Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	worship_n	worship_v	write_v	117	3	5.1509	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69226	A confutation of atheisme by Iohn Doue Doctor of Diuinitie. The contents are to be seene in the page following	Dove, John, 1560 or 61-1618.	1605 (1605)	STC 7078; ESTC S110103	85,385	102

the wordes grauitye in the sentences acutenes in the arguments rare inuention and great choyce in the matter a scholler-like methode obserued in the forme of writing tropes grammer figures exornations of rhethoricke all thinges proued according to the rules of logicke and yet notwithstanding all these a vulgar and familiar kinde of speech is vsed For God him selfe the Angelles the Prophets speaking vnto men doe accommodate them selues to our capacitye to the vnderstanding of plow-men of shepherds of women of children that the conuersion of the world may not be ascribed vnto mans wisdome or humane eloquence or any other thing that is in man The holy Ghost doth not write like Demosthenes that it may be said Where is the Scribe the subtil disputer c. he hath made their wisdome foolishnes But St. Peter was able to perswade more with one Sermon then all the nations of the worlde with their Orations more in an hower then they in their life more by his simple kind of style thē they by al their eloquēce Magnus Ciprianus Orator sed maior Petrus Piscator Ille misit sagenam in mare piscatus est orbem Non per oratorem Deus lucratus est piscatorem sed per piscatorem oratorem Saith a learned Father St. Ciprian was a great Orator but St. Peter a greater Fisher He cast his nette into the sea and caught the worlde God did not conuert the Fisher-man by the Orator but he conuerted the Orator by the Fisher St. Paul when he writ to the Romans writ learnedly and profoundly because he writ to men that bore high mindes and did expect learning at his handes he writ to the Corinthians after an other manner as vnto men not of so great capacitye when he writ to the Galathians he altered his style vnto the Hebrues which had a preiudice of his person in such sort that they might not suspecte the Epistle to come from him St. Iohn writing to a Ladye writ in a lowely manner and in such sort as he might best befit a woman There is the discretion and wisdome of the holy Ghost which in men is neuer seene The fourth proofe that the Bible is the worde of God is euen God his selfe which neuer would suffer that book to be prophaned For Ptolomye marueyling why no Poets nor Historiographers writ concerning these misteryes of Faith answer was made vnto him by Demetrius Phalerius that it was the holy Scripture therefore that all prophane writers which went about to write of the same were presently plagued of God from heauen and so caused to desist and relinquish their worke which they tooke in hand that Theopompus because he went about to illustrate some parte of the Scripture in the Greeke tongue was so troubled in his minde that he could proceed no farther And that Theodorus a maker of Tragoedyes because he endeuoured to insert some parte of the Scriptures into his Tragoedye was presently stroken blind like Elymas the Sorcerer of whome we read in the story of the Gospell Fiftly the argument followeth well which Necodemus vseth to confirme the doctrine of our Sauiour Christ Master saith he I knowe thou art a teacher come from God for no man can doe these thinges which thou dost vnlesse God were with him And therefore our Sauiour saith in an other place Operibus credite Beleeue the workes And therefore against Alexander the great and Domitian the Tyrant which would haue beene accounted Gods S t Ambrose vseth this arguement Doe these and these thinges and then I will confesse that ye are Gods When Canutus the King of Danes had conquered England and sitting in his Chayre by the sea side had boasted the like of him selfe that he was a God It was said vnto him Sit in this place one houre longer and I will confesle you are a God but if you cannot sit vntill the full tyde and commaund the waters that they shall not carye you away you are no God But the Scriptures haue beene confirmed to be the worde of God by such miracles as no power of man or deuill could effecte The birth of our Sauiour Christ was confirmed by the appearing of a Starre which troubled all the Star gazers of the worlde The resurrection of our Sauiour by an Eclipse which troubled the great Astrologians of the world the healing of a blinde man with claye made of dust and spittle troubled Galen the great Phisition of the worlde But as our Sauiour