Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	believe_v	faith_n	tradition_n	5,923	5	9.2715	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42816	Logou thrēskeia, or, A seasonable recommendation and defence of reason in the affairs of religion against infidelity, scepticism, and fanaticisms of all sorts.	Glanvill, Joseph, 1636-1680.	1670 (1670)	Wing G812; ESTC R23387	21,978	41

infer That Reason is in a sense the Word of God viz. that which he hath written upon our minds and hearts as Scripture is that which is written in a Book The former is the Word whereby he hath spoken to all Mankind the latter is that whereby he hath declared his will to the Church and his peculiar people Reason is that Candle of the Lord of which Solomon speaks Prov. 20.27 That light whereby Christ hath enlightned every one that cometh into the world John 1.9 And that Law whereby the Consciences of the Heathen either accuse or excuse one another Rom. 2.15 So that Hierocles spoke well when he said 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To be perswaded by God and right reason is one and the same thing And Luther called Philosophy within its own bounds The truth of God 3. The belief of our reasons is an exercise of Faith and Faith is an act of Reason The former part is clear from the last particular and we believe our Reasons because we have them from God who cannot mistake and will not deceive So that relying on them in things clearly perceived is trust in Gods veracity and goodness and that is an exercise of Faith Thus Luke 12. The not belief of Reason that suggests from Gods cloathing the Lillies that He will provide for us is made by our Saviour a defect of Faith ver 28. O ye of little Faith And for the other part that Faith is an act of Reason that is evident also For 'T is the highest reason to believe in God revealing 4. No Principle of Reason contradicts any Articles of Faith This follows upon the whole Faith befriends Reason and Reason serves Religion and therefore They cannot clash They are both certain both the truths of God and one truth doth not interfere with another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Truth agrees with all things that are Whatsoever contradicts Faith is opposite to Reason for 't is a fundamental Principle of that That God is to be believed Indeed sometimes there is a seeming contradiction between them But then either something is taken for Faith that is but Phancy or something for Reason that is but Sophistry or the supposed contradiction is an error and mistake 5. When any thing is pretended from Reason against any Article of Faith we ought not to cut the knot by denying reason but indeavour to unty it by answering the Argument and 't is certain it may be fairly answered For all Hereticks argue either from false Principles or fallaciously conclude from true ones So that our Faith is to be defended not by declaiming against Reason in such a case which strengthens the enemy and to the great prejudice of Religion allows reason on his side But we must indeavour to defend it either by discovering the falshood of the Principles he useth in the name of Reason or the ill consequence which he calls proof 6. When any thing is offered us for an Article of Faith that seems to contradict Reason we ought to see that there be good cause to believe that this is divinely revealed and in the sense propounded If it be we may be assured from the former Aphorisms that the contradiction is but an appearance and it may be discovered to be so But if the contradiction be real This can be no Article of Revelation or the Revelation hath not this sense For God cannot be the Author of Contradictions and we have seen that Reason as well as Faith is his I mean the Principles of Natural Truth as well as those of Revelation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith Aristotle Truth is throughout contrary to falshood and what is true in Divinity cannot be false in Reason 'T is said indeed in the Talmud If two Rabbins differ in Contradictories yet both have their Opinions from Moses and from God But we are not obliged to such a non-sensical kind of Faith And ought not to receive any thing as an Article in a sense that palpably contradicts Reason no more than we may receive any in a sense that contradicts other Scriptures Faith and Reason accord as well as the Old Testament and the New and the Analogy of Reason is to be heeded also because even that is Divine and Sacred 7. There is nothing that God hath revealed to oblige our Faith but he hath given us reason to believe that he hath revealed it For though the thing be never so clearly told me If I have not reason to think that God is the Revealer of what is so declared I am not bound to believe except there be evidence in the thing it self For 't is not faith but vain credulity to believe every thing that pretends to be from God So that we ought to ask our selves a Reason why we believe the Scripture to be the Revelation of Gods will and ought not to assent to any sense put upon it 'till we have ground to think that that sense is his mind I say we must have ground either from our particular Reasons or the Authority of the Church otherwise our Faith is vain credulity and not faith in God 8. A man may hold an erroneous opinion from a mistaken sense of Scripture and deny what is the truth of the proposition and what is the right meaning of the Text and yet not err in Faith For Faith is belief of God revealing And if God have not so revealed this or that as to give us certain ground to believe this to be his sense he hath not sufficiently revealed it to oblige our Faith So that though I deny such or such a sense while I believe it is not from God his veracity and Authority is not concerned since I am ready however to give a chearful assent to whatever is clearly and sufficiently revealed This Proposition follows from the former and must be understood only of those Doctrines that are difficult and obscurely delivered And that many things are so delivered in Scripture is certain For some are only hinted and spoken occasionally some figuratively and by way of Parable and Allegory some according to mens conceptions and some in ambiguous and Aenigmatical Phrases which obscurities may occasion mistake in those who are very ready to believe what ever God saith and when they do I should be loath to say that such err in Faith Though those that wrest plain Texts to a compliance with their interests and their Lusts Though their affections may bring their judgments to vote with them yet theirs is error in Faith with a witness and capable of no benefit from this Proposition 9. In searching after the sense of Scripture we ought to consult the Principles of Reason as we do other Scriptures For we have shewn That Reason is another part of Gods Word And though the Scripture be sufficient to Its end yet reason must be presupposed unto It for without this Scripture cannot be used nor compared nor applied nor understood 10. The essentials of Religion are so plainly

