Linguistic DNA - Concept Modelling Demonstrator

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	believe_v	faith_n	ignorance_n	1,362	5	9.1101	5	false

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36019	Prove all things, hold fast that which is good, I Thess. 5.21 handled in two sermons at S. Maries in Cambridge, the first on the Commencement-Sabbath, July 1, 1655, the other since / by William Dillingham.	Dillingham, William, 1617?-1689.	1656 (1656)	Wing D1486; ESTC R19188	41,854	64

if such as have no ballast at all in them be made the sport and pastime of every wind of doctrine no wonder if such as have been bred all their lives time in a dungeon do become dizzie and count all light new when they come first into it My self have known some that much cryed up for new discoveries some crude and raw apprehensions of those very truths which others who had the happinesse of better education had been very well acquainted with and grounded in from their child-hood But others there are who have learned the truth more by rode than by heart and received it from other men upon their bare word without seeing any evidence for it These men when they come once to see an appearance of reason for the contrary opinion which is more than ever themselves had for the taking up of truth it is not much to be wondred at if such are easily drawn aside to errour and then it is but very natural for them to call errour light and to condemn truth for darknesse because they never understood it And then if a little pride get but in once as it is never farre of to mix with their ignorance how easy a thing is it for them to grow conceited of their new attainments which yet wiser men cannot but pitty them for to despise the truth which before they did but ravish and to inveigh against those who formerly taught it them calling them blind guides whereas the fault was themselves had been blind followers and supposing them to have no ground for the truth because indeed themselves never had any yea and to loath the very ordinances in which the truth had been dispensed to them Thus the best food if it lie on the stomach undigested is oftimes vomited up again with the greatest abhorrency and detestation What a sad condition have those men brought themselves into A spirit of errour hath not onely taken possession of them but hath also bolted himself in and made them hate the very means of their recovery By this time the Devil hath got such a commanding power over them that he drives them about in herds and droves as he doth the Quakers at this day Who that it might be apparent unto all men that they are seduced are become mere Vagrants Whereas had they at first entertained truth upon good grounds they would never have proved so false unto it had it taken due possession of them or they of it they would never thus have quitted house and home to be carried about like empty clouds and wandring starres which though they may pretend unto new light yet are they fast bound in chains of darknesse and unlesse they do timely repent S. Jude tells us what their doom shall be verse 13. To whom is reserved the blacknesse of darknesse for ever Now then Sir Since the danger is so great what need have we all as to beg of God that he by his Spirit would keep us stedfast in the truth so also our selves to neglect no means that may be available thereunto among which I conceive this one to be none of the least that we endeavour to understand our selves well in our religion to see truth in clear Scripture-evidence to be intelligent and knowing not merely-believing Christians to be rooted and well-grounded in the Faith so shall we be steÃ fast and unmoveable For which end if it shall please God to make this discourse in any measure profitable as I hope it is not altogether unseasonable unto his people neither shall I have any cause to repent myself that I ran this adventure nor you to be sorry that you have undergone the trouble of this dedication And thus Sir I take my leave recommending you to the gracious protection of the Almighty and to the riches of his love in our Lord Christ Jesus Sir Your Assured friend much obliged to serve and honour you William Dillingham Cambridge March 18. 1656 1. Thessal V. 21. {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Prove all things hold fast that which is good SAtan the grand enemie of our salvation knowing that it is the truth which must make us free as it was a lie by which he brought us all at first into captivity labours by all means possible to keep men from the knowledge of the truth and that First if he can by detaining them in grosse and palpable ignorance those chains of darknesse Thus doth he the Turks and Indians to this very day and many millions of souls under the Papacy by a blind obedience and as blind a faith the Coliers faith they call it I doubt 't will come to th' fire at the last Secondly If this will not do but men will needs be knowing then he labours to seduce them into errour giving them husks for bread pro DeÃ¢ nubem This old deceiver wants not his strophae nor his methods He will Proteus-like screw himself into all modes and figures that so he may the better deceive Sometimes he assumes the shape of an Oecumenicall Bishop and dictates errours out of an infallible chair intoxicating with the cup of his errours the Kings of the earth otherwhile putting on the appearance of a simple plain man he creeps into houses and the greatest game he flies at are but silly women One while he presents errour under the reverend cloak of antiquity anon he bethinks himself that the newest fashion will give best content and so they shall be new lights Thirdly If both these fail then he raises a dust of controversie that so people may not be able to see the truth or not to know it when they see it He finds it good fishing in troubled waters and cutting purses in an hubub For while people are distracted to see so many opinions in religion whereof they are sure but one can be true and which that is they are not able to judge they resolve to be standers-by untill the learned be agreed supposing it the safest course and easiest to avoid errour by being of no opinion at all Fourthly Another device he hath to bring truth it self into suspicion Thus of old did he set the Poets on work to invent fables like unto many histories recorded in holy Scriptures that when the falshood of those should be discovered the truth of these might be call'd in question Just as he makes some play the hypocrites that when their hypocrisie is detected all professours may be thought to be like them But let us argue Ã¨ contra If the Scripture were not true sure the devil would never seek to gain credit to his lies by imitating of it It 's an argument that there is true coin in the world because men counterfeit it had there never been such an one as Richard Plantagenet we had never heard of Perkin Warbeck Reject not therefore all coin for there is some good receive not all heedlessely because there is some counterfeit but bring it all to the test and to the touch-stone

