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	know_v	reveal_v	2,144	5	8.3094	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29780	Miracles, work's above and contrary to nature, or, An answer to a late translation out of Spinoza's Tractatus theologico-politicus, Mr. Hobbs's Leviathan, &c. published to undermine the truth and authority of miracles, Scripture, and religion, in a treatise entituled, Miracles no violation of the laws of nature.	Browne, Thomas, 1654?-1741.	1683 (1683)	Wing B5062; ESTC R1298	42,132	76

rewards or punishes them here in this life Yet the demonstration of Gods Providence is not the proper and primary end of supernatural Effects but 4. A Miracle is properly intended to prove 1. Immediately the immediate power and presence of God Acting himself in an extraordinary manner in the working of it 2. By Vertue of this evident Demonstration of Gods immediate extraordinary presence the Divine Authority and Mission of that person whom God has been pleased to make his Instrument in the effecting of it at whose word or request the Order of Nature is suspended which we cannot suppose God would permit either for no end at all or for one so repugnant to his Sanctity and Goodness as to assist an Imposture Thus much therefore we may know by miracles not what God is in his Nature nor his Existence any better than we may know it by any Effect of Nature but his Providence his extraordinary presence and power and the Authority of that person whose Divine Mission it attests We are next to enquire whether his Arguments are more sufficient to disprove the authority of Miracles in this regard His arguments for the Truth of his second Proposition are from Reason and Scripture From Reason he attempts to prove it three wayes 1. Because the belief of the possibility of a Miracle does vertually introduce meer Scepticisme and consequently is so far from proving the Essence Existence or Providence of God that it takes away the certainty both of the existence of a Deity and every thing else 2. Because a Miracle is a work that transcends our Capacity to understand it and therefore what we understand not it self cannot lead us to the understanding of any thing else 3. Because a Miracle is a thing finite and therefore cannot be a fit Medium to prove the being of an Agent of infinite Power 1. The belief of the possibility of a Miracle virtually introduces meer Scepticisme and so takes away the certainty both of the being of God and every thing else This Argument strikes as much at the belief of Miracles themselves as of any thing else upon their Credit and Authority for there can be no Reason to believe any thing which to believe obliges me to doubt of every thing else as impossible to be certainly known The ground whereupon he asserts that the belief of Miracles leads us to Scepticisme is because it takes away the certain Truth of those Notions from whence we conclude the being of a God or any thing else that we know and that this it does in as much as it supposes a Power in God able to alter the Truth of these Notions for this too he must be able to do if able to change the course of Nature By these Notions may be understood two things 1. The Principles of Truth where upon we build all our knowledge 2. Our own Idea's and apprehensions of things The former are either the common Principles of Natural Light viz. Axioms evident upon the first apprehension of the Terms as That a thing cannot be and not be at the same time the whole is greater than any part c. Or 2. the definitions of things and propositions ascribing to them their Nature and Properties as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 rationale Triangulum habet tres angulos aequales duobus rectis c. Or 3. Propositions containing the mutual respects of things as that Cruelty and Injustice are repugnant to the Nature of God Theft and Murder to the Nature of a sociable Creature c. Now these principles of Truth are all necessary and immutable and the Truth of them does not depend upon the being or order of Nature a possibility therefore of change in the order of Nature does not imply that by the same Power the truth of these Notions may be altered They are first necessary and immutable because it implies a contradiction for them to be false v. c. for the whole to be no greater than any part Man not to be a rational creature God to be cruel or unjust c. 2. They are true independently upon the being or order of Nature If God should destroy the whole frame of Nature yet it were true notwithstanding that the whole Body were bigger than any part If he should reduce Mankind into nothing it were still true notwithstanding That the nature of Man consists in the Vnion of a rational Soul and a Body endued with life and sense God may turn one thing into another and make the same Matter appear under a Form above or contrary to what it should have by the course of Nature but he cannot make it be and not be be of this Nature and of another at the same time He can suspend the Actions of his Creatures but yet cannot make them Act and not Act both