Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	article_n	church_n	creed_n	2,425	5	10.1630	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42816	Logou thrēskeia, or, A seasonable recommendation and defence of reason in the affairs of religion against infidelity, scepticism, and fanaticisms of all sorts.	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1670 (1670)	Wing G812; ESTC R23387	21,978	41

say are Fundamentals of Religion for It supposeth and stands upon them There are others which are not so absolutely necessary as these but yet very incouraging and helpful I reckon Four here also Viz. 1. THAT God will pardon us if we repent 2. THAT he will assist us if we indeavour 3. THAT he will accept of Services that are imperfect if they are sincere 4. THAT he will reward or punish in another world according to what we have done in this This I count to be the summe of Religion general and Christianity takes in all those Duties and all the Principles advancing the Duties to nobler measures and incouraging them by new motives and assistances and superadding two other instances Baptism and the Lords Supper And for the Principles It confirms those of natural Religion and explains them further and discovers some few new ones And all these both of the former and the latter sort are contained in the Creed Here are all the Fundamentals of Religion and the main assisting Principles also And I call nothing else Religion but plain Duties and these acknowledged Principles And though our Church require our assent to more Propositions yet those are only Articles of Communion not Doctrines absolutely necessary to salvation And if we go beyond the Creed for the Essentials of Faith who can tell where we shall stop The summe is Religion primarily is Duty And duty is All that which God hath commanded to be done by his Word or our Reasons and we have the substance of these in the Commandments Religion also in a secondary sense consists in some Principles relating to the Worship of God and of his Son in the ways of devout and virtuous living and these are comprised in that Summary of belief called the Apostles Creed This I take to be Religion and this Religion I shall prove to be reasonable But I cannot undertake for all the Opinions some men are pleased to call Orthodox nor for all those that by many private persons and some Churches are counted essential Articles of Faith and Salvation Thus I have stated what I mean by Religion THE OTHER thing to be determined and fixt is the proper Notion of Reason For this you may please to consider that Reason is sometimes taken for Reason in the Faculty which is the Understanding and at other times for Reason in the object which consists in those Principles and Conclusions by which the Understanding is informed This latter is meant in the dispute concerning the agreement or disagreement of Reason and Religion And Reason in this sense is the same with natural truth which I said is made up of Principles and Conclusions By the Principles of Reason we are not to understand the Grounds of any mans Philosophy nor the Critical Rules of Syllogism but those imbred fundamental notices that God hath implanted in our Souls such as arise not from external objects nor particular humours or imaginations but are immediately lodged in our minds independent upon other principles or deductions commanding a sudden assent and acknowledged by all sober mankind Of this sort are these That God is a being of all perfection That nothing hath no Attributes That a thing cannot be and not be That the whole is greater than any of its parts And such like others which are unto Us what instincts are to other Creatures These I call the Principles of Reason The Conclusions are those other notices that are inferred rightly from these and by their help from the observations of sense And the remotest that can be conceived of all these if it be rightly inferred from the Principles of Reason or duly circumstantiated sense is as well to be reckoned a part and branch of Reason as the more immediate conclusions that are principles in respect of those distant truths And thus I have given an account also of the proper notion and nature of Reason I AM to shew next 2. That Religion is reasonable and this implies two things viz. That Reason is a friend to Religion and that Religion is so to Reason From these two results their correspondence and agreement I begin with the FIRST and here I might easily shew the great congruity that there is between that light and those Laws that God hath placed in our Souls and the duties of Religion that by the expressness of his written Word he requires from us and demonstrate that Reason teacheth All those excepting only the two Positives Baptism and the holy Eucharist But there is not so much need of turning my discourse that way and therefore I shall confine it to the Principles of Religion which are called Faith and prove that Reason mightily befriends these It doth this I. By proving some of those Principles and II. By defending all For the clearing both these you may consider That the Principles of Religion are of two sorts Either 1. such as are praesupposed to Faith or such as 2 are formal Articles of it Of the first sort are The Being of a God and the Authority of the Scripture And of the second such as are expressely declared by divine Testimony As the Attributes of God the Incarnation of his Son and such like I. For the former they are proved by Reason and by reason only The others we shall consider after I. That the Being of a God the foundation of all is proved by reason the Apostle acknowledgeth when he saith That what was to be known of God was manifest and to the Heathen Rom. I.XIX. and he adds ver XX. That the invisible things from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made And the Royal Psalmist speaks to the like purpose Psal. XIX The Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy works And again Psal. 148.3 Praise him Sun and Moon praise him ye Stars and Light which intimates that these Works of his afford matter to our reasons for religious acknowledgments And reason proves the existence of God from the beauty and order and ends and usefulness of the Creatures for these are demonstrative arguments of the being of a wise and omnipotent mind that hath framed all things so orderly and exactly and that Mind is God This Article then Reason proves which was the first branch of the particular and I add that it is Reason only that can do it which was the other This you will see when you consider that there are but three things from whence the existence of any being can be concluded viz. Sense Revelation or Reason For Sense it hath no more to do here but to present matter for our Reasons to work on and Revelation supposeth the being of a God and cannot prove it for we can have no security that the Revelation is true 'till we are assured it is from God or from some Commissioned by him The knowledge of his Being therefore must precede our Faith in Revelation and so cannot be deduced from it Thus

