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sense_n	church_n	speak_v	word_n	3,838	5	4.2901	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60211	The origine of atheism in the popish and Protestant churches shew'n by Dorotheus Sicurus, 1648 ; made into English, and a preface added by E.B., Esquire.; Origo atheismi in pontificia et evangelica ecclesia. English	Crenius, Thomas, 1648-1728.; E. B., Esquire.	1684 (1684)	Wing S3756; ESTC R6868	23,279	40

Spend-thrifts and Gamesters so many Citizens contaminated with all manner of Villany and Wickedness but from this one fountain of the ill and perverse Education and Government of Children for they that attribute the debauchery of the Age to the Reformation do without doubt need Physick That loose and impious Education and ill discipline which is now in use added to the negligence and dissoluteness of the Magistrates who are more intent upon their own private and domestick advantages than the publick good that I may make no complaints against the Princes of the World must certainly bear the blame of all this Wickedness Thus you have the first and principal cause of the present Atheism in my opinion XII And now I come to the next which is the contempt of the Clergy and Church-men I will not at large inquire into the Causes of this nor whether many of them have not brought this disesteem upon themselves by their own faults tho' it is not possible that our Clergy should not be vile in the eyes of men while they see how basely and poorly they seek Church Functions and Preferments how careless they are of their people and unconcern'd for the Glory of God Now I say when men see all this is it possible that they should not despise those who seek their own and not the things of Jesus Christ And the very Clergy too observe at time the small esteem the people have of them as appears by their frequent complaints in their Pulpits tho' they either know not or are pleased to dissemble their knowledge of the Cause as if they abhorred the remedy more than the disease I will only add this that the contempt of the Person for the most part brings with it a contempt of the Office Now how deep this is rooted in the minds of the men of this Age no man can be ignorant I remember I heard a person of no mean consideration at Amsterdam use these words That he valued his Cat as much as he did his Minister Thus did an Evangelical hearer speak of an Evangelical Pastor If any that were not of the Established Church had thought a little under valuingly of them it might have been born provided it had not been attended with publick scandal because they have nothing to do with them as S. Paul bore with the Athenian Philosophers who call'd him Babler and a setter forth of strange Gods but when the Auditors who are committed to his care despise his Admonitions and Doctrine as if they were too good and learned in the Scriptures to be instructed by such a man as it does not seldom happen that those who have wealth and power in the world will hardly submit themselves to the Church-discipline and instruction there I say the contempt is not to be indured because attended with the contempt of the Ministery and tending to the great damage of the hearers And to this purpose is that of the Apostle let no man despise thee For I cannot allow the Exposition of Chrysostom and others who think that Titus was admonished to behave himself so both as to his Doctrine and Life as not to deserve to be despised For altho' it is most certain that integrity of manners does add to the Authority of the Teacher and render his Doctrine more acceptable and that a good life as Primasius saith makes the Doctrine of more Authority yet the very sound and sense of the words shew that the Apostle here does not prescribe what Titus should do but what others should not do Joh. Crocius upon this place take it that the Apostle did not here speak to Titus but to the whole Church of Crete and ordains that seeing Titus was commanded to encounter with their vices and errors and to defend the Truth and Religion no man should be so prodigal of his Salvation as to despise either his Person or his Office or prefer himself before him as better or more worthy For the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here used as is observed by S. Hierom. Witteberg and Fr. Baldwin Comm. p. 1501. B. signifies thus much When any one being confident of himself that he is better than another despiseth him whom he thinks beneath him And as being above him in wisdom thinks the inferiour person worthy to be despised Therefore this is to be imprinted in the first place in the minds of all that belong to the Church of what Order or Dignity soever they are of that they ought to be subject to their Minister because all are sinners who stand in need of Instruction Exhortation reproof and Consolation all which are administred by the Ministers of the Church by the word of God commended to them therefore they are to be heard of all as the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God But if there be any that will not hear as the greatest part of the men of this Age will not that they are not to be connived at but to be rebuked with all Authority As the Apostle directs in the last cited place out of Titus that they may understand saith the grave Balduinus the Authority of the Ministery excells all worthly Power We have already the heavy sentence revealed against these despisers Luk. X. 16. Matth. X. 40. Joh. XIII 20. But if there be any Drones and unworthy of the Ministery let them be driven out of the Hive But as to those who teach the true Doctrine and Religion and Catechise in publick and in private and serve Christ and their people faithfully without