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	infallible_a	7,464	5	9.9342	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33459	A treatise of humane reason	Clifford, M. (Martin), d. 1677.	1674 (1674)	Wing C4707; ESTC R21053	22,005	94

I have said something of it be fore in answering this Argument turn'd against this Opinion unhappily and because the manner of establishing this Liberty in a Commonwealth will require a Discourse entirely by it self The last defence of this Cause and which indeed needs not the assistance of any other shall be because though men deceive themselves herein and as it often happens know not their own Opinions it is impossible that ever any man should have been is or can hereafter be guided by any thing else but his own Reason as in other things so also in matters of Religion I say impossible for whatsoever way we take we shall find that the last Anchor to which our Faith holds the last Element into which it is resolv'd and therefore it is likewise compounded of the same is onely Reason For when I ask why you believe any Mystery of Faith you will answer perhaps Because the present Church commands you If I proceed and ask Why do you believe what the present Church commands you will say Because the former Church teaches the same Why do you believe the former Church Because God commands you so to do Why do you believe that God commands it Because you find it in the Scripture Why do you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God Because they were confirmed by Miracles Why do Miracles confirm that Because they are works which can proceed from nothing but the absolute and immediate power of the Deity Why so Because nothing contrary to or above the Course of Nature can be done by natural Agents but Miracles are effects contrary to or above the Course of Nature therefore they proceed from the Divine Operation Thus you see Faith at last resolv'd into a Syllogisme which is the proper work of the Understanding On the other hand if I demand Why you do believe that any Miracles were done for the Confirmation of the Faith Because of the great and many Testimonies of the Truth thereof Why do you believe those Testimonies Because so many Persons in so several times and places with so several interests could never agree in being deceived or to deceive So that you rest not at all in any Authority but discourse first what may be said for or against the validity of it examine it punctually in all Circumstances and at last submit to it upon some Syllogisme which is the onely Law that binds our Reason Two things are to be considered in all Authority before we obey or believe it first The condition and quality of the Persons who Command or Instruct and secondly The true interpretation of their Commands or Instructions For the first The Persons in Commanding must have a lawful Power derived to them either from God Nature or Custome which latter depends upon the two former And in Instructing must have either an absolute infallibility or else at least a probability of not Erring So that no Authority is obeyable or believeable in it self without farther examination no not that of God himself for the strength of Gods Authority depends upon that Syllogisme which proves that the nature of God is such that he can neither deceive nor be deceived Now all this Examination is purely and entirely the work of our Reason by measuring a particular and an universal Whatsoever hath such Conditions is to be obeyed or believed but such Person or Persons hath such Conditions therefore such Person or Persons are to be obeyed or believed Neither do's our Reason onely prescribe obedience and belief to us but also searches and establishes the bounds of both setting up some solid and apparent Notions by which we know our Ne plus ultra True it is that some men Obey and some men Believe without considering that they make this discourse but that is only from inadvertency as men often move their Bodies without any particular exerted thought of doing so Thus far then Authority wholy depends upon Reason And much more in the second Condition which is the interpretation of it in which business the interposition of Reason is so necessary that I shall omit either to prove or illustrate the Point Now as they who enslave themselves to Authority make it the rule and guide of Faith because that even the belief that Scripture is the Law of God depends upon it as truly it do's in my Opinion upon the tradition of Miracles so I say that much rather Reason is to be accounted that Rule and that Guide we look for because even Authority upon which even Scripture it self depends depends as much upon that neither do we more believe the Scripture for Authority then that very Authority for the Reason we think we have to do so The Samaritan says I have an infallible Rule which is the Books of Moses and only them The Jew says I cannot erre for I follow the Old Testament which is infallible and only that The Christian assures himself of the Truth as long as he is guided by the Evangelists and Apostles whose Writings are the infallible dictates of the Holy Ghost The Turk assumes the same from the Alcoran and the Heathen from Oracles Sybill's Books and the like What shall I do None of all these Books can be believed by their own Light for there are things equally strange in them all Follow the Authority of the Church which cannot misguide you Most willingly but again the same difficulty returns in another habit for as every one Cries I follow these Books which are infallible so he goes on too and says I believe these Books to be so because our Church and our Traditions which are certainly the best Authority assures us that they were written by Divine inspiration Let the Christian take heed of saying here But my Tradition is more ancient and more Universal for in the first the Jew will overcome him and in both the Heathen I must in this diversity of waies either stand still that is suspend absolutely from the belief of any Religion which is almost impossible after the belief that there is a GOD or I must choose out of these Now Election is a work so proper to Reason that it cannot be done by any thing else and therefore to be brought to a necessity of an Election is to be necessarily brought to submit in matters of Religion to the determination of our Understanding So that in matters of Religion wherein there is difference I choose this side rather than the other because my Reason bids me and where there is no difference even there I am wholy guided by my Reason because the uncontradicted concurrence of the Parties makes up a Syllogisme to perswade I say to perswade onely my Belief Briefly I cannot Believe but by an act of the Will nor can I Will but according to the directions of the Understanding so that they who say they follow Authority or they follow Divine particular Revelation or any thing else imaginable do it because that agrees with their own Reason and will quit the Party as soon as it do's otherwise The End * Contumelia afficere

