Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	believe_v	faith_n	reason_n	5,276	5	5.9415	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58802	The Christian life part III. Wherein the great duties of justice, mercy, and mortification are fully explained and inforced. Vol. IV. By John Scott D.D. late rector of St. Giles's in the Fields.; Christian life. Vol. 4.	Scott, John, 1639-1695.; White, Robert, 1645-1703, engraver.	1696 (1696)	Wing S2056; ESTC R218661	194,267	475

our selves in all such matters as fall within the Sphere of our Cognizance Which if our Reason be debarred of it standeth for a lonely Cypher in our Natures and is altogether useless and insignificant And if in any thing our Reason hath a Right to judge for us then much more in matters of Religion in which our highest and most important Interest is concerned So that to deny it the Right of judging for us here is to render it useless in our greatest Importance and to disable our best Faculty from being serviceable to our best Interest 'T is true there are sundry Controversies about religious Matters which every Man's Reason cannot judge of the Arguments pro and con depending either upon Criticisms of Language or Metaphysical Niceties or ancient Histories which are all beyond the Comprehension of persons of mean and vulgar Understandings who are therefore obliged in all such matters as these to submit to the Determination of their lawful Guides and Governours But as for the great and necessary matters of Religion they are plain and obvious to the meanest Understanding and consequently herein every man ought to exercise his natural Right of judging for himself and not swallow his Religion blindfold without trying it by the Test of his Reason And certainly they who remove the Cognizance of Religion out of the Court of Reason take away that which doth most properly and naturally fall under its Determination For Religion is the Chief End of Man's Creation as he is a reasonable Being and thereby capable of Religion and to be sure where the End is natural the Means must be so too And therefore as Horses that were made for Burthen have a natural Ability to bear and as Birds that were made to fly have a faculty and Wings for that purpose so rational Souls that were made for Religion must needs be supposed to have some Power naturally placed in them for the Exercise and Iudgment and Choice of it And what else can that be but their Reason So that to deny Men the Liberty to judge for themselves in that which is their natural End and highest Interest is as great a piece of Violence and Injustice as can be offered to humane Nature And of this very matter the Church of Rome is highly guilty for it commandeth Assent without Evidence and imperiously requireth Men to believe her Doctrines without examination to rely implicitly upon her Authority and swallow down her Faith by the lump without ever inquiring whether it be Physick or Poyson For the leading Principle of the Romish Religion is this that the Churches Authority is the Reason of our Faith and that Men are bound to believe what she believeth without any further proof or evidence by which tyrannical Proceedure She useth her wretched Children as the Philistins did Sampson first putteth out their Eyes and recreateth herself with their Blindness and Ignorance For unless they wink hard and believe at a venture whatsoever she proposeth they are sure to feel the Edges both of her spiritual and temporal Swords and though they are never so modest peaceable and humble in their dissents to incur her Anathemas which have always the sting of Fire and Faggot in the tayl of them Now what is this but to force the Opinions of Men and drive their Reason from its Throne of Judicature For he that punisheth a man barely for his Opinion doth in so doing endeavour to rob him of his natural Right of judging for himself which is the greatest Tyranny in the World it being an exercise of Dominion over the minds of men which are subject only to the Empire of God 'T is true if in judging for themselves Men take up Opinions that are vicious or destructive to Government their wicked Practice is justly punishable according to the proportion of its Malignity for otherwise Men's right of judging for themselves will soon be made a Sanctuary for all the Villanies in the World And though no Man ought to be punished barely for his Opinion yet he may be justly punished for practising his Opinion though his practice be indifferent in its own Nature For indifferent Things which God hath neither commanded nor forbidden are the proper matter of all humane Laws and therefore if upon a false Opinion that what the Law enjoyns is not indifferent but sinful I practise contrary to the Law I am justly punishable because my Mistake altereth not the nature of the thing If it be indifferent it is a proper object of humane Laws whether I think it so or no and as such may justly be imposed and the Imposition being just in it self our not complying with it is justly punishable Once more though no Man ought to be punished for his Opinion yet he may