Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	faith_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	2,203	5	9.2236	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B20451	Justice vindicated from the false fucus [i.e. focus] put upon it, by [brace] Thomas White gent., Mr. Thomas Hobbs, and Hugo Grotius as also elements of power & subjection, wherein is demonstrated the cause of all humane, Christian, and legal society : and as a previous introduction to these, is shewed, the method by which men must necessarily attain arts & sciences / by Roger Coke.; Reports. Part 10. French	Coke, Roger, fl. 1696.	1660 (1660)	Wing C4979	450,561	399

be esteemed as the greatest goddess and that the greatest power ought to be ascribed to her overcoming and triumphing over all the oppositions of Men and verisimilitudes Nor can any reason be given that Polybius Livy Plutarch c. did either write such Histories or that such Histories written by them were truer then those which are lost and rejected by Men but only a kind of divine ayre informing Men of their truth whereas those books which are falsely and factiously written are exploded and neglected in a very short time and yet whether they were truly or falsely written few or no Men can judge from any thing known to the outward sence I say few or no Man can so judge of them for in that time when they were written there were many more false and factious Historians to delude Men then true and just to inform them Nor can Men in subsequent generations from any thing in their outward sences judge or discern whether any thing they record be true or false Nay further no Historian except Caesar and Xenophon and some very few others who recorded infinitely more things not known then known to them to be true did ever know whether what he recorded were true or not To evidence this yet more fully there was scarcely except Caesars Xenophons ever any History truly written in those times wherein the things were done that men might take information from their outward senses but Men were so carried by Faction or Interest that in recording of things they record things not as true or false but as advancing their Faction and Interest whereas Men in the subsequent generation not having those Passions and Appetitions nor any sense of these things subjecting all their Passions and Affections as it were assisted by a divine Election do make Election of those things which are true and reject others which the Malice or Faction of Men had imposed upon the World And a Man is as certain that there have been such Men as Caesar Hanibal Alexander c. and as assured of their Actions as if he had seen them 46. Since all things which proceed from God immediately and for Faith is an extraordinary Gift of God which no reason can be given by any Creature may be justly required for principles by intellectual and reasonable Creatures and since the Scriptures proceed immediately from God or they could not be the Word of God are therefore the principles of Faith And since there is nothing within man naturally which may assure him that those things revealed in Scripture were Gods Revelation it does necessarily follow That Faith or the Belief of God in the Scriptures is Gods gift supernaturally and extraordinarily Nor can all the Arguments of Tradition Church Excellency of stile Truth c. move one stone to the proof of them For they were the Word of God before any Church or Tradition c. was And if they had not been the Word of God before the Church received them and delivered them to posterity their Reception and Tradition could never have made them so Besides the Church having its being from the Scriptures it can never prove the cause of its being And what was it less then the power and grace of God extraordinarily given to Moses That the Bush burned and was not consumed And of all the miracles done by him and the other Prophets and more then those done by our Saviour and the Apostles and blessed Martyrs since And that by the Preaching of a few Fishermen against all the Temporal Powers in the World Christianity should be propagated generally over the face of the Earth and that I without any thing in me or desert of mine am baptised into this Faith And he that shall dispute the truth of the grace and power of God in the Old and New Testament and since recorded in Ecclesiastical and Prophane History ought as much to be confuted with clubs and hissing as he that denies or disputes his Principles in any Art or Science 47. All Principles are true or false just or unjust good or bad either All Principles are prime and necessary either necessitate absoluta or necessitate medii necessitate absoluta or necessitate medii Principles that are true or false necessitate absoluta are so that they are immutable by God himself as that two and two added should not make four or that things equal to the same thing should not be equal to one another or that any being should be superior to the cause of its being or that contradictions should be true or else true or