any vain hopes of lucre out of love these I say ought to have obedience liberality and reverence shewn towards them lest if we act otherwise by the just judgment of GOD we should be left so far to our selves as to maintain Seducers Hypocrites mercenary men those that are covetous of great Revenues carnal men who are totally unfit for that spiritual work idle bellies indeed of the Ministers of Christ and such as wallow in the very mire of Pleasures and Riches which hath already hapned not only to our forefathers but to some of the most flourishing Churches of these times as we see with sorrowful hearts XIII The ill tho' frequent way of Preaching gives us the third cause of Atheism The first duty of a Preacher is to set forth the Power and Nature of Religion and the second is to perswade men to Faith and good works as all agree who know what it is For it is in vain to exhort those men who are ignorant of the force and nature of true Positive Divinity and Religion But a great sort of our Preachers having only lightly touched or rather for the most part totally neglected their Text fall presently to the exhortation which whoever does prosecute without the knowledge of Faith and true Religion does but play the Philosopher instead of preaching Christ as Philip Melancthon has plainly pronounced in this affair I would not have the latter omitted

should from his heart believe these fooleries They either have not the Works of the Reformed Divines or the Pope and Inquisition will not suffer them to read them For they so severely prohibit the reading of them especially in Italy and Spain that they will not suffer their own Answers of our Books to be publickly sold lest men should detect the weakness and falshood of their Superstition from the opposite Arguments and their frivolous Replies tho' all our Arguments according to the custom of these men are represented with the utmost disadvantage being mutilated lamed feigned and falsified which was observed long since by a Learned man Edwin Sands These men I say being overtaken by Temptations examining the whole frame of the Popish Religion as such with their acquired and experienced Judgment find at last that it is nothing but a pack of meer frauds introduced of purpose to delude the silly Rabble preserve the Majesty of the Pope and uphold the Monasteries and in them especially the Idle Lazy Jesuites and Monks Which things being thus dissected and survey'd with great care the summ is easily cast up and is no more than this All Religion is a meer cheat all seek their own Advantage some directly others obliquely What if at last in truth there is no God for I am fully convinced that no man of good Learning and sense ever entered the Roman Church for the sake of Religion and the quieting of his Conscience without any other bye-ends for the chiefest parts of Popery are so contrary not only to the Scriptures but to common sence almost that they are forced to patch up a parcel of Fables and Traditions of all sorts to recommend them to the most rude and ignorant part of the People which yet they will scarce allow to be true from whence it comes to pass that they can neither understand nor teach any thing of more certainty than these false Principles which yet is absolutely necessary here when the Salvation of the Soul is under consideration and the business is to be transacted with the most perfect Rhetorician that is with our own Conscience where there is need of the most certain maxims to enable us to resist the Devil when sin or our own Conscience of it tempts us For in matters of Faith we cannot effectually make use of any other testimonies than those of the Scripture nor can any invented reasons be brought which the Animal man shall not find to be such except those of God Therefore the Scripture because it only is certain doth most instruct and confirm the Conscience If any thing besides this is feigned because it is uncertain it cannot secure and quiet the Conscience And thus far for the present of the Popish Religion III. I come now to the Protestant Churches and here if they who call themselves the Reformed Lutherans and Arminians did as much abhor and detest the thing as they do the name and profession of Epicures and Sadduces they would be no less careful of abstaining from Vice and industrious in the exercise of Virtue and Piety than they are now obstinately engaged in the wickedness and debauchery and an impious course of life Nor would they be less careful of keeping of Commandments of the Best and greatest God than they are now fearless of the Deity But to speak the truth almost all of us do rather fear the Envy and detest the Name than bear any Aversion in our minds for the thing which would otherwise be testified by our Lives Actions and Manners For what shall I say as I live and as I desire Christ should shew me mercy I am ashamed and grieved to speak how we live Can they believe the Immortality of the Soul who live little better than beasts or can they be throughly perswaded that there is a reward laid up in Heaven for the Righteous a punishment appointed in Hell for the Wicked who scarce fear to break the Commandments of God in any thing as if they thought GOD were an empty and vain sound and that their Souls should perish with their Bodies and altho' we should grant that there are some who fear God and doubt not but he will assign Rewards and inflict Punishments according as every man has deserved yet they are certainly very few and scarce so many as the gates of Thebes and the mouths of the rich Nile and yet how much less is the number of those whom the dread of the divine Justice can reclaim from Wickedness and mischief or perswade to amend their lives but what need