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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	church_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	13,733	5	9.5593	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56695	A sermon preached at St. Pavl Covent-Garden, on the late day of fasting & prayer, Novemb. 13 by Simon Patrick ...	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1678 (1678)	Wing P840; ESTC R23234	28,516	39

guilt who have such a Religion to defend as will not let you be Cowards if you understand the difference between it and that which opposes it Consider it I beseech you beforehand that if any body should attacque you with Arguments to desert it you may be stedfast and unmoveable in nothing terrified by your adversaries when they tell you Popery will prevail notwithstanding all our endeavours to keep it out Resolve it shall never prevail over your souls whatsoever may become of your bodies But as you now pray solemnly God will not leave us so you will fortifie your selves impregnably against all perswasions to leave him by quitting your Religion Do not so much as stoop to hearken to any such seducement but considering as I said well beforehand what it is you must leave and for what if you forsake the Communion of this Church stand fast in one spirit with one mind in perfect unity striving together for the Faith of the Gospel So I may truly call our Religion here established from which if you should depart you leave the old way of serving God for new inventions For you forsake a Religion wherein God is purely worshipped for one that joins Saints and Angels with him You forsake a Church that prays to God alone through the intercession of Christ Jesus for one that prays to Saints in the very same form of words wherein they pray to him You leave the holy Scriptures to follow uncertain Traditions and part with your Bibles for Legends and fabulous Stories You go away from Prayers and Hymns you understand to a Service in an Unknown Tongue Instead of the whole Sacrament you must be content with half or rather with none at all For it is certain where the Blood of Christ is not imparted to you as shed or poured out of the Body as it is not in the Roman Church it is not communicated at all and the people have no fellowship with Christ in his death being deprived of his blood which was shed for the remission of sins Instead of sure and certain comfort you must rely in all holy Offices upon meer uncertainties for if the Priests intention be wanting of which none can be sure there is no Baptism no Communion no Orders no Priesthood no Church And consequently you leave the worshipping of Christ for a Worship which for any thing you can know may be meer Idolatry For in case there be no Transubstantiation but the Bread and Wine still remain after the Consecration they themselves have acknowledged it is Idolatry to worship them Now we are sure there is no Transubstantiation and it is impossible that they should be sure there is even according to their own principles because they can never be sure the Priest actually intends to do what Christ commanded and then nothing is done and therefore they can never be sure that they are not Idolaters If you join with those of Rome all the ancient Councils must signifie nothing with you in comparison with one late Conventicle which was no better than a Conspiracy of a few men against the Church of Christ You must quit a Church which teaches you to be subject to the King as Supreme for one that teaches you to be subject in the first place to the Pope Exchange a Church that requires of all its Members the strictest obedience to their Governour for one that at least suffers the most rebellious principles to pass for Christian Doctrine and the most bloody murders to pass for Christian if not meritorious actions You must leave a Church that bids you look about you and see that you be in the right for one that would put out your eyes and bids you blindly follow them A Church that in St. Paul's words requires you to prove all things for one that requires you to renounce your Reason nay common sense that you may believe the greatest absurdities If you leave the established Religion you forsake a Church whose Service is performed in a plain and grave a comely and decent manner for one that is burthened with more Ceremonies by far than are contained in all the Law of Moses You depart from a Church which only seeks the good of your souls and the glory of God in all its Ministrations for one that is apparently contrived for enriching the Priests and for the glory of the Pope You leave a Church which teaches you to live piously or else gives you no hopes of salvation for one that indulges men to live as they list and yet not utterly perish at the last A Church you abandon that is mild and gentle to those that are deceived for the sake of one that prosecutes all those who dissent from it with Fire and Faggot Massacres and unheard-of butcheries Nay you relinquish a Church that is very charitable in her Opinions and Censures for one that damns all those to the pit of Hell though never so blameless in their lives and stedfast believers of the three ancient Creeds if they be not of their Communion You leave a Religion which proclaims that Marriage is honourable in all and the Bed undefiled but Whoremongers and Adulterers God will judge for one that strictly forbids her Priests to marry but connives at their Fornication That is you leave a Religion in which you are taught to have the greatest regard to the Commands of Christ for one wherein you may more safely break many of his Precepts than one of the Laws of the Church To conclude you leave a Religion which is sincere and void of all deceit and fraud for one which cheats men with hallowed Trinkets such as Roses Beads Swords Agnus Dei and other waxen ware whereby they draw vast sums of money from the simple for meer toys and bables They that consider not the case may look upon all this as an invective which in truth is but a bare Narrative and no more than is necessary to be said our enemies themselves being Judges at such a time as this For they would look upon us I am confident as a company of despicable wretches if we should not dare on such an occasion to speak for our Religion Which teaches us after the example of St. Paul to be jealous over you with a godly jealousie fearing lest by any means as the Serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ 2 Cor. XI 2 3. In which you ought to preserve your selves and not admit of the Romish mixtures whereby the simple Religion of Christ is adulterated if you have any regard either to your Souls or your Bodies or your estates which are all in danger Be zealous therefore in your Religion and for your Religion Show that you mean not to leave it for that is in effect to leave your reason that you may be rob'd of your faith nor to leave off your most vigorous endeavours to preserve it And truly we have the greatest cause to