Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	good_a	great_a	think_v	2,784	4	3.9729	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31042	A companion for midwives, child-bearing women, and nurses directing them how to perform their respective offices : together with an essay, endeavouring to shew the influence of moral abuses upon the health of children / by Robert Barret ...	Barret, Robert, Brother of Surgeons Hall.	1699 (1699)	Wing B913; ESTC R14416	49,115	144

his Teeth rot out of his Head and to grin at his former Folly bearing in his Nauseous Phiz the solid marks of his Crime But we have the word of a great Man for it that the Church is built upon Zion which cannot be moved by a stiff-neck'd People God is engaged on her behalf and besides the secular Power stands by her side God has been graciously pleas'd to put it into the Hearts of the great Assemblies of the Representatives of the Nation to advance their Country's good by Espousing her Interest preserving her Peace and defending her Privileges and Immunities against the assaults of selfish and malicious Men who by their Scully pretences to Religion and Probity of Life would endeavour to shake her everlasting Foundation A parcel of narrow Soul'd peevish Creatures that are strangers to the Liberty and Freedom of a Christian State Charity Forbearance and Condescension are by us reckon'd the Life of Christianity but they think nothing of that matter To be Hospitable to the Indigent Neighbours and to receive the way fairing Man with Chearfulness and Civility to open their Bosom unto all is the Character of the Charitable Church of England but they on the contrary wrap up their Talent for their own selfish ends and can think of no good but what centers in their own narrow sphere I mention this sectary way of Rolling from Opinion to Opinion and Hotly Damning all who are not of the Fraternity they 've embarqu'd into because I take their way of Demeanor to be influencive on the complexions of their bodies The continued Rage and Bitterness of unchristian Zeal that attends 'em does insensibly sharpen the humors and exhaust the Balmy softer Particles of their Blood and Spirits And if Parents were careful in Nursing their children to fortifie and arm them against their temptations and snares we should not be so much pester'd with ' em In the next place to secure children from Vanity and Vice its natural consequent is the best way to preserve their healths tho generally neglected Vanity is now a-days like Rome's Eagles at the Meridian of their Power that carry'd conquest in their Wings to all places whither they pleas'd to resort I believe I may safely say that the bulk of our English Vices are owing to a Foreign Vanity crept in amongst us of late What Diviner if any such there be could have foreseen that Foreign Vices would have reach'd our once sacred Groves the quiet and innocent Recesses of the Country not to speak of the City The Gentleman now hath chang'd the Plough and Cart for a gilded Coach and a numerous train of Pimps and Whore-setters for Attendants A Gentleman that knows perhaps very early that he is to Heir an Estate thinks 't is but washing the Ethiopian for him to accomplish and improve himself by Books or the other solitary companions of a Country-Life No he must come to Town and there cram his Brain with the sturdy Notions and Maxims that prevail for the time He goes to visit a Lady of Quality that is ready to receive him well dress'd and furnish'd out with borrow'd Weeds She has her Lodgings in some Modish Place fit to entertain a Gentleman in there he spends his time and pays soundly for his Familiarity and is clapp'd into the Bargain After having cloy'd his puny stomach he sneaks away privily in a Stage-Coach to his house in the Country there he murders the Vertuous Womb of his Dear Lady and darts into the Royal Arch his contagious lo●thsome Sperm which is innocently receiv'd and hugg'd in the crown'd Act of Conception Thus he 's guilty of the Blood of his Family Ruins his Lady makes his Posterity a puny sickly miserable Crew and to crown all expires his last from a Bed of Rottenness a●d Disgra●e Thus it is that one vain desire one minute of mistaken pleasure fills a whole Family with Misery and Ru●●e In fine all the Transactions of this foolish and wicked world create the most unpleasing cutting Reflections that can enter into the mind of any thinking man They are so variously wicked that Proteus like they change shapes every Day and modishness is look'd upon in vice as well as other things Tho' they resemble the great Machines of Heaven and Earth in their motion and volubility yet not in