Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	believe_v	divine_a	revelation_n	3,320	5	9.6030	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66396	The divine authority of the scriptures a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Sept. 2. 1695 : being the sixth of the lecture for the said year, founded by the honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2704; ESTC R1959	15,908	41

which they wrought Therefore while the Authors were in being there needed no Miracles to prove these Writings to be theirs when they themselves asserted them so to be And after their decease we have as much reason to believe the Scriptures which they wrote to have been of Divine Inspiration as what they taught to be a Revelation both now depending upon the like Evidence that is Testimony as to which we have no more proof of the Matter than we have of the Books 3. From hence it follows That not to believe the Scripture to have been of Divine Inspiration is in effect to reject and deny the Revelation therein contained The Scripture being the best and in the present circumstances of Mankind the only means left for the conveyance of it I say in the present circumstances it is the only means for when the circumstances were other than they are now or have been for Sixteen hundred Years and upwards there was then no such absolute need of a written Word When the Instructors of Mankind had their Lives protracted to a vast extent as it was with the Patriarch's of Old or when there were Inspired Persons alive to teach and rectify any mistakes that might arise and disturb the Peace of the Church as it was in the times of the Apostles But when things fell into an ordinary course and that fallible Persons as all afterwards were might mistake in their reports of Doctrine c. and the weak memories of others not retain what they had been taught and that the insincere would wrest what was taught to serve their perverse designs the case being thus alter'd from extraordinary to ordinary so was the means of conveyance And God that committed the Divine Oracles to be taught by Persons whom he thought fit to inspire employed the same Persons to commit that Revelation to writing for the future Preservation of it and the conveying it down safe and intire to Posterity Without which Mankind in these circumstances neither could themselves have been certain of what they were to believe nor could they have sufficiently proved to others what it was they were obliged to receive and to believe as wanting Authentick Monuments and Records for it So that we have sufficient reason to believe that the same Divine Goodness that did make known his Will to Mankind would take the best means and did take the best means for the continuing and preserving it And Scripture being the only means of that kind becomes a Rule of Faith and so is of Authority sufficient to oblige us to receive and obey it If the Matter of Scripture be true and of Divine Inspiration we are obliged by it though the Writing or Book containing it should be only of Human Composition because it is the Doctrine and not the way of delivery that passes the immediate Obligation upon us But when the Book containing that Matter as well as the Matter it self is of Divine Authority and composed by Divine Appointment Direction or Inspiration it obligeth us by vertue of the Composition as well as the Matter and both are to be jointly received as proceeding from one and the same Original and Authority But having asserted this That the Scripture is the only means of conveyance of the Will of God to Mankind and what becomes a Rule of Faith to us it is fit to return to the Question proposed viz. How we can prove the Scripture to have been of Divine Revelation or that those Books so called were wrote by the Direction and Command of God or by Inspiration from him A. 1. I Answer in the same way as before That as there is no Revelation if the Scriptural Revelation be not that Revelation so there is no written Revelation if the Scripture be not that Book and be not Inspired And then we should want the only certain means of conveyance which is Writing or should have been wholly left to the doubtful and uncertain hand of Tradition for the knowledge and preservation of Revelation Now I think this to be an Argument of considerable force for the Divine Authority of Scripture that without this means we should after a Revelation be in effect without a Revelation For so it will be if the Scripture contain not that Revelation and that we have no sufficient Record if that be not the Authentick Record of it But to come nearer the point 2. I Answer That there is as much proof for the Inspiration of the Scripture as the matter is well capable of and as much as is sufficient and if that be so then 't is unreasonable to reject it for they who do so can do it upon no less pretence than that they would have such a proof as the matter is not capable of and more than is sufficient for the proof of it But that there is such a proof for the Divine Authority of Scripture as is sufficient I think will be evident if we shew 1. That the Scriptures have for proof of their Inspiration the Testimony of such as were Inspired 2. That they were written by Persons Inspired and that were Inspired when they writ them 3. That they are worthy of such Authors and have upon them the Characters of such Inspiration 1. The Scriptures have for proof of their Inspiration the Testimony of such as were Inspired The Testimony of Persons Inspired is as much a Proof of Inspiration as if it had been a matter they themselves were Inspired with and therefore the Evidence that we have for the Inspiration of such Persons is a sufficient Evidence for the Inspiration they give Testimony to As for instance suppose that we have not as good evidence for the Inspiration of the Old Testament as we have for the New yet if the New doth justify the Inspiration of the Old quotes it as such and bestows that Character upon it then by vertue of such a Testimony we have as good Evidence for the Old as we have for the New The meer Quotation of a Book by an Inspired Person whether as to the Author Words or Matter doth not give the like Authority to that with what he himself doth write by Divine Inspiration for then Aratus and Menander Epimenides and Callimachus who were Heathens and are Quoted by St. Paul would become Inspired Writers But the Scriptures of the Old Testament are cited by our Saviour and the Apostles as the Oracles of God and as Books of Divine Authority and which they produce and appeal to upon all occasions in justification of the Doctrine which they taught So we are told that all Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the whole Scripture as Dionysius Carthus expounds it is given by Inspiration of God And what is meant by the Scripture is no other than what was generally received by the Jewish Church as such and which our Saviour distributes after their manner into the Three known parts viz. The Law of Moses the Prophets and the Psalms Which division