Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	answer_v	faith_n	scripture_n	3,797	5	5.7743	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45744	A treatise of moral and intellectual virtues wherein their nature is fully explained and their usefulness proved, as being the best rules of life ... : with a preface shewing the vanity and deceitfulness of vice / by John Hartcliffe ...	Hartcliffe, John, 1651-1712.	1691 (1691)	Wing H971; ESTC R475	208,685	468

foundation in Reason and Nature these do depend wholly upon instruction and memory and cannot be preserved without them but we see among the Rude and Ignorant upon whom hardly any care or instruction is used men have as lively a sense of the difference between virtue and vice in many particulars as the more learned part of the World which is a plain Argument that these things are not conveyed to us by Tradition Nor can they be applyed to humane Policy for many of these things were never enacted by humane Laws and yet they obtain among Mankind as Gratitude Charity and such like Seneca says that Gratitude was never enjoyned by any Law but that of the Macedonians which plainly shews that these things owe their Original to some other Cause and that they are to be attributed to Nature the Author of which is God and the general Consent of Mankind is an argument of their Truth and Reality HOWEVER it is Objected that several Persons and some whole Nations have differed about some of these things so that this Consent is not so general besides the Consent of the World in Superstition and Idolatry may seem to weaken this Argument from the universal Agreement of Mankind about Good and Evil. WE Answer that it is not denied but that Men may so vitiate their Natures Nature may be so vitiated as to lose the Sense of Virtue and Vice as to lose the sense of Virtue and Vice yet it may remain true that Mankind have a natural Sense and Knowledg of them as some by Lust and Intemperance may so spoil their Palates that they may not taste the difference of Meats and Drinks yet this last is never the less natural to Mankind for there is a great deal of difference between Natural and Moral Agents natural Agents always continue the same but voluntary Agents may vary in some things that are Natural especially where Men have Debauch'd their Natures and have offered great violence to themselves more than this the exceptions are not so general as to infringe the universal Consent of Mankind the difference is but in few things and therefore they are taken notice of and being collected together in History they may seem a great many but that they are particularly noted is a sign they are but few what if one Philosopher mentioned that Snow was Black and Ten more had been of his Mind this would have been no objection against the Sense or Reason of Mankind for all Men agree that Self-preservation is a natural Instinct notwithstanding some particular Persons have offered violence to their own Lives As to Superstition or Idolatry there hath been no such agreement of Mankind in that as to prove it to have a Foundation in Nature for it is confessed that it was not always practised in the World but that it had a Beginning and indeed it grew up by degrees and sprang out of the Corruptions of Mankind and therefore Time was when there was no such thing so that it does not owe its Rise to Nature but to the defection of Mankind For while Idolatry prevailed in the World it was condemned by several Men as a stupid and sottish Thing tho they had not the courage to declare against the Practice of it so that whilst it was used by the generality of the World it was censured as a great Folly by those that were best able to judg Lastly WE know what is Virtue and Vice Good and Evil more distinctly Outward Revelation discovers to us what is Virtue and what is Vice by outward Revelation in former Ages of the World God was pleased to reveal his Will several Ways and more especially to the Nation of the Jews the rest of the World being left solely to the dictates of natural Light But in the latter Ages of the World it pleased God to make a publick and more full Declaration of his Mind by his Son and this Revelation is for Substance the same with the Law of Nature our Saviour comprehended it under these two Heads the Love of God and of our Neighbour the Apostle reduceth it to Sobriety Righteousness and Piety for the Grace of God that bringeth Salvation teacheth us to deny all ungodliness and Worldly Lust and to live Soberly Righteously and Godly in this present World so that if we believe the Apostle the Gospel teacheth us the very same things that Nature dictateth to Mankind for these are the very Virtues which natural Light prompt Men unto only we allow a more perfect discovery of them by the Gospel and to convince Men of the Good and Evil that are affixed to Virtue and Vice there are great and eternal Rewards promised to one and endless Punishments threatned to the other so that now Mankind have no cloak for their Sin their Duty being so clearly laid open to them and the Rewards and Punishments of another Life so plainly revealed all the defects of the natural Law and the Corruptions of it through the degeneracy of Mankind being fully supplyed by the Revelation of the Gospel So that we may now much better say than the Prophet could in his days Mich. 6.8 He hath shewed thee O Man what is good and what doth the Lord require of thee but to do justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with thy God BUT as to external Revelation it is Objected that the Scripture is very obscure and gives us not sufficient direction in Matters of Faith WE Answer that this Objection hath no Colour of Truth in it for if the Church of Rome to whom are beholden for this Objection against the Word of God and who are ready upon all occasions to quarrel with it Yet they do not deny but the Scriptures are plain as to Precepts of Life and Practice but as to matters of Faith they pretend its defection in as if God had not intended to reveal but conceal his Mind in these things Indeed they have some reason to pretend this considering how hard it is to find several of their Doctrines in the Scripture but as to the moral Precepts of a good Life they all grant that they are clearly delivered in the holy Scripture so that this Objection about the obscurity thereof doth not lie against what I have been speaking THEREFORE seeing Moral Virtues may be plainly understood by Natural Instinct Natural Reason the consent of Mankind and outward Revelation we must in the next place see how easie and pleasant they are to be practised First THEY are easie because we are assisted in the practice of them by the Holy Spirit of God against all difficulties whatsoever Secondly THEY are both easie and pleasant because they are profitable for all things improve our Understandings and bring peace to our Minds FOR our Christian Race is a Warfare and we have many Conquests to make over the corruptions of our Natures the influences of Sense and the disorders of Passion Whence the difficulties of a virtuous Life do