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
A91323	The life of that incomparable man, Faustus Socinus Senensis, described by a Polonian knight. Whereunto is added an excellent discourse, which the same author would have had premised to the works of Socinus; together with a catalogue of those works.; Vita Fausti Socini Senensis. English	Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670.; Biddle, John, 1615-1662.	1653 (1653)	Wing P4136; Thomason E1489_1; ESTC R203303	35,107	77

it self envyed her own fortune or finally the counsel of almighty God that vertue might never want a ●●fficient combate certain it is that the hope of so happy a condition together with the way thereunto hath been for many ages involved with the greatest difficulties For first the very confidence of our hope which onely is able to set us on the top of true happiness began to be undermined and shaken with engines well-nigh planted against it Next the very Religion of Christ which alone gave assurance of so great a hope to mankind was on several accounts called into question Finally a great impediment lay in the way to hinder us not only from conceiving but also venturing on this hope And which would most of all move you with grief and indignation all these things were done by them who professed themselves competitors of the felicity hoped for For that we may return unto what was proposed in the first place what engine was fitter to undermine our faith then the difficulty of returning to life That life might perhaps be extended to a very great length would though with some difficulty be assented unto by reason but that being once taken away it should be restored again for ever was though not contrary to reason yet above belief In so great a miracle thwarting the custome of nature mankind could hardly believe without an example And therefore God exposed to the view of all a certain experiment thereof having recalled him to life who did not at all exceed others as to the condition of mortal nature This so evident a prop of our faith is taken from us by the common opinion of Christians if Jesus that was raised from the dead be the very most high God not differing in essence from the Father For neither did he really dye for who would imagine that the Supreme Power can dye who would affirm that a person coeternal and coessential with the Father was killed nor when he was dead did he like us stand in need of anothers help so that returning unto life in a glorious manner he did by his own strength and such a power as was neither taken away from him nor laid down by him rescue himself out of the jaws of death Tell me now what is there in us like hereunto It is not something added unto us but we our selves that dye and what hope is there in our strength being altogether broken and quelled by death Certainly the Ghosts or persons of the dead do not watch an opportunity to raise themselves by their own power out of so profound a sleep Moreover as if it had been a small matter to have our faith so dangerously shaken in a thing of the greatest moment a very provident care was also taken that it might not make use of some other means to erect it self For whereas it was the chief duty of a lively faith sincerely to believe so sublime promises of God the generality of Christians was made to believe that the main business of faith was to believe certain opinions touching the nature of God and other the like doctrines Thus did the Publick error wrest and turn aside the minds of all from the true exercise of faith to the affectation of vain opinions Whereby it came to pass that all disputed concerning the nature of God but few believed his promises and accordingly not many obeyed his commandments So that with a little adoe faith degenerated into opinion religion into Philosophy vertue into contemplation zeal into contention love into faction Nor could it be otherwise when once the maners of men were slighted and their wits only began to be improved and examined I come now to the second engine wherewith our faith was shaken and which strook at our hope through the side of our whole rel●gion No sect no religion besides the Christian doth solidly promise heaven and the stars to them who have well deserved The pledge of so great a promise perisheth if the promise● himself is called into question But they have taken the direct way to make it be condemned of falshood or burthened with a very just ground of suspicion who deem such doctrines fundamental thereunto as are false and repugnant to all reason Who would not fall a weeping for the miseryes of the Church when he considereth how much she hath degenerated from her primitive chastity And in the midst of grief a just indignation sometimes breaketh-out to see that those ancient Bishops should in the doctrine touching God not be ashamed violently to draw the sense of the Holy Scripture to the opinions of the Greek shall I say or Barbarous Philosophy The ancient Church heretofore laughed at the Gnosticks for corrupting prophane Philosophy with shreds taken out of the Christian doctrine and prodigiously patched together When in the mean she her self forsooth making a more sober use of Philosophy had rather seem to