confirmed his doctrine by miracles as Moses confirmed his ambassage to come from God by making Serpents So the Apostles confirmed their Sermons which they Preached and doctrine which they left behinde them in writing to be the worde of God by casting out deuils raysing vp the dead healing diseases c. Sixtly the antquitye of the Bible proueth it selfe to be Gods worde for as God is antiquus dierum the ancient of dayes because he was before all other so the bookes of Moses are more ancient then all other brokes Iosephus maketh mentiō of certaine Pillars in which some thinges were written by the sonnes of Seth before the Floud whereof one he saith remayned to be seene in Syria in his owne time But be it so these letters were but Hyeroglyphicall like to the letters of the Egiptians not Abedarye letters but shapes and Images of beastes not written in bookes but engrauen in stone But as for the Abedarye letters that is Grammaticall letters whereby we write wordes and sentences they were not deuised before Moses deliuered them to the Hebrues from whence the Phaenicians learned them and the Greekes receiued them from the Phaenicians and the Romans did learne to write of the Grecians And Moses was more ancient then Cadmus which brought letters into Greece or any other which broght them into other places as Eusebius doth plainly proue Now forasmuch as no lawes no precepts of life no Chronicles no rules cōcerning the worship of God no contract betwene man man no antiquitye can be kept in memorye but by writing Therefore it was necessary for the true knowledge worship of God that such a booke should be written wherein God might be knowne and in what sorte he would be worshiped But there is no booke of that nature besides the Bible which is of any antiquitye neither the Alcaron of the Turkes nor the Talmod of the Iewes witnes the Talmod and Alcaron them selues nor any other booke of religion but they were written long since the Bible Religion cannot be newe as God him selfe cannot be newe therefore that is onely the true religion which is the ancientest of all and it is impossible to knowe or iudge of the antiquitye of religion but by the antiquitie of the bookes and recordes wherein the precepts of Religion are deliuered and set downe and againe it is impossible to know what is religion or how God is to be worshiped but by bookes wherein are contained the rules of his

worship For as much therefore as the bookes of Moses are more auncient then all other bookes therefore that religion is the truest which is contayned in them and because there can be but one true Religion the onely truth is in them therefore they are the word of God And as for the other bookes of the Bible which were written long since they handle the same subiect they holde the same doctrine as the bookes of Moses and are but all partes and members which make one body of the Bible written by the same Spirit and of the same nature and therfore are also the word of God and there is no other written booke of God but the Bible In the seauenth place I could alleage for witnesse that the Bible is Gods word the great multitudes of Martyrs which haue dyed in the defence of the Bible and sealed the same with their owne bloud both before and in and after the times of the ten bloudy persecutions to whome God gaue the gift of patience to suffer death willingly for the testimony of the worde Neither could so manye of them haue suffered in such manner vnlesse God had strengthned them in so good a cause But because this argument is not so forcible to perswade Atheists as it is to exhort christians I passe it ouer Last of all the testimonye of the Gentiles proueth the Bible to be the worde of God For because God the Father had eternally decreed to send his Sonne to take flesh for the saluation both of Iewes and Gentiles and vnlesse they beleeued in him there could be no saluation purchased by his death neither for Iewe nor Gentile That he might be receiued by the consent of each people it could not seeme good vnto his heauenly wisdome vnlesse he did long before our Sauiour should come publish his comming both to the Iewes and Gentiles And therfore Christ was published to the Iewes many wayes as the Apostle speaketh by dreames visions Angels but especially by their owne Prophets Dauid Esay Ieremye Moses Daniell and the rest which were Iewes in that respecte called their owne Prophets that they might giue the more credit vnto them To the Gentiles also he was made known by the heathen Prophets and Prophetesses Baalam Mercurius Trismegistus Hidaspes and especiallye the