayed and debased yet such as it was it made a great progress and produced some very good Men if we may believe Bede But the Nation became rather more corrupt than ever and then we were delivered over to the Depredations the Burnings and Cruelty of the Danes which continued at several Reprises for near two hundred Years to be the Plague of England At last all was melted into one Government but then the Nation became a Scene of Blood what during the Competitions to the Crown the Barons Wars the Wars with France and those of the Houses of York and Lancaster But to take a narrower view of the State of the Protestant Religion both abroad in the World and here in England we shall find how often God for the Sins of those who carried that worthy Name of Reformed Churches but that were not worthy of it has brought them very low and what sudden and unlook'd-for Deliverances have again recover'd and restored them Upon the first opening of the Reformation all the World run into it The Corruptions and Ignorance of Popery were things of which all Men were so weary that they with joy welcomed the Light and the Purity of the Gospel but in the multitudes that embraced it there was a great mixture many came in only for the Spoil and threw off the Yoke of all Religion as well as that of Popery But God punished this severely for though they were by much the superior force in Germany which was then the Scene and were secretly favoured both by England and France yet all their Strength did melt away and they dividing their Forces became an easy Prey to Charles the 5th who got both their Heads the Elector of Sax and the Landgrave of Hesse into his Power and made all the rest bend under him only the Town of Magdeburgh stood out against him And in a course of five Years Success the Protestant Interest was brought so low that it was every where given for lost when of a sudden Maurice of Saxe that had been the chief Instrument of dividing the Party and of delivering it up to the Emperor gave Matters so quick a turn that the Emperor was forced to run out of Germany and he soon saw he could not hope ever to return to it without granting the Edict of Passaw under which Security the Protestant Religion has subsisted there ever since Not many years after that a second Storm arose King Edward died and while Queen Mary persecuted and burnt the Protestants here in England France and Spain fell under the Ministry of two Cardinals who seeing that the way which they called Heresy was gaining ground every-where under the shelter of the Wars they projected and effected a Peace in order to the Extirpating of Heresy but while this was in agitation Queen Mary died and soon after the King of France was killed and left that Kingdom under the feebleness of a long Minority a Deliverance sprung up also in Holland after many unsuccessful Attempts by a small company of Fishermen who seized on the Brill and from inconsiderable beginnings falling happily under the Conduct of a Family of Heroes have grown up to be one of the Powerfullest Nations that any Age has seen Here was the second Crisis carried off A Third was when the League of France was formed for the Extirpation of Protestants and that Spain at the same time designed the Conquest of England upon which they reckon'd that the War in the Low-Countries would soon come to an end but all this was blasted the Armada of Eighty eight was scattered and lost the Heads of the League were killed and Spain became so feeble that those were its last efforts In this Age from the Year 1620 for ten Years together the whole Protestant Interest was every-where sinking The Revolution of Bohemia and the Reduction of Hungary raised the House of Austria so high that every thing that stood in their way fell before them and all the Attempts made to preserve Germany proved fatal to those who undertook it then Holland was brought very low by the loss of Breda and the

answer would be Peace which being the form of Salutation in those Ages among Friends imported an intire reconciliation So that by speaking Peace is to be understood an assurance of God's love and favour to his People and to his Saints that is to the People that was sanctified and dedicated to the service of God by so many federal Rites The words that follow are capable of different rendrings either thus to his Saints and to such as turn not again to folly or and they shall not turn again to folly or as it is in our Translation and let them not turn again unto folly The LXX Interpreters differ much more but the enlarging on any account of those various rendrings would require too long and too dry a Discourse for a day of this kind Folly in Scripture stands often for Atheism and Impiety The fool has said in his heart that there is not a God Sometimes for Idolatry there being no instance of folly that is more extravagant than the giving divine Honours to the works of Mens Hands or to the Fictions of their vain Imaginations but most commonly the irregularities of Vice are set forth in Scipture under this notion to shew how contrary they are to all the Principles of true Reason that are in our natures The words being thus opened lead me to speak to these Three Heads I. That the great security and happiness of a Nation depends on its being at peace with God and in his favour and that its greatest danger and misery arises out of God's anger and displeasure II. That therefore it is necessary to use most earnest and fervent Prayers for removing God's anger and for the procuring his favour And that our great encouragements to this are the remembrance of past Deliverances and the consideration of the Attributes of God