Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	carry_v	zeal_n	zealous_a	31	3	8.3577	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65594	One and twenty sermons preach'd in Lambeth Chapel Before the Most Reverend Father in God Dr. William Sancroft, late Lord Arch-bishop of Canterbury. In the years MDCLXXXIX. MDCXC. By the learned Henry Wharton, M.A. chaplain to His Grace. Being the second and last volume.	Wharton, Henry, 1664-1695.; White, Robert, 1645-1703, engraver.	1698 (1698)	Wing W1566; ESTC R218467	236,899	602

their secret Malice assigning the Cause of all to be their Love of Justice of their Religion or of their Countrey And such is the Credulity of Mankind that these Pretences seldom want Success covering the Malice and Rancor of a canker'd Soul and giving the most easie and secure Opportunities of Revenge All are apt to censure and condemn Revenge when proceeding from the Principle of false Honour which was before mentioned because the Motive of it is not and cannot be dissembled yet in Truth this sort of Revenge is infinitely less Criminal than the former arising from Hatred and Malice however dissembled and assuming to it self more specious Names This is formed by a violent Commotion of Mind which lasteth not many hours but that by an hardned Malice which worketh secretly for many years together This is commonly effected in the heat of Blood when the Soul hath scarce time to recollect it self or command the unruly Passions of the Body but that is raised and carried on by deliberate thought and resolution which is the utmost Aggravation that any sin can receive This may sometime fall even upon a good Man who through the heat of Passion and from a violent Indignation of receiving unworthy Injuries may suddenly be betrayed to the Desire or the Execution of Revenge but of the other a good Man can never be guilty since it is impossible that Hatred and Malice which are habitual sins should consist with the least degree of Goodness In all habitual sins the Mind cannot but many times reflect upon its own Diseases and be as often convinced of the unlawfulness of those Vices which it nourisheth The Divine Prohibition of those sins often recurs to the Memory and the Soul cannot but be conscious of her own Diseases yet in spight of all these Considerations the Man resolveth to retain his Hatred and Malice towards others And in this Resolution is encouraged from the Consideration that these sins being close and secret will consist with the pretence of Sanctity and may be serviceable to him in his base Designs against his Neighbours And of this sort are all the sins of Hypocrites fixed and determinate Resolutions of persevering in opposition to the Laws of God and still making use of his glorious Name to carry on private Designs No wonder then that in Scripture the most severe Punishments are still denounced against Hypocrites since theirs are all deliberate sins such as Oppression Covetousness Injustice Lying Slandering Perfidiousness Hatred and Malice all sins of the most enormous Guilt and heightened by this farther Consideration that the specious pretences of Piety Religion and Zeal are made use of to execute the several Designs of them Particularly in the Case of malicious Revenge nothing is more ordinary than to pretend a zealous Concern for the Punishment of Evil doers as if they would supply the defect of the Divine Justice or of the Laws of their Countrey and punish the Guilt of sins for which God hath ordinarily provided no Punishment in this Life reserving it to another Yet oftentimes the sins of others which these Men would pretend to punish are indeed nothing else but opposition to their Humours Fancies and Designs it being in the account of some Men an unpardonable Crime to be of a contrary or another Party to have crossed or opposed a Design of the others altho' never so unreasonable or perhaps to have once performed their Duty without Partiality and corrupt Favour to others when the Laws of their Countrey did require it Certainly if the Guilt of sins is to be measured from the Evil Consequences of them such malicious Revenge will be found the greatest of all sins Being the Cause and occasion of publick Calamites over-turning the Peace and Prosperity of whole Nations and bringing them to Destruction Great and numerous Societies of Men such as this Nation is cannot easily be dissolved without intestine Divisions and such are always the effect of malicious Revenge In this manner we shall find almost all the great Societies of the World to have been broken when they have divided into two or more Parties and those continually practising upon each other under Pretence of preserving the religious or civil Rights of the Countrey against the Invasion of the other and as each prevail employing their Interest and Power not to the upholding of the Religion or Laws but to the ruin or vexation of the others I will not apply this to our own Nation or bring any Instance from our Times least I should be thought to engage in any Party But if we call to mind the History of the Jews we shall find many Examples of such malicious Revenge covered under such specious pretences Thus when the Jewish Magistrates resolved to take away