Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	doctrine_n	false_a	1,796	5	6.6776	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57956	A discourse of the use of reason in matters of religion shewing that Christianity contains nothing repugnant to right reason, against enthusiasts and deists / written in Latin by the Reverend Dr. Rust ; and translated into English, with annotations upon it by Hen. Hallywell.	Rust, George, d. 1670.; Hallywell, Henry, d. 1703?	1683 (1683)	Wing R2361; ESTC R25530	47,282	92

required Holiness of life in the Person that pretends a Divine Mission and a Doctrine worthy of God and every way useful to Mankind Hence our Author adds p. 15. That to make up a right Iudgment concerning a Divine Testimony the matter it self which is attested ought to come into consideration which if it contain any thing contrary to the settled Principles of Nature those Miracles are not to be looked upon as Divine but as Diabolica●… Delusions Therefore for the Writers of the Romish Church to pretend Miracles now and to rank them among the Essential Characters to prove the Truth of a Church by as Bellarmine does when all men whose Eyes are open discover the greatest part of those Miracles to be the Frauds and Impostures of cunning Priests or if they were true it being evident that they are wrought by Apostate Spirits for the Confirmation of such Doctrines as are clearly repugnant to the setled Principles of Right Reason it is 1. To hazard and call in Question the Truth of those Miracles wrought by Christ and his Apostles for the Confirmation of Christianity And 2. to use the Words of a learned Man of our own If any strange things have been done in that Church they prove nothing but the Truth of Scripture which foretold that God's Providence permitting it and the Wickedness of the World deserving it strange Signs and Wonders should be wrought to confirm false Doctrine that they which love not the Truth should be given over to strong Delusions So that now we have Reason rather to suspect and be afraid of pretended Miracles as signs of false Doctrine then much to regard them as certain Arguments of Truth Neither is it strange that God should permit some true Wonders to be done to delude those who have forged so many Wonders to deceive the World Pag. 15. Here lies the Principal Difference between Mankind and Brutes in their being capable of Religion That the Essential Difference between Mankind and Brutes does not lie solely and purely in Rationality appears from hence in that Brutes are capable of Reason though in a lower Degree And moreover we can frame a very Intelligible Idea of such Creatures as are capable of Reason so as to build Cities and to Form and Institute Common-wealths which yet have no Distinction of moral Good and Evil and consequently are neither capable of rewards nor punishments and perhaps some such Animals may be actually existent in some part or other of the World But that which constitutes the true difference between Men and Brutes is Religion which the Satyrist took notice of Separat hoec nos A grege mutorum atque ideò venerabile soli Sortiti ingenium divinorúmque capaces Pag. 16. If we once forsake the guidance of Reason must not all Religion be owing either to Education Superstition or some Fanatical Impulse To him that forsakes the Conduct of Right Reason all Religions are alike and he may as well be a Mahumetan or Jew as a Christian and indeed that he has any Religion at all is owing chiefly to his Education and the Laws of the Country wherein he lives But Religion being a matter of choice there must be some standing and setled Rule by which to try and judge the Truth or Falshood the Congruity or Incongruity of it And such a Rule as this God has furnished Mankind withal namely Right Reason and he that having means and opportunity to try and examine the Religion that is propounded to him as Matter of his Choice shall yet carelesly content himself with it because he has been educated and trained up in it has his Understanding given him to no purpose and may justly fear as a Punishment of this his careless Oscitancy and slothful Credulity that Providence should permit him to swallow great and dangerous Errors as well as Truth For he that believes without Reason declares himself indifferent to believe any thing right or wrong Socrates gives this Commendation of Cebes that he was careful to inquire into all things and duly weigh them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and would not presently believe that which any Body said though otherwise he had sufficient respect unto him I shall subjoin what an excellent Writer speaks to this Purpose We ought not says he to surrender our belief to any thing carelesly nor either out of idleness and sloth or being over-awed by the Confidence which any men assume to themselves content our selves with an Implicit Faith Neglecting to search and try and prove all Things which demand to have no less then our Souls resigned up unto them We ought therefore to suspect those who would have us believe them without putting our selves to the trouble of much search It is a sign they mean to deceive for