Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	king_n	kingdom_n	majesty_n	5,039	5	6.1083	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47658	The characters, or, The manners of the age by Monsieur de la Bruyere ... made English by several hands ; with the characters of Theophrastus, translated from the Greek, and a prefatory discourse to them, by Monsieur de la Bruyere ; to which is added, a key to his Characters.; Caractères. English	La Bruyère, Jean de, 1645-1696.; Theophrastus. Characters. English.	1699 (1699)	Wing L104; ESTC R10537	259,067	532

a smoother style a more ingen●●us more expressive and more convincing way of arguing adorn'd with greater vigour of expression and more natural graces than most of those modern books which a●e read with applause and give the greatest reputation to their authors With what satisfaction if they had any love for Religion wou'd they see it explain'd and its truth believ'd and asserted by men who were masters of so much wit ingenuity and activity of judgment Especially since any one who will but observe the vastness of their knowledge the depth of their penetration the true grounds of their Philosophy their unweary'd diligence and their capacity in unfolding holy Mysteries the reasonableness of their inferences the nobleness of their expressions the purity of their principles and morals cannot compare for example any author to St. Austin but Plato or Cicero * Man being born a lyar cannot relish the plainness and simplicity of truth He is altogether for pomp and ornament Truth is not his own 'T is made as it were to his hands and descends to him from heaven with all its perfections But self-conceited man is fond of nothing but his own productions of fables and inventions Observe the generality of men they will invent a tale they 'll add to it and load it with a thousand silly and incredible particularities And even the wisest of them are not altogether exempt from doing thus sometimes their pride and vanity draw● 'em in to disguise the truth and to make a story pass current they will often set it off with false circumstances If an accident happens now in your neighbourhood and as it were under your eye you may hear it related by a hundred persons a hundred different ways and whoever comes after them will make a new story of it How then shall we believe the relation of things that were done so many ages before this What relyance shall we have upon the gravest of Historians and what must become of History was Caesar murder'd in the Senate was there ever such one as Caesar you laugh at the impertinence of such questions Such doubts and inferences you think not worth your answer And indeed I can't but commend you for doing so But should I suppose that the book which gives us an account of Caesar is not a profane History that it was not writ by a man who is given to lying that is was not found by chance and promiscuously amongst other manuscripts of which some are true and others more doubtful That on the contrary it was inspir'd by God That it bears the marks of Holiness and Divinity that it hath been kept for above these two thousand years by an innumerable ●ociety of men who all this while would not allow the least alteration to be made in it and have made a part of their Religion to preserve it in all its purity nay that these men are by their own principles indispencably oblig'd to believe all the transactions contain'd in that His●ory where Caesar and all his greatness is mention'd Own it Lucilius wou'd you then question whether there ever was such a man as Caesar * All sorts of Musick are not fit for the praises of God and become not the Sanctuary As all kinds of Philosophy are not fit for the discoursing worthily of his Godhead his Power the principles of his Operations or his holy Mysteries The more abstracted and notional the more vain and useless it is in explaining these things which require no more than a sound judgment to be understood to a certain pitch and which cannot be explain'd at all beyond it To pretend to give an exact account of the Essence of God of his Perfections and if I dare to speak of his Actions is indeed more than the ancient Philosophers than the Apostles themselves or the first Teachers of the Gospel ever did But the choice of such a task is less prudent than theirs Such pretenders may dig long and dig deep but will never be the nearer to the Springs of truth If they once set aside the words Goodness Mercy Justice and Omnipotence which are apt to form in our minds so lovely and so majestick an idea of Divinity let them afterwards strain their Imaginations ●ever so much they will find nothing but dry barren and nonsensical expressions to make use of They must admit of wide and empty notions must be singular in their fancies or at least must attain to a sort of ingenious subtilty which by degrees will make them lose their Religion as fast as they improve in the knowledge of their own new Metaphysicks * What excesses will not men be transported