tenne Virgins called Sybils the heathenish Prophetesses of which we may read at large in the workes not onely of the heathens but also of the Fathers and Ecclesiasticall writers of the Primatiue Church Now forasmuch as the Gentiles were vnacquainted with Moses the Iewish Prophets and not accustomed to read the Canonicall writers and destitute for the most part of the Bible and therefore would giue no credit to the testimonyes cyted out of these bookes and yet were to be conuerted to the Fayth by vertue of the Commission giuen to the Apostles Math 28. where our Sauiour said Goe Preach and baptize all Nations The Apostles and Disciples in the Primitiue Church at their first Preaching to the Gentiles prooued the Bible by the testimonye of heathen writers the Sybils Hydaspes Mercurius as St. Origin and Lactantius declare at large In such sorte did S t Paul deale with the Inhabitants of Creet alleaging for authoritie the verse of their owne Poet Epimenides which Cicero and Lacrtius doe reporte to haue beene a kinde of Prophet or Diuiner among them And therfore St. Paul saith a Prophet of their owne said of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Cretians are alwayes lyers foule beastes slowe bellyes Likewise to the Greekes he alleageth the testimonye of a Greeke Poet Menander 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euill wordes corrupt good manners And to the Scholers at Athens the testimonye of the Poet Aratus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 we are his generation meaning God And for this cause the heathens called the Christians Sybillistes because Christian religiō was most of all proued out of the Sybils Oracles which writ more playnly and plentifully then all other heathen writers And as Clemens Alexandrinus writeth S. Paul in one of his Sermons saide vnto the people Libros quoque Graecos sumite agnoscite Sybillam quo modo vnum Deum significet ea quae sunt futura take in hand your Greeke authors read Sybil see how she teacheth that there is one God and fore-telleth thinges to come Hydaspen sumite legite inuenietis De filium multo clarius apertius esse scriptum Doe but vouchsafe to read Hydaspes ye shall finde in him a cleare and euydent testimonye of the Sonne of God And because the Christians were so frequent in alleaging of the Sybils Oracles for confirmation of Christian Fayth vnto the Gentiles and conuerted so manye vnto Christ by these bookes as Iustin Martyr writeth Proclamation was made that vpon payn of death no man should read them any longer nor Hydaspes his writings yet the people would not refrayne from reading them And againe Gods prouidence did wonderfully appeare in the perseruation of the Sybills verses for the behoofe of the Gentiles as of the Bible for the Iewes in that they were verie faithfully kept in the Capitoll of Rome and that being once loste by a mischance when the Capitol was burned yet by publik edicte of the Senate diligent search and inquirie was made for all coppies that could be gotten that so an other booke was newly written and kept in recorde being duely examined corrected and purged of all faultes that might else haue escaped And to that purpose commission was giuen to diuers learned men fitte to bee imployed in such a seruice which was performed with all dilligence and the booke was layed vp in the capitol againe euē as the bookes of Moses were kept in the Arke of the couenant So when the Christians labored the conuersion of the Romans they were not onely furnished with proofes of their Doctrine out of the Sibilles to cōuince the Romans and their idolatrie but also they were freed from suspition of corrupting those bookes or any clause in them contayned because whatsoeuer was by them alleaged was consonant agreeable to their own Coppie which they kept in their Tower or Capitoll or treasure house which was the chiefest place of their recordes Now for as much as nihil est iam dictum quod non fuit dictum prius there can bee no newe or strange inuention now which hath not bin thought of before as the wise man speaketh I cannot finde any way to disprooue the Atheists better then that which the Apostles vsed to disproue the infidels that is by the testimonie and witnesse of heathen Authors For if they will neither stand to arguments drawen from reason neither yet to authoritie neither Diuine nor Humane then they reiect all the Topics of Aristotle and places whereby they should be confuted they renounce the lawes of Schooles and order of disputation by a consequent they shew themselues meerily ignorant and contra indoctos non