if God himself does not expect to be believed unless there be Good witness for that to which his Ambassadours demand Assent why should men be so presumptuous as to ask us to believe them blindly Or why should we be such Obedient Fools as to do more for them then God would have us do for himself He has given us Eyes and therefore we ought to look about-us especially when Men bid us wink and take any thing upon trust He has endued us with Reason and therefore we ought to sift and try and examine that which is propounded to us And if any Body say Do not try nor examine you are not able to discern the Differences of things Believe as we teach for we cannot deceive you Mark that Man or Company of Men as the greatest Deceivers who intend to impose something upon you which will not abide the Test. Pag. 17. Religion is a free and ingenuous Thing that forceth none but Captivates the Understanding with its own solitary Beauty and Pulchritude The Soul of Man being the Workmanship of the Eternal 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Wisdom of God and coming into the World furnished with the Seeds and Principles of all true Wisdom and Knowledge however its Lapse and Degeneracy have clouded and darkned its Intellectual Faculties yet there still remaining such a Cognation and Harmony between it and Truth she cannot but embrace it whenever duly and advantageously proposed Now Christian Religion being likewise the Genuine Offspring of that Wisdom which has left such visible Characters and Signatures of it self upon the whole Frame of Heaven and Earth the Soul of Man presently discovers all the Beautiful Emanations of it to be Congenerous and Homogeneal to its own Intellectual Light and as all like is attractive of its like is gently and willingly captivated and sweetly drawn as with some hidden strings to a closer and nearer union with it And this is the Reason why Christianity neither needs nor uses Violence or Force to beget Belief and Entertainment in Humane Minds because it is made up only of such Things as intimately Correspond with the Intellectual Frame and Furniture of the Soul Nor indeed supposing Religion to contain any thing

now reprinted with another useful Discourse of an Ingenious Person with Annotations upon them both To which for full satisfaction and Prosecution of the Heads here mentioned I refer And shall only transcribe what I find concerning this Subject in a Philosophical Poem If God do all things simply at his Pleasure Because he will and not because it 's Good So that his Actions will have no set measure Is 't possible it should be understood What he intends I feel that he is lov'd Of my dear Soul and know that I have born Much for his sake yet is it not hence prov'd That I shall live though I do sigh and mourn To find his Face his Creatures wish he 'll slight scorn When I breath out my utmost Vital Breath And my dear Spirit to my God commend Yet some foul Fiend close lurking underneath My serious humble Soul from me may rend So to the lower shades down we shall wend. Though I in Hearts simplicity expected A Better doom sith I my steps did bend Towards the Will of God and had detected Strong Hope of lasting Life but now I am rejected Nor of well Being nor Subsistency Of our poor Souls when they do hence depart Can any be assured if liberty We give to such odd thoughts that thus pervert The Laws of God and rashly do assert That Will rules God but Good rules not Gods will What e're from Right Love Equity doth start For ought we know then God may act that ill Only to shew his Might and his free Mind fulfil Pag. 5 6. That God should plant such Faculties in us as may then deceive us when they most clearly and distinctly perceive their respective Objects is contrary to the Divine Goodness and Veracity 'T is tr●…e if God were such an Arbitrary Being whose sole Will were the Rule and Measure of Goodness and Justice as the forecited Author contends he is it is utt●…rly impossible we should have any certainty of the clearest Truth not so much as that Three and Three make Six because we can never be assured that this Arbitrary Omnipotent Deity did not purposely make the Frame of our Souls so as that they should then be deceived when they have the clearest and most evident Perception of things Therefore that Acute Philosopher Des-Cartes committed a great over-sight when he would have us doubt of the Truth of those Things whereof we have the clearest Evidence and Demonstration becau●…e till we come to the Knowledge of a God we cannot be certain that our Faculties are not false and imposturous for we have no way to come to the knowledge of God but by our Faculties And therefore this were 1. To condemn us to an Eternal Scepticism from which there is no possibility of ever extricating our selves 2. It is a Ridiculous way of Argumentation to prove the Truth of God's Existence ●…rom our Faculties of Reason and Understanding and then to prove the Truth of those Faculties from the Existence of God 3. There being nothing more Immediate to us nor any thing whereby we can conclude more certainly a thing to be true then by our own Faculties if the Truth of our Faculties is