Selected quad for the lemma: water_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
water_n	word_n	worship_n	worship_v	41	3	7.9731	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44651	The history of religion written by a person of quality.	Howard, Robert, Sir, 1626-1698.	1694 (1694)	Wing H2998; ESTC R13393	42,440	146

so whilst an Eternal Existence or Being seems too hard to be believed of God the same Difficulty must be believed of no God For if there were not an Omnipotent and an Eternal Power by which all things are made and disposed it follows necessarily that all things must have been without a Beginning so that such a One must believe the World to be what he cannot believe God is And while he doubts of a Creator of all things he must believe all things created themselves or were Eternal and Infinite without a Creation the former of which is to imagine not one God but many the other supposes that Absurdity in Philosophy Ex Nihilo Aliquid or Effects without not only a Competent but any Cause Or if he imagins a thing called Nature the Cause of all things he acknowledges a God only under a borrowed name for whatever was without a Beginning the Cause and the Disposer of all things is that Infinite Power and Wisdom Hermes being ask'd what God was answered well the Maker of all things an Eternal and most Wise Mind Diogenes calls him the Soul of the World Plato says God is a Mind the Cause and Orderer of all things and Seneca that he is Mens Vniversi When Labienus desired Cato to consult the Oracle of Jupiter Ammon in their present hard Condition Cato answered from a Breast more truly Inspired than any Oracle those Priests could give by a Divine Way of Questioning What was the Throne and Seat of God but the Earth the Sea the Air and Virtue What farther Inquiry therefore saith he ought to be made when God is whatever is seen or moves or has a Being Thus all several Names Titles and Appellations must determine in an Infinite Power which is the Life and Disposer of them nor has any Person entertained a settl'd Opinion that things disposed themselves or that they gave themselves their own Life and Being or that they were without a Beginning as now they are without being the Effects of an Infinite Cause The World in general was ever so far from believing no God that they were prone to believe many Gods and from the Infancy of it that Opinion grew and increas'd with it An Opinion much cherish'd by Priests in all Ages because their Dominion Power and Riches encreased of Course and in the Nature of the Thing by the Multiplication of Divinities or Objects of Adoration and Worship and it seems indeed impossible that without some Direction and Design such various and phantastic Divinities and Opinions about them should enter into the Minds of Men more ready for Impression than Invention and having once made an implicit Resignation of their Sense and Reason they follow with even a zealous Submission those to whom they have resigned Upon this Foundation Priests raised themselves to Veneration and to an Equality with Princes mingling their Divine Interest with Earthly Ambition and Kings themselves thought it an Addition to their Titles to assume the Name of Priests In Suetonius you may see with the Titles of Roman Emperours that of Priest joined Among the Egyptians the Priests were next in Dignity to the Kings and of Counsel to 'em in all Business of importance from among them he was chosen or if out of the Souldiery he was forthwith invested in the High-Priesthood and instructed by the Priests in their Mysteries and Philosophy which were delivered under the cover of Fables and Aenigmatical Expressions And as I design in this Discourse to shew how the Priest-craft and Power have been continued to this time by the same and like Methods and Practices so I shall begin with taking notice of their continuing in that Ambition Dignity and Power which is so evidently practised and shown in the Church of Rome The Pope the High-Priest there has exceeded all his Priestly Predecessors in pretending a Power above all Princes even to the devesting them at his Pleasure of their Authority and Power over their own Subjects This Paramount Soveraignty was derived from Infallibility in virtue of both 't was easy for him to require Men to believe whatever was any way his Interest to invent taking his Pattern from the Heathen Priests as well in their Methods and Tricks of Devotion as in their Ways of supporting and propagating what they taught in all Ages of Mystery and Persecution The Heathen Priests however seem more excusable in their Inventions than Christians that follow and imitate them For the former had no Word of God in a revealing Gospel to direct and limit their Belief so that they were at large to teach and practise such things as they believed must make the most to them advantagious Impression on Men as many Gods and the lesser to be Mediators betwen the superior Gods and Men the Adoration of their Images giving Sanctity to Shrines and Pillars But for Christians who pretend to believe a revealing Gospel to continue in those Heathenish Doctrines and Methods seems to be continued by somewhat a greater degree of that Priest-craft which had been so long practised with Success God himself declares with Jealousy this Aptness in Men to receive and believe in many Gods and to worship strange and helpless things in the First Commandment he says Thou shalt have no other Gods but ME and in the Second Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven Image or the Likeness of any thing that is in the Heavens above or in the Earth beneath or in the Water under the Earth These large and comprehensive Words forbidding every thing that was in Nature to be worshipped shew plainly that God saw and considered how ready Mankind was to be misguided under a Notion of Religion into extravagant Worships We hear very early of many Gods which probably were Men Deified as Saturn Jupiter Mercury Apollo Neptune Pluto Bacchus and also of divers Female Deities Mr. Bochart observes hereupon that Noah and his three Sons were the same with Saturn and his Sons Jupiter Neptune and Pluto He takes notice of several Appellations in Scripture as Vir Belli pro Milite Vir Brachii pro Robusto Vir Sanguinis pro Homicidâ but that of Noah is Vir Terrae and is so taken by the Mythologists as if he had married the Earth or the Goddess Tellus and the Earth were the same with Rhea the Wife of Saturn Noe coepit esse Vir Terrae plantavit Vineam but to Saturn also the Antients ascribed Agriculture and the planting of Vines And as Noah was drunk with Wine so the Feast of the Saturnalia was celebrated with Drunkenness C ham was cursed for seeing his Father Noah's Nakedness and the Poets affirm that such a Law proceeded from Saturn that none should escape unpunished that saw any of the Gods naked Therefore in the Hymns of Callimachus when Tiresias was struck blind for seeing Minerva naked the Goddess excuses it to his Mother saying She was not the Cause of taking away his Sight but that it was a