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
A94272	A treatise of the schism of England. Wherein particularly Mr. Hales and Mr. Hobbs are modestly accosted. / By Philip Scot. Permissu superiorum.	Scot, Philip.	1650 (1650)	Wing S942; Thomason E1395_1; ESTC R2593	51,556	285

sense and as St. Basil upon the 115. Psal They constitute their sense the measure of all things is not this to invert the whole frame of Gods spiritual world According to that of St. Basil in his 43. ep As in things which are seen with the eyes experience is of more consideration then reason so in the most excellent tenents of our faith is of more force then any juncture of reason O how St. Augustine meets with these socinians towards the end of his 56 Epistle To these straights they are driven who finding themselves most miserably laid on their backs when their authority is put in ballance to see how it will endure the test against the authority of the Church They do therefore endeavour under the shew and promise of reason to quel the inmoveable authority of the holy Church neither is it any news for it is the accustomary practise of all Here ticks and in his 22. Ep. he saith That if a Catholick desires a reason of his saith that he may understand what he beleeves there must be an eye had to his capacity that he may by reason obtain a proportionable measure of understanding whence we learn that 's the regular discipline of hereticks under a false vizard of reason to lay aside the most firm authority of Gods Church Hence we also learn how Catholicks make due use of reason in matters of Faith explicating holy mysteries according to each capacity I wondered to finde Mr. Hobbs in his 12. Chap. n. 6. to be so positive in attributing it to an error of the vulgar to hold that Faith is not begotten by study and natural reason His principal ground is because it were impertinent to oblige us to give an account of our Faith that is to render a reason of it as he would have it Englished if our reason doth not acquire it Of how great force this his reason is I leave any man to consider He deals fiercely against inspiration of Faith and saith all the world is mad in asserting it he conceives that every Christian would be a prophet if he had his Faith by supernatural infusion Therefore in order to him Chillingworth and the rest and any who shall desire to know in what manner or how far Catholicks use the assistance of reason perticularly in Faith I will briefly decipher it because here is the main scruple of our new modellers of Christianity To this end we must understand that Logick hath two questions The one is An sit Whether the thing questioned hath any real existence The other is Quid sit Or Propter quid sit That is what the essence of it is or by what cause it is In the first question as Neophites we make enquiry after the truth of Catholick Faith by weighing the motives which being considered ab intrinseco or from the internal principles of them we finde profoundness even surpassing the greatest jugdments with simplicity proportioned to the weak est understandings contempered with sanctity compared to the tenents of all sects either of Infidels or Hereticks wherein they do infinitety exceed them all If we do consider ab extrinseco that is by their inseparable annexed habiliments we finde perpetual and inviolable succession delivered from hand to hand from the very fountain to us witnessed sufficiently by the very Church walls we find also most exemplary holiness of those who imbrace this faith which St. Augustine celebrates in his book intituled of the manners of the Catholick Church also wonderful change of manners in those who are new converts by the ancient much valued Angelical purity and stupendious austerity of both Sexes who imbrace Heremitical Cenobitical or Anachoretical reclusions also the gallowes adorned with the blood of so many illustrous martyrs as in our Country where so many learned men expose themselves to all cruelties for the good of others and voluntarily under go ignominious death daily for the confirmation of others Lastly the working of miracles that is such wonders which either in substance transcend all nature as to restore sight to them that are born blinde or raise the dead and the like or in the manner as to cure diseases without applying causes c. Out of these and the rest of the motives by reason we attain to be able to make a firm judgment first of the manifest credibility of Catholick misteries insomuch that we clearly see that it is more reason to be matriculated into the Church then into any other Sect. This step being made and digested by further penetrating discursively all the motives we find the conjunction of them all to be impossible to the whole latitude of nature which a wise man weighing in comparison to the continual mutation and vicissitude of all natural causes will be able to demonstrate the Catholick to be supernatural and absolutely true because reavealed and inspired by God which is the last resolution of our Faith wherein as you see reason conducteth us in our enquiry to the full result that is to the formal object of our Faith which is God revealing where we stick not for our reason but for the revelation of God wherein Christian Faith is compleated It is true that the first Christians to whom these revelations were immediately made were prophets but to the especial assistance of God in our assenting to these supernatural truths already revealed doth not make prophets which is an action of a different nature from formal revelation as school-men at large demonstrate in the tract of Faith and it is evident in it self wherein Mr. Hobbs seems to have erred Hitherto we use reason in the disquisition of the truth of Faith according to the question An sit In the other question called Quid sit Or by what means or causes is it Which amongst Logicians is the nobler question In this we proceed not by doubtfully enquiring of the truth of objects of Faith or of their real existence which is disputed in the State of our Neophitism but all fluctuancy and doubt deposed touching the truth of them wherein our Socinians boggle for they stick still at An sit But our learned men proceed to the other question labouring to understand the truths speculating the essences and natures of each of them and the Subalternal connexion of them each to other which is the proper Sphear of a divine or school-man for his own and others satisfaction There are the bounds of our reason intervening to attain and to preserve already attained Faith wherein as is clear reason is the servant not mistris But on the contrary ye give no limits to reason but as in the progress or search so in the possession of Faith ye still stick most to your reason and therefore ye doubt or deny what ye understand not for ye perswade your selves that the mysteries necessary to be beleeved ought to be per se nota clear in their very terms insomuch that every one of you brag your absolute comprehension of them And hence it

