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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62994	Atheismus vapulans, or, A treatise against atheism, rationally confuting the atheists of these times by Will. Towers ... Polytheismus vapulans, or, There is but one God.	Towers, William, 1617?-1666.; Towers, William, 1617?-1666. Polytheismus vapulans.	1654 (1654)	Wing T1959; ESTC R23437	141,181	385

Angel argues him to be more than Angel as much more as God I fell saies St. John at the Angels feet to worship him and he said unto me See thou do it not Rev. 19.10 I am thy Fellow-servant worship God in that very form and posture of Worship in which Josue fell down and you have the same again totidem Verbis Ch. 22.8 9. and if that may adde any thing to the weight 't is not onely in the last Chapter but in the same Chapter too in which this also follows If any man shall adde unto these things God shall adde unto him he shall do it no Angel shall stop his hand the Plagues that are written in this Book V. 18 enough with the Grace of that God to make a Man solemnly bethink himself of that Counsel of St. Paul not onely Let no man Beguile you of your Reward but if St. John may interpret him Let no man Plague you instead of Not Rewarding you Plague you with more Plagues than those on Egypt with all the Plagues which God hath denounc'd in both his Volumes Let no Man nay let no Angel neither Beguile you 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being Voluntary in Humility Col. 2.18 and the Worship of Angels 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies Religion that very Name which they put upon it a Religious Worship 23. Their Figure 3 by enquiry into Joshua is not there concern'd for though I was apt to believe they borrow'd all their Arguments from Bellarmine in whom I find them all and to whom as well as to them I reply and by the preposterousness of 5 before 3 might well conjecture they did not mean Josue yet I was willing not to spare my own pains but to be exact even against an Imaginary Possibility of Objection that I had not reply'd ad Idem but made choyce of Texts which they never urg'd and which themselves taught me to answer therefore to follow them and their Bellarmine I go on to examine 24. * Called with us the First Book of Kings cap. 18. ver 7. 3 Reg. 18. When Abdias was in the way Elias met him who when he Abdias knew him fell on his Face and said My Lord art not thou Elias Their Note saies Abdias adored Elias as the Prophet of God and a Holy Man with Religious Honour called Dulia Did he so I trow not not onely because this Dulia also is due to God in Christ's own account and therefore not payable to any else but God himself for when our Saviour Christ saies Ye cannot 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serve God and Mammon Mat. 6.24 two such contrary Masters He saies it upon the neck of this as a strong probation of it V. 23 No man can 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 serve two Masters not onely two which are contrary as God and Mammon but two which are two though in a subordination as God and Prophet His Servants ye are Rom. 6.16 to whom ye obey saies St. Paul who himself would not be obey'd no nor follow'd neither in his Person but in his holy Doctrine and exemplary Life as in both of them he follow'd Christ Be ye Followers of me 1 Cor. 11.1 even as I also am of Christ When he does but leave out the Name of Christ he does not Command but Beseech I beseech you 1 Cor. 4.16 be ye Followers of me Salute indeed we must all them that have the Rule over us Heb. 13.24 I and obey them too V. 17 and submit our selves unto them but we must onely obey their Precepts and submit unto their Counsels and not pay what we owe not a Religious Worship to their very Persons neither This which we owe not nor Contempt which we do owe not to pay what we owe and how we are to pay is involv'd in the seventh verse of that Chapter Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God According to that Express Word or the Evidently Necessary Deductions thence we must not onely greet and mind them but obey and submit unto them But after all this first is it Obligatory enough that the Scripture tels us such a thing was done though it commands not us to do the like if so not to heap up Consequential Inconveniencies but to be Civil to them whom I must not Adore the Doway-argument from an Idolatrous Balaam must still stand in force and the Bellarmine-argument of an Irreligious Saul Adoring a Diabolical Apparition instead of the Soul of Samuel must not onely be Logically concludent which it is not but also Theologically binding which it much less is but secondly the Prostration of Abdias to Elias was not a Religious but a Civil Worship it was indeed to a Prophet a holy Man but that does not Specificate the Act nor any more make it a Holy than a Prophetical Worship for when they say the Holiness of the Man Bow'd to was the Cause of the Bowing yet they must mean the Religiousness of the Bowing to be inherent in him who did Bow and not in him to whom But not this neither This falling on the Face was an Outward and Civil Reverence nor did the