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	roman_a	rome_n	3,452	5	6.8287	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37972	A brief vindication of the fundamental articles of the Christian faith as also of the clergy, universities and publick schools, from Mr. Lock's reflections upon them in his Book of education, &c. : with some animadversions on two other late pamphlets, viz., of Mr. Bold and a nameless Socinian writer / by John Edwards ...	Edwards, John, 1637-1716.	1697 (1697)	Wing E198; ESTC R21772	71,092	137

183 184. he heaves very hard to take off a Blunder that had been justly imputed to him but he runs into a greater and more ridiculous one and salves it by Supposition for he would have it supposed and that is a great word with him you must note in his Writings that the Compilers of the Creed who lived in several Centuries yet lived in one age or time This is precious stuff you will say Though some of the Compilers of the Creed lived at some years distance from one an other yet by a Supposition they are Contemporary and live together Yes it must be so by all means he peremptorily vouches that the supposition of their living together is easy at what distance so ever they lived and how many so ever there were of them p. 185. This is as if he should suppose that all the Pedantick Tutors that lived in King Richard the Second's and King Henry the Eight's reigns should live at the same time with our Vindicator who is of the same race and kind One would not think that a man that talks so much against Poetry as he doth should have such a fansiful knack of Fiction The sense of this Blunder hath somewhat dampt him and for some pages together he is down in the mouth and only sneakingly desires me to shew him this and shew him that i. e. to shew him his Folly which I need not do he hath sufficiently done it himself Then p. 190 191 192 193 c. he is at his old work of Repetition and quoting himself though he could not quote a worse Author and filling up whole pages with what he had said in his Reasonableness of Christanity and in his former Vindication And truly this is his employment every where so that a man may modestly compute that there are three parts of his book spent in Reiterating the same things and in the very same words He that is so much against Themes will not permit himself to vary the Phrase but brings over his old matter again in the very same individual terms that he used before which renders his Farce very ridiculous and irksom But besides the impudent Vanity of the thing there is a great deal of Knavery and Dishonesty in it which he ought to answer for None but he that hath counterfeited his Name would impose upon the world by offering them a false number of Pages to heighten the Price of them The Reader is cheated into a book of above thirty sheets when if you pare off his Repetitions there remain not above eight or nine Here is a gross piece of Injustice to make the Buyer pay five shillings for a Twelve penny Cut. This is a New way of Writing to insert one book into an other verbatim and so to chouse the unwary Chapman Nay it might be further observed that whatever he hath added in this last Pamphlet is run over again in some places of it as if he studied to make it more Ridiculous then it seem'd to be at the first reading But it appears it was his business to heap up a Multitude of words and to eeke out his poor lank matter for a Book was to come out against what I had writ and there was a necessity of Stuffing it and Swelling it and to say Much where Nothing could be said to the Purpose In his next pages 202 c. he is stark mad at me for intimating that he and his Allies are Under-hand Factors for Rome See how it pleases the Divine Disposer of all things that by occasion of a small Hint a man shall discover to the world his Inward Consciousness and together with that his Propensions and Designs which he with all the art imaginable labour'd to mask and conceal When I but mention'd the Tendency of the Party to Rome he as a Concern'd and Guilty Criminal starts up and shews himself gall'd and pinch'd he flies about and grows furious and outragious What! saith he doth this Orthodox Railer tell us that we are Factors for Rome and truck for Popery What! doth he think that because I hate Universities I am in love with the Whore of Babylon How can I be of the Roman Church that am of none But this is easily answer'd by the known Maxim One of no Religion will soon be of any Scepticism makes way for Popery The doctrine which the Author and Vindicator of the Reasonableness of Christianity hath spread abroad is contrived on purpose to bring men off from the Received Articles of Christianity and to prepare them to be Scepticks and Infidels I hope to give the Reader satisfaction about this and in a few words to convince the Intelligent and Serious Considerer that it is the design of this Writer to unsettle Religion to introduce Indifferency and Neutrality into Christianity to place all Opinions on a level to represent all Doctrines to be alike that there may be no contending for any Articles of