Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	faith_n	true_a	word_n	2,531	5	4.4807	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26960	More reasons for the Christian religion and no reason against it, or, A second appendix to the Reasons of the Christian religion being I. an answer to a letter from an unknown person charging the Holy Scriptures with contradictions, II. some animadversions on a tractate De Veritate, written by ... Edward Herbert, Baron of Cherbury ... / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Reasons of the Christian religion.	1672 (1672)	Wing B1313; ESTC R4139	63,611	190

ye for I know that ye seek Jesus which was Crucified he is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay and go quickly and tell his Disciples that he is risen from the dead and behold he goeth before you into Galilee there shall you see him so I have told you And they departed quickly from the Sepulcher with fear and great joy and did run to bring his Disciples word and as they went to tell his Disciples behold Jesus met them see Mat. 28. 1 5 6 7 8 9. v. Whether I say was this which is written in St. Matthews Gospel that I have here Transcribed said to the Women and that the Women returned from the Sepulcher to tell the Disciples before that Mary M●gdalen said to him that she supposed to be the Gardiner If thou hast born him hence tell me where thou hast laid him and I will take him away John 20. 15. or whether there be any error of Transcribers Translators or Printers in those Texts if not how may I understand them to be true reports Sir I shall trouble you with no more but these few places which I have proposed in three Questions or Particulars although there are several other Texts that I do not understand how they may be reconciled but if you shall by strength of Argument Grounded upon sound Reason make appear that it was nothing but Ignorance hath made me to think that those Testimonies agree not but are contrary one to the other and that they may be so understood as that no such thing will appear in them then I shall be ready and will with you conclude and say so too and for the future suppose that other places of those books which are received for Scripture as seem to be contrary to one another may be Reconciled though I do not understand how But on the contrary if you do not endeavour by such sound and plain Arguments to make it appear that these Texts here Transcribed by me may be understood so as that no contradiction is in them I must think that it was nothing but Ignorance that made you say that which you have said in answer to that and some other objections Therefore I humbly and earnestly pray and beseech you both in defence of your own writings as also in defence of those Books in which you say you think that no one error or contradiction in any matter can be proved to make it appear in truth and plainness If you judge I have erred from the truth I hope you will endeavour to to convert me from the error of my way if any such be which if you shall do no doubt but it will be a good work see James 5. ult Sir It is your advice that in such kind of Scruples the doubtful should apply himself for satisfaction to some Minister therefore do I write to you and if you shall not give me a gentle and plain Answer I shall be discouraged to make my Scruples known to any other therefore in expectation of your plain Answer I Remain Your Loving Friend in the Bond of Peace SIR TWo sorts of persons use to trouble me and others with their Objections against the Christian Religion First Some Papists who profess to believe it but in designe do act the part of Infidels that they may loose men from all Religion in hope to bring them over to theirs when they have taken them off all other For he that can make another man believe that he was hitherto totally misled is likest to become the Master of his Faith For men are apt to think that none can so easily and certainly shew them the truth as he that hath shewed them their error And when men once think that according to the Grounds of the Reformed Churches they can have no certainty of Faith they will the easilier be brought to the way of those men who promise them that certainty which they make them believe that others want Secondly The other sort are Infidels who of late are grown numerous and audacious and look so big and speak so lowd as to acquaint us that it is not they that are silenced in their speaking place nor driven five miles from every City and Corporation Which sort you are of I know not I read your name and that you are a Sojourner but finding that you write not as a tender Doubter who desireth to be concealed but as a Confident gain-sayer of the Christian Verity and not knowing how safely to send a Letter to the place where you say you sojourn I have thought that it will be most pleasing to you to come to you by the same way as the book did which you except against which was written upon the provocation of a paper Scattered among the Schollars of Oxford when the Oxford Oath and Act were made in the time of the great Plague as by one that was unsatisfied in the Grounds of Christianity but I strongly suspected was written by a Papist it was made so suitable to their designs In two things you have not dealt righteously and ingeniously with me 1. In that you have not answered the Grounded Proofs of the Christian Verity which I have laid down but nibble at the Answer to some Objections which is not the way of a Lover of the truth 2. In that you take no notice of or make no answer to the second part of my answer to that same objection about supposed Contradictions in the Scriptures where I shewed you at large that if that which you object were granted it would not overthrow the certainty of the Christian Faith Both those should have been done by an impartial man The method which the nature of the Cause requireth me now to use in my answer to you shall be in the manifesting these following Propositions Prop. 1. That if it could not by us be proved that every word of the Scripture is true nor the pen men infallible or indefectible in every particle yet might we have a certainty of the Christian Religion Prop. 2. That yet all that is in the Scriptures as the word of God is certainly true and no error or contradiction can be proved in it but what is in some Copies by the fault of Printers Transcribers or Translators Prop. 3. That he that first proveth the Truth of the Christian Faith by solid evidence may and ought to be certain of that truth though he be not able to solve all soeming contradictions in the Scripture or answer all objections which occurre Prop. 4. The true method of one that would arrive at certainty and not deceive himself and others is to lay first the fundamental proofs and examine them till he is thereby confirmed and afterwards to try the by-objections as he is able And not to begin first at the answering of such by-objected difficulties and judging of all the cause thereby Of these I shall now speak in order And whereas you bespeak Plainess and