Heart it self mean it any more as far as it is possible for Man to discover if it be pretended otherwise let me desire to know where that Perspective is and of what it is made which lets in the Eye of one Man into the Heart of another nor was the Heart of Abdias deceitfull in that it did mean this this Outward and Civil Respect which was writ in Broad Letters upon his Bending Face neither is this Civility of respect confin'd to the Secularity of the Object but dilated to those Created Excellencies which are Spiritual also not as they are Spiritual but as they are Created Excellencies with abstraction from Spirituality not Actu Negationis by Denying them to be Spiritual but Actu Praecisionis not Considering them in the Species of Spirituality but in the Genus of Excellency Nay but what if I shall say a Civil Honour is due to any of these Excellencies throughout I mean as Doway does the Excellencies which inhere in Living and Rational Subjects and not as Persia does the Excellency of a Liveless though Life-giving Sun even in their Spiritual Capacity and Determination I am yet to learn wherein the Errour consists if so I shall say especially when those Excellencies even Spiritual and Quà Spiritual too are conspicuously before our Eyes they evidencing their Spirituity to the Eyes of our Mind though those in our Head see onely Bodily Appearances and either they address to us or we to them In the Humbling Posture of Abdias the Prostration of the Body which is all the Text tels us of was solely and entirely Civil and such a Civil Respect by Bowing or by what other Custome the Fashion of the Countrey does express Civility by to stir the Head or the Hat or to lay Hand on

and a Being one step Higher yet Purely-Spirit but Created and Depending Spirit Angel so there must be to make this Scale Perfect the Top of which must reach not only to Heaven Gen. 28.12 but to God in it a Supreme Soveraign exact essentially and selfly-Spiritual Independent Being who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nam Veteres Theologi Caeli Rhid Praefat. Centri Nomine Deum esse intelligendum prudentiortbns insinuarunt Opposite to the Other extreme the Center of the Earth the most Deficient and beggerly element of Being nay to the very Nothing to which the Nobler sorts of Beings Approach and Of which All sorts of Being Partake as well as a weaker more Infirm and Partial Being to which the more Ignoble Beigns do Declien and That Being must needs be † Deum qui non summū putet Rerum imperitum existimo Caecilius in Cicerone Philo Jud. God so that even by Natural help such as this Ladder is Man might reach up to the Belief of that Jehovah who is Fons Essentiae 16. When thou seest and observest this Difference of Beings One to partake more of Entity and Another less One Meerly to Be Est Praeterea Nihil and Another to Be and Live One to Live and Grow and Another to Live and have Sense Virg. Superatque Vescitur Auris Aethereis One to Live Partly Body and Partly Spirit as Thy self does and Another to Live only Spirit as an Angel does tell that No-man that denys a Being Above all these which gave a Being to All of these that He is not a Man He has no Reason He is not a Beast He has no † Improbum Vislentum est Rationem its ascribere qui Notitia Dei Carent Plutarch in Gryllo Qui Deos negant Abjectum Genus Hominum sine sensu Max. Tyrius Serm. Deo●esse omnes sana mente praediti arbitrātur Plutarch de Homero Sense He is not a Plant for He does not Grow unless it be worse He is not so much as a Dead Chip for there was not a Live Tree out of which He was Cut He is Nothing Less than That for That Nothing is in an Objective Power and Can be Produc'd by the Soveraign Being and the very Production of it when it is In Fieri nay the very Capacity to Be Produc'd while it is but in Posse Fieri does Confess a God worse then That for That Nothing Cannot Disbelieve 17. There is a Fourth Natural and Invincible Argument of a Deity that All these severall Beings do Certainly Operate to a Fixt Design'd End and Purpose This Concludes that not All things no not Any thing is Casual and Fortuitous by meer Dull and Ignorant Frustraneous and End-less Chance and therefore they are all guided by an Intelligence greater than They which hath Created them All for their Distinct uses and That Intelligence must needs be God Whence is it Jer. 35.7 Domus Antra fuerunt Densi Feutices junctae Cortice Virgae Ovid. Metam l. 1. that Stones and Wood have This End which Themselves know not that they Have that we may not be Rechabites but Build Houses make Fires Dress Meat and Live Whence is it that the Sheep and Oxen wear their own Hides and Wool till they have worn them fit for Our Use and then we wear them After and yet they cannot tell that they are Stewards and Providers for us whence is it that we Live by Air and yet the Air understands not that we Breath it or if it did knows not in what secret Caverns to hide all of it from our Nostrils but that we do still in spite of its fleetness and Invisibility Haurire Reddere take hold of it when we List and bid it Go as Cato came Ideo Tantum ut Rediret Auson etiam dum Loquor Redi Whence is it that Men make