to be proved by any thing it is evident it is to be proved by our Faculties themselves but this were also a ridiculous circular Demonstration to prove the Truth of our Faculties by the Truth of our Faculties Whence it necessarily follows that we are only to suppose our Faculties to be true it being Impossible for us to prove them to be so But to be above this Pitch is the Priviledge only of the Eternal Mind or of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only wise God as our Faculties if rightly cultivated suggest unto us the Apostle does admonish us That therefore was the main slip in Des-Cartes that he was not content to suppose our Faculties to be true but he would prove them to be so when he was destitute of all Argument for it but the Truth of the Faculties themselves But some Philosophers bring the business to a closer pinch as they conceive by supposing the very Essence of Truth to be clear and distinct Perceptibility insomuch that not Omnipoteuce it self much less Casualty can bring to pass that what is false should be clearly perceived to be But these otherwise witty and learned Contemplators do not consider That Truth is a Thing antecedent to Perceptibility which respects the Perceptive Intellect and is in it self nothing else I mean Eternal Truths but the necessary Coherence or Incoherence of the Terms of which the Truth it self doth consist And therefore Perceptibility cannot be the Essence of Truth I speak here of Truth in the Object not in the Subject as our Author has distinguished in his Ingenious Discourse of Truth which no Intellect Perceptive or Conceptine makes but finds in the Intellect Exhibitive as his Annotator has also observed Insomuch that the Divine Intellect it self quatenus Perceptive or Conceptive is not the A●…thor of Archetipal Truth but quatenus Exhibitive Moreover though clear and distinct Perceptibility were the very Essence of Truth whenas indeed it is only a Relative Mode thereof what is this to our Perceptive Faculty till it come to a clear actual Perception and what is this but a strong Cogitation that I clearly and distinctly perceive a thing But that many have been mistaken when they have had such a strong Cogitation is indeed the known Disgrace of Speculation and Philosophy Whence it is manifest when they say that Omnipotence it self cannot bring to pass that what is false should be clearly perceived to be that the Word perceived is fallaciously abused to a sense beyond the Capacity of the present Circumstan●…es as if it signified really to find whenas it only signifies strongly to think we clearly perceive a Thing to be Which many have and yet have been in a mistake and this by Casualty What then cannot Omnipotence do in this kind if it would But supposing our ●…aculties to be true when all Moral diligence has been employed to fit them for use and none but a Humorist will then call into Question their Verdict when they clearly discern a thing to be the Existence of God and his Attributes being plain to us we have a further Assurance we having such an Author of our Being that he gave not our Faculties to abuse us but to inform us faithfully of all Truth necessary and useful for us so that what is clear to them is really true Which is the Assertion of this our Learned and Pious Writer without any Cartesian Fetches and Ambages And lastly we may note by way of Overplus That clearness and distinctness of Perception in the Intellect Perceptive or Conceptive is not the Right notion of Truth but the Conformity of the Perception or Conception with the Thing conceived which is Truth in the Object and that therefore in false Opinions the Perception of the Intellect is not only

contrary to Right Reason could Men ever be forced to believe it For such is the Constitution of a Rational Soul and such are the Essential Impresses of its Intellectual Nature that no Man can believe what he pleases but is fatally bound up to such Things as are agreeable to those Principles of which his Rational Nature is compounded And if it were in the Power of any Man to believe any thing though never so contradictory and repugnant to the Natural Sentiments and Impressions of his own Mind he might then yield as firm an Assent to Falshood as Truth and repute all the Contradictions and Absurdities in the World to be infallible Oracles And as he cannot arbitrariously fix his Mind to the Reception of a Falshood so neither of that which is irrational for that which is Repugnant to Right Reason is certainly false and all the Difference between them lies only in the Number of Syllables Pag. 18. Right Reason and Divine Wisdom give the same Judgment of things The Foundation of all Knowledge whether Divine or Humane lies in the Apprehension of the Idea's Natures and mutual Respects and Relations of things Now these not being Arbitratious but setled Eternally fixt and Immutable it clearly follows that Right Reason and Divine Wisdom give the same Judgment of Things Forasmuch as not only Right Reason is a Participation of the Divine Understanding but likewise that it is no more in the Power of God to change or alter the Idea's Respects and References of Things then