Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	pope_n	rome_n	5,434	5	6.6788	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29868	Religio Medici	Browne, Thomas, Sir, 1605-1682.	1642 (1642)	Wing B5166; ESTC R4739	58,859	162

Scripture is silent the Church is my Text where that speakes it is but my comment where there is a joynt silence of both I borrow not the rules of my Religion from Rome or Geneva but the dictates of my own reason It is an unjust scandall of our adversaries and gross● error in our selves to compute the Nativity of our Religion from Henry the eighth who though he rejected the Pope confuted not the faith of Rome and effected no more than what his owne Predecessours de●ired and assayed in ages past and was conceived the State of Venice would have attempted in our dayes It is as uncharitable a point in us to fall upon those popular scurrilities and opprobrious scoffes of the Bishop of Rome to whom as to a temporal Prince we owe the duty of a good language I confesse there is cause of passion betweene us by his sentence I stand excommunicated Heretick is the best language he affords me yet can no ●are witnesse I ever returned to him the name of Antichrist man of sin or whore of Babylon It is the method of charity to suffer without reaction those usuall Satyres invectives of the Pulpit may perchance produce a good effect on the vulgar whose eares are opener to Rhetoricke than Logicke yet doe they no wise confirme the faith of wiser beleevers who knowes that a good cause needs not to be patronized by a passion but can sustaine it selfe upon a temperate dispute I could never divide my selfe from any upon the difference of an opinion or be angry with his judgement for not agreeing with me in that from which perhaps within a few dayes I should dissent my selfe I have no Genius to disputes in Religion and have often thought it wisdome to decline them and especially upon a disadvantage or when the cause of Truth might suffer in the weaknesse of my patronage where we desire to be informed it is good to contest with men above our selves but to confirme and establish our opinions it is best to agree with judgments below our owne that the frequent spoiles and victories over their reasons may settle in our selves an esteeme and confirme opinion of our owne Every man is not a proper Champion for Truth nor fit to take up the Gantlet in the cause of Verity Many from the Ignorance of their Maximes and an inconsiderate zeale to Truth have too rashly charged the troubles of error and remaine as Trophees to the enemies of Truth A man may be in as just possession of Truth as of a City and yet be forced to surrender t is therefore farre better to enjoy with peace than to hazzard her on a battell If therefore there rise any doubts in my way I doe forget them or at least defer them till my better setled judgement and more manly reason be able to resolve them for I perceive every mans owne reason is his best Oedipus and will upon a reasonable truce find a way to loose those bonds where-with subtilties of errour have enchained our more flexible and tender judgements In Philosophy where truth seemes double forced there is no man more paradoxicall than my selfe but in Divinity I keep the road and though not in an implicite yet in an humble faith follow the great wheele of the Church by which I move not reserving any proper poles or motion from the epicycle of my owne braine by this meanes I leave no gap for Heresies Schismes or Errors of which at present I shall injure Truth to say I have no taint or tincture I must confesse my greener studies have beene polluted with two or three not any begotten in the latter Cen●uries but old and obsolete such as could never have been revived but by such extravagant and irregular heads as mine for indeed Heresies perish not with their Authors but like the River Arethusa though they lose their currents in one place they rise up againe in another one generall Councell is not able to extirpate one single Heresie it may be canceld for the present but revolution of time and the like aspects from heaven will restore it when it will flourish till it be condemned againe for as though there were a M●te●p●ucho●is and the soule of one man passed into another opinions do find after-revolutions men and mindes like those that first begat them To see our selves we need not looke for Plato's yeare every man is not onely himselfe there have been many Diog●nes and as many Timons though but few of that name men are lived over againe the world is now as it was in the age past there was none then but there have beene some since that paralels him and is as it were his revived selfe Now the first of mine was that of the Arabians that the soules of men perished with their bodies but yet should be raised againe at the last day not that I did absolutely conceive a mortality of the soule but if that were which faith nor Philosophy can throughly disprove and that both entred the grave together yet I hold the same conceit thereof that we all doe of the body that it shall rise againe surely it is but the merits of our unworthy natures if we sleepe in darknesse untill the last alarme A serious reflex upon my own unworthines did make me backward from challenging this prerogative unto my soule so I might enjoy my Saviour at the last I would with patience be nothing almost unto eternity The second was that of the Chiliast that God would not persist in his vengeance for ever but after a definite time of his wrath he would release the damned soules from torture which error I fell into upon a serious contemplation of the great attribute of Gods mercy and did a little cherish it in my self because I found therein no malice and a ready weight to sway me from the other extreame of despaire wherunto melancholy and contem●lative natures are too easily disposed A ●hird there is which I did never positively maintaine or practice but have often wished it had beene consonant to Truth and not offensive to my Religion and that is the prayer for the dead whereunto I was enclined by an excesse of charity whereby I thought the number of the living too small an object of devotion I could scarce containe my prayers for a Friend at the ringing of a Bell or behold his corps without an oration for his Soule It was a good way me thought to be remembred by Posterity and far more noble than a History These opinions I never maintained with pertinacy or endeavoured to inveagle any mans beliefe to mine nor so much as ever revealed or disputed them with my dearest friends by which meanes I neither propagated them in others nor confirmed them in my selfe but suffering them to flame upon their owne substances without addition of new fuell they went out insensibly of themselves therefore those opinions though condemned by lawfull Councels were not Heresies in me but bare Errors and single Lapses