Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	author_n	know_v	write_v	2,987	5	5.2886	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47125	The arraignment of worldly philosophy, or, The false wisdom its being a great hinderance to the Christian faith, and a great enemy to the true divine wisdom / by George Keith.	Keith, George, 1639?-1716.	1694 (1694)	Wing K143; ESTC R1585	27,083	30

THE ARRAIGNMENT OF Worldly Philosophy OR The False Wisdom It s being a great hinderance to the Christian Faith And a great Enemy to the True Divine Wisdom By GEORGE KEITH 1 COR. 1. 19 20 21. For it is written I will destroy the wisdom of the wise and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent Where is the wise where is the Scribe where is the Disputer of this World Hath not God made foolish the Wisdom of this World For after that in the Wisdom of God the World by Wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe LONDON Printed for R. Levis MDCXCIV The Preface to the Reader Friendly Reader I Thought fit by this Prefaceto prevent thy Offence at the Title of this small Treatise which I call the Arraignment of Worldly Philosophy as if thereby thou might suppose I did intend any true and real knowledge of things either Divine or Natural that any of these call'd Ancient Philosophers had or the real and sincere study enquiry and search into them that any of the children of men have had whether in former Ages from the beginning of the World or now have in this present Age so as to condemn the same But this is far from my Intention for on the contrary I do judge that the sincere study enquiry and search after Truth and the true knowledge of God and of his Creatures is most commendable and praise worthy and they are the most Noble Souls who in all Ages of the world have given and applied themselves unto the same for true Knowledg is of more value than all worldly Treasure being that which truly adorns the Mind and Soul of Man and is a perfection to it yea what eyes and sight is to the Body that true Knowledg is to the Soul and as we cannot love an outward and visible Object unless we see it or have some knowledg of it by some of our outward senses so we cannot love God our Creator unless we have the true knowledge of him And tho the highest and most excellent degree of the knowledg of God is to know him in a nearor and more immediate way than by the contemplation of the Creatures yet God hath set his Creatures and the glorious Fabrick of the visible Creation before us as a book in a large Volume whereby we may read and understand not only that God is but also whereby we may know in some sort his manifold divine perfections even his exceeding great Power Wisdom Goodness Purity Mercy and Justice But as no man can read a book that is blind or if he have eyes without light so none can truly and rightly read and understand the great book of God's Creation but as the eyes of his understanding are opened and as his eyes when opened are enlightned with a divine Light that cometh from God himself for let it be granted that mens rational faculties are as the eyes of their minds yet they can never see into the great wonders of the Creation of God without he the great Creator doth enlighten them as our natural and bodily eyes cannot see bodily Objects without a natural and bodily light for seeing God made all the Creatures by his eternal Wisdom nothing can give to man the true knowledge of them but the same Wisdom by which he made them and this is man's dignity and excellency above the Beasts of the field that he is capable to receive of this eternal divine Wisdom and be taught by it and as the Rivers that come from the Sea lead to the Sea so the Creatures in a secondary and subordinate way lead the Mind and Soul of Man to God that made them as the divine Light of the eternal VVisdom that shines in his heart is eyed and regarded that shews him how and after what manner this Current and Stream of the Creatures that come from God lead to him that so man may rest in him and not in them But if a man think by the bare search of his natural understanding and meer human Reason to know either God or the Creation without the divine Light he greatly erreth and this hath been the great Error of most of them called Philosophers that by the bare search of the natural understanding and meer human Reason without the divine Light they were busied to make their search into the wonderful works of God in his Creatures which they not being able to do they fell into many Errors which do contradict the true Christian Faith and Doctrine delivered by the Prophets and by Christ and the Evangelists and Apostles as the design of the following Treatise is to shew and therefore this is to inform the Reader in the entrance it is not any good thing or any matter of Truth or any true discovery of knowledge in things either divine or natural that this small Treatise points at and blames but the gross Errors in those called Philosophers which I have found too many at this to day be deeply tinctured and leavened with and these not only some that profess to be Students of Philosophy and Proficients in the same but many other persons either wholly or in great part illiterate and who neither esteem themselves nor are esteemed by others studious in Philosophy I have found deeply so tinctured and most tenariously adhering to these gross and pernicious Errors and when I have warn'd them of these Errors telling them that they were the noted Errors of them call'd Heathen Philosophers who did long ago in Ages past oppugn and gainsay the True Christian Faith and Doctrine in many things and the Errors of the Jesuits Philosophy and of some other Schoolmen in the Church of Rome stiffly maintained by them to defend the false Antichristian Doctrine that that Papal Society is guilty of They have reply'd to me They know neither the Philosophy of the Old Heathens nor of the late Schoolmen and Jesuits being simple unletter'd men But to this I have answer'd them That tho they know not that such Errors held by them are the Errors of the Old Heathens and of the late Schoolmen such as Jesuits and others yet they are these very Errors for even as in another case a man may have in his House some things that he may not know to whom they do properly belong so in this case men may hold erronious Opinions invented by others long ago and yet not know the Authors of them and they might have come by them without any curious search study or enquiry into the Writings or Books of the first Authors or Inventers of them either by having them occasionally mention'd to them or finding them by some accident in some one or other late VVriter that writ in their Mothers Tongue and the mind of man while it is more sway'd with Darkness than Light and with the spirit of Error than with the spirit of Truth beside the many disadvantages it hath by wrong Education and