be justly punishable for making a publick Profession of it for there is no doubt but Men may be restrained by Laws from propagating their little Opinions into Factions and dividing themselves upon every different persuasion into opposite Parties Otherwise it will be impossible considering the Passions of Men to maintain any Unity or Concord in civil or sacred Societies And therefore where such Restriction is Men ought to be satisfied with this that they freely enjoy their liberty of Opining and are not deprived of their natural Right to judge for themselves and so they ought either to keep their little Opinions to themselves or at least not to vex and disturb the Publick by a fierce Endeavour to propagate them to others And this due Deference to Men's natural Right of judging for themselves hath been always punctually observed in the Church of England for it neither damneth nor censureth persecuteth nor destroyeth Men upon the score of difference in Opinion provided their Opinion doth not lead them to wicked or seditious practices but hopeth well of all that live well and receiveth all into its Communion that desire it provided they believe but the Apostles Creed and the Doctrine of the four first General Councils 'T is true it forbideth Men so to profess their Dissents to the Articles of its Doctrine and Discipline as to seduce her Children from her Communion and list them into Factions against her and this every Church must necessarily do that valueth its own Peace and Preservation but it pretendeth not to invade the Liberty of their Thoughts or to lay rigid Restraints on their Opinions and so long as they dissent from us modestly and peaceably they may enjoy their own Opinions and our Communion too And as for those Forein Communities of Christians that differ from us we pass no severe Sentences against them but do believe and hope and earnestly pray that the God of all mercies will pity their Errors and connive at their Defects and finally unite them to us for ever in the blissful Communion of the Church Triumphant Nor doth our Religion obtrude it self upon the minds of Men by the bare Warrant of an imperious Authority but fairly appealeth to our Understandings and

of its benign Influences and altogether indisposed to be wrought upon by it For as the Sun enlightens not the inward parts of an impervious Dunghil and hath no other effect upon it but only to draw out its filthy Reeks and Steams though as soon as he lifts his head above the Hemisphere he immediately transforms into his own Likeness all that vast Space whether he can diffuse his Beams and turns it into a Region of Light even so the divine Glory and Beauty which is the Object of the beatifical Vision will never illustrate lewd and filthy Souls their Temper being impervious unto his heavenly Irradiations and wholly indisposed to be enlightned by it but instead of that it will irritate their devilish Rage against it and provoke them to bark at that Light which they cannot endure whereas it no sooner arises upon well-disposed Minds but it will immediately chase away all those Reliques of Darkness remaining in them and transform them into its own Likeness But doubtless the Sight of the divine Purity and Goodness will be so far from exciting sensual and devilish Spirits to transcribe and imitate it that it will rather inspire them with Indignation against it and provoke them to curse and blaspheme the Author of it Fourthly and Lastly IN every sensual and devilish Soul there is an utter Incongruity and Disagreement to the Society of the Spirits of just Men made perfect For even in this Life we see how ungrateful the Society of good Men is unto those that are wicked it spoils them of their fulsome Mirth and checks them in those Riots and Scurrilities which are the Life and Piquancy of their Conversation So that when the good Man takes his leave they reckon themselves deliver'd his Presence being a Confinement to their Folly and Wickedness And as it is in this so doubtless it will be in the other World for how is it possible there should be any Agreement between such distant and contrary Tempers between such sensual and malicious and such pure and benigne Spirits What a Torment would it be to a spightful and devilish Spirit to be confined to a Society that is governed by the Laws of Love and Friendship What an Infelicity to a carnalized Soul that nauseates all Pleasures but what are fleshly and sensual to be shut up among those pure and abstracted Spirits that live wholly upon the Pleasures of Wisdom and Holiness and Love Doubtless it would be as agreeable to a Wolf to be governed by the Ten Commandments and fed with Lectures of Philosophy as for such a Soul to live under the Laws and be entertained with the Delights of the heavenly Society So that could these wicked Spirits be admitted into the Company of the Blessed they would soon be weary of it and perhaps it would be so tedious and irksom to them that they would rather chuse to associate themselves with Devils and damned Ghosts than to undergoe the Torment of a Conversation so infinitely repugnant