Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	believe_v	scripture_n	tradition_n	5,694	5	9.4692	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69762	A perswasive to an ingenuous tryal of opinions in religion	Clagett, Nicholas, 1654-1727.	1685 (1685)	Wing C4370; ESTC R927	37,500	66

Scripture that belongeth to a Discourse be agreeable to the designe and scope of that Discourse to which it belongeth This Rule as it is necessary for all to observe so it is especially to be urged upon men that are apt to interpret places that are not of themselves plain by those Opinions that they are already possessed with a belief of but for which they have little ground besides the mere sound of some Texts which at first hearing seem to be of their side but which if they were compared with the designe of the holy Writer in that Chapter or Book would be found to mean quite another thing All that I shall say besides of this Rule is that the difficulty of many places that are not of themselves plain will be removed by observing it For instance by this way we shall easily be satisfied that that forementioned place of St. Paul Who maketh thee to differ from another was chiefly meant of those extraordinary gifts which were distributed amongst believers in the first Ages of the Church and therefore though in a qualified sence this is true of all saving Graces it is very consistent with all those Scriptures that suppose the difference between the righteous and the wicked to depend upon something which is in the power of the righteous If we mangle coherent Discourses and take a shred or a phrase of Scripture by it self without regard to the main scope of the place and this to prove what what we would have we do not try our Opinions by Scripture but we interpret Scripture by our own Opinions Thus I have shewn what Cautions are to be observed in judging by Scripture I doubt not but all will acknowledge them to be very reasonable and equal and if all men had observed them who have a just veneration for the Scriptures the Word of God had been better understood and less wrested unsound Divinity had not easily passed for Scriptural Truth and all occasion of those unjust Reproaches had been taken away which the Church of Rome throws upon us for allowing to all Christians the free use of Gods Holy Book And thus much for the Rules of Reason and Scripture 3. The third I mentioned was Antiquity and Catholick Tradition Now if this Rule as I said at first be of excellent use then they are in the best way to find out what is the true Christian Religion by it who stick to the Holy Scriptures though they are not capable of using it otherwise For if that be true which was most anciently taught and believed in the Church and which was received all along in the best Ages of the Church then he that can prove his Faith by Scripture has the Argument of Antiquity and Catholick Tradition unquestionably on his side because the Scriptures are the most ancient Records of our Religion and they have been delivered down to us as such from the beginning through all Ages to our present times But we acknowledge also the testimony of Antiquity of something of a later date that is of the antient Fathers of the Church to be of very good use for the clearing of some places in Scripture for shewing what Order and Discipline was left in the Church by the Apostles for confirming us in points of Faith grounded upon the Scriptures but which have been disputed and opposed by Hereticks and likewise for confuting those gross errours in Belief or Practice which of later days have been brought in amongst Christians especially those of the Church of Rome But how things are to be examined by this Rule I shall not here direct because this is the subject of an excellent Discourse already published And thus much concerning Rules whereby to try Opinions in Religion § 7. III. The Dispositions wherewith we are to search for the Truth by these means are also of necessary consideration for whatever other advantages we have if we be greatly defective in these we shall very often lose our labour and fall into mistakes of dangerous consequence To qualifie a man for receiving Truth when propounded with sufficient evidence or to find it out by his own search there must be these three things 1. A prepared mind 2. Competent Diligence 3. Prayer to God for his blessing upon that Diligence 1. A prepared mind which our Saviour calls a good and honest heart Now this consists in Humility Ingenuity and Sincerity Humility is necessary because overweening and self-concit makes a man apt to despise what those of a different Perswasion can say for themselves before their Arguments are considered and in general to neglect that help which may be had by the advice and reasoning of others So likewise vain-glory fixeth a man in an errour he hath once defended and while he is unwilling to acknowledge a mistake he strains all his Wit to delude himself into a stronger belief of it and of his ability to defend it In Controversies he is desirous of victory and would fain be thought some-body and therefore he studies more to expose an adversary than to inform himself And if he be yet to chuse his side of a Question he takes the wrong one if it be more fashionable than the right Therefore says our Saviour Whosoever doth not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child i. e. with a meek and pliable spirit shall not enter therein Again says he My sheep hear my voice intimating that they would be easily convinced who were of tractable and humble minds And therefore he adds concerning the Pharisees that they rejected him because they were not of his Sheep i. e. because of their haughty and inflexible dispositions Prejudice is apt to bar the mind against conviction as well as Pride and therefore to Humility we must adde Ingenuity and Sincerity by which a man is qualified to distinguish between the suggestions of Prejudice on the one side and the force of good Reasons on the other Ingenuity is opposed to those Prejudices that are either unavoidably contracted or taken up through weakness of understanding Of the former sort are the Prejudices of Education or conversing altogether with our own Party Men are generally prepossess'd with great favour to those Opinions in which they have been all along trained up and which have been instilled into them by all that they have conversed with And therefore we cannot be meet Inquirers after Truth if we want the ingenuity of suspecting our selves on this side and trying those Perswasions in which we have been bred up with the greater impartiality and severity Some men are prejudiced by an unaccountable inclination toward an Opinion or an antipathy against it and these ought the more carefully to distinguish between the warmth of their imaginations on the one side and the force of Arguments on the other and not to take a passionate fondness for a conclusion or an aversion from it to be a Reason one way or other It is very incident to weak minds to prejudg in favour of