Faith that those which were look'd upon by the Primitive Church and by Our Own as Fundamental Doctrins of Christianity may for the future not be thought necessary to be known and believ'd in order to making men True Christians He perswades men that One Article will do their business and that those who pass for Orthodox Protestants confound people with bundels of doctrines which are useless and unnecessary that half the Bible Yea a quarter of it is enough that One of the Evangelists Writings contains all the rest for which he quotes Mr. Chillingworth and therefore if all the rest were lost we need not concern our selves about it as for the Epistles of the Apostles we need not trouble our heads with looking into them for there is only now and then dropt by the bye an Article of Faith And then this Author under the pretence of declaring against Systems of Divinity which is his Common Subject strikes at all the Received and Celebrated Doctrines of the Christian Church and represents them as indifferent and precarious Every where he shews his abhorence of the very word System as if it were as uneasy to him as Satisfying so that it is a singular and extraordinary favour he would quote as he doth and that with Respect Dr. Cudworths book that bears the Name of System Now I am only to take notice of the Ground of his inveighing against Systems which is his design of bringing an odium on the Settl'd Truths of Christianity and to make way for his own Giddy Notions Accordingly he pronounces concerning those Stable Fundamentals of Christianity that they were framed and fashioned according to the humors interests or designs of the Heads of Parties as if they were things depending on mens pleasure and to be suited to their convenience These are his words p. 215 216. and speak his heart and the Turkish Spye doth not express his mind more fully Thus he disposes his Readers to be of no Church of no Religion Or at least he would perswade them that one way of Religion

either true or false if we can suppose the former yet no Discreet man would publickly mention it out of respect to the the Honourable Robe Especiall● this Writer should not have exposed any of that Order seeing he had particularly commended and urged decency of words p. 256. Educat and had declared that it is the part of a Well-bred Man to express a respect to persons according to their Rank and Condition p. 258. But on the other hand if this Imputation be false then he deserves to fall into the hands of those Ministers of Iustice and to be sentenced according to his Crime But I return to his Treatise of Education It is observable that the Softer Sex have found no Protection from this Rough Man He is not only an University Hater but a Hater of Women He exposes the behaviour of two Ladies of Quality that fell out with one an other in Company and relates the Paritculars of it p. 265 266. It is likely that one or both of them have been told of this passage in his book and they can't but think it is an Affront to them and must needs be so far from believing him to have any of that Good Breeding which he pretends to teach the world that they will ra●her stigmatize him as a Scandalous Blab that tells all he hears a Tom Coriat that relates whatever he picks up in his perambulations Joyn this with his Reflections on those Persons of Honour before mention'd and then give me your opinion of the Breeding of our Gensorious Tutour That he hath an Antipathy to the Whole Sex one would guess from what falls from his Pen p. 14. If women were themselves to frame the bodies of their children in their wombs we should certainly have no perfect children born which perhaps may go down very glib with his Admirers but you see he ventures to border upon Prophaneness and Blasphemy rather than he will not express his dislike of the Female Order Whether this be done in revenge to the Sex who generally where some body comes dub him the Hard-favour'd Man and sometimes upon occasion make use of him to scare their Children I will not dispute Or it may be he that hath been used to play with the Young Ones thinks he may make bold to be rude even with the Mothers Else he would not have given them the odious name of Munkies p. 15 and in reproach have called the House of Office Madam Cloacina p. 36. This is the cleanly genteel and polite language of Iohn Lock that writes himself Gent. And this stile and behaviour are the more strange because they are observ'd in one that hath been freely admitted to the Concerns of that Sex I might here harmlesly divert the Reader with his Scotchhoppers and Dibstones p. 115 237 275. with his Documents about Milk-potage and Water-Gruel p. 18. and his teaching Children to evacuate dextrously p 33 to p. 38. Which latter succeeds only when the Party is present it being promoted by his Vespasian-Looks He hath spent some time he saith in the study of Physick p. 40 and especially of the Guts which he very feelingly and concernedly discourses of p. 34 35 36. as if they were that part of the Body which he most minds Which is one reason perhaps why he hates Colledg-Commons and for