Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	call_v	great_a	power_n	1,386	5	4.4255	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61578	Of the nature of superstition a sermon preached at St Dunstans West, March 31, MDCLXXXII / by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1682 (1682)	Wing S5614; ESTC R18667	23,089	50

may be more pleasing to God which do not make such a shew of Wisdom to Men it seems to be a matter of as great difficulty as concernment to us to understand the just and true bounds between Religious and Superstitious Worship This is an enquiry of so great moment and consequence for the easing our minds of many trouble ome doubts and fears and setling in them a true notion of Religion that I shall from hence apply my self to the consideration of the true difference between the reasonable Worship of God and Superstition Superstition in the general is nothing else but an unpleasing Worship of God I do not speak of that Worship which relates to a false object which is more properly Idolatry but when that Worship is ultimately referred to a true Object as in the Worship of Angels as Mediators then it is Superstition too it being an undue way of giving Worship to the true God I shall not trouble my self with an enquiry into the Etymology of the words in Greek or Latin it being well observed by Aquinas that in this matter we are not so much to observe the Etymology of Superstition as the use of the Word And that hath been different according to mens notions concerning Religion Those who believed no God at all or at least no Providence accounted all Religion to be nothing but Superstition And it is a weak and silly Apology a late Commentator on Lucretius makes for his saying so much mischief hath been done by Religion by Religion saith he he meant Superstition for he accounted all Religion to be nothing else but Superstition And those in our Age who can find no other difference between them but that one is allowed and the other not or one is what we like and the other what we dislike do destroy any real difference between them and make only Religion a Superstition in fashion and Superstition a Religion out of fashion Whereas if there be a God and Providence there must be such a thing as true Religion i. e. there ought to be some Acts in us agreeable to the Conceptions we have of the Divine Nature For His Majesty and Power requires our Fear not an amazing confounding unaccountable Fear arising from a perplexity and disorder of our imaginations but a just reasonable prudent Fear springing from our most serious thoughts and deepest consideration of things For if it be impossible for any thinking man to satisfie himself in the train of Causes but he must come to this thought at last that there is some Cause whereof there is no former Cause but is Eternal which is that we call God then it is impossible if this man pursues his own thoughts but the first Consequence from hence will be that if this God be the first cause of all things his Power and Majesty is so great as to command a due Reverence and Fear from us his Creatures This is not such a Fear as Men have in a storm or when a sudden calamity seizeth upon them which makes them at their wits end and to run they know not whither for present help but it is a settled calm composed temper of mind a Fear without consternation an Awe and Reverence of the Divine Majesty without terrour and astonishment For as the mighty Power of God begets fear in us so the infinite Goodness and Wisdom of God not only keep up mens minds from sinking into slavish Fear and horrible despair but fills them with comfortable hopes and a patient and humble Trust and Confidence in his never-failing Providence And this is the Nature of true Religion in the Minds of Men. But because it tends to the honour of our Maker and the incouraging one another to Acts of Piety and Devotion that this inward sense of our Minds be expressed by such external Actions as are agreeable thereto from thence came the necessity of the publick Offices of Religion wherein we offer up our Prayers and Praises to the Divine Majesty in acknowledgment of our Dependence upon him for what we have or are or hope for And there is nothing in all this but what is highly just and reasonable and this is true natural Religion But then we cannot deny that there is too great a natural proneness in Mankind to Superstition For when men cannot shake off the apprehension of a Deity and yet are conscious to themselves that they have offended him the very thoughts of him prove so uneasie to them that they would be glad to believe there were none at all and give all the advantage to Atheistical Objections which a willing mind can do And as Plutarch observes of Superstitious Men they would be Atheists if they durst But finding still an inward dissatisfaction and an impossibility of rooting out the fears of a Deity the next thing is to think upon some ways to please him and to mitigate his displeasure against them And we can hardly imagine any thing so pompous and ceremonious so mean and servile so cruel and barbarous so ridiculous and foppish but Mankind have made use of it to atone the anger of their Gods For the first effect of Superstition on Mens minds was that they durst not make immediate Applications to the Supreme Being as being too great and powerful for them therefore they pitched on some inferiour Beings to mediate and to offer up their Devotions and Sacrifices to him whom they thought it too great presumption to approach When thus Superstition in the most proper sense of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 had in a great measure supplanted true Religion in the World then it proceeded to find out such ways and methods of Worship as they thought would be most pleasing to these inferiour Deities They erected Temples and Altars to them and set out their Images with all the Art and Splendor they were capable of and upon extraordinary Occasions they were carried with wonderful Pomp and Solemnity through the Streets all Orders of Men attending them with Supplications and Prayers and costly Sacrifices to avert their Wrath and Displeasure And they were not content with promiscuous Sacrifices but they studied by all possible means to find out what Sacrifices would please them best if they fancied it must be something very dear and precious to them they stuck not at offering up their very children to appease them and contrived by loud Musick to stop their ears from hearing the hideous cries of their Children while they were roasting in the flames And in their ordinary Sacrifices they were extremely scrupulous lest any spot or blemish or number or unfit season or so much as colour should be displeasing to the Gods they offered them to some must have white and uneven others black and even sacrifices some must have their Sacrifices offerd at the rising some at the setting of the Sun some must have one sort of Beasts and some another and some no less than Mans flesh would satisfy which inhumane Sacrifices on some