Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	england_n	reform_a	4,212	5	9.5265	5	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

end of it And even this is only a Personal Success for that the Nation that is the Scene of that Prince's Glory may suffer as much under him if not more than it could have done from any Enemy since all the Protection that they enjoy under him is that they are preserved from the Impressions of others that they may be the entire Prey of the Lawless Power that devours them and all their Substance and employs it in the support of his Injustice and Cruelty Besides the great decays of true Religion among all those Churches that carry the Name Reformed may have required an exemplary chastisement to awaken and parifie them and the slow progress that they make in this may have occasioned so long a continuance and encrease of Glory in him whom God has made the Rod of his Anger for correcting them But when that end of Providence is once fulfilled we may then reasonably hope to see that Persecutor who is swelled up upon his success become the object of as much Scorn as he has been hitherto of Flattery But alas our Impenitence and Irreligion keeps off still that day and our Immoralities and Vices do still feed his Pride and furnish him new matter of Triumph and Glory In a word nothing needs be further said for a fuller proof of this matter than that those very Sins that provoke the wrath of God do likewise dissolve and corrupt all that is great or noble in human nature falshood dissolves the mutual Confidences and Union of a Nation without which it must act feebly and move irregularly as a disjointed body Cruelty brings a barbarity on mens natures which makes them incapable of prudent and wise Counsels Sensuality takes away mens Hearts their Courage and their Spirit But above all things a brutal Impiety and scorn of Religion cuts all the Banks and Fences of Human Society and not only sets men loose to all their Appetites and Passions by taking off all inward checks and restraints but begets a sort of boisterousness and insolence in their Tempers so that they become incapable of Order and Conduct and equally unfit both for Council and Execution How much of all this belongs to us is but too visible Would to God it were but a Secret and not too notorious and publick Where is the ancient gravity and composure of Behaviour that made a large part of the Character of this Nation Where is the Truth and Fidelity which was formerly one of the distinctions of Englishmen Where is the Good-nature and Generosity that was the Ornament of those that were nobly born Where are even the Decencies of Religion or of the Worship of God What is become of the Love of our Country and of its ancient Government and Liberty Has not this shameful Degeneracy of our Morals brought us so low that there is scarce Virtue enough left and men enough to be found that have even a general Tincture of it to save a Nation Sensuality has run many into such a deep Arrear for Vice that they cannot be true neither to publick nor private Engagements and then Imployments will be made the Robberies of the Publick and Vice will swallow up all that Strength and Treasure which should go to the support of the Nation Men are pleased or displeased only as their Vices are fed or starved Some pretend to be Patriots that are so eminent for Vice that a Government fixt and strong enough to reform the Nation must throw them off as the Scum and Reproaches of it For let those Sons of Belial say what they will Atheism and Impiety are as destructive to a Nation as they are to a Church What can secure a man's Honesty or give life to his Industry What can cure all those Diseases under which we languish but the possessing mens minds with inward principles of Religion which will make them to become a Law and a Rule to themselves What can raise in men a generous love to their Country which is the root of all Political Virtues to so high a degree as the Principles of Christian Love and Charity the sense of an Account to be given to God for all we do and that noblest Principle of all Religion the raising up our Natures to become as like the Divine Being as possibly we can which will give us a Zeal of doing all the good we can to Mankind and of being publick Blessings to the Age and Place we live in These are solid Principles upon which Vertue is founded and in these it finds a Root from which it receives a perpetual encrease But if Virtue has no other Root but Honour which is a decenter name for Pride or Humour there is no strength in this Principle to resist a Temptation that bears hard upon some other corrupt Inclination especially if one hopes that things may be managed with Art and Secrecy But on the other hand what can be desired to make a Nation great and happy but that which at the same time recommends it to the favour of God When the Principles of Truth and Goodness of Sobriety and Temperance of mutual Love and Kindness and above all when an inward strictness in examining ones Actions as in the sight of God come to possess multitudes of Men then a Nation may reckon it self safe and happy because as it comes under a kind and indulgent Providence so it has a real strength from the vertues of every individual Person in whom those good qualities live The World might be well and happily governed with a moderate proportion of Understanding if there were but a great deal of Vertue under it For if it were not for Vice and Falshood which must be watched over carefully there are not such Mysteries in things but that they may be easily master'd Here is then the root of all our evils on the one hand and the remedy to them all on the other we have fallen from our ancient Vertues and our Religion has not force enough to reform or restrain us we went easily into corruption when great Examples led and encouraged us to it But we do not so easily recover out of it though we have now as bright Examples before us the other way but this has a contrary operation on depraved Minds and instead of making them love Vertue Religion the better for the lustre with which it shines in the Persons of those that govern us many perhaps love the Government the worse because they apprehend that Immorality and Impiety will become more odious less excused and less protected But a noble Pattern set by Princes tho' it is a great thing in it self yet it is not all that they owe to God and to their People It does indeed give them great advantages in reforming their Courts and their Subjects when it appears that they do not deny to others the freedoms of Vice that they may appropriate them to themselves and that what they do this way is not a Hypocritical affectation