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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	add_v	holy_a	scripture_n	1,651	5	5.5616	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39389	To en archy: or, An exercitation upon a momentous question in divinity, and case of conscience viz. whether it be lawfull for any person to act contrary to the opinion of his own consicence, formed from arguments that to him appear very probable, though not necessary or demonstrative. Where the opinions of the papists, Vasquez, Sanches, Azonius, &c. are shewed, as also the opinions of some Protestants, viz. Mr. Hooker, Bp Sanderson, Dr. Fulwood, &c. and compared with the opinions of others; the negative part of the question maintained; the unreasonableness of the popish opinions, and some Protestants, for blind obedience, detected; and many other things discoursed. By a Protestant.	Protestant.; Collinges, John, 1623-1690, attributed name.	1675 (1675)	Wing E718; Wing C5314_CANCELLED; ESTC R214929	62,722	96

Foundations of the Protestant Religion as it stands disting●●●●d from Popery This is that which Divines call The Judgment of Private and Practical Discretion Divines say there is 〈◊〉 ●●●●fold Judgment concerning Propositions of Truth 1. The first is Authoritative or Nomothetick This belongeth onely to God all the Men in the World all their Opinions and Arguments cannot add a Cubit to the stature of Truth nor make an hair of its Head either white or black 2. The Second is Ministerial and Declarative This belongs to the Church in the Scriptural Notion of it The Apostle therefore calls her the Pillar and ground of Truth She keeps the Sacred Records and when there is a doubt about any portion of them Ministerially declareth what is the Truth 3. The third Divines call The Judgment of Private and Practical Discretion This Protestants say belongs to every private Christian who by his own Conscience using the best means first which he can for the Information of it is to determine as to his own belief and Practice what is true and Lawful And indeed here lyes the great difference betwixt the Religion of Papists and Protestants The Papists will not allow the Private Christian to Judge of Truth with reference to his own Practice but Obligeth People To believe as the Church believeth and defendeth Blind Obedience to Superiours as Christians Duty They make it Lawful for Men contrary to their own Judgment and the Dictate of their Conscience from intrinsick Arguments to Practice according to the Opinion of one or more Doctors and necessary to Obey all the Decrees of the Popes and the Commands of Superiours if things be not apparently and demonstratively unlawful It may be one Adrianus or another or two may enter their dissent to this Brutish Doctrine but they do generally agree it and this is Fons Origo mali The very first thing to be taught their Prosilytes as silence was in the School of Pythagoras Hence their vernacular Bibles are burnt and all their other Doctrines are easily swallowed The necessity of an Infallible Judge is Concluded c. § 15. On the other side it is essential to a Protestant to be free and in Bondage to no Man nor as to his Practice to be guided by any but God alone and his own Conscience and his Superiours Commanding him what his own Conscience first perswades him to be necessary or at least Lawful He who denyeth this and pretendeth to hate Popery doth but abhor Idols and commit Sacriledge Nay he doth indeed but deny that in words which he owneth chuseth and preferreth nor is it possible there should be greater Factors for Popery in any place than those that perswade Men that it is Lawful for them under what Circumstances they can Imagine to Act contrary to the Opinion of their own Conscience and do what from which to them seem very probable seems utterly to swerve from that which is right to use Mr. Hooker's Phrase § 16. Now let any pluck up this Flood-gate of Private and Practical Discretion and tell us what should hinder most of the absurd Doctrines of Popery coming in upon us like an overflowing Flood if ever we should be so miserable which is not a thing impossible as in Future Ages to have a Superiour that shall Command the receiving of them or Practice according to them As to the falshood of most of them we have but a Moral certainty at least our perswasion must be Judged no more according to the Modern Divinity for how can we be Infallibly and demonstratively certain in things as to which so great a part of the World is of another mind and so many such Learned Men as Bellarmine Stapleton and an hundred more who dissent from us Besides as we shewed before we are told that in Disputable things we can have but an Opinion of one part And this we take to be a Meditation worthy of those Honourable Persons amongst the