to their Natures accounting it more eligible to live in the dismal Clamour of hellish Threnes and Blasphemies than to have a tedious Din of heavenly Praises and Hallelujahs perpetually ringing in their Ears And indeed considering the hellish Nature of a wicked Soul how contrary it is to the Goodness and Purity of Heaven I have sometimes been apt to think that it will be less miserable in those dismal Shades where the wretched Furies like so many Snakes and Adders do nothing but hiss at and sting one another for ever than it would be were it admitted into the glorious Society of heavenly Lovers whose whole Conversation consists in loving and reloving and is nothing else but a perpetual Intercourse of mutual Indearments For this would be an Employment so infinitely repugnant to its black and devilish Disposition that rather than endure so much Outrage and Violence it would of its own accord forsake the blessed Abodes to flee to Hell for Sanctuary from the Torment of being in Heaven But this however we may rationally conclude that so long as the prevailing Temper of our Souls is sensual and devilish we are incapable of the Society of blessed Spirits and that if it were possible for us to be admitted into it our Condition would be very unhappy till our Temper was chang'd so that it is a plain Case both from God's Ordination and from the Nature of the Thing that our eternal Happiness and Welfare depends upon our mortifying the deeds of the Body To offer some Practical Inferences from hence I. WE may perceive how unreasonable it is for any Man to presume upon going to Heaven upon any account whatsoever without mortifying his Lusts. For he that thinks to go to Heaven without Mortification and Amendment presumes both against the Decrees of God and the Nature of Things he believes all the Threatnings of the Gospel to be nothing else but so many Bugs and Scare-crows and though God hath told him again and again that unless he forsake his sins he shall never enter into the Kingdom of Heaven yet he fondly imagines that when it comes to the Trial God will never be so severe as he pretends but will rather revoke the Decree that is gone out of his mouth than exclude out of the Paradise of endless Delights a Soul that is infinitely offensive to him As if God were so invincibly fond and indulgent as that rather than excommunicate an obstinate Rebel from Happiness he would chuse to prostitute the Honour of his Laws and Government and commit an Outrage upon the Rectitude and Purity of his own Nature For so long as he is a pure God he cannot but be displeased with impure Souls and so long as he is a wise Governour he cannot but be offended with those that trample upon his Laws so that before he can admit a wicked Soul into Heaven he must have extinguish'd all his natural Antipathy to Sin and stifled his just Resentment of our wilful Affronts to his Authority When therefore we can find any reason to imagine that God is no Enemy to sin and that he hath no regard of his own Authority then and not till then we may have some Pretence to presume upon going to Heaven without Mortification and Amendment But supposing this Hinderance were removed and that God were so easie as to be induced to prefer the Happiness of a wicked Soul before the Honour of his Government and the Purity of his Nature yet still there is an invincible Obstacle behind that renders her future Felicity impossible and that is that it cannot be without a plain Contradiction to the Nature of Things For as I have shewed you already the Genius and Temper of a wicked Soul is wholly repugnant to all the Felicities of the other World so that if they were set before her She would not be able to enjoy them but must be forced to pine and famish amidst all that Plenty of Delights there being not one Viand in all

casteth it self upon the tryal of our Reason exacting of us no further Assent than what the evidence claimeth upon which it is founded and is so far from exacting of us a blind-fold Assent to it without Examination that it readily exposeth it self to the severest Enquiry and asketh no other favour but to stand or fall by the impartial Sentence of our Reason It telleth us both what we are to believe and why and not only alloweth but requireth us to examine the grounds and reasons of it in all which there is not the least Shadow of imposing on Men's minds or usurping on their Rights of judging for themselves But alas 'T is not only the Church of Rome that is guilty of this unnatural Tyranny for how many are there of all Parties among our selves that cannot endure the least Contradiction but expect all Judgments should bow to theirs and receive their imperious Dictates for Oracles and are ready to censure all that dissent from them as Men of Reprobate Minds and to hate and persecute them because they cannot believe as fast as they As if no Man had a Right to carry his Eyes in his own Head but They and their Understandings were to be a Rule and Standard to the whole World If another Man differeth from me do not I differ as much from him And hath not He as much Right to judge