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	zeal_n	zealous_a	255	4	8.9667	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61173	A sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons at St. Margarets Westminster, January 30th 1677/8 by Thomas Sprat ...	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.	1678 (1678)	Wing S5053; ESTC R16476	17,653	54

that therefore the Christian Faith the Faith of the Church of England may have the credit of that greatness of Mind it Taught the King in His Extremity That To be Persecuted is a Blessing was a Doctrine never heard of till our Saviour here first introduc'd it No other Teacher or Law-giver ever went or durst go so contrary to the interests and pleasures of Flesh and Blood None else would have laid so much weight on Humane Nature or could have made it so easie none but He that was God as well as Man He that as Man knew what it was to suffer and as God knew how to support those that Suffer'd 'T is true the power of bearing Persecution well has been alwayes pretended to by all Sects and Nations and Religions of Men. All History is full of such great Examples amongst those to whom the Gospel was never reveal'd But have not the rest too generally gone on the wrong or tottering Principles of empty Fame of doubtful Philosophy of False of Imperfect Religions certainly seldome any truely Great seldome any steddy and unchangeable Comfort little lasting relief most certainly scarce any everlasting was to be found till the appearance of our Saviour to make Men on just grounds to Rejoyce and Triumph in Pains and Losses and Miseries Mankind before that was left detective in this most necessary Virtue of which we have all a perpetual use For my Brethren there is no Retirement so Secure no Provision so Large no Search so happy as to find out that place whither nor Cares nor Misfortunes make their way The Sweetest the Fairest the most plentiful Alas you see the most commanding condition is often times a greater burthen at best is only a less and a gentler misery not any real hapiness Of all those that built Houses in the Parable the most rais'd them on the Sand the best and the wisest could only found them on the Rock on which notwithstanding all their prudence the Winds did blow and the Sea did rage about them all their advantage was not a full quiet but only that the Storms did beat on them in vain And this is that for which we are only beholden to our Saviour Christ of whom we may justly say in respect of Mankind as Augustus said of himself and Rome Lateritiam invenit marmoream reliquit he found our Nature weak and frail compos'd of Adams mouldring Earth but he made it and left it of the finest and most durable Marble He himself came persecuted but one of the chief ends of his coming was to free all that believe on him and obey his commands though not from all persecution yet from all the Curse of it nay to do better than if he had taken all persecution quite away to make it a cause of Joy and Felicity a Blessing to those that are Persecuted And How feeble How deceitful How much like a broken Reed which only pierces where it should uphold are all the other Motives and Principles of Suffering well in comparison to those that He has Taught First Some Men indeed may strive to endure Afflictions courageously in a sence of Natural Decence by the force of some Natural Passion or by the single Precepts of Natural Wisdom But What is the chief end that such Men can propose to themselves Can it be much more than the bare expectation of transitory Fame and Honor in this World or some Temporary Interest and Contentment here below And What mighty Reliefs or Rewards are these such Consolations at best can only stupify the Mind under pain they are far from turning the Pain into a Blessing Such Recompences are imaginary contemptible perishing whilst the Labors Men take for them are great and real Whereas to a Christian Sufferer the Labors are contemptible compar'd to the inestimable greatness of the Recompence Undoubtedly nothing in this Life can make Afflictions tolerable much less a Blessing but a Belief that there is another Life in comparison to the Joyes of which the Miseries of this Life are of no consideration nay a belief that we shall partake of the Joys of another Life if we bear patiently the ordinary and extraordinary Miseries of this and that nothing can teach us to do the right way but Religion nothing but the Right Religion For Secondly There is also a strange Force and Resolution of Mind that may proceed from False Religions and from the Principles of Enthusiasm This kind must be confest far to exceed all Natural Courage in its effects it may sometimes be hardly distinguishable from the True Patience that is Taught by the True Religion it self Yet there are very Material Distinctions between them The chief this in my Text. The one is only for the True Righteousness sake the other for a Counterfeit Hypocritical Righteousness And besides they differ in that the True Religion rightly us'd Teaches Men really to Believe that to be Persecuted is a Blessing but never to Persecute False Religion and Enthusiasm may make Men Pretend to Believe that to be Persecuted is a Blessing but Really to Believe that the Power of Persecuting is a Greater Blessing and to Use that Power with the Greatest Cruelty when they have got it as we have felt by Many Dismal Instances especially that of This Black and Guilty Day However it is too true that Mistaken Zeal and Deluding Inspirations have oftentimes a Prodigious Influence on those Minds that are Possest with them Possest in the Worst Sense of the Word they can easily make Men despise all Dangers and Terrors they can fill their Proselytes with Heat and Raptures enough to rush violently on Torments to Glory in the false Presumption of Martyrdom to do as Empedocles of old who cast himself willingly into the fiercest Flames that he might be thought to go to Heaven We have seen a Blind Fanatical Zeal enrage Forty Men to make War against a Mighty Nation in full peace in the midst of its Principal City And since the Implacable Enemies of our Church and State have had and still have such a dreadful offensive Weapon in their keeping as all Zealous though Erroneous Religion is Should not this my Brethren be a serious Admonition to us who profess our selves Friends to the Church and State to make provision against them by the better more powerful indeed invincible defensive Weapons of our Spiritual Warfare that may be learnt from the True and Unfeigned Religion Since they pretend to fetch their Armor from Heaven against our Cause ought not we really to fetch ours from Heaven against theirs we cannot want all other means of defence we have Reason and Justice and Law and Loyalty on our side All those the Enemies of our Church and State must want But let us beware least if they have any Zeal we none they have something more forcible than any of the other Most certainly nothing but Conscience well-inform'd can be an equal Match for Conscience misguided nothing but the power of Godliness nothing

