Selected quad for the lemma: end_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
end_n	action_n	bad_a	good_a	3,262	5	4.6947	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

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

is said will be satisfied of the Necessity of Humane Laws and of the Advantages that do thence arise to Mankind He will think himself obliged to submit to the Laws of his Country and consequently will keep up to the Rules of common Justice and Honesty and this say they is enough and all that Religion can pretend to enjoin There is a late French Author that endeavours to maintain by Arguments and Examples that the Principles of Atheism do not necessarily lead to Vice and Immorality But in the Proof of this he comes very short of his Design He alledges That some Professing Christianity have always and do still live as bad Lives and as wickedly as any Atheists whatsoever can do And that some Atheists have lived very Regularly and Morally But what then Allowing and granting all this it doth not in the least follow that Atheism doth not lead to Immorality and a Corruption of Manners For it is neither asserted that Atheism is the only way of becoming Wicked nor that an Atheist must necessarily be guilty of all manner of Vice No doubt very many Men betake themselves to a sinful Course without having any Principles to justifie themselves by as the Atheist pretends to But are drawn into Wickedness purely by Incogitancy and want of Consideration And such kind of Persons though they make an outward Profession of Christianity yet they may be and doubtless often are as Vicious and Immoral as any other Men without ever arriving at the Point of Speculative Atheism or perhaps without ever so much as doubting of the Being of a God of the Truth of Religion or of a Future State of Rewards and Punishments No one saith also that an Atheist must necessarily be guilty of all manner of Vice and Immorality But 't is plain enough that his Principles lead him to prosecute any vicious Inclination that is suitable to him and to do any thing that he can safely to procure to himself that kind of Happiness or Satisfaction he proposes to enjoy Many Sins are disagreeable to some particular Periods and Circumstances of a Man's Life to his Constitution Genius and Humour Now 't is easie to suppose a Man may abstain from such for his own Ease Health and Quiet 's sake Self-Love will preserve the Atheist from such open and notorious Acts of Wickedness as will expose him to the Capital Punishment of Human Laws and which will endanger depriving him of his Being here where he only proposes to be happy This Principle also of Self-Love will hinder him from exposing himself to Ignominy and Scandal and will make him endeavour to keep fair in the Opinions of those whose disesteem would give him a great degree of Unhappiness But it doth not in the least follow from hence that because he is not guilty of all manner or of this or that particular Vice that therefore he is a good Moral Man and guilty of none at all It cannot be concluded from hence that such a Person will avoid committing any Fact be it never so Wicked when it is stript of all these Inconveniences and can be done secretly safely and securely when 't is agreeable to his Constitution and Humour fashionable and gentile and contributes very much to that kind of Satisfaction he is inclin'd to for as one that had consider'd this Point well observes Self-Love which like Fire covets to resolve all things into it self makes Men they care not what Villany or what Impiety they Act so it may but conduce to their own Advantage Preface to Great is Diana of the Ephesians And indeed if he be not absolutely Stupid and one that proposes to himself no manner of End at all he will certainly do this very thing He will pursue and practise Indifferently such kind of Designs and Actions be they good or bad as will give him as much Pleasure and Happiness as he can have here in this short Life where Miserable Wretch as he is he only hath any hope And nothing can nor will hinder such a Person from endeavouring to do or obtain any thing he hath a Mind to but the fear of being exposed to Punishment and Misery here from those among whom he lives Now this Consideration can have no place in secret Actions and consequently nothing will hinder a Man of these abominable Principles from committing the most barbarous Villany that is consistent with his Safety and subservient to his Desires that can be either concealed in Secresie or supported by Power For as to the Principle of Honour that such Men will pretend to be governed and guided by and which they would set up to supply the Room of Conscience and Religion 't is plain that 't is the veriest Cheat in Nature 't is nothing but a meer abusive Name to gull the World into a Belief that they have some kind of Principle to act and proceed by and which keeps them from doing an Ill Thing Whereas the Atheist can have no Principle at all but that sordid one of Self Love which will still carry him to the perpetrating of any thing indifferently according as it best conduces to his present Interest and Advantage They deny that there are any Actions truly Good or Honourable or Wicked and Base in themselves but that this is all owing to the peculiar Customs Laws and Constitutions of Places and Countries And that as all Men are so Actions also are naturally equal and alike And how far such Notions as these will carry Men 't is very easie both to Imagine and to Observe One would think nothing could be more Noble Honourable and Comely than for a Man to stick firm and constant to those Principles that he pretends to and by no means whatever to be brought to abjure and deny them Sincerity is so lovely and desirable a Vertue that it doth approve it self as it were naturally to the reason of all Mankind and 't is equally Useful nay indeed Necessary to the due Government of the World But this Noble Virtue so peculiar to a Man of True honour and greatness of Mind the Atheist will practise no longer than it is for his Interest and Advantage and while it is consistent with his Safety That Men may profess or deny any thing to save their Lives is the avowed Principle of one of their great Writers And the same is expresly asserted in other words even in lesser Cases than that of Danger of Death by the Translator of Philostratus's Life of Apollonius Tyanaeus with a great Pretence to Wit and Humour But if Men may Lye and Prevaricate from so base and abject a Principle as Fear no doubt they may do so for Interest and Advantage for that is certainly as good a ground as Cowardliness and Baseness and then what becomes of this boasted Honour that is so much talk'd of this greatness of Mind that will keep a Man from doing an ill thing In reality 't will at last amount to no more than this that