Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	pure_a	religion_n	undefiled_a	1,985	5	11.7434	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77245	A defence of true liberty from ante-cedent and extrinsecall necessity being an answer to a late book of Mr. Thomas Hobbs of Malmsbury, intituled, A treatise of liberty and necessity. Written by the Right Reverend John Bramhall D.D. and Lord Bishop of Derry.	Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.	1655 (1655)	Wing B4218; Thomason E1450_1; ESTC R209599	138,196	261

plainly acknowledged by T. H. Numb 11. That fore-knowledge is knowledge and knowledge depends on the existence of the things known and not they on it To conclude the prescience of God doth not make things more necessary than the production of the things themselves But if the Agents were free Agents the production of the things doth not make the events to be absolutely necessary but onely upon supposition that the causes were so determined Gods prescience prooveth a necessity of infallibility but not of antecedent extrinsecall determination to one If any event should not come to pass God did never foreknow that it would come to pass For every knowledge necessarily presupposeth its object Numb 37. T. H. THis is all thath hath come into my mind touching this question since I last considered it And I humbly beseech your Lordship to communicate it onely to J. D. And so praying God to prosper your Lordship in all your designes I take leave and am my most Noble and obliging Lord Your most humble servant T. H. J. D. HE is very carefull to have this discourse kept secret as appeares in this Section and in the 14. and 15. Sections If his answer had been kept private I had saved the labour of a Reply But hearing that it was communicated I thought my self obliged to vindicate both the truth and my self I do not blame him to be cautious for in truth this assertion is of desperate consequence and destructive to piety policy and morality If he had desired to have kept it secret the way had been to have kept it secret himself It will not suffice to say as Numb 14. that Truth is Truth This the common plea of all men Neither is it sufficient for him to say as Numb 15. That it was desired by me long before that he had discovered his opinion by word of mouth And my desire was to let some of my noble friends see the weakness of his grounds and the pernicious consequences of that opinion But if he think that this ventilation of the question between us two may do hurt truly I hope not The edge of his discourse is so abated that it cannot easily hurt any rationall man who is not too much possessed with prejudice Numb 38. T. H. POstscript Arguments seldom work on men of wit and learning when they have once ingaged themselves in a contrary opinion If any thing do it it is the shewing of them the causes of their errours which is this Pious men attribute to God Almighty for honour sake whatsoever they see is honourable in the world as seeing hearing willing knowing Justice Wisedom c. But deny him such poor things as eyes ears brains and other organs without which we wormes neither have nor can conceive such faculties to be and so far they do well But when they dispute of Gods actions Philosophically then they consider them again as if he had such faculties and in that manner as we have them this is not well and thence it is they fall into so many difficulties We ought not to dispute of Gods Nature he is no fit subject of our Philosophy True Religion consisteth in obedience to Christ's Lieutenants and in giving God such honour both in attributes and actions as they in their severall Lieutenancies shall ordain J. D. THough Sophisticall captions do seldom work on men of wit and learning because by constant use they have their senses exercised to discern both good and evill Heb. 5.14 Yet solide and substantiall reasons work sooner upon them than upon weaker judgments The more exact the balance is the sooner it discovers the reall weight that is put into it Especially if the proofs be proposed without passion or opposition Let Sophisters and seditious Oratours apply themselves to the many headed multitude because they despaire of success with men of wit and learning Those whose gold is true are not afraid to have it tryed by the touch Since the former way hath not succeeded T. H. hath another to shew as the causes of our errours which he hopes will proove more succesfull When he sees he can do no good by sight he seeks to circumvent us under colour of curtesy Fistula dulce canit volucrem dum decipit auceps As they who behold themselves in a glass take the right hand for the left and the left for the right T. H. knowes the comparison so we take our own errours to be truths and other mens truths to be errours If we be in an errour in this it is such an errour as we sucked from nature it self such an errour as is confirmed in us by reason and experience such an errour as God himself in his sacred Word hath revealed such an errour as the Fathers and Doctors of the Church of all ages have delivered Such an errour wherein we have the concurrence of all the best Philosophers both Natural and Moral such an errour as bringeth to God the glory of