Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	false_a	true_a	worship_n	4,780	5	7.8086	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A55925	The argument of the Letter concerning toleration, briefly consider'd and answer'd	Proast, Jonas.	1690 (1690)	Wing P3538; ESTC R5631	12,287	33

usefulness of it in order to the same Now here I grant that if all men were but so faithful to their own Souls as to seek the way of Saving them with such Care and Diligence as the Importance of the matter deserves and with Minds free from Prejudice and Passion there could be no need of Force to compell any man to do what in that case every man would be sure to do voluntarily and of his own accord But then it must be granted withal That if this were the case as there is indeed but one true Religion so there could be no other Religion but that in the world Because if we believe the Scriptures no Man can fail of finding the way of Salvation who seeks it as he ought and in this case all Men are supposed so to see●k it And yet there is nothing more notorious than that Men have sought out many Inventions and contrived a great variety of of Religions to themselves so that there is nothing about which the World is more divided then it is about the way that leads to Eternal Blessedness Which is an evident demonstration that all Men have not sought the Truth in this matter with that application of mind and that freedom of Judgment which was requisite to assure their finding it And as all the false Religions now on foot in the World may reasonably be thought to have taken their rise from the slight and partial Consideration which the Inventers of them contented themselves with in searching after the True whilest they suffer'd their Lusts and Passions to sit in Judgement and to manage the Enquiry So it is obvious to observe that notwithstanding that there are so many Religions in the World and that only one of them can be true yet there is nothing in which Men are more generally wanting to themselves than they are in the Consideration which they ought to use in making their choice among them 'T is strange indeed but yet whoever looks abroad into the world must see that in this affair the Impressions of Education the Reverence and Admiration of Persons Worldly respects and the like incompetent Motives determine far greater numbers than Reason or such Considerations as are apt and proper to manifest the Truth of things Nor is it less easie to observe that whatever Religion men take up without Reason they usually adhere to it likewise without Reason That which hinders a due Consideration of things at first and prevails with men to choose without Reason has commonly the same power afterwards to keep them from considering and to hold them to what they so choose without Reason Besides men have generally an overweening conceit of their own Judgements and are prone to value what themselves have chosen even because they thought fit to choose it And this prejudices their minds against all that can be said to the disparagement of their Choice and possesses them with an opinion that nothing of that nature can deserve their consideration To which I may add that when once Men have espoused a Religion it is then become their own and that alone such is the power of Self-love is enough to endear it to them and to make them grow fond of it as Men are apt to dote upon their Children because they are theirs even when they have little or nothing besides to recommend them And this also renders them averse to the consideration of any thing that may be offered against their Religion or in behalf of any other But though it be so ordinary a thing for Men both to choose and to persist in their Religigion without Reason yet it must be confess'd that those who do so are not willing to think they do so nor that others should think so of them But then this onely puts them upon enquiring how their Leaders and the Champions of their Cause are wont to defend it and to attack their Adversaries And so studying onely their own side of the Controversy they come to be the more confirm'd in the way they have chosen and to think they can shew that they have Reason on their side And when it is come to this when such an appearance of Reason strikes in with their Affections and Prejudices they are so much the further from thinking it possible that they may be in the wrong And then they have no patience any longer to hear of descending to a severe and impartial examination of both sides of the Questions in debate but reject the motion with scorn and grow angry with him that troubles them with it Now if this be the case as I think it cannot be denied to be being matter of common observation If Men are generally so averse to a due consideration of things where they are most concern'd to use it If they usually take up their Religion without examining it as they ought and then grow so opinionative and so stiff in their Prejudices that neither the gentlest Admonitions nor the most earnest Intreaties shall ever prevail with them afterwards to do it What means is there left besides the Grace of God to reduce those of them that are got into a wrong Way but to lay Thorns and Briars in it that since they are deaf to all Perswasions the uneasiness they meet with may at least put them to a stand and encline them to lend an ear to those who tell them they have mistaken their way and offer to shew them the right When Men fly from the means of a right Information and will not so much as consider how reasonable it is throughly and impartially to examine a Religion which they embraced upon such Inducements as ought to have no sway at all in the matter and therefore with little or no examination of the proper Grounds of it what humane method can be used to bring them to act like Men in an affair of such consequence and to make a wiser and more rational Choice but that of laying such Penalties upon them as may balance the weight of those Prejudices which enclined them to prefer a false Way before the True and recover them to so much Sobriety and Reflexion as seriously to put the question to themselves Wheth●r it be really worth the while to undergo su●h Inconveniences for adhering to a Religion which for any thing they know may be false or for rejecting another if that be the case which for any thing they know may be true till they have brought it to the Bar of Reason and given it a fair Tryal there Where Instruction is stifly refused and all Admonitions and Perswasions prove vain and ineffectual there is no room for any other Method but this And then I am sure there is need enough of it and it is well if that will produce the desired effect But there is no reason to question the success of this Method if it be rightly used upon such as are not altogether incurable and those that are so must

