Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
knowledge_n	believe_v	faith_n	implicit_a	1,688	5	13.6300	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28945	The Christian virtuoso shewing that by being addicted to experimental philosophy, a man is rather assisted than indisposed to be a good Christian / by T.H.R.B., Fellow of the Royal Society ; to which are subjoyn'd, I. a discourse about the distinction that represents some things as above reason, but not contrary to reason, II. the first chapters of a discourse entituled, Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity, by the same author.	Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Reflections upon a theological distinction.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691. Greatness of mind promoted by Christianity.	1690 (1690)	Wing B3931; ESTC R19536	74,134	240

Informations as both agree with its former maimed or imperfect Notices and compleat them When for example an antique Medal half consumed with Rust is shewed to an unskilful Person though a Scholar he will not by his own Endeavours be able to read the whole Inscription whereof we suppose some parts to be obliterated by Time or Rust or to discover the Meaning of it But when a knowing Medalist becomes his Instructer he may then know some much defaced Letters that were illegible to him before and both understand the Sense of the Inscription and approve it as genuine and suitable to the Things whereto it ought to be congruous And because divers Philosophical Wits are apt as well as you to be startled at the name of Mystery and suspect that because it implies something abstruse there lyes hid some Illusion under that obscure Term I shall venture to add that agreeably to our Doctrine we may observe that divers things that relate to the Old Testament are in the New called Mysteries because they were so under the Mosaick Dispensation thô they cease to be so now that the Apostles have explained them to the World As the calling of the Gentiles into the Church of God is by their Apostle called a Mystery because to use his Phrase it had been hid from Ages and Generations Though he adds But now 't is made manifest to his Saints And the same Writer tells the Corinthians that he shows them a Mystery which he immediately explains by foretelling that all pious Believers shall not dye because that those that shall be found alive at the coming of Christ shall not sleep but be changed as the other Dead shall be raised incorruptible Which surprising Doctrine though because it could not be discovered by the Light of Nature nor of the Writings of the Old Testament he calls a Mystery yet it is no more so to us now that he hath so expresly foretold it and therefore declared it XX. Other Instances I content myself to point at in the Margin that I may pass on to confirm the Observation I formerly intimated that divers things which the Scripture teaches beyond what was known or in probability are discoverable by natural Light are so far from being against Reason by being in the sense declared above it that these Discoveries ought much to recommend the Scripture to a rational Mind because they do not only Agree with the doubtful or imperfect Notions we already had of things but Improve them if not Compleat them Nay I shall venture to add that these Intellectual Aids may not seldom help us to discern That some Things which not only are above Reason but at first sight seem to be against it are really reconcileable to Reason improved by the new Helps afforded it by Revelation To illustrate this by a Philosophical Instance when Gallileo first made his Discoveries with the Telescope and said That there were Planets that moved about Jupiter He said something that other Astronomers could not discern to be True but nothing that they could prove to be False And even when some Revelations are thought not only to transcend Reason but to clash with it it is to be considered Whether such Doctrins are really repugnant to any absolute Catholick Rule of Reason or only to something which so far depends upon the Measure of acquired Information we then enjoy that though we judge it to be Irrational yet we are not sure that the Thing this Judgment is grounded on is clearly and fully enough known to us As to resume the former Example when Gallileo or some of his Disciples affirmed Venus to be sometimes Horned like the Moon thô this Assertion were repugnant to the unanimous Doctrine of Astronomers who thought their Opinion very well grounded on no less a Testimony than That of their own Eyes yet in effect the Proof was incompetent because their unassisted Eyes could not afford them sufficient Information about this case And so when Gallileo spoke of Hills and Valleys and Shadows in the Moon they were not straight to reject what he taught but to have if not a kind of implicit Faith yet a great Disposition to believe what he delivered as upon his own Knowledge about the Figure and Number of the Planets For they knew that he had and had already successfully made use of a Way of discovering Coelestial Objects that they were not Masters of nor therefore competent Judges of all the Things though they might well be of many that he affirmed to be discoverable by it And though they could not see in the Moon what he observed