Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	worship_n	worshipper_n	write_v	24	3	5.4283	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43254	A call to a general reformation of manners and manifesting in several particulars the great lets and hinderances thereunto / preached at the arch-deacon of Sudbury's visitation, holden at Kentford in Suffolk in April last, 1700, by Clement Heigham, Esq., now rector of Barrow in Suffolk.	Heigham, Clement, d. 1714.	1700 (1700)	Wing H1370A; ESTC R36595	13,878	32

A CALL To a General Reformation of Manners AND Manifesting in several Particulars the great Lets and Hinderances thereunto Preached at the Arch-Deacon of Sudbury's Visitation holden at Kentford in Suffolk in April last 1700. By CLEMENT HEIGHAM Esq now Rector of Barrow in Suffolk Prov. XXVIII 4. They that forsake the Law praise the Wicked but such as keep the Law contend with them LONDON Printed by John Darby for Richard Thurlbourn Bookseller in Cambridg 1700. To the Right Honourable and truly Noble CHARLES Lord Viscount Townshend Much Honoured and Noble Lord HIS Majesty's Proclamation against Immoralities and the Honourable Houses of Parliament piously concurring by some good Laws to assist and strengthen the Ministry in the suppressing of Vice as it gave me a secret Pleasure so it did encourage me to frame and preach this following Discourse and for exposing this Sermon in print to a more publick View I am not without hopes it may do some good upon such as shall cast their Eye upon it the Discourse being on an Argument wherein all good Men do agree but more especially it may let some that are in great Authority see that there are great Lets and Hinderances amongst us as to an universal Reformation of Manners and some of them are such Lets and Hinderances as only the Wisdom of the Nation in Parliament can remove And I am the more emboldned to make use of Your Lordship's Name and to crave Your Patronage not only upon the account of Your great Honour eminent Parts and most agreeable Virtue whereby You shine amongst our Nobility and do attract the Affections of all Good Men but because great Examples are powerful and have a mighty Influence to bear down Vice and to encourage Goodness And I am fully persuaded Your Lordship will in Your High Place endeavour to promote that Great Design which this Discourse points at which is to promote the true and lasting Happiness of our Church and State and which can be effected by no other means than by making the Almighty God our Patron and Friend which can only be by depressing Wickedness and encouraging Piety and universal Goodness And upon these accounts it is that I pray for Your Lordship's Health and Happiness in this Life and Your endless Glory hereafter and shall always approve my self Your Lordship's most honouring most Faithful and most Obedient Kinsman and Humble Servant CLEMENT HEIGHAM MATTHEW V. 16. Let your Light so shine before Men that they may see your Good VVorks and glorify your Father which is in Heaven THESE words have a reference to the three foregoing Verses in which our Saviour applies himself to his Disciples and all sorts of true Christians and requires them to set forth the Purity of their Doctrine and the Purity and Exactness of their Lives to that advantage that by the authority and soundness of their Doctrine and goodness of their Conversation the Nation or the World might be kept from putrefying or stinking And he compares the Christian Church to a City set upon a high illustrious place which is easily seen by all that travel near it which City if it be kept clean and beautiful will attract and draw Travellers to it but if otherwise it will make them shun and abhor it Wherefore our Saviour requires them all to set forth such an eminent Light to the World both by their Doctrine and sutable Life that by their bright shining Lustre the thick Mists of Ignorance and the grosser Darkness of Sin and Wickedness might be dispelled and that others seeing and beholding this Glorious State of the Christian Church might be invited thereby to glorify their Father which is in Heaven These words then of our Saviour with respect to their Connexion with the former Verses do contain First A Precept or Command to all sorts of Christians to preserve pure and sound Doctrine and to lead exemplary Lives sutable to their holy Faith and Doctrine Secondly The words contain a powerful Argument to enforce good Christian Practice that others seeing your good Lives may glorify your Heavenly Father or that the ignorant sinful part of the World may receive saving Influences by virtue derived from the Purity of your Doctrine and Goodness of your Lives and so Glory may redound to God First For the Precept or Command in general to all sorts of Christians to preserve pure and sound Doctrine to see that their Copy be pure and fair and good and this is of great import for if our Faith or any allowed Doctrines of our Christian Society be stained or corrupted especially if ill Practice in any kind be the natural consequence of such allowed Doctrines or matters of Faith this tends to destroy the great end of all Religion But God be thanked our Articles of Faith and the allowed Doctrines of our Church are sound and good neither is our Publick Worship of God corrupted so that the publick Assemblies are become Schools of Idolatry and Wickedness as perhaps may be with great truth said concerning some other Church that exalts it self and looks big in the eye of the World Here now if time would permit me I might take a very fair occasion to represent the Faith and Doctrine and Government of our Church which we all own our selves Members of and to set forth the Purity and Soundness of it and shew the agreement of it to all that was owned by the Primitive Church in its best estate to convince how full it is to all the purposes of a good Christian Life and to manifest plainly that neither our Holy Worship and Services are corrupted nor doth the Church of England give any one License to Sin But this is a large Field to enter into and our Faith and Doctrine and way of Worship and Government hath been sufficiently set forth and justified by many Learned Men of our own Communion and sealed and confirmed by the Blood of Holy Martyrs And therefore I shall say no more of the Copy but I shall insist upon that which our Faith and Doctrine and Discipline points at which is to influence all Christians so to live as our Faith and Doctrine and Government enjoins them to do and thereby to manifest to the eye of the World the Excellency and Goodness of their Faith and Doctrine by their regular and holy Practices For what will a good Copy signify to them whose Lives do not write after it and so adorn it What doth it signify to talk of a good Way of Worship if we do not frequent it and join in it as devout Worshippers too What doth it signify to commend our holy Religion which requires strict Sobriety Chastity and Modesty of Life and a due Fear and Veneration of God and yet at the same time to lie wallowing in the Sins that are contrary to all this What doth it signify to commend the Government of the Church and yet at the same time to despise and disobey it At the rate that most Christians live

