Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	carnal_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	46	3	9.4959	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80550	The second part of the interest of England, in the matter of religion, unfolded in a deliberative discourse, proving that it is not agreeable to sound reason to prefer the contracted and dividing interest of one party, before the general interest of Protestantism, and of the whole kingdom of England, in which the Episcopal and Presbyterian parties may be happily united. /; Interest of England in the matter of religion. Part 2	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6264; Thomason E1857_2; ESTC R210384	40,874	132

Worship and Discipline acknowledged by both Parties are a sufficient and ample Foundation for the edification and peace of the Church to rest upon for which we cannot have a fuller Testimony than what is given by His MAJESTY in His aforesaid Declaration VVe must for the Honour of all those of either Perswasion with whom we have confered Declare That the Professions and desires of all for the advancement of Piety and true Godliness are the same their Professions of zeal for the Peace of the Church the same of affection and duty to Us the same they all approve Episcopacy they all approve a set Form of Liturgy and they all disapprove and dislike the sin of Sacriledge the alienation of the revenue of the Church And if upon these excellent Foundations in submission to which there is such an Harmony of Affections any Superstructure should be raised to the shaking of these Foundations and to the contracting and lessening of the blessed gift of Charity which is a vital part of Christian Religion VVe shall think Our Self very unfortunate and even suspect that VVe are defective in that administration of Government with which God hath entrusted Us. These His Majesties Words I receive with much veneration for they are a Divine Sentence in the Mouth of the King and they fathom the depth of this grand business It is therefore manifest as from Reason so from His Majesties Testimony that those unhappy discords do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion that either toucheth or borders upon the Foundation and that excellent Foundations are contained in those points in submission to which there is found such an Harmony of Affections and consequently that the laying aside of all the points in controversie would not cause any defect in the State Ecclesiastical What then is the root of these mischiefs of Division Is it the perpetual hatred between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent or is it an uncharitable and froward spirit of opposition by reason of irritated animosity and deep suspition or jealousie or is it some temporary carnal Design It is first inquired Whether the root hereof be the perpetual hatred between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent Nothing is more certain from Scripture and experience then that a form of the true Religion may be with a kind of Zeal embraced and the power thereof hated and impugned by the same persons The Scribes and Pharisees were zealous and exact in the outward forms of the law of Moses yet their hatred of the power of that Religion appeared by their obstinate rejecting and persecuting of Christ and those that believed on him Many do embrace a form of the Christian Verity in the general Doctrines and in some plausible yet superficial practice Nevertheless they cannot abide the genuine and spiritual explication and close application of the same Verity leading to the life and power thereof Now if this were the true state of the difference that those of the one perswasion only did urge the necessity of the New Birth and of a holy and circumspect walking in all Christians and to that end seek the advancement of such a Ministry as with blessed Paul travels in birth till Christ be formed in the Hearers and such as is quick and powerful entring to the dividing of the soul and spirit and discovers the secret rottenness and destroys the self-confidence of the deceitful heart and drives the soul out of self to draw it to Christ such a Ministry as is assiduous and instant in the dispensation of the word by instruction reproof and comfort and in all other parts of the Pastoral duty that as much as in it lies it may present every man perfect in Christ And if those of the other perswasion account the urging of these things sever foolishness peevishness pride hypocrisie affected singularity and suppose the way to heaven common and easie and accordingly seek the advancement of such a Ministry that is more smooth and plausible then searching and faithful more slack and cold in the publick dispensation of the Word and in private admonition indulging the peoples corruptions and generally temporizing with their carnal spirit I say if the case were so between them I could proceed no further for in such a case to propose ways of Accommodation were to make proposals of Peace to Parties divided by an everlasting enmity but God forbid that the state of the difference should be so deplorable We trust that neither the one nor the other have so learned Christ as to exalt a form of Godliness and deny the power thereof And that it is not or ought not to be so and that it is on all hands disavowed with detestation we take it for a principle or ground-work whereon to bottom our whole design The King Declares That the Professions and desires of all those of either perswasion with whom he hath conferred are the same for the advancement of Piety and true Godliness Let the joynt pursuance of these professions and desires set both Parties agreed especially since His Majesty hath thus Declared in these gracious words Our purpose and resolution is and shall be to promote the power of Godliness to encourage the exercises of Religion both publique and private and to take care that the Lords Day may be applied to holy exercises without unnecessary divertisements and that insufficient negligent and scandalous Ministers may not be promoted in the Church Is an uncharitable and froward spirit of opposition by reason of irritated animosity and deep suspition and jealousie the root of these discords We fear indeed that too much tartness if not bitterness of spirit keeps the Breach open Differences of long continuance and setled prejudices do choak the exercise of Charity And the truth is formerly the current of occasions ran along to aggravare these differences and to exasperate these passions Let us now at length take hold of the right means to stop this current of contention Remove the occasions lay aside controverted matters whereof there will be no miss in the Church of God Let forms of Worship and Government be so cut out that they may not pinch and gall the consciences of either Party as it may be done by men of sober and charitable judgments without any impeachment of such order and decency as agrees with the simplicity and spiritual Glory of Gospel Administrations so after a while the froward humor that worketh on both sides would spend and lose it self Yea I am perswaded that some spirits now exulcerated through these distempers would not prove incurable or implacable After a little experience of such proper healing remedies both sides will find themselves brethren that had mistaken one another and forsaken their common Interest Most serious thoughts of heart have often led me to contemplate and lament the peculiar calamity of the Church of God in these Dominions that from time to time it hath been afflicted with