Valleys Mountains and the Shadows of these yet they might justly suspect that the Difference of the Idea that they framed of that Planet and that which he proposed might well proceed from the Imperfection of their unaided Sight especially considering that what he said of the differing Constitution of what is there analogous to Sea and Land did rather Correct and Improve than absolutely Overthrow their former Notices For he allowed the Spots they saw to be darker Parts of the Moon and gave Causes of that Darkness which their bare Eyes could not have led them to any such Knowledge of And the Non-appearance of the Mountainous Parts of the Moon in that form to the naked Eye might well be imputed to the great Distance betwixt them and us since at a far less Distance square Towers appear round c. XXI It now remains that I say something that may both make some Application of the Form of Speech hitherto discoursed of and afford a Confirmation of the Grounds whereon I think it may be justified This I am the rather induced to do because I expect it will be objected that he that acknowledges that the Thing he would have us believe transcends our Reason has a Mind to deceive us and procures for himself a fair opportunity to delude us by employing an Arbitrary Distinction which he may apply as he pleases XXII But to speak first a word or two to this last Clause I acknowledge that such a Distinction is capable enough of being misapplied And I am apt to think that by some School-Divines and others it has been so But since there are other Distinctions that are generally and justly received by Learned Men and even by Philosophers themselves without having any Immunity from being capable to be perverted I know not why the Distinction we are considering should not be treated as favourably as they And however the Question at present is not whether our Distinction may possibly be misapplied by rash or imposing Men but whether it be grounded on the Nature of Things To come then to the Thing it self I consider that for an Opinion to be above Reason in the sense formerly assigned is somewhat that as was noted in reference to the first sort of Things that surpass it is Extrinsecal and Accidental to its being True or False For to be above our Reason is not

before it superven'd was judg'd to be most agreeable to Reason concern things merely Natural or Civil whereof Human Reason is held to be a proper Judge Whereas many of the Points recommended by Supernatural Experience concern things of a Superior Order many of which are not to be Adaequately estimated by the same Rules with things merely Corporeal or Civil and some of which as the Essence and manner of Existence and some peculiar Attributes of the Infinite God involve or require such a knowledge of what is Infinite as much passes the reach of our limited Intellects But this is not all For 2. You may consider in the next place that whereas 't is as Justly as Generally granted that the better qualify'd a Witness is in the capacity of a Witness the Stronger Assent his Testimony deserves we ought of all the things that can be recommended to us by Testimony to receive those with the highest degree of Assent that are taught us by God by the intervention of those Persons that appear to have been Commission'd by Him to declare his Mind to Men. For the two grand Requisites of a Witness being the knowledge he has of the things he delivers and his faithfulness in truly delivering what he knows all Human Testimony must on these accounts be inferior to Divine Testimony Since this later is warranted both by the Veracity of God which is generally acknowledg'd by those that believe his Existence and by his boundless Knowledge which makes it as impossible he should be Deceiv'd himself as the other does that he should Deceive us And because that for the delivery of the Divine Testimony we are speaking of it has oftentimes pleas'd God who is a most Free as well as a most Wise Agent to make use of Unpromising Persons as his Instruments I shall not on this occasion altogether overlook this Circumstance That an Experimental Philosopher so often encreases his Knowledge of Natural things by what He learns from the Observations and Practises even of Mean and perhaps of Illiterate Persons such as Shepherds Plowmen Smiths Fowlers c. because they are conversant with the Works of Nature that He is not only Willing to admit but often Curious to seek for Informations from them and therefore is not like to find much repugnancy in receiving the Doctrines of Reveal'd Religion such as Christianity if the Teachers of it were honest Men and had opportunity to know the Truth of the Things they deliver tho' they were Fishermen Tentmakers or some other Mean Profession And indeed to enlarge a little upon a Subject that I fear has scarce been consider'd such a person as our Virtuoso will with both great Willingness and no less Advantage Exercise himself in perusing with great Attention and much Regard the Writings of the Apostles Evangelists and Ancient Prophets notwithstanding any Meanness of their First Condition or of their Secular Employments And in these Sacred Writings He will not only readily suffer himself to be instructed in these Grand and Catholick Articles of Religion which because of their Necessity or very great Usefulness