Maintenance and made more secure against contempt 2. The Officers of Parishes must be such as fear God and that understand the weight of an Oath and the great consequences of discharging it 3. Family Religion must be kept up 4. Children and Servants must be well instructed 5. The Spiritual Courts must give their utmost assistance to the Ministry 6. A Religious Magistracy must give their helping hand to punish Vice and encourage Goodness And when all these shall mutually conspire to promote the great ends of Religion we may then hope for a new face of things we may then hope for a new Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness we shall then behold the Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour exalted amongst us which is the hearty desire of all Good Men. I proceed now to my third an last point which is to shew That to lead good Lives our selves and to remove all those Lets and Hinderances which keep others from doing the same is the only way to bring Glory to God Honour and Reputation to our Holy Church and true Happiness and Safety to our Church and Nation 1. Then to promote universal Goodness by our living well and discouraging Vice brings Glory to God as it doth sensibly and experimentally commend the ways of God to a poor ignorant brutish World It lets the World see that the ways of Religion are ways of Pleasantness and all her Paths are Peace A good Christian Life as it gives inward joy to the Practiser so it sweetly insinuates a good liking into the Beholders it strangely attracts the Affections of others and by a secret invisible force it charms the Passions and delights the Beholders The glorious Attire of Christian Graces such as Meekness Humility and Modesty of Mind fervent Piety to God and as fervent Charity to Man undisguised Friendship Sincerity in all our Dealings evenness and equality of Mind in all conditions and estates of our Life Conquest over Passions Contempt of the World and Sollicitousness for nothing but to keep up and maintain a joyful Entercourse betwixt God and our Souls Such a Divine Temper as this doth strangely affect and attract and must insinuate a good relish into all Beholders and it is my firm belief that were Persons that are of a good Communion but more exact in their Lives to the Reformed Copy that is before them it would mightily supercede the necessity of much writing to justify and recommend our way of Worship for were Mens inward Corruptions more subdued by the force of that Religion which they profess we should find little to do but to love God and love one another and the sweet Relish which ever attends a conscientious well-spent Life would so confirm and settle good Christians in their way that they would never doubt or stagger and many other Beholders that are unsteddy and unresolved would be more easily drawn to join with that Communion of Christians where they see a Divine Presence and Force and so much Comfort as a good Life produceth than by all other Arguments in the World And this leads to a second Consideration to enforce good Christian Practice in our selves and to discourage Vice in others 2. For it shews our Principles to be sound and good and that we firmly assent to them as such It convinceth the World that our Doctrine and way of Worship is from God This Men will be apt to believe when they see the powerful and visible Influences of it in the change of mens Manners from bad to good This satisfies men beyond all other Arguments that there is a Divine Presence amongst us and that there is a special Assistance and Blessing concurring with the means of Grace that we make use of and it doth most plainly evince that God's Grace is not bestowed upon us in vain I would to God that this most excellent Argument for so the Primitive Christians accounted it were not so much lost as it is as to its due force upon Beholders by the bad Examples of too many Christian Professors Those first and best Christians could boast of the Truth the Goodness and Excellency of their Religion and Soundness of their Doctrine from the admirable Efficacy and Power it had upon the Hearts and Lives of those that recieved it All this is plain from some memorable Passages in Lactantius's 3d Book de falsa Sapientia and also in several places of Origen too long here to be recited But 3ly It brings Glory to God and great Good to others as it demonstrates our Religion to be a practicable thing and that the hardest Duties may be performed Arguments alone will hardly invite the generality of People to serious and strict Religion where good Examples are wanting yea Examples will persuade more effectually than all the best framed Arguments in the World for men love to see whether the Ways be passable or no before they adventure themselves especially where Flesh and Blood tells them there are some Difficulties to encounter some Rocks and Uneasinesses to climb over and that they may happen to meet with much ill usage too in their Journy to Heaven even from such as pretend to be Friends and Fellow-Travellers But when men shall see by the Courage and Victory and good Examples of others that commend these ways of Religion that the worst of Difficulties may be overcome and are so by the same Flesh and Blood with themselves this animates and enlivens their Spirits and takes off all Objections arising in their Minds from the difficulty of the Attempt 4. A good Life and discouraging of Vice brings Glory to God as it declares to the World that we stedfastly believe that without a regular Piety and strict Obedience to the Laws of Christ none shall be saved This will visibly discover to the World what our Belief is and what our Opinions are This will manifest that we entertain no corrupt and dangerous Principles and we our selves might appeal to this as a Test if our Lives were but regularly pious and uniformly good for a Heresy or dangerous Error in the Judgment will for the most part appear in the Practice of him that owns it And let me tell you it will not be easy to convince any one that our Judgments in matters of Religion are sound if our Morals are bad and of this I am sure that few will be convinced that we believe a good Life to be absolutely necessary to Salvation if we do not lead good Lives our selves and shew also by our zeal our dislike of Wickedness in others 5. and lastly A thorow Reformation of Manners brings Glory to God as it gives the Almighty a free occasion to manifest himself in that great Attribute he most delights in which is in shewing mercy to a sinful Nation and disposing all things for the Happiness and Safety of it God will never look favourably upon us until our crying Sins be removed and therefore if we do believe that there is a Divine governing Providence which