is there of many words No man vigorously pursues heavenly things despising humane no man is sensible of the Anger of God against sin no man changes his Vices for Virtue no man cures his offences committed by the least acts of Charity no man is recalled from Baseness by Modesty or from sin by the fear of God the lives of all are so polluted with great and abominable crimes that I need say nothing of the less and almost daily faults IV. For altho' if we will judge rightly Luxury is the fault of every Age the over sumptuous expences in Diet the excessive magnificence of Dinners and Suppers Surfeits Revellings Whoredoms Adulteries Violence Injustice neglect of good manners and the like are charged as Seneca observes by the men of all Ages upon their own times nor was there ever yet any Generation of men without faults and as the same Philosopher goes on of this our Ancestors have complained we do and our children shall that the Manners of men are totally subverted Villany reigns and the affairs of Mankind go on impairing and descending to all manner of Crimes yet to speak but the truth in this Age of ours the liberty of committing any Villany is encreased to a prodigious height The neglect of all Order and Discipline the Pest and Corruption of good manners and whatever else of Vice impiety and turpitude can be conceived have all of them so prevailed that Impiety and Atheism do almost seem to have invaded the lives of men and to have erected their kingdom in Christendom and to conclude there seems to be but little liberty allowed to Laws and the utmost that is possible to Lust I durst Averr that in this corrupted and debauched Age all sorts of wickedness have prevailed to that degree that it is scarce possible to add any thing to it nor does any improvement seem possible For what sort of Wickedness and Villany is wanting which if it were supposed to be thrown in would make our times worse and wickeder in any part seeing we are come to this that we cannot endure to be told of our Vices nor patiently bear the reproof that we have justly deserved or if there be some few that can endure it yet even there according to the Proverb we do but sing and tell stories to the Deaf Either I am deceived with the Tragedian or this is not the way to Heaven Alas alas what

but I had rather they would much oftner handle the former For seeing the Gospel teacheth many things above our Reason it is not possible to know which is the true Worship of God and Religion unless we know what the Gospel teacheth Therefore he will do most good to the Church tho' he will not at first be so acceptable as an English Moralist who can best set forth the matter of Faith which many either totally neglect contenting themselves with inculcating the precepts concerning manners without delivering the summ of the Christian Religion or do only lightly touching it and yet after all we wonder whence it comes to pass that those that have so many years frequented our Sermons being asked concerning the heads of the Christian Religion can give no account of them when yet they never in all their lives heard much if any thing of them I lament the misery of these poor sheep but I shall never more wonder at the multitude of Atheists and of those that are ignorant of all Religion But in short if the truth may be spoken the greatest part of the Preachers never learned the Compendium and form of true Theologie and what more can be expected from such men But I know not how it comes to pass that no Mechanick shall be suffered to exercise a Trade who hath not spent a great time in learning of it But all are suffered to preach without distinction or choice nor do I at all regard the Certificates which are usually given to young beginners in some places for how and at what price they are purchased of the Professors is as clear as the light But Paul's precept was that the Bishop should be apt to teach And he only will be such who has a right notion of Religion and has by the assistance of the Holy Ghost had experience of the force and power of it in the various events of his life For as a builder first forms the whole building in his mind So the teachers of any Arts ought to have the whole Scheme of the Arts they profess to teach in their minds that they may be able to shew the beginning and Series or order of all the precepts But all other Arts because they may be comprehended by reason may be more easily apprehended whereas the Gospel which contains many things above and against the judgment of reason is not apprehended without difficulty and therefore the Preacher is obliged to take the more pains that he may render the most obscure things plain And he will then be able to do this when he has possessed his own mind with a comprehensive knowledge of all the Doctrine of Religion before he begins to teach others Therefore it will never be laborious or difficult to such a Preacher to invent what he should speak but rather his prudence is to be imployed in the chusing out of the great variety and plenty what may seem most profitable and useful for the whole Christian Religion is of a Divine Original and being delivered to us in writing by the Prophets and Apostles those writings are to be followed Now in this the first thing is to understand rightly those things which he has undertaken to handle for no man can clearly teach another that thing which he doth not throughly understand himself That Verse of Horace is very common Verbaque praevisam rem non invita sequentur For unforc'd words wait on a well known thing Nor does any man attain the knowledge of the holy Scriptures by study only but it is necessary that by instruction of the Holy Ghost he should feel the force of them in his own mind