who is naturally gracious and merciful III. That a Nation which would secure to it self the continuance of God's favour and of all the Blessings that accompany it must above all things take care of not relapsing into Vice and Idolatry Ungodliness and Atheism To return The greatest Security and Happiness of a Nation depends on its being at peace with God and in his favour And its greatest Danger and Misery arises out of God's anger and displeasure Either this is true let our Scoffers make it the subject of their profane Mirth as much as they will or there is nothing true in all Religion If God is infinitely Wise and Perfect and if he made the World which they pretend to own then certainly he still takes care of it For no body can deny a Providence that does not likewise in his heart deny a God and a Creation The Prejudices against Providence arise chiefly from the narrowness of our Minds that cannot conceive how one Being can have an extended and universal care of all things But is not the prejudice of a blind Man against the possibility of seeing as well grounded For how extravagant must this appear to him that through so small a passage as the Pupil of the Eye such a vast variety of Objects should enter at once and open themselves within the body of the Eye without confusion and there be represented to us in their just figures with their distance from us and from one another and in their Colours which he cannot understand neither and that thus at a great distance we can reason and judge of things To one that pe●ceives nothing but by touch this will appear very unconceivable If then the good disposition of an Organ raises one Man so far above another that he cannot apprehend how such an extent of perception is possible it is a most unreasonable thing to conclude against any Perfection in the Divine Mind because it is beyond our compass of thought The other prejudice against Providence seems a little better grounded which is That in the government of the World there is such an irregularity that it cannot be supposed to flow from a Good and a Wise Being But this is likewise an effect of the shortness of our Prospect we seeing only things that are before us but not being able to guide our Eye further to the end of the Scene nor to what Revolutions or Catastrophes are abiding those who at present seem covered with Success and Glory But if we believe God to be the infinitely Pure and Holy we must likewise believe that he loves those that are truly good and are conformable to his own nature and that he has an aversion to those who are contrary to it and that are defiled and impure For the Principle of Self-love that is natural to every Being makes it love such as resemble it and hate such as are in an opposition to it not by a hatred of anger and fury which is the effect of Passion and Disorder by a hatred which arises out of the contrariety of nature that is between them It is then as certain as that there is a God that he is perfectly Pure and Holy and that by consequence such Nations as are vertuous and innocent that are neither false nor cruel vicious nor dissolute must be more acceptable to him and more constantly protected by him than those that are corrupted by sensuality and luxury into all the degeneracies of humane Nature and into a scorn of Religion and Vertue But though it is certain that such debauched Nations are under the Divine Displeasure yet as to the properest time and the suitablest circumstances in which God will pour out his Indignation upon them and as to the ballancing of the sins of one Nation against another and the delivering one over to be plagued by another till the one is purged and the other has filled up the measure of its Iniquities those are Secrets lodged in that Infinite mind into which our sight can carry us but a very little way Upon the whole matter if there is a God that made the World he governs it and if he is wise and holy he must govern it so as to favour the Good and to hate the Wicked If any object to this the long-flourishing of the Turkish Empire and the strange Progress and Success of Mahometism the Answer is plain enough That the Eastern Christians were so far degenerated from all that is pure and noble in the Christian Religion that they were become a Reproach to it and therefore God has delivered them up into so long a Captivity and has rewarded the Temperance the Justice and the Aversion to Idolatry that are among the Mahometans with so long a course of Prosperity If the Reign of some Princes that have broken through the Faith of Oaths and Treaties and through all the sacred'st Rules of Justice and Mercy has hitherto had a course of Success and Glory to which we find nothing that can be compared in History since Augustus's days yet even to this it must be said That we can form no true Judgment of it till we see to the

