Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	church_n	faith_n	infallible_a	3,610	5	9.7555	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65069	Tēs pisteōs elegchos, or, The reason of faith briefly discuss'd in a sermon, preach'd at Pauls before the Right Honourable, the Lord Mayor, &c., the third of October, 1658, and publish'd by the order of his lordship, and Court of Aldermen / by Peter Vinke ...	Timoreus, Theophilus.	1659 (1659)	Wing V562; ESTC R39404	19,583	36

whom all things are possible And as if you would act rationally you must claudere quinque fenestras not follow your sensual appetites so if you will act religiously you will be forc'd in many cases to say with Luther tu stulta ratio tace thou foolish reason give way Let our Apostle be heard in this case who tells us concerning the mysteries of Religion 1 Cor. 2.9 that eye hath not seen nor eare heard they are out of the reach of sense neither have they entred into the heart of man they exceed the capacity of reason And therefore when a soul is conquered and taken in for God the Articles of its Surrender are that it should now cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts it self * Adversus scientiam Dei quae est Christianorum fides Bern. Ad Milites Templi Isa 54 1● against the knowledge of God and bring into captivity every thought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.5 So that henceforth this soul must according to this agreement give up its self to be taught of God those things which its nature is neither able nor willing otherwise to conceive of I know I am upon a ticklish point This truth stands betwixt the Scylla of Enthysiasts who are ready to decry every thing because it is rational and the Charybdis of Socinians who cavil at every thing that is above the level of their reason as if they needed to fear to be guilty of blinde obedience when they have the Sun of Righteousnesse God in his Word to go before them I shall endeavour to do something towards the resolution of this great case in several particulars I will not call it my award betwixt these two parties faith and reason yet I shall labour to give to each its due The use of reason and faith laid down 1. Positively 1. In Civil Affairs 1. Positively 1. 'T is granted on all sides that reason hath its use in Civil Affairs and Worldly Matters those that deny it to be a Jacob's ladder to climb up into heaven by acknowledge it to be an useful staffe to walk upon earth withal We are not to pull out this eye because we cannot look stedfastly with it upon the Sunne The Musitian does not cut off the strings and throw them away because the Instrument is out of tune Nay more 2. In Religion Matters reason is useful in the things of God 1. Reason is necessary for the conversion of Pagans and Infidels to the faith of Christ the very milk of the Word is too strong meat for such at first 'T is in vain to alledge Scripture to such as are not yet induc'd to believe the authority of it We must deal with such as men that cure the bodily blinde not bring them at first to gaze upon the Sunne but use them to lesser lights till at last they be able to look upon the greatest Thus nature does not expose us to the Sun-beams immediately out of pitchy darknesse till she hath inured us by a twilight to bear them 2. Reason is the subject of divine knowledge in a believing soul 't is the vessel which God fills with the oile of this grace God in Regeneration does not make another faculty another eye but purges it As at the first time of writing the Law God afforded the Tables and writing too Exod. 24.12 Exod. 34.1 but at the renewing of it Moses provided the Tables though the writing still was Gods in our Creation we have heart and holinesse both minde and knowledge Tables and writing from God but in our renovation God takes the faculties which we have already and engraves his Image on them God makes all things indeed new in quality not in substance And this is the greater miracle of the two that the same man should by the same faculty apprehend the same things so diversly from what he did in his unregeneracy worldly things which were so great in his eyes as when the prospective glasse is turn'd seem now very small and inconsiderable and the things of God which did scarce appear unto him as if he had now got Galileo's glasse to look on the heavens withal he views them in their just dimensions 3. Reason is the Instrument that God makes use of to direct and guide the whole man by 'T is the Rudder in the ship let it be bound for what place it will that as whatsoever we hear we hear by the ear and whatsoever we see we see by the eye so whatsoever we understand we understand by this faculty By the eye of our understanding when enlightned we know what is the hope of our calling c. Ephes 1.18 By reason we know what may be inferr'd from Scripture and what not Hence not to mention the Trinity c. we grant and use two Sacraments because reason infers these from Scripture and on the other side we reject a great many that others would bring into the Church because we cannot by reason prove them to be commanded there 4. I may adde moreover there is nothing which faith believes but what is when throughly understood agreeable to right reason It may be above it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plutarch 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it cannot as you have heard be against it True reason did never go about to comprise the Bible in its own nut-shell faith it self is but a kind of a new life of reason 'T is the highest reason to believe what God sayes without further enquiry If ye have not made your selves more the children of darknesse than ye yet were by nature and if God hath not in judgment blinded you and given you over to a reprobate minde does not your very reason tell you how vain it is to measure immensity by a finite compasse or span eternity by your imperfect duration To fathom the depth of the Wisdome of God by the line and plummet of the wisdome of man Rom. 11.33 I have read of one of the Antients I think 't was Austin who being very thoughtful about the Nature and Essence of God he espies as he was meditating by the Sea shoar a young man taking the water out of the Sea with a Ladle and putting of it into a little hole which he had made The Father demands the reason of so frivolous an employment The young man tells him that he was emptying the sea into that hole and that he might sooner make the vast Ocean to be contained in that small place than the other should comprehend the deep Mysteries he was meditating of in his shallow understanding Being we have freely granted thus much Negatively I hope none will be offended if we dare not go further in its commendation but must lest we should encroach on Faith prescribe some bounds to Reason 1. Reason may not be the Rule to try or measure revealed truths by that you should believe no more than what it affirms to I am

