Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	proof_n	reason_n	use_v	6,938	5	9.5713	5	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

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-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

or take so much pains for the understanding of that which they think a gross absurdity as to collect those Principles that are scatter'd up and down the writings of that great and excellent Restorer of the Platonick Cabbala and accommodate them to the interest of this opinion So that I thought that till the Reasons Answers Principles and particular State of the Hypothesis were brought all together to talk of Praeexistence in Earnest were but to make a mans self ridiculous and the Doctrine the common Ludibrium of fools and ignorants And yet I must confess my self to be so much a contemner of the half-witted censurers of things they know not that this Reason alone could not have moved my pen the breadth of a letter But some ingenious friends of mine who were willing to do their Maker right in a due apprehension of his Attributes and Providences having read the Letter of Resolution and thence being induced to think favourably of Prae-existence were yet not fully satisfied in the proof nor able to give stop to those objections which their imperfect knowledge of the Hypothesis occasioned wherefore they desired me to draw up a more full and particular Account of that Doctrine which they had now a kindness for and which wanted nothing more to recommend it to them but a clear and full representation For their satisfaction then I drew up the following Discourse intending at first that it should go no further than their hands whose interest in mine affections had commanded it but they being more than I could well pleasure with written Copies and perceiving others of my acquaintance also to whom I owe regard and service to be in the like condition with these I was induced to let this Little Trisle tread a more publick Stage and to speak my mind to them from the Press If further reason be expected for mine undertaking a business in which others have been ingaged I would desire them to consider what an infinite of Books are written upon almost all subjects can be named And I am confident if they turn o're Libraries they 'l find no theam that is of any consideration less traced than this is So that no body hath reason to call it a Crambe who considers that there are multitudes even of Scholars that have never seen or heard of any thing of this nature And there is not that I know of any one Book extant in any language besides this that purposely solely and fully treats of Praeexistence Wherefore who ever condemns this as a superfluous ingagement if he will be just must pass the same censure upon well nigh every Discourse the Press is deliver'd of for hee 'l meet with few written on less handled subjects I might urge also if there were need on 't that various representations of the same thing fit the variety of phancies and gusts of perusers and that may have force and prevalence to perswade in one which signifies nothing in another But 't is enough he that will judge me on this account must pass the same Award on every Sermon he hears and every Book he looks on And such a censure will do me as little hurt as him good that passeth it Besides this exception 't is not unlikely that some may object that I use Arguments that have already been pleaded in behalf of this opinion which rightly understood is no matter of disrepute since every one else doth it that deals in a Subject formerly written of And I would have him that commenceth such a charge against me to consult divers Authours who have handled the same subject and if he find not the same Arguments and Reasons infinitely repeated every where let him call me plagiary and spare not 'T is true therefore I have not baulk't the reasons of Origen Dr. More or the Authour of the Letter of Resolution because they had been used already but freely own the assistance of those worthy Authours however I think I have so managed fortified and secured them against exceptions especially the most considerable that I may reasonably expect a pardon yea and an interest in them also For 't is the backing of an argument that gives it force and efficacy which I have done to the most weighty of them at my proper cost and charges Nor should I have been faithful to my cause had I omitted any thing that I thought confirm'd it upon any pretence whatever since possibly this discourse may fall into the hands of some who never met with those other Authors And my design being a full proof defence and explication of Praeexistence it had been an unpardonable defect to have pretermitted those weighty reasons by which its learned assertors have inforced it If any yet should criminate me as I know some did the account of Origen for using many of the same words and some of the same phrases and expressions that those others who have writ about those matters have made use of I am not very careful to answer them in this matter and I doubt this engagement against those little scruples