Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	catholic_n	church_n	universal_a	1,773	5	9.0565	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41725	A discourse deliver'd in two sermons preached in the cathedral at Ely, in September 1684, not long after the death of the Right Reverend Father in God Peter Gunning, late Lord Bishop of Ely / by Humfrey Govver ...	Gower, Humphrey, 1638-1711.	1685 (1685)	Wing G1458; ESTC R18728	39,015	72

the mourning of one place or people that I now invite you to there is not a good man alive that knew this Bishop but laments his death Were the greatness of the loss as generally known and as well understood as it is certain and sad there would be as many mourners for this death as there are Christians in the world and a lamentation as Universal as the Catholick Church Therefore when we discourse of this late Great man when in Him we lament our loss it will become us to entertain resentments and frame expressions as near as we can suitable to his worth and our sense of it There can be no danger of being too excessive in our weeping and mourning whilst our Grief is Christian and that we sorrow not as men without hope nor can the expressions of it be extravagant whilst they endeavour to signifie no more then a loss as great as could well happen by the death of one man It is one of the least considerations that we can have of him that he was ours If we will lament becomingly at this Tomb our cry must be double like that of Elisha in my Text it must mount apace rise still higher and express more and more abundantly in every note My father my father the chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof Elisha you hear claims the interest of a son in the departing Prophet And I have reason to think that those of this Church and Diocess had as good cause to love and Reverence their late Bishop as a Father as any Congregation ever had so to esteem their Pastour since any less then Apostles have bin employed to feed and govern the Christian Flock But Elisha soon passes from so private and particular a consideration to the much more considerable interest which the publick had in that wondrous man The chariot of Israel and the horsemen thereof And that is it which in the case before us is most to be regarded We have lost a Father 't is true and such a one as your own memories and happy experience can better represent unto you then the best of words or the most affectionate and advantagious report that can be made But even that which seems so much yours must likewise be accounted to the Church He could not have been such a beneficial Father to you had he not been as usefull and as excellent a Son to the Holy Church All that we can say or think to imbitter our own particular share in this loss does but inhance and aggravate that much more deplorable of the publick For in your late holy Prelate the whole Catholick Church of God on Earth but in an especial manner this blessed part of it the Church of England did enjoy whatever almost could be Good and Great in a Christian and a Scholar He liv'd and dy'd the great Instance and Example of his age of extraordinary natural Endowments most wonderfully improv'd vast Learning grac'd with the greatest Modesty incomparable worth and profound Humility In him hath the Church lost one of the most perfect patterns of a Christian Bishop that She ever had Furnish'd he was with all the Gifts and Graces that are requisite to make a man most amiable and usefull His unfeigned and exemplary piety devout and holy Life his searching and comprehensive understanding lively and quick apprehension ready and retentive memory His solid judgement unwearied industry and an effect of these His accurate and almost Universal Knowledge especially in that which is the end and perfection of all the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures and the whole sacred Text as they render'd him the wonder and delight of all that knew him whilst he was here so it is to be hoped those Great Accomplishments have shed abroad such happy influences in this Kingdom as will not perish with the present age but spread and propagate to succeeding times and both to us and our latest posterity bring forth fruit for the use and benefit of the Church And here methinks I am willing to enjoy with you a while the refreshment of this comfortable and well grounded hope and thence to take occasion to alter my stile a little and to speak of the Churches gain rather then Her loss to congratulate as well as condole with Her on the account of this great man For the Lives of such men as He even after death like the blood of Martyrs give nourishment and increase to the Church Their fame and memory remains when they are gone and shall be for ever blessed As they were honour'd in their Generation and were the glory of their times so have they left a name behind them that their praises might be reported And with that name an Example too which will live tho' they are dead And those their Praises and good Examples are most powerfull exhortations to suitable practice and imitation Their good actions are so many good Doctrines backt and seconded by the best motive and the most persuasive and convincing application 'T is thus that Holy Church enjoys Her Bishop still and I hope ever will by the blessed effects of his eminent abilities and exemplary Life tho' He himself is gone and is seen no more And it is thus that he being dead yet speaketh and teaches more powerfully from the Grave then he could formerly from the Pulpit For his Life was a better Sermon then He or any man else could ever preach A meer repetition of the chief Heads of it fully and faithfully perform'd would furnish you out a much more usefull one then this of mine hasty notes and imperfect and mostly taken at a distance and by the shortness of the time now to be made shorter It must be a juster account that must duly inform the world with what an excellent spirit He was indued how full of God and all good things how conscientiously and faithfully He spent his hours how industrious he was in private and how laborious in publick how covetously He hoarded up and yet how liberally He scattered abroad the richest treasures of knowledge Humane and Divine how holily He taught and as holily liv'd By this great instance amongst others the world may see and be convinced that a man may be as great and good in this as in any other age of Christianity That the highest and most Heroical representations of virtue are not meer scheme and fiction but very real and practicable things such as may be indeed reach'd and effectually attain'd For these did all live and appear and flourish in the Holy Prelate whom you lately lost and we now lament In him we have seen plainly and eminently exemplifi'd what before perhaps we had only read in the Rule conceiv'd in Theory or Idea or could apprehend and fancy as most desirable and lovely in the Character of a Bishop All which being well consider'd I hope I may be allow'd to insist on this Illustrious instance of glorifi'd Elias and the words of his renowned Successour Elisha