have misled them Fourthly We should not easily believe those men in matters of Religion who would keep us from examining their Doctrines by fair ways of tryal and would affright us into an implicit Faith by pronouncing damnation against all that are not of their own way If men use violence or subtlety to hinder us from judging for ourselves there is great reason to suspect that they are conscious to themselves of a bad Cause which will not bear the tryal I need not say how this reaches the Roman Church which forbids the Laity to read the Scriptures unless some one Lay-man has that special favour granted him of leave so to do from his Ordinary who commonly is wise enough not to give this license but where he is sure the party is fast enough to the Cause of that Church Those of the separate Congregations best know what Arts are used to keep the people that go that way from informing themselves by reading our Books or discoursing with our Ministers about the matters in controversie between them and us But we are not ignorant of all of them some of their Leaders teach them to pity our ignorance and want of illumination Alas poor wretches that we are we know not the things of the Spirit of God! we are strangers to the life and power of Godliness Thus they use to represent us They take all the good names and promises of the Scripture to themselves and leave the threatnings of God and the punishments inflicted upon his enemies to us Now this is but a cunning and indirect way to keep the People from hearkning to any thing we can say to 'em and to teach them how to conclude against us without thinking it to any purpose to examine what is offered on both sides They that have a good Cause need not use those disingenuous Arts they will not fright men from considering what their adversaries say by denouncing damnation against them nor forbid them to read their Books but rather encourage them to do so that they may see the difference between Truth and Errour between Reason and Sophistry with their own eyes This is the effect of a well-grounded confidence in the Truth and there is this signe of a good Cause apparently discernable in the Application of the Clergy of this Church both to their friends and enemies They desire both the one and the other to consider impartially what is said for us and against us And whatever Guides of a Party do otherwise they give just cause to those that follow them to examine their Doctrines so much the more by how much they are unwilling to have them examined It is a bad signe when men are loath to have their Opinions seen in the day but love darkness rather than light Thus I have shewn in what cases we are most concerned to examine the Doctrines of those that undertake to inftruct and guide us § 5. II. Because the duty of proving all things supposes certain Rules and Tests by which Doctrines are to be examined and tryed I proceed to shew what they are Now it is very certain that the Rules by which we are to try Doctrines for our own satisfaction about them are no other than those want of Argument by which a wise man would prove the truth of his Perswasion to others for their satisfaction And therefore it is plain that those Rules must be common to me and to other men whom I would also guide so into the knowledge of that Truth to which I have attained And they are these three 1. Reason which is a common Rule to all men 2. Scripture which is a common Rule to all Christians 3. Antiquity or the uniform Judgment and Practice of the Church in the first Ages of Christianity which is a common Rule to those who are verst in the Histories of the Primitive Church and in the Writings of the Fathers The two former Rules are the principal and most necessary and we are safe if our Perswasions in Religion will bear the Test of Reason and Scripture and withal those Rules are near at hand for every mans use amongst us But the last Rule is also of good use to those that can use it for their own confirmation in the truth and stopping the mouths of gain-sayers But more particularly 1. By Reason I do not understand that Faculty by which we are men and can compare one thing with another and argue and conclude c. for this is that Natural Power by which we use any kind of Rule whereby to judge of the truth or falshood of Opinions in Religion but I understand by it those common Truths which are natural to the minds of men and to which we give a ready assent without any need of having them proved by any thing else For by these fundamental Truths we are to prove all things else and if there were none such we could prove nothing And they are such as these That nothing can make it self That the same thing cannot be and not be at the same time That common sence is to be trusted That God is a being absolutely perfect That the Good is to be chosen and the Evil to be refused and that Contradictions cannot be true and the like Now whatever is by true consequence deduced from such Principles is thereby proved to be true and whatsoever is repugnant to them or can be disproved by them is false They are the forementioned Propositions with others as self-evident as they which make up that which we call the Light of Nature or of Reason And I mention this Rule in the first place because it must be presupposed to all other ways and means of enquiring after Truth and without which nothing could be done in it insomuch that the belief of that Truth which is not to be deduced from mere natural Reason but depends upon a divine Testimony is at last resolved into a rational Act and relies upon this natural Principle that God cannot lye Wherefore they that cry down Reason as if it were at no hand to be trusted in matters of Religion and call it carnal blind and foolish Reason and such-like vile names if they are in good earnest they are incapable of searching after Truth themselves and of receiving any satisfaction from others While they are in this humour I may as well take a Beast to dispute with as go about to convince them And if all men were thus senseless it were impossible that men should be serviceable to instruct one another in the things of God But to abandon the use of Reason in matters of Religion and to scorn a man when he speaks consistently and argues clearly from common Principles of Truth is such a wretched sort of unmanliness that I cannot but think it is for the most part taken up in designe by those men that have brought Nonsence and Contradictions and absurd Opinions into Religion which no man can admit without doing violence to his own