will but seem importune to the judicious For no body blames the frequent usage of words of Art or those which the first Masters or Restorers of any Doctrine have been wont to express their notions by since that such words and expressions are best understood as have by custome or the Authority of some great Authors been appropriated to such Doctrines as they have imployed them in the service of And should every man that writes on any subject be obliged to invent a-new all the terms he hath need of and industriously to shun those proper expressive words and phrases that are fitted to his hands and the business he is about all things will be fill'd with impertinency darkness and confusion It must be acknowledged then that most of the peculiar words and phrases that either I or any body else that will speak properly and intelligibly in this matter make use of are borrowed from the judicious and elegent contriver of them the profound Restorer and Refiner of almost-extinct Platonism Whose invention hath been so happy in this kind that it hath served up those notions in the most apposite significant comprehensive and expressive words that could well be thought of Wherefore 't were an humoursome piece of folly for any man that deals in these matters industriously to avoid such termes and expressions as are so adapted and fitted to this purpose and so well known among those that are acquainted with this way of Learning when without vanity he could not think to be better furnish't from his own phancy If in the following papers I have used any expressions of others which these considerations will not warrant I must beg pardon for my memory which doth not use to be so serviceable And where I writ this Discourse I had not one of my books within my reach that treated of this or indeed any other Subject Nor am I at leasure now to examine them and

scatter'd into the Air where they will at length when the fierce agitation of the fire is over gather in considerable proportious of tenuious vapours which at length descending in a crystalline liquor and mingling with the finest parts of the newly modified Earth will doubtless compose as genital a matter as any can be prepared in the bodies of Animals And the calm and wholesome Air which now is duly purged from its noxious reeks and vapours and abounds with their saline spirituous humidity will questionless be very propitious to those tender inchoations of life and by the help of the Sun 's favourable and gentle beams supply them with all necessary materials Nor need we puzzle our selves to phancy how those Terrae Filii those young sons of the Earth will be fortified against the injuries of weather or be able to provide for themselves in their first and tender infancy since doubtless if the supposition be admitted * those immediate births of unassisted nature will not be so tender and helpless as we into whose very constitutions delicacy and effeminateness is now twisted For those masculine productions which were always exposed to the open Air and not cloyster'd up as we will feel no more incommodity from it than the young fry of fishes do from the coldness of the water they are spawn'd in And even now much of our tenderness and delicacy is not natural but contracted For poor Children will indure that hardship that would quickly dispatch those that have had a more careful and officious nurture And without question we should do many things for self-preservation and provision which now we yield no signs of had not custom prevented the endeavours of nature and made it expect assistance For the Indian Infants will swim currently when assoon as they are born they are thrown into the water And nature put to her shifts will do many things more than we can suspect her able for the performance of which consider'd 't is not hard to apprehend but that those Infant Aborigines are of a very different temper and condition from the weak products of now decayed nature having questionless more pure and serviceable bodies senses and other faculties more active and vigorous and nature better exercised so that they may by a like sense to that which carries all creatures to their proper food pursue and take hold of that nutriment which the free and willing Earth now offer'd to their mouths till being advantaged by Age and growth they can move about to make their choice * But all this is but the frolick exercise of my pen chusing a Paradox And 't is time to give over the pursuit To make an end then we see that after the Conflagration the earth will be inhabited again and all things proceed much-what in like manner as before But whether the Catastrophe of this shall be like the former or no I think is not to be determined For as one world hath perish't by water and this present shall by fire 't is possible the next period may be by the Extinction of the Sun But I am come to the end of the line and shall not go beyond this present Stage of Providence or wander into an Abysse of uncertainties where there is neither Sun nor Star to guide my notions Now of all that hath been represented of this Hypothesis there is nothing