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
A28445	Religio laici written in a letter to John Dryden, Esq.	Blount, Charles, 1654-1693.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700. Religio laici.; Herbert of Cherbury, Edward Herbert, Baron, 1583-1648. De religione laici.	1683 (1683)	Wing B3314; ESTC R2743	24,729	118

the different Sects of Christian Religion alone took up more time in the study of them than I could possibly hope to obtain altho' I should live beyond the ordinary age of man so that whereas I thought my self obliged for the discharge of my Conscience to study not only all Religions that have been or are in the World I found the Romanish Religion in its divers Sects alone of greater Intricacie than that I could by any Reason or Authority dissolve or unty the many Scruples or Knots in them since flying somtimes from Reason to Faith and then again from Faith to Reason with a singular agility in both I found my self unable to follow them in any one certain way I confess that if they had adhered singly to either of these two nothing could have scandalized me since that which was delivered upon Reason I should have examined and finally accepted upon the same ground and as well should I have believed those Points of Faith which were delivered me upon the Reverend Authority of the Church especially when it could have been proved that any former Church or Congregation had under their hands and Seals or in any other Authentick manner subscribed as eye-Witnesses to that they consign'd unto Posterity and not as Hearers only it being of great moment in the affirmation of things past to set down what they knew certainly and to come afterwards to what was told them by others which they again had from others and so perhaps from many descents especially if such things were related as neither they from whom they heard it nor indeed any mortal man by Natural Means could know Neither would it be sufficient to say that their Knowledge was Supernatural or Divine since as that is more than could be known in following times so when it were granted it would inferr little to me but that which I would believe without it For if any under the name of a Prophet should bid me do a Sin or be Impenitent for Sins done I should not believe him though he pretended a thousand Revelations for it And on the other side if he bid me be Vertuous and Penitent though he had not any shadow of Revelation for it I should give entire Credit to him The Validity of Revelation proved by its Doctrine That therefore the Certainty of that Doctrine which is called Revealed or the word of God in any Age or Country comes not to me simply either from the Authority of him that said the holy Spirit did so dictate the word to him No nor from the Authority of them that believed it how many or great soever but from the Goodness of the Doctrine it self without which I should believe but little in any extraordinary kind Every man in what Age or Country that teacheth goodness speaks the word of God to me and if the Contrary he shall never make me believe he knoweth God or heard him speak so much as one syllable much less that he is so familiar with God as to know him by his Voice Four several kinds of Revelations The Learned Tostatus mentions four several ways whereby God is said to have made Revelations in former times as for Example First when God and his Angels assumed a visible shape as when he appeared to Gideon Judg. 6. and to Manoah and his Wife Judg. 13. Secondly When he was not seen but only heard as Numb 7. and when he called Samuel 1 Sam. 3. Thirdly When he wrought only upon the Imaginations of men sleeping or waking as when God told Abimelech in a Dream that he was a dead man for taking away another mans Wife Gen. 20. Fourthly and lastly When God raiseth the Understanding to know those things which otherwise he could not know either by a kind of Extasie or without and of this kind was Paul's rapture into the third Heavens at which time it may be doubtful whether the Soul remained in the Body or no. Having thus now recited his several kinds of Revelations it will be necessary in the next place to enquire whether there might not be Fallacies in all these ways And when there was no Fallacy whether their Proof was not only by single Witnesses The Popish Clergie in such a case will tell us That we must believe reverently of things delivered to us in Holy Writ for that they have neither Errour nor Fraud in them And if that does not satisfie you they will then tell you you must come to them for a further Answer Not considering that if the Gentiles should require the same credit to be given to their Revelations upon their own single Testimony how we should do to shake them off the same Reason lying for us to believe the one as the other both equally depending on Faith A Dialogue concerning Revelations Therefore in the first place I should demand in a Rational and Judicial way how I could be assured that the Priests had received a Revelation and what was the time place and manner thereof In Answer to which I conceive the Priests would tell me That Laicks ought not further to enquire into such Mysteries than becomes them that if this their Revelation were not accepted as an unquestionable and necessary Truth there could be no cause thereof but an obdurate heart and want of Divine Grace in me that if the Sacerdotal word might not be taken concerning the Truth of the said Revelation there was no other way to inform me thereof It being Gods manner to speak to his beloved Servants and not to such gross Sinners as I was and to be brief that if I