Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	divine_a	faith_n	revelation_n	3,413	5	9.3938	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36551	A synopsis of Quakerism, or, A collection of the fundamental errors of the Quakers whereof these are a taste, viz. 1. That there are not three persons in the God-head, 2. That Christ did not make satisfaction for the sin of man, 3. That justification is not by imputed righteousness, 4. That our good works are the meritorious cause of our justification, 5. That a state of freedom from sin, is attainable in this life, 6. That there is a light in every man, sufficient to guide him to salvation, 7. That the Scripture is not the word of God, nor a standing rule of faith and life, 8. That there is no resurrection in the body, 9. That there's no need nor use of ordinances, baptisme, Lords Supper, &c. : collected out of their printed books : with a brief refutation of their most material arguments, (and particularly, W. Pens, in his late Sandy foundation shaken) and an essay towards the establishment of private Christians, in the truths opposed by those errors / by Tho. Danson ...	Danson, Thomas, d. 1694.	1668 (1668)	Wing D218; ESTC R8704	44,296	95

A SYNOPSIS OF QUAKERISM OR A Collection of the Fundamental ERROURS of the QUAKERS Whereof these are a Taste Viz. 1. That there are not Three Persons in the God-Head 2. That Christ did not make Satisfaction for the Sin of Man 3. That Justification is not by imputed Righteousness 4. That our good Works are the Meritorious Cause of our Justification 5. That a State of Freedom from Sin is attainable in this Life 6. That there is a Light in every Man sufficient to guide him to Salvation 7. That the Scripture is not the Word of God nor a standing Rule of Faith and Life 8. That there is no Resurrection of the Body 9. That there 's no need nor use of Ordinances Baptisme Lords Supper c. Collected out of their Printed Books With a Brief Refutation of their most material Arguments and particularly W. Pens in his late Sandy Foundation Shaken and an Essay towards the Establishment of private Christians in the Truths opposed by those Errours By Tho. Danson sometime Minister of the Gospel at Sandwich in Kent LONDON Printed in the Year 1668. To the Reader Reader THe late daring Pamphlet of W. P●n Intituled The Sandy Foundation Shaken wherein he hath attempted but with too Feeble an hand to shake the Rock Christ Jesus in his God-Head and Offices hath occasioned this Vndertakement Seeing God had left him to himself so farr as openly to vilifie Three Grand Truths I judge it not amiss to take this opportunity to mind the World how well he hath Imitated the Leaders of his Party in their respects to other like Truths that so the Christians of these Parts may no longer be Imposed upon by the Quakers seeming Innocence The most referd civil Heathens were given over to the most Fond and Beastly Errours about the Nature of God It was observed of many of our English Hereticks in Queen Elizabeth's dayes that they were Charitably Devout And you know many that look well in the Face have their Inwards Tainted and Decayed I presume Reader thou hast Read over the Frontispiece of this Book and then tell me what you think Do those Principles sound like Christian Doctrine Do you not think your Heart would give your Tongue the Lye if for fear of seeming riged you should venture to sa● of the Teachers of those Doctrines These are the Servants of the most High God who shew unto us the way of Salvation Acts 16. 17. Why then take heed how thou harkenest unto them unless thou art unconcerned in thy self and art indifferent whither Salvation or Damnation fall to thy share I am prevented in a serious Representation of the danger of these Errours by the Pains of my Worthy Friend Mr. Tho. Vincent The mention of whose name puts me in mind of a Query thou mayst make about my Answer to Pens Arguments why I do actum agere The Answer is I was Ingaged in a little Conference with the said Pen and he hath made some Reflections upon me in the same Piece which are not to be wholly neglected Again Experience hath shewn that there is a great difference in Intellectval Gusts The Method Phrafe Notions of scarce any one man are acceptable to all And a President is at hand Biddles 12. Arguments against the Holy Ghost's Deity were first answered by the Learned Estwick and then by the Learned Pool and both to good purpose I hope not without success And if any Quaker shall demand why I do not answer Sam. Fishers Book against me instead of Writing against a new Man I answer that I am guided in my Neglect by the Judgment of ubler Persons than my self that that Book is but a bundle of Impertinent Cavils and none of my Arguments is shaken by his Batteries and that to answer it were but Horas bonas male collocare to spend time with Domitian in catching of Flies I shall only leave two words of Advice with thee and so we will part 1. Be at some pains to understand the positive Grounds of the great Truths opposed by the Quakers Remember that Wisdom is Silver and a Treasure not only for its Excellency but also for the difficulty of Attainment Prov. 2. 