together In short however God by his Power may alter or suspend the Order of Generations in Nature yet this Principle will hold true that in an order of successive generations of Men there must be some first Man and this first Man must have a Cause that is not Man and this Cause must either be it self or lead us at last to an infinite Supream Being So that the existence of a God may be deduced from certain and necessary Principles though the Order of Nature be capable of being changed by his Almighty Power The altering therefore of the course of Nature makes no alteration in the principles of Knowledg But does it not infer a Power in God to change our Notions and Apprehensions of them and of every thing else A Physical Power indeed it does as it proves him Omnipotent but this will not drive us to Scepticisme while we are certain that it is as much repugnant to his Veracity and Goodness as compatible to his Power barely considered For it is impossible that a Being infinitely Good and Holy should impose upon his Creatures and implant such Notions in their Minds as would necessarily induce them to believe a Lye or so alter their apprehensions of things as to make it impossible for them to make a true Judgment by the use of their own reason The belief of Miracles therefore does not lead us unto Scepticisme and so does not take away the certainty of the Being of a God but yet perhaps it may not be a fit Medium to prove either his Existence or his Proovidence or to declare bis Nature to us And this upon two Accounts 1. Because a Miracle is a Work that transcends our capacity to understand it and therefore what we understand not it self cannot lead us to the understanding of any thing else 2. Because a Miracle is a thing finite and therefore cannot be a fit Medium to prove the being of an Agent of infinite Power To the First a Miracle is a Work that transcends our capacity to understand it i. e. it is beyond the compass of our Knowledge to deduce it from natural Causes and good reason because

as an abettor of the contrary opinion Certissimum est says he à Divinâ Providentiâ pendere res omnes cujuscunque ordinis ab eâdem vera miracula edita esse It is I think a sufficient prejudice against the opinion which he produces these Authors to insinuate and patronize or at least his judgment in the choice of his Authors that two out of three declare flatly against him in that Point Yet 't is possible that as he produces them here they may both better consist with him and Spinoza than with themselves This therefore comes to be examined and will lead us gradually to give a particular Answer to each part of the whole Work We begin therefore with the Premonition to the Reader he there with Mr. Burnett What he takes from Mr. Burnett is out of the eleventh and last chapter of the first book of his Theory Mr. Burnetts Words are these In eâ sum equidem sententiâ Authores Sacros cùm de rebus Naturalibus Sermones habent c. Upon these the Translator thus varies in the first Words of his Premonition It is the judgment of most of the Ancient Fathers of the Christian Faith and of the most learned Theologues of the Moderns that the Authors of the Holy Scriptures when they speak of Natural things c. And so goes on with the rest of that Page which he translates more faithfully what he designed in this amplification whether to amuze his Reader oblige Mr. Burnet or to make a fair shew of his own great reading I shall not enquire The Summ of what he has out of Mr. Burnett is this That the Authors of the Holy Scriptures where they speak of Natural things design only to excite Piety and Devotion in us not to improve us in the knowledg of Nature That agreeably to this Design they explain the visible Works of God in a manner suitable to the received opinions of the vulgar they wrest the general causes and ends of the whole Creation in favour of the Peoples prejudices as if all things were ordained only for the good and benefit of mankind they do not make mention of the ordinary train of second causes in the productions of Nature but recur immediately to God himself the first Cause Author and President of it and compendiously refer all things to his immediate Power and to his irresistible Will and Command All Mr. Burnett's design in this is to excuse himself for giving a Philosophical and Mechanical account of the Deluge and other grand Effects in the Sublunary World as the Original of the Mountains Rocks Islands Ocean Rivers c. in the Terraqueous Globe The production of all these the Scripture immediately refers to God and Divines ordinarily speak of them as Effects supernatural and miraculous viz. That God by the same powerful Word whereby he created Heaven and Earth cast up the Mountains and cut out the Channels for the Rivers and that vast cavity for the immense Ocean commanded the waters into one place and made the dry land appear And by the like command when the wickedness of man was great upon the Earth and the end of all flesh was come before him opened the Catarrhacts of Heaven and broke up the Fountains of the Deep and destroyed all