and so be able by his own Experience and Practice to interpret them The next things required in a good Preacher is that he have a good way and manner of interpreting or expressing himself which is delivered in those precepts by which youth is instructed in Eloquence or Rhetorick For no man can ever know the way of teaching well if he be not well instructed in Eloquence in his youth and be very much and a great while conversant with those Arts in which the precepts of Rhetorick are contained And then an Interpreter ought to know the Genius of the language for the holy Scriptures have a certain peculiar Idiom and Phrase which those that are not acquainted with it from their youth cannot understand Nor is it enough to have some degree of knowledge in the tongues but to enable a man to judge well Logick and Rhetorick are of great use Lastly if he be able to draw a summ or Compendium of the whole doctrine out of the holy Scriptures he will then endeavour that the people also may comprehend the whole Christian Doctrine The Primitive Church seems to have aimed at this heretofore when she took such care that the ignorant might be throughly instructed before they were admitted to Baptism whom she then called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Catechumens For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Catechise doth not signifie to teach simply but to read to a person and make him repeat after the Teacher And I wish the custom were retained in the Church of exacting of every man once an account of the Doctrine for we do more diligently consider and deeply look into those things which we are bound to recite in other words without changing the sense The last cause of Atheism we fetch from the total abolition of all Ceremonies for we see that Religion was never more despised than in those Churches where there is no Ceremonies For there is an absolute necessity of some external shews which may recommend and render Religion more August and Venerable to the common people who are not able without them to see into the greatness and dignity of this thing and we ought not to undervalue that improvement which children make while they Sing the Psalms Read the Bible and repeat the Catechism aloud in the Church For if Ceremonies are not impious as they are which are instituted by the Papists for Justification and if there be any use of them such as the recommending Religion to the people and children for whose sake they were chiefly instituted and both which they retain and preserve in the word and teach I see no reason why they should be abolished O how earnestly do I desire that those who govern our Church-affairs would more deeply consider this last cause which at first sight appears so light and contemptible and that they would understand what Ecclesiastical Prudence is concerning which we conjecture Nicolaus Videlius will with the assistance of God publish something in his Elegant book of the Prudence of the ancient Church Tho' ours should at least be so unhappy as leave this thing very imperfect It is a most impious thing to think that all Ceremonies were instituted by wicked Popes There ever were some wise and holy men who throughly understood that the minds of the common people were so stupid and low that they could never apprehend the Dignity and Majesty of Religion unless their minds were fixed and detained with some outward and visible Rites till they might by that means by degrees be more and more lifted up and so learn to admire it And yet I would not have too much haste made here because Abraham Scultetus a prudent Divine otherwise in this very Age left us a Tragical example of the ill effects that followed at Prague And thus at length I have opened this putrid sore and now if the work might be acceptable and it might promote the cure of it O how great thanks should I give to our God but if the evil should happen to be only exasperated and the attempt should incense the Patients I shall comfort my self with the Conscience of my undertaking and the usual reward of a Physician FINIS Anno 1196. Lib. 1. c. 26. Quin videmus tempora ipsa in Atheismum procliviora qualia fuerunt Augusti Caesaris tranquilla fuisse Bacon de superstitione L. 16. c. 6. p. 27 Cicero de fine bon l. c. 7. Lact. de falsa relig l. 3. c. 16. Joseph Ant. L. XVIII cap. 2. Apud imperitos prodigii loco accipiebatur ipsa aquarum penuria quod in pace sors seu natura nunc fatum Ira Dei vocabatur Tact. H. l. 4. c. 26. Quibus quaestui sunt capti Superstitione Animi Liv. l. 4. Parum Philosophiae naturalis homines inclinat in Atheismum at Altiorem Scientiam eos ad Religionem circumagere Baconis Ser. fidelis XVI De falsa Sapientia l 3. c. 17. Adversae deinde res admonuerunt Religionum confugimus in capitolium ad ●eos ad sedem Jovis O. M. Liv. l. 5. Nullum crimen abest facinusque libidinis ex quo Paupertas Romana perît turpi fregerunt secula Luxu Diviti●●molles Juven Sat. 6. Rom. 1. 30. Principis est ea maximè curare quae ad Deos pertinent nam metuunt minus ne quid injusti accipiunt à talibus minus insidiantur ut Deos habenti Socios Arist Polit. l. 5. c. 11. Licentia urbium aliquando disciplinà metúque nunquam sponte considet Sen. ep 97. Europae speculum or a View or survey of the State of Religion in the Western parts of the World p. 121. This and several other passages make me think the Author was a Hollander If our Laws 〈…〉 Act. XVII 18. Tit. II. 15. 1 Cor. IV. 1. 1 Tim. III. 2. I cannot assent to my Author in this viz. that there is any thing in the Gospel against the judgment of Reason illuminated by Faith If the Rite of Confirmation were duly put in execution with us no Church can take a better and more effectual care for this than ours has done