have defiled the Christian Divinity then the Learning of that age Did those Fathers think it so miserable a thing to be accounted ignorant of those arts which were then so ardently affected by the times But as they who desire to sit on two stools fall from b●th even so those Bishops did neither sincerely retain the primitive simplicity of the Sacred Revelation nor the conjectures of prophane wits Whereupon the Doctrines of the Church were stuffed with absurd and contradictions opinions which inasmuch they pull-up by the roots the notions naturally implanted in us and consequently reason it self are obtruded under the pretence of Faith Which might notwithstanding be endured first if they onely surpassed the power of our mind and did not overthrow it For there is a wide difference between nor perceiving the reason of a thing and seeing the falshood thereof Because the truth is oftentimes so deeply hid that it can hardly be brought to light whereas falshood can seldome lye so close but that it may be traced out Wherefore I could wish that it were as easie a matter to cure ignorance as to convince errors of falshood Otherwise to what purpose doth our mind serve if it shall on any pretence be afraid to condemne that which implyeth a contradiction Furthermore that desense of paradoxes under the buckler of Faith might be endured did men in very deed fly from the examination of Reason to the authority of Divine Testimony But when the cause beginneth to sink under the judgement of Reason a sudden supply is fetched from Sacred Revelation When this very Revelation cometh to scanning we find it as we formerly hinted to be more evidently discovered by Platonick Wits then by the Apostolick Writers Again if there be any place in the Holy Oracles which may seem to prove it it is so obscure that we must again return to those flying and aiery contemplations of mans brain to have some certainty concerning the ambiguous sense thereof In framing which consequences if the cause begin again to totter a ridiculous return is also made again to the

belief of the Heavenly Revelation as to a known starting-hole As if it had been long since granted that this were a Doctrine delivered by God and not the very Doctrine it self were then most called into question By this means whilest Uncertain Reason fetcheth unseasonable help from Suspected Revelation Suspected Revelation from Uncertain Reason neither of them is found to have any stability Last of all there are in the Scriptures so many and so clear testimonies of the contrary opinion that neither can those paradoxes consist with the safety of them nor the authority of Holy writ remain safe if they be called into question And therefore no Christian dares to make a scruple concerning either the certainty or sense of those testimonies only it is urged that they are maimed and defective and consequently have need of something added to them from abroad for the full knowledge of Divine things And indeed let us herein grant their request so that they abuse not this liberty of adding to undermine those things which they promised to supply But what if they produce such additions as quite overthrow the certainty and reason of those things to which they are added This certainly is not to be endured inasmuch as they had promised to supply our testimonies and not to abolish them But they fetch those supplements out of the Sacred Oracles by whose rule they would have their other testimonies tryed Truly we deny not that the Scripture is the most faithful interpreter of it self But first we must consider with what fidelity they draw that from some places of the Scripture which is repugnant to the open sense thereof elsewhere Next we must demand of them with what forehead they require that those places concerning whose meaning by reason of the open evidence they do in a manner agree with the Adversaryes should be explained by others concerning whose exposition there is the greatest controversie What perverse and preposterous order of knowledge is that to illustrate the light by darkness As if this were the way to perceive the most known things even to be blind in such as are unknown How great support therefore in the Divine Oracles those opinions have which are otherwise repugnant unto reason and how justly they implore the help of Faith is evident from those things which we have discoursed But to what purpose is all this if notwithstanding the greatest part of men are perswaded that it very much concerneth the Christian Religion that so incredible things be believed Neither is this the only point wherein the truth of so Divine Faith is traduced What should I here mention that sink of most filthy errors wherewith the most pure doctrine of the Gospel hath been over-flowed There was heretofore none so profane an opinion none so silly a dotage none so ridiculous a superstition which by the great injustice of men did not only find place therein but also esteem I omit the portentous opinions touching Transubstantiation touching the infinite Power of the Priests and the Pope and touching the worship of Images I omit the fables fetched out of the Academy touching Limbus and Purgatory I omit so many bug-bear-apparitions so many