Laws whereby Man may Live Innocent and safe not safe only Though He be Innocent but Because He is Innocent or who is it that hath taught Man so much Goodness and Protection why is it the Bad Man who knows He should keep Laws does yet break them but that Himself proposes an † Omuis Homo Agit per Intellectum cujus est ex Fiue Operatio End though a wrong One to Himself and whence is it that the Good Man does not utterly Perish in the overthrow of those Laws but that the God-Intelligence does supply the Defect of Law and Protect Him who Pursu'd a Right End Is it not hence that the very Iniquity of some does Confirm the Integrity of Others All would be Casualty and Breach and Destruction were there not a God to Over-see and Over-Power All and Nothing is Casualty and Breach and Destruction to the Good-Man because there is and He knows there is such a God whence is it that the Ill Man is Never at Home but may answer Truly and in sober sadness out of His own Window as the Merry Man in Erasmus did Colloq Ego non sum Domi that He Lives and Dyes Amaz'd and out of Himself now stupify'd and Anon Terrify'd in his heart Fickle and unconstant in Tongue how undaunted soever he be in haughty Brow and Forhead of Brass and whence is it that the Good Man Lives Above nay upon his miseries reckons upon them as the unawares Preferment Bestowd upon him by the very Malice of Man as the Purpos'd Medicinal Gifts and Counsels and Instructions of his God then Dyes and Conquers Death Moriens Animam abstulit Hosli Vir. Aeneid l. 9. as his Christ did by † Death it self Dyes with more Joy and Comfort and Tryumph because it is much deeper than a Face-Joy and a Comfort Wealthier than all the Indies can administer and a Triumph over his very self and all his Frailtyes than those who make him dy and in Dying Make him Live Dyes with an unmoveable serenity in his Heart and Mind and Conscience has the Image and Picture of That serenity graven and imprinted in the Coutage and stedfastness of his eyes and Countenance in the solidity and unrecantingness of his expressions and wishes that his very Words were written nay printed too in a Book nay Graven too and that with an Iron-pen such words these Job 19.28 v. 24 25 27. I know that my Redeemer liveth whom these very Eyes of mine shall stedfastly Behold whence all this but because as another Poet of their own hath said Est Deus in nobis God the Influences and Comforts of God are in him and upon him and Men may see if they will not Maliciously to their own Soul Blind the Better ey of their Soul Reason in such a Life and in such a Death that there is an Ever-Living a Never-Dying an Immortall a Providentiall God 18. From the end for which every thing is Made and to which every thing does Collime Ask the Atheist Wherefore He is Made and to what End He Denyes that God for

is to instruct us in such a Piety and to Crown us with such a Reward Is it not highly worth the while to turn over that Book that we may be sincerely and solidly Religious by it and truly and eternally blessed by the Author of it and what Book has such contents in it can do all this besides that which we call the Scripture 77. Bring hither into a comparison I say not all the choicest writings of all those who were the holiest and hope-fullest of Men in a Natural Religion for such a low comparison would be a scandal to this Holy word and indeed any though less unmannerly and more approaching comparison would be so too but the Nature of this present discourse do's make it somewhat tolerable if not require it but bring hither the Extractions of all their holinesses and hopes amass into one Treatise only the Excellencies and Quintessence of all that all have said as to an integrity Here and a Heaven hereafter and see if they are not all those halt and blind and maim'd Religions which only this Jesus whom we Preach è suggesto and è Praelo can heal and that as he made the world with a word only with this very word of God which we call upon you to search and to ask Counsel of See how the Gospel of Jesus Christ is throughout clean and sanctify'd 1 Tim. 5.23 how though it allows Wine for the Stomack sake yet it charges a sobriety even in Wine too Prov. 23.31 Look not thou upon the Wine when it is red lest it make thee look as red as it when it giveth its colour in the Cup lest it make thee give thine in thy Face when it moveth it self aright lest it and make thee move wrong and untowardly and reelingly thy Legs carry thee whither thou wouldst not John 21.18 and it tells you what a mocker it is and that he that is deceived thereby is not wise Prov. 20.1 no not Seneca's self though he says it sparingly and with an Aliquando Bibendum est ad ebrietatem usque no Aliquando at all here unless such a time which is neither Day nor Night nor a dubious mixture and instantaneous compound of both find out such a time and sin thou mayst Gospel it self and the God of it will not be angry but till then i. e. for ever cease from sin See how there is nothing here as in all other the most pious writings which are not founded upon this to be read and heard cum veniâ favore not only a Cato may without a blush but a Saint in Heaven dos with an