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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	place_n	use_v	word_n	6,256	5	4.4270	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28445	Religio laici written in a letter to John Dryden, Esq.	Blount, Charles, 1654-1693.; Dryden, John, 1631-1700. Religio laici.; Herbert of Cherbury, Edward Herbert, Baron, 1583-1648. De religione laici.	1683 (1683)	Wing B3314; ESTC R2743	24,729	118

Principal End for the Which those Rites were ordained Fifthly and lastly That I thought the doing some good Deed speaking some good Word or thinking some good Thought were more necessary Exercises of my Life than that I should omit them for any Consideration whatsoever Having thus therefore setled these Five Points as Fundamental and together demonstrated that we ought to give them the first place in our Religion I shall come to that Supplemental Part called Faith which Word as I find among Authors is used in two divers Senses and thus distinguished First As it is understood to be a firm assent given to Things past upon the Credit and Authority of others And secondly As it is taken for a Faculty of the Soul laying hold and fixing it self on God's Providence and Goodness hereafter if we do the best we can Where we must observe That as the first Faith hath its next or most immediate Testimoney from Man and consequently is true or false as they who first affirmed it were So the second Faith is by all Churches held necessary to be used as the best means for the uniting of our Souls with God when true Piety and a Good Life do concur insomuch as I am confident this latter kind of Faith may be found in good Men tho no Tradition of former times ever come to their Knowledge Whereas the other Faith depending chiefly on Revelations Miracles and Prophecies hath in it many Difficulties as I have said before and is not only controverted among the stricter Proselytes of it but in a manner rejected by those Nations among whom other Faiths have been taught by their Lawgivers for all Faiths have been shaken but those only which stand upon the Basis of Common Reason Notwithstanding all which as I thought it concerned me among those several and miraculous Traditions which were not impossible to have been true if God so pleased not to distrust and doubt of all Wherefore I applyed my self chiefly to the Christian Faith contained in the Holy Bible as having in it more exact Precepts for the Teaching us a good life and repentance than any other Book whatsoever that I could meet with and besides I found my self through Gods Providence born in the Christian Church and instructed even from my Infancy in the Holy Doctrines drawn from thence But as together I observed many things taught in the said Church which were not only vehemently opposed by other Christian Churches but also repudiated in their chief parts among other Nations So I found no such solid Foundation to build this my Faith upon as the Authority in general of the Christian Church resolving according to the saying of a Learned Father That those things I never had known without the Church I never had believed without it Neither did the Controversies among them much move me since being a meer Laick I had neither Will nor Leisure to engage my self in the clearing of those doubts the scruples of those variously agitated disputes by Men equally Learned being of such intricacy that I saw more and more might be said about them than that I should presume to determine any thing by the Judgment of the best Authors I could peruse on either side So that for my final resolution I thought the best grounds of my Faith ought to be taken from those points which were piously assented to by all Christians and might aptly consist with my aforementioned Five Articles But for the disputes and controversies of Learned Men to lay them aside until they were agreed amongst themselves and in the mean while to attend a good life and repentance assuring my self that in the quality of a Laick or Secular Person my time was better imployed so than in the inexplicable subtleties of the Schoolmen To conclude I embraced the five Catholick Articles for the Reasons above mentioned from whence coming to the Doctrines of Faith I believed piously upon the reverend Authority of the Church that which was unanimously taught by them without any contradictions All which I have here set down with no intention to scandalize any but only to give a Reason as well of those Points which may be known as of those which are already believed in the Christian Religion And also to induce men by these Principles to the Practice of a good life and blessed concord among themselves since having jointly received these five Catholick Points there will be less occasion of hate and dissention about the rest So that the different Opinions amongst them might be argued with less violence and passion the Points wherein they are agreed being greater bonds of Love and Amity among them than that they should be dissolved on any lesser occasion And certainly unless the Method I have here proposed be effectual to this purpose I see no hope that any good Reconciliation can follow among the Principal Sects of the Christian Religion since the one affirming the Scripture to be the sole Judge of Controversies and the other saying that the Church alone should determine them they seem like persons in variance who disagreeing about their Arbitrators or Judges are hopeless that the business in Question between them should ever come to a just Tryal and find an indifferent or equal Decision Now upon all that hath been said give me leave to raise these few Queries and so conclude Queries proving the validity of the five Articles 1. Whether there be any True God but he that useth Vniversal Providence concerning the means of coming to him 2. Whether these means appear universally otherwise than in our aforesaid five Catholick Articles 3. Whether any thing can be added to these Five Principles that may tend to make a Man more honest vertuous or a better Man 4. Whether any things that are added to these Five Principles from the Doctrine of Faith be not uncertain in their Original 5. Supposing the Originals true Whether yet they be not uncertain in their Explications so that unless a Man read all Authors speak with all Learned Men and know all Languages it be not impossible to come to a clear Solution of all Doubts 6. Supposing all true in their Originals and in their Explications Whether yet they be so good for the instructing of Mankind that bring Pardon of Sin upon such easie Terms as to believe the Business is done to our Hands And 7. Whether this Doctrine doth not derogate from Vertue and Goodness whilst our best Actions are represented as Imperfect and Sinful and that it is impossible to keep the Ten Commandments so as God will accept our Actions doing the best we can 8. Whether speaking good Words thinking good Thoughts and doing good Actions be not the just Exercise of a Mans Life Or that without embracing of the foresaid Five Principles or Fundamentals it be possible to keep Peace among Men that God may be well served 9. Whether the foresaid Five Principles do not best agree with the Precepts given in the Ten Commandments and with the Two Precepts of Jesus Christ viz. To love God above all and our Neighbour as our selves As well as with the Words of St. Peter That in every Nation he which feareth God and worketh Righteousness is accepted of God 10. Whether the Doctrine of Faith can by Humane Reason be supposed or granted to be Infallible unless we are infallibly assured that those who teach this Doctrine do know the Secret Counsels of God 11. Whether all things in the Scriptures besides the Moral Part which agrees with our Five Principles such as Prophecy Miracles and Revelations depending on the History may not be so far examined as to be made appear by what Authority they are or may be received 12. Whether in Humane Reason any one may or ought to be convinced by one single Testimony so far as to believe things contrary to or besides Reason 13. And lastly Whether if it were granted they had Revelations I am obliged to accept of anothers Revelation for the Ground of my Faith Especially if it doth any ways oppose these Five Articles that are grounded upon the Law of Nature which is God's universal Magna Charta Enacted by the All-wise and Supreme Being from the beginning of the World and therefore not to be destroyed or altered by every whiffling Proclamation of an Enthusiast Finally Submitting this Discourse to my Impartial and Judicious Reader I shall conclude with the Saying of Justin Martyr p. 83. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. That all those who lived according to the Rule of Reason were Christians notwithstanding that they might have been accounted as Atheists such as among the Greeks were Socrates Heraclitus and the like and among the Barbarians Abraham and Azarias For all those who lived or do now live according to the Rule of Reason are Christians and in an assured quiet condition Apol. cont Tryph. FINIS of Good and Evil. Of Predestination and Free will Of Repentance The Law of Nature unalterable