that seems more extravagant and Romantick than those notions that come under the two last Generals And yet so it falls out that the main matters contained under them one would think to have a strange consonancy with some expressions in the Sacred Oracles For clear it is from the divine Volume that the wicked and the Devils themselves are reserved to a further and more severe Judgment than yet afflicteth them It is as plainly declared to be a vengeance of fire that abides them as a compleatment of their torments And that the Earth shall be burnt is as explicitely affirmed as any thing can be spoken Now if we put all these together they look like a probability that the conflagration of the Earth shall consummate the Hell of the wicked And * those other expressions of Death Destruction Perdition of the ungodly and the like seem to show a favourable regard to the State of silence and inactivity Nor is there less appearing countenance given to the Hypothesis of Restitution * in those passages which predict New Heavens and a New Earth and seem to intimate only a change of the present And yet I would have no body be so credulous as to be taken with little appearances nor do I mention these with an intent that they should with full consent be delivered to intend the asserting any such Doctrines But that there is shew enough both in Reason and Scripture for these Opinions to give an occasion for an Hypothesis and therefore that they are not meer arbitrary and idle imaginations Now whatever becomes of this particular draught of the Souls several conditions of life and action * the main Opinion of Prae-existence is not at all concerned This Scheme is only to shew that natural and imperfect Reason can frame an Intelligible Idea of it And therefore questionless the Divine Wisdom could form and order it either so or with infinitely more accuracy and exactness How it was with us therefore of Old I know not But yet that we may have been and acted before we descended hither I think is very probable And I see no reason but why Praeexistence may be admitted without altering any thing considerable of the ordinary Systeme of Theology But I shut up with that modest conclusion of the Great Des Cartes That although these matters seem hardly otherwise intelligible than as I have here explained them Yet nevertheless remembring I am not infallible I assert nothing * but submit all I have written to the Authority of the Church of England and to the matured judgments of graver and wiser men Earnestly desiring that nothing else may be entertained with credit by any persons but what is able to win it by the force of evident and victorious reason Des Cartes Princ. Philos lib. 4. ss CVII FINIS A DISCOURSE OF TRUTH BY THE Reverend Doctor RUST Late LORD BISHOP of DROMORE in IRELAND LONDON Printed for J. Collins and S. Louns over against Exeter Exchange in the Strand 1682. A LETTER Concerning the Subject and the Author SIR I Have now perused and returned the Manuscript you sent me it had contracted many and great Errours in the Transcription which I have corrected I was enabled to do it by a written Copy of the same Discourse which I have had divers years in my Hands The Subject is of great and weighty importance and the Acknowledgment of the Truths here asserted and made good will lay a Foundation for right conceptions in the Doctrines that concern the Decrees of God For the first Errour which is the ground of the rest is That things are good and

just because God Wills them so to be and if that be granted we are disabled from using the arguments taken from natural Notions and the Attributes and Perfections of the Divine Nature against the Blackest and most Blasphemous Opinions that ever were entertained concerning Gods proceedings with the Sons of Men. If there be no settled Good and Evil Immutable and Independent on any Will or Vnderstanding then God may have made his reasonable Creatures on purpose to damn them for ever He may have absolutely decreed that they should sin that he may damn them justly He may most solemnly and earnestly prohibit Sin by his Laws and declare great displeasure against it and yet by his ineluctable Decrees force men to all the sin that is committed in the World He may vehemently protest his unfeigned desire of their Life and Happiness and at the same time secretly resolve their Eternal Destruction He may make it his Glory and Pleasure to triumph eternally in the torments of poor Worms which himself hath by his unalterable and irresistible Will made miserable yea as the discourse instanceth he may after his Decrees concerning the Salvation of the Elect after the death of his Son for them and the mission of his Spirit to them and after all the promises he hath made to assure them thrust them also at last into the dreadful Regions of Death and Woe I say if there be no immutable respects in things but Just and Vnjust Honourable and Dishonourable Good and Cruel Faithful and Deceitful are respects made by meer arbitrarious Will it will be in vain to dispute from Them against any such dismal Opinions yea it will be great folly to argue for the