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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38612	Popular errors, in generall poynts concerning the knowledge of religion having relation to their causes, and reduced into divers observations / by Jean D'Espaigne.; Erreurs populaires es poincts généraux, qui concernent l'intelligence de la religion. English	Espagne, Jean d', 1591-1659.	1648 (1648)	Wing E3267; ESTC R3075	73,280	230

certaine Prophets told Paul that bonds did attend him at Jerusalem but the counsell they gave him not to goe thither was a motion of their owne particular spirit proceeding from their humane affection All the dreames which came to the Prophets were not propheticall they had markes by which they discerned the celestiall visions from naturall impressions to which they were subject as well as other men In the same manner as the divine providence of God hath separated that which was writ by their particular motion from that which was transmitted unto us by divine inspiration The Spirit which dictated the letter of David written with the bloud of poore Uria was quite contrary to that which indited the Psalmes Nathan counselling the building of the Temple seemed speaking like a godly man but the consequence shewes he spake not like a Prophet It is most true that neither sagacity nor humane affections reduced into a just temper are not incompatible with spirituall wisdome contrarily they serve for a helpe to our weaknesse All the articles of our faith are equally true but our beliefe embraces them not with equall facility We have lesse trouble to believe a divine Essence then a Trinity of Persons the immortality of the soule then the resurrection of the body The reason is that in the one we have nothing but a supernaturall revelation for the ground of our beliefe and in the other we are moreover sustained by humane reason which strengthens this faith So our obedience is more voluntary in things to which wee have besides the commandement of God some naturall or personall inclination then in those which are repugnant to our affections I doubt not but Abraham obeyed more joyfully when it was bidden him not to lay his hand upon Isaac then when he was commanded to slay him But in this concurrence namely of the Spirit of God with our spirits wee must marke these two principalls the one of which is alwaies regular and the other hath still some spice of obliquity A man addicted to his sence and that adores his owne opinions will very hardly give place to the Spirit of God Ordinarily Prophecies and Revelations came unto men then when they were asleep where God sent them those extasies whilst they lasted they were as if deprived of all sence which was because the soule is then dis-intangled from many functions and freed from an infinity of thoughts and of objects which possessed it waking being then lesse glued to their naturall judgement and so more susceptible of the influencie of heaven and more capable to receive the impression thereof CHAP. IIII. Concerning the Sences and of the imaginations vulgar meditations matters which seeme better in Painting then in the words of the holy Scripture Why the corporall figure of our Saviour is not delineated in the Gospell Why the sight of the places esteemed holy takes away the admiration thereof REligion contains divers matters which for a simple historicall knowledge are intelligible to the externall senses The starre which appeared to the wise men the manger at Bethlehem the crown of Thornes the punishment of the Crosse the Sepulchre of Christ and his comming out thereof the scarres of his Wounds his Ascension to Heaven are objects perceptible to the imagination Nay we cannot conceive the truth of the naturall body of Christ but under an imaginable and sensible forme But the internall forme of all these theologicall truths which is as it were the soul of Religion is not apprehensible but to the intellect The divinity resident in Christ the personall union of the two Natures the merits of his Death the efficacie of his Intercession the interest of the justice of God in this satisfaction The eternall Election the interiour Vocation Justification the essence of the Faith the regeneration are matters purely intellectuall In every narration principally in each article of faith which lies in the Historie there is ever two things requisite to the intelligence thereof 1. The action with its circumstances Secondly the causes and the consequences thereof Now the first point is better studied and more sought into by the common people as being more delectable to the imagination and far easier to bee conceived then the other which touches not the senses and requires a more spirituall and more laborious exercise of the understanding from whence it comes to passe that the science the conception the proofes and meditations of the vulgar are more imaginative then intellectuall A Deaths head the spectacle of a carkasse or of a dying man will represent our humane fragility more lively then can doe all the sentences of the Bible But the supernaturall causes of this corruption and the consequences thereof from whence results the true intelligence of our mortality they are not read in such characters A picture may give knowledge of an action but the reasons and the motives in which lyes the importance of the story askes another Pensill A Crucifix tells us not why Jesus Christ died Never man was yet converted by the sight of a picture If that were Painters and Sculptors would be the greatest Theologians After the same manner the sufferings of Christ reduced into a Tragedy and elevated by the highest colours of Eloquence what teares soever it may draw from the auditors will never suffice for a saving knowledge If the true pourtraict of Jesus Christ representing his naturall face were to be found in the world I would never blame the curiosity of those who would seek the possession and who all superstition set apart would preserve it as one of the most precious jewels that the eye of man can behold Many have thought that they have the originall in an Epistle of Lentulus to the Senate of Rome of which I will say no more but that it is no Roman stile Some others have drawne the Copy from the Monument of a fabulous history which speaks of a Statue erected in memory of our Saviour Howsoever it comes to passe it is a strange thing that the Scripture which paints forth the stature of Saul the haire of Absalom the colour and visage of David expresses not any figure of our Saviour We find not therein the least Idea nor any lineament neither of his face colour aspect stature or yet of his voyce But that by which he was discernable from other men consisted not in his visible forme or in any extraordinary difference of Lineaments otherwise Judas had not needed a signe to make him to be known so that the representation of him at this day to the eye of flesh would make him contemptible to him that would not conceive a divine Majesty under a common and indifferent appearance Or it would be a Patron of Idolatry which would not faile to multiply under so favourable a pretext Our humane vanity would have added there to some frivolous and impertinent speculations of Phisiognomie Or superstition would cast its sight upon each man who should have some seeming resemblance of such a

