Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	nature_n	soul_n	unite_v	6,882	5	9.6339	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27438	Of revelation and the Messias a sermon preached at the publick commencement at Cambridge, July 5th, 1696 / by Richard Bentley ...	Bentley, Richard, 1662-1742.	1696 (1696)	Wing B1942; ESTC R5633	15,739	38

gather'd arguments against the Christians from all the different Sects and Hypotheses of Philosophy though inconsistent one argument with another and brought objections too from the Old Testament which they did not believe against the New one which they were engaged by all methods to oppose In our present Discourse therefore we shall endeavour to refute these modern adversaries under their double shape and character first as they are mere Deists or Pagans renouncing all Revelation and the very notion of the Messias and secondly as they fight under Jewish colours so as admitting there be a promised Messias the Saviour of the world yet men ought to reject the person of Iesus and still to wait for another And first we shall consider them in the quality of Deists and Disciples of mere natural Reason We profess our selves as much concerned and as truly as themselves are for the use and authority of Reason in controversies of Faith We look upon right Reason as the native lamp of the soul placed and kindled there by our Creator to conduct us in the whole course of our judgments and actions True Reason like its divine Author never is it self deceived nor ever deceives any man Even Revelation it self is not shy nor unwilling to ascribe its own first credit and fundamental authority to the test and testimony of Reason Sound Reason is the touchstone to distinguish that pure and genuine gold from baser metals Revelation truly divine from imposture and enthusiasm So that the Christian Religion is so far from declining or fearing the strictest trials of Reason that it every-where appeals to it is defended and supported by it and indeed cannot continue in the Apostle's description pure and undefiled without it 'T is the benefit of Reason alone under the providence and spirit of God that we our selves are at this day a Reformed Orthodox Church that we departed from the errors of Popery and that we knew too where to stop neither running into the extravagancies of Fanaticism nor sliding into the indifferency of Libertinism Whatsoever therefore is inconsistent with natural Reason can never be justly imposed as an Article of Faith That the same Body is in many places at once that plain Bread is not Bread such things though they be said with never so much pomp and claim to infallibility we have still greater authority to reject them as being contrary to common sense and our natural faculties as subverting the foundations of all Faith even the grounds of their own credit and all the principles of civil life So far are we from contending with our adversaries about the dignity and authority of Reason but then we differ with them about the exercise of it and the extent of its province For the Deists there stop and set bounds to their Faith where Reason their only guide does not lead the way further and walk along before them We on the contrary as Moses was shewn by divine power a true sight of the promised Land though himself could not pass over to it so we think Reason may receive from Revelation some further discoveries and new prospects of things and be fully convinced of the reality of them though it self cannot pass on nor travel those regions cannot penetrate the fund of those truths nor advance to the utmost bounds of them For there is certainly a wide difference between what is contrary to Reason and what is superior to it and out of its reach To give an instance in created Nature how many things are there whose being we cannot doubt of though unable to comprehend the manner of their being so That the human soul is vitally united to the Body by a reciprocal commerce of action and passion this we all consciously feel and know and our adversaries will affirm it Let them tell us then what is the chain the cement the magnetism what they will call it the invisible tie of that union whereby Matter and an incorporeal Mind things that have no similitude nor alliance to each other can so sympathize by a mutual league of motion and sensation No they will not pretend to that for they can frame no conceptions of it They are sure there is such an union from the operations and effects but the cause and the manner of it are too subtle and secret to be discovered by the eye of Reason 't is mystery 't is divine magick 't is natural miracle If then in created beings they are content with us to confess their ignorance of the modes of existence without doubting of things themselves have not we much more reason to be humble and modest in speculations about the essence of God about the reasons of His counsels and the ways of His actions yes certainly under those circumstances we may believe with Reason even things above and beyond Reason For example If we have sure ground to believe that such a book is the Revelation of God and we find in it Propositions expressed in plain words of a determinate sense without ambiguity so as they cannot be otherwise interpreted by any just metaphor or fair construction allowed in common language we say we have sufficient reason to assent to those propositions as divine doctrines and infallible truths so far as they are declared there though perhaps we cannot our selves comprehend nor demonstrate to others the reasons and the manner of them Neither is this an easy credulity or unworthy of the most cautious and morose searcher of truth For observe we do not say Any thing incomprehensible to Reason is separate and alone a proper object of belief but as it is supported and establish'd by some other known and comprehensible truth As if Abraham had been told by some ordinary Man That in His and Sarah's decrepit age he should be blessed with a Son this Promise so alone without its basis to stand on could not have challeng'd his assent because the thing was impossible in the way of Nature But since it was God Almighty with whom all things are possible that was the author of that Promise by the mediation of that certain truth the veracity and omnipotence of God without hesitation he believed and so obtain'd the glory to be Father of the faithfull And upon the same grounds the Blessed Virgin gave credit to the salutation of the Angel though the message in it self seem'd impossible to reason So true it is that Reason it self warrants us to proceed and advance by Faith even beyond the sphere and regions of Reason We agree then with our adversaries about the authority of Reason but we dissent about the exercise of it and the bounds of its jurisdiction We believe even the abstrusest Mysteries of the Christian Religion of which mysteries perhaps we can assign no reasons but for our belief we assign a good one Because they are plainly taught in the word of God who can neither err nor deceive And this we affirm to be a reasonable conclusion though it carry