mankind except eight persons by a deluge of Waters To this Mr. Burnetts Answer is That it is in no wise necessary that these effects should be conceived to have been wrought by miracle For the Scripture that it does not appear that they are recorded for Miracles there because the Scripture immediately refers effects purely Natural to God and makes no mention of the train of second causes subservient to God in their production the design of the sacred Writers when they speak of natural things being not to instruct us in the knowledg of Nature by giving us a Philosophical account of their mediate causes but to excite in us Piety and Devotion by working in our minds a true sense of the Power and Providence of Almighty God to which all things owe their original This is the intent scope and drift of Mr. Burnett's Words as they stand at home in their proper place but here they are applied to far different purposes as appears by the Conclusion the Translator draws from them when he comes to speak himself viz. That these things considered 1. We are not to admire if we find in the Holy Scripture many memorable things related as miracles which notwithstanding proceeded from the fixt and immutable order of Nature c. 2. Which is but the application of the former We ought not rashly to accuse any Man of Infidelity only because he refuses to believe that those Miracles were effected by the immediate Power of God c. Which conclusion of his 1. Is just the quite contrary to Mr. Burnett's 2. Destroys the authority of Scripture and leaves us free to disbelieve any Miracle recorded in it for such 1. It is quite contrary to Mr Burnett's Mr. Burnett's way of Arguing is this The Scripture immediately refers to God things which are purely the effects of Nature Ergo we cannot justly conclude that what effects the Scripture immediately refers to God those it records for miracles Yes says the Translator upon the same grounds we may conclude that it records them for Miracles and this too we may conclude over and above that the Scripture records such effects for Miracles which really are the Effects of Nature 2. It destroys the authority of Scripture and leaves us free to disbelieve any Miracle recorded in it for such For first it makes the Holy Scripture guilty of Imposture and that not in a small matter but such whereupon depends the authority of all the revelations made therein by God to mankind for upon the truth of those relations in Scripture wherein these Miracles are recorded as matter of Fact depends the certainty of the Divine Mission of Moses and the Prophets our Blessed Saviour and his Apostles and consequently the authority of the Doctrine which they revealed 2dly It takes away the only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which we have to discern whether the effect it relates be a Miracle or not The only thing whereby we can know it is from the Scriptures manner of relating it if it relates one thing for a Miracle which is not all may be for ought we know of the same Nature And so farewel both the belief of Miracles and the Scripture it self I presume that he does not play with us in a matter of this importance i. e. That he does not mean by the Scriptures relating such things as Miracles onely that it relates the production of them in such Terms as Idiots and Illiterate Persons may from thence conceive that they are super-natural Effects for then all he says will be very true but withal very impertinent but that it sets them down for Effects Miraculous and Supernatural as much as

provision of our daily bread as the Israelites had in the Wilderness Elijah in Horeb when the Ravens were his Purveyours the Widow with whom he lodged whose Barrel of Meal was preserved from wasting or lastly the four or five thousand fed by our Saviour in the Gospel which I suppose was a work of Nature but related in Scripture as a Miracle because it mentions not how the Corn grew in the hands and mouths of them that did eat it 2. The Natural import of the Words disproves this conceit To be related as a Miracle is to be recorded for an effect of God's own immediate Hand and supernatural Power To be immediately refer'd or ascribed to God without mention of a Train of mediate causes is quite another thing There it is expresly or by consequence declared that the Work is above Nature here it is left in Medio without any determination from the manner wherein it is related whether it be a natural or supernatural effect of the Divine Power For instance the Scripture says in one place Thou makest Darkness and it is Night in another He sent Darkness and made it Dark In the former it speaks of the ordinary in the latter of the Egyptian darkness and both it immediately refers to God mentioning no natural causes of the one or the other Both of them it may thus ascribe to God though the one be the Effect of Nature and the other a Miracle and therefore to ascribe any Effect immediately to God is not to relate it as a Miracle 3. This will farther appear from the very reason of the thing it self The Scripture may justly ascribe to God