Justice and Wisedom Goodness and Truth such an errour as renders men more devout more pious more industrious more humble more penitent for their sins Would he have us resign up all these advantages to dance blindfold after his pipe No he persuades us too much to our loss But let us see what is the imaginary cause of an imaginary errour Forsooth because we attribute to God whatsoever is honourable in the world as seeing hearing willing knowing Justice Wisedom but deny him such poor things as eyes ears brains and so far he saith we do well He hath reason for since we are not able to conceive of God as he is the readiest way we have is by remooving all that imperfection from God which is in the creatures So we call him Infinite Immortall Independent Or by attribubuting to him all those perfections which are in the creatures after a most eminent manner so we call him Best Greatest most Wise most Just most Holy But saith he When they dispute of Gods actions Philosophically then they consider them again as if he had such faculties and in the manner as we have them And is this the cause of our errour That were strange indeed for they who dispute Philosophically of God do neither ascribe faculties to to him in that manner that we have them Nor yet do they attribute any proper faculties at all to God Gods Understanding and his Will is his very Essence which for the eminency of its infinite perfection doth perform all those things alone in a most transcendent manner which reasonable creatures do perform imperfectly by distinct faculties Thus to dispute of God with modesty and reverence and to clear the Deity from the imputation of tyranny in justice and dissimulation which none do throw upon God with more presumption than those who are the Patrons of absolute necessity is both comely and Christian It is not the desire to discover the originall of a supposed errour which drawes them ordinarily into these exclamations against those who dispute of the Deity For some of themselves dare anatomise God and publish his Eternall Decrees with as much confidence as if they had been all their lives of his cabinet councell But it is for fear lest those pernicious consequences which flow from that doctrine essentially and reflect in so high a degree upon the supreme goodness should be laid open to the view of the world Just as the Turks do first establish a false religion of their own devising and then forbid all men upon pain of death to dispute upon religion Or as the Priests of Molech the Abhomination of the Ammonites did make a noise with their timbrells all the while the poor Infants were passing through the fire in Tophet to keep their pitifull cries from the eares of their Parents So they make a noise with their declamations against those who dare dispute of the nature of God that is who dare set forth his Justice and his goodness and his truth and his Philanthropy onely to deaf the ears and dim the eyes of the Christian world least they should hear the lamentable ejulations and howlings or see that ruefull spectacle of millions of souls tormented for evermore in the flames of the true Tophet that is Hell onely for that which according to T. H. his doctrine was never in their power to shun but which they were ordered and inevitably necessitated to do Onely to express the omnipotence and dominion and to satisfie the pleasure of him who is in truth the Father of all mercies and the God of all consolation This is life eternall saith our Saviour to know the onely true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent Joh. 17.3 Pure Religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this to visite the fatherless and widowes in their affliction and to keep himself unspotted from the world saith St. James Jam. 1.27 Fear God and keep his Commandements for this is the whole duty of man saith Salomon Eccles 12.13 But T. H. hath found out a more compendious way to heaven True Religion saith he consisteth in obedience to Christs Lieutenants and giving God such honour both in attributes and actions as they in their severall Lieutenances shall ordain That is to say be of the Religion of every Christian Country where you come To make the Civill Magistrate to be Christs Lieutenant upon earth for matters of Religion And to make him to be Supreme Judge in all controversies whom all must obey is a doctrine so strange and such an uncouth phrase to Christian eares that I should have missed his meaning but that I consulted with his Book De Cive c. 15. Sect. 16. and c. 17. Sect. 28. What if the Magistrate shall be no Christian himself What if he shall command contrary to the Law of God or Nature Must we obey him rather than God Act. 14.19 Is the Civill Magistrate become now the onely ground and pillar of Truth I demand then why T. H. is of a different mind from his soveraign and from the Lawes of the Land concerning the attributes of God and his Decrees This is a new Paradox and concerns not this question of liberty and necessity Wherefore I forbear to prosecute it further and so conclude my reply with the words of the Christian Poet Caesaris jussum est ore Galieni Princeps quod colit ut colemus omnes Aeternum colemus Principem dierum Factorem Dominumque Galieni FINIS