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	reveal_v	5,457	5	8.8529	5	true

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

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

Rational there being no other way whereby so effectually and sensibly to convince Atheistical Persons of the Existence of God and his Steady and All-comprehensive Providence in ruling all things And this seems to be expressed by St. Jude v. 15. 16. in reciting the Prophecy of Enoeb where one End of the Appearance of our Saviour with his Holy Myriads is for the Conviction of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those wicked sinners who were not contented to act unrighteously but did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 speak opprobrious and contemp●…uous Things of God and all Religion Nor is this only peculiar to the Terrestrial state of life for it is probable that many Spirits may be tainted with the same Atheistical conceits in the Aereal Regions and may resolve all Things there likewise into blind Chance and Fortune Now when our Lord Jesus according to the clear Predictions of Sacred Scripture shall think fit to put an End to the Scene of Affairs in this lower World and to that Purpose shall visibly descend from Heaven with an Innumerable Company of Mighty Angels making all those Regions through which they pass bright before them with the glory and lustre of their Celestial Bodies and in this Posture shall for some time face the Earth and after that dreadful Sentence pronounced upon wicked Men and the Apostate Spirits of the Air by his stupendious Power shall excite all the Principles of Fire both in Earth and Air to perfect a General and Universal Conf●…agration of this Terrestrial World for the Punishment of the Rebellious Crue this will be such an amazing and surprizing Testimony and irre●…ragable Proof of the Immediate Hand of God as must and will convince the most wretched and deplorable notwithstanding the Courseness and Stubbornness of their Natures both of his Being and Providence Pag. 47. He who after an Humble Pious and Attentive weighing of things shall yet fall into Error All Error is not alike hurtful and dangerous For an Error may be purely and simply Involuntary or it may be in respect of the cause of it Voluntary If the Cause of it be some Voluntary and avoiable Fault the Error is it self sinsul and consequently in its own Nature damnable As if by negligence in seeking the Truth by unwillingness to find it by Pride by Obstinacy by desiring that Religion should be true which sutes best with my Ends by fear of Mens ill Opinion or any other worldly Fear or Hope I betray myself to any Error contrary to any Divine revealed Truth that Error may be justly styled a sin and Consequently to such a one of it self damnable But if I be guilty of none of these Faults but be desirous to know the Truth diligent in seeking it and advise not at all with Flesh and Blood about the choice of my Opinions but only with God and that Reason he has given me if I be thus qualified and yet through humane Infirmity fall into Error that Error cannot be damnable Thus far a great and learned Man I may add That a sober and serious Christian who endeavours by all means to know the will and Mind of God and so soon as he can discover it is ready sincerely to believe and practise it and has withal a lively sense of the Honour of God and a hearty Good-will to Mankind this Person through the Goodness of God shall be kept from falling into any dangerous and damnable Error But now when any Man shall carelesly neglect to use that Reason which God has given him to discriminate between Truth and Falshood and shall happen to assent to Truth not upon a due choice and discernment between it and Falshood but blindly and fortuitously this Assent is no way commendable and an Involuntary Error after a clear and well qualified search is to be preferred before it I have now finished my Annotations upon this Excellent Discourse in which I have endeavoured to illustrate and confirm such Things as our Reverend Author has but lightly touched at least could not largely insist upon in that concise way of a Sermon And this I have the more readily performed because I judged a Discourse of this Nature by a Person of so extraordinary Piety such clear Intellectuals and so every way accomplisht as our Author was could not prove unacceptable to any of the Lovers of Truth and Ingenuity and likewise that I might do Honour to his Venerable Name and Memory from whom I had the Happiness of receiving the first Rudiments of Academical Learning This I affirm moreover with an Humble Deference to better and more inlightned Judgments that such an Explication of Religion as our Reverend and Learned Author drives at is the most likely way not only to silence the bold Cavils of Enthusiasts and Atheists but to eradicate all carnal and sensual Doctrines and Opinions and to bring on through the Assistance of the Mighty Spirit of God whose presence is never wanting to the sincerely Conscientious that Blessed and desirable State of the Church the Philadelphian interval which our Lord and Saviour will all along fill with Glorious Manifestations of his Power and Providence FINIS ADVERTISEMENT THe Folios of the Sentences Commented on in the Annotations being most of them not altered from what they were in the Manuscript for prevention of confusion in the Reader they are to be mended thus The first in Pag. 48. has p. 4 5. in stead of p. 26. The rest are to be thus in order as they go on in the Book p. 27. p. 30. p. 33. p. 34. p. 35. p. 36. p. 38. p. 39. p. 40. p. 41. ●… Cor. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 1. 18. Rom. 8. 7. 2 Cor. 10. 4 5. 1 Cor. 2. 14. 1 Cor. 1. 18. 1 Cor. 1. 20. 2. 6. Mat. 12. 24 25. Act. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Joh. 5. 39. 1 Thes. 5. 21. 1 Joh. 4. 1. Psal. 25. 14. See Dr. More 's Vol. Philosoph Tom. 2. p. 161. 1 Tim. 5. 6. Mat. 24. 24. 2 Thess. 2. 9. Rev. 13. 13 14. Origen contr Cel l. 6. Iuvenal Sat. 15. L. 1. de leg Lib. 4. c. 24. Loco supradicto Demonstr Evangel P. 385. Contra●… Cel. L. 4. P. 163. In 〈◊〉 Platonis Tu●…ul Quaest. L●…b 1.