to by their zeal for Religion which yet they are as far from believing as they are from practicing * That same Religion which men will defend so zealously and with so much heat and animosity against those who are of a quite different perswasion is incroach'd upon by themselves who fond of their own peculiar notions add or diminish from it in their minds a thousand things sometimes most material according as it suits best with their conveniencies And having thus wholly alter'd the frame of it remain stedfast and unmoveable in these their perswasions So that one may say with the vulgar of a Nation that it hath but one manner of Worship and one Religion but properly speaking it really hath many and almost every individual man in it hath one of ●is own * If Religion be nothing but a respectful fear of God what shall we think of those who dare affront him in his representatives on earth Kings and Princes ● Were we assur'd that the secret intent of the Ambassadors who came lately from Siam was to perswade the most Christian King to renounce Christianity to admit their Priests in his Kingdom to creep into Houses in order to allure by their discourses our Wives our Children and our selves into the principles of their Religion to suffer them to build Temples amongst us for the worshipping their Golden Images with what scorn and derision should we hear the relation of such a ridiculous enterprize Yet we think little of sailing a thousand leagues through the vast Ocean in order to bring over to Christianity the Kingdoms of India Siam China or Iapan that is with an intent which in the eyes of all these Nations is full as ridiculous and impertinent And they protect our Priests and other Religious men they give attention sometimes to their discourses they suffer them to build Churches and to perform all the Duties of their Mission From whence proceeds such a temper both in them and us Would not one think it came from that secret impulse which truth generally carries along with it * 'T is not becoming for all men to set up for hospitality as to have all the common beggars of the Parish daily crouding at their door and not to suffer one to go home empty But what man is there who is not sensible of the more secret wants

by Travellers there 's a continual knocking at the Gate all desire to see the House but none the Master There are others who have Daughters and are not able to give them a Groat nay which is less can hardly cloath and feed them they are so poor that they are forc't to deny themselves a Bed and clean Linnen the source of their misery is very obvious 't is a Repository of rare Statues which indeed would sell at a great rate but they cannot prevail with themselves to part with them Dyphilus is a lover of Birds he began with one and ends with a thousand his House is so far from being the more pleasant that 't is pestered with them the Hall the Parlour the Stair cases the Porch the Chamber and Closets are so many Aviaries nothing is heard but discord and wild notes the Autumnal winds and most rapid Cataracts do not make a noise so shrill and piercing you cannot hear one another speak but in those Chambers that are set apart for receiving visits where you are plagued with his little yelping Curs 't is no longer an agreeable amusement to Dyphilus but a toilsome fatigue which his body can hardly undergo he spends his days those days that pass away and never return in feeding his Birds and clearing their dung he gives a man a Salary for no other service but to teach them with a Flagelet and take care that his Canary-birds tread one another 't is true what he spends on one hand he spares on the other his Children have neither Tutors nor Education In the Evening tir'd with his own pleasure he shuts himself up without being able to enjoy the least repose till his Birds are at roost and those little Creatures that he only dotes on for their Song cease their Notes he dreams of them in his sleep he is himself metamorphos'd into a Bird he is copple-crown'd he chirps he perches he fancies in the night that he moltes that he is brooding Who can describe all the different kinds of trivial curiosity imagin you hear one talk of his Leopard of his Plume of his Musick he brags that they are the most choice and rare in the World Why does he not sell them they cost him very dear There 's another an admirer of Insects he augments his Collection every day he is the greatest Critick in Europe at a Butterfly he has them of all sizes and colours What time can you find to pay him a visit he 's afflicted with bitter sorrow is in a sowr Chagrin temper to the plague of his whole Family he has had an irreparable loss go near him observe what he shews you on his Finger 't is a Canker-worm just dying and expiring but 't was such Canker-worm * Duel is the triumph of fashion and the place where her Tyranny reigns with the greatest splendour 'T is a custom not to permit a Coward to live this obliges him to go to be kill'd by a man of more bravery than himself