their sake the Universities But I will not make any farther Additions because I will not prevent my self in what I design at an other time and because what I have before produced out of his Pages is sufficient to convince us what a Talent of Education he hath and how fit a person he is to have Youth committed to his charge He hath been consulted of late he saith by many about the breeding of their children Epist. Ded. but let me request such to consult their Reason and demand of that to tell them whether a Rash Censor of the Studies and Learning of our own Academies whether a Rude Reviler of those in the most Honourable Station whether a Defamer of Laudable Arts whether a Supercilious Innovator and a Fantastick Reformer in the Methods of Teaching and lastly whether a Corrupter of our Holy Faith and a profess'd Depraver of the Chief Articles of the Christian Religion of which I shall speak anon be a person fit to be consulted about the breeding of their Children The Orthodox Parents and I hope we have some of them left in England still will surely be caution'd by this not to commit them to this bold Patron of so Bad a Cause who prides himself in his Heterodoxy and boasts that he hath renounced the receiv'd doctrines of the Christian Church And thus having in a preliminary way descanted on some part of his book concerning Education that the Reader might thence have some insight into the Man I was to deal with I shall proceed now to take notice of his other Papers which relate to Religion for his New Education was in order to the introducing of a New Religion He had spoken before against the Learning in fashion and now he comes to censure the Religion in fashion as he calls it and the Fashionable and Titular Professors of it as he Stiles them p 93 i. e. the establish'd Ministers of it He had shew'd his perverse spirit in his Notions about the breeeding up of Children next he will try how successful he can be in the perverting of Men. He will see what he can do with Grown people as well as with his Young Masters Having taken upon him to reform the Universities and Schools and to cast off their Studies and Learning he is encouraged to go on and to reform Religion and to give us a New Model of Christianity Accordingly he publish'd a Treatise entituled The Reasonableness of Christianity wherein he pretends to teach the world what they have been so long ignorant of viz. that if a man acknowledg a God there is but One Article of Christian Belief which is necessarily required to be embraced by him in order to the constituting him a Christian. As for all other Articles and Doctrines delivered by Christ and his Apostles in the Writings of the New Testament he pronounces them to be unnecessary and useless as to the making a man a Christian and capacitating for Life and Salvation This Novel Conceit which is an unwarrantable Restraining and Confining of the Christian Faith and makes Christianity a far different thing from what it is represented by our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles hath been Vindicated by him once and again And as I thought my self obliged to reflect upon his First Vindication in a Discourse which I published and en●ituled Socinianism Unmask'd so now I am designing to attack his Second Vindication and by exactly setting down his own words which I shall very faithfully do and by impartially examining them to convince the Unbiass'd Reader of the Vanity Weakness and Inconsistency of the Absurdity Falshood and Dishonesty of his Arguing and on the contrary to establish this

is as good as an other which is the prevailing doctrine of these days Therefore Mr. Bold one whom I shall afterwards account with was much mistaken when he said he never hardly appear'd on a fashionable subject Rep. p. 3. for this Opinion and that One religion is as good as another is the Modish doctrine every where This Country Gentleman is in the Fashion and doth not know it And thence you may judge of the Truth of what Mr. Lock saith of him that he takes not up his Opinions from Fashion Pref. to his Vindicat. Now this is a fair step towards Rome for if one Religion be equivalent to an other and our Salvation is not concerned in the belief of the Necessary Articles of our Faith then we are at liberty to embrace what Form and Model of Articles we please and those of the Church of Rome will perhaps be thought as good as any There is a strange passage in this Writer p. 217 218. which speaks his favourable opinion of the Pontifician way I have often wondred saith he to hear men of several Churches so heartily exclaim against the Implicit Faith of the Church of Rome when the same Implicit Faith is as much practis'd and required in their own though not so openly profess'd and ingeniously own'd there First he lets us know that from that Converse which he hath had with persons of several Churches whether of the Communion of the Church of England or those of the Dissenters he finds that they are against the Church of Rome Secondly that though they are against the doctrine of Implicit Faith in the Church of Rome yet they like it well