false good or bad just or unjust necessitate ex hypothesi And these though they are necessary and principles to those to whom they are given and immutable by them yet are they not principles and necessary to them who made and gave them As the Laws of Nature and Gods revealing himself in the Scriptures are principles necessary and immutable by all the Men in the World yet are they not principles necessary or immutable by God but he might if it had pleased him made something else the Law of Nature or otherwise revealed himself in the Scriptures So Humane Laws must be prime necessary and immutable by Subjects or their conforming or not conforming their actions to them could not be just or unjust But they cannot be prime and necessary or immutable by the Legislator but as he sees occasion may alter or make something else which was not before Laws for the Subjects to conform and direct their actions to It is therefore absurd and wilde to suppose that the Law of Nature is Annotat. simply necessary and immutable by God or that the will of Men can make it mutable 48. All Science all Learning all Reasoning and all Conclusions by Contra negantes Principia non est disputandum the Authority of Aristotle is begotten from pre-existent principles for which no reason can be given by the Learner which being granted do nemonstrate the Conclusion but by the Authority of Aristotle and all Philosophers no Science or Conclusion can demonstrate the Principles Where therefore either by a defect in the Understanding Men cannot or by a stubbornness in the Will they will not apprehend Principles there all Reasoning Learning or Discourse is at an end If therefore I would learn a Man Geometry and he either cannot or will not apprehend the Axioms or common Notions of it it is impossible I should ever make him understand the constitution of an equilateral Triangle Or if a Man denies the Laws of my Countrey I cannot teach him whether such an action be just or unjust Or if a Man denies the Law of Nature I cannot prove that he ought to honor and obey his Superior and to deal justly and uprightly with all Men Or if a Man denies or disputes the Authority of the Scriptures there cannot be any Conclusion or Inference from them whether as Christians any thing ought to be or not to be done or believed

understanding cannot be any effect but from some efficient cause nor act without an agent then is it not possible but that which is in the understanding and does judge discern and phancie is superior and must precede every thing which is so judged discerned and phancied in the memory or senses All things therefore are so far from being in the senses before they were in the understanding that it is not only impossible that any thing which was in the sense should be in the understanding but also that which is in the understanding must be before it can judge discern or phancie any thing in the memory or senses And by consequence no Art nor Science can be learned or taught another who does not first understand the Principles thereof nor is it possible that the Principles of any Art or Science can be taught I know it is usual for men to confound the sense with the understanding As when a man talks unconclusively they say he talks not sense yet it may be he speaks very loud that is truly he talks not understandingly or not to be understood 39. By the authority of Aristotle Eth. lib. 6. cap. 6. the Understanding The Understanding is a ray of Divine light in the soul of man does apprehend things either abstractly or concretely Abstractly without the Reason as Principles for which no Reason can be given or concretely with the Reason as when by the Reason it apprehends things deduced from such Principles before understood and for which no reason can be given for Intellectus sit principiorum Scientia vero cum ratione conjuncta The understanding therefore of prime and universal causes for which no reason can be given can be nothing else but radius divini luminis in animabus hominum and by consequence it cannot be learned taught or communicated by any Creature or all the Creatures in the world 40. Only Man of all Creatures of this world understanding prime Only Man of all the creatures of this inferior orb is an intellectual creature necessary and universal causes and phancying things true and false just and unjust only Man is an Intellectual creature 41. * What things are Principles I. Principles by the authority of Aristotle Eth. lib. 6. cap. 3. are those things which are known to an Intellectual creature which do constitute Ratiocination and of which no reason can be given and cap. 6. are apprehended only by the Mind or Intellect Such are the Principles of Geometry and such are Idem eidem secundum idem esse non esse impossibile Omnis affirmatio aut negatio aut vera aut falsa Cujus est nolle ejus est velle c. II. Man not being only an Intellectual but a Sociable creature God hath engraven in the minds of all men certain Laws for which no reason can be given to which they ought to conform all their