did not give entire credit to this Revelation of theirs it was for want of Faith And therefore that no better counsel could be given me than to pray that all obstructions might be taken away and instead of my heart of stone that I might receive an heart of flesh such as may be capable of this heavenly Illumination Finally They would reply nothing concerning the time or manner of their Revelation but only in general say that the Place was God's holy Temple where none could be partakers of the Word of God but such only as were his near Servants and did ordinarily take their rest and sleep therein Now to this I should Answer That if I might not know the time and manner when and how this their Revelation was made I would yet gladly be informed what Language was used betwixt them and whether the words were of God's immediate invention or that there were only certain Notes and Characters in use betwixt them whereby they understood one another Or otherwise if they had not a particular Language betwixt them which was intelligible whether God spake the ordinary Language of that Country and in what Tone whether the same were lowder than Thunder or only the ordinary heighth or whether lower yet by some close or secret expression somewhat less than a whisper To which I believe the Priests would Reply That if a King or Principal Magistrate

Principal End for the Which those Rites were ordained Fifthly and lastly That I thought the doing some good Deed speaking some good Word or thinking some good Thought were more necessary Exercises of my Life than that I should omit them for any Consideration whatsoever Having thus therefore setled these Five Points as Fundamental and together demonstrated that we ought to give them the first place in our Religion I shall come to that Supplemental Part called Faith which Word as I find among Authors is used in two divers Senses and thus distinguished First As it is understood to be a firm assent given to Things past upon the Credit and Authority of others And secondly As it is taken for a Faculty of the Soul laying hold and fixing it self on God's Providence and Goodness hereafter if we do the best we can Where we must observe That as the first Faith hath its next or most immediate Testimoney from Man and consequently is true or false as they who first affirmed it were So the second Faith is by all Churches held necessary to be used as the best means for the uniting of our Souls with God when true Piety and a Good Life do concur insomuch as I am confident this latter kind of Faith may be found in good Men tho no Tradition of former times ever come to their Knowledge Whereas the other Faith depending chiefly on Revelations Miracles and Prophecies hath in it many Difficulties as I have said before and is not only controverted among the stricter Proselytes of it but in a manner rejected by those Nations among whom other Faiths have been taught by their Lawgivers for all Faiths have been shaken but those only which stand upon the Basis of Common Reason Notwithstanding all which as I thought it concerned me among those several and miraculous Traditions which were not impossible to have been true if God so pleased not to distrust and doubt of all Wherefore I applyed my self chiefly to the Christian Faith contained in the Holy Bible as having in it more exact Precepts for the Teaching us a good life and repentance than any other Book whatsoever that I could meet with and besides I found my self through Gods Providence born in the Christian Church and instructed even from my Infancy in the Holy Doctrines drawn from thence But as together I observed many things taught in the said Church which were not only vehemently opposed by other Christian Churches but also repudiated in their chief parts among other Nations So I found no such solid Foundation to build this my Faith upon as the Authority in general of the Christian Church resolving according to the saying of a Learned Father That those things I never had known without the Church I never had believed without it Neither did the Controversies among them much move me since being a meer Laick I had neither Will nor Leisure to engage my self in the clearing of those doubts the scruples of those variously agitated disputes by Men equally Learned being of such intricacy that I saw more and more might be said about them than that I should presume to determine any thing by the Judgment of the best Authors I could peruse on either side So that for my final resolution I thought the best grounds of my Faith ought to be taken from those points which were piously assented to by all Christians and might aptly consist with my aforementioned Five Articles But for the disputes and controversies of Learned Men to lay them aside until they were agreed amongst themselves and in the mean while to attend a good life and repentance assuring my self that in the quality of a Laick or Secular Person my time was better imployed so than in the inexplicable subtleties of the Schoolmen To conclude I embraced the five Catholick Articles for the Reasons above mentioned from whence coming to the Doctrines of Faith I believed piously upon the reverend Authority of the Church that which was unanimously taught by them without any contradictions All which I have here set down with no intention to scandalize any but only to give a Reason as well of those Points which may be known as of those which are already believed in the Christian Religion And also to induce men by these Principles to the Practice of a good life and blessed concord among themselves since having jointly received these