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
A93861	The second part of the apology of Socrates Christianus, or, A plain declaration of the authority by which he acts freely offered to the consideration of all serious, considerate, and unprejudiced Christians.	Stephens, Edward, d. 1706.	1700 (1700)	Wing S5439A; ESTC R42855	13,986	16

highly necessary in such a Case and very suitable to the Methods of the Divine Wisdom and Providence And for the rest of my Business what is it but what is a Common and Ordinary Duty The Service of God The Service of my Country the Reformation of Manners the Preservation of Peace by removing the Seeds of Dissention and great Occasions of Wars and making that impregnable which is now indefensible the Restauration of the Genuine Primitive Christianity Healing the Breaches of the Church of Christ and promoting the Restitution of its Rights by Assertion of Truth necessary Truth and such Truth as all my Adversaries are not able to gain-say or resist Nay does not their very Dealings with me at the same time both discover them to be of the Spirit of the False Prophets and Attest and Confirm My Mission as a true Disciple of Christ This is My Business to assert and bear My Testimony to the Truths of God in such Manner and Order as he is pleased to order and direct and those not any New Revelations but the Truths once delivered to the Saints and received by the Churches Catholick Truths opposed by none but Hereticks and Schismaticks and False Teachers who corrupt the Doctrine of the Gospel to gratify their own Lusts and to please the People who can unconcernedly behold the Growth of all Sects even of ' Infidelity and Apostacy and notorious Opposition of all revealed Religion under the Notion of Deism and Socinianism except only such as they think like themselves aim Chiesly at their Cathedrals and Preferments This is their Diana for which they are concerned and for which they can easily join and combine with Infidels and Deists and Commonwealths Men to secure that against such as they think may lay Claim to it And so they can but secure that they can willingly enough give up one part of the rest to the State and the remainder to the Sects nay be well appaid to have their Pastoral Charge performed by them so they may but quietly enjoy the Revenues and Profits to themselves and upon Confidence of such Assistants without either Shame or Scruple of Conscience or Fear of Scandal hold such Charges at inconsistent distances as good Christians heretofore would have dreaded to undertake but one of them And certainly their so great Concern in the one Case and so little Concern in all others of Religion of which the instances which might be given are undeniable and notorious is so scandalous that it is not to be doubted but it is one of the greatest Temptations to Atheism and Deism that is in this Nation For the Scandals of the most grosly Scandalous is nothing so effectually Scandalous as such as appears under Sheeps Cloathing It was my plain Reproof of these things and charging them with Filthy Lucre that first provoked an Angry Letter to my self then the Appeal sent me in a Penny-Post Cover then that false and foolish Letter elsewhere mentioned and at last that Religious and Loyal Combination of Latitudinarians with Deists and Commonwealths Men of like Concern in the State as the others in the Church and all that Noise and Clamour wherewith the People have been abused the King affronted and all good and solid Methods and the Advantages which the good Providence of God had put into our hands at this time for a Happy Settlement of a lasting Peace both in Church and State madly disturbed and the Peace of the Nation greatly endangered unless more Prudent Counsels and better Courses be taken in time And indeed what Mischiefs may not reasonably be expected from a Combination of two such Factions if they be but a little animated at the first either by Authority or which is more to them by an inconsiderate well meaning abused People Of the One we have had Experience enough within our own Memory and they have given the Nation a fair Warning of what they would be at now again by a bold attempt to suppress the Anuual Memorial of it by a very Virtuous and Religious Preacher of Mr. Toland's Club upon the Thirtieth of January which I hear is sometimes visited by a like Virtuous Chair Man of the same Party in his Chair A very proper and seasonable Preparative for so furious reviving the old Pretence from which that day at last became so Memorable The Other is as very a Faction too and that appears by like Practices to promote their own Designs in keeping the Convocation from sitting and acting For did they not know that the greatest part of the Clergy of this Church are against what they would have and in Matters of no small Moment they would never be guilty of so foul a Practice And that it is done by their Perswasion or Misinformation and Encouragement doth likewise appear by the Answer to the Letter to a Convocation Man And how foul a thing this is will appear if the Manifold Evils apparent in it besides what may be latent and not yet discovered be well considered 1. It is a Betraying of the Rights of the Church of Christ and Essential Rights as to its being one Body and a formed Society 2. It is a Betraying of the Rights of their own Order and Rights absolutely Necessary for the Discharge of their Duty in common to Consult and Advise concerning the Great and common Concerns of the Church 3. And this is done at a time of as great need as ever of an Assembly of the Clergy when Immorality is grown to that height that all the Bishops of England did not dare to bring in a Bill drawn at their own Request and perused by able Counsel and all the Judges then in Town into the Parliament to suppress it and to that Impudence that a Notorious Scandalous Cause and of one in Great place hath not only been defended in the Courts of Law in Westminster but at last brought by Appeal before the Lords Spiritual and Temporal and no notice of the Scandal though undeniable taken by all or any of the Bishops as if there was nothing of Discipline left in the Church of England and Impiety to that height and Impudence that one of their Lordships hath complained to me that they are put to prove their Creed and the fifth Chapter of St. Matthew But a greater instance than this I have lately given in my Letter to Sir R. C. which hath produced only a more notorious Confirmation of it 4. This Antichristian Treachery is so peculiar to this Faction that I know no Sect besides themselves that is guilty of it Nay what they deny to their own Brethren they themselves will not deny to any of the Dissenters nor so much as to the Quakers though Constantly Annually Notorious and complain'd of 5. It is an injury to the whole Body of the Clergy of the Church of England joyned with Abuse and Mockery in Effect and repeated and continued for many years together For what else is it never to let them Sit and Act when