actions for the preservation of peace and society among men III. But because the Laws of Nature oftentimes only are ex Thesi there must be some things ex Hypothesi which must be understood and these must be prime and superior to them to whom they are given and for which they can give no reason or they cannot be the rule and reason of their actions I require Humane and Despotical Laws for Principles to those who by right or due are subject to them IV. But God having made Man not only intellectual rational and sociable but endued him with an immortal soul capable of eternal happiness He hath extraordinarily and supernaturally revealed himself in the Scriptures that men submitting themselves and their Reasons to those Divine precepts might work out their salvation with fear and trembling But if it be asked How shall I know the Scriptures to be Gods Word since they are not known to be so by the understanding nor outward sense I would ask that man if he be a Christian how he came to be so For his being a Christian implies his belief in them as the Word of God and he is required no more And if the power and grace of God were not as much shewed in converting the world to Christianity by the preaching of a company of poor Fishermen all Temporal powers persecuting and contradicting it as in all the Miracles of old under the Prophets and Patriarchs And whether the power and grace of God in his Son was not more visible under the New then in the Prophets and under the Old Law But because the Laws or Precepts of God in the Scripture command many things in Thesi only as Let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14. 40. 1 Tim. 2. and Let prayers and supplications be made for all men c. But this Decencie and Order is no where prescribed or defined by the Scripture and the Church to whom the right of defining such things is given by God ex Hypothesi the Laws therefore of Church or Ecclesiastical Laws are principles and necessary for conservation of Christian society I require only Humane Ecclesiastical and Despotical Laws for principles which do not immediately proceed from God All other principles whatsoever proceed or are immediately created only by God alone 42. All Men understand that they ought to obey the Laws of their No Laws create any obligation in conscience from any thing which was in the senses superiors But by the 37. Proposition there is nothing in the understanding which was in the senses Mens Obedience therefore or their obligation in conscience to the Laws of their superiors is not from any thing which was in the senses But it does proceed from the connatural Laws of Nature engraven by God in the minds or understandings of Men or from his Grace supernaturally given to Men and by consequence those men who do not from innate good principles their duty in conscience will never from any thing feared or received into the senses be it Whipping Branding or Hanging ever be made good but only deterred from being bad 43. Belief is the assenting to a thing to be true or false not as either What is Belief known to the understanding or outward senses but as affirmed or denied by one or more who are credible persons 44. Faith is the assenting to a thing to be true or false not as known What is Faith to the understanding or outward senses but as commanded or forbidden by God extraordinarily and supernaturally 45. It is an admirable thing to consider the providence of God who Whether things only credible may be as certain as known to the senses and incidently of the divine excellency of truth above any sensible knowledge is the God of truth in the preservation of those things which impartially relate the actions of Men and the revolutions which have hapned in the world Nor is it any more then a just and equal testimony Polybius in the Proem of his History gives of Truth viz. that she ought to

should have disputed without an Adversary for me But when he makes all men Jure naturali which is superior and the cause of all Laws of Nature to be equal and in a parity of condition and every man by his own natural right to have a power over every man and to kill and destroy them whensoever it seems good unto him and yet without any sin and that this State is only to be cured by the Laws of Nature of his own making although he would have them to be Divine Laws and contrary to Natural rights is such a monstrous Paradox and absurdity as I wonder any Ingenuous man should assent to it Under the title of Empire he is not less wild and extravagant in his concessions to the thing be it King or Court created by Do or Dedi and not Dabo or Faciam For he makes it not only Soveraign Judge of all Ecclesiastical as well as Civil causes but also impossible to command any thing contrary to the Law of Nature Yet he makes the Law of Nature the Law of God and this Creature of creatures to be so infallible that it is impossible to command any thing contrary to it It is not worth the examining what he would have under the title of Religion for men say the man is of none himself