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	prince_n	queen_n	3,203	5	6.8163	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51674	Father Malebranche his treatise concerning the search after truth The whole work complete. To which is added the author's Treatise of nature and grace: being a consequence of the principles contained in the search. Together with his answer to the animadversions upon the first volume: his defence against the accusations of Monsieur De la Ville, &c. relating to the same subject. All translated by T. Taylor, M.A. late of Magdalen College in Oxford.	Malebranche, Nicolas, 1638-1715.; Taylor, Thomas, 1669 or 70-1735.; Malebranche, Nicolas, 1638-1715. Traité de la nature et de la grace. English.	1700 (1700)	Wing M318; ESTC R3403	829,942	418

Communication of the Disorders and Distempers of the Imagination But these Truths deserve to be farther Illustrated by the Examples and known Experience of the World CHAP. II. General Instances of the Strength of Imagination CHILDREN in respect of their Fathers but especially Daughters in regard of their Mothers afford us very frequent Instances of this Communication of the Imagination The same things do Servants in relation to their Masters Maids in respect of their Mistresses Scholars of their Teachers Courtiers of their Kings and generally all Inferiours in respect of their Superiours supposing only that Fathers Masters and the rest of the Superiours have any Strength of Imagination themselves For otherwise 't is possible for Children and Servants to remain untouch'd or very little infected with the languid Imagination of their Fathers and Masters The Effects of this Communication may be likewise observ'd in Equals but that more rarely for want of that submissive Respect among them which qualifies and disposes the Mind for the Reception of the Impressions of strong Imaginations without examining them Last of all they are to be seen in Superiours also with respect to their Inferiours who sometimes are impower'd with so Lively and Authoritative an Imagination as to turn the Minds of their Masters and Superiours which way they please 'T will be easie to conceive how Fathers and Mothers make so very strong Impressions on the Imagination of their Children if it be consider'd that the Natural Dispositions of our Brain whereby we are inclin'd to imitate those we live with and to participate of their Sentiments and Passions are stronger in Children with respect to their Parents than in any others whereof several Reasons may be given The first is their being of the same Blood For as Parents commonly transmit to their Children the Seeds and Dispositions for certain Hereditary Distempers such as the Gout Stone Madness and generally all those that were not of Accidental Acquirement or whose sole and only Cause was not some extraordinary Fermentation of the Humours as Fevers and some others for of such 't is plain there can be no Communication So they imprint the Dispositions of their own Brain on the Brain of their Children and give a certain Turn to their Imagination that makes them wholly susceptible of the same Sentiments The second Reason is the little Acquaintance and Converse Children generally have with other Men who might sometimes stamp different Impresses on their Brain and in some measure interrupt the bent and force of the Paternal Impression For as a Man that was never abroad commonly Fancies that the Manners and Customs of Strangers are quite contrary to Reason because contrary to the usage of his Native Town or Custom of his Country whilst he yields to be carry'd by the current so a Child who was never from his Father's Home imagines his Parents Sentiments and Ways of Living to be Universal Reason or rather thinks there are no other Principles of Reason or Vertue to be had besides the Imitation of them Which makes him believe whatever he hears them say and do whatever he sees them do But this Parental Impression is so strong as not only to influence the Child's Imagination but to have its Effect on the other parts of the Body So that a young Lad shall Walk and Talk and have the same Gestures as his Father And a Girl shall Mimick the Mother in her Gate Discourse and Dress If the Mother Lisps the Daughter must Lisp too if the Mother has any odd fling with her Head the Daughter takes the same In short Children imitate their Parents in every thing even in their Bodily Defects Grimace and Faces as well as their Errors and Vices There are still many other Causes which add to the Effect of this Impression The chief of which are the Authority of the Parents the Dependence of Children and the mutual Love between them But these Causes are as common to Courtiers Servants and in general to all Inferiours