knew whether all were true or not But also they did all in the power of the same Spirit which Christ did work by doing such Miracles as Christ had done And this not a few nor in a Corner but in many Countries of the world and that by many thousand Christians in one kind or other tongues healing prophecie or the like as well as the Apostles The certainty of which fact is attested by the very existence of all the Churches converted by it with all their Baptismes Professions and the rest of the Tradition before named No Christian of all this multitude by any terrours death time was brought to the last to repent and say that he had deceived the world by a lie Many Apostates falling off for fear of sufferings but none with any such recantation No adversary confuting the History but commonly confessing most of it with more such evidence which I have open'd in the Treat and must not oft repeat lest I be tedious And that which is still the Natural Evidence is that There is still existent First On the sacred Gospel Secondly On the souls and lives of all serious Christians by its impress the unimitable Image of the Divine Power Wisdome and goodness Life Light and Love as the Divine attestation Only as this noble Author requireth to all true Conceptions and Intellections so do we to this that there be but the necessary conditions in the mind of the receiver And whereas he saith that commonly Miracles are reported a hundred years after Here it was otherwise The Jews were enraged by them for fear of the Romans The Apostles and others wrought them openly Matthew and John that wrote Christs History lived with him and saw what they wrote so did Peter and James Paul wrote what he saw and heard from heaven Luke wrote the Acts of Paul which he saw being his Companion in travels The thousands were converted and Churches in many Countries planted not by bare words but by the Conviction of the Miracles of the Apostles themselves so that every Church and Christian was a History of them And all this they were moved to with the hopes of heaven where truth is known to deny the world and mortifie the flesh and suffer whatever the Gospel would inflict to preserve their hopes and comforts founded in this word of faith XI Quest Whether the common custome of sacrificing throughout the world in all generations were not their actual Confession that the sinner deserved death and that Gods justice required punishment of satisfaction and proceeded not from Divine Revelation in the beginning when God had new made the Covenant of Grace and so was delivered down by Tradition For my part it cannot come into my understanding why else men should think that God is pleased or appeased by the Creatures death or how this should become so common throughout the world And the two exceptions confirm this to be truth First Some Savages in America use no sacrifices But they are such as know not God or so Savage as to have lost all antient Tradition Secondly All the Mahometans and Christians use no bloody sacrifice But that is because First Christians believe that Sacrifices were but types of Christ and that he put an end to them by his perfect Sacrifice 2dly And Mahometans received it from Christ being but Christians degenerate first into Arrians and then into Mahometans and still professing to take Christ for the word and son of God and his word as true onely hating the Christians for saying that he is very God But of this instead of writing after so many I only refer you to their writings And specially to Dr. Owens Latine Tractate on this subject XII Whether Interest make the Judgment of Divines in the Cause of faith more suspicious or contemptible than other mens I put this Question with respect to those words in the Preface Sed neque auspicaciores ubique posterioris istius seculi Scriptores dicendi sunt Fit ita ut pro Regionum fidei diversitate in id potissimum incumbant ne illos domi male multet inopia adeoque non tam quid in se verum quam quid sibi ipsis utile exquirant Non est igitur a larvato aliquo vel stipendioso Scriptore ut verum Consummatum opperiaris Illorum apprime interest ne personam deponant vel aliter quidem sentiant Ingenuus sui arbitrii ista solummodo praestabit Author Answ First It is not to be denyed that there are multitudes of such Carnal Pastors in the Churches that are Christians for the case honour and wealth Secondly But that this should be so with all I shall disprove and prove that none on earth are so credible in this case as Divines First Because they have made it the business of their lives to search out the truth and therefore some of them must be supposed to have the greatest advantages to know it So that for Ability they have no sort of men that are Competitors For diligence and helps are the improvers of understanding And all men are found best at their own profession Lawyers in the Law Physicians in Medicine Philosophers in Philosophy c. And for your self your next words are Nobis tamen ad alia omnia fere quam literarum studia uti oportuit exequenda otium fuit Partim armis in diversis regionibus partim quinquennali Legatione partim negotiis tum publicis tum privatis vacavimus And is not this your disadvantage Who is a good Linguist Lawyer Physician c. that hath had but little leisure for his studies Secondly And as for Will and Interest it is notorious that thousands of the Ministry have so little set by worldly Interest as that it is upon the terms of greatest self-denyal to the flesh that they take up and exercise their office being moved onely by the great Interest of their own and others souls Their voluntary diligent labours their holy lives their contempt of the world may convince any of this that are not blinded by prejudice or malice There are few Learned men in the Reformed Churches but might far better use their studies and labours if they took that for best which is most profitable advancing or pleasing to the flesh Thirdly You had a Brother of your own so holy a man as his sincerity was past exception and so zealous in his Sacred Ministry as shewed he did not dissemble And I suppose had it been necessary you would have so maintained him that he should not have fled from truth for fear of poverty Fourthly What can you think of all those that gave up their lives for the Christian saith and hopes Did they go upon such carnal grounds as you mention Fifthly The revolutions of States and the diversity of Sentiments and especially the Interests of the Carnal part do bring it to pass by Gods over-ruling of all that usually the most serious Christians and Pastors are the sufferers of the age they live in