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	faith_n	revelation_n	2,830	5	9.5573	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26160	An Attestation to the testimony of our reverend brethren of the province of London to the truth of Jesus Christ, and to our Solemn League and Covenant as also against the errours, heresies, and blasphemies of these times, and the toleration of them, resolved on by the ministers of Cheshire, at their meeting May 2, and subscribed at their next meeting, June 6, 1648.		1648 (1648)	Wing A4161; ESTC R17649	58,802	68

if they bee published in Bookes and Pamphlets that they ought to pursue them with zeale as hot as fire that they may bee burned as the Bookes of (g) Abderites Protagoras cum in principi● libri sui sic posuisset de Diis neque ut sint neque ut non sint habeo dicere libri ejus in concione combusti sunt Cicer. de Nat. Deo l. 1. p. 206. Abderites Protagoras were at Athens for his speaking doubtfully of Religion in the beginning of them and the bookes of curious arts at Ephesus Acts 19.19 and the Bookes of the hereticks as of (h) Nicep Calist l. 8. Eccl. Hist c. 18. col 384. Arius and others and that the persons of such as are forward to poyson soules with pernicious errours if when they be forbidden they will not forbeare ought either to be confined or exiled a ● (i) Athen●ensium jussu urbe atque agro exterminatus est librique ejus ut supra ad lirt g. Abderites Protagoras was by the Civill authority and no more to be allowed liberty to seduce the soules of men to the belief of damnable doctrines then those who have the Plague sore running upon them to come into all companies or for furious mad men to bee permitted to walke at large with Swords in their hands to wound and kill whom they meet if they have a mind unto it And wee take it to bee the true Bloody Tenent which might give denomination to the Booke of that title though the Authour meant no such matter k Bloody Tenent p. 2. That it is the will of God that since the comming of his Son Christ Iesus a permission of the most Pagan Iewish Turkish and Antichristian consciences and worships be granted to all men in all Nations and Countries and that they are onely to bee fought against with that which onely in soule matters is able to conquer to wit the sword of Gods Spirit the Word of God And (l) Ibid. c. 3. p. 19. that to molest any person Iew or Gentile for either professing doctrine or practising Worship meerely Religious or Spirituall is to persecute him and such a person what ever his Doctrine or practice bee true or false suffers the persecution for conscience Which are such maximes of soule-murther as if when hee wrote them Satan who most thirsteth for the blood of souls did not onely stand at his right hand as Psal 119.6 but did guide his pen while he wrote such paradoxes of perdition against which it were an easie taske if it were any part of our present undertaking to make good the contrary tenent of (m) Mea primitus Sententia erat neminem ad veritatem Christi esse cogendum Sed haec opinio mea non contradicentium verbis sed demonstrantium superabatur exemplis Aug. Ep. 48. Vincentio p. 195. Augustine Where hee corrected his former remisnesse and lenity towards the erronious by resolving upon better consideration that men may be compelled to their own good and overruled when they are in an evill mind which is the summary contents of his Epistle to Donatus the Donatist when cited to the councell hee offered to make away himselfe by the way Fourthly In opposition to the prodigious indulgence forenoted and to the evill effects it may produce if not opposed by the Magistrates as well as by the Ministers We conceive it was necessary for the High Court of Parliament to set forth an Ordinance for the punishing of Blasphemies n The same day the Ministers of Cheshire met at Northwich and resolved of an Attestation to the Testimony to the truth of Jesus Christ c. as they did the second of May 1648. Whereof the summary Contents which wee think meet to mention in this place are that all such persons as shall from and after the date of this present Ordinance willingly by preaching teaching printing or writing maintain and publish that there is no God or that God is not present in all places doth not know and foreknow all things or that hee is not Almighty that he is not perfectly Holy or that he is not Eternall or that the Father is not God the Son is not God or that the Holy Ghost is not God or that shall in like manner maintaine and publish that Christ is not God equall