judgment and not in passion are directed to a certain end set up as a mark and that end is not a business at rovers but some particular steddy issue of things certainly or probably apprehended and expected Wherefore let wise men consider the mark whereat they level and to what issue and state of things their actions tend Here is a numerous party not of the dreggs and refuse of the Nation but of the judicious and serious part thereof What will they do with them and how will they order the matter concerning them Would they destroy them I solemnly profess that I abhor to think so by the generallity of the Episcopal perswasion I would disdain to mention such an unreasonable impiety were it not to shew the inconsiderate and absurd proceedings of an unalterable opposition as that it cannot drive to any formed end and issue That Protestants should destroy Protestants for dissenting in the point of Ceremonies and sole jurisdiction of Bishops is so dreadful a violation of Charity and common honesty that it is a most uncharitable and dishonest thing to suppose it of them What then would they bear them down or keep them under hard Conditions Shall all persons that cannot yield exact obedience to Ecclesiastical injunctions concerning all the parts of the Liturgy and Ceremonies be suspended and deprived as formerly Shall Ministers of this Judgment be cast and kept out of Ecclesiastical preferment and imployment Shall all private conferences of godly peaceable Christians for mutual edification be held unlawful Conventicles It hath been thought by wise men to be against the Rules of Government to hold under a rigid yoke a free people of such a number and quality and intermingled in all estates and ranks and intimately conjoyned with all parts of the body Politique that it is almost impossible to exclude their Interest from a considerable share in publique actions Besides is it for the service of Christ and the encrease of his Kingdom the Church that so many able Divines should be debarred the use of their Lords Talents that so many laborious Ministers should sit still in silence that when Christ teacheth us to pray that the Lord would thrust forth Labourers into his Harvest those Labourers should be thrust out of his harvest Surely this would make a cry in the ears of the Lord of the Harvest Let me add this 'T is a hard matter to silence them that will preach virtually in pious Conferences whose occasional and table discourses will be a kind of Sermon Let me offer a third way Will they afford them liberty of Conscience and yet stave them off as a divided Party to stand alone in their Principles and Interest Verily I cannot think it is in their heart so to do What then remains but to prepare the way and to make the path straight for a solid and perfect closure by laying aside those unnecessary occasions of stumbling If the neglect of brotherly Pacification hold on and the Hierarchy resolve upon their own advancement to the highest pitch one may well conclude That they make a full reckoning to wear out the Presbyterians and to swallow up their Interest conceiving they are able to effect it by degrees and that greater changes then these have been wrought without much ado And we confess indeed that a great change in Religion was made by Qu. ELIZABETH without much dispute or difficulty The alteration was not sudden but gradual Camden writes that in the entrance of the Queens Raign for a whole moneth and more the Roman Religion stood as it did at the death of Queen MARY On the 27. of December the Epistles and Gospels the Lords Prayer Creed and Ten Commandements together with the Letany were read in the English Tongue On the 22. of March the intire use of the Sacrament in both kindes was restored by Parliament On the 24. of June the Sacrifice of the Mass was abolished and the whole Liturgy restored into English In July the Oath of Supremacy was given to the Bishops And in August Images were taken out of the Churches and broken or burnt Why may not the Hierarchical Interest swallow up the Presbyterian as easily as Protestantism prevailed over Popery Surely I take these several cases to be very different And first because Queen ELIZABETH had this fundamental maxime as agreeable to her Conscience and the Interest of Her State to banish hence the exercise of the Roman Religion But our Gracious King in His Christian Prudence and Compassion seeks the uniting of His Protestant Subjects and the healing of their breaches by His Wise and Gracious condescentions already Declared Besides in the beginning of the Queens Raign the inferiour Clergy of this Kingdom universally appeared to be but lukewarm Papists and many of them might be supposed to be Protestants in heart and the most of them very unlearned and indifferent men in Religion And a great part of the Hierarchy were not more Zealous than the rest For when at that time the Ecclesiastical Promotions in England were numbred above nine thousand four hundred in all there were not more then fourscore Rectors of Churches fifty Prebendaries fifteen Heads of Colledges twelve Arch-Deacons twelve Deans six Abbots and Abbesses and fourteen Bishops that refused the Oath of Supremacy Also the English Service was so prepared that it might be no abomination to the Papists no positive thing therein occurring repugnant to their Doctrine for which cause they frequented the same for the first ten years and the Pope did not in many years send forth his thunder lightning against the Queen And Popery being in substance a Religion contrary to what was publickly professed had no advantage for encrease by publick Preaching or Books publickly allowed All these accidents did help forward to an absolute settlement of the Protestant Religion But we may find the state of things far otherwise in point of disposition or inclination toward the Dominion of absolute Prelacy and the rigorous imposition of Ceremonies and the extirpation of the Dissenting Party For there are now in England thousands of Ministers dis-satisfied in the Hierarchy and Ceremonies who are all competently and many of them eminently learned They are not generally of light spirits but steddy and well resolved and tenderly affected touching their spiritual liberties The way which in scorn is called Puritanism is not another Religion in substance than Protestantism but the very same or one branch thereof distinguished from the other by an accidental difference Protestant and Puritane Doctrine and Worship all men may know to be the same for substance and Puritanism will grow up with Protestantism notwithstanding all opposition as I have manifested in the former discourse Commonly those people who try all Doctrines by Scripture and are swayed more by its Authority than by the Ordinances and Customs of men do much hesitate and stagger concerning the sole Jurisdiction of Bishops the pomp of the Hierarchy and sacred mystical Ceremonies of Humane Institution And