enough in their own Thirdly they not only like it but practise it yea the very same Implicit Faith Fourthly they not only practise but require it they command and enjoyn those of their Communion to believe all they say with an Implicit Faith But fifthly they do not this with so good a grace as those of the Roman Church do For those latter are very open and ingenuous in their profession and practise of implicit Faith but the former are not so Protestants have not that Candor and Fairness which are to be seen in Papists they neither so openly profess nor so ingenuously own this doctrine but yet as strictly practise it and require the practise of it as they do I leave it with the Reader to determine from the Premises which of these two those of the Roman or of the Reform'd Churches have the happiness to be most in favour with this Gentleman In the known stile of the Roman Priests and Writers he declares that the Scripture serves but like a Nose of Wax p 213. And as the Heads of the Church of Rome deny the Bible to the Common people so he is advancing towards this apace for he lops off three of the Evangelists for one he saith will suffice and all the Epistles And further to shew his good will to the Roman Catholicks and to their Beloved Notion of Transubstantiation he tells us p. 408 409. that if a man understands those words of our Saviour's Institution This is my body and This is my blood in a Literal sense he must believe the Bread and Wine in the Lords Supper are changed really into his Body and Blood though he knows not how And afterwards he saith He is obliged to belive it to be true and to assent to it And presently afterwards To deny assent to this as true would be to deny our Saviour's Veracity and consequently his being the Messiah sent from God Here he lets us know that his One Article is quite renounced if Transubstantition be not admitted You see what his making of Iesus is the Messias to be the Sole Article of Christian Faith comes to But this doctrine of Transubstantiation is so grateful to him that he brings it over again p 413 414. assuring us that the Old Gentleman at Rome who hath an Antient Title to Infallibility may make Transubstantia●on a Fundamental Article necessarily to be believ'd as well as I make the Divinity of Christ and his Satisfaction c. for these he means by the Sense of any Disputed Texts of Scripture because the Texts concerning these Points are disputable with him Fundamental Articles necessarily to be believ'd It is brought to this issue it seems that Transubstantiation is as Fundamental an Article of the Christian Faith as any that can be nam'd besides Iesus's being the Messias Thus by the Over-ruling Providence of Heaven this sort of Writers discover the inward bent of their thoughts and inclinations though they labour to hide them from the world This Gentleman would be thought to have no kindness for Rome and yet his own words confu●● him As I observ'd before that he stoutly Rails whilest he is remonstrating against that practice so here he stiffly patronizes Popery even when he had pretended to shew himself displeas'd at my charging him with it And I could produce several other passages out of his Writings which makes it appear that our Prester Iohn is inclined to receive the Roman Missionaries I could make it evident that he is Indifferent as to the Reform'd Religion and the Doctrines professed by the Owners of it and that he inspires mens minds with a dis-esteem of those Articles which the Christian Churches since the Reformation have unanimously asserted and vindicated and that he represents them as Ridiculous You must not saith he give ear to what the Preachers and Pulpit Orators of these Churches tell you about more Articles than One as necessary to be known and believed in order to making you Christians If you assent to this Single Proposition Iesus is the Messias I declare to you that you are as to matter of Faith as Good Christians as St. Peter and St. Paul were When your Parish-Priests endeavour in their Popular Harangues to perswade you that this is not the sum Total of the Christian Faith but that there are other Necessary and Fundamental Doctrines which are of the Essence of Christianity you must roundly tell them from me that the Catalogue of Fundamentals every one alone can make for himself no body can collect or prescribe it to an other but this is according as God hath dealt to every one the measure of light and faith and hath open'd each mans understanding that he may understand the Scripture These are the express words of our Vindicator p. 85. and from them it undeniably follows that though no body must be a Creed-maker yet every one may be a Fundamental-maker Mr. Hobbs was pleased to give this power to the King only but this Gentleman is more liberal and grants it to every Subject He may make what Catalogue of Fundamentals he pleases and put this into it among the rest that the Pope is Infallible and that the Religion of the Church of Rome is to be prefer'd to that of the Reformed Fundamentals depend not upon the Scriptures but upon mens Understandings and