oppos'd to Animus and both sometimes to Mens So that the meaning is that whilst a mans Reason is seduced by his appetites and passions it is an unfit Judge of Spiritual matters neither can be Umpire for a peace having joyn'd it self to the Party of those things which are in perpetual warfare against the Spirit But they say this authority which we ascribe to Reason is strangly different from that Captivity which Saint Paul subjects it to when he says Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ And what Captivity say they can there be whilst we are only guided by the motions of our own understanding All which signifies no more but that St. Paul relates in vindication of his own just greatness against the Calumnies of some that despised his person especially as weak and rude of speech how he had confuted those persons that opposed themselves by reasonings against the Doctrine of Christ and whereas their understandings before were enslaved and captivated to the desires of the sensual Soul for which he calls them in another place beasts at Ephesus which hindred them from the obedience of Christ he freed them from their cruel bondage by casting down all their strong holds and breaking the chains of their fallacious reasonings and brought them into another captivity by right of conquest but such an one where the yoaks are light and the burthens easie that is by true reason he overcame and captivated their false ones And from this Example I desire those who would have our Understandings captivated to convince us first by theirs that they ought to be so and not to think to enslave our Reasons till they first overcome them which when they have done then they will lose what they contend for For by our Reasons being guided conquered and enslaved theirs are become Guides Conquerours and Masters So that it will appear at last impossible for humane Reason to lose any thing in one place without gaining as much in some other They who follow the apprehension of a Vision or Revelation extrinsecally coming into their Souls if it happen that that extrinsecal light come from the Father of Lights as the pillar of Fire did which led the Israelites they must needs be guided rightly but if it chance to be an Ignis fatuus a flame driven about as men commonly believe by malicious Spirits the Errours which it leads them into become unpardonable for what plea can they make for mercy since there is no command nor no counsel can be alleadged for the trusting of themselves to that Stranger which they can neither know from whence he comes nor whither he designs to go The like happens if we obey Authority For if that Authority prescribe truth we have good fortune in our obedience and meerly good fortune but if it draw us into Errours we have nothing to say for our excuse because we have nothing to alleadge for our obedience to that Authority So Eve pleaded the Authority of the Serpent but both were punished so Adam with more appearance of innocency the Woman that thou gavest me for an Helper bad me eat and accordingly I did but to him too a Curse is pronounced because he believed that which was figuratively one with him as members of the Church pretend to do the Church rather then that which was most certainly and singly one with him which was his own Reason Thus the best that can be made of these mens Opinions is that after they have blind-folded themselves amongst the many doors where they may enter there is one which will lead them to Heaven which if they miss it will be asked not why you entered not there but why by blinding your own eyes did you put your self into a greater probability of not finding than of lighting upon the true passage Now contrariwise those who commit themselves to the guidance of their own understanding if they do commit themselves wholly to it are as safe on the left hand as on the right as secure of happiness in their Errours as others are who are otherwise guided even in the Truths which they happen to fall into For there is no danger of perishing but from disobedience without which every man may often erre the commandement of God being not to find out truth especially every particular one but to endeavour the finding it He commands no more but to search and ye shall find says he not every particular Truth for experience teaches us that cannot be the interpretation but whether you find or no the Truth which you search for you shall find the reward of searching which is Happiness Now he that bids you search is cruel and barbarous in his mockery if he knows you have no power or faculty so to search as he commands you there is therefore in man a natural ability of searching spiritual Truths and that can be nothing else but his Understanding neither to any thing else can the command be directed since all things else are without us and may serve for helps and directions in our search but cannot be our search it self Secondly because we lay the blasphemous accusation of Injustice upon God if he punish us for an Errour which we could not avoid and all Errours are such which we fall into after a full and mature search for the Truth according to the best means represented to our understanding so that as the liberty of our Will and the possibility we have of doing the contrary makes us suffer justly for evil Actions so the possibility our understanding had to have discover'd and entertained the Truth renders us liable to Condemnation for ill beliefs Thirdly We ought not to believe Errours in Faith to be damnable because this opinion is so wildly uncharitable that it strikes out ten thousand Millions out of the Book of Life for each single Name that it leaves in it so immeasurably vast if we consider the whole World and all the Ages of it is the number of those who have lived and died in great high and manifest Errours manifest I mean to us for they were not so to them above those that have been so happy as to find and to embrace the Truth Fourthly We ought not to teach men that any Errours in belief overthrow our hopes of salvation unless we could likewise give them a Catalogue of those Errours which do so it being confest that all do not because these must necessarily put all considering Men into a doubt or rather despair of their own salvation for what quiet or repose can our Conscience take whilst vve know our selves to be in many Errours the estate of a Travellour being uncapable of an exemption from them and believe that some Errours without knowing which or how many do exclude men from a possibility of entring into Heaven Fifthly Because in this case we cannot know our fault and therefore