our Saviour's Life they put on a mighty shew of Zeal for the publick Service and accused him to the Roman Governour as an Enemy unto Cesar Although themselves indeed cared so little for Cesar that they had at that very time formed the design of a general Rebellion against him as appeared shortly after And when this Rebellion broke out and the People unanimously attempted to cast off the Roman Yoke and recover their ancient Liberty the most bloody and wicked part of them took upon them the name of Zealots and under pretence of extraordinary Concern for the publick Interest and punishing the secret Favourers and Friends of the Romans murdered or robbed every Man his private Enemy and by this Division made way to the Arms of the Romans who without this advantage could not easily have overcome that populous and resolute Nation These Considerations ought to divert Men from a resolved Prosecution of Revenge and much more those Arguments which might be drawn from the Scope or Design of the Christian Religion might produce this Effect if we could perswade our selves that Men did in earnest believe the Truth of it and submit to it But when almost every Man pleads an Exemption from the Obligation of it in all Commands which oppose his peculiar Passions when little beside the Pretence of it is left among us and even that pretence continued not out of any Reverence to Religion but because it is serviceable to Secular and mean Designs we cannot but despair of prevailing with the greater part of Men therein However we must declare that nothing is more contrary to the Spirit and Design of Christianity than to study Revenge to continue Hatred and Animosity without end and never to forget and forgive an Injury Such a Conduct is directly opposite to the Doctrine and Example of our Lord and however covered with specious Colours of wonderful Zeal or Purity or Affection to any Party will be no less damnable in a Christian than Idolatry in a Heathen Lastly If neither the Reason of the thing nor the Divine Prohibition nor the regard of publick Security concerned therein nor the direct opposition of Christianity to it can draw Men from the Love of Revenge yet at

best tend to the perpetual Continuation and Propagation of this Light once delivered When therefore by these means in a few Centuries almost all the known World was delivered from the Power of darkness freed from its ancient Errors and received the Truth when a considerable part of the World still continues to enjoy the same Benefits Freedom from the darkness of Ignorance in Divine Matters and an exact Knowledge both of the Nature of God as far as relates to us our Duty to him and way to Happiness may we not justly conclude all the Glorious Prophesies concerning the happy times of the Messias and the Light to be conferred on the World by him to have been exactly completed in our Lord and that in removing the Ignorance of Mankind and restoring and increasing the Knowledge of truth among Men he was in an eminent manner the Light of the World And so pure and unspotted as well as clear and bright is this light communicated by Christ unto the World so exactly conformable to all the first Principles of Truth and Reason imprinted in the Souls of Men or to be deduced thence that a more clear Argument of the Truth of the Christian Religion cannot be conceived or desired A Reflection which may be worth our Consideration a while as being no small Confirmation of the Excellency of that Light of which we now treat It is impossible to conceive that a Person devoid of all acquired Learning as our Lord confessedly was should in an Age over-run with universal Errors teach and deliver an entire System of Doctrine and Rule of Life without the least Error if he had not been directed by a Divine Power and really acted by that Divine Commission which he pretended It might perhaps have been accounted possible if he had been brought up at the feet of Gamaliel instructed in all the Learning of the Age altho' even in that Case it would have been very hardly possible when the learned Men among the Jews are all known at that time to have been involved in so many Errors and how grosly the learned Men among the Gentiles erred in the Rules of natural Religion we before instanced and that any one Man should after the Reception of his Education from these very Erroneous Doctors happily discover all the Errors both of Jews and Gentiles and find out the exact Truth in all Questions of Morality and Religion without the least mixture of Error or Mistake seems a Matter wholly incredible But that a Person devoid of all Learning and external Helps should effect it is wholly impossible Now it is most certain that in the whole System of Christian Religion and among all the Rules of Life as delivered by Christ and contained in his Gospel not the least Flaw or Error could ever be found by all the Adversaries of it Or if we trust not them let every Mans Reason be his Judge Let him view all the Commands of Christ and see if he can find any thing contrary to Reason any thing unworthy either of God or Man An invincible Argument that the Author of it proceeded by a Divine Commission and derived his Knowledge from a supernatural Revelation It