Francis Atterbury

Acquaintance

We contract at last such a familiarity with them as makes it difficult and irksome for us to call off our minds.

Avocation

By the secular cares and avocations which accompany marriage the clergy have been furnished with skill in common life.

Balance

A fair balance of the advantages on either side.

Belluine

Animal and belluine life.

Beneath

He will do nothing that is beneath his high station.

Bottom

Action is supposed to be bottomed upon principle.

Broacher

Some such broacher of heresy.

Bull

A fresh bull of Leo's had declared how inflexible the court of Rome was in the point of abuses.

By-view

No by-views of his own shall mislead him.

Calm

Passions which seem somewhat calmed.

Capital

A capital article in religion

Celebrate

We are called upon to commemorate a revolution as surprising in its manner as happy in its consequences.

Collusion

That they [miracles] be done publicly, in the face of the world, that there may be no room to suspect artifice and collusion.

Commemorate

We are called upon to commemorate a revolution.

Communicant

A never-failing monthly communicant.

Complacence

The inward complacence we find in acting reasonably and virtuously.

Conceivable

It is not conceivable that it should be indeed that very person whose shape and voice it assumed.

Concent

In concent to his own principles.

Congruous

It is no ways congruous that God should be always frightening men into an acknowledgment of the truth.

Connection

The eternal and inseparable connection between virtue and happiness.

Consign

At the day of general account, good men are to be consigned over to another state.

Consort

Take it singly, and it carries an air of levity; but, in consort with the rest, has a meaning quite different.

Contemptuous

Rome . . . entertained the most contemptuous opinion of the Jews.

Convince

Such convincing proofs and assurances of it as might enable them to convince others.

Countenance

This is the magistrate's peculiar province, to give countenance to piety and virtue, and to rebuke vice.

Death

It was death to them to think of entertaining such doctrines.

Decency

The external decencies of worship.

Decision

The decision of some dispute.

Deportation

In their deportations, they had often the favor of their conquerors.

Disagree

They reject the plainest sense of Scripture, because it seems to disagree with what they call reason.

Disprove

That false supposition I advanced in order to disprove it.

Dissect

This paragraph . . . I have dissected for a sample.

Distance

'T is by respect and distance that authority is upheld.

draw

The arrow is now drawn to the head.

Excision

Such conquerors are the instruments of vengeance on those nations that have . . . grown ripe for excision.

Explication

The explication of our Savior's parables.

Express

A messenger sent express from the other world.

Felicity

the felicities of her wonderful reign.

Fire

he had fire in his temper.

Formality

Nor was his attendance on divine offices a matter of formality and custom, but of conscience.

Give

Whatsoever we employ in charitable uses during our lives, is given away from ourselves.

Guard

They have expressed themselves with as few guards and restrictions as I.

Heave

The Church of England had struggled and heaved at a reformation ever since Wyclif's days.

Homiletic

His virtues active, chiefly, and homiletical, not those lazy, sullen ones of the cloister.

hostilities

We have showed ourselves generous adversaries . . . and have carried on even our hostilities with humanity.

Imagery

The imagery of a melancholic fancy.

Imitable

The characters of man placed in lower stations of life are more usefull, as being imitable by great numbers.

Immerse

It is impossible to have a lively hope in another life, and yet be deeply immersed inn the enjoyments of this.

Immersion

Too deep an immersion in the affairs of life.

Implicitly

Not to dispute the methods of his providence, but humbly and implicitly to acquiesce in and adore them.

Improve

We take care to improve in our frugality and diligence.

Impurity

Foul impurities reigned among the monkish clergy.

Indisposition

A general indisposition towards believing.

Indulge

Hope in another life implies that we indulge ourselves in the gratifications of this very sparingly.

Infer

Such opportunities always infer obligations.

Ingrateful

He proved extremely false and ingrateful to me.

Instance

Most remarkable instances of suffering.

Invigorate

Christian graces and virtues they can not be, unless fed, invigorated, and animated by universal charity.

Lessen

St. Paul chose to magnify his office when ill men conspired to lessen it.

The objection lessens much, and comes to no more than this: there was one witness of no good reputation.

Lethargy

Europe lay then under a deep lethargy.

Libertinism

That spirit of religion and seriousness vanished all at once, and a spirit of liberty and libertinism, of infidelity and profaneness, started up in the room of it.