sheep Ver. 12. Thus our Saviour used arguments of Reason And the APOSTLES did so very frequently St. Paul disproves Idolatry this way Acts 17.29 Forasmuch then as we are the Off-spring of God we ought not to think that the Godhead is like unto Gold or Silver or Stone graven by Art And the same Apostle proves the resurrection of the dead by the mention of seven gross absurdities that would follow the denial of it 1 Cor. 1.15 viz. If the dead rise not Then 1. Christ is not risen And then 2. our Preaching is vain and we false Apostles And if so 3. your Faith is vain And then 4. you are not justified but are in your sins And hence it will follow 5. That those that are departed in the same Faith are perished And then 6. Faith in Christ profits only in this life And if so 7. we are of all men the most miserable Because we suffer all things for this Faith From Ver. 14 to ver 19. And the whole Chapter contains Philosophical Reasoning either to prove or illustrate the Resurrection or to shew the difference of glorified bodies from these And St. Peter in his second Epistle Chap. 2. shews that sinful men must expect to be punished because God spared not the Angels that fell Instances in this case are endless these may suffice And thus of the Second thing also which I proposed to make good viz. That Religion is friendly to reason and that appears in that God himself our Saviour and his Apostles own it and use arguments from it even in affairs of Faith and Religion BUT Scripture the Rule of Faith is pretended against it and other Considerations also These therefore come next to be considered and the dealing with those pretensions was the III. General I proposed to discuss AS for Arguments from Scripture against the use of reason 'T is alledged 1. From 1 Cor. 1. where 't is said That God will destroy the wisdom of the wise ver 19. And the world by wisdom knew not God ver 21. And not many wise men after the flesh are called ver 26. And God chose the foolish things of this World to confound the wise ver 27. By which Expressions of wisdom and wise 't is presumed that Humane Reason and rational men are meant But these Interpreters mistake the matter much and as they are wont to do put arbitrary interpretations upon Scripture without ground For by Wisdom here there is no cause to understand the reason of men but rather the Traditions of the Iews the Philosophy of the disputing Greeks and the worldly Policy of the Romans who were the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Rulers of that World That the Iewish learning in their Law is meant the Apostle intimates when he asks in a way of Challenge ver 20. Where is the Scribe And the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies one that was skill'd in their Laws and Customs And that the Philosophy of the Greeks is to be understood likewise we have ground to believe from the other question in the same verse Where is the Disputer of this World Which though some refer to the Doctors among the Iews also yet I humbly think it may more properly be understood of the Philosophers among the Grecians For the Apostle writes to Greeks and their Philosophy was notoriously contentious And lastly that the worldly Policies of the Romans are included also in this wisdom of this World which the Apostle vilifies there is cause to think from the sixth verse of the second Chapter where he saith He spake not in the wisdom of the Princes of this World And 't is well known that Policy was Their most valued wisdom Tu regere imperio To govern the Nations and promote the grandeur of their Empire was the great Design and Study of those Princes of this World Now all these the Apostle sets at nought in the beginning of this Epistle Because they were very opposite to the simplicity and holiness self-denial and meekness of the Gospel But what is this to the disadvantage of Reason to which indeed those sorts of wisdom are as contrary as they are to Religion And by this I am enabled 2. To meet another Objection urged from 1 Cor. 2.14 But the Natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they ate spiritually discerned Hence the Enthusiast argues the Universal inability of Reason in things of Religion and Its Antipathy to them Whereas I can apprehend no more to be meant by the words than this viz. That such kind of natural men as those Scribes and Disputers and Politicians having their minds depraved and prepossess'd with their own wisdom were indisposed to receive this that was so contrary unto it And they could not know those things of God because they were spiritual and so would require a mind that was of a pure and spiritual frame viz. free from that earthly wisdom of all sorts which counts those things foolishness and which by God is counted so it self 1 Cor. 3.19 which place 3. Is used as another Scripture against reason The wisdom of this World is foolishness with God But it can signifie nothing to that purpose to one that understands and considers the Apostles meaning What is meant by the wisdom of this World here I have declared already And by the former part of my Discourse it appears that whatever is to be understood by it our Reason cannot since that either proves or defends all the Articles of Religion 4. And when the same Apostle elsewhere viz. 2 Cor. 1.12 saith that They had not their conversation in fleshly wisdom we cannot think he meant humane reason by that reason directs us to live in simplicity and Godly sincerity which he opposeth to a life in fleshly wisdom By this therefore no doubt he means the reason of our Appetites and Passions which is but sense and imagination for these blind guides are the directors of the Wicked but not the reason of our minds which is one of those lights that illuminate the Consciences of good men and help to guide their actions And whereas 't is objected 5. From Col. 2.8 Beware lest any spoil you through Philosophy I answer there is nothing can be made of that neither for the disgrace of reason for the Philosophy the Apostle cautions against is the same which he warns Timothy of 1 Tim. 1.4 Neither give heed to Fables and endless Genealogies that minister Questions calling these prophane and vain bablings and oppositions of Science falsly so called 2 Tim. 6.20 By all which learned Interpreters understand the pretended knowledge of which the Gnosticks boasted which consisted in the fabulous pedigrees of the Gods under the name of Aeones and it may be the Genealogies of which the Iews were so fond and the disputing Philosophy among the Greeks which was properly Science falsly so called and did minister Questions and endless