of that Profession know very well and therefore Perronius Gonterius Arnoldus Veronius and other Jesuites have loudly declaimed against Reason and the last mentioned Veronius presented the World with a Method to overthrow Hereticks meaning those of the Protestant Faith which promised more than ordinary And that was to deny and renounce all Principles of Reason in affairs of Faith absolutely and roundly and not to vouchsafe an Answer to any Argument against Transubstantiation or any other Article of their new Faith but point-blank to deny whatever Reason saith in such matters And he affirms that even these Principles of Reason viz. Non entis non sunt Attributa at omne quod est quando est necesse est esse and such like which are the foundations of all reasoning are dangerous to the Catholick Faith and therefore not to be heeded This man speaks out and affirms directly and boldly what the other enemies of Reason imply but will not own This is a Method to destroy Hereticks in earnest but the mischief is all Christians and all other Religions and all other reasonings are cut off by the same Sword This Book and Method of Veronius was kindly received by the Pope priviledged by the King of Spain approved by Cardinals Archbishops Bishops and all the Gallick Clergy as solid and for the advantage of Souls and the Sorbone Doctors gave it their approbation and recommended it as the only way to confute Hereticks Did these know what they recommended And did they think we understand the Interest of the Roman Church If so we kindly serve their ends and promote their Designs in the way which they account best while we vilifie and disparage Reason If This be renounced in matters of Religion with what face can we use it against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation or any other Points of the Roman Creed Would it not be blameless and irreprovable for us to give up our understandings implicitly to the Dictates and Declarations of that Church May we not follow blindly whatever the Infallible Man at Rome and his Councils say And would it not be vain self-contradiction to use Arguments against their Decrees though they are never so unreasonable Or to alledge Consequences from Scripture against any of their Articles though never so contrary to the Holy Oracles How easily may They rejoyn when we dispute against them You argue from Reason and by Consequences But Reason is dull and carnal and an enemy to the things of the Spirit and not to be heard in the high matters of Religion And what can we say next if we consent to the Accusation I say by this way we perfectly disable or grosly contradict our selves in most of our disputes against the Romanists And we are very disingenious in our dealings while we use Reason against them and deny It when 't is urged against our selves by another sort of Adversaries which implies that when we say Reason is not to be heard we mean 'T is not to be heard against us But It must against the Church of Rome or any others we can oppugn by It. Thus I say our denying Reason in Religion is either very humoursome and partial or 't is a direct yielding up our selves to our enemies and doing that our selves which is the only thing They desire to undo us and to promote their own interests upon our Ruines And thus My Brethen I have represented some of the mischiefs that arise from the disparagement of Reason and they are great ones and big of many others and such as are destructive to all Government and all the Interests of the sober part of mankind And I hope I need not intreat You not to contribute to the promoting and continuance of so false and dangerous a conceit The assertion of this is properly Fanaticism and all that we call so grows upon it Here the enemies of our Church and Government began upon this They insisted still and filled their Books and Pulpits and private corners with these Cantings This was the Engine to overthrow all sober Principles and Establishments with This the people were infatuated and credit was reconciled to Gibberish and Folly Enthusiasms and vain Impulses This is the food of Conventicles to this day the root of their matter and the burden of their Preachments Let Reason be heard and tye them to sense and most of their Holders-forth have no more to say Their spirituality for which they are admired is besides Reason and against It rather than above it And while this Principle of the enmity between Reason and Religion stands the people will think Them the more Spiritual Preachers because they are the less reasonable And while they are abused by such a belief 't will be impossible for sober men to have any success in their indeavours to convince them These things I doubt not but you discern and know and therefore I add no more for I am sensible to whom I speak But there are another sort and those Conformists too who are made Divines by the Notes they formerly took from those Canters against Reason To such I should not tell what to say They will whine on and vent their Iargon to perswade them to speak better sense is to desire them to hold their peace which of all things they hate most But I hope there are none of Those here and I could wish the Government would take special care of them where they are For they are the most dangerous enemies the Church of England hath They keep alive the Principles of Phancy and Faction which otherwise would go out of themselves But I let them pass and conclude with a short Advice to the People I HAVE in the foregoing Discourse shewn with all the plainness and perspicuity that I could the fair agreement between Reason and Religion and the mischiefs that arise from the opinion that sets them at odds If what I have said be not clear to your minds 't is because I could not help it All Subjects are not capable of being made alike plain to all Capacities I have all along designed distinct speaking and have as much as I could avoided mixture of Languages and Terms of Art that so you might apprehend that in which I take you to be much concerned though I chiefly intended the Discourse for my Reverend Brethren the Clergy who I doubt not apprehend it fully What I have more to say to YOU is That you would beware of those Teachers that rail against Reason For either they know not what they say or have a design to abuse you Instead of hearkening to such Indeavour to be informed of the Reason of your Faith and Hope For we are fallen into times in which you will have frequent occasion to use it And That faith which is reasonable will not make you ashamed and that hope which is well grounded will not disappoint you But the end of such an hope will be the satisfaction of your desires in the day of your expectations And the end of such a faith the Salvation of your souls in the day of the Lord Iesus To whom with God the Father and God the Holy Ghost be ascribed all Glory and Adoration henceforth and for ever FINIS