Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	faith_n	true_a	truth_n	4,594	5	5.5207	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53112	The complaint of English subjects delivered in two parts. First part, is the complaint, of the poor, middle, and meanest sorts of subjects, concerning their bodily assistance. Second part, is the true Christians complaint, against vice, and wickedness, for the good of their soul's health. Also, werein is set forth, the late prodigious growth, of atheism, errors, and vice: with a call to repentance. As also, how needful it is, in these times, for every one of us, first of all, to look into our own hearts, and endeavour to amend what is their amiss. And lastly, a brief discourse, concerning our late unfruitful, and cold summers: as also, what is thought to be the real causes of it, by way of opposition, to the opinion of astrologers. By Richard Newnam of Tiverton in Devonshire.	Newnam, Richard.	1700 (1700)	Wing N935; ESTC R218651	71,890	130

Leaves thereof do now begin to overshadow the Glory and Brightness of the true Protestant Religion Gospel of our most Blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ which is yet by some good men's endeavours devoutly upholden within this our Land which God of his great Mercy always grant unto us and amongst us to send many more such faithful Labourers to prevent the farther growth of this now mighty Tree of Atheism that so at last for want of future nourishment it may at last perish by the root and so at last dye evelastingly away is my Prayer But 2dly I say from this pernitious Root of Atheism springs forth Errors For no sooner can a Traveller be out of his right way but he must inevitably be in a wrong Path that will lead him aside or backwards so that by means thereof it may be a long time before he will be able to reach to his Journeys-end Again I say Natural Philosophers do hold this for a Maxim tha● there is no Vacuum in the Globe of the whol● World which if so then comparatively I may say that in the whole Body of Divinity ther● can be no Vacuum but it must be full of Truth or Truth mixt with Error Again I say a● likely a thing it is that if Truth in any Cause Matter or Things whatsoever fly from or give ground to Error then consequently Errors wil● step into Truth 's Ground and so possess Truth● place which things of late Years by sad experience hath been found to true For through th● Erroneous Lives of some Men that do profess themselves to be true Church of England Men Truth by means thereof hath of late Years been a great Sufferer whilst Errors in the mean time hath gained great Applauses amongst sim●le and weak Ones And no wonder is 〈…〉 made of it if we do but consider how man● 〈◊〉 there be that do profess themselves to be of and for and belonging to the Church of England that can say no more in the defence of their Faith than to say Here is a Health to the Church of England with confusion to all them that are of any other Opinion But such Expressions and Sayings are not only foolish and bruitish but they are very uncharitable also and the Doctrine of the Church of England teacheth such Men as so say better Principles for it teacheth all Men to have Charity for all Persons and all sorts of People as well for such as are not of that Faith as for those that are within the Pale of that Church And therefore I say great pity it is and much to be lamented and I my self cannot otherwise but be much troubled for it to see and hear such a most worthy honourable excellent and authentick Religion so much slighted undervalued and despised as now our most honourable Church of England is by many poor simple and weak Creatures who through want of Right Understanding stumble at Truth in the very plain Ways and Paths of Righteousness it self and that only because some of the Pastors of our Church are now become foolish bruitish and very loose Livers throughout their whole Lives and Conversations But the greater is the shame to all such of them as so do and so live and a great Account one Day for it they must all give And now with all my Heart I could wish that all such Evil Members were cast out of our Church for they do meerly thereby Eclipse the very Glory of our Religion and such Men cannot be otherwise but like great Stumbling-blocks which still lie in the very middle way of our Church-Paths which leads towards our several Sanctuaries and thereby keep back many Simple Ones from going to hear God's Word truly preach'd by other worthy Members of the Church of England whose Lives and Conversations have always adorned their Preaching But yet nevertheless notwithstanding all this yet such are the weak Capacities of many People that when they see such stumbling-Blocks lie in the way before them and just in the very Church-Path it self then rather than they will step over them or endeavour to avoid them by their going onward by either of the sides of them they will rather go back again or turn in to some other unknown ways wherein it may be at last they many of them do stumble indeed and many times thereby fall in Head-long into that most dangerous Gulf of Atheism it self And such things as these I my self do much lament them as I my self am one of that Faith which is of and belonging to that Church known by the Name of the Church of England from which Faith I hope I shall never waver But again it may be said What are there none that do live in Lewdness and lead wicked prophane Lives but such Men as are called by the Name of Church of England Men To this I Answer There be some of all Opinions and Professions that are altogether so vile and as filthy in their Lives and Conversations as any Church-men whatsoever only they have a way of carrying it off more privately to the World for what they do is more secretly and more Hypocritically so that I cannot decide the matter so as to say which is the worst of them both of them and all of them are all to bad and I heartily wish that they may all and every one of them amend and turn from their evil ways as I my self shall endeavour to amend my own evil ways for I acknowledge my self to be a great Sinner And now I say to you my Native Country-men of our Town of Tiverton in Devonshire spare me not but either exclaim against me or reprove me in or for any thing that is Evil that you either know in me or of me or against me and if it be true that you lay to my Charge I will patiently bare your Reproof and endeavour to amend what is in me amiss to the best of my power and for what is wanting in my self to be enabled so to do I shall desire God to assist me so as that I may be the better able to eschew all manner of Evil and follow nothing but what is Good And the same Resolution in every thing I advise all and every of you and all other Persons whatsoever that hope to be saved in and through the Love of God and the Merits of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ you all of you and every of you ought to take which Resolution so taken and so put in Practice then we shall all of us at last reap the benefit of it and not otherwise But again something more I must say concerning Errors and Erroneous Livers and that is this I say take this for certain that amongst all our Opinions Sects and Religions their are some Errors For their is but One true God but One true Religion but One true Faith and but One true Way to serve this true God Then how can so many Ways as we profess in and about matters of Religion be