may not be amiss in a few words to carry this Argument a little higher and apply it to the Religion of the Jews before the coming of our Lord. Where if we think rationally we shall find it absolutely impossible that a People so barbarous as they were in the beginning so devoid of all Assistances of Arts and Sciences in the whole Succession of their Government should form such just and noble Notions of a Deity contrive a Religion without any mixture of Sin or Idolatry unless they had been directed by God himself View all the Nations round about and you shall find them drowned in gross Ignorance and Idolatry And then enquire if any other Cause of this so great difference can be assigned Compare their Hymns formed in Honour of God and Books treating concerning the Nature of him now comprised in the Old Testament with the Compositions formed by the Grecians or any other Learned Heathen Nation in Honour of their Gods and with their Theological Writings you will find the first to contain just and noble Thoughts of God true Judgments concerning the Relation between God and Man nothing which is not agreeable to the Honour and Majesty of God nothing which is not exactly true Whereas in the other you shall discover every where either childish or impious Notions of God nothing answerable to his Majesty and little agreeable to Truth A difference which can never be accounted for but by acknowledging the former to have proceeded from a Divine Direction and Inspiration So clear and undeniable is the force of Light that it discovers it self where-ever it Acts it cannot be hid dissembled or stifled and according to our Saviour's own Comparison like a City placed upon a Hill appeareth at a distance giving direction to all far and near And thus our Saviour was also the Light of the World upon the account of the Exemplariness of his Life In which Respect he tells his Disciples that they are the Light of the World Matth. V. 14. giving Direction to Mankind in the practice of their Duty by that eminent Vertue which shone forth in them and could not but be observed by all Men. And of himself John IX 5. As long as I am in the World I am the Light of the World Not that he was wholly to cease to be the Light of the World even after he should be removed from it For both his Doctrine and the Report of his Example were to enlighten the World to all Ages but in the latter Respect that of his Example the Efficacy of it would decrease upon his removal from the Earth inasmuch as the Sight moveth more than the Fame of an illustrious Example An Example indeed so eminent that whether seen or heard it was a Light to all Mankind so resplendent and remarkable that as the Light it struck the Eyes of all Men and could not but be taken Notice of so just and adequate that it included the whole Duty of Man in its utmost Perfection and as the Light directed Men in the right way His Doctrine was the most exact System of all Moral and Divine Vertues that ever was proposed to the World And in all this System there is no one Vertue which himself possessed and exercised not in the most perfect manner All that Piety Temperance Meekness and Charity which he prescribed to his Followers himself practised in the whole Course of his Life And that in a Degree which other Men cannot hope to attain to without any interruption of Vice or Imperfection Such an Example might well be termed the Light of the World in which alone if all Rules of Piety if all Notions of good were lost among Men they might be entirely recovered And not only illustrious in it self but also industriously made so to all

them intends it or not they cannot be concealed or pass unregarded Upon which account Christ justly resembleth them to a City placed on a Hill and to a Candle set on a Candlestick in the 14th and 15th Verses which naturally appear and give Light to all round about them as if he should say Do but you take care to perform good Works and the very Nature of them will cause them to become Exemplar I do not require you to publish and Blazon them abroad nor is there any need of it For if they be indeed performed they cannot escape the Knowledge and Observation of other Men. Farther not only the Nature of good Works maketh the Ostentation of them to be unnecessary in order to become Exemplar but also they carry with them less Temptation to Pride and Arrogance than any other Acts either of true or supposed Religion If the grounds and more ordinary Reasons of Pride and Self-conceit in Religion be searched it will be found that they are wont to be grounded in the more easie and commonly in mistaken Points of Religion As of old among the Pharisees in the punctual performance of Washings and other Ritual Observations among the more Ignorant of the Church of Rome at this day in Pilgrimages Beads and other Trifles among their Saints in extraordinary Austerities or unusual Acts of Self-denial among Enthusiasts in Raptures and pretended Inspirations All these naturally tend to foment the Pride and Self-conceit of Men they draw the Eyes of others on them and serve to make unwary People believe them extremely Conscientious and have this farther advantage towards the Design of Hypocrites that they are cheaply performed