comes that the Socinians call in question if not absolutely deny the diety of the Son and of the Holy Ghost hence with the Pelagians they reduce Christs death to example of our imitation onely not to be the price of our redemption hence generally they profess with Chillingworth and others whom I could name that holy Scriptures are to be understood according to each mans small reach of reason as if nothing were contained in them what is not commensurated to our understanding and therefore needs not any supernatural aide from God which Mr. Hobbs very well confutes Chap. 17. n. 28. Yet he saith it belongs to the City to interpret Scriptures at least in all such things which he will please to call juridical or Philosophical which have far too great latitude in his sense For purely supernatural he speaks more reason then any others of these new ones from whom hath proceeded contempt of Prelates and Doctors because every one of the most inferiour Laytie of these Enthusiasts by their impetuous imaginary instinct and private spirit or what is the same their particular ratiocination though most groundless are supreme and infallible Masters and Doctors to themselves Neither do they beleeve any thing to be Divine which flowes not from the sensless impetuosity of their imaginations without any respect to higher considerations Yes truly those who are esteemed the wiser sort following Socinas stick in the same puddle expounding holy Scriptures and all mysteries of our holy Faith not according to the universal reason of the Church delivered by the hands of the ancients to us as Catholicks do but by their private spirits or by the conduct of their private reason A thing ridiculous to conceive that the profoundness of Christian misteries should not exceed the shallow reach of our reason Which error is the Source of all dissonancies and inconstancies amongst them which even by intrinsecal necessary consequence must needs cause a perpetual flux or issuing out of changes of conclusions of Faith for the effect cannot be more noble then the cause On the other side Catholick tenents must by a great necessity be always constant because they depend not upon our daily changable reasons or ratiocination but upon the unvariable word of God revealed and delivered by the Church The sum of all is that the verity of a Philosophicall conclusion is demonstrated by the verity of human reason the verity of Christian reason is proved by the verity of ancient faith indeed one verity may be diverse but never adverse to another Neither doth Divine contradict human but often surmounteth it and therefore it is comprehended by the sparks of our scanted reason but it is setched from else where Ask thy Father c. This is a safe way in which there is no danger to be dashed upon the rocks of errors according to that of Athanasius in his Epistle to Epicietus teaching how Hereticks Schismaticks are to be treated with There is no better way and indeed it is alone sufficient to answer them Those things not to be orthodoxall which our forefathers have not taught us This is plea enough against all pretences in the judgment of Athanasius let therefore Christians and they that bear the name of Christ be ashamed if leaving the fountain of antiquity from whence all sound doctrin floweth to follow certain small rivolets full of vanity and foolery shadowed under a precious shew of reason which from whence they had their Source and beginning none for certain know We Catholicks therefore adhere to the holy Councels and ancient Fathers in the first place after the holy Scriptures neither dare we accuse them of foolery a Christian minde will hurdly permit them to be rashly and presumptuously defamed But these men and others of the some tribe who make the glimmering of their reasons the rules of Faith and Religion easily reject them It is a wonder rather that they do not with their supercilious spectacles clime up the heavens and there with the Albumazar Aicabatius Massaeius and infinite other Astrologers seek out the verity of all Religions and one while for the conjunction of Saturne with the Sun adhere to Judaismes another while for the conjuction of Mars with Jupiter promote the Chaldaick Sect if with Venus the Mahumetical if with Mercarie the Christian So by some little shew of reason drawn from the heavens they may change their religion as for the most part they are wont to do several times of the year according to the several dominations of the planets or certainly every year according to the annual dominion or if this seems to much aerial they may according to the Successory government of those intelligences which they call Seconds appoint the stations retrogradations and cadences of their divers sects and religions as some not without applause of such lunitick persons have unhappily enough attempted as especially some attribute the innovation of Luthers sect to the new lunary inteligences then 1517. undertaking the worlds government And Ticho Brahe affirms that those sects which indeed are derived from mens brain-sick fancies may be found out in the heavens both in their risings and fallings Of which this present age administreth change enough The truth is Judas the Apostle toucheth these home whatsoever they do not know they blaspheme whatsoever like bruit beasts they know they are corrupted in They are indeed so swoln in their imaginations that breaking they corrupt themselves and others CHAP. 6. A digression against Mr. Hales the supposed Author of the Treatise of Schism And a farther proof of Schism in England Mr. HALES who is said and supposed to be Author of the Treatise of Schism objects that Schirm may be spread over all the parts of the Church and so the whole be infected in which case Schism cannot be imputed to one place more then to another and this may peradventure be affirmed of the sepuration of England from other Churches as it was touching the ancient celebrating of Easter wherein also a how Schism is rison for aching not necessary yea saith he in a matter ridiculous If I should bring the general Councel of Nice condemning and separating from these Quarta-decimans he would deride it he accuseth all the ancients of foolishness in this matter Thus he sporteth and trifleth in mysteries of faith to root out all faith out of the mindes of the faithful I deny first what he averreth that the West and East were at variance that is to say that that Schism did invade the whole Church and cleave her into two parts for the matter of Easter but that some considerable part did raise stirs in the East yea in the West also is manifest amongst historians this cause of division in a late work de consilijs made in latine by a Country man of ours is laid open to the very root But to peruse a little more the grounds of his mistakes in this important point of Schism we must alwayes remember what before we noted that