with the Father or shall deny the manhood of Christor that the Godhead and Manhood of Christ are severall natures or that the humanity of Christ is pure and unspotted from all sinne or that shall maintain or publish as aforesaid that Christ did not dye nor rise from the dead nor is ascended into heaven bodily or that deny his death is meritorious in the behalfe of Beleevers or that shall maintain and publish as aforesaid that the holy Scriptures of the Old Testament from the first of Genesis to Malachi and of the New Testament from Matthew to the Revelation is not the Word of God or that the bodies of men shall not rise againe or that there is no day of Iudgement after death All such maintaining and publishing of such errour or errours is made felony and the party accused thereof by the oath of two witnesses before any two of the next Iustices who in such a case are authorized by the Ordinance to minister an Oath or by confession of the party shall by them bee committed to prison without baile or mainprize untill the next Gaole-delivery at which hee shall bee indicted for felonious publishing and maintaining such errour And in case the Indictment bee found and the party upon his triall shall not abjure his said errour and defence and maintenance of the same hee shall suffer the paines of death as in case of felonie without benefit of Clergie and in case hee shall renounce and abjure his c. Hee shall neverthelesse remaine in prison untill hee shall find two sureties being subsidy men that hee shall not thenceforth publish c. And if after abjuration hee relapse and it bee proved as aforesaid hee shall suffer death as in case of Felony without benefit of Clergy And it is further Ordained by authority aforesayd that every person that shall publish or maintain as aforesaid that all men shall bee faved or that man by nature hath free will to turn to God or that God may bee worshipped in or by pictures or Images or that the soule of any man after death goeth neither to heaven or hell but to Purgatory or that the soule of man dyeth or sleepeth when the body is dead or that Revelations or the workings of the Spirit are a rule of faith or Christian life though diverse from or contrary to the written word of God or that man is bound to beleeve no more then by his reason he can comprehend or that the Morall law of God contained in the ten Commandements is no rule of Christian life or that a beleever need not repent or pray for pardon of sinnes or that the two Sacraments of

AN ATTESTATION TO THE Testimony of our reverend Brethren of the Province of LONDON To the Truth of JESUS CHRIST and to our SOLEMN LEAGUE and COVENANT AS ALSO Against the Errours Heresies and Blasphemies of these Times and the Toleration of them Resolved on by the Ministers of Cheshire at their meeting May 2. and subscribed at their next Meeting June 6. 1648. Now I beseech you Brethren by the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same things and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgment 1 Cor. 1.10 Sunt qui quod sentiant etiamsi optimum sit tamenn invidiae metu non audent dicere Cicer. de Offic. l. 1. p. 362. edit Lutet 1554. Patiemúrne igitur extingui aut opprimi veritatem ego verò libentius vel sub hoc onere defecerim Lact. de Opificio Dei c. 21. p. 808. edit Lugdun 1594. London Printed by R. Cotes for Christopher Meredith at the Crane in Pauls-church-yard 1648. AN ATTESTATION Of the MINISTERS of CHESHIRE To the TESTIMONY of the Reverend Brethren of the Province of London TO THE Truth of JESVS CHRIST And to our Solemn League and Covenant As also Against ERROVRS c. SECT I. Reverend and Well-beloved Brethren WEE cannot but apprehend it as an especiall providence of God that so many godly and faithfull Ministers of Christ in the Countrey partly drawn together by authority of Parliament to make up the Assembly of Divines at Westminster and partly driven to London as to a City of refuge for safety and succour from the violence and outrage of the adverse party have been lawfully allowed and have frequently injoyed many opportunities for communication of counsells and contribution of indeavours to carry on the Covenanted Reformation towards an happy conclution which are like to be frustrate of much of the fruit and good effect desired by them unlesse there be a consciencious concurrence of your other brethren who upon the same principles and interests stand deeply ingaged with you earnestly to contend for the faith which was once delivered to the Saints as just occasion is offered to