4. It was the Observation of Min. Fel. Multi ob●aedium investigandae veritatis divert●nt in proximos Errores i. e. Many men through Impatience of the Pains they must be at to find out the Truth turn into the Errours next at hand As a weary Traveller takes up his Lodging not at the best but at the nearest Inn. Be not thou a new Instance to confirm that unhappy Observation For want of some pains many Christians are strangely Ignorant and through Ignorance uncertain like Glasses which may be blown into any shape you please or Weather-Cocks that are indifferent to any Point of the Heavens To lessen thy pains somewhat I have endeavoured to give thee the most material Arguments by which those Truths are supported in as plain and familiar a way as I could and as the Nature of the subjects would bear Particularly be at some pains to understand the right use of Reason about these sacred Mysteries Namely that it is not to judge of the Truth of the Propositions contained in the Scriptures but of their Connexion Take an Instance 1 Cor. 15. 13. If there be no Resurrection from the Dead then is Christ not risen The Propositions that the dead shall be raised and that Christ is raised from the dead are de fide or matters of Faith but the Connexion o● Consequence of the Apostle is evident to reason as depending upon that Maxime of Reason Sublato effect● tollicur causa Deny the effect and deny the cause if it be necessary and not an accidential Cause and like this if it be not day t is not Sun-rise And therefore 〈◊〉 Socinians who pretend that we are not to believe any thing to be of Divine Revelation which is not evident to our reason do discover but little of that reason which they would be thought to have Ingrossed to themselves For does not Reason tell us that the Nature and Works of God are above our reach And that God were not God if he could be comprehended by a Creature nor are the Creatures ad aequate effects of God their cause And indeed their Principle takes away the difference between Divine Knowledge and Faith Where is there any room for an assent to Truth Propter authoritatem revelantis upon the credit of Gods word if we are to believe nothing but what antecedently to Divine Revelation is evident to reason in its next causes or proper Effects Nor can I see what use Miracles can be of to a Socinian the Intendment of which is to inforce a belief of those Doctrines which are inevident to Reason It being a Principle which no man will contradict that God will not put the Seal of his Immediate Power to a Falsehood 2. Improve the Knowledge which you have I have often thought it a wise sober speech of

Creature But in God Three Perso● notes a subsisting of Three in one Individu●● Nature in Man a subsisting of Three Pet●● James and John suppose for instance i● Thr●e divided or several Natures of the sam● kind Arg. 2. Either the Divine Persons are Finite 〈◊〉 Infinite if Infinite then Three distinct Infinites and so three Gods Ans 1. We may deny the Disjunction finit●ness and infiniteness are not Personal but Essential properties For in the Notion of the Nature these properties are coutained before you consider that Nature as in a Person So finiteness in respect of man and infiniteness in respect of God And hence though all the properties of the Divine Nature whereof infinit●ness is one agree to each Person subsisting in that Nature yet will it not follow that there are three ●nfinites but only one because there are not three Divine Natures but only one of which one Nature Infiniteness is a property Ans 2. Suppose we grant that these three Persons may be said to be Infinite t is no more in effect than to ●ay that these three Persons are God we may as well attribute to the Person the property included in the Divine Nature as the Divine Nature which includes the property the Nature and Property b●ing one re though not ratione Ans 3. Yet will it not follow that Father Son and Spirit be three distinct Infinites or which is all one three distinct Gods the property and Nature being really one though different according to our way of apprehension as I said above because those three subsist not in three sever●l but in one Individual Nature Arg. 3. If each Person be God and that Go● subsists in Three Persons then in each Pe●son ar● Three Persons or Gods and so from Three they will increase to nine Ans 1. If he understands the Terms God 〈◊〉 we do in the Antecedent of God essentially no such consequence will follow no more than i● this instance If Peter James and John each Person b● Man and that Man subsists in those three Persons then in each of those three Persons 〈◊〉 three Persons or Men and so from three the will increase to nine Take Man here not so a Person but the Nature as we do God in th● Antecedent of Pens Hypothetical Syllogism●● and t is evident that we mean no more then th● the name Man may be attributed to Peter Jame and John because the same humane Nature 〈◊〉 mean specifically agrees to them and so is th● name God attributed to each Person because th● same Divine Nature subsists in each of them 〈◊〉 rather each of them subsists in the same num●rically Divine Nature There is no Cons●quence in Pens Argument unless we held th● each person in the God-Head subsists in 〈◊〉 