and so passes undistinguished from a man of courage it hath entail'd honour and renown on an action full of folly and extravagance it has obtain'd reputation by the presence of Kings and sometimes hath had a sort of Religion to countenance its practice it decided the Innocence of men and whether accusations in capital Crimes were true or false it was so deeply rooted in the opinion of the World and got such an intire possession of the minds of men that it has been one of the most glorious actions of the Life of a most potent Monarch to cure them of this folly * The antient manner us'd in disciplining Armies in Negotiations or in the Eloquence of the Chair and in Poetry ●s now grown obsolete Men are degenerate from what they formerly were is it their merit which is out of date or have we lost the taste we had of them * A man of mode is not so long Fashions are very transitory But if perchance he is a man of merit he cannot suffer annihilation but by something or other will still subsist always equally worthy of estimation tho he is less esteem'd Virtue has that happiness in her that she can self-subsist she knows how to treat Admirers Party-men and Patriots the want of assistance and approbation doth not only not afflict her but purifies and renders her more perfect whether she be in fashion● or out of fashion she is still Virtue * If you tell men and especially the great ones that such a man has Virtue they●ll tell you let him keep it then that he has a great deal of Wit and above all that he is very pleasant and diverting they 'll answer you so much the better for him that he has a Wit well cultivated and is very knowing they 'll ask you what 's a Clock what weather it is but if you give them to understand there 's a Juggler one that turns Aqua Vitae black 'T is wonderful tho they often see it at Feasts Th●n they cry out where is he bring him to me this evening to morrow or as soon as you can possibly find him he is brought and the wretch who is only fit to be shown in Fairs or at private Entertainments for Money presently becomes their familiar * There 's nothing brings a Man sooner in fashion than playing high it passes from the Peer to the Bully I wou'd fain see a polite gallant and witty man were he a Catullus or one of his disciples dare to compare himself with him that loses eight hundred Pistoles at a sitting * A fashionable man is like a certain Blue Flower that grows spontaneously in plough'd grounds indeed it chokes the weeds but spoils the crop and takes up the room of something that●s better it has no beauty nor value but what 's owing to a slender caprice which is born and dead in the same instant To day he is in vogue and admir'd by the Ladies to morrow he is neglected and left to the scorn of the Mob On the contrary a man of merit is a Flower which is not valued for its colour only we call it by its name 't is cultivated for its odoriferous scent and beauty 't is one of the graces of nature one of those things which beautify the Creation it has been admir'd by all men in all ages our Fathers set a high value on it and we in imitation of them have as great an opinion of it nor can the disgust and antipathy of any particular persons injure its reputation 'T is a Lilly 't is a Rose * We see Eustrates plac'd in his small Boat bless'd with a pure Air and a serene Sky he sets sail with a fair wind which in all probability is like to continue but all of a sudden it changes the Heavens are clouded and the Tempest appears a wave oversets the Boat and he is sunk to the bottom Eustrates rises to the surface of the Waters endeavours to swim and we hope at

of some body or other which he is able to relieve by his intercession to others at least if not immediately out of his own pocket Neither are all men qualified for the Pulpit or fit publickly to deliver their Doctrine and Exhortations But what man is there who at some time or other doth not meet with some Sinner whom he may attempt to reclaim by his private discourses and his friendly admonitions should a man make but one Convert through the whole course of his Life he could not be said to have bestow'd his time in vain or to have been a useless burden upon Earth * There are two worlds one we already dwell in but must leave it so as never to return The other we must shortly be transported to there to abide for ever Interest Dominion Friends Reputation and Riches are most useful in the first The despising of all these things is most useful for the next Now which of them had a man best to choose * Who has liv'd one day hath liv'd a thousand still the same Sun the same Earth the same World the same Enjoyments Nothing more like this day than to morrow Death only would be new to us Which is but an exchange of this Bodily state for one tha● is all Spiritual But man though so greedy of novelties hath no curiosity for this Tho unsettl'd in his mind and still growing weary of whatever he enjoys he never thinks his Life too long and would perhaps consent to live for ever What