painted out in the vision of Ezekiel The Psalmist speaking of the food which God provides for beasts makes mention of young ravens rather then of other fouls of the aire for a speciall reason The Revelation represents not Christ to all the Churches under the same figure To one it shews the stars and the golden Candlesticks to another it makes it see the two edged sword to another flaming eyes and the feet as of brasse His titles are divers according to the diversity of subjects Many know in generall that the ceremonies figure out Christ but know not how and in what quality each of them represent him There is none of them which hath not besides the generall intention of the Law their particular aime and reason for want of understanding them distinctly makes the reading of them contemptible and envied by the common people Many also not knowing at what the Scripture aimes are astonished at the recital of divers enormous things which it particulariseth so carefully I put not in this rank those which are symbolical as the cōmandement made to Hosea that he should get unto him a whore this is but a parable But the incest of Judas with his sons wife seems fitter to have been buried with him then to be inserted in the holy history even with so many shamefull and horrid circumstances yet notwithstanding if one heed the arrogance of the Jews which insolently glory of their extraction who ground even their election and divine alliance on the vertues of their Patriarks One shall find this error cannot be better refuted nor this pride better taken down then by making them see the proceedings of their father guilty of a thousand filthy acts CHAP. III. Of the method which seems defective in many discourses of Scripture Of the stile thereof Of superfluous words Of strange similitudes Of the imitation of Scripture language Of mysterious omissions THere are found many discourses in the Scripture which seem to be without order and without connexion built with pieces ill joyned nay in the judgement of the ignorant extravagant and from the purpose The Lamentations of Jeremy a number of Psalmes divers Sermons of our Lord some Epistles of the Apostles keep not in appearance any regular method Many subjects seem ranked confusedly in history unlesse one see their subjects the connection and their aim as in the Apology of Saint Stephen and other places One may take notice of censures made as it seemeth out of season nay which is more divers answers which concern not the queries and in no wayes touch the question proposed The vulgar interpreters are much troubled when they must expound such passages and shew themselves ridiculous endeavouring to reduce them to the ordinary rules of their Logick By this meanes they give them a contrary and forced sense What may be said upon this subject cannot be comprehended in this abridgement I will touch but one point thereof for example of all the rest Sometimes it is said in the Gospell that Jesus answered where notwithstanding it appeareth not by any circumstance of Scripture that any had spoke unto him Some are astonished then why it is said he answered when none had asked him I take this tearm not for a bare Hebraisme but indeed for a proposall relative to anothers Now many which opened not their mouth in the presence of Jesus Christ ceased not to speake in the secret of their heart but their thoughts being known to him he answered the subject of their thoughts We ought also to observe that where the Scripture oft-times breaks off that which seems should have followed in the thred of the same discourse and inserts a subject quite different whereof the hearers never thought If the construction thereof be not alwaies Grammaticall it is reall consisting more in the coherence of mysteries then in the forme of words In that which the Scripture saith one ought even to consider why it speaks in such tearms for when it expresseth the same thing by divers names this diversitie of words representeth alwaies some diversitie of qualitie in the same subject Such a thing is called by one name in one passage which is otherwise named in another and this for a notable cause Moses Exod. 3. asked what was the name of God that is to say in what qualitie he should speak whether as Elohim or as Jehovah or as Shadai or Adma or according to some other name by which he is called It is to be noted that the title of Jehovah which is translated Lord was not given him in all the Scripture touching the Creation but onely after the making of man In one place the Scripture saith that Jesus Christ sitteth on the right hand of God In another that he standeth at the right hand of God I have before spoken of the redundants which seeme to be in Scripture When it saith that such a man lived so many years and then died These two last words seeme to be superfluous which containe notwithstanding a substantiall addition It gives this Epitaph but to the Patriarchs which lived before the flood Of all those which died after Noah it saith barely such a man lived so many yeares without adding that he died Which thing is considerable It is to be observed also whether the Scripture it selfe speaks or whether some body els speake in it The similitude which compares God to a man that was dead asleep with too much drink is but an echo or an Ironicall repetition of the idolaters language who spake of God in those jolly tearmes It is to be noted also that the Scripture sometime expresseth a thing by its contrary As when one is accused to have blessed God to denote the most horrible impiety that may be These observations require many others which we omit I will speake onely one word of a question that may be made to wit whether wee may not accustome our selves to write and speak the same style with the Scripture There are found some that affect its language and assay to counterfeit its voyce to authorize their dreams and make them passe for Oracles But they are barbarisms in divinitie have made those dreames be accounted for strange It were therefore to be wished that those that speak according to the truth of Scripture had also the phrase and language thereof A Sermon woven not with superfluous or impertinent quotations but with tearms and speeches of the Holy Ghost joyned and ranked in their proper places nips off the lustre of the most eloquent pieces A collection which might be made upon all sorts of subjects continuall reading a method fit for this purpose are a memorie ready and present to occurrences a judicious spirit and long experience might frame the habit thereof But we must observe that as the Scripture often hides an extraordinarie sense under a common phrase wee may well have the same words of it though not alwaies in so lofty a sence There is for example sometimes a reproofe or a doctrine