unspotted reverence look upon these mysteries how there is much of it consonant to right reason for otherwise man could not apprehend it much of it for if we stay there Possibly Man might have compil'd it above the quickest most exact reason of the sharpest most piercing Man and yet for otherwise it were not God neither that made it nothing at all contrarient to reason What other Book is there can tell us how God without a violation of his Justice against the sins of Man can yet mercifully save sinful because penitent Man No way was ever yet heard of besides this way which could rationally deliver Man from the one Thraldom and captivity of his sin and the other Thraldom and Captivity of Hell into which his sin would hurl him No way but this can lead him into that happiness of which his sin ought to defraud him other Books can tell you that there is a Styx and a Charon and a Rhadamanth that there are Virgines Furiae which are uncapable to be vitiated and corrupted with any Bribes and they tell you true and they charge you to believe that they tell you true Tu vera Puta but no Book besides this unless it borrows its Narrative Traditionally from this and makes it somewhat the worse because the less plain for wearing can by an infiniteness of the mercy of God and an assent of the reason of man 1 Pet. 5.8 Rom. 5.5 tell you of one roaring Lion ready to devour you and of another Lion that of the tribe of Judah which can challenge you you who resist not for though the Debt be paid if a wilful Man that is in Love with bonds reject and tear the acquittance He must pay it agen to the utmost Farthing you who take hold by the hand of Faith of what he hath done for you as his lawful purchase which can and will deliver you from the Jaws of that Lion and make him roar agen because the prey has escapt from betwixt his teeth which can rescue you from the Conveiance of that Charon and the judgement of that Rhadamanth and the torture of that Styx and preserve you from the loss of your blood by the inestimable price of his incorruptible own O that all those Heathen far abroad Ps 2.8 in the uttermost parts of the earth and at home and amongst us too of this Natron which calls upon his Name and is call'd by it which God hath given to this JESUS who is the Authour and subject of the Book for his inheritance which he was Born to and had not at all been Born in this world but for that inheritance sake for his possession which he hath bought with the voluntary laying down of that Life John 10.18 and powerful taking it agen to which he was Born from the womb and Re-Born from the Grave O that all those Heathens the profest ones beyond Christendom and the secret ones Acts 17.11 in the Bowels of it would do as the Bereans did who are honoured with the stile of Noble for doing it Diligently and Daily search the Scriptures the Evangelical Scriptures whether these things are so 77. And I may be excus'd even amongst such People as we are to Honour and Defend the Authority of holy Scriptures even by such an Argument as this because of the more than Exact and Supereminent Holiness of them L. de Veritate Rel. Christ in that not onely the Learned and Indefatigable Grotius hath us'd the like Argument against the Heathens but the Consciencious Balduin too hath done the same Casus Conscientiae whereby to Confirm the Faith and Settle the Consciences even of Christians themselves who might Possibly Scruple at the Authority of holy Writ 78. Excuse me therefore my Brethren of the Christian Confession and give me leave to go on since such a Method as this as it may be Instrumental to the Begetting of Faith in him who as yet dis-believes that Book to be the Work as well as the Gift of God so it cannot choose but re-mind you and cherish and encourage that Faith which you already have and stir up and awaken that Love and Honour and Reverence both to God and the Word of God which your Hearts bear to Both when you consider that by the Stile and Method the Manner and Matter of it it

can be no less than God that spoke and made it 79. Nay hath not God himself given way to such a manner of Arguing as this when as Christ the Son abridges the Gospel into two Commandments so God his Father Mat. 22.40 Contracts the Law into a Command and a Promise upon Obedience to it and a Threat upon Rebelling against it Isa 1.18 and makes his Entrance upon it with such a Preface Come now and let us reason together and as an Inference out of the whole For the Mouth of the Lord hath spoken it Which intimates to us V. 20. that as we must Believe because God hath said it so we may Argue and Reason that God hath said it because what is Deliver'd there is above the Power and Capacity of any Creature I shall for a little while Respite the Promises Threats of Scripture which is Isaiah's Argument that Scripture is the Word of God because in right order I ought to begin with the beginning and to consider first the Stile and Method of God from the very first Word and so on throughout his Book 80. The Stile and Method in which the Word of God begins does continue to the end it speaks as from One having Authority Mat. 7.29 and not as the Humane Scribes and Writers