Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	believe_v	church_n	infallible_a	3,890	5	9.9983	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29214	A sermon preached at the opening of the lecture at Maldon in Essex, lately established by the Lord Bishop of London in vindication of the antiquity of the doctrine of the Church of England / by William Bramston ...	Bramston, William, d. 1735.	1697 (1697)	Wing B4243; ESTC R18304	16,131	26

most irrational consequence to conclude that it was the Roman when it was the Roman alone from whence arose all those misty Tempests and Darkness which had obscured the Truth nay which had most grievously then oppress'd and over-born her If we are not now able to name who those good Christians were that then made up the true Church we may thank their Furnaces Inquisitions and Expurgatory Subtilties which affrighted them from the Light and still took care to stifle the least occasions of their manifestations We confess God had always his true Church and this is agreeable to his Word but we acknowledge not that it was the Church of Rome for this reason because she was then as she is now most contradictory to the Truths of his Word And thus I proceed to another Principle of our Church impeached of Heresie by that of Rome and that is our ways and methods of finding out the Truth Now these are no other than what depend upon these two divine Principles Scripture and Reason which as they are the immediate Gifts of God flowing from the Excellency and Perfections of his own blessed Spirit so methinks they may not improperly be imploy'd in his Divine Service The Religious Man in Scripture is frequently Entituled the Wise and the Understanding Man and Wisdom and Religion are generally used to denote one and the same thing but how there can be the greatest Wisdom and Understanding where there must not be the least use or pretences to Reason I leave to these Despisers of Reason to illustrate The Wise Man tells us A blind Sacrifice is an abomination to the Lord and we often meet the Holy Ghost in the Scriptures lashing at the Sacrifice of Fools both which are demonstratively comprehended in that rebuke of our Saviour against the People of Samaria saying Ye know not what ye Worship and now what can all these Passages suggest to us but this that whosoever will pay a sit and suitable Worship to God ought throughly to know and understand the Nature and Excellency of the Divine Majesty as far as he has been pleased to reveal himself and then as one wou'd think nothing can more effectually instruct us in this Celestial Knowledge than the very Writings and express Revelations of God himself so it seems to me next door to a contradiction for any Man to aver that the most infallible way to come to a right Knowledge and Understanding of God is to set aside our Reason without which 't is impossible to know or understand at all or again to renounce the Scriptures which are the only Books in the World which his infallible Spirit has left us for our surer guidance and direction to that blessed Knowledge Perhaps it may be suggested here that the Mysteries and sublime Articles of our Religion such as the Incarnation the Trinity and the Resurrection which all infinitely transcend the highest Capacities of our Reason depend not on the use of our Reason but Faith which is of those things which are invisible even to the most piercing Eye of Man's Reason so that we must leave our Reason in the way to our embracements of them but this no way weakens the force of our Argument For these Mysteries surpass indeed the comprehension of our Reason yet the authority upon which we receive them into our Creed lies open to our Reason such as is the voice of the Scriptures and the example of the purest Ages of the Church of Christ which Reason recommends to us as the surest guides to direct us in all Matters of Religion And though indeed Reason cannot demonstrate to us the ineffable ways and explications of these Truths yet Reason furnishes us with this Demonstration that they ought to be received for the Truths of Christ upon this account because whatever is proposed to our belief upon such infallible Evidences as the Revelation of God's Word and the uninterrupted Authority of his Primitive Church in all Ages ought in reason to be believed as true I acknowledge were not these Articles of our Creed manifestly contained either in the express Words or in the necessary conclusions of Scripture or in the explications of the purest Ages of our Religion the belief of them wou'd be irrational and these unwarrantably crowded upon the belief of a Christian And therefore even in those very Articles which exceed our Reason it is still Reason which must justifie our Faith What is our Reason given us for no other end than to consult for the ease and satisfaction of our Bodies or must that most sublime faculty of our Souls be no ways interess'd or engag'd for its own Happiness and Salvation Again can we think the Divine Wisdom had no design in dictating the Scriptures or has he express'd his intention to reach only the Learned and the Wise Did not our Lord once make this the most expressive Argument that the Messiah was come viz. The poor have the Gospel Preached unto them And must it not seem very strange that Matters shou'd be so inverted since he is gone and this very Gospel left to us in Writing that it is to be inspected now only by Doctors and Philosophers Though the Poor have the Gospel still Preached unto them yet the use of the Scriptures may well be registred to make up those defects and imperfections which our Preaching now abounds with in respect of those more powerful and efficacious Institutions of Christ and his Apostles I know none of us who are able to Convert Three Thousand with a Sermon nor indeed can we pretend to enforce any thing worthy of belief in you that hear us but what we our selves fetch from that Fountain of heavenly Wisdom which is the written Word of God And then why every Man may not as well Read as hear the Gospel read to him I leave to that blessed Spirit to determine which exhorteth all Men to search the Scriptures No doubt as God has given us Reason to make us capable of Understanding and Glorifying his Divine Majesty so has he given us his Scriptures also on purpose to exalt and enlighten our Reason and convince us all of the reasonableness of our Religious Services and I confess I see not how that Man can be able to pay his reasonable Service to God who has taken up a belief in him without Reason for let the Religion professed by such a Man be never so Holy and Pure and true in its self still in respect of such a Professor this must be own'd rather to Chance and Fortune than such a choice and wisdom as may affirm with the Bless'd Jesus We know what we Worship For without Knowledge there can be no Belief and without Belief no true coming unto God But further what reasonable Satisfaction can this be to any Man to encourage him in his Perseverance in his Religion in times of Tryals and Temptations to consider he has taken up his Religion by Chance and though he knows not why yet