Simplicity of the Divine Nature against the vile conceits of the old Anthropomorphites and the Blasphemies of the present Muggletonians of God's having a Corporal shape Parts and Members if there be no necessary Independent Connexion betwixt Immensity Spirituality and Perfection But this being established that there are immutable respects in things and that such and such are Perfections and their contrary Defects and imperfections hence it will follow that it is impossible the forementioned Doctrines can be true concerning God who cannot lye cannot deny himself viz. He being Absolute and Infinite Perfection cannot act any thing that is Evil or imperfect But all the expressions in Scripture that at first sight look towards such a sense must be interpreted by the general Analogy and course of them which declares his Infinite Immutable Excellencies and these Notions of himself which he hath written on the Souls of Men. So that the Subject of this little Discourse is of vast Moment and the truth asserted in it is I think confirmed with an irresistible Strength and force of Reasoning and not to be convinced by it will argue either great weakness of Vnderstanding in not perceiving consequences that are so close and plain or great obstinacy of Will in being shut up by prejudices and preconceiv'd Opinions against Light that is so clear and manifest The Author was a Person with whom I had the Honour and Happiness of a very particular acquaintance a man he was of a clear Mind a deep Judgment and searching Wit greatly learned in all the best sorts of Knowledge old and new a thoughtful and diligent Enquirer of a free Vnderstanding and vast Capacity joyn'd with singular Modesty and unusual Sweetness of Temper which made him the Darling of all that knew him He was a person of great Piety and Generosity a hearty Lover of God and Men An excellent Preacher a wise Governour a profound Philosopher a quick forcible and close Reasoner and above all a true and exemplary Christian In short he was one who had all the Qualifications of a Primitive Bishop and of an extraordinary Man This I say not out of kindness to my Friend but out of Justice to a Person of whom no Commendation can be extravagant He was bred in Cambridge and Fellow of Christ's Colledge where he lived in great Esteem and Reputation for his eminent Learning and Vertues he was one of the first that overcame the prejudices of the Education of the late unhappy Times in that Vniversity and was very Instrumental to enlarge others He had too great a Soul for the trifles of that Age and saw early the nakedness of Phrases and Phancies He out-grew the pretended O●thodoxy of those days and addicted himself to the Primitive Learning and Theology in which he even then became a great Master After the return of the Government the excellent Bishop Taylor foreseeing the vacancy in the Deanery of Connor sent to Cambridge for some Learned and Ingenious Man who might be fit for that Dignity The motion was made to Dr. Rust which corresponding with the great Inclination he had to be conversant with that incomparable Person he gladly accepted of it and hastn'd into Ireland where he langed at Dublin about August 1661. He was received with much Respect and Kindness by that great and good Bishop who knew how to value such Jewels and preferr'd to the Deanery as soon as it was void which was shortly after He continued in that Preferment during the Bishops Life always dearly lov'd and even admir'd by him At his Death that sad stroke to all the Lovers of Religion and Learning he was chosen for the last solemn Office to his Deceased Father and Friend and he Preach't such a Funeral Sermon as became that extraordinary Person and himself It hath been since published and I suppose you may have seen it upon the lamented Death of Bishop Taylor which hapned August 13th 1667. The Bishopricks were divided Dr. Boyle Dean of Cork was nominated Bishop of Downe and Connor and Dr. Rust Dean of Connor Bishop of Dromore he lived in the Deanery about six years in the Bishoprick but three for in December 1670 he dyed of a Fever in the prime of his years to the unspeakable grief of all that knew his Worth and especially of such of them as had been blest by his Friendship and most sweet and indearing Conversation He was buried in the Quire of his own Cathedral Church of Dromore in a Vault made for his Predecessour Bishop Taylor whose Sacred Dust is deposited also there and what Dormitory hath two such Tenants This is the best account I can give you of the Work and the Author and by it you may perceive his Memory deserves to live and this product of him but there is so much reverence due to the Manes of so venerable a Person that nothing should be hastily published under his honour'd name I know had he designed this Exercitation for the Publick he would have made it much more compleat and exact than we now have it but as it is the Discourse is weighty and substantial and may be of great use As it goes about now in written Copies it is I perceive exceedingly depraved and in danger of being still worse abused The Publication would preserve