Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	worst_a	zeal_n	zealous_a	49	3	9.0182	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53569	Twenty sermons preached upon several occasions by William Owtram ...; Sermons. Selections	Owtram, William, 1626-1679.; Gardiner, James, 1637-1705.	1682 (1682)	Wing O604; ESTC R2857	194,637	508

ends wherein the best and wisest men shall be esteemed the very worst superstitious cold and formal men by those that are zealous in some Faction and know no Religion but that zeal because such times as these may be it is safest to content our selves in gaining those rewards and blessings that are peculiar to Religion the testimony of a good Conscience and life eternal in the World to come 3. And then lastly Because hypocrisie is so deceitful and sly a sin as always serving worldly interest which is apt insensibly to blind the eyes and infatuate the minds of the wisest men and yet hide it self from them themselves it will concern us to be very frequent and impartial in the examination of our selves to weigh our counsels to try our ends to prove our designs in every action relating any way to Religion It will be needful to consider whether we indeed design it really intend to promote and practise it whereever we make a profession of it And then because that God alone knows the heart and because his Grace is most needful to discover our selves unto our selves in the midst of the many sins and passions that may infatuate and beguile us let us earnestly pray for his Holy Spirit to deliver us from all the infatuations and all the seductions of our lusts Let us make the Address which David did Psal 139.22 24. with whose words I shall conclude Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts and see if there be any wicked way in me and lead me in the way everlasting The Eleventh Sermon John 14.1 Ye believe in God believe also in me The whole verse is thus Let not your heart be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me THESE words are a preface to a very large and kind discourse made by our Lord unto his followers wherein he delivers the main foundations of Christianity as well in matter of Faith as Practice which is the reason why he begins it with such words as might effectually stir them up to give both attention and belief to all that he should deliver in it Ye believe in God believe also in me In which words we have two parts 1. A concession or supposition Ye believe in God that is ye believe that there is a God and what is consequent hereupon that he is to be trusted and obeyed although some others read the words not as a Declaration Ye believe in God but as a Command Believe in God but there is no reason to depart from our own Translation in this matter 2. Here is a Precept also Believe in me that is to say believe that I am the Son of God sent by him into the world to reveal the Gospel of life eternal and therefore judge your selves obliged to believe whatsoever I reveal and obey whatsoever I command you Now being that belief in Christ in the sence I have now explained unto you is here required as an addition or further accession to the mere belief in God only as he may be known by the light of nature The Subject which the Words before us offer to our consideration is That the belief of Christian Doctrine as it is revealed to us in the Gospel over and above that knowledge of God which the light of Nature affords unto us is necessary to our eternal happiness In the prosecution of which Point 1. I must first consider That the firm belief of the Gospel of Christ is most expresly required by God and the denial of such belief forbidden under no less a penalty than the utter loss of life eternal Salvation is always promised to them who believe in him who hath revealed it and become his Followers and Disciples to other persons it is not promised As Moses lifted up the Serpent in the Wilderness so must the Son of man be lifted up that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life Joh. 3.14 15. Nor is it only promised to those and those only that so believe but denied to them that believe not to them that refuse to yield their belief to him whom God hath sent and sanctified to be the Saviour of the World He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God And so again omitting several other places of the same sense and signification in the first Epistle of St John chap. 5. ver 10. He that believeth on the Son of God hath the witness in himself he that believeth not God hath made him a Lyar because he believeth not the Record that God gave of his Son Thrice did God bear this Record and owne our Lord to be sent by him by an express voice from Heaven once at his Baptism in these words Matt. 3.17 This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased A second time at his transfiguration upon the mount with some addition to those words Matt. 15.5 This is my beloved son in whom I am well pleased hear ye him And yet again a third time a little before our Saviours passion when praying to God in these words Father glorifie thy name he was answered by a voice from Heaven saying I have both glorified it and will glorifie it again John 12.28 To all which clear and express testimonies given by the Father to his Son I might first add the glorious miracles wrought by Christ during his life then his resurrection from the dead and the effusion of his Spirit upon the Apostles sent by him and all the miracles wrought by them and all his other followers also which being evident demonstrations that he was the very son of God and sent by him to save the World highly aggravate the great sin of infidelity and unbelief and teach us to forbear to wonder that it should be punished with death eternal and that Christ himself should thus pronounce Mark 16.16 He that believeth and is baptized shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned 2. But then secondly lest you should think that God will have us believe the Gospel meerly because he will have it so and that he had no further end in the truth therein revealed unto us than that we should believe them only I further add that the belief of those truths is greatly necessary to several ends of infinite moment and importance 1. For the full and perfect knowledge of the duties which he requires from us 2. For the like knowledge of the great motions to those duties 3. For our better support under all our tryals fears and dangers 1. The belief of the great truths revealed unto us in the Gospel is necessary for the perfect knowledge of the duties which God requires from us and that upon several considerations namely 1. because that though the light of nature well improved may in some measure direct us to very many of them yet

