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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	write_n	write_v	writer_n	265	4	7.7662	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61615	A sermon preached before the King, February the 15, 1683/4 by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1684 (1684)	Wing S5655; ESTC R18638	18,662	43

it but a groundless suspicion they had entertained because of his unusual sufferings makes here in this Chapter a solemn protestation of the mighty value and esteem he had for the Laws of God that he constantly observed them and esteemed them more than his necessary food And to let them know that this was no sudden heat he tells Eliphaz that the fear of God in him came from the most weighty and serious consideration When I consider I am afraid of him as if he had said I have spent many thoughts about God and Religion whether there be any just reason for Mankind to apprehend and stand in awe of an infinite Being above them and I do assure you the more I have fixed my thoughts upon this matter and laid all things before me the deeper impression the fear of God hath made upon me or as some render it perpendo paveo I consider and I fear him Wherein are two things implied I. That Mens disesteem of Religion doth arise from want of Consideration II. That the more men consider the more setled and fixed will their minds be in the esteem and practice of Religion I. That Mens disesteem of Religion doth arise from the want of Consideration Which will best appear by examining the most common and prevailing reasons of Mens disesteem of it which are chiefly these two l. Their looking on Religion as a matter of meer interest and design without any other foundation 2. The unaccountable folly and superstitious fears of Mankind which makes them think more to be in it than really is 1. Looking on the whole business of Relion as a matter of interest and design first started by some great Politicians to tame and govern Mankind and ever since kept up by a company of Priests who lived upon the Cheat and therefore were bound to maintain and to keep it up which otherwise would sink to nothing This is the worst can be said against Religion and it is bad enough of all reason if it were true and we should deserve all the scorn and contempt which such Men treat us with if we were but accessary to so great a fraud and imposture But is there such a thing as Reason among Mankind Can we judge of what is true and false probable or improbable certain or uncertain Or must some things be run down without examining and others taken up without any other colour of reason than because they serve to such a purpose For Gods sake and for our own sake then let us consider these things a little better before we pronounce against them or entertain any doubt or suspicion of them in our minds And there is this great reason for it that the wisest the best the most considering the most disinteressed Men have taken the part of Religion and been zealous Defenders of it whereas on the other side the younger the looser the more debauched part of Mankind have been most enclined to Atheism and Irreligion But if we have not Reason of our side we are content to give up the Cause and to be thought Deceivers which goes very hardly down with an ingenuous mind and if on the other side there be nothing found but false and groundless suppositions or unreasonable suspicions I hope Religion may be fairly acquitted from being thought a meer contrivance of Politicians and we from being the Silver-smiths to this Diana 1. Those who make Religion to be such a contrivance must suppose that all Mankind were once without any such thing as Religion For if some crafty Politicians did first start the notion of an Invisible Being among the rude and unthinking Multitude the better to awe them into Obedience to Government then Mankind must have lived before those Politicians appear'd with as little sense of God and Religion and with as much security and ease as to the thoughts of another World as the very Beasts that perish If this were true these Politicians were so far from consulting the interest of Mankind that they were the greatest Enemies to it by filling their minds with such unconquerable fears as rob them of that undisturbed Tranquillity which they enjoyed before But when and where did this race of Mankind live whom these designing Men first cheated into the belief of a Deity and the practice of Religion The eldest Writings in the World without all dispute are those of the Holy Scriptures and among these the Book of Job hath been thought the most antient for in all this Book we have not one word of the Law of Moses or of Circumcision which makes it very probable to have been written before the Children of Israels coming out of Aegypt and some Arabic Writers think that Job lived before Abraham and others at least in the time of Jacob however it be this Book of Job gives an account of the sense of Mankind about Religion very early and by it we find that the great and wise and understanding Men of the World such as Job and his three Friends were who as far as appears by the story were all of them independent Princes such as were common then and a long time after in those parts about Arabia had a mighty sense of God and Providence and the Duties of Religion upon their minds And they not only give an ample Testimony as to their own times but they appeal to all the Traditions of former times Enquire I pray thee of the former Age saith one of Job's Friends and prepare thy self to the search of their Fathers For we are but of yesterday and know nothing But what is it he appeals to Antiquity for and the observations of all former Ages It was for this viz. the bad condition of all that were not sincere in Religion So are the paths of all that forget God and the hypocrites hope shall perish And another of his Friends speaking of the remarkable judgments of God upon the World saith to Job Hast thou marked the old way which wicked men have trodden which were cut down out of time whose foundation was overthrown with a flood i. e. the Men of the old World And what was their great and provoking sin A contempt of God and Religion Which said unto God Depart from us and what can the Almighty do for them This is the oldest and truest and severest instance of such a profane and irreligious temper and the great mischief it brought upon the World which shews that this is not the original disposition of Mankind but the monstrous degeneracy of it But if they are unsatisfied with the Testimony of Job's Friends let them produce any to be mentioned the same Day with it which can pretend to give a truer account of the Religion of the first Ages of the World I do not mention Moses although his Authority be unquestionable lest he should be thought one of these Politicians who inspired the People of Israel with the Principles of Religion but I the rather