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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	scripture_n	word_n	2,839	5	4.5205	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70182	Two choice and useful treatises the one, Lux orientalis, or, An enquiry into the opinion of the Eastern sages concerning the praeexistence of souls, being a key to unlock the grand mysteries of providence in relation to mans sin and misery : the other, A discourse of truth / by the late Reverend Dr. Rust ... ; with annotations on them both.	Rust, George, d. 1670. Discourse of truth.; More, Henry, 1614-1687. Annotations upon the two foregoing treatises.; Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680. Lux orientalis.	1682 (1682)	Wing G815; Wing G833; Wing M2638; ESTC R12277	226,950	535

revealed in sacred Scripture And whether it does not make for the Interest and Dignity of the Church to decline the medling with other things as unprofitable and unnecessary to be decided Thirdly Whether if a General Council meet not together in via Spiritus Sancti but some stickling imbitter'd Grandees of the Church out of a pique that they have taken against some persons get through their interest a General Council called whether is the assistance of the Holy Ghost to be expected in such a meeting so that they shall conclude nothing against truth Fourthly Whether the Authority of such General Councils as Providence by some notable prodigie may seem to have intimated a dislike of be not thereby justly suspected and not easily to be admitted as infallible deciders Fifthly Whether a General Council that is found mistaken in one point anathematizing that for an Heresie which is a truth forfeits not its Authority in other points which then whether falshoods or truths are not to be deemed so from the Authority of that Council but from other Topicks Sixthly Since there can be no commerce betwixt God and man nor he communicate his mind and will to us but by supposition That our senses rightly circumstantiated are true That there is skill in us to understand words and Grammar and schemes of speech as also common notions and clear inferences of Reason whether if a General Council conclude any thing plainly repugnant to these is the Conclusion of such a Council true and valid and whether the indeleble Notices of truth in our mind that all Mankind is possessed of whether Logical Moral or Metaphysical be not more the dictates of God than those of any Council that are against them Seventhly If a Council as general as any has been called had in the very midnight of the Churches Apostasie and ignorance met and concluded all those Corruptions that now are obtruded by the Church of Rome as Transubstantiation Invocation of Saints Worshipping of Images and the like whether the Decisions of such a Council could be held infallible or valid What our own excellently well Reformed Church holds in this case is evident out of her Articles For Eighthly The Church of England plainly declares That General Councils when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an Assembly of men whereof all are not governed with the Spirit and Word of God they may err and sometimes have erred even in things pertaining to God Wherefore saith she things ordained by them as necessary to Salvation have neither strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of Holy Scripture Artic 21. Ninthly And again Artic. 20. where she allows the Church to have power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith but with this restriction That it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods Word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another she concludes Wherefore although the Church be a Witness and Keeper of Holy Writ yet as it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought it not to inforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation What then does she null the Authority of all the General Councils and have no deference for any thing but the mere Word of God to convince men of Heresie No such matter What her sense of these things is you will find in 1 Eliz. cap. 1. Wherefore Tenthly and lastly What General Councils the Church of England allows of for the conviction of Hereticks you may understand out of these words of the Statute They shall not adjudge any matter or cause to be Heresies but onely such as heretofore have been adjudged to be Heresie by the Authority of the Canonical Scriptures or by the first four General Councils or any of them or by any other General Council wherein the same was declared Heresie by the express and plain words of the said Canonical Scriptures By brief reflections upon some of these ten Heads I shall endeavour to lessen the Invidiousness of my seeming to prefer the Discretion of the Church of England before the Judgment of a General Council I mean of such a General Council as is so unexceptionable that we may relie on the Authority of their Decisions that they will not fail to be true Of which sort whether the fifth reputed General Council be we will briefly first consider For reflecting on the first head It seems scarcely numerous enough for a General Council The first General Council of Nice had