Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	divine_a	holy_a	son_n	23,517	5	6.0454	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85865	A true relation of what hath been transacted in behalf of those of the reformed religion, during the treaty of peace at Reswick With an account of the present persecution in France.	Gaujac, Peter Gally de.	1698 (1698)	Wing G374; ESTC R230535	61,066	68

is done they drag these poor Children to the feet of the Idol and force them to kneel and mind what they say and do The Bishops and other Clergymen take them away from you and confine them on purpose to teach them their wicked Superstitions We hear on this occasion an unanimous Voice crying Men and Brethren what shall we do This is perhaps the cruellest Temptation you are exposed unto and a Mischief you ought with the greatest care in the World to provide a Remedy against Children are the Nursery of the Church if you let them be poisoned by Errour these young Plants will be lost both to you and to us Adult Persons are in a condition to resist Temptation and preserve themselves from the Errours they would instil into their Minds but Children are like White Paper ready to receive any Character and as soft Wax admitting all manner of Impression These tender Souls as they grow less pliant contract such a degree of hardness that one cannot blot out what was once imprinted upon them and truly this is the last Shift of your Enemies Hopes We hear them say continually If we cannot prevail with the Parents who have contracted long since an ill Habit however we shall gain the Children and in the next Generation Calvinism will be quite forgot But God confounds the Wise in their own Craftiness and how justly these Measures may seem to be taken by the Devils suggestion we hope they will fail of their expected success But in the mean time 't is your part to work hard in the taking Measures quite contrary You know very well that your Children are much less yours than God's and that you must give an account of them to him who hath left them to your Custody and committed their Education to your Care You will be a great deal more severely punished for neglecting the preservation of your Childrens Souls than of your own because if you undo your selves you only take away private Men or at most the present Generation from the Church but you ruine and destroy all future Generations and let the Church sustain an irrevocable loss if you abandon and yield your Children to that Babylon who receives them from your Hands for no other end but to crush them in pieces The first thing you are bound to do for your Children is to withdraw them both from the Tempters and Temptations by putting them in a place of security either within or without the Kingdom Come out of it and if you cannot do that send them away whatever it cost but you will say here lies the great difficulty If we remove our Children they quarter Soldiers upon us consume all we have put us in Prison and sentence us to the Galleys till we produce them To this I say Brethren that if you are not ready to suffer chearfully the loss of your Estates Goods Liberty and Life it self for Gods Cause I have no more to say to you I pity you with all my Heart I lament the dangerous condition of your Souls and earnestly pray to God in your behalf but if you are courageous enough to sacrifice whatsoever is dearest to you it is certain that you cannot bestow your sacrifice better than on this occasion for this is the most important of all your Duties We have the Examples of terrible Punishments decreed against those Fathers who had withdrawn their Children but some of the higher Courts have relieved them from those unjust and cruel Sentences and hearkned to the Voice both of Nature and Piety and you know not but the like may happen unto you But many of you will say we are not in a condition to do this for we have no shelter ready for our selves or our Children we are not able to maintain them abroad and are so narrowly watch'd that 't is impossible for us to take our Children out of sight for one single day but they are immediately lookt after Take heed dear Brethren that all these Pretences be not suggested to you by Covetousness Self-Interest Fear and Lukewarmness But suppose all the impossibilities you mention to be true you have yet something else to do which is to keep your Children at home as long as you can and be well contented if they let them alone But if you foresee that they have an intention to take them away you must prevent them by sending them away your selves If their Cruelty doth not proceed so far as to snatch them from you be extreamly diligent and careful to give them good Instructions as long as they are under your Tuition and Authority and put them as soon as may be in a condition to answer for themselves But above all be not so base as to carry them to Mass or to let them be Cathechised by the Priests for in so doing you would be no less guilty than those unnatural Fathers who offered up their Innocent Babes to Moloch If they come into your Houses on purpose to seize on and drag them to these Catechisms these are such Outrages as you may and ought to oppose But if your Oppositions prove ineffectual as you may easily imagine they generally will and you are forced to yield unto them you are then obliged at least to take all possible care to root out these bad Dispositions and Errors which they endeavour to plant in their Minds If you know your Religion well you cannot be ignorant of the grounds upon which it is founded Inquire of your Children at their return what they heard at those Heterodox Catechisms and then I say root out all that is bad and improve the good they have been taught Teach them to believe in God Father Son and Holy Ghost one only God in his substance having three Eternal Persons and of the same Essence confirm what they have told them concerning the Incarnation of the second of those three Divine Persons who took the Humane Nature in the Virgins Womb who died in this Nature rose again from the Dead ascended into Heaven and will come again to judge both the Quick and the Dead and take up the good into his Glory and throw the wicked into Hell These are the Orthodox Articles believed by the Romish Church Husband and cultivate these Seeds they may have cast into your Children's Souls but pluck up all the rest like Tares create in their Mind an hatred of this Barbarous Stepmother who murders God's Children this filthy Babylon who desiles her self by her Spiritual Whoredoms this corrupt Jerusalem who makes to her self as many Gods as she hath Towns and Streets who sets up a Bread-God upon her Altars and orders it to be proclaim'd It is Commanded O People that ye fall down and worship to morrow is a Feast to the Lord these be thy Gods O Israel which brought thee up out of the Land of Egypt Teach your Children to pray unto God only to Honour and Reverence the Memory of Saints to imitate their Virtues and not to make