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	testimony_n	2,629	5	8.0270	4	true

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

I have said something of it be fore in answering this Argument turn'd against this Opinion unhappily and because the manner of establishing this Liberty in a Commonwealth will require a Discourse entirely by it self The last defence of this Cause and which indeed needs not the assistance of any other shall be because though men deceive themselves herein and as it often happens know not their own Opinions it is impossible that ever any man should have been is or can hereafter be guided by any thing else but his own Reason as in other things so also in matters of Religion I say impossible for whatsoever way we take we shall find that the last Anchor to which our Faith holds the last Element into which it is resolv'd and therefore it is likewise compounded of the same is onely Reason For when I ask why you believe any Mystery of Faith you will answer perhaps Because the present Church commands you If I proceed and ask Why do you believe what the present Church commands you will say Because the former Church teaches the same Why do you believe the former Church Because God commands you so to do Why do you believe that God commands it Because you find it in the Scripture Why do you believe the Scriptures to be the Word of God Because they were confirmed by Miracles Why do Miracles confirm that Because they are works which can proceed from nothing but the absolute and immediate power of the Deity Why so Because nothing contrary to or above the Course of Nature can be done by natural Agents but Miracles are effects contrary to or above the Course of Nature therefore they proceed from the Divine Operation Thus you see Faith at last resolv'd into a Syllogisme which is the proper work of the Understanding On the other hand if I demand Why you do believe that any Miracles were done for the Confirmation of the Faith Because of the great and many Testimonies of the Truth thereof Why do you believe those Testimonies Because so many Persons in so several times and places with so several interests could never agree in being deceived or to deceive So that you rest not at all in any Authority but discourse first what may be said for or against the validity of it examine it punctually in all Circumstances and at last submit to it upon some Syllogisme which is the onely Law that binds our Reason Two things are to be considered in all Authority before we obey or believe it first The condition and quality of the Persons who Command or Instruct and secondly The true interpretation of their Commands or Instructions For the first The Persons in Commanding must have a lawful Power derived to them either from God Nature or Custome which latter depends upon the two former And in Instructing must have either an absolute infallibility or else at least a probability of not Erring So that no Authority is obeyable or believeable in it self without farther examination no not that of God himself for the strength of Gods Authority depends upon that Syllogisme which proves that the nature of God is such that he can neither deceive nor be deceived Now all this Examination is purely and entirely the work of our Reason by measuring a particular and an universal Whatsoever hath such Conditions is to be obeyed or believed but such Person or Persons hath such Conditions therefore such Person or Persons are to be obeyed or believed Neither do's our Reason onely prescribe obedience and belief to us but also searches and establishes the bounds of both setting up some solid and apparent Notions by which we know our Ne plus ultra True it is that some men Obey and some men Believe without considering that they make this discourse but that is only from inadvertency as men often move their Bodies without any particular exerted thought of doing so Thus far then Authority wholy depends upon Reason And much more in the second Condition which is the interpretation of it in which business the interposition of Reason is so necessary that I shall omit either to prove or illustrate the Point Now as they who enslave themselves to Authority make it the rule and guide of Faith because that even the belief that Scripture is the Law of God depends upon it as truly it do's in my Opinion upon the tradition of Miracles so I say that much rather Reason is to be accounted that Rule and that Guide we look for because even Authority upon which even Scripture it self depends depends as much upon that neither do we more believe the Scripture for Authority then that very Authority for the Reason we think we have to do so The Samaritan says I have an infallible Rule which is the Books of Moses and only them The Jew says I cannot erre for I follow the Old Testament which is infallible and only that The Christian assures himself of the Truth as long as he is guided by the Evangelists and Apostles whose Writings are the infallible dictates of the Holy Ghost The Turk assumes the same from the Alcoran and the Heathen from Oracles Sybill's Books and the like What shall I do None of all these Books can be believed by their own Light for there are things equally strange in them all Follow the Authority of the Church which cannot misguide you Most willingly but again the same difficulty returns in another habit for as every one Cries I follow these Books which are infallible so he goes on too and says I believe these Books to be so because our Church and our Traditions which are certainly the best Authority assures us that they were written by Divine inspiration Let the Christian take heed of saying here But my Tradition is more ancient and more Universal for in the first the Jew will overcome him and in both the Heathen I must in this diversity of waies either stand still that is suspend absolutely from the belief of any Religion which is almost impossible after the belief that there is a GOD or I must choose out of these Now Election is a work so proper to Reason that it cannot be done by any thing else and therefore to be brought to a necessity of an Election is to be necessarily brought to submit in matters of Religion to the determination of our Understanding So that in matters of Religion wherein there is difference I choose this side rather than the other because my Reason bids me and where there is no difference even there I am wholy guided by my Reason because the uncontradicted concurrence of the Parties makes up a Syllogisme to perswade I say to perswade onely my Belief Briefly I cannot Believe but by an act of the Will nor can I Will but according to the directions of the Understanding so that they who say they follow Authority or they follow Divine particular Revelation or any thing else imaginable do it because that agrees with their own Reason and will quit the Party as soon as it do's otherwise The End * Contumelia afficere

