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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	jerusalem_n	lord_n	zion_n	2,903	5	9.8699	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70206	A sermon on Acts xxviii, 22 shewing, that the Christian religion is not a sect, and yet that it is every where spoken against / by Matthew Henry ...	Henry, Matthew, 1662-1714.	1699 (1699)	Wing H1476; ESTC R19814	33,478	57

That the Lord Jesus who so loved the World is so much hated and despised by the World The Reproaches of them who thus reproach our Master if we be his faithful Servants we should feel as falling upon us And if he take what is said and done against his People as said and done against himself much more reason have they to find themselves aggrieved in that which is said and done against him If we pray heartily that God's Name may be hallowed as we should do every day we should grieve heartily that his Name is dishonoured as we see it is every day And our resentments of the Reproach cast upon God and Religion we should make a humble and pious Remonstrance of before God in Prayer as King Hezekiah spread Rabshakeh's blasphemous Letter before the Lord with that tender and affectionate Request Lord bow down thine ear and hear Open Lord thine eyes and see 2 Kin. 19.16 How pathetically doth Joshua plead chap. 7.9 What wilt thou do unto thy great Name And with what a concern doth the Psalmist in the name of the Church insist upon this Psal 74.10 O God how long shall the Adversary reproach Shall the Enemy blaspheme thy Name for ever And v. 18. Remember this that the Enemy hath reproached O Lord and that the foolish People have blasphemed thy Name And how earnestly doth he beg v. 22. Arise O God plead thine own Cause Thus should the Honour of God and Religion lie nearer our Hearts than any other concern whatsoever 2. Consider the miserable Condition of those that presumptuously speak against God and Religion Tho' they may do it with an Air of Assurance as if they run no hazard yet he that rolleth this Stone it will certainly return upon him sooner or later They that speak against Religion speak against their own Heads and their own Tongues will at last fall upon them We have reason to bewail their Madness and to pity and pray for them for they know not what they do Miserable Souls How will they be deceived at last when they shall find that God is not mocked And that while they were studying to put contempt on Religion they were but preparing eternal Shame and Confusion for themselves The Lord is a jealous God and will not hold them guiltless that thus profane his Name Their Wit and Learning and Figure in the World may embolden them in their Sin and bear them up a while in an open Defiance of all that 's Sacred but nothing can prevent their utter Ruine besides a serious and sincere Repentance which is an unsaying with Shame and Self-lothing of all that which they have proudly spoken against God and Godliness They that pervert the right ways of the Lord will certainly fall therein and they that wrest the Scriptures do it to their own Destruction Religion's Motto is Nemo me impune lacessit 'T is ill jesting with edg-tools Jerusalem will certainly be a burthensome Stone to all People that burthen themselves with it They that spurn at the Rock of Salvation will not only be unable to remove it but will find it a Stone of Stumbling and a Rock of Offence And we find those who ridicul'd the Word of the Lord broken and snared and taken Let all those therefore that mourn in Sion weep over those that will not weep for themselves and look with pity and compassion upon those that look upon them with scorn and contempt 3. Consider the Mischief that is hereby done to the Souls of others They who thus err their error remaineth not with themselves but this poisonous and malignant Breath infects others Words spoken against Religion eat as doth a Canker and they who speak them seldom perish alone in their iniquity for many follow their pernicious ways Unwary Souls are easily beguil'd and brought to conceive rooted Prejudices against that which they hear every where spoken against and few have Consideration and Resolution enough to maintain a good opinion of that which they that set up for Wits make it their business to cry down Sergius Paulus was a prudent Man and yet St. Paul saw him in danger of being turned away from the Faith by the subtle Suggestions of Elymas the Sorcerer which therefore the Apostle resented with a more than ordinary keenness It is sad to think how many Young People who perhaps were well Educated and Hopeful when they go abroad into the World by conversing with those who lie in wait to deceive have their minds insensibly vitiated and debauch'd and perhaps they are made seven times more the Children of Hell than those that first seduced them Under a pretence of free Thought and fashionable Conversation and a generous Disdain of Preciseness and Singularity Atheistical Principles are imbib'd the Restraints of Conscience shaken off Brutish Lusts not only indulg'd but pleaded for and serious Godliness and Devotion look'd upon with Contempt and thus the Heart is impregnably fortify'd for Satan against Christ and his Gospel Wrath is treasur'd up against the Day of Wrath and those who might have been the Blessing prove the Plague of their Age which is a Lamentation and shall be for a Lamentation to all that wish well for the souls of Men and to those especially that are desirous of the welfare of the rising Generation Fourthly Let us take heed that none of us do at at any time directly or indirectly speak against the ways of Religion and Godliness or say a Confederacy with those that do so Submit to Divine Instructions given with a strong hand not to walk in the way of those People that speak ill of Religion Take heed of embracing any Notions which secretly tend to derogate from the Authority of the Holy Scriptures or to diminish the Honour of Religion in the Soul or of accustoming your selves to such Expressions as treat not Sacred Things with that awful Regard which is due to them Those were never reckon'd Wise Men that would rather lose a Friend than a Jest much less are they to be accounted so that will rather lose the Favour of their God Those that in their common Converse make themselves merry with serious things how can it be expected they should at any time be serious in them or experience the influence and comfort of them It is not likely that those who make the Word of God the subject of their Jests should ever make it the Guide of their way or find it the spring of their Joys Let us not chuse to associate with those that have light thoughts of Religion and are ready upon all occasions to speak against it It is not without good reason that among the many words with which St. Peter exhorted his New Converts this only is recorded Save your selves from this untoward Generation Acts 2.40 Those that listen to the Counsel of the Vngodly and Stand in the way of Sinners as willing to walk with them will come at