rule are not First the maxims of naturall reason For 1. they are farre from being infallible many of them being but the product of humane discourse and fallible observation and therefore some of them false if they be extended beyond the sphere of Philosophy for whose meridian onely they were calculated at the first I do not think there is any truth in Philosophy which contradicts any truth in Divinity yet am I sure that many sayings are true in Philosophy which are false in Divinity For maxims and general rules being but collections observed from particulars if the survey be short ad nimis pauca respiciens not taking in all particulars the verdict or maxime must needs be defective and the general rule be liable to exceptions So that a rule may be true in Philosophy as to all those particulars included within the object of Philosophy but false if stretched to take in the things of Divinitie as an observation concerning men may be true of men in France or Italy but false if applyed to those in England who were never attended to in the raising 2. As these maxims are not infallible so neither are they adequate to the things to be believed and therefore cannot make a fit rule of divine faith For there are many divine truths which are nothing at all of kind to any peice of naturall knowledge neither flowing from these maxims nor being reducible to them 3. It is not possible for any of those maxims to be the foundation of any divine faith at all for all assent that is wrought in the soul by them is but either science or opinion both which arise from the evidence of the thing whereas faith assents unto an article without any such respect but meerly for the sake of a testimony and if the faith be divine such also is the testimony which produceth it And yet the Socinians make reason the rule of their faith Quod absurdum est rationi debet esse falsum saith one others more modest or more subtile will seem to grant that reason ought to believe what God sayes be it never so contrary to their apprehensions but then when the question is put whether God say such a thing or no here they will deny it if it agree not with their maxims Thus what they give with the one hand they take away again with the other they passe it in the head but stop it in the house decline the volie but take the rebound which comes all to one at last But how little reason there is for so doing especially in hac foece Romali in this Apostate and fallen condition of humane nature the alone sense of our own infirmities and weaknesses may sufficiently convince O but yet Right Reason Ay where is it many make account they have it and that in those very things wherein yet they contradict one another Some think Aristotle did but bid his scholer go look when he made the judgement of a wiseman the rule of vertues mediocritie many pretend to be wise and many more think themselves such but it 's seldome that either prove so So that indeed a man may sooner find vertue than a wise-man especially considering that he had need to be one himself to know one when he meets him All reason then is not right nor have all men right reason that think they have it reason it self then stands in need of a rule to be tryed by Reason is then right when it is true and then only true when it judgeth according to the truth of things themselves now things to be believed are contained in Scripture let us carry our reason thith'er and trie it by them For as Amesius very well Ratio quaedicitur recta si absoluta rectitudo spectetur non alibi nobis est quarenda quÃ m ubi existit id est in Scripturis neque differt quatenus spectat bonum aequum Ã voluntate Dei ad nostrae vita directionem revelatÃ¢ Mcdullae lib. 2. cap. 2. So then although the maxims of natural reason may be of singular use in Divinity if rightly limited by the Scriptures yet are they not fit to be canon they are both too short and too weak to make a rule of divine faith of Secondly nor is Antiquity such a rule as is required Antiquity barely considered is no good mark much lesse rule of truth The Romanists in giving marks of the true Church do as Painters who draw the Virgine Mary by their own Mistresses they do not choose the Church by her marks but indeavour to make their marks by their Church In like manner here they do not square their doctrine by the true rule but strive to find out a rule that will fit their doctrine and yet herein too they are oft times much to seek They cry up Antiquity very much bidding us ask for the old way for multitude of dayes shall teach us wisdome and make account they have praised themselves all this while but no such matter unlesse we should look at antiquity and nothing else but then I know who may vie with them the devil was a lier from the beginning For our parts we professe we do very much reverence antiquiry but it must be then in conjunction with truth we cannot admire old errours but as Solomon speaks of the hoary head Prov. 16. 31. The hoary head is a crown of glory if it be found in the way of righteousnesse We shall alwayes rise up before a reverend hoary-headed truth but we must have something else besides its gray hairs to know it by lest in stead of truth we salute her mask and worship a cloud in stead of a goddesse And as for the Papists for all their boasting so much of the antiquity of their doctrine we can easily shew them who brought in this doctrine and that doctrine into their Church this ceremony and that ceremony this corruption and that corruption We need no microscope to see how patcht their coat is of how different a thread and spinning so that it could never hang together but that the new would rend the old in sunder the strong the rotten were it not for that same Catholick plaister of infallibility But while we make the Scriptures to be our rule our doctrine is ancienter than much of theirs pretends to be Thirdly not the writings of the Ancient Fathers nor Canons of Councels neither of these are fit to be made the rule of a divine faith We do attribute much unto the judgements of those ancient Fathers those primitive Saints and Worthies whether exprest in their private writings or signified in lawfull Councels When the Councels were such as they ought to be consisting of holy able and learned Pastours of the Church we look upon them as bright constellations whose light was the greater because of their conjunction They had not onely donum intellectÃ»s and that in a great measure too as they were single Christians but also donum