they are so often Call'd and Assembled Nor 6. Are the Mischiefs to the State and Government less than these to the Church They betray the State into Sin by encouraging a Usurpation which is one of the greatest Acts of Sacrilege that can be and that by as Gross and Pernicious an Heresy condemned by all Parties but their own Faction and besides are charged with Schism by a Considerable Part of the Church of England who make out sufficiently by strength of Argument what they want in number of Persons But of such Latitude are their Principles that they comprehend as great Matters as all this as justifiable or excusable enough for attaining their End and therefore one of them Melitus himself who first began the Clamours could tell me Do you think that King William will part with such a Flower in His Crown Yea say I why not and with his Crown too for just and necessary Cause if he be indeed a Christian But they who are themselves so much for getting and keeping that they can strain their Consciences for it cannot easily believe that others will be perswaded to part with what they have once gotten upon any Terms or Consideration Such Flowers to the Eye of a worldly minded Man are to a Christian indeed no better than Weeds stinking Weeds and are really Poysonous Weeds in their Effects And certainly it is no more consistent with the Duty of a faithful Pastor of Christ's Flock than of a good Subject and true Friend to his Country to suffer his Prince to take such Poyson without Warning But what wonder if they who make no scruple to betray the Rights of Christ's Kingdom make as little to expose their Prince and Country too to danger for their own Ends And what else do they who encourage a Prince whose Title is doubtful or it may be none at all in the Judgment of his Neighbours to do and continue what is offensive to so considerable a part of his Subjects and cast the Odium of their own Evil Counsels upon his Will and Pleasure to the Prejudice and Scandal of his Government The English are an Active and Bold People and as sensible of the Violations of their Rights as any And when they are free from Wars abroad are not like to be very quiet at Home upon such Occasions and Provocations And Rights of the Church have in the English Laws been always heretofore as carefully provided for as any and particularly in the Corronation Oath And the Rights of the Convocation which are well vindicated in a Learned Book lately published are so well understood by many Learned Men of this Church that I wondered that none did it before or that the Universities and the Clergy of the several Diocesses did not by some Publick Instruments declare their Judgments or at least revive the Antient good Custom of Communicatory Letters in much use when under Heathen Emperours they could not enjoy the Liberty of Synods to Consult of the Common Concerns of the Church But I hear of another coming out and more may reasonably be expected if this Course be still continued Surely it is time both for the Clergy and for the Commons of England the Commons I say not their Trustees especially such as are notoriously known to have made a Trade of their Employment to look about them for I do not apprehend that the Christian Religion and the true English Government can be in greater Danger than from two such Factions in Combination The One is so full of the Spirit of the World and so temporizing and compliant to the Powers of the World and with their Prudentials which is nothing else but the Wisdom of the World such corrupters of the Simplicity and Generosity of the Christian Religion in their Explications and Betrayers of Souls and States into Sin that if the other prevail to get the Power into their hands there is little doubt to be made of their Compliance whatever the Religion be which they set up be it Deism Socinianism or whatever else I know one of them who objected such Matters of Conscience against his Acceptance of a Preferment proposed to him that I could not in Conscience perswade him to accept it and yet soon after he did accept it and holds it too to this day with another of it self a sufficient Charge for any man of Conscience to undertake I have known the same Person very warmly reprove a Master of a Family for not allowing his Family the Use of such Pomps and Vanities of the World as he thought renounced in their Baptism very disagreeable to the Example and Precepts of our Saviour his Apostles and the Primitive Christians and of evil Consequence to the living of most People and thereby encourage them to live in Disobedience to his Grief and their Shame and Prejudice And yet this Man passes for a good Man To the Author of the Appeal It looks like Madness to attach a Religion when it becomes the Religion of the Country when it has the Establishment of the Laws of the Constitutions And in his Wisdom such Zeal for the Souls that Newgate could not escape their Diligence is an Aggravation of a Crime of the Priests and such a Crime it is as such good Men are little guilty of and might be ashamed to mention a Matter so reproachful to themselves Such Prudentials as these have been noted by others in their late Patriarch and may easily be traced to their Original in their Protopatriarch himself And such Agreement there is in some of their Principles with Mr. Hobbe's and such kindness have they commonly shewed to one of the most Active Promoters of Socinianism that their Complyance and Officiousness to the other Faction if they succeed is not to be questioned And for the other Faction which lay concealed for a time among many Honest well-meaning Men in the long Parliament and hath lain concealed among many such call'd Whiggs in the late Reigns it presently appeared after this King came in how they stood affected to Religion and is now since the Peace apparent enough how they stand affected to the Government too Both might easily be perceiv'd by such as have had Admittance to the Calves Head Club and to Mr. Toland's Clubs before now But now appear bare-faced enough so that they are no Mysteries And the Whiggs are now commonly reputed the veriest Knaves of the Nation by many Honest Men who were heretofore taken to be of their Party While I was writing this I took notice in a Booksellers-Shop of this Title of a Book A brief History of the Times which opening at page 40. I cast my Eye upon these Words The Plot-Faction Design'd the Ruine of the late King and to compass it by leaving him neither Money Power Credit nor Friends And when I had looked farther into it I observed such Agreement between what is there related then to have been and what I am satisfied now is in Agitation as do mutually confirm the