Hypothesis he would perswade us That the whole Iurisdiction of the Magistrate reaches onely to these Civil Concernments and that all Civil Power Right and Dominion is bounded and confined to the onely care of promoting these things and that it neither can nor ought in any manner to be extended to the Salvation of Souls But in answer to this 1. I acknowledge as this Authour here seems to do that the extent of the Magistrat's Jurisdiction is to be measured by the End for which the Commonwealth is instituted For in vain are men conbined in such Societies as we call Commonwealths if the Governours of them are not invested with sufficient Power to procure the End for which such Societies are intended But then 2. I must say that our Authour does but beg the Question when he affirms that the Commonwealth is constituted onely for the procuring preserving and advancing of the Civil Interests of the Members of it That Commonwealths are instituted for these Ends no man will deny But if there be any other Ends besides these attainable by Civil Society and Government there is no reason to affirm that these are the onely Ends for which they are designed Doubtless Commonwealths are instituted for the attaining of all the Benefits which Political Government can yield And therefore if the Spiritual and Eternal Interests of men may any way be procured or advanced by Political Government the procuring and advancing those Interests must in all reason be reckon'd among the Ends of Civil Societies and so consequently fall within the compass of the Magistrate's Jurisdiction But our Author offers three Considerations which seem to him abundantly to demonstrate that the Civil Power neither can nor ought in any manner to be extended to the Salvation of Souls And the First of them is Because the Care of Souls is not committed to the Civil Magistrate any more then to other men But this seems to be no Consideration at all but onely the proving the thing by it self in other words For to extend the Civil Power to the Salvation of Souls is nothing else but to say That the Care of Souls is committed to the Magistrate more than to other men And therefore to say That the Civil Power neither can nor ought to be extended to the Salvation of Souls because the Care of Souls is not committed to the Magistrate any more then to other men is in effect no more than to say That the Civil Power neither can nor ought to be extended to the Salvation of Souls because it neither can nor ought to be extended to the Salvation of Souls But to let this pass if what I said but now be true it appears from thence That besides that Care which Charity obliges all men especially Christians to take of each others souls and besides that Care of Souls also which is committed to the proper Ministers of Religion who by special designation are appointed not onely to exhort admonish reprove and correct by Spiritual Censures those who having embraced the Truth do find themselves obliged by it to submit to their Spiritual Authority but likewise to seek that which was lost and to endeavour by wholsom Instruction and due Information to bring to the right Way those who never knew it and to reduce such as have gone astray from it I say besides that Fraternal Care of Souls which is common to all and this Pastoral Care which is purely Spiritual and operates immediately upon the Consciences of men there is an External and more remote Care of Souls which is exercised not only by obliging under temporal Sanctions both the Spiritual Pastours to perform their Duties and those who own their Authority to pay them Reverence and due Submission but also by laying such Penalties upon those who refuse to embrace their Doctrine and to submit to their Spiritual Government as may make them bethink themselves and put it out of the power of any foolish Humour or unreasonable Prejudice to alienate them from the Truth and their own Happiness Which Care of Souls as it can only belong to the Civil Magistrate so I think it appears from what has been said that it is indeed committed to him But our Author attempts to prove the contrary It is not saith he committed to him by God because it appears not that God has ever given any such Authority to one man over another as to compel any one to his Religion But this is quite beside the business For the Authority of the Magistrate is not an Authority to compel any one to his Religion but onely an Authority to procure all his Subjects the means of Discovering the Way of Salvation and to procure withal as much as in him lies that none remain ignorant of it or refuse to embrace it either for want of using those means or by reason of any such Prejudices as may render them ineffectual And certainly this Authority may be committed to the Magistrate by God though he has given no man Authority to compel another to his Religion Our Authour adds Nor can any such Power be vested in the Magistrate by the consent of the People because no man can so far abandon his own Salvation as blindly to leave it to the choice of any other whether Prince or Subject to prescribe to him what Faith or Worship he shall embrace To which I answer As the Power of the Magistrate in reference to Religion is ordained for the bringing men to take such care as they ought of their Salvation that they may not blindly leave it to the choice neither of any other Person nor yet of their own Lusts and Passions to prescribe to them what Faith or Worship they shall embrace so if we suppose this power to be vested in the Magistrate by the consent of the People this will not import their abandoning the care of their Salvation but rather the contrary For if men in choosing their Religion are so generally subject as has been shewed when left wholly to themselves to be so much swayed by Prejudice and Passion as either not at all or not sufficiently to regard the Reasons and Motives which ought alone to determine their Choice then it is every man's true Interest not to be left wholly to himself in this matter but that care should be taken that in an affair of so vast Concernment to him he may be brought even against his own inclination if it cannot be done otherwise which is ordinarily the case to act according to Reason and sound Judgment And then what better course can men take to provide for this then by vesting the Power I have described in him who bears the Sword Not that I think the Sword is to be used in this business as I have sufficiently declared already but because all coactive Power resolves at last into the Sword since all I do not say that will not be reformed in this matter by lesser Penalties but that refuse