all the Effects of Nature without mentioning any train of suborbordinate causes and yet cannot thereupon be justly concluded to relate these things as Miracles And this because first God is the Author of Nature by his Power and the Governour and President of it by his superintending Providence therefore every Effect in Nature may be justly ascribed to him as it's Author 2dly The Scriptures designs to speak of the Effects of Nature only with regard to the Power and Providence of Almighty God therefore it may justly ascribe them to him without mention of the train of natural Causes whereby he mediately produces them If then any Effect may be in this manner ascribed to God and yet he be no farther the Cause of it than as he is the Author and Governour of Nature by his Power and Providence if so then it is no just Conclusion That the sacred Writers relate any thing as a Miracle because they immediately refer it to God without meniion of the train of natural Causes subservient to him in the Production of it 4. But to give as full satisfaction as may be in this Point and withal to shew that all this notwithstanding there are some Effects so related in the Holy Scripture as that it may be justly conceived to have recorded them for Miracles I shall state What it is for the Scripture to relate any thing as a Miracle It is not enough as we have seen already that it ascribes the Effect to God as its Author nor that it immediately ascribes it to him without mention that it is produced by the mediation of second Causes For every thing proceeds from him whether it be by the course of Nature or a Work of his supernatural Power and therefore is to be ascribed to him and the Scriptures ascribing of it to God without mention any other Cause does not necessarily imply that no other Cause had any hand in the Production of it But to relate a thing as a Miracle is to relate it for an Effect of Gods own immediate Hand or an Effect above beside or contrary to Nature And this may be done two wayes 1. By express Declaration 2. By relating it in such a manner and with such circumstances as from thence we may rationally conclude the Effect to be miraculous For the first there may seem to be very few instances if any wherein we can certainly assure our selves that the Holy Scripture declares any Effect to be a Work above Nature For though it may and often does use the Word Miracle yet that being Ambiguous it may still be uncertain whether it be to be taken for any thing more than an Effect Wonderful and Surprizing indeed yet purely Natural All which notwithstanding in some places we may truly vouch the express declaration of the Holy Scripture that such and such Effects are miraculous Joh. 2.11 After the relation of our blessed Saviour's Turning the Water into Wine the Text says This beginning of Miracles did Jesus So also John 4.54 after the Cure of the Nobleman's Son This is again the second Miracle that Jesus did In these two places the Scripture does in a manner reflect upon the Works it had related and declares them to be supernatural But by the Word Miracle may possibly be meant no more than an Effect Strange and Wonderful not a Work above Nature unless we can give some certain proof of the contrary And I think this one Consideration may be sufficient to evince it The Design of the Scripture in relating these Works of our blessed Saviour is to propound them to us as undoubted Evidences of his Divine Mission Now Evidences of that they could not be unless they were Works above Nature because an Effect of Nature cannot prove Gods immediate power and presence nor consequently confirm the truth of any Prophets Commission from Heaven to reveal his Doctrine For the Scripture therefore to relate these Works of our Blessed Saviour as undoubted Evidences of his Divine Mission will argue that the Scripture where it stiles these Works Miracles Signs and Wonders must mean strictly such as exceed the power of Nature Otherwise it would impose upon our belief and oblige us under pain of Damnation to embrace a Doctrine as Divine upon such Evidences as are in no wise sufficient to confirm the Authority of the Person that reveals it And upon this Ground we might discover many more instances of Effects expresly declared in Scripture to proceed from God's immediate extraordinary Power For it holds as well in the Miracles of the Apostles as our Blessed Saviour's and in Moses's too the Scripture relating them as wrought to evidence his Commission from Heaven to institute the Law as well as those of our Saviour and his Apostles to evidence their Authority to Preach and Plant the Gospel But if there were no such express Declaration in the Holy Scripture there are yet 2. Many relations of Matters of Fact couched in such Terms as that we may justly conclude from thence that the Effects there spoken of are related as Miraculous and Supernatural As 1. Where the Effect is related as done without the use of Means So in our Saviours curing Diseases and indeed Working most of his Miracles by the Word of his Mouth turning the Water into Wine by the internal