Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	abraham_n	according_a	nation_n	1,151	4	7.1950	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35023	A letter written to a friend concerning Popish idolatrie	Croft, Herbert, 1603-1691.	1674 (1674)	Wing C6968; ESTC R3785	21,890	35

therefore worshipped God is not this the very same that the Papists believe and do to their Saints is their any difference but only this that the Papists do not call their Saints Gods which as I shewed before matters not I say then again that as the Heathens their Heroes so the Papists make their Saints Gods and sure they are no true Gods therefore false Gods and they worship these false Gods are they not then Idolaters according to Dr. Thorndick himself and Scripture also Nor is this their Idolatry any way abated but rather aggravated in that they know and believe the true God for the Heathens who did not know the true God were far more excusable in sacrificing and communicating the same Worship to several Gods there being no great disparity between Jupiter Mars Apollo c. But for those that know one God the Creator of all things and that the greatest Angels or Archangels Patriarchs Prophets Apostles or Martyrs are but his Creatures of infinite degree inferiour to the Eternal Almighty God the poor creeping Worm in the dust is not so far inferiour to an Emperour of the whole Earth I say then for them who know this infinite Almighty God to give the divine Worship due unto him to poor wretched creatures and also to Pictures and Images even to Stocks and Stones is so high and presumptuous Idolatry as Heathens not knowing the True One God never were nor could be guilty of And yet notwithstanding all this Dr. Thorndick would fain excuse them from Idolatry because the Popish Church hath put forth a Profession of Faith more tolerable than their Practice just as if the Papists having made some declaration of Allegiance to the King should be acquitted of the Gunpowder-Treason endeavouring to blow up the King Queen Prince and Chief of the Kingdom at one clap Truly by this Rule they may sacrifice to Baal and be excused from Idolatry I am amazed to find that so rational and sober a person should discourse so irrationally so wildly he hath fully verified the old Saying Semel insanivimus omnes As for your Postscript wherein you ask why we should so much fear the Growth of Popery if their Practices be so gross and Idolatrous as to be even ridiculous I conceive 't is in part answered already where I shewed how all Mankind is inclined to Idolatry For sure no man is so simple as to think this Vice ran in the Blood of the Jews more than any other Nations but rather less for they all came out of the loins of Abraham the Father of the faithful and consequently according to Nature should be rather better Believers than others and therefore it is a very silly supposal that the Commandments against Idolatry were intended more for the Jews than for any other Nation but only out of God's special favour to them and Fatherly care to preserve them more from it than other Nations whom he suffered to run on in their natural blindness and sensual Worship till the Fulness of Time came for the Conversion of the Gentiles Then God was pleased to make them equal partakers of the Favours and Graces bestowed on the Jews then was the Light both of the Law and Gospel manifested to all and all Laws not purely Ceremonial which were abolished in Christ equally concerned all the Nations of the Earth and ought to be esteemed as gracious helps to preserve us from things unlawful not burthensom restraints from things lawful Wherefore Idolatry being so grievous a sin and our Nature so prone to carnal and sensual Worship Christians who lie under so much a greater Obligation to serve God should be so much the more careful to avoid all temptations to it as the worshipping of Saints much more sutable to our carnal Nature and more easily comprehended by us than the spiritual Worship of the incomprehensible God in which the sublimest part of Man our Rational Faculty labours hard as we all find by sad experience and can scarce keep our thoughts raised up and fixed on it two or three minutes This makes the Papists so much inclinable to the more easie Will-worship of their Fellow-creatures and so expatiate in their Devotions to the Saints as God is at length almost forgotten by them and all his divine honours conferred on the Creatures And so in like manner Statues and Pictures being things very acceptable to our Senses and as St. Austin observes by them work so powerfully on our Minds as to inveigle our hearts to give them also much of God's Worship we should be extreme wary in the use of them or having much converse with those that use them which made God so severely forbid the Jews matching with other Nations Evil communication corrupts good manners very chaste persons by degrees become great Whoremongers and Adulterers Terms in Scripture frequently given to Idolaters to shew the Sympathy our Carnal Nature hath alike to both and therefore ought to be restrained alike from both and severe Laws to be made against both The grossness of the Sin will never deterr our gross Nature from it no nor the folly of it neither Stultorum plena sunt omnia a great part of the World consists of silly Women and Children pleased with Toys which makes the weaker Sex much incline to the trinketting Ceremonies of the Papists and a great part of men are as weak as they and as for the small remaining part of understanding men their Reason is so deprest by their affection to their Wives and Children as they are content to go to Puppit-plays with the one and ride Hobby-horses with the other And when the general Current of mens Devotion runs this filly carnal course and he thought to have no Devotion that runs not with them wise men will soon deviate into the same silly course condemned by themselves but applauded by others rather than be condemned as irreligious by others though applauded by themselves If Socrates the wisest Heathen in the World and Solomon the wisest Believer in the World forsook their own Reason to sacrifice with the Vulgar and with Women who may not be seduced into the like Error so vain a thing is Man He that loveth danger shall perish therein Ecclus. 3. 26. Thus I have endeavoured to satisfie your Scruples whereof if I have failed yet sure I have satisfied your desires requiring it at my hands which I have obeyed as SIR Your humble Servant