Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	faith_n	reason_n	7,423	5	5.8303	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51812	The nature and effects of superstition in a sermon preached before the Honourable House of Commons on Saturday the fifth of November, 1692 / by Thomas Mannyngham ...	Manningham, Thomas, 1651?-1722.	1692 (1692)	Wing M493; ESTC R4396	12,601	35

Master of Morality and deeply ingag'd in all the Gallantry of Roman Vertue and Heroical Worth made a shift by the Sagacity of his Reason and the Natural Probity of his Mind to confute the more Abominable Opinions and Practices of the Superstitious in his Time whatsoever was Barbarous and Inhuman whatsoever was Obscene and Filthy and Egregiously absurd in the Gentile Worship he perfectly detested as directly contrary to the Benignity of God to the Modesty of Human Nature to the Universal Love of Mankind and the Foundation of all Society But when he had work'd his Reason to some height and had proceeded so far as to give a good blow to all Paganism by his Rational and Searching Discourses yet at last he found it necessary to retain some Sacrifices and some Ceremonies in the Worship of the Gods for which he could give no other reason than the Testimony of the Oracles and the Tradition of Ancesters And this plainly shews that there is no resting in this Argument till we come to Divine Revelation We may doubtless go a great way towards the detecting of Superstition by the strength of that which Men call Natural Religion and Moral Principles and the Eternal Reason of Things for whatsoever is apparently repugnant to the Notion of the Godhead to the Perfection of our own Nature and to the best Conceptions of our Minds can never be the whole or any part of the true Worship of God But though this be freely granted yet I suppose that Man would be hard put to it that should undertake to prove that the Ceremonial Worship of the Ancient Jews was not Superstition and be allow'd no Arguments to prove this by but such as arise from the natural Notions of Things and a suitableness to the Divine Nature Had not God been pleased to Institute that Worship Himself and to give Authority to it by a multitude of undeniable Miracles we should never have found any intrinsecal Goodness in it by hearkning to our own Reason or by contemplating the Divine Nature So likewise in respect to the two Sacraments of the Christian Religion what Congruity can we discover between those material and sensible Ceremonies and a pure and infinite Spirit 'T is true they are admirably suited to the Worship of a God Incarnate but then that is matter of Revelation and is the thing I contend for viz. That we can never boldly pronounce concerning what is true Religion and what is Superstition till we fix our selves upon Divine Revelation For though as I have observ'd some of the wiser among the Gentiles were able by Natural Reason to discover some of the grosser Parts of Superstition yet still they themselves were under the same Bondage though in a less Degree as some Madmen who are less Raving will oftentimes speak with some Judgment and Compassion of the more Extravagant Madness of others tho' all the while they too labour under the same Disease but their Disease is not in so high a Ferment We must centre our selves therefore upon the Reveal'd Will of God in Matters of Religion and not trust too much to our own Reasonings concerning the Divine Nature and Will of which we should have known something but very little if God had not been pleased to discover himself to us in his holy Oracles If Men shall go to make Religion or any part of it out of their own Heads they will certainly make a Superstition of it There is not so much as a purely Natural Religion in the fall'n State of Mankind no Prayers or Praises or any of those we call Natural Duties are acceptable to God without an Expiation and an Intercessor and these Things depending on the Will of God can be no otherwise known than as he has revealed them Wherefore true Religion is keeping close to the Revelation of God in all the Essentials and in all the substantial Acts of Worship and Superstition is a departing from it in any of these All the use we have of Reason in the Business of Religion is to lead us to Divine Relation and then to assist us in finding out the true Sence and Meaning of what is there deliver'd and when this is done we are wholly to resign our selves to the Will of God and to believe and do as he has Commanded To effect this Reason may proceed in this Method and by these Fundamental Maxims That God may reveal his Will to Mankind in a Supernatural and Extraordinary Manner That he can make use of sufficient means to confirm his Revelations to us and to enable us to distinguish between a true Revelation and a pretended one That whatever God Reveals is infallibly true That if we will make a sincere Use of our Faculties we may so far understand the true Sense of whatever God has reveal'd relating to his Worship as to distinguish his Mind from false Interpretations and to be secure that we have right Objects for our Faith and true Rules and Measures for our Obedience But then farther 't is as Rational a Conclusion as any of the foregoing that God can reveal more than we can fully comprehend or that he can discover to us such sublime Truths as we may have sufficient Reason to believe tho' we have not Capacities fully to conceive and it is here especially that our Reason is to stoop and to yield to Faith for our Understandings are finite and not a proper Measure of all Divine Truth and what is more to be insisted on they have contracted many Weaknesses and much Blindness in Spiritual things and upon these Accounts it becomes us to be exceeding cautious lest we should take our Baffions and our Prejudices for plain and evident Reason By these steps together with the Universal Tradition of those Miracles and Matters of Fact which are Recorded in the Scriptures a Man may arrive to a Rational Faith and then he may securely pronounce that there is but one True Religion or acceptable Worship which is the Christian and that all the rest are Superstitious whether Jewish Pagan or Mahometan for the Jewish Religion as 't is now profess'd in opposition to Christ and as 't is stuff'd with modern Dotages is a poor wretched Superstition As to what concerns the charge of Superstition among Christians it may now be dispatch'd in few words For I do not see that it can with any manner of Truth be apply'd to any visible Public Constitution but that of the Church of Rome for I do not concern my self at present with the multitude of unformed Sects It cannot consist either in the numerousness or oddness of Ceremonies when there is no Merit attributed to them and they are not enjoin'd as Substantial Acts of Worship or as parts of Holiness in themselves well pleasing to God As to Superstition in Manners or the bad use which some make of the Externals of Religion that cannot be prevented by the most excellent Constitution of a Church nor by the best Wisdom of a