shew themselves not only resolute Protestants for it but religious Detestants against all errors heresies and blasphemies which are contrary to it Wherein though you have precedency before us and advantage above us both for intelligence and accommedation of convening and consequently for consultation consent and publication of what you resolve on we meant at least some of us from the first view of your printed Testimony to the Truth of Jesus Christ you should not therein bee singular without us And now all of us whose names are subscribed doe freely and publickly professe both how far and upon what grounds and reasons we give our Attestation to the contents of your booke forementioned and first how far wee doe it and for that First We wel like the latitude of your generall Title in that it speaks against errours heresies and blasphemies and for that in the particular Titles all along your booke you use the word errour only and adde not the other words heresie and blasphemy though many of the positions recited by you be materially both hereticall and blasphemous wherein wee conceive you have been discreetly cautelous to prevent exception for there is great doubt much dispute and difficultie to determine what heresie is and what opinion is hereticall Thence it is that (a) Epiph. An. 370. Ephanius and (b) Phil. An. 380. Philastrius who both of them wrote of heresies before (c) Aug. An. 420. Augustine agree not in their Catalogue for the one accounts those tenents to be heresies which the other doth not And that (d) Bellarm. de Christo lib. 2. c. 19. Tom. 1. p. 132 133. Bellarmine doth acquit Calvin from the heresie charged upon him by Genebrard for teaching that Christ is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But though it may be questioned of many opinions whether they be heresies or no it may bee manifest enough that they be errours Secondly We approve that you passe your consine upon heresies in abstract● as Epiphanius Philastrius Augustine Alphonsus à Castro not upon Hereticks in Concret● as (e) Adversus hujus temporis haereticos Bell. in title page of his disputations Bellarmine doth who entitles his disputations not against the Heresies but the Hereticks of these times For that is farre more difficult to determine then the other What makes an Hereticke cannot as I conceive at all or very hardly be comprehended in a regular definition said (f) Quid facit haereticum regulari quadam definitione comprehendi sicut ego existimo aut omnino non potest aut difficillime p●test Aug. de Haeres ad quod vult Deum Tom. 6. p. 11. Augustine many a hundred yeers agoe The modern Arminians say as much or more viz. (g) Sciri hodie non posse quis sit haereticus So the Arminians Apud Nicol. Vedel part 4. defens Arcani Armin. lib. 1. cap. 2. p. 3. that it cannot be knowne in these times who is an Heretick but they are the lesse to be beleeved because of more light in latter times for the discovery of truth and error then in the ages more remote Yet is there great difficultie and by reason thereof there may bee much deceit and errour in an inconsiderate application of the word Hereticke though to a man of erroneous opinion yea though grossely erroneous This difficultie was the cause that some of the Antients who wrote against Hereticks were numbred with Hereticks themselves as (h) Bellarmine in effect calls Tertullian heretick when he saith Tertullianum inter Catholicos non numeramus Bellarm. de poenit l. 1. c. 1. Tom. 3. p. 377. col 1. Tertullian (i) Epiphan Haeres 64. in a Synod of Alexandria an 399 vide Fran. Long. sum concil p. 324. and 325. and Origen and that some of those who wrote of heresies since them have (k) Bernard Lutzenburg misere errasse qui Catalogum Haereticorum describens aliquos recenset qui nunquam in fide catholica fuerunt Alphon. a castro Adversus haeres lib. 1. c. 9. f. 23. p. 6. as Alphonsus a Castro writeth of Bernard Lutzenburg bren miserably mistaken in taking those for hereticks who were not and so came (l) Epiphan haeres 75. Aerius to be listed in the black-bill of heretickes for denying the distinction betwixt a Bishop and a Presbyter And for the same opinion in kind though differing in degree was (m) Marc. Anton. De Dom. Spalat de repub Eccles l. 2. c. 3. p. 240. Hierom taken for an Aerian Hereticke by Michael Medina but foolishly and ignorantly saith the (n) Deseruimus in hac parte Hieronym Sed non propterea stulte imperite quod facit Michael Medina illum Hereticum facimus Aerianum M. Anton. de Dom. Arch. Spalat ubi supra Arch-bishop of Spalat