have no means of repenting of it Now God enjoyning men Repentance and promising Pardon thereupon for all sins whatsoever prescribes such a Physick as is impossible to be taken for Repentance presupposes knowledge of the Fault and knowledge of a fault do's not consist with an errour of the understanding for we cannot apprehend the thing so and yet be sorry that we are mistaken Sixthly The great probability and appearance of Truth on all sides even the erring ones ought to make us believe that God will not punish those who erre if that be probable which all or most men or many or the most wise or some wise men receive for Truth What Doctrine is there which in the whole compass of Religions may not pass for probable and what cause have we to condemn the Understanding of any man in a thing which he is drawn by probabilities to assent to I cannot possibly conceive it agreeable to the goodness of the Divine Nature so to have hidden and involved and almost disguised the Truth from us if he had intended to have censured the missing of it with so heavy a sentence as that of eternal ruine especially seeing there is but one true Way for one hundred false ones and no certain Mark set upon the entry of that one to distinguish it from the others And let this suffice to be said upon the first Argument to induce us to commit our selves wholly to our Reason in the search of Divine and Religious Verities which is drawn from the certainty of safety this way and the great hazard of it any other Secondly As in visible Objects we receive confidently and rest in the report of the sight because Nature hath ordained and accommodated it accordingly for that purpose without appeal from it either to other Sences or to Revelations or the Eyes of other men and as we do the like in all other operations of the Sense and all other faculties of the Soul so ought we as entirely and absolutely to resign our Belief to the dictates of our own Understanding in things intelligible which are as properly and naturally the Object thereof as things visible are of the Eye-sight and we might as well say we will trust our Eyes in green and white and black but not in red or yellow Colours as affirm that our Reason must guide us in the contemplation of Nature the search of Arts the Government of Publick Societies and the Regulation of mens Lives as far as the bounds of Morality but that it is not at all to be followed or obeyed in matters that concern Religion those too being intelligible Truths yea the chief and therefore most to be searcht and a part of the Understandings object as much or rather more than any other Now as the credit of the sight is not at all to be disparaged because some men have the Jaundies which paints every thing yellow some look through Blew spectacles which represent all things to them under the same colour and some through divers mediums which makes the straight Staff appear crooked some are short-sighted and take Men for Trees at a distance so I say the mistakes which Reason by accidental disturbances leads some men into is not a sufficient Argument for others to refuse to be guided by it If it be objected that the Sight though it be subject to some particular impediments yet is generally by its own nature much more certain and exact in the judgment of Colours than the understanding can ever be made even without accidental hinderances in the knowledge of things Spiritual I Answer That if such things be the proper object of such a faculty we are herein to be govern'd by the dictates of it without considering whether that faculty be as quick and perfect as God could make it in apprehension of its object neither ought we to give less trust to our Understanding in supernatural Truths because it is so much inferiour to that of Angels than we do to our Eye-sight in things visible though it be so far short of that of Eagles Certainly they who remove the cognizance of Divine Truths out of the Court of Reason take away that which most properly and naturally falls under its determination For when GOD had created all things else he thought the World imperfect as yet whilst there was nothing made that could contemplate thank and worship the Maker of it and therefore he created Man and this was the chief end of the production of a Rational Soul that by it they might consider the things which they saw and discourse and collect out of them the things which they saw not and both praise and love the Maker for and in them both which is the whole substance of Religion for the manners and kinds of doing it are accidental So then Religion appears to be the principal end of Mans Creation and therefore as if Horses be made for burthen they have a natural ability given them wherewith to do it if Birds to flie they have a faculty and wings given them for that purpose because where an end is Natural the means are so too so if Religion be the End of Man as he is partaker of a Rational Soul that reasonable Soul hath some power naturally placed in it for the exercise judgment and choice of Religion as far forth as is necessary to his own happiness that is to the attaining the end for which he was Created In the Third place This Opinion is not only most safe and most natural for every Man in particular but likewise most agreeable to the good and interest of Humane Society for all Wars of late Ages have been either really for Religion or at least that has been one of the chief pretences which if it were quite taken away it would be difficult for those men who disguise their Ambition with it to draw the People into the miseries and uncertainties either of a Civil or Forraign War Now if this Doctrine were generally planted in the minds of Men both the reality and pretence of fighting for Religion were utterly cancelled and though turbulent minds would then either find or make some other occasion to disturb their Neighbours yet the ill would neither be so frequent nor so cruel as it is at present For who would quarrel for Religion when this were made the main and general ground of all Religions That every Man ought quietly to enjoy his own True it is that unity in Religion would produce the same effect but alas both Reason and Experience teaches us that the hopes of that are vain and impossible and though a State may sometimes force all its Subjects to submit to an outward uniformity in all things that concern Divine worship yet they must know that every publick disturbance in the Common-wealth breaks all those bonds asunder of dissembled Obedience and that such compulsions both beget and ripen all Disorders Much might be spoken in this matter but not necessarily here both because