Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	great_a	world_n	write_v	3,052	5	5.1732	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60211	The origine of atheism in the popish and Protestant churches shew'n by Dorotheus Sicurus, 1648 ; made into English, and a preface added by E.B., Esquire.; Origo atheismi in pontificia et evangelica ecclesia. English	Crenius, Thomas, 1648-1728.; E. B., Esquire.	1684 (1684)	Wing S3756; ESTC R6868	23,279	40

THE ORIGINE OF ATHEISM IN THE Popish and Protestant CHURCHES SHEW'N BY DOROTHEVS SICVRVS 1684. Made English and a Preface added By E. B. Esquire LONDON Printed for Walter Kettilby at the Bishops-Head in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1684. THE TRANSLATOR TO THE READER THE Author of This small Piece is altogether unknown to me and as to the Name I suppose it is a made one because neither the place where it is Printed is expressed nor the Printers name I conjecture the Author of it to be a Calvinist by reason of his great kindness for that Religion as appears in his Title page and throughout the Book calling it every where the Evangelical Religion Besides in the beginning of the Third Section he falls very sharply upon the Lutherans and Arminians as if none had been guilty of the Crimes there charged but they But be this as it will I am much better assured the Book was Printed beyond the Seas and imported into England both by the Paper Print and Person of whom I had it I have taken the pains to turn it as well as I can into English because I conceive it may be useful to some of my Countrey men who cannot read it in the Original and if I should happen to be mistaken the wonder will not be great And yet I cannot forbear taking a little more pains with it before I know what shall be the event of that which I have already undergone because I conceive there may be many other Causes of the encrease of the abominable and comprehensive sin of Atheism besides those my Author hath mentioned It has been observed by many Learned men who have reflected on the tempers of the several Ages of the World that the more ignorant times have been strongly prone to Superstition whence I suppose was taken that common Proverb that Ignorance is the mother of Devotion There being no people so seemingly Devout as the Superstitious It would make a man amazed to see what ridiculous things our Ancestors believed in the dark times of Popery here in England No man can read the story of the Monk of Evesham which fills three whole leaves in Matth. Paris wherein is a very exact account of all the Pains and Places of Purgatory Or that in Gulielmus Newbrigensis concerning the two Green children that were found at Wolpet in Suffolk and came out of St. Martins Land where the Sun never shines and where they never see any greater light than that of a twilight c. I say no man can read these passages in men of that great capacity that they were of in comparison of others who lived in the same times but he must admire the credulity and ignorance of those Ages and if the great men and Scholars could swallow such things we may from thence conjecture how large the Faith and Belief of the meaner people was On the other side the Age of Augustus in which times our Saviour took upon him our Nature were as Learned Polite and flourishing times as ever hapned since the Creation of the World but then they were the most corrupt too in point of Manners and the most Atheistical in point of Belief That they were Learned will appear to any man that shall read the Works of Cicero Livy Virgil Horace Josephus c. And we may be assured that all the more Antient Greek and Latin Books which are since lost were all then extant and how much the Romans in that Age envied the Grecians the reputation of Learning will thence appear too tho' as Ammianus Marcellinus acquaints us about three Centuries after they became wholly careless of Books and Learned men Bibliothecis in Sepulchrorum ritu in perpetuum clausis Their Libraries being like Sepulchres shut up never to be opened more And a little higher Pro Philosopho Cantor in locum Oratoris Doctor artium ludicrarum Accitur They entertained instead of a Philosopher a Singing man and instead of an Orator a Teacher of Ludicrous Arts but that it was not so in the times I mention is apparent from the great number of excellent Books that were then written But then the same Books will sufficiently acquaint us with the Vniversal corruption of manners that then raged throughout the whole world and God be praised tho' our times seem to be equal in Learning they are not yet so bad as those were in point of Morality Nor did Atheism and her Sister Hypocrisie rage less in that Age than debauchery The Philosophy that was then in Vogue was the Epicurean of which Sect most of the great men of Rome in those times were as the Sect of the Sadduces prevailed upon the great men of the Jewish Nation at the same time which was not much better than the Epicurean Philosophy being but a sort of disguised Atheism Nor was the covetous ambitious insolent and factious Hypocrisie of the Pharisees less odious to God and mischievous to all true Religion than the contrary sin of Atheism as appears by our Saviours conjoyning them always in his severe reprehensions and threats and I doubt not but much of the Impiety of that age sprung from mens observing the Vanity of these outside Pretenders to piety and that in meer abhorrence of their Villanies many run into the other extream Because it may seem a little strange to most men that these two effects should spring from such unlikely causes I will presume to offer something as the Causes of them tho' I shall perhaps please no body but my self by the attempt As to the first Ignorance alone never produced any Devotion in any man But because in every Age God has exerted and manifested his Power and Providence those times that had least Natural Philosophy in them have attributed to him not only all those great things which he in reality did to demonstrate his Power and Care of men but all those Works of Nature too which they could not understand such as Eclipses and the like by which means men became so Credulous that they easily believed any thing that was told them for want of ability to discern Truth from Falsehood and others that were more Crafty did work upon this temper and drive on the Cheat for their own advantage still more and more deluding the Superstitious and fearful that they might increase their own Wealth and Power by their needless Superstition and foolish fear But on the other side in those times in which Natural Philosophy hath flourished men being by that enabled to search into the Natural and Second Causes of things have many times from their discoveries concluded that there was no God but that all things succeeded in a Regular and Natural course and if there happened some things which they could give no account of they either disbelieved them or thought there was a Natural Cause tho' they could not for the present find it out Again the strange and to men unsearchable order