all and every of them true This to the Eye of Sense and Reason cannot be nor to the Eye of Faith either can it so appear to be And therefore I must say again Errors are crept in amongst us and we do even as it were cherish them in our Bosoms only to gratifie our Pride or Vain-glory or Self-Interest or to shew our Natural Parts And under pretence of rooting out of this thing called Error many do plainly shew to the World that they aim at nothing more than what I have but just now said for how many Volumes have some Men writ to reclaim Errors and when they have all done by their Works it hath then plainly appeared to the Wisest and most Judicious Men of our Age that what they have so much cavilled about hath been at last more about indifferent Words than matter tending to the Salvation of Souls And at last when they have all done they have then committed more Errors in their several Disputations than ever they amended with all their Epistles Writings or large Volumes And moreover I must say that some Men by such Epistles Writings and Volumes have thereby laid open a wide and broad Path only fit to lead poor weak capacitated Souls to destruction for thereby they have meerly confounded the plain honest Understandings of many People who have read all over their Cavilling Discourses and then at last for want of a right Understanding of them have said We see how all those Scepticks or Sectaries differ in all their Points about matters of Religion and some of them lead as loose Lives as any other People whatsoever and therefore we will believe in none of them And so consequently embrace all manner of Evil and at last believe in the Doctrine of Atheism it self and in their Hearts then say if not with their Mouths That there is no God to call them to Account for say they these simple poor weak ones If such Men of all Religions did agree in their Opinions about God and the ways of Godliness we should then think there were a God to punishus for our Evil Doings But we do see they do not agree in such things And besides all this say they in and by their Loose and Erroneous Livings ●tis plainly seen that they themselves do not believe in ●hat God which they teach us to believe in For then ●ay those simple ones If such Men did really be●ieve in God as they profess they do then they would ●read the thoughts of offending that God Or if they ●id in themselves really believe that there is such an Everlasting Burning of Hell-Fire prepared for all ●uch Men as live loosely and carlesly then certainly ●one of them would ever live in known Sins nor ever ●●ve such wicked and debaucht Lives as many of them do ●mongst all sorts of Professors And then they those ●oor weak simple Souls say again Religion that ●ust needs be but a meer Bug-Bear to keep the vulgar ●ort of People in awe And therefore I must say again that I think it would be much the better way for all such Men as do spend so much time in 〈◊〉 meer Contradictions and many other unnecessary Controversies now to spend the remaining part of their most pretious time in Preaching down Sin and Wickedness and in teaching their several Flocks the ways of Virtuous Living and also by their future Lives and Conversations always from time to time endeavour to the utmost of their power to adorn that Doctrine which they preach to others with their own Vertuous Living and in all their several doings be always striving to discharge their Consciences in their several Duties both towards God and Man And then all such Errors as are now crept in amongst us with many other Evils will vanish and dye away for want of future Nourishment But such Complaints as these made by so mean a Creature as I am may be but little regarded And therefore I will now offer unto you Solomon's own Words for it which I think hath some relation to these Discourses of mine here in before-mentioned read Eccles 12.12 13 14 it is there said And further by these my Son be admonished of making many Books there is no end and much Study is a weariness of the Flesh Let us hear the Conclusion of the whole mater Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole Duty 〈◊〉 Man for God shall bring every work in to Judgment with every secret thing whether it be good 〈◊〉 whether it be evil And thus I have endeavoured to set forth unto you how that from Atheism comes Errors and also that loose Living doth always still enlarge the Territories of Atheism And then thus consequently from Atheism and Errors must spring forth that dangerous and most malignant Root called Evil Examples and this is the next thing that I shall now insist upon And now I say that Evil Examples may fitly be compared to a Wilderness-like Country that ●ath in it more Woods and Forrests than good Pasture-Ground or Tillage-Land but yet however the same Wilderness-like Ground wherein these Woods and Trees grow in if once they be throughly rooted out with all the rest of the Bryars and Thorns that grow amongst them ●hen that same Wilderness-like Ground in time ●ay be as fit for good Pasturage or Tillage-Land ●s any other whatsoever But then this must be ●one by the industry of good Husbandmen or ●therwise in time such Woods and Forrests to●ether with such Bryars and Thorns which grow ●mongst them may at last over-run and spoil that Ground next thereto belonging which is now fit or good Pasturage or good Tillage-Land And ●his I speak Metaphorically But now more really and plainly concerning Evil Examples I say too many of them there are ●ow in this our English Nation for they swarm and ●re now very numerous nay almost beyond number or at least so Beast-like odious and pro●hane that no Man that is a good Christian or ●ut a moral honest sober Man but must be afraid or ashamed to name them except meet ●ecessity upon some extraordinary occasions ●ompel him so to do But so it is that they now reign predominant in this our Nation to that height and degree so as that there are some of all Ranks Degrees Sexes Ages Professions and Callings corrupted by them some way or other more or less For instead of Virtue and Chastity is used Chambering and Wantonness And instead of Hospitality and Charity is used Fraud and Oppression And instead of Fasting and Temperance is used Gluttony and Drukenness And instead of Meekness with true Religion is used Pride and Hypocrisie And instead of Prayers and Supplications is used Cursings and Swearings And instead of saying God save us 't is now almost a general saying God D m-us And instead of saying Christ have Mercy upon us 't is now a general saying The D vil confound us O! what most horrid Sins are these