whose occasional sudden Voyce and Considerate Purposing Pen too are subject to Errour In the Doctrines of Man the Method is to Prove unless it be onely in Re Factâ that he who speaks brings his Eyes with him as the Witnesses which saw such a thing done In all else it is his Reason which sways us and works upon our Belief and not his Name But in holy Scriptures the Case is alter'd Moses in the beginning of them does onely say that In the Beginning Gen. 1.1 God created the Heavens and the Earth He does not Prove God nor that Great Work of God the Creation and in this the Authority of Moses nay of All Mankind nay of the very First of them All is altogether Invalid and Un-concluding and that one Exception of being an Eye-witness is in this case wholly taken off For though the Invisible things of God are clearly seen by the Creation of the World though Every man may know Rom. 1.20 by Every thing he sees that there is a God that made it and there was a time when it was made yet Moses was no Eye-witness of the making of the World for himself was made long after and himself tels us so neither could he receive by the Testimony of Man in what Order the World was made because Man was the last thing that was made in the World not onely Scripture tels us he was the last but Reason it self tels us he could not be the first his Vbi must have been made before himself could be plac'd in it He that wrote that Book and the whole Pentateuch does every where discover a great measure of Wisdome in himself and therefore could not possibly be guilty of so much gross and absurd Folly to think his own Testimony Valid when out of himself there are Irrefragable Reasons against the Validity of his single Testimony or the Joynt Concurrency of the whole Rational Creation and therefore too it cannot be but that he would have the Eternal Creatour qui nec Fallere potest nec Falli to be understood the sole Author and himself onely to have been as the Pen in the Hand of God whil'st God himself was the Ready Writer Psal 45.1 In Man Reason is the Authority but in God Authority is the Reason and therefore Man proves and God onely saies nay let me say that this it self is the most powerfull proof that can be either urg'd or imagin'd that God hath said it t●e very Method incommunicable and un-applicable to Creature does signifie that it is that God which spake these words who hath acquainted us that this is his peculiar Stile Psal 82.6 Dixi I have said that ye are Gods Deputed Gods by me to stand in my Room to Distribute my Justice to Execute my Vengeance 1 Tim. 6.15 Psal 97.9 who my self am the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords Exalted far above all Gods so that we may not onely Pardon as Hyperbolical but Approve as Literally true that Vehement Expression of Raimundus de Sabunde Dum Minùs Probat Magìs Probat In Naturali Theologia God does prove all he saies the more in that he does not Prove at all but Say because did he Prove it would administer Doubt that the Words were Mans who though perhaps he be in Many Things 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in Nothing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but to Say by way of Authority Non Vox Hominem sonat This is indeed Act 12.22 not the Voyce of Man but of God and since so it is he that would have a Richer Pawn a firmer Obligation than the Bare Word of God and yet I do not well to call it his Bare Word for his Dixit Factum est Psal 33.9 go together what he saies is never Bare but alwaies apparel'd with Performance I know not what to compare him to but to our Covetous Purchasers who think their Lease Imperfect and their Bargain lost if they have it not For Ever and for One Day at least more than for ever For Ever and a Day Thus the Stile and Method proves God to be the Author of them The Manner and Matter does so too The Manner does so in another manner of Stile and Method It finds fault in the whole Creation Gal. 2.17 though it makes not Fault in any part of it It is Objurgatory and Rebuking to those on Earth and to those in Heaven too and what Creature Amongst Us will be so Bold to Stile and Manner it so Loftily and Majestically and All-Knowingly it tels us not onely that All Men are Sinners Jam. 3.2 but it uses the Hands of those very Sinfull Men to self-acknowledge their particular most grievous and hainous Sins and makes those Men hold up their Hands at the Bar of Heaven and not onely cry Guilty in the Mass as Heathens do but thus and thus thus and thus hainously and specifically Guilty and what Creature will be so Injurious to his own Fame to leave his Shame and Scandal and Dis-repute upon Record not onely as he is one of Mankind but too as he is this Individual Man A Seneca In Vita Beatâ c. 18. In Alto omn. though he cryes out In Profundo Omnium Vitiorum sum would never cry out against his own Covetousness though he did against the Avarice of other Men in his own Behalf he is more sparing and saies Sapiens for himself did Opine himself to be that Wise Man non optat Divitias sed Mavult and he leaves others to tell us more Loudly not onely of Senecae Praedivitis Hortos Martial but of his Amor Sceleratus Habendi and not