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	scripture_n	tradition_n	3,753	5	9.2711	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93880	The teachings of Christ in the soule. Opened in a sermon before the Right Honble House of Peers, in Covent-garden-Church, upon the solemne day of their monthly fast, March 29. 1648. / By Peter Sterry, M.A. sometimes fellow of Emanuel Colledge in Cambridge: and now preacher of the Gospel in London. Published by order of that House.	Sterry, Peter, 1613-1672.	1648 (1648)	Wing S5486; Thomason E433_30; ESTC R204205	36,001	61

all those comforts that have been hitherto left them Let us stand and first looke backward on so much of this our day of visitation as is already past which hath been a day of blacknesse and clouds Then let us look forward upon the evening more terrible and full of horrour which is too likely to conclude this Day Let us say Because we have followed our owne counsailes and not our Saviour's we have brought all these evils upon these Kingdomes Let our hearts within us say this then let them break and dye that Jesus Christ may revive them This is the first Close 2. Close Because we have been no sooner no more humbled our calamities are growne greater Give me leave to pick some sad passages out of that thundring Chapter Levit. 26. 21. If ye will not hearken unto me ver 16. I will doe this unto you I will bring upon you terrour and consumptions ver 18. If ye will not for all this hearken unto me I will punish you seven times more ver 19. I will break the pride of your power ver 20. Your strength shall be spent in vaine ver 21. If ye walke contrary unto me and will not hearken unto me I will bring seven times more plagues upon you ver 23. If ye will not be reformed by all these things ver 25. I will bring a sword upon you to avenge upon you the quarrell of my Covenant When you are gathered together within your Cities I will send the pestilence among you and you shall be delivered into the hands of your enemies ver 27. If ye will not for all this hearken unto me ver 28. Then will I walk contrary unto you in fury ver 29. You shall eate the flesh of your sons and the flesh of your daughters These are words to make the eare of Man tingle and his heart ake Why are all these dreadfull menacings For this If ye will not hearken to me if ye will not be reformed by former sufferings It were happy if each man of us when he comes home would retire into his Closet or presently retire into himself and say Hath the Lord made so many breaches upon these Lands and so few upon my heart Must he bring a Kingdome to absolute ruine before he reach my heart to break the pride of my power wisdome honour and confidence Must I be brought to the extremity of publike evills to the end of the Creature before I will be brought to the end of my wits to meet with Jesus Christ that my eye may see my Teacher We have the story of a dreame which Nebachadnezzar had and the Interpretation which Daniel made of it Dan. 4. Part of the Interpretation is exprest ver 23. They shall drive thee from men and thy dwelling shall be with the beasts of the field and they shall wet thee with the dew of heaven and seven times shall passe ever thee till thou know that the most High ruleth in the Kingdome of men I say in our case as Daniel said to the King This dreame be to our enemies and the Interpretation of it to those that hate us Yet I very much feare lest we be driven out of all forme of a Common-wealth into a Wildernesse of Confusion that our nayles will grow longer and sharper like the clawes of birds of prey that our haire will turne into feathers of flight and fury that we shall have our dwelling among beasts not men that seven times more will come upon us to wet us with the displeasure of heaven before we know that the most high God the Lord Jesus hath wisdome and might that his hand disposeth of the Kingdomes of the earth his lips alone utter knowledge and discover truth to Man Doe we not yet groane for the plague of our hearts that they are so long so hard Doe we not cry O the slownesse of our hearts to know the voice of our owne Shepherd and to receive the teachings of the Lord Jesus Shall we now all joyne with an unutterable and irresistable groane to aske one thing of our Saviour even this That we may be ever in thy Temple O Jesus Thy presence makes our soules thy Temple That we may be still beholding thy face and still searching out thine appearances within us to make these the men of our Counsaile Thus much for the first Use which is for Humiliation Use 2 For Information Christ is our onely Master in Christianity There is then no testimony on which we can build our Religion our Beliefe in Divine things save onely that Testimony of that most high Spirit which is God and Christ shining in our Spirits It is one of the names of Christ Revel 1. 5. The faithfull Witnesse It is his Prerogative as to be King of Kings so to be the Witnesse of Witnesses Every Testimony is so far to be believed as it hath him testifying to it and in it who is the faithfull Witnesse It is onely the greatest Light the Light of the World the Spirit of Jesus Christ that can enlighten and informe us in the greatest things which are the things of God The whole world especially the Christian part of it is fill'd with violent and voluminous Disputes concerning this thing What should be the Rule of our Faith how we should distinguish the true Religion from the false There are five Competitours for this Master-ship over our Spirits 1. Reason 2. The Authority of the Church 3. Miracles 4. The Letter of the Scriptures 5. The Spirit We will briefly examine all these each apart by it selfe 1. Master Reason This it selfe needs a Master For it is corrupted and depraved in all Man-kind Where then shall we find right Reason Who shall refine and define it By what light shall we discover by what fire sever the silver from the drosse Reason from the irregularities and corruptions of Reason Who can draw a cleane thing out of an uncleane saith the Scripture And naturall Reason it selfe in its Phylosophie testifies That nothing can bring forth it selfe out of Power or Potentiality into act out of an imperfect state into perfection Saint Paul determines the state of Nature and Reason Rom. 3. 12 13. They are all gone out of the way The path of Reason was their way Their throat is become an open Sepulchre The inward parts of Man are now no more a Temple in which Reason sits in its purity and Power as the Image of God giving forth its Oracles but a Grave in which the dead and rotten carkase only of Reason lies without any true light or life But Reason at first in its height was not could not be a suitable a sure Judge in Spirituall things 1. Reason at best is no suitable Judge in spirituall things There must be a proportion betweene the faculty and the Object to unite them Reason is but a humane light Spirituall things are Divine Reason is a naturall Power Spirituall objects are Supernaturall of another rank and kind Spirituall things