held some gross errors and had very dark and Obscure Notions and Conceptions about God and Divine Things and spoke not very certainly and clearly of the Felicity of souls of Good Men after Death altho they did generally profess to believe the souls immortality and future rewards and punishments but not one of them believed the Resurrection of the Body as the Scriptures hold it forth for they generally believed the body was the soul's prison or grave and so it would be no Felicity to the soul to be re-united to it not understanding how the body at the Resurrection is so refined and dignified yea glorified that it shall be no Prison nor Grave to the Soul but a most beautiful Palace and Throne such as it was to Adam's Soul before he sinned and which at the Resurrection shall be enriched with greater Beauty and Glory than it then had Also both Plotinus and Porphirius were great Enemies to the Christians and wrote against them which plainly enough shews they were but dark men and had at best at that time but little acquaintance with the divine illumination in their experience notwithstanding their high profession of it as it is with too many at this day who profess the divine Light and talk much more of it than they walk in it for if either Plotinus or Porphirius had been faithful to that divine illumination given to them in common with all mankind it would have led them to befriend and not to oppose the Christians in that time when Christianity did flourish a great deal more in the Purity and true life and power of it than it did in after-ages And thus I have in 20 divers instances discovered the great hurt of the Worldly Philosophy its being a great hinderance to the Christian Faith and a great enemy to the Divine Wisdom and true divine Philosophy by which Worldly Philosophy I understand not only that taught by these called ancient Philosophers but even that lately and at present taught by many called Christians that containeth more hurtful errors than any thing which may happen to be taught by them of truth do profit So that to pass a free and impartial Judgment upon all that called commonly Philosophy both ancient and modern of all the sorts and sects of them called Philosophers it consisteth of a great mixture of error and falshood containing many dangerous and hurtful Opinions but mingled with some true Notions of things that lie so obscure and veiled under the clouds of their many great and dangerous errors that until it be better resined reformed and purged from the great dross filth and poyson of these many hurtful errors wherewithal it doth abound it seemeth to me as well as to many more that are impartial Judges in the case that the study of it in this state of so great mixture is rather hurtful than really profitable And to spend time in turning over the many Volumes of that called Philosophy to find the pure Truth either of Things Natural or Divine is not only to lose time but to expose the mind to the great danger of being leavened and corrupted with gross and hurtful errors tending to overthrow the Christian Faith and to beget in the mind of him that is studious in it a deep prejudice and enmity against the True Divine Philosophy and the Truth as it is in Jesus But the pious endeavour of some late Writers is greatly to be commended who have attempted to correct and reform the vulgar errors in that called Philosophy as the Author of the book called Enchiridion Physicae restitutae and the lately deceased and worthily esteemed Esq Boyl and others And here before I come to a conclusion of my intended matter I think to answer 2 weighty questions and that very briefly The first is What is the chief cause or reason that men generally professing to seek after the True Philosophy Wisdom or Knowledge of Things both Divine and Natural have so greatly miss'd it and instead of the pure Truth have embraced Error for the greatest part Ans The chief cause or reason is their too much relying upon their Humane Understanding and the bare exercise of Human Reason which they generally made the Rule and measuring Line to find out all Truth or True Knowledg in natural things even as Christians so called too generally do the same at this day and I wish they did not so do in the search of Divine Truth also and in the enquiry after the Knowledg of Divine Things Hence it is that some derive the Etymology of the word mens in Latin that signifieth the Mind in English from the Latin word metiri to measure as if the bare mind or humane understanding of man were the measure of all truth at least in the knowledg of natural things And because they did either wholly or for most part rely upon their humane understanding and bare exercise of humane Reason thence it came to pass that the divine gift of God even that divine principle of Light wherewithal Christ the eternal word had enlightned them was neglected and like the unfaithful and slothful servant this divine Talent wherewithal they ought to have occupied and traded they buried in the earth and thus professing themselves wise they became Fools And tho what was to be known of God had been in some measure made manifest in them God having shewed it unto them by the divine illumination of the eternal word yet as Paul declareth when they knew God they glorified him not as God nor were they thankful And because they did not like to retain God in their knowledge but held the Truth in unrighteousness therefore their foolish hearts were darkened and they were given up to vile affections and this was the more general state of them call'd Heathen or Gentile Philosophers yet I will not judg so hardly or uncharitably of them universally because the more sober and humble minded Gentiles did not profess so much but practised more and better and might be and I believe were in a better state and condition towards God And tho I shall be far from concluding that they are perished yet whoever of them are saved with eternal salvation it is not by any works of Righteousness which they had done in their meer Gentile state or by any Obedience to any Law or Light whatsoever without Faith in Christ Jesus but by Faith in Christ Jesus all who ever have been or shall be saved from the beginning of the world to the end of it have and shall obtain eternal Life and Salvation as Paul hath largely declared and proved in his Epistles to the Romans and Galatians and in his Epistle to the Ephesians he telleth them That by grace they were saved through faith and not by any works they had performed before faith was given them and wrought in them But how the true Faith of Christ was wrought in them in those days when it was not outwardly preached to them by the Ministry