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	reason_n	scripture_n	3,945	5	6.1612	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A88029	A letter to a member of Parliament, shewing, that a restraint on the press is inconsistent with the Protestant religion, and dangerous to the liberties of the nation	Tindal, Matthew, 1653?-1633.; Defoe, Daniel, 1661?-1731.	1700 (1700)	Wing L1681; ESTC R230390	22,164	47

and therefore put it in his power to hinder all others from being published can with any justice condemn the Popish Clergy for not licensing the Bible it self for the Laity to read it For if the Bible is to be translated into the vulgar Tongue to what end is it but that the People by reading it may judge what is their Duty in the most obscure and difficult places Ought they not then to see the different Translations and Explications If they are to be denied this lest they apprehend it in a Sense different from that of the Licenser and his Party the same Reason will restrain the People from promiscuously reading the Bible because they may and frequently do apprehend it in such a Sense as their Guides do not approve and if that be a Crime all the means that are necessary to hinder it must be a Duty and therefore if it cannot be prevented without hindring the Laity from reading the Bible it 's Crime to suffer them to read it 11. This Restraint gives a great handle to those that believe only Natural Religion to argue against the Christian for say they 't is no small Presumption that the Clergy themselves are conscious of the Falseness of their Religion because they dare not suffer it to undergo a fair Trial but do what they can to stifle all the Reasons that can be urged against it The Clergy say they are so learned and withal so numerous that amongst them they could not fail to expose and confound any thing that 's writ against them had they but Truth on their side which they know is next to the Almighty strong and therefore needs no licensing Tricks or Stratagems to make it victorious These are the mean Shifts that Error is forced to use against its Power These Men further add That if Christ and his Apostles obliged Men to try all things how can they that pretend to be his Successors did they believe the Scriptures hinder a fair Trial of any thing relating to Religion And can there be a fair Trial when all Parties have not the liberty to publish their Reasons that the People may compare and examine them by their common Notions those Tests and Standards of all Truths Has the Protestant Religion a fair Trial in Italy where nothing can be heard in its defence Thus 't is that some Men expose our Religion on the one hand to the Insults of Unbelievers and on the other of Papists which can never be avoided but by granting to all Sects an entire Liberty of the Press All other methods equally serve to promote Error as Truth and consequently can never be the way that God ordained to distinguish the one from the other 12. It may be objected That by such a latitude as this People may be seduced into false Religions or into Heresies and Schisms None can profess a Religion but either because upon examination he judges it to be true or that some by Interest makes him do so contrary to his Judgment or else because he takes it on trust without examining it As to the first If two Persons profess different Religions one the true the other a false one yet if they have been equally sincere in their examination they are equally in the way to Heaven because in following their Reason they both have done what God requires so two Men that equally act against their Judgment the one professing the Truth the other not are alike guilty so also are they who equally take their Religion on trust and such perverse holding of a Religion whether true or false is Heresy as the other is Hypocrisy and according as Men are more or less partial in examining they are more or less heretical So that 't is not what a Man professeth but how that justifies or condemns him before God Aud there would be few either Hereticks or Hypocrites were there not Bribes annexed to some and Awes to other religious Tenets for then Men would not be afraid to examine Those for fear of finding them false nor These lest they should be true nor to own or disown either according as they judge them true or false And an entire Liberty of the Press would by degrees establish religious Truth because that is supported by better plainer and more cogent Proofs than any false Opinions are which are either mischievous or burdensome or at the least useless whilst the other by its Excellency and Usefulness carries Evidence and Conviction with it As to Schisms they are caused by Mens imposing their own Interpretations instead of the express Word of God as necessary terms of Communion which makes Protestant Imposers not only Schismaticks but Hereticks because having laid down as a Fundamental of their Religion that every one is to interpret Scripture for himself they most obstinately and perversly not to say knowingly act against that Fundamental 13. The most material Objection against the Liberty of the Press is That without Licensers Atheism Profaneness and Immorality as well as Sedition and Treason may be published The Commonwealth has the same reason to punish Men for those as for these because they are all alike pernicious to humane Societies And 't is all the reason in the world that whoever asserts any such Notions whether in Discourse or from the Pulpit or Press should be severely punished But this can be no more a reason to appoint Licensers for the one than for the other nor would it hinder the printing things contrary to Law for none will be so mad as to desire an Imprimatur for them so that such Pamphlets whether there are or are not Licensers will come out only by stealth and 't is evident there were more of them printed when the Law for regulating the Press was in being than since To make the Laws against such things severer and to oblige either the Printer or Bookseller to set his Name to all Books whatever will take away all pretence for appointing Licensers and will be the most effectual way to prevent publishing such Books But before I leave this Head I cannot but remark that they are no way guilty of Prophaneness who out of Conscience to which Prophane and Atheistical Persons have no pretence worship God after a mistaken manner because all the honour Men are capable of giving an Almighty and Alknowing Being consist in the Intention of Design and therefore to punish those who out of a holy Intention and pious Design worship God aster that manner they judge acceptable to his Will as profane Persons or Blasphemers is the greatest Crime next to Blasphemy because 't is punishing Men for no other reason but for expressing their Zeal for the Honour of God which they can no otherwise do than by worshipping him as their Reason dictates which they must either do or not worship him at all or else but with a mock Worship And they that by force are made to break the ties of Conscience tho never so erroneous cannot be good