persons which he goes about unworthily to i● finuate Ans 2. I rather think he hath catched at som● what in our Writers which he did not well u●derstand which he would represent as our Judgments and thence deduce his absurd Conse quence viz that Nature and Person in the God-Head or God are one thing For the Nature of God is so simple that it admits of no parts or Accidents The three Persons are not three parts either essential or Integral of the God-Head nor can the relative properties begetting being begotten proceeding be accidents but substantial attributes as the absolute properties Wisdom Merey Justice for instance yet will it not follow that there are three Persons in each Person that is that the Persons includes each other any more then that these three absolute Attributes include each other For the Conception or Notion that we have of the Father suppose as a subsistent or Person is in●dequatus conceptus in respect of the Divine Es●ence considered as affecta Subsistentia or subsisting in divers manners and so does not include the Son and spirit who subsist in two different manners from him And as we cannot say that he Notion of Justice does include Mercy or the Notion of Mercy include Justice though the Divine Essence or God be the same with both those properties so nor can we say that the Notion of the Father as one Person in the God-Head includes the Son nor the Notion of the Son as one Person in the God-Head includes he Father though each of those Persons are he Divine Essence or God and so nor does he Father nor Son include the Spirit or the Spirit include them by the like Reason which w● may thus Ill●st●ate and indeed confirm by comparing the Acts of those absolute Attributes and the properties of those relative Attributes A● punishing is not an Act of Mercy nor sparing 〈◊〉 Act of Justice nor does the one Act include th● other So nor does the Attributes of Mercy and Justice include each other So as begettin● is not being begotten nor being begotten is 〈◊〉 begetting so nor does the Notion of the Fath●● include the Son nor of the Son include the F●ther 4. The fourth is answered in the answer to t●● second and we do not affirm the Person in the God-Head to be finite but infinite 5. If those three distinct Persons are one wit● the God-Head then are they each one with another That 's the sum though he multiplie● words Answ That Argument is grounded though 〈◊〉 does not express nor perhaps understand it upon that rule Quae conveniunt in uno tertio con●●niunt inter●se Those things which are one 〈◊〉 some third thing are one among themselv●● And I answer That rule is to be understood that they are one among themselves only in r●spect of that wherein they agree not simply 〈◊〉 in this plain instance David was a Man and S●lomon was a Man they two agree in a third thin● viz. in the humane nature Will it therefore f●●low that they are one Person nothing les● 〈◊〉 though the Father be God and the Son God it will not follow that they are one Person for in personality or manner of subsistence they differ but only it will follow that they are one God or one in that Divine nature in which third these two meet And now I shall take notice of my Answer to his Question mentioned p. 10. of his Sandy Foundation shaken and his reply thereto Where first the Reader is to know that W. P. conceals his ignorance or falshood in denying that Person was a Scripture term and his front in demanding an instance with that eagerness as if none could be given when I gave him that Heb. 1. 3. Again whereas he relates my Answer to his Question of whom Christ was the express Image that Christ was the express image of Gods subsistence or manner of being he does me wrong for my answer was that Christ was the express image of God the Fathers Person That which I spake of a subsistence or manner of being was in answer to his question What a Person was From whence he then infer'd that if Christ was the image of his Fathers Person he must

Consession was extorted by clear evidence Luke 4. 34. And Holy Harmless Vndefiled se●●rate from Sinners Heb. 7. 26. since he left the Earth 2. Because Christ Obedience was not originally due to God i● it had one debt could not have paid another I do not mean that Christ as Man was not subject to the Law of God because of the Union of the Humane Nature from the first moment of it's existence to the divine Nature in the Person os the Son of God For this seems contrary to Scripture Gal. 4. 4. Made of a Woman made under the Law and the personal Union seems no more to dissolve the Obligation of Christ as Man to the Law then to take away the Essential Properties Parts or Faculties of Body and Soul whereof his humane Nature did consist And if that Union did dissolve the Obligation of Christ as Man to the Law then Christ as Man could not be Holy by a true Inherent Righ●eousness of the humane Nature which lies in the Conformity to the Law of God given thereunto and so had not been capable of Meriting at all But in two respects may Christ's obedience be said not to be Originally due 1. In that he being a Person before he became Man he was at his Election whither he would become Man or not that is a rational Creature which of course or Ipso facto as we say upon it's existence becomes a Subject as the Connexion imports Made of a Woman mad● under the Law Gal. 4. 