above three hundred Bishops That of Chalcedon above six hundred This fifth Council held at Constantinople had but an hundred sixty odd And which still makes it more unlike a General Council in the very same year viz. 553 the Western Bishops held a Council at Aquileia and condemned this fifth Council held at Constantinople Secondly The Pre-existence of Souls being a mere Philosophical Speculation and indeed held by all Philosophers in the affirmative that held the Soul incorporeal we are to consider whether we may not justly deem this case referrible to the second Head and to look something like Pope Zacharies appointing a Council to condemn Virgilius as an Heretick for holding Antipodes Thirdly We may very well doubt whether this Council proceeded in via Spiritus Sancti this not being the first time that the lovers and admirers of Origen for his great Piety and Knowledge and singular good service he had done to the Church of Christ in his time had foul play plai'd them Witness the story of Theophilus Bishop of Antioch who to revenge himself on Dioscorus and two others that were lovers of Origen and Anti-Anthropomorphites stickled so that he caused Epiphanius in his See as he did in his own to condemn the Books of Origen in a Synod To which condemnation Epiphanius an Anthropomorphite and one of more Zeal than Knowledge would have got the subscription of Chrysostome the Patriarch of Constantinople but he had more Wisdom and Honesty than to listen to such an injurious demand And as it was with those Synods called by Theophilus and Epiphanius so it seems to be with the fifth Council Piques and Heart-burnings amongst the Grandees of the Church seemed to be at the bottom of the business Binius in his History of this fifth Council takes notice of the enmity betwixt Pelagius Pope Vigilius's Apocrisiarie and Theodorus Bishop of Caesarea Cappadociae an Origenist And Spondanus likewise mentions the same who says touching the business of Origen that Pelagius the Popes Apocrisiarie eam quaestionem in ipsius Theodori odium movisse existimabatur And truly it seems to me altogether incredible unless there were some hellish spight at the bottom that they should not have contented themselves to condemn the errours supposed to be Origens but after so long a time after his death there being in his writings such choppings

and in little mechanical contrivances others love to be riming almost as soon as they can speak plainly and are taken up in small essays of Poetry Some will be scrawling Pictures and others take as great delight in some pretty offers at Musick and vocal harmony Infinite almost are the ways in which this pure natural diversity doth discover it self * Now to say that all this variety proceeds primarily from the meer temper of our bodies is me thinks a very poor and unsatisfying Account * For those that are the most like in the Temper Air Complexion of their bodies are yet of a vastly differing Genius Yea they that have been made of the same clay cast in the same mould and have layn at once in the same natural bed the womb yea whose bodies have been as like as their state and fortunes and their education and usages the same yet even they do not unfrequently differ as much from each other in their genius and dispositions of the mind as those that in all these particulars are of very different condition Besides there are all kind of makes forms dispositions tempers and complexions of body that are addicted by their natures to the same exercises and imployments so that to ascribe this to any peculiarity in the body is me seems a very improbable solution of the Phaenomenon And to say all these inclinations are from custom or education is the way not to be believed since all experience testifies the contrary What then can we conjecture is the cause of all this diversity but that we had taken a great delight and pleasure in some things like and analogous unto these in a former condition which now again begins to put forth it self when we are awakened out of our silent recess into a state of action And though the imployments pleasures and exercises of our former life were without question very different from these in the present estate yet 't is no doubt but that some of them were more confamiliar and analogous to some of our transactions than others so that as any exercise or imployment here is more suitable to the particular dispositions that were praedominant in the other state with the more peculiar kindness is it regarded by us and the more greedily do our inclinations now fasten on it Thus if a Musician should be interdicted the use of all musical instruments and yet might have his choice of any other Art or Profession 't is likely he would betake himself to Limning or Poetry these exercises requiring the same disposition of wil and genius as his beloved Musick did And we in like manner being by the ●ate of our wretched descent hindred from the direct exercising our selves about the objects of our former delights and pleasures do yet as soon as we are able take to those things which do most correspond to that genius that formerly inspired us And now 't is time to take leave of the Arguments from Reason that give evidence for Praeexistence