their regularity for the Sun riseth in the East at Morn visits the South by Noon and maketh the West his Bed without chopping or changing The Moon swerveth not from her appointed limits she observes her times of change and regularly influences the Sea And in a word the whole off-spring of Nature moveth as at first but only that Monster Man the partaker of a Heavenly Soul and design'd Master of all lives in opposition to all Laws and Sanctions either of God or Nature Did not heaven deal mercifully with us in stretching out a Staff oftner than a Rod in courting us with Balmy persuasives and delaying to execute Justice To be sure our World had many Centuries of Years ago been past the Frontiers where now it stands tottering and immers'd in the very Centre of the Valley of Tears and Death Though the sad Effects of Adam's Fate are deriv'd to all the deprav'd Species yet they add to that guilt by parallel habits of their own minting which change the whole Mass of our Nature and set 'em in a Diametrical opposition to all that is called Good All which is too too evident in the Manners and Actions of our Children and Youth They 'll obey no Parent but the Flesh and hug no Brother but a Son of Belial they know no Friend but the unrighteous Mammon and keep aloof from no Enemies but those that wish 'em best Now since Cases stand so where can banish'd Vertue plant its Feet but on the bottom of a good discreet Education or who shall be able to withstand the doughty Champions of Vice but such as have maintain'd the warfare from their Mothers Womb Would ye have your Sons healthy and strong not weakned by Vice nor rotten through prevailing Corruption pray inure 'em in their tender years to a governable Disposition by regulating their Food Diet and other Concerns not by their own Appetites but by the measures of Discretion and Wisdom thus being early acquainted with Controulment they shall not think it strange when of riper years to deny themselves their vicious Inclinations But above all endeavour to choak in 'em the least Seeds of Vanity Affectation or Self-Conceit which are all twins of the same Mother that conspire together to be the Bane of all Goodness or Improvement and the Fertil Source of an infinite number of Vices Girls are most liable to be tainted with them they are generally possess'd with such an over-grown Opinion of their own Endowments that they long to display their Cabinet they know no inward Enjoyment of Thought Wit or Wisdom but what lies in communicating the same upon all Occasions As soon as they 've attain'd to the

use of their Organs of Speech the first word they utter after Dad and Mam is Husband who from that time reigns in their Thoughts so much that they make it their chief business to project for the having of him This eternal Rack of Thought attended with Passion and Eagerness diverts 'em from nobler Objects and proves the bane of their Growth and Health in exhausting the Spirits that should have waited upon their Natural and Animal Functions and 't is ten to one but it betrays her to an untimely indiscreet Marriage to the ruine of her self and Posterity if any she have Or if her Stars prove unkind in baulking her Fancy she casts about and plyes where she can she uses all the Stratagems of Cunning to Duckoy a Lover scarce any of 'em how fair so ever but is guilty of the little innocent Frauds of a Patch and a Wash hoping from them for greater accessions of Beauty which they imagine they have in a great measure obtain'd The chast Lucretia did not take such pains to captivate Men but on the contrary by her Resolution and Vertue rais'd to her self a deathless Monument and Iudith in sacred Writ has immortalis'd her Fame by such noble Vertues as they despise 'T is undoubtedly an infinite loss to the Nation that the fair Sex should be so byass'd and perverted considering what an Ascendant they have over the Minds of Men by vertue of their Natural Charms though the Artificial were laid aside especially here in England where Beauty seems to have plac'd her Throne To do them Justice they are of an ingenious clear Complexion if they do not spoyl themselves with irregular Appetites and tipling at strong Waters They seem to stand in the middle betwixt two Extreams those to the Southward are swarthy and black those to the Northward Masculine and clumsely built They carry an Air of Freedom and Disengagement in their Faces which seems to be in a great measure owing to the liberty of Discourse and Conversation we allow 'em which the Eastern Women are unjustly depriv'd of though both God and Nature have fairly entitl'd 'em to it I never could understand where the Policy