are spiritually discerned 1 Cor. 2. 14. Can Sense which is the light of Beasts trace the workings and flights of Reason in her Contemplations or discerne the things of men Can we see a soule or an Angel by the light of a Candle Divine things must have a Divine light to discover them a Divine power and principle to comprehend them 2. Reason at first was no sure Judge It never was infallible It was deceived It may then be so alwayes If it were againe perfect it might againe be deceived Man being in honour continueth not but becomes like the beast that perisheth Psal 49. 12. The rectitude of Reason was the Image of God the Crowne and Glory of Man By this he grew up streight in the midst of the Creatures uniting them heightning them all by a Harmony into the same Image So he subdued them to himselfe himselfe with them ascended into and rested in the Divine Image Thus Man was the true Orpheus with his Divine Hymnes in the midst of Beasts Trees and Stones dancing to his Musick But vaine Man continues not in this Honour Reason proves a degenerating thing It is quickly tempted easily overcome so it sinks downward first into a brutish then a devilish state Reason was the glittering and circling Serpent in Paradise more subtle then all the beasts of the field or subtle above all the beasts of the field Gen. 3. 1. Yet this Serpent was the first seate and instrument of that deceit by which the Devill ruined our first Parents But if Reason were undeceived uncorrupt and should remaine so yet could it give us no assurance For it is a derived subordinate Principle Reason may indeed be considered in a two-fold state 1. State As Reason is supreame in God So it is no other then Jesus Christ For He is the Image the Harmony the Light the Truth the Wisdome the Word the Reason of God John 1. 1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God Instead of Word you may reade Reason as properly according to the Greeke for it is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Reason or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Speech Christ is that Reason in which all things are knit together and appeare to God that Reason by and for which God made all things Reason in this sense is the Spirit For Christ and the Spirit are One not two Masters but One. 2. State as Reason is subordinate in Man Thus it is a distinct Master and Light from the Spirit In this sense we have hitherto spoken of it and doe so still Vpon this ground we say that Reason in Man if it were pure and could abide so could have no full assurance in it selfe could give us none because it is a derived subordinate Light It is subject to another and depends upon another above it So it cannot have any Certainty or perfect Cleernesse but in that other Light Neither can it establish us in any Certainty but as it holds forth that other Light in it selfe That was the true Light which lightneth every man that commeth into the world saith Saint John of Jesus Christ John 1. 9. Reason hath so much of a true light as it hath of Jesus Christ in it Reason in Man is an inferiour Light and therefore imperfect If we receive the Testimony of Man the Testimony of God is greater 1 Joh. 5. 9. As God is above Man so is the Prinple of Light by which God sees which is His Sonne and Spirit above that Principle of Light by which Man judgeth all things which is his Reason For this is the Testimony of Man his Reason this is the Testimony of God His Spirit So far then as the Light of Man falls short of the Light of God it must of necessity fall short of perfection have a negative though not a privative want be mixt with darknesse uncertainty doubt feare Though these in innocency were tempered with their contraries reduced to a harmony and so had not deformity or torment yet even then the morning of light and the evening of darknesse made the day of man's knowledge God is light and in him is there no darknesse 1 John 1. 5. Reason at first at best is but a Twi-light This is Reason in Man an inferiour imperfect dependent Principle unsuitable at best to Divine things unsure at first apt to be deceived deceived now depraved in all men This is that which at first betrayed us and cast us out of Paradise shall we trust it now when it is corrupt can it now bring us into Paradise againe We have examined the first Master and found him unfit for the Schoole of Christ Let us now try the second 2. Master The Authority of the Church What doe you take a Church to be A Combination of men If you cannot trust your owne Reason or that of another man because Reason hath a worme at its root is adulterate in its Principle O then doe not trust your foules your immortality to a Councel of all mankind if it were met together in one For all men are acted by the same Principle of Reason In vaine you worship me teaching for Doctrines the Traditions of men saith Jesus Christ Obj. But you will say A Church is a Communion of Spirituall men in the Spirit of Jesus Christ It is the Vnity of the Spirit that binds men up into a Church Keepe the unity of the Spirit in the band of peace Ephes 4. 3. It is the presence and power of Christ who is the Image and glory of God that gives to any the Authority of a Church I am with you to the end of the world saith our Saviour Mat. 1. 1. Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. 4. In the name of our Lord Jesus when ye are gathered together and my Spirit with the power of our Lord Jesus Thus he describes a Church-meeting by the Name which is the Discovery and the Power of Christ upon them Answ If it be the Unity of the Spirit and the Presence of Christ that make a Church then is it the Appearance of Christ and his Spirit through any sort of men that must discover the true Church to me and distinguish them from every false and pretended one I will know saith Saint Paul not the speech but the power of such 1 Cor. 4. 19. For the Kingdome of God that is the Church is not in word but in power that is in the power of Christ working with them ver 20. The woman is the Glory of the man saith Saint Paul Christ is my Master The Church shall be my Mistris so far as she is the Spouse of Christ his Image his Glory I then submit my selfe to the authority of the Church when I submit my selfe to the Appearances of Christ and the manifestations of his Spirit in any society of men See how S. Paul as an Apostle in whom the authority of the whole Church lay commends and justifies