not been possible to have baited them if they had not first dress'd them up in the skins of wild Beasts And as then so ever since more or less in all Ages of the Church Reproach hath been entail'd upon the most serious and zealous Professors of Religion and Godliness 5. The Ministers of Christ the Preachers of this Religion are with a distinguishing Enmity every where spoken against Under the Old Testament God's Messengers and his Prophets were generally mocked and misused and it was Jerusalem's measure-filling Sin 2 Chron. 36.16 'T was one of the Devices they devis'd against Jeremiah to smite him with the tongue because they would not and they desired tha● others might not give heed to any of his words Jer. 18.18 Those to whom the Prophet Ezekiel was a very lovely Song and with their mouths showed much love to him yet were still talking against him by the Walls and in the Doors of their Houses and God lets him know it Ezek. 33.30 31 32. And then it is not strange if the Ministers of the New Testament in which Truth shines with a stronger Light be with no less Enmity spoken against by those that love Darkness rather than Light The Apostles those prime Ministers of State in Christ's Kingdom were so loaded with Reproach that they were made a spectacle to the World a spectacle of Pity to those that have either Grace or good Nature but a spectacle of scorn to those that had neither They were trampled upon as the Filth of the World and whereas the Off-scouring of any thing is bad enough they were look'd upon as the off-scouring of all things even unto this day after they had in so many instances approv'd themselves well and could not but be made manifest in the Consciences of their worst Enemies 1 Cor. 4.9 13. And it hath all along been the Policy of the Churches Enemies by all marks possible to bring the Ministry into contempt and to represent the Churches Nazarites even those that were purer than Snow whiter than Milk and more ruddy than Rubies with a visage blacker than a Coal so that they have not been known in the streets I allude to that complaint Lam. 4.7 8. Marvel not if the Standard-bearers be most struck at 6. The Christian Religion it self hath been and still is every where spoken against The Truths of it contradicted as false and groundless the great Doctrines of the Mediation of Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead were ridicul'd by the Athenian Philosophers Acts 19.18 32. The Laws of it faulted as grievous and unreasonable as hard sayings which could not be born by those who bid open defiance to the Obligation of them and say Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their Cords from us Ps 2.3 The Ordinances of it despis'd as mean and having no form nor comeliness Sabbaths mock'd at as of old Lam. 1.7 and the sanctification of them represented as only a Cloak for Idleness Sacraments reproach'd and the Sacred Memorial of Christ's Death and Sufferings by the Persecutors of the Primitive Christians represented to the World as the bloody and inhumane Killing and Eating of a Child and their Love Feasts and Holy Kiss which were then in use as only introductions to the most abominable uncleanness Primitive Christianity was industriously put into an ill-name it was call'd emphatically The Atheism because it overthrew Idolatry and undermin'd the false Gods and worships that had so long obtain'd This was the Out-cry at Ephesus that if Paul's Doctrine took place the Temple of the great Goddess would be despis'd Acts 19.26 27. It was also branded as a Novelty and an up-start Doctrine because it took people off from that vain Conversation which they had received by Tradition from their Fathers It was call'd at Athens a New Doctrine and industriously represented in all places as a Mushrome Sect that was but of yesterday It was look'd upon as nearly allied to Judaism because it was so much supported by the Scriptures of the Old Testament and nothing was more despicable among the Romans than the Jews and their Religion The Professors of Christianity were look'd upon as unlearned and ignorant Men Acts 4.12 the very Dregs and Refuse of the People Julian forbad the calling of them Christians and would have them called nothing but Galileans thereby to expose them to the contempt of those who are as indeed most people are govern'd more by a sound of Words than by the reason of Things Thus when the Devil was silenced in his Oracles as it is well known he was upon the setting up of Christianity in the World his mouth was opened in Lies and Slanders and being forced to quit his pretentions to a Deity he appears bare-faced as a Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a False Accuser The Reformed Religion in these latter ages hath been in like manner spoken against Though it maintains all that and only that Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles preach'd and was before Luther there where Popery as such never was before or since that is in the Holy Scriptures yet the Professors and Preachers of it have been call'd and counted Hereticks and Schismaticks and by all possible Artifices expos'd to the odium of the People that none might Buy or Sell i. e. have the benefit and comfort of civil Society and Commerce that had not the Mark or the Name of the Beast or the Number of his Name Nay even among some that profess the Christian and Reformed Religion yet the Practice of serious Godliness is very much spoken against The Power of Religion is not only disliked and deny'd but contradicted and condemned by those that rest in the Form They that call the Evil Good will call the Good Evil and it is not strange if they who abandon themselves to work all uncleanness with greediness speak ill of such as run not with them to the same excess of Riot where the Wicked walk on every side he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey The old Enmity between the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent is still working and the old Game every day plaid over again The Truth as it is in Jesus and the Truth which is according to Godliness will be contradicted by those that lye in wait to deceive Bigots on all sides will have something to say against Catholick Charity and Moderation They that are fervent in spirit serving the Lord and forward to every good Work must expect to be evil spoken of by such as affect a Lukewarmness and Indifferency in Religion Nor can those who walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise escape the lash of their Tongues who live at large and walk loosly and at all adventures as the Fools in Israel I come now in the Second Place to enquire what 's the Reason that so Holy and Excellent a Religion as Christianity is meets with such hard usage