4. and so had the refusal of being under the Law● and he becam● Man that he might come under the Law 2. When he was Man he was not under an Obligation to obey to any such ends as to satisfie divine Justice and merit Life for them who had demerited Death For it not being in the compa●● of any meer Mans power there was no such Obligation upon any meer Man as to obey or suffer by way of Satisfaction for another man● Disobedience or to recover thereby the happiness another man had lost and make a new purchase of what he had forfeited and God had sei●ed into his own hands 3. The third Ground of the merit of Chri●● Obedience is the Dignity of the Person know not what other reason but the Digni●● resulting from the Divine Nature to the H●mane that the Blood of the Son of man is ca●led the Blood of God Acts 20. 28. God purchas● the Church with his own Blood The action of o●● Nature is the action of the whole Person Act●ones sunt Suppositorum we say in the Schools an● we distinguish between Principium quo an● quod A man is said to think and to speak because they are both the acts of the Person though the one he does by vertue of his Soul the ther of his Body And as sence is dignified by being under the command of Reason in a man which it is not under in a Bruit so is the Humane Nature by Union to the Divine As for the Cavil of Socinians whose Vomit the Quakers have now licked up that the dignity of the Person comes not under Consideration because t is not the God-head or Divine Nature that suffers it is very futilous They might with as much reason say t is all one whither I strike my Prince or a private Person or an Enemy or my Father because my blows do not fall upon Authority or Relation but on the person in Dignity or related to me as Grotius well observes De Satist Chr. c. 8. And it contradicts the common sence of all Nations who proportion their Punishment to the digni●y or the Person injured I shall answer one Objection though not in W. Pens Book Object How can God be said to forgive freely when he requires Satisfaction Are not these two Contradictory Answ 1. There is no contradiction between Forgiveness and Satisfaction because they are not ad idem they respect not the same Persons If Satisfaction were required of us we could not be said to be forgiven Answ 2. There are divers acts of Grace whereby God makes way for Satisfaction and the benefits of it 1. A Relaxation of the Law which term in the Civil Law notes an Act of a Superiour whereby the Obligation of a Law in force is taken away as to some Persons and things In the case before us there was such an act of Gods whereby he admits a surety whereas the Law threatned the Sinner himself A relaxation of the Law I say there was as that is opposed to an Abrogation which is not here for then the Elect whilst Sinners in state were not under the Curse of the Law which to affi●m were to contradict the Apostle Gal. 3. 13. and as a Relaxation is opposed to a favourable Interpretation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for then the surety were in the primary Obligation as when one Person enters into a Recognisance with another for his appearance in Court But Christ was not bound with Man in the Covenant of Works to see the Law kept or undergo the penalty which Relaxation was an Act of Soveraign●y to the exercise whereof his own grace and nothing foreseen in us did prompt him 2. Another act of Gods Grace is the Nomination and Appointment of a surety Christ was made a surety Heb. 7. 21. and by the Father Heb. 10. 7. I come to do thy will sayes Christ to his Father of his undertakement as our surety which is an act of Grace for the Debtor not the Creditor the Malefactor not the Judge is to find a surety A Representation of both these acts we have Gen. 22. 2. 13. where God admitted and provided a Ram for a Sacrifice instead of Isaac though the Letter of the Command was to offer Isaac himself 3. Gods Actual Acceptance the Payment or Satisfaction made and tendered by Christ which appears as otherwise so especially 1. By his Resurrection 1 Tim. 3. 16. God manifest in the Flesh was justified in the Spirit that is by his God-head so called because t is in Nature Spiritual 1 John 4. 24. compared with 1 Pet. 3. 18. where t is said of Christ That he was put to death in the Flesh but quickned by the Spirit that is his Humane and Divine Nature And they instruct us in this Truth that Christ's Resurrection was not only an Effect of Divine Power but also of Christs Justification from our sin charged upon him in his Death and so a Foundation laid for our Actual Forgiveness to be built on by Faith That passage also contributes some Assistance Math. 28. vers 3. where the Angels of the Lord descended from Heaven and rold away the St●ne from the Door of the Sepulchre which would have been an Impediment to his getting out For what can the Creditors release of the Surety out of Prison signifie but that he is satisfied and the Debt paid 2. By his Intercession which being grounded upon his Satisfaction supposes it to be what it pretends full and compleat