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
A57059	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of Sir Alan Broderick, Kt. who dyed at Wandsworth in the county of Surrey, on Thursday, November 25th, and was interr'd there on Friday, Decemb. 3d., 1680 / by Nathanael Resbury ... .	Resbury, Nathanael, 1643-1711.	1681 (1681)	Wing R1129; ESTC R36714	16,078	32

so much despis'd that he could not dissemble it even in his last Will and Testament wherein he hath made express provision that his Herse should by no means be garnish'd with the usual Ornaments of a Family and no Escutcheon should either there or elsewhere appear Perhaps having that opinion of vulgar admiration and gazing with the Moralist that it so little adds to the value of him whom in such trifles they admire that it is a symptom of madness in the wonderer Arr. in Epict. L. 1. c. 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Who are those you would be admired by are they not such whom you were wont to call madmen and will you be ambitious of the opinion of a madman 2. It would add sense to the affliction of our loss could I tell you what treasures of Knowledge were shipwrack'd when this Vessel split But for me to endeavour a commendation here would be almost as ridiculous as for the Pigmee to pretend to an history of the Gyants reckoning he had told you of Prodigies of stature when he had rais'd the Gyant some few inches measure beyond himself I must profess my self in an Orb so many Regions below what this Great man was fixt in that it might have been as reasonable for himself when alive to have pretended to add lustre to the Angels in describing their perfections as for me to greaten his Name by telling what a Master in all the parts of Science he was Yet give me leave to say something who have for some years been gleaning after His mighty Harvest Certainly this Age though more fertile in the Sons of Wisdom than former Ages perhaps have been yet cannot exhibite many beyond this Gentleman in whom there was so happy a conjuncture of quickness and sharpness of Wit with maturity and strength of Understanding comprehensiveness and tenaciousness of Memory with choice and discretion of Judgment that is not usual I may say hardly repeated in any one instance again His Memory was under that command and empire of Judgment that it never lost a Jewel committed to its keeping and the Judgment so well skill'd and faithful that it would never cumber that great Repository with a trifle or counterfeit He had so clear and distinct a sense of things that though he had travell'd all the Regions of Learning yet had never bewilder'd himself and though he had amast a treasure of very heterogeneous materials yet were they all so orderly and methodically dispos'd that he could fetch from every proper Cell what might be most delightsome or most useful in all the varieties of Conversation he maintain'd and as he had been a mighty devourer of Books so his very disgorgings if I may use the word had generally more relish than the first cookery because his judgment had pick'd out and thrown away all the needless and superfluous mixtures before he would deign a repetition that to Me his censure either of Books or Men which yet had always its candid leaning and byass seem'd a very just cynosure and steerage in my choice or neglect of them He if any hath made void that old observation of Aliquis in omnibus nullus in singulis In Philosophy there was no old or new hypothesis but he had so well digested so far at least as became the Majesty of so great a Mind to condescend to the little sports of conjecture that he could with all easiness either explain or redargue it In Anatomy he could almost talk as wondrously as he was made In Poetry he had so choice a collection in memory and so lucky an art in using it for the cheer of conversation that both the ancient and modern Poets liv'd in him and when he had any just occasion to bring them into Company he gave them a dress so decent and suitable that their wit through all the changes of Ages and Humour did still when introduc'd by him appear modish and fashionable In History he was so universally accomplisht as to all its parts especially Topographical and Chronological that if any imputation can be upon his memory it must be upon his modesty and reservedness in this particular that he hath not made some essays in History to which he might equally have pretended with any one Author extant wherein he might have given Laws as to method and his censures as to credibility in the sallacious or disputable reports of Antiquity Neither let me pass over in an ingrateful silence the advantages my self have reap'd from him as to that knowledge that lies directly within the sphere of mine own function for in Divinity he was so throughly vers'd that he could give a strict account of though he had no delight in the Wars and controversies of it and had determin'd himself in the Truth not because he knew not the Errors but because he knew and could argue that they were so But as the Polemick part in Divinity had made him so uneasie that he almost contemn'd the Schoolmen whose method of dogmatizing he though had been if not the original yet at least the Nursery of these jars and contentions in the Church and could not but bewail the short and imperfect insight that Humane Nature it self was allow'd in this World by which the best minds could not think the same things nor hardly bear with each other in their differences so thanks be to God I dare say that for some considerable time before the close of his days he was a zealous and exemplary proficient in the practick part and made it his business not only to think and talk these great things but to live them too And I am glad I am now entred this best Scene of his life that I can in the terms of my Text tell you that the Righteous and the Merciful man is taken from us I pray God forbid the Omen that he is taken from the Evil to come And indeed as to all that I have hitherto said Himself under the sense he had of greater things was so slenderly opinionated in such lower accomplishments For he was if in any thing affected in design'd and study'd unaffectedness that had not the best and Noble part of him taken flight beyond the disturbances of what happens in this Mortal state it would find it self uneasie that such contemn'd and neglected topicks of praise should be mention'd or insisted on towards the establishing of his value amongst Men. And because my Text points to a twofold Qualification in a Person that may render the death of such an one a common misfortune and calamity I shall direct my Discourse with respect to both of them as they were eminently visible in him The first Qualification is righteousness the other is mercy Under the former I shall consider his Religion and Devotion toward God Under the latter his Charity and usefulness toward Men. 1. As to his Religion his Profession was that of the Reform'd as the Doctrine and Discipline of it is establisht in the Church of