five Catholick Points there will be less occasion of hate and dissention about the rest So that the different Opinions amongst them might be argued with less violence and passion the Points wherein they are agreed being greater bonds of Love and Amity among them than that they should be dissolved on any lesser occasion And certainly unless the Method I have here proposed be effectual to this purpose I see no hope that any good Reconciliation can follow among the Principal Sects of the Christian Religion since the one affirming the Scripture to be the sole Judge of Controversies and the other saying that the Church alone should determine them they seem like persons in variance who disagreeing about their Arbitrators or Judges are hopeless that the business in Question between them should ever come to a just Tryal and find an indifferent or equal Decision Now upon all that hath been said give me leave to raise these few Queries and so conclude Queries proving the validity of the five Articles 1. Whether there be any True God but he that useth Vniversal Providence concerning the means of coming to him 2. Whether these means appear universally otherwise than in our aforesaid five Catholick Articles 3. Whether any thing can be added to these Five Principles that may tend to make a Man more honest vertuous or a better Man 4. Whether any things that are added to these Five Principles from the Doctrine of Faith be not uncertain in their Original 5. Supposing the Originals true Whether yet they be not uncertain in their Explications so that unless a Man read all Authors speak with all Learned Men and know all Languages it be not impossible to come to a clear Solution of all Doubts 6. Supposing all true in their Originals and in their Explications Whether yet they be so good for the instructing of Mankind that bring Pardon of Sin upon such easie Terms as to believe the Business is done to our Hands And 7. Whether this Doctrine doth not derogate from Vertue and Goodness whilst our best Actions are represented as Imperfect and Sinful and that it is impossible to keep the Ten Commandments so as God will accept our Actions doing the best we can 8. Whether speaking good Words thinking good Thoughts and doing good Actions be not the just Exercise of a Mans Life Or that without embracing of the foresaid Five Principles or Fundamentals it be possible to keep Peace among Men that God may be well served 9. Whether the foresaid Five Principles do not best agree with the Precepts given in the Ten Commandments and with the Two Precepts of Jesus Christ viz. To love God above all and our Neighbour as our selves As well as with the Words of St. Peter That in every Nation he which feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of God 10. Whether the Doctrine of Faith can by Humane Reason be supposed or granted to be Infallible unless we are infallibly assured that those who teach this Doctrine do know the Secret Counsels of God 11. Whether all things in the Scriptures besides the Moral Part which agrees with our Five Principles such as Prophecy Miracles and Revelations depending on the History may not be so far examined as to be made appear by what Authority they are or may be received 12. Whether in Humane Reason any one may or ought to be convinced by one single Testimony so far as to believe things contrary to or besides Reason 13. And lastly Whether if it were granted they had Revelations I am obliged to accept of anothers Revelation for the Ground of my Faith Especially if it doth any ways oppose these Five Articles that are grounded upon the Law of Nature which is God's universal Magna Charta Enacted by the All-wise and Supreme Being from the beginning of the World and therefore not to be destroyed or altered by every whiffling Proclamation of an Enthusiast Finally Submitting this Discourse to my Impartial and Judicious Reader I shall conclude with the Saying of Justin Martyr p. 83. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That all those who lived according to the Rule of Reason were Christians notwithstanding that they might have been accounted as Atheists such as among the Greeks were Socrates Heraclitus and the like and among the Barbarians Abraham and Azarias For all those who lived or do now live according to the Rule of Reason are Christians and in an assured quiet condition Apol. cont Tryph. FINIS of Good and Evil. Of Predestination and Free will Of Repentance The Law of Nature unalterable

Posthuma observes a Stumbling-block to the Gentiles when they found it read in Osea that God commanded a Prophet to commit Adultery and in Exodus that he taught his own People how to cozen the Egyptians How could they believe saith he that there was no God like the God of the Hebrews when they should find in the Scriptures that even this God had also a Right-hand and a Son Or that if he had been so much better than those of the Heathen was it likely that Aaron his own High Priest would have preferred their Apis or Egyptian Calf before him But the Reason of all this is because to unenlightned Nature these Passages might seem inconsistent with the Attributes of the Deus Optimus Maximus and for that as our aforesaid Learned Author well notes all ways of Religion would seem strange but that we are taught betimes to fear and till we receive a Spirit of Judgment to discern the Right way every Way is thought to be Wrong but that which we are brought up in And thus much for Publick Revelations Of Visions and Apparitions Now if any Man should say a Vision appear'd to him I should believe him as far as it was fit to credit a single