Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A33459
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A treatise of humane reason
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Clifford, M. (Martin), d. 1677.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing C4707; ESTC R21053
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22,005
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94
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nature should still lament and tremble that the entrances to Heaven are so few and so difficult though they were yet far more and much easier than this opinion makes them There are enow obstructions from the frailty of our Flesh the subtilty of the Devil the tyranny of our Passions and the perverse crookedness of our corrupted Wilâ—s without the additions of any more from the imperfections of our intellect Sufficient is the danger we run in not performing those Duties which vve understand aright without making our mis-understandings damnable and condemning that as a Guilt which is to be pitied as a misfortune What then shall vve believe Turks Jews Heathens Atheists themselves if there be any such in an equal possibility of salvation with the unerring Christian Shall vve save all Beasts of what kind soever clean or unclean in that mystical Ark the Church of God Certainly in the two contrary excesses of belief in this matter that on the side of Mercy hath the appearance of greater safety and I had rather think with Origen That the Devils themselves by the excessive kindness of their Judge shall at last be exempted from damnation than that he himself shall be damn'd for that Opinion But as to this their Objection I believe first That Reason it self will declare to every Man in the World that he ought to adhere to the Christian rather than to any other Religion whatsoever if all things be propounded to him in a clear and impartial manner and this whosoever shall deny I dare confidently affirm it is impossible for him to be a Christian But because there are thousand accidents which hinder the greatest part of the world from the advantages of so fair a proposal hence it comes to pass that so small a part of Mankind hath submitted to the Obedience of the Christian Faith Now to condemn all those Millions of persons many millions for one that is to be saved is so wild an uncharitableness that few have been so barbarously severe as to be guilty of it and therefore those whose Ignorance in these matters hath been invincible they left to the hands of God without declaring a definitive opinion either of their safety or perdition Now if we consider rightly what Ignorance is to be accounted invincible we shall by this means restore the greatest part of Mankind into a hopeful and comfortable condition and none even amongst the worst Religions will be left to a certain ruine but such whose Consciences have been neglected or forced aside by those who ought to have been guided by them and such who can have no plea against the rigour of their sentence because they deserted themselves as well as God And the disobedience of Men to their own Conscience is not only in things of practice but also of belief and speculation though not in so evident and immediate a manner by suffering themselves to be deceived by the insensible operations of interest and prejudice Nor does it follow from hence that Christ is not the only source and cause of eternal felicity for I acknowledge there is no other Name under heaven by which men can hope for salvation But I may very well believe withal that there are secret and wonderful waies by which God may be pleased to apply his Merits to mankind besides those direct open and ordinary ones of Baptism and Confession which I have only advanc'd briefly in this place being a matter that will require a more ample and particular examination Now concerning the Salvation of all sorts of Christians except their lives disagree from their doctrines which is likewise a disobedience to their Reasons I know not why I should be terrifi'd out of my Charity by any Anathema whatsoever that shall proceed from the mouth of Man For I cannot see how any but God himself can certainly know that any man is an Heretick since it is only he who can discern by what close and unlawful means he corrupts his understanding and hardens his own will to the obstinate belief of any Errour for without that obstinacy there is no Heresie and without the perfect sight of the whole contexture of a mans Thoughts and Actions there is no knowledge of such an obstinacy and therefore when the Church declares any Opinion to be Heresie it is to be accepted as if the Law should say whosoever kills a man is a Murtherer which is a sentence not absolute but to be qualified with Circumstances even so the Church pronounces whosoever holds this Doctrine is an Heretick with an evident reservation of some Circumstances in the meaning thereof for no man can imagine that the sentence includes those who never shall hear of it nor no more say I those who though they hear of it yet cannot by any means bring their Conscience to the assent For to obey in matters of belief without being able to believe the thing commanded is no less and seems more a contradiction than simply to obey without knowledge of a Command Thus much briefly concerning Heresie which indeed is a Subject worthy a Treatise by it self But this will not suffice unless we can also clear our selves from the imputation of Schisme the ordinary railing word in all Controversies and a slander which is often fatal in making where it falsly accuses a separation of which they are truly guilty the word it self bearing witness against them who break the precious unity of the Christian Church but that is done not so much by them who differ in Opinions as by them who will not allow of such a difference Who knows whether that God who liked best that no mens Bodies should have the same complexion no mens Faces the same figures no Hands the same lines no Voices the same sounds nay not so much but their motions and gestures should be distinguishable has not likewise best pleased himself with no less variety in the parts of Men that are immaterial and even in the most immaterial Actions of those parts which is the worship and adoration of a Deity Does God gain any thing by our devotions does he receive hurt from one kind of worship and advantage by another is he pleased with any smell in the sacrifice besides that of Obedience and can a plain uniform unalterable obedience be expected without Commands of the same nature Without doubt he who gave Rules which might accept of so many several interpretations when he might have made them as plain to all in one sense as they seem now to every man in his own is likewise well contented that they shall be interpreted severally and as the Divines confess that the same words of Scripture admit of a Literal Typical Anagogical sense and that all those senses are both true and intended by the Holy Ghost that Spirit of unity that writ them so I say the Commands of God concerning Religion are equally obeyed and fulfilled by all the various kinds of Obedience which the Consciences of men conceive themselves bound to pay unto them As well the Mud by growing hard as the Wax by melting obeys the Sun nor is it less glorified by one than by the other nor are those diversities of powers in the Sun but of capabilities in the object that receives him
