Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	believe_v	faith_n	2,185	5	5.2251	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33459	A treatise of humane reason	Clifford, M. (Martin), d. 1677.	1674 (1674)	Wing C4707; ESTC R21053	22,005	94

oppos'd to Animus and both sometimes to Mens So that the meaning is that whilst a mans Reason is seduced by his appetites and passions it is an unfit Judge of Spiritual matters neither can be Umpire for a peace having joyn'd it self to the Party of those things which are in perpetual warfare against the Spirit But they say this authority which we ascribe to Reason is strangly different from that Captivity which Saint Paul subjects it to when he says Casting down reasonings and every high thing that exalts it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into Captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ And what Captivity say they can there be whilst we are only guided by the motions of our own understanding All which signifies no more but that St. Paul relates in vindication of his own just greatness against the Calumnies of some that despised his person especially as weak and rude of speech how he had confuted those persons that opposed themselves by reasonings against the Doctrine of Christ and whereas their understandings before were enslaved and captivated to the desires of the sensual Soul for which he calls them in another place beasts at Ephesus which hindred them from the obedience of Christ he freed them from their cruel bondage by casting down all their strong holds and breaking the chains of their fallacious reasonings and brought them into another captivity by right of conquest but such an one where the yoaks are light and the burthens easie that is by true reason he overcame and captivated their false ones And from this Example I desire those who would have our Understandings captivated to convince us first by theirs that they ought to be so and not to think to enslave our Reasons till they first overcome them which when they have done then they will lose what they contend for For by our Reasons being guided conquered and enslaved theirs are become Guides Conquerours and Masters So that it will appear at last impossible for humane Reason to lose any thing in one place without gaining as much in some other They who follow the apprehension of a Vision or Revelation extrinsecally coming into their Souls if it happen that that extrinsecal light come from the Father of Lights as the pillar of Fire did which led the Israelites they must needs be guided rightly but if it chance to be an Ignis fatuus a flame driven about as men commonly believe by malicious Spirits the Errours which it leads them into become unpardonable for what plea can they make for mercy since there is no command nor no counsel can be alleadged for the trusting of themselves to that Stranger which they can neither know from whence he comes nor whither he designs to go The like happens if we obey Authority For if that Authority prescribe truth we have good fortune in our obedience and meerly good fortune but if it draw us into Errours we have nothing to say for our excuse because we have nothing to alleadge for our obedience to that Authority So Eve pleaded the Authority of the Serpent but both were punished so Adam with more appearance of innocency the Woman that thou gavest me for an Helper bad me eat and accordingly I did but to him too a Curse is pronounced because he believed that which was figuratively one with him as members of the Church pretend to do the Church rather then that which was most certainly and singly one with him which was his own Reason Thus the best that can be made of these mens Opinions is that after they have blind-folded themselves amongst the many doors where they may enter there is one which will lead them to Heaven which if they miss it will be asked not why you entered not there but why by blinding your own eyes did you put your self into a greater probability of not finding than of lighting upon the true passage Now contrariwise those who commit themselves to the guidance of their own understanding if they do commit themselves wholly to it are as safe on the left hand as on the right as secure of happiness in their Errours as others are who are otherwise guided even in the Truths which they happen to fall into For there is no danger of perishing but from disobedience without which every man may often erre the commandement of God being not to find out truth especially every particular one but to endeavour the finding it He commands no more but to search and ye shall find says he not every particular Truth for experience teaches us that cannot be the interpretation but whether you find or no the Truth which you search for you shall find the reward of searching which is Happiness Now he that bids you search is cruel and barbarous in his mockery if he knows you have no power or faculty so to search as he commands you there is therefore in man a natural ability of searching spiritual Truths and that can be nothing else but his Understanding neither to any thing else can the command be directed since all things else are without us and may serve for helps and directions in our search but cannot be our search it self Secondly because we lay the blasphemous accusation of Injustice upon God if he punish us for an Errour which we could not avoid and all Errours are such which we fall into after a full and mature search for the Truth according to the best means represented to our understanding so that as the liberty of our Will and the possibility we have of doing the contrary makes us suffer justly for evil Actions so the possibility our understanding had to have discover'd and entertained the Truth renders us liable to Condemnation for ill beliefs Thirdly We ought not to believe Errours in Faith to be damnable because this opinion is so wildly uncharitable that it strikes out ten thousand Millions out of the Book of Life for each single Name that it leaves in it so immeasurably vast if we consider the whole World and all the Ages of it is the number of those who have lived and died in great high and manifest Errours manifest I mean to us for they were not so to them above those that have been so happy as to find and to embrace the Truth Fourthly We ought not to teach men that any Errours in belief overthrow our hopes of salvation unless we could likewise give them a Catalogue of those Errours which do so it being confest that all do not because these must necessarily put all considering Men into a doubt or rather despair of their own salvation for what quiet or repose can our Conscience take whilst vve know our selves to be in many Errours the estate of a Travellour being uncapable of an exemption from them and believe that some Errours without knowing which or how many do exclude men from a possibility of entring into Heaven Fifthly Because in this case we cannot know our fault and therefore