Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	authority_n	believe_v	infallibility_n	2,951	5	11.3667	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A80008	The hinge of faith and religion or, a proof of the deity against atheists and profane persons, by reason, and the testimony of Holy Scripture: the divinity of which is demonstrated, / by L. Cappel, Doctour and Professour in Divinity ; translated out of French by Philip Marinel, M.A. and fellow of Pembroke-College in Oxford.; Piuot de la foy et religion. English	Cappel, Louis, 1585-1658.; Marinel, Philip.	1660 (1660)	Wing C482; Thomason E1845_2; Thomason E2265_1; ESTC R209659	84,739	200

separated and alienated through his Injustice Pollution and Perverseness which doth incline him to deny this Providence which he feareth as his Judg. And in this Infidelity of Man God would not leave himselfe without a Witnesse but hath lively engraved and imprinted himselfe in his Works so that man maugre himselfe is forced in those things to acknowledge this Deity And this is to convince man of his errour and to make good the Justice of his proceedings and the righteousnesse of his Judgments against their impiety And from what hath been said appears the strength of this Testimony against which nothing which is considerable can be objected as being a Testimony not only Humane or proceeding from the fancy or will of man but in effect a Divine one as being the meer motion of Nature and the dictate of Reason and wherein this Proverb is verified Vox Populi Vox Dei But let us pass from this Humane Testimony to that which is directly Divine CHAP. XIII The last Argument Drawn from the Testimony of the Holy Scriptures the Divinity of which is proved against the Atheists ABove all these Proofs and Reasons which have been brought heretofore against Atheism is that which is drawn from the Testimony of the Holy Scriptures contained in the Books of the Old and New Testaments which teach and inculcate to us nothing else then an only true God maker of Heaven and Earth what he is his Virtues his Perfections his Proprieties and Attributes his Works as well of the Creation of the World and his Governing of it as also those of mans Redemption his Counsels Designs the Decrees of his Will concerning Humane kind the Salvation of the one the Condemnation of the others also the Honour Respect Service and Adoration which we are bound to pay unto him and which he doth also require of us what we ought to fear or to expect and hope from him in summ the true and only means to be perfectly and eternally happy which is that which all men do naturally desire and wish for and at which all their actions do aim So that if these Sacred Books are true and not forged and invented by the Artifice or malice of wily and deceitfull men it 's evident and not to be doubted that there is a God and that he is such an one as is there described to us To which the Atheists reply nothing but this Who say they will warrant us that what those Writers say is true and that their design hath not been to impose upon our beliefs and deceive us Moses say they says very much but proves nothing intimating that he is a Tale-teller and that he will be believed upon his bare word And one of them hath said That our Lord Jesus Christ to give the more weight to his Doctrine hath called himself but falsly the Son of God yea God himself Those persons imagine and will have the World believe that these Divine writers are such as Numa Pompilius who did attribute his Books and Laws to the Deity of the Nymph Aegeria with whom he pretended to have familiar Conversation or as Mahcmeth who saith that he received his Alcoran from the Angel Gabriel It 's not my design to proceed very far in this point to prove at large against such persons the Divinity of the Holy Scriptures 'T is too large a subject for the narrow bounds of this small treatrse besides it would be Actum agere since that all those of the Holy Fathers of the Church or Learned Divines which have lived since these 200 years which have demonstrated the truth of Christian Religion against the Heathenish and other Sects which have been raised since have ever begun this way this being the very Basis Hinge and Foundation of true Religion which is whether on purpose or not I know not basely betrayed to the Atheists by those who pretend that the Scripture hath no authority over us but only as those who call themselves the Church give it that power and validity For setting aside the Scripture these persons who call themselves the Church cannot demonstrate their pretended infallibility nor prove and perswade the world that they ought to be beleived upon their bare word whatever they say as the Divinity of the Scriptures may be demonstrated to profane persons upon their own Authority and by themselves I will only for the ending of this small Treatise bring some general Considerations by which one may see the foolishness and vanity of this frivolous exception of the Atheists and of their false accusations in saying that the Holy Scripture is nothing but a dream and invention of men without certain ground of Truth There are then 4 principal things which shew the impertinency of this exception 1. The quality and condition 2. The number and diversity 3. The Scope end of these Sacred Writers And finally The Nature and quality of the things they write These things being well considered it will appear that those things which those men have writ are not Tales and Deceits and things which they have feigned to make the world beleive them I will speak of these four things very briefly leaving those things for any man to amplifie upon As to the first Those that make it their business to deceive and make Fables and Forgeries are for the most part subtile cunning wary and knavish persons and withall of a low or mean Condition But great and high spirits magnanimous and Heroical Souls Kings great Princes and Monarchs Persons of rare and exquisite Learning and of sublime wisdom never stoop to so low and unworthy an imployment as that of Juglers deceivers And those that are rude ignorant illiterate and of too low and abject condition are not fit or able to invent such things and to give so much colour to their forgeries as to make them to be believed and received for currant Now among the Sacred writers there are some of these two sorts There are Kings and Princes great Captains and Conquerours and emment Persons in Dignity and Authority in Learning and incomparable Wisdom You have there a Joshuah one of the greatest and most eminent Captains and Conquerours that ever was You have there David one of the bravest most generous and glorious Kings and most eminent for his Valour Battells Feats of Arms and Victories that ever was seen You have there Solomon the most Rich Magnificent Illustrious and Wisest King that ever was in the World You have Daniel the first and chiefest Officer in the Court of the greatest Monarchy in the World in whom there was found more of true high and sublime Wisdome then in all those Wise men of that Nation and Monarchy in which he was an Officer You have Mordecai and Nehemiah great and mighty Persons and of the chiefest in the Court of the Kings of Persia which relate unto us their own History You have Job a great rich and mighty Person in his time yet greater in in Goodness Patience