Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	believe_v	faith_n	true_a	5,505	5	5.0466	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51158	A letter to the Honourable Sir Robert Howard, occasioned by a late book entituled, A two-fold vindication of the late Archbishop of Canterbury, and of the author of The history of religion by Al. Monro ...	Monro, Alexander, d. 1715?	1696 (1696)	Wing M2441; ESTC R3506	15,495	30

I have not the honour to be acquainted with The Book seems to be designed against 〈◊〉 Persecution and mystery The word Preist-craft is of late become very fashionable in the mouths of some who are no great Patterns for Philosophical Gentlemen to imitate If by Priest-craft is intended the sacred employment of a certain Order of Men who by their Office and Character are oblig'd to superimend the Solemnities of Publick Worship Such Men are no less necessary to the Preservation of the State than to the Administrations of Religion And the Persons so employ'd even in their Lowest ebb of Interest and Reputation are too strong to be attacked by any private Gentleman in Europe I argue now from what is Present and Visible and not from the more divine and excellent considerations of Religion because what is felt and seen is much more valued and considered than the Original Distinction between Good and Evil or what may be pleaded from the terrours of an Invisible State I confess the Argument is not so Philosophical and Sublime but it is such a one as now I offer to your own consideration how far it ought to regulate the Practice of any Man who lives in a Nation where the Priests are so able to assert from the best Topicks their Distinction and Character and the Priesthood it self is guarded by so many Laws As for Persecution I hope I am as much an enemy to it as any other in the World But since Conscience may be pretended when faction and sedition are intended I think the State may be left to judge for it self in all things relating to its own preservation and therefore the Good Laws that have been made to preserve the Beauty and Order of God's House may be reasonably and charitably put in execution to prevent such Confusions as must needs follow where Giddiness and Enthusiasm are upper most We may suffer hard things from Ecclesiastical Laws that are severe but human nature it self common sense and civility are banish'd where a Boundless Scepticism prevails Arbitrary Power is most frequently declaimed against by such as are invested with no Power But it is very hard to oblige the Soveraign Powers of the World to give an account of all their Actions and if they did the Body of the People can never perceive the Reasonableness of what they do even when their measures are most Divine and unquestionably just If I should say that I know no reason why I am committed to the Gate-house I would be thought very Impertinent tho' I should stumble upon the truth No Governors are oblig'd to let every body know what they do at all times If there are mysteries in the Government of the World it may be more reasonably presum'd that that there mysteries in Religion which we ought to believe tho' we can never fully grasp nor comprehend them When Men have done their best there is some thing dark in the object of Faith If we have good reason to believe that the Revelation which contains the Articles of our Religion proceeds originally from God and that we do not mistake the plain signification of those Words in which it is convey'd we may with the greater safety believe that such and such Propositions are true tho' they be above the comprehension of our Reason We cannot say that we fully understand the Essence of any the least Created being far less the Infinite and Eternal Mind who made the World and governs it We believe that his power is beyond our thoughts and Incomprehensible but can any Man confidently say that he himself has a full and adequate Idea of what is Infinite or Incomprehensible Sir I have kept you too long on this subject I would humbly intreat either or both of the two Calumniators to be a little more wary in their Libels 'T is an easy thing for them to put it to a fair Trial whether I can read Greek or Latin or whether either of them can Speak any other Language than what his Mother taught him As for the reflexions thrown upon the Universities of Scotland those Societies are above the Censures of an unknown Trifler his tongue is an Unruly Evil it is full of Deadly Poison I cannot tell how oft he blesses God with it his greatest talent is to curse Men made after the Similitude of God One of them recommends to me two very good Books and I thank him for his kindness I think he himself had need to read over again Crellius Ethicks And if that be troublesome he may cast his eye upon a most excellent Sermon against Evil-speaking Published by one of his eminent Authors And now Sir your two Philosophers may ask one another whether they know the Person they have so impudently Calumniated Whether the Authority they proceeded upon be so firm as to bear the weight of their notorious Forgeries and Lies Whether ever they heard that there was any Professor in any University of Scotland at any time since their first foundation so ignorant as they represent me to be But if they built their Calumnious stories upon the Authority of one of their Eminent Bishops I may be allow'd to tell them that I was already at some pains in the Month of January last to undeceive their Author as to this Calumny Then there was a Libel Published against me and it seems it was below his Eminence to retract an injury he had done to so mean a Person It is much more easy eloquently to extol the Morals of Christianity than to practise self-denial and humility Pride Popular Applause and Vanity do animate Men to the first but nothing short of a profound Resignation to the will of our Blessed Saviour can terrible us to practise the latter I take it for granted that my greatest Accuser is now convinced that I never wrote any such Book as the Charge of Socinianism c. Yet because the same Libel is again Propagated by the industry and malice of two unknown Slanderers I think it fit to subjoin to this Letter the Advertisement that I was forced some Months ago in to Publish in my own Defence And he that reads the Bishop's Vindication Printed for Mr. Chiswel in St. Paul's Church-yard may easily understand what is either express'd not insinuated in the following Paper There are some words in it which might have been spar'd but if compar'd with the Character bestow'd upon me perhaps many more might have been added without any Consure from the Impartial World If the open injustice that I met with made me then so free the peevishness which may be occasioned by imprisonment may extenuate the Reprinting of it since the Loads of Reproach thrown upon me by your two scurrilous Champions are but some Larger Annotations on the Original Character in which I was then represented in such taking colours to the view of the Nation Sir I now make an end of this Letter and I presume to ask but the same question that I humbly