as to Children I therefore choose to explain them by the Instance of the Court-Gentlemen There are those who judge by what 's in sight of that which is unapparent of the Greatness Strength and Reach of Wit and Parts which they see not by the Gallantry Honours and Riches which they know and measure the one by the other And that Dependency Men are in to the Great the Desire of partaking of their Greatness and that sensible Lustre that surrounds them makes them ascribe Honours Divine if I may so speak to Mortal Men. For GOD bestows on Princes Authority but Men attribute to them Infallibility Such an Infallibility as has no Boundaries prescrib'd to it on any subject or any occasion nor is confin'd to certain Ceremonies For the Great know all things naturally they are ever in the Right even in the Decision of Questions which they do not understand None attempt to examine their Positions but those who want Experience and the Art of Living and 't is Presumption and want of Respect to doubt of them But 't is no less than Rebellion at least down-right Folly Sottishness 〈◊〉 Madness to condemn them But when we are Honour'd with a Place in the Favour and Esteem of Great Men 't is no longer plain Obstinacy Conceitedness and Rebellion 't is a Crime of a deeper dye Ingratitude and Perfidiousness not to surrender implicitly to their Opinions 'T is such an unpardonable Offence as utterly incapacitates us for any of their future Favours Which is the Reason that Courtiers and by a necessary consequence the generality of the World indeliberately subscribe to the Sentiments of their Sovereign even so far as to Model their Faith by and make the Truths of Religion subservient to his Fantastic Humour and Folly England and Germany furnish us but with too many Instances of the blind and exorbitant Submission of the People to the Wills of their Irreligious Princes wherewith the Histories of the late Times abound And some Men of a considerable Age have been known to have chang'd their Religion four or five times by reason of the diverse changes of their Princes The Kings and even the Queens of England have the Government of all the States of their Kingdoms whether Ecclesiastical or Civil in all Causes 'T is they that are the Approvers of the Liturgies of the Festival Services of the way wherein the Sacraments ought to be Administred and Received They appoint for instance that our LORD shall not be adored in the Eucharist though they oblige to the Receiving it on the Knees according to the Ancient Custom In a word they arbitrarily change the whole Substance of their Liturgies to suit them to the New Articles of their Faith and together with their Parliam●nt have equal Right of judging of these Articles as a Pope with a Councel as may be seen in the Statutes of England and Ireland made at the beginning of the Reign of Queen Elizabeth Lastly we may add that the

whom according to St. Paul God has made all things is the Man Jesus Christ. 'T is to teach Men that they are created and that they subsist in Jesus Christ 't is to unite them straitly to him 't is to induce them to make themselves like him that God has figur'd Jesus Christ and his Church in the principal of his Creatures For 't is necessary that Jesus Christ should be found in the whole Work of God that it might be the worthy Object of his Love and of the Action that produc'd it LVI If we consider the manner of the First Man's Creation as related by Holy Scripture how his Wife was form'd out of his Flesh and Bone his Love to her and the Circumstances of their Sin we shall doubtless judge that God thought on the Second Adam in the Formation of the First that he consider'd the Father of the future World in creating the Father of the present and that he design'd the First Man and Woman for express Types of Jesus Christ and his Church St. Paul permits us not to doubt of this Truth when he assures us we are form'd of the Flesh and Bone of Jesus Christ that we are his Members and that the Marriage of Adam and Eve is the Figure of Jesus Christ and his Church LVII God might perhaps form Men and Animals by ways as simple as common Generation But since this way typified Jesus Christ and his Church since it wore the Impress of the principal of God's Designs and represented as I may say the well-belov'd Son to his Father that Son in whom alone the whole Work of the Creation subsists God ought to prefer it before all other thereby likewise to teach us that as intelligible Beauties consist in their Relation to Eternal Wisdom so sensible Beauties must though in a manner little known to us relate to Incarnate Truth LVIII Doubtless there are many Analogies and Agreements betwixt the most principal of the Creatures and Jesus Christ who is their Pattern