apprehensions of other men But besides this knowledge there is another kind of assent found in all believers quÃ tales given to a truth onely in respect to the divine testimony this is faith which though it be much helped by that other assent when in conjunction with it yet it is often found without it and this is that assent upon which God will have our salvation to depend and this must we therefore yield unto truth 1. Because this is God's way wherein he will save souls by Faith not by Philosophy although it may be man would have liked that way best but it pleased God through the foolishnesse of preaching to save them that believe that the glory of the power might be of God S. Paul tells us 2 Thess. 2.13 that God hath from the beginning chosen you to Salvation through Sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth and on the other side our Saviour tells us plainly and without a parable he that believes not shall be damned Mark 16. 16. 2. Because this way of faith makes most for a christian's security against falling away Faith takes the surest and fastest hold of truth By faith ye stand 2 Cor. 1. 24. but if ye will not believe surely ye shall not be established Isai. 7.9 {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Faith and firmnesse are very neare of kind in the originall the word for faith grows upon a root that signifies to nourish no danger then of withering or fading away the just by faith shall live shall indure shall persevere Heb. 10. 38. And it signifies to be firm also Hence {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Being grounded and settled and unmoved through faith as it may be well translated Col. 1. 23. But wherein may some say doth this great strength of faith lie or how comes it to be so sure an hold-fast I answer briefly 1. It is in its own nature a depending grace and doth chain the soul to God who is Adon an immoveable basis even truth it self Its root is fastened in God and from him it draws and sucks continuall supply of strength and nourishment yea further it doth link the soul to God's truth by a mutual clasping of hands as it were The soul layes hold on God by faith and God holds our faith in his own almighty hand and none can take it thence If faith do shrink and faint at any time yet God almighty will not let go his hold and so long no danger of Apostasie This mutuall complication we may see variously exprest in Scripture Sometimes the doctrine of faith is said to be delivered unto the Saints Jude 3. Sometimes they are said to be delivered into that Rom. 6. 17. Sometimes we are said to be in the truth and on the other side that to be in us we to abide in that and that to dwell in us we to keep that and that again to keep us Our faith and God's truth are as it were mutuall hostages and pawns between God and the believing soul God he engages his truth to the soul and the soul trusts God with its faith God deposites his truth in the soul and that again places its faith in God and commits it self also into his hand by believing 1 Pet. 4. 19. God trusts Paul with his Gospel counting him faithfull 1 Tim. 1. 5. as an Ambassadour 2 Cor. 5. 19. as a steward 1 Cor. 4. 1. and Paul again trusts God with his soul for he knew whom he had trusted 2 Tim. 1. 12. In which verse also we reade of Paul's {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} which was in God's keeping and in the next verse but one we heare of another {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} committed to Timothies trust and keeping If we keep God's truth he will keep our souls Christ hath praied and God hath promised that our faith should not fail but he never did so much for our rational knowledge There is faith's first advantage 2. The second advantage which faith hath above other knowledge in holding fast the truth against temptation and persecution is this That in believing the soul rests it self upon the veracity and infallibility of God whereas in other knowledge it relies upon the goodnes of its own eye-sight in observing the principles consequents the pedigree and off-spring of truth wherein it is very subject to be mistaken and is oftimes imposed upon The Devil will sooner perswade a man's reason that the world was not created by raising difficulties and puzzling his arguments than he can perswade a believers faith that God is fallible who sayes it was created The Devil wants no sophistry the more we have to do with syllogisme and deduction the more room will he find to get in his nails Again faith overcomes the flatteries and frowns of the world by seeing through them it believes God and dare not offend him knows what heaven is and will not be cheated of it as a child for a butterflie it knows what hell is and fears God rather than men who is able to destroy both body and soul in hell Thus doth faith overcome the world by believing the promises and threatnings of God and thus hath faith a preeminence over all our natural knowledge as to closing with and keeping possession of the truth Knowledge that holds it may be till a better Oratour or a more subtile disputant come but when we shall be beaten from these out-works faith will be acitadel that will hold out against all opposition for by it the heart is fixed trusting in God and the gates of hell shall never prevail against it Thus have you the first way of holding fast that which is good viz. by believing it stedfasly I shall be briefer in those that follow Secondly We must hold fast that which is good by loving it unfeignedly We have truth here presented to us under the notion of good and surely then we cannot but love it goodnesse being love's load-stone and the proper object about which it is conversant When once the soul having entertained truth doth tast and relish it delight and take pleasure in it then doth it cleave unto it as David's soul did to Jonathan's Love is an uniting affection twining it self about the thing beloved and if it be in an intense degree the thing may possibly by violence be torn from its embraces but it will first raise all its posse to prevent it And therefore the Apostle Paul bids Timothy to hold fast the form of sound words as in faith so in love 2 Tim. 1. 13. and by this we are said to cleave unto that which is good Rom. 12. 9. Let love be without dissimulation abhorre that which is evil and cleave to that which is good {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} being glewed to it as it were which is by love as the opposition there shews That we be not as children tossed to and fro and carried about with every

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