and complains they say he cannot walk the streets but the Boys point at him saying There goes HOBBS the Atheist It may be therefore the reason why in all his Laws of Nature he allows no place for the Worship and Service of GOD. But it is time to examine the particular Articles upon which this Body De Cive is built 1. His marginal Note upon Art 3. Cap. 1. is Homines naturâ aequales esse inter se Observ There is no one Proposition in the world more false then this nor more destructive to all faith and truth of Sacred History For whereas he says that by nature Men are equal to one another if the Scriptures be true that God made Adam an Universal Monarch as he says as well over his Cap. 10. art 3. Wife and Children as other Creatures and that since Adam God did never create any Man but the species of Mankind was continued by generation and that as he says Primogeniture is preferred by the Law of Cap. 3. art 18. Nature which Cap. 3. Art 29. is immutable then it is impossible that Cap. 4. art 15. since Adam any two Men in the world can be equal where God does not make them so Indeed if Mr. Hobbs had been an Athenian who stiled the Men of Observ 2. Attica 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Men of the same Land or a Peripatetick who held that Men and the other things of the World were from Eternity as well as the World or an Egyptian who held that from the example of divers creatures generated out of the river Nile Men at first were generated from equivocal generation or that Men had sprung out of the ground fungorum more there might have been some small semblance for his opinion 2. His Argument to prove the Natural equality of all Men is Aequales sunt qui aequalia contra se invicem possunt At qui maxima possunt nimirum occidere aequalia possunt Ergo Homines natura aequales inter se His minor Proposition is no where proved and I am sure contrary Observ Gen. 9. 6. to what God says Whoso sheddeth mans blood by man shall his blood be shed for in the image of God made he man 3. Nature hath given to every Man a Right to all things Cap. 1. art 10. Observ What thing is mine naturali jure as he says or lege naturali is mine so that it is impossible it should be aliened or made anothers by any act of my will or the will of all the men in the world For natural causes do not depend upon voluntary humane actions and therefore the natural right which Nature has given to every man remains still with every man 4. Filium in statu naturali intelligi non posse Annot. art 10. Observ And therefore from Adam to our Saviour could there be no such natural state For S. Luke cap. 3. gives a Genealogie of Adams sons and sons sons to our Saviour And since I do not think Mr. Hobbs can shew that ever there was such a state in the world 5. The state of Man in Nature is hostile And cap. 8. art 10. he says Art 12. Men in the state of Nature may kill one another so often as it seems good unto them And therefore he must invent and seek to make himself in a better condition then God hath made him and that forsooth is by seeking Art 15. cap. 1. Observ Peace which he says is the first Law of Nature Is it not strange that a thing invented and made by the wit and will of Man and that contrary to the state and condition in which God hath made Man should here prove to be a Law of Nature which is the Law of God And is not more strange that God hath made Man upright and he hath Observ 2. Eccles 7. 27. sought out many inventions and yet Man should have need of Mr. Hobbs his help to invent and make him in a better state then God hath made him or else he says his conservation cannot be long expected Art 15. Neither is it possible in such a state where all men may kill one another Observ 3. and where all things are alike and common to all men that men should make any pacts or contracts one with another For besides that where men have nothing proper there men cannot make pacts or contract for any thing also where there is no precedent humane Law obliging there cannot any man be obliged or bound to any thing by his pact or contract for to be bound is in relation and must presuppose something which does bind but if nothing binds me but my Will which is a contradiction I may unbind me when I will for my Will is free I deny that any man or any company of men can will any thing to be Observ 4. a Law to themselves For Omnis potentia activa est principium transmutandi aliud And therefore the act of no mans Will can have a power or obligation upon himself and by consequence cannot any man or company of men will or make another who shall give them Laws for Nemo potest transferre id in alium quod ipse non habet 6. Legem naturalem esse dictamen rectae Rationis Cap. 2. art 1. Observ Wold any man think that these Critiques and pretended Masters of Reason did either understand Reason or Logick If Lex naturalis be dictamen rectae Rationis I ask of Mr. Hobbs what is the reason of it If it be a prime cause or principle then by the authority of Aristotle Eth. lib. 6. cap. 3. 6. does it constitute the