and their End For all is full of Jesus Christ every thing represents and typifies him as much as the Simplicity of the Laws of Nature will permit But I shall not venture to enter on the Particulars of this Subject For besides that I am fearful of mistaking and have not a competent Knowledge either of Nature or Grace of the present World or the future to discover their Relations I know that the Imagination of Men is so sarcastical and nice that we cannot by Reason lead them to God much less to Jesus Christ without tiring their Patience or provoking their Railery Most Christians are accustom'd to a Philosophy that had rather have recourse to Fictions as extravagant as those of the Poets than to God and some of them are so little acquainted with Jesus Christ that a Man would perhaps be reckon'd a Visionist if he said the same things with St. Paul without using his Words For 't is rather that great Name which persuades them than the View of Truth The Authority of Scripture keeps them from blaspheming what they do not understand but whereas they are but little conversant with it it cannot much enlighten them LIX 'T is certain that the Jewish People was the Figure of the Church and that the most Holy and Remarkable Persons among the Kings Prophets and Patriarchs of that Nation were the Types of the Messiah our Saviour Jesus Christ which is a Truth not deniable without undermining the Foundations of the Christian Religion and making the most Learned of the Apostles pass for the most Ignorant of Men. Jesus Christ being not yet come ought at least to be typified For he ought to be expected he ought to be desired and by his Types he ought to strew some sort of Beauty over the Universe to make it acceptable to his Father Thus it was necessary he should in some manner be as ancient as the World and that he should die presently after the Sin in the Person of Abel The Lamb that was slain from the Foundation of the World The Beginning and End Alpha and Omega Yesterday and to Day He is was and is to come These are the Qualifications St. John attributes to the Saviour of Men. LX. But supposing that Jesus Christ ought to be typified 't was necessary it should be done by his Ancestors especially and that their History dictated by the Holy Spirit should be handed down to future Ages to the end we might still compare Jesus Christ with his Figures and acknowledge him for the true Messiah Of all Nations God loving that most which had nearest Relation to his Son ought to make the Jews the Fathers of Jesus Christ according to the Flesh since they had been the most lively and express Figures of his Son LXI But if driving this Difficulty up higher the Reason be demanded of the Choice God made of the Jews to be the principal Figures of Jesus Christ I think I may and ought affirm that God acting always by the simplest ways and discovering in the infinite Treasures of his Wisdom all the Combinations of Nature with Grace chose that which was to make the Church the most ample most perfect and most worthy of his own Greatness and Holiness as I have said before Secondly I think I ought to answer that God foreseeing that what was to happen to the Jewish People by a necessary Consequence of Natural Laws would have more Analogy to his Design of typifying Jesus Christ and his Church than all that could befall other Nations thought fit to choose that People rather than any other For in brief Predestination to the Law is not like Predestination to Grace and though there be nothing in Nature that can oblige God to shed his Grace equally on a whole People yet methinks Nature may merit the Law in the Sense I here understand it LXII 'T is true that all that befell the Jews who represented Jesus Christ was not a necessary Consequence of the Order of Nature There was need of Miracles to make the Jews lively and express Figures of the Church But Nature at least furnish'd Ground-work and Materials and possibly the principal Strokes in most Instances and Miracles finish'd the rest Whereas no other Nation would have been so proper for so just and accomplish'd a Design LXIII If I mistake not we are oblig'd to think that God having a Wisdom prescious of all the Events and Consequences of all possible Orders and all their Combinations never works Miracles when Nature is sufficient and that therefore he must choose that Combination of Natural Effects which as it were remitting him the Expence of Miracles nevertheless most faithfully executes his Designs For Example 'T is necessary that all Sin should be punish'd But that 's not always done in this World Yet supposing it was requisite for the Glory of Jesus Christ and the Establishment of Religion that the Jews should be punish'd in the Face of the whole World for the Crime