he sees of Death makes a deeper impression on his mind than what he knows of it The fear of pain and sickness the horror of the Grave make him lose the desire of knowing another World And the strongest motives of Religion can but just bring him to receive his doom with submission * Had God left it to our choice to dye or to live for ever And did we consider how dismal it is for a man to see no end of his Poverty Subjection Sickness or Sorrow or at best to enjoy Riches Greatness Health and Pleasure with an absolute necessity of exchanging them shortly for their contraries by the continual vicis●itude of times and thus to be tost to and fro by the wheel of Fortune betwixt Happiness and Misery It wou'd pose any one to make a choice Nature having ty'd us to the former saves us the labour of choosing And the necessity of dying is made easy by Religion * If my Religion be false it is a snare at least which you must own to be laid with such temptations that I could not avoid rushing into it and being intangl'd by it What Majesty what Glory in its Mysteries what a connexion in all the several parts of its Doctrine How very rational is it how candid and innocent in its Mora●s and who can stand against the strength of so many millions of witnesses the most moderate and the wisest of men who during three whole ages have succeeded each other and whom the sense of the same truth so constantly supported in their Exiles in the darkest Dungeons and even in death itself and the most painful torments Set open the Books of History run it over through all its parts take it from the beginning of the world and even from before that if you can was there ever any thing like this Could all the power of God himself have laid a fitter plot to seduce me How then shall I escape Whether shall I run And how shall I find any thing that 's better nay tha● is but half so good Since I must be led into ruin this shall be my way to it Denying the Being of a God would indeed suit my inclinations much better than suffering my self to be deluded though by so plausible and so specious a pretence But I have examin'd thoroughly have endeavour'd all I could and still want the power of being an Atheist This then must be my doom and I am forc'd again to stick to my Religion * The grounds on which Religion is founded are either true or false If false the Religious man and the strictest observer of all the precepts of Self-denial ventures no more than just the loss of threescore years which I 'll allow to be foolishly bestow'd But if true the vicious man is of all men most miserable And I tremble at the very thoughts of what unutterable and incomprehensible torments I see him daily heaping upon himself● Tho the truth of Religion was much less demonstrated than it really is certainly there is no prudent man but would choose to be virtuous * Those who dare presume to deny the Being of a God hardly deserve that one should strive to demonstrate it to them or at least that one should argue with them with more seriousness than I have done hitherto They are for the generality so ignorant that it makes them unqualify'd for the understanding of the clearest principles and of the truest and most natural inferences Yet I am willing to offer this to their reading provided they don 't fancy that it is all that can be said upon the subject of so noble and so perspicuous a truth Forty years ago I was not neither was it in my power ever to be any more than now that I am it is in my power to cease from being My existence therefore hath had its beginning and is now continu'd thro the influence of somethi●g which is without me which will subsist after me which is better and more powerful than I. Now if that something is not God let me but know what it is I exist But this existence of mine proceeds perhap● you 'll say from the power only of an universal nature which has been such as we see it now from all Eternity But this nature is either only spiritual and then ●tis God or only material and consequently could not create that part of my Being which is spiritual my Soul or else it is a compound of Spirit and Matter and then that part of it which you say is a Spirit is that which I call God Again Perhaps you 'll add that what I call my Soul is nothing but a part of Matter which subsists through the power of an universal Nature which also is material which always was and ever will be such as we see it now and which is not God But at least you must grant that what I call my Soul let it be what it will is something which thinks That if it is made up of Matter it is such a Matter as thinks for you can never beat it into me that at the time I am thus arguing there is not something within me that thinks Now this something since you will have it to owe its being and its preservation to an universal Nature which always was and every will be as to the first cause of both it necessarily follows that this universal Nature either thinks or is nobler and more perfect than that which thinks And if nature