Licensed 〈…〉 24. 〈…〉 674. Ro. L'estrange A Treatise OF HUMANE REASON LONDON Printed for Hen. Brome at the Gun at the Westend of St. Pauls 1674. A TREATISE OF Humane Reason BEing resolv'd according to the duty of every private Person to make a search into the nature and quality of my Religion and according to my interest in Humane Society to communicate the effects of that search to others if I shall believe it profitable for them I am in the first place to consider of the choice of some Guide for so long and so dangerous a journey where I shall sometimes meet with no tract or Path at all and sometimes with so many and those so contrary in the appearance of their first entry that the variety will confound me more then the want especially there being so many mists cast before me by the errours and deceits of others that one had great need of a better Eye-sight than is left us by the fall of our first Fore-father And this consideration after a long and Serious debate thereof brings no other Guide to me but my own Reason which if it take such directions as it ought and may do before it sets forth and pursue those directions with care and constancy though it may possibly lead me into errours yet wil bring me at last even through them to the propos'd end of my journey which is Happiness I am not ignorant of the many Enemies I must meet with in this doctrine but am fortified against them with the thought that they who dispute most against the power and priviledges of Humane reason do it because their own Reason perswades them to that belief and so whether the Victory be o' mine or o' their side are equally defeated They seek to terrifie us with the example of many excellent Wits who they say by following this Ignis fatuus for so they call the onely North-Star which God has given us for the right Steering of our course have fallen into wild and ridiculous Opinions and encreased the catalogue of Heresies to so vast a number But truly these men either followed not their own reason but made it follow their will or hudwinkt it first by interests and prejudices and then bad it shew them the way or were wanting in those necessary diligences which are required for so doubtful and dangerous a passage Or if without the commission of any of these faults the weakness of their understanding has deceiv'd them the error is neither hurtful to themselves nor would be to others if this doctrine of governing our selves from within and not by example were establisht Whereas on the contrary side the submitting our judgments to Authority or any thing else whatsoever gives universality and perpetuity to every error They fall naturally from hence into the large common-place of the frailty uncertainty and disproportion of our understanding to divine and celestial notions and are eloquent herein with much of truth For when we say that every mans Soul hath in it self as much light as is requisite for our travel towards Heaven we do not therefore assume that it is as clear as those spirits which are confessed to be all a Flame And for the unaptness of it to receive the impression of Spiritual truths though the what and the How of religious Mysteries be out of sight yet that they are such is sufficiently visible Especially if we use those helps which God has prepared for us to that purpose and those our Reason will dictate to her self that she is to use The ordinary saying of Democritus that Truth lyes in the bottom of a deep Well is very applicable to this matter that is that we must seek it in the center and heart of our selves and not look up into Heaven first and immediately for it because by this meanes we shall see Heaven in the bottom of the Well though we could not the Well in the top of Heaven But the chief and most Tragicall argument against us is that the allowance of this Liberty to particular mens discourses would beget as many religions as there are several persons and consequently draw after it disorder and confusion as is inconsistent not onely with the quiet but the very being of Humane Society This is a weighty and grievous accusation and if our Reason be convinced of so harmful a Madness it will be found necessary to keep it chain'd and fetter'd and as much in the dark as may be But I hope it will acquit it self Who knows not that the Philosophy of the Ancients seperated it self into sundry parties the Pythagorians the Peripateticks the Stoicks the Scepticks the Academicks and these of three sorts the Epicureans the Cynicks with many others and these differ'd not in slight and verbal controversies but in the last ends of humane actions in the nature of good and evil nay of God himself whether man worked freely or were compelled by an inevitable necessity whether the soul were subject to Corruption or immaterial and immortal Whether the World had a beginning or had endured from all eternity Whether the Gods took upon them the Government of things below or sate as idle themselves in Heaven as their Images were here on Earth with divers other Questions of equal consequence These opinions divided the Philosophers and the Philosophers the People nor were there fewer Sects in Athens than are now in Amsterdam or London And yet this variety of Opinion neither begat any Civil War in Greece neither did the Peripateticks when both by the strength of their Arguments and their Emperour that Party was become the greatest set up any Inquisition or High Commission or Committee against the rest but every man enjoyed his Opinion with more safety and freedom than either his Goods or Wife The same likewise happened in the Religions of the Ancients for though several Cities profess'd the worship of several Deities yet we read not of any War which hath sprung from that diversity The Poets have made the Gods enter into factions and quarrels for Commonwealths but Commonwealths never did the same for their Gods This quiet and happiness which to the shame and scandal of the Christian Name was enjoyed four thousand years among the Heathen continued so long and so uninterupted because every Man following the rules of his own Judgment allowed that Liberty to others which he found so necessary for himself And even the Stoicks themselves who enslaved the Will durst never attempt this violence to the Understanding From whence then shall we say it proceeds that since the Reformation open'd a way to this Freedom of Conscience so much Blood and Confusion and almost Desolation has followed in all those Countries which admitted it Germany France the Low-Countries and Scotland are sufficient witnesses of this and I could wish that miserable England had not been added to the number of these sad Examples But certainly since this Liberty has been so many Ages exercised without drawing after it those