Selected quad for the lemma: knowledge_n
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A53726
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The reason of faith, or, An answer unto that enquiry, wherefore we believe the scripture to be the word of God with the causes and nature of that faith wherewith we do so : wherein the grounds whereon the Holy Scripture is believed to be the word of God with faith divine and supernatural, are declared and vindicated / by John Owen ...
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing O801; ESTC R38888
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113,423
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211
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them on their Lusts Hos. 2. 8. It is an higher Aggravation when men in sinning abuse and dishonour their own Bodies for these are the principal external Workmanship of God being made for Eternity and whose Preservation unto his Glory is committed unto us in an especial manner This the Apostle declareth to be the peculiar Aggravation of the Sin of Fornication and Uncleanness in any kind 1 Cor. 6. 18 19. But the Height of Impiety consists in the Abuse of the Faculties aud Powers of the Soul wherewith we are endowed purposely and immediately for the glorifying of God Hence proceed Unbelief Prophaness Blasphemy Atheism and the like Pollutions of the Spirit of Mind And these are Sins of the highest Provocation For the Powers and Faculties of our Minds being given us only to enable us to live unto God the diverting of their principal Exercise unto other Ends is an Act of Enmity against him and Affront unto him 1. He makes himself known unto us by the innate Principles of our Nature unto which he hath communicated as a Power of apprehending so an indelible Sense of his Being his Authority and his Will so far as our natural Dependance on him and moral Subjection unto him do require For whereas there are two things in this natural Light and first Dictates of Reason first a Power of Conceiving Discerning and Assenting and secondly a Power of Judging and Determining upon the things so discerned and assented unto by the one God makes known his Being and Essential Properties by the other his Sovereign Authority over all As to the first the Apostle affirms that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 1. 19. That which may be known of God his Essence Being Subsistence his natural necessary essential Properties is manifest in them that is it hath a self evidencing Power acting it self in the Minds of all Men indued with natural Light and Reason And as unto his Sovereign Authority he doth evidence it in and by the Consciences of men which are the Judgment that they make and cannot but make of themselves and their Actions with respect unto the Authority and Judgment of God Rom. 2. 14 15. And thus the Mind doth assent unto the Principles of God's Being and Authority antecedently unto any actual Exercise of the discursive Faculty of Reason or other Testimony whatever 2. He doth it unto our Reason in its Exercise by proposing such things unto its Consideration as from whence it may and cannot but conclude in an Assent unto the Truth of what God intends to reveal unto us that way This he doth by the Works of Creation and Providence which present themselves unavoidably unto Reason in its Exercise to instruct us in the Nature Being and Properties of God Thus the Heavens declare the Glory of God and the Firmament sheweth his handy-Work Day unto Day uttereth Speech and Night unto Night sheweth Knowledge There is no Speech nor Language where their Voice is not heard Psal. 19. 1 2 3. But yet they do not thus declare evidence and reveal the Glory of God unto the first Principles and Notions of natural Light without the actual Exercise of Reason Only they do so when we consider his Heavens the Work of his Fingers the Moon and the Stars which he hath ordained as the same Psalmist speaks Psal. 8. 3. A rational Consideration of them their Greatness Order Beauty and Use is required unto that Testimony and Evidence which God gives in them and by them unto Himself his glorious Being Power To this purpose the Apostle discourseth at large concerning the Works of Creation Rom. 1. 20 21 22. as also of those of Providence Acts 14. 15 16 17. chap. 17. 24 25 26 27 28. and the rational Use we are to make of them verse 29. So God calls unto Men for the Exercise of their Reason about these Things reproaching them with Stupidity and Brutishness where they are wanting therein Isa 46. 7 8 9. chap. 44. 18 19. 20. 3. God reveals himself unto our Faith or that Power of our Souls whereby we are able to assâ—nt unto the Truth of what is proposed unto us upon Testimony And this he doth by his Word or the Scriptures proposed unto us in the manner and way before expressed He doth not reveal himself by his Word unto the Principles of natural Light nor unto Reason in its Exercise But yet these Principles and Reason it self with all the Faculties of our Minds are consequentially affected with that Revelation and are drawn forth into their proper Exercise by it But in the Gospel the Righteousness of God is revealed from Faith to Faith Rom. 1. 17. not to natural Light Sense or Reason in the first place And it is Faith that is the Evidence of things not seen as revealed in the Word Heb. 11. 1. Unto this kind of Revelation Thus saith the Lord is the only Ground and Reason of our Assent and that Assent is the Assent of Faith because it is resolved into Testimony alone And concerning these several ways of the Communication or Revelation of the Knowledge of God it must be always observed that there is a perfect consonancy in the things revealed by them all If any thing pretends from the one what is absolutely contradictory unto the other or our Senses as the means of them it is not to be received The Foundation of the whole as of all the actings of our Souls is in the inbred Principles of natural Light or first necessary Dictates of our intellectual rational Nature This so far as it extends is a Rule unto our Apprehension in all that follows Wherefore if any pretend in the Exercise of Reason to conclude unto any thing concerning the Nature Being or Will of God that is directly contradictory unto those Principles and Dictates it is no Divine Revelation unto our Reason but a Paralogism from the defect of Reason in its Exercise This is that which the Apostle chargeth on and vehemently urgeth against the Heathen Philosophers Inbred Notions they had in themselves of the Being and Eternal Power of God and these were so manifest in them thereby that they could not but own them Hereon they set their rational discursive Faculty at work in the Consideration of God and his Being But herein were they so vain and foolish as to draw Conclusions directly contrary unto the first Principles of natural Light and the unavoidable Notions which they had of the Eternal Being of God Rom. 1. 21 22 23 24. And many upon their pretended rational Consideration of the promiscuous Event of things in the World have foolishly concluded that all things had a fortuitous Beginning and have fortuitous Events or such as from a Concatenation of antecedent Causes are fatally necessarily and are not disposed by an infinitely Wise Unerring Holy Providence And this also is directly contradictory unto the first Principles and Notions of natural Light whereby it openly proclaims it self not to be an Effect of Reason in its due