marts of absolutions and sales of sins so many strange rites and forren ceremonies and sundry other things which either the Greek also or the Latin Church only hath not blushed so long to propose for the main pillars of the Faith For whatsoever either abhorrent from all reason or repugnant to the Holy Scripture hath for so many ages been obtruded on the Generality of Christians all that hath redounded to the disgrace of our Religion and Faith since neither could the inbred light of our mind be extinguished by any means nor the authority of the Scripture be overthrown as long as our Faith remained safe But let that pass for the deplorable calamity of the world faln in barbarism now that the light of a happier age is risen and the world beginneth to come out of that thick darkness it is a great indignity that being now awakened and stirring it should again be pothered in the same or a worse fogge For whereunto tendeth the unavoidable condition of Divine Destination whereunto the most unjust necessity of Fate far more silly and barbarous then the dreams of the Ancients which doth not prescribe such a law of life as is equal and common unto all but a fixed decree concerning the inmutable state of every particular man which finally thinketh this only worthy of immense rewards or direful torments that men though they be never so willing are not able to resist the will of God Whereunto I say tendeth so cruel and sinister an opinion but to enwrap in fable darkeness the reason both of Gods Empire and Man's Obedience What also meaneth that peculiar opinion of some touching the pravity of good works or that other more common opinion touching our propriety and possession of anothers holiness Besides the darkning of our mind are we not averted from the study of true piety by the strange mixture of repugnant things if when we do never so well we are frighted with the conscience of our good deeds and when we live never so ill we have the confidence of anothers merit What should I commemorate the price properly paid for our free impunity and that it is enjoyned us by the law of a most equal severity to do impossibilities and that the will that is the freedome of man is servile All these opinions can no more be reconciled with a sincere endeavour to live piously then with themselves For who would with the loss of those things that are most dear to him seek to attain such a reward as he thinketh to be already purchased at anothers cost and without any pains of his who would press towards a place through rough and craggy wayes when in the mean time he is perswaded not only that he cannot get thither but also cannot so much as will to go I know I have touched those points of the Reformed Doctrine as they call it which like the ulcers of a most delicate part cannot be handled without an exquisite sense of pain Wherefore I will add no more for neither can those things be comprehended in a compendium of words whose number cannot easily be reckoned up in the mind Besides I know right well that some one having read those few words will fly-out and chase as if he were pricked on a sudden although I endeavour so to moderate my stile that none may justly take offence For the Christian world sleepeth quietly in his sins being bolstered up with those opinions so that if any one attempt to draw away the pillow from his delicate neck the inflamed faction of Divines falls presently a raging worse then a tyger robbed of her whelps and crying-out that Faith and Religion lye at stake when in the mean time onely the private credit of certain men or the publike allurement of sinning is brought into danger They

narration almost exceeds belief The son of this Marianus was Alexander the elder the grandchild Marianus the yonger the Great-grandchildren Alexander and Laelius the one as we said the father the other the Unkle of our Faustus Both of them for greatness of wit and endowments of Learning exceeding famous but to whom that of the Poet may justly be applyed These to the earth the Fates will only show Causing them presently away to go For Alexander having a marvellous sharpness of wit together with a Divine memory and excellent Eloquence had scarce fulfilled the one and thirtieth yeer of his age but he was suddenly snatched away to the great grief of all Italy And Laelius having in a short race of life performed very great matters exceeded not the seven and thirtieth yeer of his age The memory of this man I judge worthy to be exceedingly admired by posterity who in so short a space as he lived not only smelt-out so many grievous errors which had privily crept into the Church but pulling them out of their very holes first shewed the way how to kill them He being by his Father Marianus put upon that study which was hereditary to his name thought that the knowledge of humane Laws was to be setched out of the very fountains of Gods Law To which purpose whilst he diligently turned-over the sacred volumes he without difficulty found that very many of those Doctrines of the Church which are commonly received are quite opposite to the Divine Testimonies And that so much the more easily because most of them are also repugnant to Reason and such principles as Nature it