Nobility and Gentry of England who have shewed their Zeal so much of late against that Religious Pageantry of Rome If any doubt whether Christians have such a Priviledge given them by God as this of Private and Practical Discretion let them consider those Texts 1 Thes 5.21 1 John 3.1 usually quoted for it and but Read what Bishop Davenant in his most Learned Treatise De Judice Normâ fidei and all other Protestant Writers have said for it Whoever plucks up this Hedge we understand not if he doth not feel the Romish Serpent quickly biting him by the heel and we cannot but think that Man will be Cursed that goes about to remove this Land-mark of all Protestants and cry out to our Superiours in the words of Solomon Prov. 22.28 Remove not the Ancient Land-mark which our Fathers have set § 17. We might further add that the admission of this absurd and brutish principle that if a thing be not apparently and demonstratively sinful it is Lawful for Men to Act contrary to the Opinion of their own Consiciences representing it to them from Arguments which seem to them very probable unlawful All Books of Topicks as to Matters of practice all Argumentative Books in Divinity would be of no Use at all but noxious and mischievous rather Yea the Holy Scriptures themselves would be of very little or no use for the use of Argumentative Discourses in any Science or Discipline is to make a proposition either Demonstrative or Probable to us Yea this is the use of the Holy Scriptures as they inform us of Truth Things are Demonstrable to us upon the Evidence of Revelation Sense or Reason indeed the first is improper for the certainty arising from Divine Revelation is called Faith not Demonstration or Demonstrative certainty but it is quiddam majus what is certain to us upon a certainty of Faith or Demonstrative Reason is not so Ordinarily in a moment This Certainty is Ordinarily hatched out of Topicks and most Propositions even of Divine Truth usually at first appear to the Soul probable before they appear indubitably certain The Gray hairs of that other certainty which is distinguished from Moral Certainty rarely grow up in a Night This being granted which every one experienceth Suppose but a Convocation or a Colledge of Superiours to determine de Omnibus agendis of all things to be Religiously Observed and done To what purpose should any read or study any Books for the disquisition of Truth as to any part of a Proposition for when he hath done so long as the thing to be done appears to him but probably Lawful or probably unlawful which it must do before it appears to him indubitably and out of all Question the one or the other he is according to this Opinion bound in Conscience if he be by Superiours Commanded to do quite contrary to what he Judgeth Lawful if he be not indubitably certain it is unlawful What need he Read and study the Scriptures as to Matter of Practice When he hath found

Understanding affirmeth neither part we wonder how it should Opine then § 10. This is a great point in Popery Jesuitisme especially and of no small gain to them for by this mea●● they can resolve Cases as they list absolve Mens Consciences as they please and Interpret the Law of God into a very pleasing consi●tency with the Lusts and Passions of all Men If it were admitted for true it would open a wide door for Men to do what they listed without any check or controul of Conscience There being but few things in practice which one Doctor or other under one Circumstance or other hath not judged Lawful There are few actions but are disputable saith Mr. Freeman in his Reasonableness of Divine Service p. 33. And if one or more Doctors affirm it lawful say the Popish Casuists the private Christian may assent to it as probably Lawful though at the same time from Artificial Intrinsick Arguments formed in his own Breast he judgeth it probably unlawful And we wish some professing themselves Protestant Divines did not cant after this Tune though it may be they will not as the Papists rest it upon the Opinion of one Doctor but many Learned Men if they did not a little linger after this we cannot tell what means their constant choaking of us with the bare Opinions of others contrary to ours in which surely we are no further concerned than as quickned by them to re-examine our own Intrinsecal Arguments more strictly § 11. We must declare our selves in the Negative of this Question and do affirm That it is Naturally impossible for a Rational Soul in a practical proposition to Judge that part from Extrinsecal in-artificial Arguments Probably Lawful which at the same time from Intrinsecal artificial Arguments formed in its own Breast it judgeth Probably Vnlawful and in this Judgment we are confirmed § 12. Because it is contrary to the innate Principles of a reasonable Soul 1. We suppose every