England by Law which he took care to leave upon Record in his last Will and Testament And indeed it is no nice or impertinent fineness in this calumniating Age to leave some undeniable Memorial of what Faith we dye in because there is a factious party on the one hand who are too apt to brand all actions not done in direct and zealous favour to them with the odious and reproachful name of Popery and there is a Jesuitical trick on the other hand to enroll the flower of Wit or Learning or Wealth and Interest within the Diptychs of the Romish Church that when such are dead and cannot speak for themselves or when strangers to them inspect the number and weight of such Names they may be intic'd or frighted into a closure with that party which hath so plausible an appearance and whose interest seems so strong and invincible But as to our Friend whose worth would almost make the ambition of that Church venial to pretend to a share in him I have heard him upon occasion declare so great an abhorrence and detestation of the Popish Religion that he hath profest he could bear the imputation of being Mahumetan or Atheist rather than a Romanist that is he would not be accounted so much a fool as to espouse principles so foppish so easily baffled by the very infancy of Reason so destructive of common sence c. But if the World had no other Religion to pretend to but such an one he would utterly renounce all He could not but believe that he had hands and eyes he could both feel and see and therefore would not take a Wafer for his Redeemer nor could he imagine the God he ought to worship had such a relish to bloud that he delighted to have his Worship introduc'd or secur'd by Rebellion or Murder by open Wars or secret Massacres the Torments of Inquisition and all kind of Barbarism The Turk he thought something more plausible as less cruel and the Atheist more excusable as not so abandon'd a fool But thanks be to God he had no reason to flye to either the one or the other for want of the reasonableness or gentleness and good nature of Religion for he found and lov'd and practis'd it in ours And indeed so steddy and devoted a Member was he to this Church that in the publick figure he once made in the World he did most sensible services to its interest which some nearliest concern'd can never forget and that so distant from all selfishness that he could not without some indignation reject a mighty thanksigiving-offering which the gratitude of some had prompted them to make to him Nor would he afterward interpose his interest in behalf of Relation or Friend lest it might seem an intimation or remembrance of the services he had done unless in one instance not long since wherein the zeal and fervour of his love made him make one unseasonable request and the importunity of his friendship made him resent the disappointment with something a less candour than he was wont to interpret things His love having so far byass'd his judgment at that time that he could not consider what the wisdom of those with whom he interceded did discern as to the worthlessness and insignificancy of him for whom he had solicited So much may serve as to what Profession he made As to His Practice This for some years last past to which my self have been an eye-witness and a joyful observer hath been so signally Religious that as in none of the excellent endowments I have already mention'd He was of the ordinary rank so herein how late soever he set out yet when he once began the course he made such large and nimble steps Heaven-ward that he out-strip'd the ordinary Passenger that had begun long before in self-denyal and the zeal of his Devotions in Circumspection and Watchfulness over his actions and thoughts in largeness of mind both for and toward God in all the exercises of a deep and serious repentance and in all the noble reasonings of faith beyond what is observable in the common stages of Christianity I will readily acknowledge and why indeed should I scruple to own what himself with such repeated contrition and brokenness of spirit would to all sober ears so freely and heartily condemn himself for that a long Scene of his life had been acted off in the Sports and Follies of sin if I may use his own words it was a Pagan and Abandon'd way he had sometime pursu'd Scepticism it self not excepted wherein the poinancy of his Wit and the strength of his reasoning even in that very argument the using of which proclaims a Man in the Language of the Holy Scriptures a very fool may have been the occasion of a great deal of mischief towards some that are already gone to their accounts without the happy retreat that himself made and others who may yet survive him and ought to improve the goodly example he hath given them of rescuing themselves from those ruinous illusions wherein their misopinionated wit and deceitful charms of their own Lusts have hamper'd and entangled them But I mention these things and I hope all good minds will entertain them with that kind of Joy which the Angels themselves are said to express at the conversion of a sinner Luke 15.7 10. A Joy if I may so speak that had been wanting in Heaven had it not been for the recovery of some profligate Wanderers on Earth a pleasure which the Indulgent Father could not have conceiv'd had not the prodigal Son returned to himself and him We live I confess in an Age wherein Credulity is the least of our Crimes we are not easily induc'd to believe any thing but what perhaps some destructive wheadles from the common enemy may whisper and insinuate so that it is not an easie matter to possess Men with any assur'd perswasion of the truth of such an instance when we come to tell them of the mighty change and amendment of such as have been remarkable in Vice Even good Men themselves think it their prudence to question such an event as hardly comporting with so perverse and naughty an Age as this is and Ill men apprehend it their interest to ridicule and laugh such a story out of the belief of others lest a new Monument should be erected to their shame and so on both sides it is entertain'd either as the dawbs and flattery of the Narrator or the disguises and personatings of the Penitent designing only a good fame and to leave a perfum'd Name behind him It hath been the fate of a late Noble Person E. of Roch. who having quitted the stage of this World with an action far different from the entry he made upon it being indeed a Prodigy of Conversion from the extremes of ill to the extremes of good the incredulity of most Men hath given such modesty to the Reverend Person that could relate the whole with great