clear evidence that they have the Grace of God in them and therefore are in favour with him But then the latter namely the breach of their resolutions and the continuance in their sins they look upon as a humane frailty common to the Saints with other persons common both to the good and evil But whatsoever men may judge in favour of their own corruptions I am obliged to put you in mind of that which I hope you know already That it is not the mere intent and purpose of the reformation of wilful sins of an habitual course in evil but the true and real reformation of it that recommends us to Gods favour So St Paul himself assures us who having mentioned the several sins that are common in the lives of men concludes his Discourse with these words Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things cometh the wrath of God upon the Children of disobedience Ephes 5.6 4. To make one step further Others there are who do indeed practise some real parts of Religion but then wholly neglect others They hear they pray they seem to be zealous in these things and possibly in some others too but yet still live in such sins as are inconsistent with Christianity and the solid hopes of life eternal They still live some in impurity and sensuality others in injustice and iniquity others in envy and ambition others in pride and scorn and malice so that no mans good name and reputation no mans life how blameless and innocent soever is safe from their unrighteous censures yet all this while they are so far from thinking this to be any sin that they make a piece of Religion of it and believe themselves to be so much better by how much they censure others 5. Lastly There are some other persons who make a commutation with God in doing the things he hath not required instead of those which he hath commanded They impose some penances upon themselves or practise those imposed by others instead of repentance and reformation they live by Laws of their own making instead of those which God hath made or else they are most extremely diligent in the constant practice of one Duty to make some recompence and satisfaction for the total omission of another their temperance shall excuse their injustice or their justice their sensuality their zeal shalf excuse their animosity their very profession of Religion shall excuse the neglect of the practice of it yet all this while they judge themselves in the favour of God and confidently hope for eternal happiness From all which instances it appears how apt men are to imagine themselves to be righteous in the eyes of God to be grateful and acceptable to him although they live in wilful and habitual neglect of the Laws and Precepts of the Gospel 2. Having thus dispatched the first general proceed we now unto the second where I shall endeavour to give an account of the rise and occasion of this errour 3. And first of all there is no doubt but that the inordinate love of the World and the sinful gains and pleasures of it is an eminent and great cause why men abuse and flatter themselves with the vain hopes of Gods favour and of the salvation promised by him although they live and die in their sins This love it was which did at first hinder the faith of Christianity obstruct the belief and reception of it and so our Saviour himself suggests John 7.17 If any man will do his will he shall know of the doctrine whether it be of God or whether I speak of my self Where he insinuates that those persons Who were willing to obey the Gospel provided they knew it be of God to live by the rules arid precepts of it would easily yeild belief unto it when it was duly propounded to them add consequently that the great reason why men would not yield their belief to it was because they would not yield obedience to the Laws therein prescribed unto them because they would not forsake those lusts which the Gospel commands us to forsake the lusts of the flesh the lust of the eye and the pride of life And as it was these inordinate lusts that hindered the progress of Christian Faith when it was first revealed and published so did the very same lusts first bring corruption and delusion into the Faith of those persons that made profession of Christianity and still continues to lead them into misbelief They will not part with their beloved lusts and pleasures they will not forget their sinful gains or what is easie what is pleasing to flesh and blood the forgoing these is by our Lord expressed by the plucking out of an eye and by cutting of a right hand Matt. 5.29 30. whereby he declares the great unwillingness that is in men to deny their natural inclinations though never so sinful and inordinate On the other hand as they are unwilling to deny their natural inclinations to forgo their inordinate lusts and appetites so are they likewise very unwilling to despair of eternal happiness under them or of the favour of God to them that 's a black and stabbing thought as the other is troublesome and ungrateful Now what is the issue what is the effect of these two things put together the issue is this men presently study to find out arts how to reconcile the hopes of happiness with the enjoyment of their lusts and alas there needs no great art for a man to deceive and cheat himself where he is willing to be deceived he easily steps into this hope that his sins though wilful and habitual are nothing more than humane frailties common to the good as well as evil that God will never impute them to him that he may firmly hope to be saved though he never abandon and forsake them 2. But then secondly that which gives something of advantage to this errour in some persons is the comparing of the difficulty of subduing of their lusts with the vast greatness of that loss which they suffer who lose that glory and immortality which is promised to us in the Gospel They will not imagine that such a loss should attend the neglect or non-performance of a thing so extremely hard and difficult which errour differing from the rest which I have before mentioned to you seems to deserve some more notice than what I have taken of the rest 1. And first of all those who make use of this argument to promise themselves eternal happiness although they continue in their sins ought to consider that that happiness which God hath promised being unspeakably great and glorious deserves our labour merits our study to attain it upon any terms whatsoever they be howsoever difficult to flesh and blood and to our natural inclinations The greater it is the greater the care the greater diligence the more of labour doth the attainment of it merit and so our Saviour himself suggests when he compares the