are to be met with in many places and in variety of Expressions by honest and duly dispos'd Readers But He will in stead of Disdaining such Tutors both Expect and carefully Strive to Improve his Knowledge of Divine Things in general even by those Hints and Incidental Passages that a careless or ordinary Reader would Overlook or not expect any thing from For as the Faecundity of the Scriptures is not wont to be enough discern'd when the Sacred Writers transiently touch upon or glance at a great many Subjects that they do not expresly handle and that therefore are not vulgarly taken notice of so the Docility we have ascrib'd to our Virtuoso will make him repose a great deal of Trust in the Testimony of Inspir'd Persons such as Christ and his Apostles about Things of all sorts either usually taken notice of or not that relate to Objects of a Supernatural Order especially if among these God himself and his Purposes be compriz'd since divers of those things are not knowable without Revelation and others are best known by it And to be allow'd to ground a Belief about such things on the Relations and other Testimonies of those that were in the Scripture-Phrase Eye Witnesses and Ministers of the things they speak of will by our Virtuoso be justly reputed such an advantage in order to the Knowledge of things Divine as the consulting with Navigators and Travellers to America is to him that is curious to learn the State of that New-world For an ordinary Sea-man or Traveller that had the opportunity with Columbus to sail along the several Coasts of it and pass up and down thorow the Country was able at his return to Inform Men of an hundred things that they should never have learn'd by Aristotle's Philosophy or Ptolomy's Geography and might not only Acquaint them with divers particulars consonant to the Opinions which their formerly receiv'd Physicks and Cosmography did suggest but also Rectify divers Erroneous Presumptions and Mistakes which till then they thought very agreeable to the Dictates of those Sciences and so to Reason And as one that had a candid and knowing Friend intimate with Columbus might better rely on His Informations about many particulars of the Natural History of those Parts than on those of an hundred School-Philosophers that knew but what they learned from Aristotle Pliny Aelian and the like ancient Naturalists so and much more may we rely on the Accounts given us of Theological Things by the Apostles and constant Attendants of him that lay in the Bosom of God his Father and Commission'd them to declare to the World the Whole Counsel of God as far as 't was necessary for Man to know We know that Fuller Try al 's are allow'd among Ingenious Men to rectify the Informations of the more Imperfect Ones and therefore I shall add that tho' the Innate Notions and Sentiments that Nature gives us of the Attributes and Mind of God be highly to be priz'd yet the Informations that Theological Experience affords of those Abstruse things is far more Excellent and Compleat For methinks those great Depths of God may be compar'd to the Depths of the Ocean And we know that in the Sea there are some Abysses so deep that the Seaman's Sounding-Lines have never been able to reach to the bottom of them and where they are not Unfathomable all we are wont to do by our Soundings is to fetch from the bottom some little Gravel or Mud or Shells or some such thing that sticks to the tallow'd end of the Plummet and gives us but a very imperfect account of the Bottom even of the Shallower Parts of the Sea But if a Skilful Diver be employ'd he will not only tell us whether the Bottom be Muddy Gravelly or Sandy but will be able to give us a kind of Topography of that Submarine Land and

acquaint us with many Surprizing Particulars that we should never otherwise have Discover'd or perchance so much as Dream'd of And peradventure it may be no Hyperbole to say that the Informations of a Plummet which reaches not to Some Depths and brings but a very slender account of Soils that lye in Any are not more short of those of a Diver than the Informations Philosophy gives us of some Divine things are of those compleater Ones that may be had from the Holy Scriptures And when I remember how many Opinions about the Submarine Parts that I among many other Men thought Probable I found cause to Change upon the Conversation I had with a famous Diver that sometimes by the help of an Engine stay'd several hours at the bottom of the Sea I find the less Reluctancy to suffer Opinions about Divine Matters that before seem'd probable to me to be Rectifi'd by the fuller Discoveries made of those things by the Preachers of the Gospel You may find some things applyable to the Confirmation of what has been newly deliver'd in an Essay which you may see when you please that considers the Bounds and Use of Experience in Natural Philosophy Wherefore remembring that before this late Excursion I was speaking of Miracles I shall now resume the Subject and proceed to tell you that I have the more insisted upon the Miracles that may be pleaded to recommend the Christian Religion because I thought that an Argument grounded on Them is little less than Absolutely Necessary to Evince that any Religion that Men believe to be Supernaturally Reveal'd and consequently that the Christian