If any one think that they are not so demonstrative but that they may be answered or at least evaded I pray him to consider how many demonstrations he ever met with that a good wit resolv'd in a contrary cause could not shu●●le from the edge of Or let it be granted that the Arguments I have alledged are no infallible or necessary proofs yet if they render my cause but probable yea but possible I have won what I contended for For it having been made manifest by as good evidence as I think can be brought for any thing that the way of new creations is most inconsistent with the honor of the blessed Attributes of God And that the other of Traduction is most impossible and contradictio●s in the nature of things * There being now no other way left but Prae-existence if that be probable or but barely possible 't is enough to give it the victory And whether all that hath been said prove so much or no I leave to the indifferent to determine I think he that will say it doth not can bring few proofs for any thing which according to his way of judging will deserve to be called Demonstrations CHAP. XI Great caution to be used in alledging Scripture for our speculative opinions The countenance that Praeexistence hath from the sacred writings both of the old and new Testament Reasons of the seeming uncouthness of these allegations Praeexistence stood in no need of Scripture-proof IT will be next expected that I should now prove the Doctrine I have undertaken for by Scripture evidence and make good what I said above That the divine oracles are not so silent in this matter as is imagined But truly I have so tender a sense of the sacred Authority of that Holy volume that I dare not be so bold with it as to force it to speak what I think it intends not A presumption that is too common among our confident opinionists and that hath occasioned great troubles to the Church and di●●epute to the inspired writings For for men to ascribe the odd notions of their over-heated imaginations to the Spirit of God and eternal truth is me thinks a very bold and impudent belying it Wherefore I dare not but be very cautious what I speak in this matter nor would I willingly urge Scripture as a proof of any thing but what I am sure by the whole tenor of it is therein contained And would I take the liberty to fetch in every thing for a Scripture-evidence that with a little industry a man might make serviceable to his design I doubt not but I should be able to ●ill my Margent with Quotations which should be as much to purpose as have been cited in general CATECHISMS and CONFESSIONS of FAITH and that in points that must forsooth be dignified with the sacred title of FVNDAMENTAL But Reverend ASSEMBLIES may make more bold with Scripture than private persons And therefore I confess I 'm so timorous that I durst not follow their example Though in a matter that I would never have imposed upon the belief of any man though I were certain on 't and had absolute power to enjoyn it I think the only way to preserve the reverence due to the oracles of Truth is never to urge their Authority but in things very momentous and such as the whole current of them gives an evident suffrage to But to make them speak every trivial conceit that our sick brains can imagine or dream of as I intimated is to vilifie and deflowre them Therefore though I think that several Texts of Scripture look very fairly upon Praeexistence and would encourage a man that considers what strong Reasons it hath to back it to think that very probably they mean some thing in favour of this Hypothesis yet I 'le not urge them as an irrefutable proof being not willing to lay more stress upon any thing than it will bear Yea I am most willing to confess the weakness of my Cause in

what joynt soever I shall discover it And yet I must needs say that whoever compares the Texts that follow with some particulars mention'd in the answer to the objection of Scripture-silence will not chuse but acknowledge that there is very fair probability for Praeexistence in the written word of God as there is in that which is engraven upon our rational natures Therefore to bring together here what Scripture saith in this matter 1. I 'le lightly touch an expression or two of the old Testament which not improperly may be applyed to the business we are in search of And methinks God himself in his posing the great instance of patience Job seems to intimate somewhat to this purpose viz. that all spirits were in being when the Foundations of the earth were laid when saith he the morning stars sang together and all the Sons of God shouted for joy By the former very likely were meant the Angels and 't is not improbable but by the latter may be intended the blessed untainted Souls At least the particle All me thinks should comprize this order of spirits also And within the same period of discourse having question'd Job about the nature and place of the Light he adds I know that thou wast then born for the number of thy days are many as the Septuagint render it * And we know our Saviour and his Apostles have given credit to that Translation by their so constant following it Nor doth that saying of God to Jeremias in the beginning of his charge seem