Witness in so rare a Case but certainly I should not depart from my Common Reason whatsoever he should pretend to teach upon those Grounds and from single Witnesses and no more the greatest Miracles in all Vulgar Superstitions are mostly derived as would appear to any one that should look back from Age to Age to the Original of all such wonderful Narrations Or if more Persons than one are said at first to have concurred in the Relation it ought again to be considered whether they that would establish it did not acquire much Authority and procure many Advantages thereby unto themselves and that either of Honour or Riches the one being as prevalent with the Vain-glorious as the other with the Covetous The Nature of Men being for the most part prone always to entertain such Beliefs as turn to their own Benefit Testimonies Weak Furthermore in my Opinion it is to be observed That as it is not safe to trust absolutely to any single or weak Testimony in Matters of great Consequence so will it be much more dangerous to frame new Doctrines or Conclusions out of them for directing of our selves in the whole Course of our Life since Errour may be thus multiplied without end Of Miracles These Considerations therefore brought me at last to be more sparing in the Belief of Miraculous Narrations and especially for the Building any new Doctrines upon them since Impostors such as Jannes and Jambres have been said to do Miracles whose Egyptian Doctrines I yet should never believe I might say something also of Apollonius Tyanaeus and Simon Magus who however they may be believed to have done Miracles did yet not teach any Vniversal Doctrine to which Assent was given Neither shall I insist upon the little Credit given heretofore to the feigned Miracles or Revelations by Pagan Priests among the more Judicious sort of the Gentiles Wherefore it is no good Argument to say That such a Man did Miracles and therefore I believe all he saith Since those things may seem Miraculous to my weak Capacity which appear not so to wiser Men. Besides things may be done by Natural Means which some may mistake for Miracles and Conjuration as all Books of Chymistry and Natural Philosophy can testifie And upon this Vulgar Ignorance it is saith Monsieur Naudaeus in his Treatise of Magick that the most Ingenious and Learnedest Men in the World have been defamed as Conjurers and Wizards because their Accusers were Fools and Blockheads Again by Confederacy where one helps the other to abuse the People of which kind Examples have been frequent and so well known that I shall omit troubling my Reader or my self with them in so small a Treatise Of Prophecy and Prophets In like manner should their pretended Prophecies draw me as little to any New Religion since one shall hardly meet with a Prophecy delivered so clearly and so perspicuously as to mark out and distinguish from all others any Person or Event in subsequent Times For my part as I could never yet esteem any thing to be an undoubted Prophecy which in the first place was not like a Picture wherein it is not enough to describe or Paint one Member or Part of the Face or Body unless the Symetry and other Parts were together represented with the outward Stature Colour and Fashion so likewise I should not much regard the Exterior Form if his Actions were not represented to future Times in such manner as the Prophecy might be like an History wherein it is required that the Time Place and Manner of all his Actions should be described so particularly as to distinguish the whole Course of his Life from all others And that therefore many of the doubtful and obscure Predictions that have been attributed to divers who from thence have acquired the Names of Prophets seem to be little more than bold Conjectures which might in some Age or other take its Events there being nothing I will not say likely or possible but even unlikely and onely not impossible that in some Time Place or Manner will not have its Effect and Fulfilling Wherefore if any Man hath undertaken heretofore or shall yet in this Age undertake to Prophesie upon what vain ground soever yet if he get that Credit among future Ages as to be thought a Prophet he will find those that shall apply his Words to some Action or Event that did or will in all likelihood follow which Motives made me as doubtful of their Prophecies as of such Miracles and Revelations I formerly mentioned Obsopaeus is said to have put forth Books which spake plainer of Christ than the Prophets of the Old Testament did which our Learned Criticks have nevertheless rejected as spurious The Heavenly Bodies had outward Worship given them from the Excellency of their Natures but the Heathen Priests had their chief Credit from their Prophecies and Predictions who contented not themselves with the perswading the People that they had Revelations unless they could perswade them further that they could foretel things to come and so acquire to themselves the Name of Prophets The manner of Prediction among the Jews was by Dreams Vrim or Prophets and Saul's throwing off his Clothes lying naked upon the Ground a Day and a Night and so Prophesied 1 Sam. 19. and by the Witch of Endor to whom Saul had recourse in his Extremities who desired her to raise up Samuel to him which she doing Samuel appeared and told Saul what should follow 1 Sam. 28. The Vrim and Thummim were two Precious Stones so called the one Light and the other Truth or Integrity the one an Onyx or Sardonix and the other an Emrald out of the vibration of whose Beauty Oracles and Prophecies were called and utter'd In imitation whereof the