cross no Passion restrain no Lust make a great shew and cost them nothing And when they are performed not affording any inward Satisfaction of Mind as having no internal worth it is but natural for the Actors of them to seek that Satisfaction from the Praises and Applause of other Men which they reaped not from the Reflections of their own Conscience Whereas the performance of good Works raiseth in the Soul of Man so sweet a Complacency when reflected on that external Commendations can add nothing considerable to the internal Satisfaction of the Mind and will be neglected when compared with it To which I may add that the Exercise of many good Works and most signally the greatest of them that of Charity towards the Poor do naturally dispose to Humility accustoming the Mind to consider and compassionate the Wants and Infirmities of inferior Persons and condescend to the relief of their Condition It being most certain that Pride or an over-valuing of their own Dignity is in some Men the Cause of uncharitableness as well as the love of Riches betraying them to imagine it beneath their Quality to take into their Consideration the necessities of distressed Persons and to be aggrieved for them Which sort of Pride cannot consist with real Charity and where this is to be found the former can have no place At least it is most certain that Hypocrisie may consist with all those mistaken Indications of Holiness I before mentioned but with good Works with Mercy Justice Truth and Charity it is impossible it should consist For that whosoever performeth these doth really perform what he pretends to do that is satisfieth the Obligation of the Religion which he professeth However although ordinarily it be not necessary so to direct the performance of good Works that they may not escape the Knowledge of Men and it be always unlawful to direct them in that manner for this end alone to obtain the Praise of Men Yet in some extraordinary Cases it is not only lawful to perform them publickly with this Design that they may be seen of others not to obtain their Praise but to promote the Honour and Glory of God but it is also highly acceptable to God and serviceable to his Church This is warranted by the express words of our Lord in the Text which require his Disciples to cause their Light so to shine before Men that they may see their good Works and glorifie God If this Design doth at last terminate in the Honour of God and be so intended it is not only warrantable but recommendable by God and will be certainly rewarded by him Only great Caution is to be used in the Management of it and a scrupulous Care to be observed least any thing of vain Glory any sinister End should intervene and is to be put in Practise only in Cases of exceeding moment Such are when any Age or large Society of Men are especially deficient in any Duty In which Case it is a laudable and noble Undertaking for any private Persons to give the greatest and most publick Lustre to their performance of that Duty that so if it be possible by their eminen Example therein they may retrieve the publick Practice of it and whensoever any great and common Good altho' of another Nature may be attained or promoted thereby Such was the Case more particularly of the Apostles who were sent to preach Faith and Repentance among Jews and Heathens generally devoid not only of Faith but of all Moral Vertues For this Reason it was necessary that those noble Acts of Charity which they exercised in healing the Sick and restoring the use of their Limbs and Senses to those who before wanted them should be performed publickly that themselves should decline no opportunity of manifesting the Excellency of the Christian Religion and the deep Impression of it upon their own Minds For this Cause also St. Paul was not ashamed to relate at large and to Glory in the many Afflictions Hazards and Persecutions which he had undergone for the Testimony of Christ because the amplifying of his Labour and Patience tended to the spiritual Good of the Corinthians to whom it is directed and consequently promoted the Honour of God This Design also justified the Bravery of those ancient Christians who voluntarily and unsought for delivered up themselves into the hands of their Persecutors when they observed a general Cowardize and frequent Examples of Apostacy among other Christians who were apprehended and brought before the Heathen Tribunals that so by their Courage and Constancy they might excite others to persist resolutely in the Profession of their Faith It must be acknowledged that simply to throw themselves into Danger to expose themselves to the Fury of their Persecutors was unlawful Our Lord in Matth. X. 23. had commanded his Disciples When they should be persecuted in one City to fly into another And the Doctrine and Discipline of the ancient Church had forbidden the ordinary Practice of such rash Undertakings Yet whensoever so great a Good might be attained thereby as to raise the dejected Courage of other Christians and to assert the Honour of Christ against the Heathens boasting in the subversion of many weaker Christians it was not only lawful to engage in voluntary Martyrdom but highly meritorious and rewarded as such by