the other Men when they are left to themselves without any Clergy at all are more likely not only to judge for themselves but to make a truer and a more impartial Judgment than when they are permitted to know the Sentiments of the Clergy but of one Sect who then may impose on them what ever out of Interest they think fit 5. One Reason why God hath so formed Mankind that each alone without the help of others cannot well subsist is to oblige them to mutual love and kindness and to contribute to one anothers happiness And they want each others assistance for things of the Mind as well as of the Body For a Man would be in a miserable state of darkness and Ignorance were it not for the Light that others afford him and therefore they are obliged to increase as much as they can each others Knowledge especially in Religion which they can no otherwise do than by communicating to one another what they think is the Truth and the Reason by which they endeavour to prove it To oblige Men to do this God has not only implanted in them a strong desire to find out Religious Truth but as great an inclination to teach others what they apprehend to be so and there is no Man who believes a Doctrine to be true but would be very glad to get it owned by others Whosoever therefore endeavours to hinder Men from communicating their Thoughts as they notoriously do that are for restraining the Press invade the natural Rights of Mankind and destroy the common Ties of Humanity If we must early and late according to the Wise Man's direction seek after Wisdom as after a hidden Treasure I cannot see how it will become the Wisdom of a-Nation to endeavour by a Law to hinder us from knowing more than the scanty Measure a Party-Licenser will afford us Not only the Light of Nature but the written Word Levit 19. 17. 1 Thess 5. 14. Heb. 3. 13. obliges every one Lay as well as Clergy to exhort warn rebuke and use all means possible to bring his mistaken Brother into the right way which he can no otherwise do than by first judging himself what is right and wrong and then by using Arguments to perswade him whom he judges in the wrong to desist from it And if as the Scripture supposeth no Man can neglect to do this without hating his Brother every one has a right to print his Sentiments as the best if not the only way to exhort rebuke reprove Myriads of Brethren at the same time In short in all Ages the greater Mens Zeal hath been towards God and the more inflamed their Love to their Neighbours the more they have thought it their Duty tho with the hazard of their Lives to communicate to others what they judged to be the Truth And all Sects how different so ever in all other things do agree in thinking themselves bound thereto as to the greatest Act of Charity and consequently there is no Sect that hinders others from publishing what they believe to be Truth but sins against the natural and revealed Law and breaks that golden Rule the Foundation of all Morality of doing as they would be done unto For tho they look upon it as impious and tyrannical for any to hinder them from imparting to others those Doctrines they judge to be true yet they themselves would hinder all others who have as much right to judge for themselves and are as much obliged to communicate to others what they judge to be a Religious Truth What can be more inhumane as well as ungrateful than to punish that Person who out of love to Truth and charity to the Souls of his Brethren bestows his Time perhaps to the detriment of his Health and Fortune in publishing what he judges to be for their eternal Good If this be a just Reward for such an Undertaking I cannot see how the Clergy can deserve such Riches and Honours for doing but the same thing that is for instructing others in that they judge to be true Nothing can be more unbecoming the Dignity of a rational Nature than to bar up the way to religious Knowledge and Wisdom which Men have no way to propagate but by offering one another Reasons and Arguments And there can be no Pretence to hinder Men from doing this by restraining the Press but what will as strongly forbid them doing it any other way In a word Men have the same right to communicate their Thoughts as to think themselves and where the one is denied the other is seldom used or to little purpose For Men as they are more or less hindred from communicating their Thoughts are more or less stupid and ignorant and their Religion more or less corrupted And this is not only true with relation to Mahometans and Pagans who suffer no Printing at all except the Chinese whose Knowledge above other Eastern Nations seems to be owing to that Art tho among them wonderfully rude and imperfect but with respect to Christians amongst whom one would think it almost impossible considering what Light and Knowledge the Gospel brought into the World that any should be so grosly ignorant and superstitious as the Papists are or that the Christian Religion should be so much depraved as it is amongst them and what is this owing to but the denying the People the Liberty of the Press and all other ways of freely debating matters of Religion And had it not been for this Invention whereby men had such an easy way of communicating their Thoughts nothing but a second Revelation could have freed them from that mass of Ignorance and Superstition the Christian World lay under and which was every day increasing and does still remain in a very high degree in those Countries that groan under Restraint as Portugal Spain Italy which last sutably to the Freedom once it enjoyed abounded with Men eminent in all Learning and Knowledge as well as Vertue and Bravery and that it is so much degenerated now the Climate and the make of their Bodies being still the same is owing to nothing but that Priest-craft which forbids all Freedom contrary to the practice of antient Rome where to think on what one had a mind to and to speak ones thoughts as freely as to think them was looked on as one of the chief Blessings of a Free Government It 's not only in Popish but in Protestant Countries too that according to the Restraint Men lay under Ignorance Superstition and Bigotry does more or less abound Denmark Sweden and several other Countries are undenyable Instances of this and it cannot be otherwise for there is little difference between having no Reason and not exercising it And it 's evident that the Clergy themselves are not only more knowing and reason much better but are much more sober careful and exemplary where Liberty of Debating is allowed than where denied From what has been urged I think I may safely conclude that Men