Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	true_a	visible_a	3,262	5	9.6634	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31554	The Challenge sent by a young lady to Sir Thomas &c., or, The female war wherein the present dresses and humours &c. of the fair sex are vigorously attackt by men of quality, and as bravely defended by Madam Godfrey and other ingenious ladies who set their names to every challenge : the whole encounter consists of six hunded letters pro and con on all disputable points relating to women, and is the first battle of this nature that was ever fought in England.	Philaretos.	1697 (1697)	Wing C1796; ESTC R25334	179,218	410

with Tattling and Laughter Let the Satyr of our Antagonist fall as hard as he sees convenient on such as these and let him if he please Whip 'em out of our Churches like other Troublesome Animals but then let him be sure not to overlook any of his own Sex who are guilty of the same Miscarriage and let him not unjustly blame those who are free from it We are all Flesh and Blood there 's no dispute of it Both Sexes are moulded of the same Clay we do not pretend to be Angels tho our Flatterers would sometimes perswade us so in order to make us like themselves If they find our Weakness why are they so ungenerous as to make us betray it Why can they not desist from tempting us even when we take Sanctuary to avoid them But yet they cannot affirm without Injustice that they find our Sex of such I inder Constitutions since they know many of their own who have dogg'd a Lady to Church often enough without seeing so much as her Face while they were there at least if that could not be avoided meeting no Encouragement to their Amorous Follys but all their Glances and Oglings lost in the Air like the Curses they cast on the Insensible fair Saint for not returning them As bad as we are in general nay as much deprav'd as the other Sex really is I am not willing to believe so ill even of them as this Gentleman would Insinuate only to blast us not unlike the Envious Wretch that pull'd out one of his own Eyes that his Neighbour might lose both He represents things indeed in a more deplorable condition then I would hope they deserve our Churches like those in other Countreys little better then Theatres and the same Intrigues manag'd in both or rather as they were of old and as the Turkish Spy describes some others like the old Heathenish Temples of Cupid and Venus Pity those who abuse 'em should ever enter 'em unless there were more hopes of their Reformation by ' em But I cannot think those things are so common as he would have us believe I declare I have known but few such Instances and I never heard you Madam mention many more It 's possible that in five or six hundred or a Thousand People there may be some few who make this the End of their coming thither But what just reflexion can this be upon all the rest who may be as reasonably charg'd with Picking Pockets because it 's Notorious that many wretches come constantly to Church with no other Intention It 's indubitably evident that there may be Hypocrisy in frequenting the Publick Worship but 't is as certain that in ordinary cases there can be no Religion without it Admit but this which I do not fatter my self in my own cause will appear very reasonable and it will be soon visible whether Sex has more Religion The Gentleman civilly remits us to the Sessions Paper to make the Computation but I must ask his pardon if I cannot think that a fair way of Tryal Supposing it true which he Asserts there may be many reasons assign'd for it without granting Women are the more wicked For when Men have brought 'em into the Snares of the Law they generally leave 'em and can shift for themselves well enough besides there are some Capital faults whereof Men cannot be guilty And when they are Obnoxious to the Law have many more Conveniences for making their Escapes then a weak helpless Woman These I take to be some of the reasons why we sometimes find more Women in the Black Lift then Men I say sometimes because I know the contrary often happens But now we have waited on our Antagonist to the Jayls I hope he 'll go with us to Church without suspecting we have any design upon him by drawing him thither We will not confine him to St. Brides neither let him chuse any Church in Town and he 'll easily see how far the Men are out-number'd by the Women who without Compulsion fill those Seats which would be very empty without ' em And I 'm apt to believe notwithstanding all his wrath against us he does really go to Church now and then himself for he seems to have remember'd several pretty things about Religion which we own as well as he ought to be principally inward and silent but yet if it be there he knows it will work outward Nor will he I hope affirm with many others that there 's no need of any publick Worship The next bad thing he lays to our Charge is Superstition wherein he is so civil to acknowledge we exceed the Men altho not in true Religion But he knows every Virtue runs nearer one extream then the other and he who is too Religious too Vnreasonably affraid of the Supreme Being may yet in time have juster Notions of him while a desperate Atheist is like to continue as he is till another World convince him He cannot say there are yet many of that Impious Sect amongst us He can Name no Hobbs's he knows their Names better then we nor any other such Vniversal Poysoners and Corrupters of Mankind of our Sex altho we have had those as Famous for many sorts of Learning as ever theirs could boast of An Argument by the way that we are the sounder Philosophers too because it has been observ'd that a thorough and well digested Knowledge of things inclines more to the belief of a Deity whil'lt huddled confus'd and crude Notions we see by experience often render Men Atheistical and Irreligious The Gentleman owns we have not the same Temptations to Vice wherewith his own Sex is Assaulted and we wish we had less still as we should have were it not for them However in these cases where we have no Tempter let us be as frail as he can suppose us we are not like to Err and Freedom from Vice I take to be a good Degree of Virtue and Innocence a good Foundation for Religion They may discourse while they please of knowing the World and the Advantages of Experience we envy 'em not their dear bought knowledge but think those who know it least are both the safest and the happiest There is one passage more wherein he blames us for our way of Educating Children rendring their minds VVea● and Feeble and filling 'em with our own Superstitious Notions But I must needs tell him this Objection is no great Argument of his own Religion but sounds very much like his Divinity who said Fear first made Gods We grant and suppose he 'll scarce deny that a Just and Awful sence of what is infinite and invisible is very proper to be Imprinted on the Minds of Children while they are yet a Blank Table and as useful to confirm and clear such Notions if there already To make 'em honest in the Dark and to lay the Foundations of Piety and Virtue and I should think this was the greatest Service could be done to mankind