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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	see_v	word_n	2,798	5	3.6685	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45642	Immorality and pride, the great causes of atheism a sermon preach'd at the cathedral-church of St. Paul, January the 8th 1697/8 : the first of the lecture for that year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq. / by John Harris ...	Harris, John, 1667?-1719.	1698 (1698)	Wing H850; ESTC R15170	14,121	30

he will forbear doing an Ill Thing when he thinks it will prove ill to him he will be Just Honest and Sincere when he don't dare be otherwise for fear of the Law Shame and Ignominy For all Men of Atheistical Principles would be Knaves and Villains if they durst if they could do it safely and securely such a Man 't is like shall return you a Bag of Money or a rich Jewel you happen to depose in his Hands but why is it 't is because he dares not keep it and deny it 't is great odds but he is discovered and exposed by this means and besides 't is Unfashionable and Ungenteel to be a Cheat in such Cases But to impoverish a Family by Extravagance and Debauchery to defraud Creditors of their just Debts or Servants of their Wages to Cheat at Play to violate one's Neighbour's Bed to gratifie one's own Lust are things which though to the full as Wicked and Unreasonable in themselves are yet swallowed down as allowable enough because common and usual and which are not the more is the pity attended with that Scandal and Infamy that other Vices are Thus 't is very plain that this pretended Principle of Honour in an Atheist or a Wicked Man and this Obedience and Deference that he pretends to pay to the Laws of his Country is a most Partial and Changeable thing and vastly different from that true Honour and Bravery that is founded on the Eternal Basis of Conscience and Religion 't is an Airy Name that serves only to amuse unthinking and short-sighted Persons into a Belief that he hath some kind of Principles that he will stick to that so he may be thought fit to be trusted dealt and conversed withall in the World And thus I think it is very clear and apparent that Wickedness naturally leads to Infidelity and Atheism and Infidelity and Atheism to the Support and Maintenance of That And that it is the Wicked that will not seek after God and whose thoughts are that there is no God Which was my First Particular I come next to Consider II. That Peculiar Kind of Wickedness which the Psalmist here takes notice of as the chief Ground from whence Infidelity and Atheism proceed And that is Pride The Wicked through the Pride of his Countenance will not seek after God neither is God in all his Thoughts And I question not but this Vice of Pride is generally the Concomitant of Infidelity and the chief Ground from whence the Spirit of Speculative Atheism proceeds When Men of proud and haughty Spirits lead ill Lives as they very often do they always endeavour to justifie themselves in their Proceeding be it never so Irregular and Absurd and never so contrary to the considerate Sentiments of all the rest of the World A Proud Man hates to acknowledge himself in an Errour and to own that he hath committed a Fault He would have the World believe that there is a kind of Indefectibility in his Understanding and Judgment which secures him from being deceived and mistaken like other Mortals Whatever Actions therefore such a Person commits he would fain have appear reasonable and justifiable But he sees plainly that he cannot make Wickedness and Immorality do so as long as Religion stands its Ground in the World The Sacred Scriptures are so plain and express against such a course of Life that there is no avoiding being convicted and condemned while their Authority remains good 'T is impossible any way to reconcile a vicious Life to the Doctrine there delivered And therefore he sees plainly That one that Professes to believe the great Truths of Religion and the Divine Authority of those Sacred Books and yet by his Practices gives the Lye to his Profession and while he acknowledges Jesus Christ in his Words doth in his Works deny him he sees I say that such an one stands 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Self-condemned and can never acquit himself either to his own Conscience or to the Reason of Mankind Now this is perfectly disagreeable to the Genious and Humour of a Proud Man he cannot bear to be thought in any respect Incoherent or Inconsistent with himself And therefore having vainly tried to justifie himself in his Wickedness by alledging the Examples of some good Men in Sacred Scripture that have been guilty of great Sins but whose Repentance he can by no means digest And having also fruitlessly endeavoured to rely on the perverted Sense of some particular Texts of Scripture which he knows are sufficiently refuted by the Analogy of the whole he finds at last that 't is the best way to deny the Divine Authority of the Bible and the Truth of all Revelation and so boldly shake off at once all Obligation to the Rules of Piety and Virtue and since Religion can't be wrested so as to give an allowance to his way of living he will take it quite away Banish that and God Almighty out of the World and set up Iniquity by a Law And nothing can be more pleasing and agreeable to the Arrogance of such Men than this way of Proceeding It gratifies an insolent and haughty Spirit prodigiously to do things out of the common Road to pretend to be Adept in a Philosophy that is as much above the rest of Mankind's Notions as 't is Contradictory to it to assume to himself a Power of seeing much farther into things than other Folk and to penetrate into the deepest recesses of Nature He would pass for one of Nature's Cabinet Councellors a Bosome Favourite that knows all the secret Springs of Action and the first remote Causes of all Things He pleases himself mightily to have discovered with what Ridiculous Bugbears the Generality of Mankind are awed and frighted he can now look down with a Scornful Pity on the poor groveling Vulgar the Unthinking Mobb below that are poorly enslaved and terrified by the Fear of a God and of Ills to come they know not when nor where He despises such dull Biggots as will be imposed upon by Priests and that will superstitiously abstain from the Enjoyment of present Pleasure on account of such idle Tales as the Comminations of Religion And as he despises those that are not Wicked so he upbraids those that are so with inconsistency with their Principles and Profession and for doing the same things that he doth when they have nothing to bear them out And thus he doubly gratifies his Pride by justifying himself and condemning and triumphing over others Nay the very Mistakes and Errours of such a Man we are told appear laudable and great to him and he can please himself at last with saying That he hath not Erred like a Fool but Secundum Verbum Vid. Oracles of Reason p. 92. When Men have a while enured themselves to talk at this rate and to blow themselves up with such lofty Conceits and Fancies they grow by degrees more and more opinionated and do dote more and more on their own dear