Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	divine_a	faith_n	revelation_n	2,555	5	9.7977	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37484	Truth defended. or, A triple answer to the late triumvirates opposition in their three pamphlets viz. Mr. Baxter's review, Mr. Wills his censure, Mr. Whiston's postscript to his essay, &c. With Mr. Hutchinson's letter to Mr. Baxter a little before his death. And a postscript in answer to Mr. William Walker's modest plea for infants baptism. By Tho. DeLaune.	De Laune, Thomas, d. 1685.	1677 (1677)	Wing D897; ESTC R213236	99,906	139

can there be made but must be obnoxious to this censure We ascribe nothing to our own wisdom it is the beneplaeitum or good pleasure of the Lord to reveal his Truths to Babes which are hid from the wise and prudent Luk. 10.21 for which we must as Christ did express our thankfulness And no man must presume to call him to account for the exercise of his Soveraignty We believe that a great many hold Infant Baptism purely out of Conscience because they think the grounds urged for it from Scripture be valid and that if they were satisfied as we are of its unlawfulness they would renounce the practice as a great many do upon the accession of more light 2 That vast multitudes hold it out of pure ignorance 3 Some because it was the opinion of their Ancestors and is so generally owned 4 Most from that wretched and mischievous conceit with which except some few of the most refined Protestants the world is intoxicated viz. that WITHOVT IT THEIR CHILDREN ARE DAMNED 5 Many of the great and learned ones hold it because it is the Cornerstone of the Ecclesiastical Fabrick erected by the man of sin against which they must not declare if they will be Ministers of that State 6 Most are brought up in that way and never examine it whether right or wrong 7 Some that would examine it judge that so great a part of the world would not hold it if it were unlawfull and so are led by an implicite Faith 8 Some that examine it are byassed by Interest or Education so that the clearest Argument or Reason cannot remove them 9 Some are indeed convinced by the force of Truth yet the love of the world or some such sinister end hinders their owning so despised and uncountenanced a practice And a great many through grace are convinced and wrought upon to own it and be●r their testimony to it and certainly the testimony though but of a few that are not blinded with temporal ends and that cannot be charged upon us but swim painfully against the stream is not to be slighted Obj. But you make an Idol of it and censoriously condemn all that differ from you Answ This is an injurious charge for we ascribe no more to it then is warranted in the Word of God We look upon it as the initiating Ordinance into a Gospel profession Act. 2.41 42. An Ordinance of Christ of the s●me duration with preaching Mat. 28.19 A lively resemblance of the Death Burial and Resurrection of Christ Rom. 6.4 Col. 2.12 And we conceive it our duty to be found in the practice and profession of it though we undergo the censures and affronts of the age we live in thereby We make no Idol of it nor does our Religion consist in it only we desire to press after Holiness and to worship our God in Spirit and Truth to walk blamelesly Nor do we condemn dissenters but pray for them that the Lord would give them more light We desire to love all men as far as they appear to us to belong to Christ and would walk together in love as f●r as we agree But when they erre from the Rule we dare go no further with them Magis amica veritas it being as Aristotle himself said l. 1. c. 6 Ethicorum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a sacred thing to prefer Truth before Friendship Daille tells us in his Right use of the Fathers p 97. that Justin Martyr Irenaeus Clemens Alexandrinus Tertullian I may add Origen Cyprian Lactantius Hillary Ambrose Jerome Augustine and Epiphanius that is the most eminent and most approved of the Fathers that ever were have stumbled in many places and quite fallen away in others Of which they themselves were so sensible that they gave us many cautions not to lean upon their Authority Non ●ecipienda veterum Authoritas Scripturae testimonio destituta August Ep. 19. Ex omnibus Fatribus nemo est quin suis scriptis aliquando faede erraverit hallucinatus est Lubert de Eccles l. 3. c. 7. In libris Doctorum Ecclesiae aliquondo errores aliquando Haereses inveniuntur non est tamen ut condemnemus vel librum vtl Authorem Deus enim hoc permittit ut nos veritatem ex ipsis scripturis indagemus Anselm Comment in 2 Cor. Therefore it is the less to be wondred that such as suck their unexamin'd Religion from their mouths go astray with them Nor can we be censured of arrogance if upon the tryal of their documents we hold fast only that which is good The sober Author of the Naked Truth tells us p. 42. That in matters of Faith there were some errors very Primitive and at the time of the Evangelical Reformation by Luther Melancthon Calvin he can shew some errors generally received in most if not all the Churches of Christendom but neither approved nor known by the Primitive Church Now this being so let the sober judge what little reason or safety we have to be led by any mans ipse dixit I would not be understood in any thing I say about this matter to cry down humane learning as a thing of no use For I confess it to be of excellent benefit in its place if rightly employ'd and that the knowledge of the Original Languages in which the Scriptures are penn'd is of very great necessity that we might converse with that blessed Book in its own emphatical and Native Idiom and that we might not be imposed upon by wrong Translations Yet we are to consider the bounds of Philosophy and humane literature viz. it is to be exercised in the things that may be known by the light of Natural Reason but when it travels beyond that road and must needs be defining things beyond its sphear it becomes extravagant and sawcy Accinge te ad Philosophiam sed hac lege ut memineris nullam esse Philosophiam quae à mysteriorum veritate nos abdueat Philosophia veritatem quaerit Theologia invenit Religio possidet says Picus Mirandula ad Ald. Man Fire is good in the Chimney but mischievous in the House-top Learning is good as an handmaid Hagar-like but if it must needs be Mistress and usurp Authority in the Family if like scoffing Ishmael Gen. 21.9 Gal. 4.30 it will mock at the Spirit and the simplicity of the Gospel let it be cast out As Reason is above Sense so Faith is above Reason 'T is the work of Faith by the aid of Divine Revelation to be employ'd in the mysteries of Religion Therefore our Philosophers when they attempt that undertaking by the dim guidance of Natures light are guilty of as great an absurdity as if the eye should encroach upon the ear and would pretend to distinguish the various gradations of Musical Notes or the Quavers of a pleasant Instrument which it cannot so much perform as the dullest brute can imitate the warblings of the Nightingale Christ made choice of the despised and unlearned that his grace might be the more