for himself as I But He is mistaken you will say and I am not and possibly He is as confident that I am mistaken and not he and if I think I cannot be mistaken I am more mistaken than He but certainly it is neither Presumption for him to know more than I nor Sin to know less What then is to be done but to leave one another in the quiet Possession of each others Right and not to hector and swagger upon every difference in Opinion because he that differeth from me hath as much Right to judge for himself as I though he refuseth to prostrate his Understanding to mine which for any Man to expect is a most unjust Invasion of the common Rights of Humane Nature III. EVERY Man hath a Right not to be forced or impelled to act contrary to the Judgment of right Reason For right Reason is the natural Guide of all reasonable Creatures 't is the Light of their feet and the Lanthorn of their paths and the Star by which they ought to direct their courses And what can be more unjust than to force any Man to act against that which is the Law of his Nature For if He who gave me my Nature gave me right Reason for the Law and Guide of it I must necessarily have an undoubted Right to a full and free permission to follow it otherwise he hath given me a Law in vain And if I have Right to a full permission to follow the Law of right Reason then for any man to impel me to act counter to it either by hope or fear or any other motive is a high Injustice to my Nature For he who induceth me to do any wicked or unreasonable Action which I should not have done had not he induced me to it doth in so doing so far as in him lyeth not permit me to follow the eternal Laws of right Reason As for instance the Law of right Reason requireth me when I pretend to give Evidence to any matter of Fact to testifie nothing but the Truth to the best of my Knowledge he therefore who endeavoureth either by promises or threats to suborn me to testifie falsely doth thereby hinder me so far as in him lyeth from hearkning to the call of right Reason Again right Reason requireth me to make good my Promises whether they be to my Superiors Inferiours or Equals and much more when I confirm them with an Oath he therefore who by any means endeavoureth to persuade me to falsifie my Word or Oath doth in so doing so far as in him lyeth not permit me to follow what right Reason prescribeth Once more right Reason commandeth me to bridle my Appetite with Temperance and Sobriety he therefore that by force or persuasion endeavoureth to make me drunk doth to the utmost of his power with-hold and restrain me from following that which is the Law of my Nature In a word he who by command or threat promise or persuasion putteth me upon any sinful Action is not only guilty in the fight of God of the Sin which I commit by his inducement but also of doing a high Injustice to my Nature of putting it out of its true biass and not permitting it to move and act according to the Laws of Reason which is a piece of the most outragious Violence that can be offered to a rational Creature Besides that by inducing another Man to sin I do as far as in me lyeth betray him to eternal Punishment which is as barbarous an Injustice to his Soul as the Devil himself can be guilty of For should I not call that Man a treacherous Villain who while he pretendeth to embrace his Friend should secretly stab him to the heart And is it not a much more bloody Villany under a specious pretence of kindness and good fellowship to stab my Brother to the Soul and wound him to eternal Death But whilst like a heedless Wrastler I thus eagerly endeavour to give my Brother a fall it is a thousand to one but I fall with him and bear him company to eternal Torment IV. Fourthly and Lastly EVERY Man hath a Right as he is a reasonable Creature to be respected by every Man according to the dignity of his Nature For as in particular Kingdoms the King is the fountain of honour and every Man under him ought to be respected according to that Rank and Degree of dignity which the royal Stamp hath imprinted on him so in the universal Kingdom of the World God is the fountain of honour and every Being under him ought to be treated and respected according to the dignity of its Rank and suitably to that Character of Perfection which God hath imprinted on its Nature Since therefore Man is so highly advanced by God in the Scale of Beings as being not only a sensitive but a rational and immortal Creature he hath a Right to be treated as such by all that are of his Class and Order And for a Man to treat a Man otherwise is wrongfully to depose and degrade him from that noble Rank of Being wherein the God of Nature hath placed him For whatsoever his outward Condition may be I ought to consider him as a Man as One that is placed in the same rank of Being with my self though he be my Slave or Vassal I ought to respect him as an Individual of my own Kind and not use him rudely harshly or contemptuously like a Dog though he be poor and mean in his outward Circumstances yet I ought to regard him as a Branch that is sprung out of my own Stock and not to