of blocking up Women could lye for 't is impossible they should ever become more Vertuous for being confin'd to the Melancholly of a Cloyster or Seraglio On the contrary in order to sooth their Melancholly Hours they must indulge and encourage loose Thoughts as being the most divertive and privately seek for the Satisfaction that they dare not own in Publick for the being oblig'd to diss●mble and conceal any Intrigue of Love does but make the warm Guest welcomer But now I think on 't while I am discoursing of the Education of Girls and young Women it wou'd not be improper to take notice of the Grand Concern of Matrimony which Parents are oblig'd to take care of in its proper season Matrimony is in many Cases conducive to the Health of Women and 't is pity that either negligence of Friends or bad Fortune should put a Woman to the Dilemma of either impairing her Health by denying her self the natural Priviledge of enjoying Man or expose her self in a disallowable manner Wherefore I would advise all Parents to provide Husbands for their Daughters and to qualifie them for proving good Wives because Marriage is a business of extreme Consequence 't is the Gordian Knot which no Alexander can cut By this a Man establishes either his Happiness or Misery during Life If my Friend prove false I can make a league with another if my Servant be unfaithful I can change him but though my Wife prove so she must remain mine If she prove Vertuous and Good she adds Blessings and Comfort to all her Husband's Undertakings she presents him with fair and well bred Children to adorn his Table and support his old Age She gives her King Loyal Subjects and her Country good just Patriots In her Beloved's Absence she shuts her Gates to all Forreigners and upon his return Caresses him with chast Embraces her Breasts receive his Cares and her Lips drop Joy and Comfort The Woman that behaves her self after this manner gives loud Instances of the Justice her Parents did her in a Vertuous Education Let her marry one of the same Faith and Worship with her self to prevent all Domestick Jarrs Mutual Consent and Agreement are the greatest encouragements of Vertue and Goodness for when the Society is agreeable Vertue is mutually advanc'd and improv'd It becomes stale and musty in a solitary Breast but the advantage of Society keeps it fresh in Vigour It gives occasion for displaying a great many sociable Vertues which otherwise would be condemn'd to lye dormant and adds a lustre and external Glory which recommends it to the World with a more engaging Air. When I reflect upon what Mr. Cowley said of Verse with reference to Vertue I think it not unapplicable to Company and Society His admirable words are these Not Winds to Voyagers at Sea Nor Showers to Earth more necessary be Heavens Vital Seed cast on the Womb of Earth To give the fruitful Tear a Birth Than Verse to Vertue which can do The Midwife's Office and the Nurse's too It feeds it strongly and it cloaths it gay And when it dies with comely Pride Embalms it and erects it a Pyramid That never will decay Till Heaven it self shall melt away And nought behind it stay I need to stay to make the Application I hope none will deny that Society is useful for feeding cloathing defending and propagating Vertue as much as Verse And yet we see how little sensible some People are of this that confine their Women to Retirements and solitary Abodes under the serious pretence of Religion and a severe Life I am very far from thinking that Religion requires any such solitary Confinements a fellow Traveller makes the Journey to Heaven easie and pleasant Company sweetens all the bitterness of Earthly Crosses and inspires a mutual Courage and Resolution especially when the Companions are such as are tyed and united to one another with the strictest bonds of Love and Affection God thought Man unfit for his paradisaical State till he gave him a help correspondent to his Affections and a fit Object for him to converse with For this Cause was she created out of himself to endear her more to him And if 't was so necessary in Adam's Case what must it be in ours He was made Lord over all Creatures and received of them his due Tribute of Submission and Obedience without the least fear of Rebellion This Imperial Residence was in a place that afforded all things for his Pleasure and seem'd to contain an Abridgment and Quintessence of all the natural product of the Earth as he himself was of the Universe And as he had whereupon to feed plentifully so his Appetite was regular and needed no Curb no Companion to mind him of his Excess or to assist him when oppress'd Doubtless fallen Man