not to do any thing in Religion because I think it rational it may be will-worship but to the Law and to the Testimony Isa 8.20 Neither are we to admit only so much of Scripture as we fancy to be consonant to reason but we are to admit so much only of reason as we are sure is not contrary to Scripture the lesser gives way to the greater God made the Scripture-light as the Sunne to rule the Gospel-day the Moon-light of reason he makes to rule the night amongst those that sit in darkness and in the shadow of death And if at any time we go to Law with revealed truths before this Heathen Judge reason we might win the case indeed but lose truth and hazard our souls The grounds of this assertion are 1. The impotency of reason this eye is blood-shot it cannot see throughly into natural causes if you think it can tell me from whence comes the heat of the stomack the strength of the nether jaw stand upon the banks of our Euripus the Thames and give a satisfactory reason of its ebbing and flowing Or answer me those questions propounded in the 36. 37 38. Chapters of Job And if thy reason be either not faithful or able in its own things who will commit unto it the resolution of those things that are not its own 2. But suppose it had not contracted any impotency yet at best reason is fallible and may be deceiv'd The eye is the most certain of all the senses and yet I have read of twenty wayes whereby it may be deceived in its Object I am sure there are many more wayes whereby this eye of the minde may be imposed upon reason at best is a creature Whittaker de authoritate Scripturae it hath erred it may erre and we should be alwayes at incertainties if we had not an infallible Rule for our souls something which may be believed for its own sake which only Gods Word may safely be Nay never did Gods children erre more dangerously then when they eyed natural causes and reason too much 'T was the cause of Sarah's laughing Gen. 18.12 Luke 1.18 Gal. 1.16 after I am waxed old shall I have pleasure and of Zechariah's doubting I am an old man and my wife well stricken in years And therefore Saint Paul sayes that when he was call'd to be an Apostle to go and preach amongst the Heathens in the midst of contempt and persecution he conferr'd not with flesh and blood certainly if he had they would have said to him too Master spare thy self Though then we yield that reason is a light yet we say also 't is but noctiluca cerebri Aug. Prov. 20.27 a glow-worm light for all its lustre we have still need of the Sun I grant it is the candle of the Lord but I am sure withal that it hath need of snuffing and if at any time it be a rule it must be regula regulata not regulans no further a Rule then it is its self ruled according to Scripture and the Word of God Consider 2 Negatively That that very truth promise c. which you do believe does not benefit your souls as to eternity in that 't is rational but as 't is believed for example that God might commiserate Mankinde and finde out wayes for its recovery is rational but as this is rational barely it does not at all conduce to our salvation but as there hath been a Declaration to this purpose made by God in his Word An assertion or principle how rational soever is low faint and dead as to the begetting or carrying on of a spiritual life till the Spirit it self does animate and enliven it 't is Gods speaking of these or the like truths in Scripture and to the heart which makes them seed apt for the propagating a new life The reason in them is but as a stick that bears up a Vine or Plant more precious than its self but gives it not life The life of faith is from its self not from reason The sum of what hath been spoken amounts to thus much Reason is our Reuben the top of our excellency Apollonius Tyaneus Musonius Vorstius c as men but if it goes up to our fathers bed it shall not excell and experience of all ages hath taught us that none have proved more desperate enemies to the truth of Religion than many otherwise excellently parted men Thus we have heard of some who having digged too deep have met with such damps as have extinguish'd the candle they were let down withal thus learning as a flash of lightning leaves men in the greater darknesse And surely there is much of that commination Isa 7 9. fulfill'd amongst us which the Septuagint and many of the Antients read thus if ye will not believe ye shall not understand Cypr. lib. 1. adversus Judaeot Tertull. adver●us Marc. Psal 25.9.1 Cor. 1.26 the things of God are to be believed that they may be understood The modest and humble believer not the captious and proud Philosopher hath the promise to understand them As beasts though of more exquisite sense then men yet cannot determine of humane affairs so men if barely though excellently rational will be as much at a losse in heavenly matters God would not that a tool any sharp instrument should be lifted up towards the making of his Altar Exod 20.25 C●ussin ●● saincte Cour. some think the truth and substance of that Law was to shew how much God did abhorre to have the point of the acutest reason lifted up upon the Altar of faith How much then certainly are they to blame who draw the Curtains and shut out in their very Sermons and spiritual discourses the day-light of Scripture that they may enlighten them as they think the better by the candle of reason but I would not prevent my self in the application which I am now come unto This Scripture instructs exhorts comforts Applic. 't is useful first for instruction we may hence learn 1. The nature of faith and 2. the condition of the faithful The nature of faith 1. Instruction which is twofold and concerning it these two things 1. 'T is not an opinion barely 1. In the nature of faith 't is an evidence But yet secondly 1. 'T is not a bare opinion 't is not an absolute assurance for 't is of things not seen In the first place we hence learn that true faith is not a bare opinion or imagination there are these two remarkable differences between them For first the object of opinion is something look'd upon as in its own nature uncertain the object of faith as in its self certain The Scepticks those great Opinionists held that there was nothing certain but notwithstanding whatsoever was said for any matter to day as much might be said on the contrary side to morrow But believers build upon a word which is not Yea and Nay changeable and inconstant