it is in his Power to die or destroy his own Being Hence a Triangle with its three Angles equal to two Right ones and all Idea's with their Immutable Respects and Habitudes appear the same in Humane Understanding as they are Represented and Exhibited in the Divine Intellect because our Understanding is an Abstract or Copy of the Divine Understanding as likewise because the contrary would undermine and destroy the very Foundation of all Knowledge in the World Therefore it was truly asserted by Tully Est igitur quoniam nihil est Ratione melius eáque in homine in Deo prima homini cum Deo Rationis Societas Inter quos autem Ratio inter eosdem etiam Recta Ratio communis est Nor do we by this in a Stoical Arrogance make Man equal with God as some may fondly imagine For the Divine Intellect as our learned Author speaks doth intimately penetrate and behold at one view these Affections with the Idea's of the things themselves and discerns their Order and Reciprocations And this is properly called fixed and Stable Reason whereas Humane Understanding explicates and unfolds things successively and in order and this is Reason in succession or flowing and moveable Reason Pag. 41. As to other Things we ought to yield an Implicit Faith to Divine Revelation c. Christian Religion sufficiently obtains its end in that all those things which pertain to Life and Godliness to the Renovation of Mens Minds into the faultless Image of our Lord Jesus are plain and intelligible even to the meanest Capacity but in such things as are of a more Abstruse Profound and Speculative Nature it is sufficient to have an Implicit Faith i. e. to believe that the sense of all those Things that are delivered and consigned by Divine Testimony though they transcend my Capacity whatever it is which was intended by God is true For he that does not so calls God's Truth in Question But to believe this or that to be the true sense of them or to believe the Modes of such and such Doctrines which are not plainly revealed in the Holy Scriptures are thus to be explicated and all other Explications of them utterly false is not necessary either to Faith or Salvation For if God would have had under Pain of Damnation those Doctrines which are not so plainly laid down as that all should have the same Conceptions of them to be equally believed by all in this Particular and Determinate sense it could not consist with his Wisdom to deliver them in obscure Terms nor with his Justice to require of Men to know certainly the meaning of those Words which he himself has not revealed Pag. 43. That he may be a Pattern and Example to us For as Lactantius speaks excellently well Quomodo poterit amputari excusatio c. i. e. How can all excuse be taken away unless he that teacheth does the same things that he teacheth and conducts and lends his helping hand to him that follows For if he should be subject to no Passion a Man might thus reply upon his Teacher I would not sin but I am overcome being clothed with frail and weak Flesh This is it which is angry which covets which grieves which fears to die Therefore I am led unwillingly and I sin not because I would but because I am forced I am sensible likewise that I sin but the necessity of Humane Frailty compels which I cannot withstand What shall this Teacher of Righteousness answer to these Things How will he refute or convince that Man who lays the blame of his sins upon his Flesh unless he himself be likewise clothed with Flesh and Blood that so he may shew that Flesh it self is likewise capable of the Exercise of Virtue Ibid. That be should be conceived by the Power of the Holy Ghost in the Womb of a Virgin without the concurrence of Man is an excellent Provision for a higher esteem and Valuation of his Person That Christ should be Born of a Virgin without the Concurrence of Man could not be looked upon as Incredible by the Pagan World who scarce ever had any famous Hero among them but they presently found out some God for his Father And Plutarch in the Life of Numa relates That the Egyptians supposed it probable enough that the Spirit of the Gods has given Original of Generation to Women and begotten fruit of their Bodies And Lactantius argues the Reasonableness of the Nativity of Jesus of the Virgin Mary from what was commonly believed among the Heathens concerning other Creatures Quod si Animalia quoedam Vento Aurâ concipere solere omnibus notum est cur quisquam mirum putet cùm Spiritu Dei cui est facile quicquid velit gravatam esse Virginem dicimus The belief of which when facilitated will appear an excellent Provision for a higher esteem and valuation of the Person of our Saviour Therefore perhaps it was not only a drunken humour in Alexander when he would be thought the Son of Jupiter Hammon but to make himself appear more August and Venerable by the Reputation of being the Son of a God To this purpose it is related by Huetius that among the Turks there are certain Boys which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believed of the common People to be Born of Virgins and in great esteem as supposed to do strange things In the Turkish Language they are called Nephes-Ogli i. e. the