for advancing other designs but that it is a genuine effect of their own Vertues a Homage that they pay to God and an effect of the Love that they bear to their People And we do not doubt but that every advance that is made in the establishment of the Throne of those whom God has set over us will be acknowledged by them in such returns of their zeal for God as we find resolved on by David That there eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land that they may dwell with them and that those who walk in a perfect way shall serve them but that froward and wicked persons those that work deceit and tell lyes shall not stay within their house nor so much as in their sight For as God will honour those that honour him so he likewise expects that such as he has honoured in the sight of all the World by so many repeated marks of his favour should honour him not only in their own private deportment but likewise in the sight of all their People and how natural soever Clemency may be to them and how beautiful soever it may appear in them yet if milder methods cannot reform us they must at last resolve even to cut off wicked Doers from the City of the Lord. Then we may carry our Hopes as far as we can do our Wishes when God is of our side who commands the Seas and Winds of which he has given us many and signal instances and some of these very lately who confounds the Councils of the wicked who sometimes takes both their Understanding and their Hearts from them and at other times strikes them with such panick fears that one man can chase a thousand of them and on the other hand blesses those that depend on him with happy circumstances so that the Frame of Nature is of their side and from those favourable appearances their Courage is raised and their Spirits are animated so that nothing can stand in their way This is often the Portion of those that fear God For to conclude all as there is nothing that depresses and misguides men more than superstitious and false Opinions of God and Religion so there is nothing that does so raise and establish the Mind in every thing that is great and noble as true Principles of Religion which carry a Man to the highest and best things of which his nature and faculties are capable And thus from a great variety of Considerations it is plain that the favour of God is the foundation both of the Security of the Happiness of a Nation This then leads me very naturally to the Second Head which is That it is therefore necessary to use most earnest and fervent Prayers for removing God's anger and for the procuring his favour This can be no indifferent thing and therefore it is either to be neglected quite as an empty Dream or if there is any truth in it we ought to use all possible means to compass it If the favour of Princes is pursued with so much Application and Industry that all methods both good and bad are made use of for gaining it if a constant attendance and all the arts of pleasing them how costly or how abject soever are taken for securing an Interest in them which perhaps will never succeed or when gained may prove of small advantage and may be quickly lost what do we make of our Religion if we own that we believe all these things to be true and yet will be at no pains to procure to our selves or to our Country an interest in them Can such cold Devotions as ours are that in the greatest part are only a compliance with Custom which we offer up to God without either attention or affection give us a Title to such invaluable Blessings We pursue all things with an earnestness of desire and a strength of thought proportioned to the value that we set on them And if we are cold and slack only in the matters of Religion when we over-doe every thing else this shews that either we do not at all believe them or that we do not at all value them I know earnestness in Prayer is one of the Subjects of the profane mirth of our Scoffers they cannot think that God is moved by our earnestness to depart from his own counsels and therefore they think all fervency in Prayer is a vain heating of the Imagination to no purpose But though it is certain that our Importunities do not overcome God though Men are sometimes wearied out with them and yield to them yet he commands us to pray earnestly and he promises to reward our fervour in Prayer for this end that the impressions of Religion and of our dependance on him of our impotence without him and of his goodness and bounty to us may go deep in our minds These are the springs of all Religion and Vertue and when these are strong in us they govern us in all our actions In fact it is certain that none are so powerfully and effectually subdued by the Principles of Religion as those who are frequent earnest in Prayer God haing made this the condition of bestowing his favours on us not as it has an effect on himself to soften and overcome him but as it has an effect on us to make us serious and good from hence it appears how reasonable a thing it is for us to pray often and fervently And in this all good minds may be appealed to that set themselves often to seek God by Fasting and Prayer if they do not find the happy effects of it upon their minds That earnest agitation of their Thoughts which is raised by fervent Prayer ends in an inward calm ioyned with higher degrees of confidence of God and upon it a good temper of mind dwells upon them their minds grow clearer and their thought brighter Whereas such as disuse secret Prayer come under a flatness and deadness in the matter of Religion It has no life within them it gives them neither joy nor courage zeal nor affection Nor is there any thing to which the visible decay of Religion in this age is so much owing as to the neglect of secret Prayer which has prevailed so universally that whereas in former times it would have passed for a strange thing if a Man had gone into any business without he had first said his Prayers it would now be thought ridiculous to hear that a Man was retired to his Prayers and the using such earnest and tender Expressions as we find here in this Psalm would pass for a mark of an Enthusiast or an Hypocrite But let the World think and say what they will it is by Prayer that our Souls ascend up to God and draw down all Blessings from him This is that which removes his displeasure and procures his favour and neither the abuse of it by Hypocrites nor the scorn cast upon it by Atheists can lessen its value in the sight of