Manifestation

The secret manner in which acts of mercy ought to be performed, requires this public manifestation of them at the great day.

Manner

The temptations of prosperity insinuate themselves after a gentle, but very powerful, manner.

Mere

From mere success nothing can be concluded in favor of any nation.

Ministry

The ordinary ministry of second causes.

Miss

Upon the least reflection, we can not miss of them.

Mixture

There is also a mixture of good and evil wisely distributed by God, to serve the ends of his providence.

Operate

The virtues of private persons operate but on a few.

Ostentation

He knew that good and bountiful minds were sometimes inclined to ostentation.

Outrage

Base and insolent minds outrage men when they have hope of doing it without a return.

Overlook

They overlook truth in the judgments they pass.

Pack

The expected council was dwindling into . . . a packed assembly of Italian bishops.

Pall

Reason and reflection . . . pall all his enjoyments.

Participation

What an honor, that God should admit us into such a blessed participation of himself!

Particularize

He not only boasts of his parentage as an Israelite, but particularizes his descent from Benjamin.

Pass

This will not pass for a fault in him.

Pedigree

The Jews preserved the pedigrees of their tribes.

Posture

The several postures of his devout soul.

Pressure

In the midst of his great troubles and pressures.

Pretty

Pretty plainly professes himself a sincere Christian.

Profuseness

Hospitality sometimes degenerates into profuseness.

Purposely

In composing this discourse, I purposely declined all offensive and displeasing truths.

Rant

This is a stoical rant, without any foundation in the nature of man or reason of things.

Reflection

Job's reflections on his once flourishing estate did at the same time afflict and encourage him.

Relish

He knows how to prize his advantages, and to relish the honors which he enjoys.

Rouse

To rouse up a people, the most phlegmatic of any in Christendom.

Rule

That's are ruled case with the schoolmen.

Satisfy

The standing evidences of the truth of the gospel are in themselves most firm, solid, and satisfying.

Scan

The actions of men in high stations are all conspicuous, and liable to be scanned and sifted.

Scheme

Such a scheme of things as shall at once take in time and eternity.

Sensual

No small part of virtue consists in abstaining from that wherein sensual men place their felicity.

Sentence

That by them [Luther's works] we may pass sentence upon his doctrines.

Set

I could set out that best side of Luther.

Shake

When his doctrines grew too strong to be shook by his enemies, they persecuted his reputation.

Sleep

We sleep over our happiness.

Special

Our Savior is represented everywhere in Scripture as the special patron of the poor and the afficted.

Stead

The smallest act . . . shall stand us in great stead.

Stretch

Quotations, in their utmost stretch, can signify no more than that Luther lay under severe agonies of mind.

Strike

Nice works of art strike and surprise us most on the first view.

Sturdy

A sturdy, hardened sinner shall advance to the utmost pitch of impiety with less reluctance than he took the first steps.

Subsist

To subsist on other men's charity.

Success

Military successes, above all others, elevate the minds of a people.

Suffrage

Lactantius and St. Austin confirm by their suffrage the observation made by heathen writers.

Sully

No spots to sully the brightness of this solemnity.

Sumptuous

We are too magnificient and sumptuous in our tables and attendance.

Swell

It is low ebb with his accuser when such peccadilloes are put to swell the charge.

Swerve

Many who, through the contagion of evil example, swerve exceedingly from the rules of their holy religion.

Task

His mental powers were equal to greater tasks.

Testamentary

How many testamentary charities have been defeated by the negligence or fraud of executors!

Tumultuary

Men who live without religion live always in a tumultuary and restless state.

Typical

The Levitical priesthood was only typical of the Christian.

Undervalue

In comparison of it I undervalued all ensigns of authority.

Up

We have wrought ourselves up into this degree of Christian indifference.

Utter

They . . . are utter strangers to all those anxious thoughts which disquiet mankind.

Vanquish

This bold assertion has been fully vanquished in a late reply to the Bishop of Meaux's treatise.

Variety

There is a variety in the tempers of good men.

Vouch

They made him ashamed to vouch the truth of the relation, and afterwards to credit it.

Wherever

He can not but love virtue wherever it is.

Wry

He . . . puts a wry sense upon Protestant writers.

Yet

This furnishes us with yet one more reason why our savior, lays such a particular stress acts of mercy.