one will without difficulty grant it a Principle of a Reasonble Soul To Conclude nothing but from Rational Foundations Reason is a Power within us Discoursing Conclusions from Principles It acknowledged there is a God and that he hath revealed his will in those Books which we call The Holy Scriptures and must acknowledge it the most reasonable thing imaginable that he should be acknowledged true in his word Hence it concludes many Propositions of Faith upon the bare Authority of God revealing them and exerciseth it self no further than to compare Spiritual things with Spiritual But having not that Evidence for other things it maketh use of inbred Notions and from those Principles raiseth Conclusions Now let us consider from what Principle it is possible that Reason should infer such a Conclusion as this That is probably Lawful for me to do which such or such Divines be they more or fewer more or less Learned think is Lawful or which Superiours require under that Notion notwithstanding any Artificial Intrinsick Arguments which make my own Conscience Judge it very probably unlawful It must be this Those Doctors or those Superiours know better than I. Doth Reason in a man allow any such conclusion Modesty indeed upon such an Account may make a reasonable Soul Jealous and Suspitious and to issue out a Writ for a better enquiry upon its Arguments but it is impossible that it should rest in such a Conclusion to guide its Practice where the hazard of the Eternal Felicity of a Soul is concerned Reason speaketh in the Language of Job to his Friends Job 12.3 I have Vnderstanding as well as you and be it what it will gradually compared with all the Doctors reason it is the Candle of the Lord set up in my Soul according to the Light of which I must walk Or in the words of Elihu Job 32.8 There is a Spirit in Man and the Inspiration of the Almighty gives him Vnderstanding Reason saith Bring forth your strong arguments and I will answer them or hear mine and do you answer me § 13. Besides Reason saith If this were belonging to all Doctors or all Superiours that Wisdom as Job saith must dye with them how is it they are not agreed amongst themselves Such and such are on my side if it doth not agree to all Superiours and all Doctors how shall I be assured that it more agrees to those on the adverse side than to those on my fide to Dr. Vasquez more than to Pope Adrian S. 14 Further saith Reason do not know and see that there are many Doctores who are not Docti and that many Learned men in all Ages have been in Factions doth not Dr. Vasquez himself tell me in 12. disp 62. Cap. 4. That he cannot deny but a whole rout of Doctors may embrace an Opinion without any Reason against whom saith he another Doctor of great Authority may bring into the Schools an Opinion maturely deliberated Vasquez need not be Credited if we did not upon Experience find daily that not one of many Doctors examines things but follows some Leader as diligently as Sheep do one another over an Hedge that many either understand not the true Question about which they will be Writing in this Age or of choice mistake it write far more passion than Divinity or Reason which made Vasquez some others of his Brethren deliver their Opinion That a Learned Man may act according to his own Opinion though contrary to the Opinions of other Doctors §. 15 Reason tells a Man that Reason is not entailed to the Relation of a Superiour or the Degree of a Doctor Animae rationales sunt aequales in perfectione Substantiali and Superiority or Doctorship make no difference Experience teacheth us that improvement by Study makes not a difference as to the Exercise of Reason between all Superiours and Inferiours nor between all those who are Doctors and no Doctors It remaineth therefore that the particular Reason of every Soul must stand up in defence of it self especially in matters of Practice as to which Eternal Salvation or Damnation are concerned so as it is not Naturally possible that a Reasonable Soul should from Forreign Authority conclude a thing probably Lawful which from its own Rational conclusions it judgeth probably Vnlawful § 16 But further yet certainly it is repugnant to the connate Principles of Reasonable Souls to assert contraries both at the same time to be true because it is of the Nature of contraries to destroy one another Now the Understanding which shall thus assert must at the same time speak these two things which are manifest contradictions This is Lawful This is not Lawful I think and Judge it Lawful because A B C D c. say so I think it Vnlawful because my own Reason comparing things Spiritual with Spiritual or concluding from confessed Principles tells me it is so Must not this be a very odd Soul that can Discourse after this rate Vasquez was aware of this and thought to avoid it by