to intimate less Before I formed thee in the Belly I knew thee and before thou camest out of the womb I gave thee wisdom * as reads a very creditable version Now though each of these places might be drawn to another sense yet that only argues that they are no necessary proof for Praeexistence which I readily acknowledge nor do I intend any such matter by alledging them However I hope they will be confest to be applicable to this sense and if there be other grounds that swade this Hypothesis to be the truth 't is I think very probable that these Texts intend it favour which whether it be so or no we have seen already 2. For the Texts of the New Testament that seem to look pleasingly upon Praeexistence I shall as briefly hint them as I did the former * And me thinks that passage of our Saviours prayer Father Glori●ie me with the same glory I had with thee before the world began sounds somewhat to this purpose The glory which he prays to be restored to seems to concern his humane nature only for the divine could never lose it And therefore it supposeth that he was in his humanity existent before And that his soul was of old before his appearance in a Terrestrial body Which seems also to be intimated * by the expressions of his coming from the Father descending from Heaven and returning thither again which he very frequently makes use of And we know the Divinity that ●ills all things cannot move to or quit a place it being a manifest imperfection and contrary to his Immensity I might add those other expressions of our Saviour's taking upon him the ●orm of a Servant of rich for our sakes becoming poor and many others of like import all which are very clear if we admit the doctrine of Praeexistence but without it somewhat p●rplex and intricate since these things applyed to him as God are very improper and disagreeing but appositely suit his Humanity to which if we refer them we must suppose our Hypothesis of Praeexistence But I omit further prosecution of this matter * since these places have been more diffusely urged in a late discourse to this purpose Moreover the Question of the Disciples * Was it for this mans sin or for his Fathers that he was born blind and that answer of theirs to our Saviours demand whom men said he was in that some said he was John the Baptist some Elias or one of the Prophets both which I have mentioned before do clearly enough argue that both the Disciples and the Jews believed Praeexistence And our Saviour saith not a word to disprove their opinion But I spake of this above Now however uncouth these allegations may seem to those that never heard these Scriptures thus interpreted yet I am confident had the opinion of Praeexistence been a received Doctrine and had these Texts been wont to be applyed to the proof on 't they would then have been thought to assert it with clear and convictive evidence But many having never heard of this Hypothesis and those that have seldom meeting it mentioned but as a silly dream or antiquated absurdity 't is no wonder that they never suspect it to be lodg'd in the Sacred volume so that any attempt to confirm it thence must needs seem rather an offer of wit than serious judgment And the places that are cited to that purpose having been frequently read and heard of by those that never discerned them to breath the least air of any such matter as Praeexistence their new and unexpected application to a thing so little thought of must needs seem a wild fetch of an extravagant imagination But however unconclusive the Texts alledged may seem to those a strong prejudice hath shut up against the Hypothesis The learned Jews who were perswaded of this Doctrine thought it clearly enough contain'd in the Old Volume of holy writ and took the citations named above for current Evidence And though I cannot warrant for their Judgment in things yet doubtless they were the best Judges of their own Language Nor would our School-Doctors have thought it so much a stranger to the New had it had the luck to have been one of their opinions or did they not too frequently apply the sacred Oracles to their own fore-conceived notions But whether what I have brought from Scripture prove any thing or nothing 't is not very material since the Hypothesis of Prae-existence stands secure enough upon those P●llars of Reason which have their Foundation in the Attributes of God and the Phaenomena of the world And the Right Reason of a Man is one of the Divine volumes in which are written the indeleble Idea's of eternal Truth so that what it dictates is as much the voice of God as if in so many words it were clearly exprest in the written Revelations It is enough therefore for my purpose if there be nothing in the sacred writings contrary to this Hypothesis which I think is made clear enough already and though it be granted that Scripture is absolutely silent as to any assertion of Prae-existence yet we have made it appear that its having said nothing of it is no prejudice but an advantage to the cause CHAP. XII Why the Author thinks himself obliged to descend to some more particular Account of Praeexistence 'T is presumption positively to determine how it was with us of Old The Authors design in the Hypothesis that