does really proceed from God For tho' the Excellency of the Christian Doctrine and other concurrent Motives may justly persuade me that 't is worthy and likely to be given by God yet that de facto this Doctrine comes from Him by way of Supernatural Revelation I can scarce be sufficiently Ascertained but by the Miracles wrought by Christ and his Disciples to Evince that the Doctrine they Preach'd as Commission'd by God to do so was indeed His being as such own'd by Him But these Miracles having been wrought when 't was most fit and needful they should be wrought in the first Ages of the Church We that live at so great a distance from them can have no knowledge of them by our Own Senses or Immediate Observation but must Believe them upon the account of the formerly mention'd Historical or Vicarious Experience which is afforded us by the duly transmitted Testimony of those that were themselves to speak once more in an Evangelist's phrase Eye-Witnesses and Ministers of the things they relate And since we scruple not to believe such strange Prodigies as Celestial Comets Vanishing and Reappearing Stars Islands founded by Subterraneal Fires in the Sea Darkenings of the Sun for many months together Earthquakes reaching above a thousand miles in length and the like amazing Anomalies of Nature upon the credit of Human Histories I see not why that Vicarious Experience should not more be trusted which has divers peculiar and concurrent Circumstances to confirm it and particularly the Death that most of the first Promulgators chearfully Suffer'd to Attest the Truth of it and the Success and Spreading of the Doctrine authoriz'd by those Miracles and receiv'd chiefly upon their account To which things some perhaps would add that 't is less incredible that the Author of Nature should for most weighty purposes make stupendous Alterations of the course of Nature than that Nature her self for no such end should by such Prodigies as are newly mention'd as it were throw her self out of her own Course Miracles being so necessary to the establishment of Reveal'd Religion in general it may be look'd upon as a farther Disposition in our Virtuoso to receive the Christian Religion that the Philosophy he cultivates does much conduce to enable him to judge aright of those strange things that are by many Propos'd as Miracles and Believ'd to be so For first the knowledge he has of the Various and sometimes very Wonderful Operations of some Natural things especially when they are skilfully improv'd and dexterously apply'd by Art particularly Mathematicks Mechanicks and Chymistry will qualify him to distinguish between things that are only strange and surprizing and those that are truly miraculous So that he will not mistake the Effects of Natural Magick for those of a Divine Power And by this well-instructed Wariness he will be able to discover the Subtil Cheats and Collusions of Impostors by which not only Multitudes of all Religions especially Heathen but even Learned Men of most Religions for want of an insight into real Philosophy have formerly been or are at this day deluded and drawn into Idolatrous Superstitious or otherwise Erroneous Tenents or Practices And on the other side the knowledge our Virtuoso may have of what cannot be justly expected or pretended from the Mechanical Powers of Matter will enable him to discern that divers things are not produceable by Them without the intervention of an Intelligent Superior Power on which score he will frankly acknowledge and heartily believe divers Effects to be truly Miraculous that may be plausibly enough ascrib'd to other Causes in the Vulgar Philosophy where Men are taught and wont to attribute Stupendous unaccountable Effects to Sympathy Antipathy Fuga vacui Substantial Forms and especially to a certain Being presum'd to be almost Infinitely Potent and Wise which they call Nature For This is represented as a king of Goddess whose Power may be little less than boundless as I remember Galen himself compares it to that of God and saith that He could not do such a thing because Nature cannot and Censures Moses for speaking as if he were of another Mind The whole Passage is so weighty that I thought fit to direct you to it in the Margent tho' to comply with my hast I forbear to transcribe and descant upon so prolix a One and add to it divers other Passages that I have met with in famous Authors who for want of knowing the true Extent of the Powers of Matter and Motion left to themselves in the Ordinary Course of things Ascribe to Natural Causes as they call them such Effects as are beyond their reach unless they be Elevated by Agents of a Superior Order I know it may be objected that the hitherto-mention'd Dispositions that Experimental Knowledge may give a Man to Admit the Histories of the Miracles recorded in the Gospel and likewise to Expect that God will be able to perform the Promises and Menaces that are in his name deliver'd there may be countervail'd by this That those who are so much acquainted with the Mysteries of Nature and her various and strange ways of Working as a Virtuoso may well be may by that Knowledge be strongly tempted to think that those surprizing things that other Men call Miracles are but Effects of Her Power the Extent of which is not easily discern'd by ordinary Men