I am perswaded he was outdone by none We have undeniable instances that neither his best Beloved Recreations nor one of the most Sorrowful Messages he ever receivd not his most Urgent Business not his Greatest Delights not his Greatest Grief could prevail with him ever to Omit or but for a Moment to interrupt his Dayly Solemn Prayers From this Church he might justly have expected and he had his last Comforts But alas when he most needed her help he saw her in the greatest outward Desolation her self Her Chief Prelate one of the Most Innocent Devout and Magnificent Men of that Age Beheaded in the view of Forty thousand Men and too many of them so Inhumane as to Rejoyce at the Death of a Bishop against whom their Chief Objection was his being a Bishop Of this Church whose Preservation and Prosperity had been alwayes his chief Study he liv'd to see the Truth Question'd the Glory Vanish'd the Buildings Falling the Revenues Devour'd and so Devour'd that he himself must be compell'd either to confirm the Sacrilege by his Authority or to make way for it by his Blood Of which two Dreadful Extremes he chose the last And so became our Churches Martyr as he had been her Saint A Saint incomparably more holy than all the Enthusiastical Saints of the Sectaries A Martyr to be prefer'd before a whole Multitude of Martyrs that swell the Romish Calandar Of this Church in his Imprisonments the Publick Offices were sometimes denied him the attendance of his own Chaplains sometimes forbid seldom but precariously allow'd Liberty of Conscience refus'd the King by the meanest of his Subjects who Claim'd it as their Own Due both by Religion and Nature and made that the Chief Pretence of their Rebellion against him His most Secret Duties of Piety were often disturb'd by the abuse and outrage of common Soldiers hardly the Service of one of his Bishops was afforded him in his last Agony Yet Providence so order'd it that it was the very Bishop whom of all his Clergy he had most employ'd in Secular Affairs Nor could any thing more justify the Pious and Conscientious Choice of his Ministers both in Church and State than that the very same Man who had Manag'd his Revenue should be thought fittest to direct his Conscience that his best Treasurer should be his last Confessor As to the Unnatural War against him he made himself so naked to avoid it that when it was forc'd on him he was not in a Capacity to Maintain his own Just Rights in it He went so far to meet his Undutiful Subjects in a Peaceful Compliance that he devested himself of most of his own strengths by which he might have supprest them Why then did his Enemies so often tell heaven in their Prayers that it was not the Arm of Flesh which brought them Salvation when they had in their Usurp'd Possession the most considerable Forces and Estates of their own Complices or his Friends his Fleets his Magazines his Revenue and the far stronger part of all the Carnal Means of the Nation on their side Why did they so often boast in their Way of Vain-glorious humiliations that they themselves were only dry bones that a Divine Spirit animated them and that God was their Confederate when it was so far from being a signal Providence that the King was at last overcome that indeed it was rather a wonder he was not sooner that You and such as You and Your Fathers could so long support his declining Cause against a power so much more mighty than his and yours But God thought fit to suffer him to be defeated And though the Divine Counsels were in this as they are in many other things unsearchable yet thus much we may safely pronounce that it was not in Wrath to him but in Mercy It was indeed our Wound and our Calamity not his For his Sufferings that followed his Defeat redounded far more to his own glory than if he had Triumph'd in War or if his Life had smoothly slid away in Peace His Reign if it had continued quiet must needs have been most happy That goodness of temper had it not been oppos'd would sure have been admirable seeing it was so great when most bitterly offended His Victory if he had Conquer'd would no doubt have been Mild and Bloodless None would have perish'd by it but Arm'd and in the Field He had too great a Heart to insult over the Miserable He would certainly have laid no other Chains on the Vanquish'd but those of Pardon and Mercy seeing He forgave them and pitied them amidst the Pride and Rudeness of their own Victory This is a Truth undoubted Yet still I must affirm that 't was more for His own Personal Renown he was overcome Many others would have shar'd with Him in the Honor of the Conquest His Armies His Commanders and Fortune it self might have claim d some part in those Laurels But this was a Praise far Greater much Rarer more Christian wholy Gods and His Own that after His Soldiers routed His Garisons yielded His Friends reduc'd to the last Extremity but Despair And Who but such Friends would not then have despair'd yet still He kept His own Mind unconquer'd and made that naked and alone to incounter and Triumph over all the Malice of His Enemies We are now arriv'd at that which in the Worlds Opinion was the most unfortunate but in a Christian Account was the most Victorious part of the Kings Life There is still behind a Lamentable Story to us Lamentable though not to Him But after so many sad Representations 't is time the Veil be drawn The deplorable remainder is only fit for such Salvages to hear who could see it without Grief and cause it without Remorse Here therefore let us pass it by in Silence Let us strive to overwhelm the Cruel and Guilty Part of the Kings Martyrdom which was His Enemies Part by the Contemplation of the Innocent and Honorable part of it that was His own And this my Brethren is such a way of keeping the Thirtieth of Ianuary as the Royal Martyr Himself most desir'd This way of Observing it is most Answerable to the first Design of Dedicating such Days to the Memories of departed Saints For when the Primitive Christians first Met on such 〈…〉 on the very Dayes and 〈…〉 on the very Places where some 〈…〉 Christian had suffer'd they were not wont to spend their time in Cursing their Enemies or Repeating the wretched Circumstances of their Cruelty but rather in Praying that God would Convert them in declaring the Pious Works and Admirable Patience of those that had Suffered and in giving God the Glory of their Exemplary Sufferings YOU have therefore heard enough how this Blessed Martyr was unjustly Persecuted though I have stopt my Narration on the very brink of the Precipice Let us now see how He made those Persecutions a Blessing how He behav'd Himself in those His last and severest Conflicts when the