whatever various Apprehensions men may have through their Weakness or Prejudices concerning the things taught therein yet are they in themselves absolutely the same that ever they were and that without the loss or change of a material Word or Syllable in the manner of their Delivery This I have proved elsewhere and it is a thing capable of the most evident Demonstration Wherefore whatever Entertainment this Gospel meets withal at present in the World its former Prevalency may be pleaded in Justification of its divine Original 2. The Cause of this Event lyeth principally in the Soveraign Will and Pleasure of God For although the Scripture be his Word and he hath testified it so to be by his Power put forth and exerted in Dispensations of it unto men yet is not that divine Power included or shut up in the Letter of it so that it must have the same Effect where ever it comes We plead not that there is absolutely in its self its Doctrine the Preaching or Preachers thereof such a Power as it were naturally and physically to produce the Effects mentioned But it is an Instrument in the Hand of God unto that work which is his own and he puts forth his Power in it and by it as it seems good unto him And if he doth at any time so put forth his divine Power in the Administration of it or in the use of this Instrument as that the great Worth and Excellency of it shall manifest it self to be from him he giveth a sufficient Attestation of it Wherefore the Times and Seasons of the Prevalency of the Gospel in the World are in the Hand and at the Sovereign Disposal of God And as he is not obliged for who hath known the Mind of the Lord or who hath been his Counsellor to accompany it with the same Power at all times and seasons so the Evidence of his own Power going along with it at any time whiles under an open Claim of a divine Original is an uncontroulable Approbation of it Thus at the first Preaching of the Word to fullfil the Promises made unto the Fathers from the Foundation of the World to glorify his Son Jesus Christ and the Gospel it self which he had revealed he put forth that effectual divine Power in its Administration whereby the World was subdued unto the Obedience of it And the Time will come when he will revive the same Work of Power and Grace to retrieve the World into a subjection to Jesus Christ. And although he doth not in these latter Ages cause it to run and prosper among the Nations of the world who have not as yet received it as he did formerly yet considering the state of things at present among the Generality of Mankind the Preservation of it in that small Remnant by whom it is obeyed in sincerity is a no less glorious Evidence of his Presence with it and Care over it than was its eminent Propagation in days of old 3. The Righteousness of God is in like manner to be considered in these things For whereas he had granted the inestimable Priviledge of his Word unto many Nations they through their horrible ingratitude and wickedness detained the Truth in Vnrighteousness so that the continuance of the Gospel among them was no way to the Glory of God no nor yet unto their own Advantage For neither Nations nor Persons will ever be advantaged by an outward Profession of the Gospel whilst they live in a Contradiction and Disobedience to its Precepts yea nothing can be more pernicious to the Souls of Men. This Impiety God is at this day revenging on the Nations of the World having utterly cast off many of them from the Knowledg of the Truth and given up others unto strong Delusions to believe Lies though they retain the Scriptures and outward Profession of Christianity How far he may proceed in the same way of Righteous Vengeance towards other Nations also we know not but ought to tremble in the Consideration of it When God first granted the Gospel unto the World although the Generality of Mankind had greatly sinned against the Light of Nature and had rejected all those supernatural Revelations that at any time had been made unto them yet had they not sinned against the Gospel it self nor the Grace thereof It pleased God therefore to wink at and pass over that Time of their Ignorance so as that his Justice should not be provoked by any of their former sins to with-hold the Efficacy of his divine Power in the Administration of the Gospel from them whereby he called them to Repentance But now after that the Gospel hath been sufficiently tendred unto all Nations and hath either as unto its Profession or as unto its Power with the Obedience that it requires been rejected by the most of them things are quite otherwise stated It is from the Righteous Judgment of God revenging the sins of the World against the Gospel it self that so many Nations are deprived of it and so many left obstinate in its Refusal Wherefore the present state of things doth no way weaken or prejudice the Evidence given unto the Scripture by that mighty Power of God which accompanied the Administration of it in the World For what hath since fallen out there are secret Reasons of Sovereign Wisdom and open Causes in Divine Justice whereunto it is to be assigned These things I have briefly called over and not as though they were all of this kind that may be pleaded but only to give some Instance of those external Arguments whereby the divine Authority of the Scripture may be confirmed Now these Arguments are such as are able of themselves to beget in the Minds of Men sober humble intelligent and unprejudiced a firm Opinion Judgment and Perswasion that the Scripture doth proceed from God Where Persons are prepossessed with invincible Prejudices contracted by a Course of Education wherein they have imbibed Principles opposite and contrary thereunto and have increased and fortified them by some fixed and hereditary Enmity against all those whom they know to own the Divinity of the Scripture as it is with Mahometans aud some of the Indians these Arguments it may be will not prevail immediately to work nor effect their Assent It is so with respect unto them also who out of Love unto and Delight in those ways of Vice Sin and Wickedness which are absolutely and severely condemned in the Scripture without the least hope of a Dispensation unto them that continue under the Power of them who will not take these Arguments into due Consideration Such Persons may talk and discourse of them but they never weigh them seriously according as the Importance of the Cause doth require For if men will examine them as they ought it must be with a sedate Judgment that their eternal Condition depends upon a right Determination of this Enquiry But for those who can scarce get Liberty from the Service and Power of their Lusts seriously