Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	call_v	church_n	time_n	2,817	5	3.2368	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31765	The Charitable Samaritan, or, A short and impartial account of that eminent and publick-spirited citizen Mr. Tho. Firmin who departed this life on Monday Dec. 20, 1697 / by a gentleman of his acquaintance.	Gentleman of his acquaintance.	1698 (1698)	Wing C2067; ESTC R25982	20,066	27

upon them by that most admirable Man the present Bishop of Worcester he lamented it as an unsurmountable Obstacle to the Conversion both of the Jews and Mahometans The Doctors of the Roman Church indeed by their subtile Distinctions of two Greek Words endeavour to mince the matter but after all their pains to wash the Blackamoor Idolatry is no better nor worse than Idolatry and will be so to the end of the Chapter If we look into their Rituals and judge of their Belief by their Practice we shall find that they pay to a whole Almanack full of Saints of their own making the same Ceremonies in the very same words accompanied with the same Prostrations as they do to God Almighty They directly offer their Prayers make Vows and Consecrate Temples to them nay what is more for Superstition has no Bounds they offer our Blessed Lord and Saviour to them and yet they think to come off with their Terminative and Relative These new made Free-men of the Calendar are Worshipt from Lapland to Japan are invoked in a thousand places at once and the Beatific Looking-Glass must solve all this the Dream of some idle Sot of a Schoolman without the least warrant from Scripture or Reason They pretend good manners for this and tell us that God Almighty must not be rudely approached but that the Petition must be delivered in by some Favourite I wonder that these Gentlemen that Pray thus by Proxy shou'd not manage every thing else after this wise rate and when they are to take Physick that they don't employ a Friend to take the Dose of Pills or Electuary in their stead He was for a plain intelligible Theology such as our Saviour and the Apostles left it behind them and such as it continued for some time till the Jewish and Grecian Converts but especially the Philosophers for different ends Debauch'd it with Ceremonies and Muffled it up in Mystery And since Religion was Calculated for reasonable Creatures he thought that Conviction and not Authority ought to influence Mankind for this Reason he looked upon those Men to have no small share of Vanity Laziness or Weakness in their Composition that suffer themselves tamely to be imposed upon by magnificent Souuds and numerous Citations Plutarch in Solon's Life tell us That that famous Legislator inserted a Verse into Homer to prove That the Island of Salamis belonged of right to the Athenians and who knows what strange Interpolations have been made in the Ecclesiastical Monuments by Men that valued the Interest of their Party more then the Truth especially if we consider that before the invention of Printng few Copies of Books cou'd be Published at a time and those fell into few hands and might easily be supprest or corruptted to which Temptation I cou'd heartily wish those we call the purest Ages of the Church had never been exposed An unintelligible or absur'd Proposition is to be never the more respected for its having travel'd far or wearing the Venerable Badge of Antiquity That former Ages were so prodigiously cautious and honest as neither to be imposed upon themselves nor suffer any Errors to be transmitted to their Posterity is a Metaphysical Contemplation with which superstitious People may amuse or delight themselves in their Closets but is never to be urged to such Persons that have examined these matters with more impartiality and care This naturally leads me to that part of his Character which I confess I would conceal from the rest of the World if it lay in my Power as it does not since it is no Secret to those that knew him but as I have pretended to give an impartial Account of our Friend I find my self obliged to take some notice of it before I conclude He was then and I wish once more I cou'd conceal it he was not so Orthodox as I cou'd have wished he had been in his Opinion about the Holy Trinity and the satisfaction of our Saviour according to the common Explications I don't pretend in the least to Vindicate him in either only give me leave to add that as few Men in the World have been without their Errors I cou'd instance if I pleas'd in some of the best and learnedest Fathers of the Church so I think a charitable Construction ought to be given of them where the Person mistaking was of no Obstinate refractory Temper but show'd in the whole Tenour of his Life that he aim'd at nothing more than to find out the Truth so that if he mist it in the pursuit it should only be ascribed to humane Imbecillity from which the greatest Men are not exempt It ought to be consider'd too that when he first appear'd in the World he found the Nation involved in a Bloody Civil War and the Church divided by several Schisms as the state was distracted by different Factions The Laity at that time looked upon themselves to be ill used by the Leaders of both Churches who did not seem to contend for the purity of Religion so much as they did who should have the Rod in their hands to jerk the poor People that were under their Power and as it is natural for Men to run out of one extream into another they imagin'd a cheat put upon them even where there was no reason to suspect one He was naturally inquisitive and devoted as much time to Reading as a life so taken up as his but generally employ'd in the service of others would well permit He had observed how inconsistent with themselves and how different from us the Fathers of the Church were before the Nicene Council in their Explications of the Trinity which extorted this Confession from the Learned Grotius Constat mihi Patres in explicatione harum rerum plurimum dissensisse etiamsi vocum quarumdam sono inter se conveniunt That to give an instance or two of their strange confusion or uufairness Theophilus Antiochenus speaking of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the second Person of the Trinity calls him the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Holy Ghost which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descended upon the Prophets that Hermas a Writer in the Apostolical Times uses the word Spiritus Sanctus in the same sense with Mens Humana that St. Barnabas or some body under his Name Cap. 12. quotes Isaias for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christo meo Domino instead of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyro as the LXX and we have rightly Translated it that it is often difficult to know whether a word is to be taken in the figurative or proper sense as the Word Elohim so much used in this controversy among the Jews in its primary meaning signifies the Supream and only God but that it is frequently applied in Holy Writ to Angels and Princes that as for the famous passage in St. John Cap. 5. v. 7 8. which our Bibles after the Manuscripts of a more modern date read thus There are three that bear Record in Heaven the