self hath implanted in us Inasmuch therefore as the height of his excellent wit and sharpness of his judgement was accompanyed with a singular probity of mind having detected the errors of the Church he did not as the greatest part do abuse them to the contempt of the Scripture and Religion but rather used the authority of the Scripture and of the Christian Religion to heal the diseases of the Church which could not be cured unless the errors were detected Wherefore in that study to which his sublime and pious mind was carryed with inflamed speed a great light not without the Divine Assistance suddenly brake out unto him especially because to fetch out the senses of the Scripture he brought with him the knowledge of the Oriental Tongues the Hebrew and Greek chiefly and also the Arabick Whether therefore it were for fear of danger as it is likely or that he might more exactly study purer Divinity and the Tongues he soon passed out of Italy into Switzerland and Germany He left his country very young not being above one and twenty yeeers old In the next four yeers having travelled over France Britanny Belgium all Germany and Poland he took up his dwelling at Zurich Whereupon although he were often drawn away with publicke and private affairs yet did he spend the chiefest part of his exile there being endeared to sundry Princes in all parts and favoured also by certain Kings There was not a noted Scholar in that time then which none ever abounded more with learned men but he had by his carriage won not onely his friendship but his samiliarity also Whereby it came to pass that the inbred goodness of his judgement was accompanyed with a singular prudence and sweetness of behaviour Which endowments are acknowledged in him as by very many other famous men so chiefly by Philip Melanchton in his commendatory Letters which he wrote to him as he was departing And indeed what correspondence was between him and the most renowned men of that age chiefly Calvin Melanchthon Bullinger Brentius Musculus Munster Zanchius Vergerius Castellio Beza Martyr Ochinus Coeleus and sundry others their frequent Letters unto him do testifie the coppies whereof in a great number have come to our hands He did not more desire to enjoy their friendship for the safe-guard of his fortune then to make use of the same to the benefit of the Church Wherefore he did by his questions much urge and exercise those redoubted Doctors of then-flourishing Divinty I have a Letter written with Calvins own hand wherein he openly professeth that he was put into choler by him and in stead of an answer sends him back a check and threatning It is not fit saith he that you should expect untill I answer those portentous questions which you object If you are disposed to fly through those aiery speculations I beseech you suffer me an bumble Disciple of Christ to meditate on such things as tend to the edification of my faith And indeed I will by my silence gain what I desire nam●ly that you be not henceforth troublesome to me Now that so gallant a wit as the Lord hath bestowed on you should not only be unprofitably taken-up with slight matters but also corrupted with pernicious figments is a very great grief What I not long since testified I again seriously warn you of that if you do not timously correct this itch of enquiring it is to be feared you will draw on your self great torments Should I under a shew of indulgence cherish such a vice as I know to be very hurtful I should be perfidious and cruel towards you Wherefore I had either you should be a little offended with my roughness then be drawn away with the sweet allurements of curiosity beyond all recovery The time will come I hope when you will rejoyce that you were so boisterously awakened Jan. 1. 1552. Yours John Calvin Neither was the truth of his threatning either uncertain or contemptible For in the moneth of October the next yeer Servetus was burned at Geneva Nevertheless the gravity of Laelius and his incredible modesty in the greatest endowments of learning and wit together with his dexterity of carriage had so disarmed the anger of those that were in a chafe that they did not endure to hate the man although otherwise they could not brook his freedome Which thing may teach them whom over-much freedom of truth betrayeth into needless dangers that that very Truth which they maintain is more secured by the circumspect mildness of prudence then by unbridled zeal So that they who of their own accord meet dangers seem to make greater hast to their own praise then to the advancement of the publike good And certainly if there be any this is the place where the simplicity of the Dove is to be mingled with the subtilty of the Serpent unless we suspect the counsel of our Saviour condemning their unadvised rashness who oftentimes have very bad success in casting-down their pearles where they cannot be estimated according to their worth The truth is Laelius remained entire and inviolate amongst the capital enemies of his opinion Yet did he not suffer the sense of his judgement to perish within the closet of his conscience Wherefore to those whom he liked he feared not to entrust the things that had been discovered to him by God But