Selected quad for the lemma: law_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
law_n	gentile_n	heart_n	write_v	7,180	5	5.8793	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62129	A gentleman's religion in three parts : the 1st contains the principles of natural religion, the 2d. and 3d. the doctrins of Christianity both as to faith and practice : with an appendix wherein it is proved that nothing contrary to our reason can possibly be the object of our belief, but that it is no just exception against some of the doctrins of Christianity that they are above our reason.	Synge, Edward, 1659-1741.	1698 (1698)	Wing S6380; ESTC R24078	100,488	452

guilty of such a Mistake can very hardly be charged with a Fault XLIII Fourthly That the Knowledge of God Almighty his Attributes and his Law may in part be gathered from the Light of Nature antecedent to any Revelation is evident from Reason and acknowledged by St. Paul For the invisible things of him from the Creation of the World are clearly seen being understood by the things that are made even his Eternal Power and Godhead Rom. 1. 20. See Psal 19. 1. And when the Gentiles which have not the Law do by Nature the thiugs contained in the Law these having not the Law are a Law unto themselves which shew the Work of the Law written in their Hearts their Conscience also bearing Witness and their Thoughts the mean while accusing or else excusing one another Rom. 2. 14 15. Now although all things relating to Religion which may be known by the Light of Nature are I think again repeated and farther explained by the Holy Scripture Yet because it may be that this will not appear so plainly to every one I think it necessary here to Note That we are obliged to give our Assent to those Truths and our Obedience to those Laws of of Religion which we are able to discover by our Natural Reason although the same should not appear to us to be again repeated in Scripture For for this very reason St. Paul pronounces the ancient Gentiles to be without Excuse because that when they knew God that is had some Knowledge of him by their natural Understanding they glorified him not as God by owning and obeying him Rom. 1. 20 21 c. And what is it else but an Appeal to the natural Notions of Mankind when he exhorts us That whatsoever things are true whatsoever things are honest whatsoever things are just whatsoever things are pure whatsoever things are Lovely whatsoever things are of good Report if there be any Vertue and if there be any Praise we should think on these things Phil. 4. 8. XLIV Fifthly He that writes a Treatise upon any Subject whatsoever he has a Mind that his Reader should particularly observe and be convinced of he will be sure to lay it down plainly as a main Conclusion nor will he fail if he be discreet as often as Occasion requires to repeat and referr to it that the more Notice may be taken of his Meaning and Design Such things as are mentioned only occasionally and collaterally and not as any part of the main Subject of the Discourse are not always expressed with so much Care and Exactness but that often even the meaning of them may be misunderstood Nor can we be always certain what is the true Sense and Opinion of a Writer from such accidental Expressions which sometimes may be used figuratively sometimes by way of Allusion or Accommodation sometimes with Reference to the Capacity of People without any Regard to the litteral Truth of them except he gives us fome farther Explication of his Mind From whence I think I may conclude That the necessary Doctrines and Precepts of Christian Religion are not to be gachered from those collateral and occasional Expressions which are scattered up and down in the Scriptures but from the main Scope and Design of the whole Bible in general and of each Book of it in particular XLV I have thus briefly and plainly given I hope a rational Account of Religion and of Christianity in general If I find that what I have here writ is likely to do any good in the World I shall proceed with God's Assistance to draw out and publish a particular Account of the Doctrines to be believed and Duties to be practised by a Christian FINIS Errata to the 2d and 3d. Part. PAge 48. l. 16. read my own p. 59. l. 12. for of r. and. p. 82. l. 11. for Love r. live p. 110. l. 3. dele it p. 113. l. 12. for every r. very p. 254. for that r. than p. 260. l. 16. r. Office in a settled Church Books Printed for and Sold by A. and J. Churchil at the Black Swan in Pater-Noster-Row TItus Livius's Roman History Boccacio's Novels and Tales Sir Paul Ricaut's Lives of the Popes of Rome Rushworth's Historical Collections Lloyd Dictionarium Histor Poeticum Geographicum Statutes of Ireland Bolton Justice of Ireland Leybourn's Dyalling Buchanan's Chronicle and History of the Kings of Scotland Machiavil's Works Sir Simon D' Ewe's Journal of Paliament Queen Elizabeth Dr. Brady's Introduction to the History of England Milton's Paradise Regain'd Leybourn's Cursus Mathematicus Sir Roger L'Estrange's Aesop's Fables Clark's Praxis Cur. Ecclesiasticis Dr. Gibson's Anatomy Monsieur Le Clerc's Logica c. Drelincourt of Death Leybourn's Arithmetick Protestant-Reconciler Compleat Homer's Iliads Poetae Minores Royal Grammar Gibbon's Heraldry Patridge's Treasury of Physick Opus Reformatum Bishop Wilkins of Prayer and Preaching Thibault's Chymistry Glasier's Chymistry Valerius Maximus English Two Treatises of Government The Three Letters for Toleration Some Considerations of the Consequences of Lowering Interest and Raising the Value of Money Sir William Temple's Observations on Holland Miscellanea Dr. Burnet's Travels Plato Redevivus Selden's Table-Talk Debates of Oxon and Westminster-Parliaments Livill Orationes selectae 12o. Sleidan de Quatuor fummis Imperiis Aristotle's Rhetorick English Dr. Whitby's several Pieces Patridge's Astrology Isoratis Oration Large 12o. Guide to Heaven 24o. Latin-Testament the Cambridge-Edition 12o. Boyl's General History of the Air A Gentlemans Religion Two Treatises of Rationa Religion 8o. Common Prayer in Greek Salmon's Dispensatory Dorn Synopsis Medicinae Salustii Historia Weekly Preparation II. Part Bunnian's Sighs from Hell Archbishop Layton's Sermons Gunter's Line Ciceronis Epistol Familiar Mr. Talent's Chron. Tables A GENTLEMAN'S Religion Part II. III. In which the Nature of the Christian Religion is particularly enquired into and Explained LONDON Printed for Richard Sare at Grays-Inn-gate in Holborn 1697. A Short PREFACE To the whole SOme Men slight Religion whilst others corru and perplex it with things either false or unnecessary the later of which I look upon to be much the cause of the former Many will not take the pains to read much and many do not throughly consider nor will digest what they read which renders their Notions confused and themselves uncertain what to conclude I have theresore endeavoured to make such a short and easy Draught of Christianity and the Grounds of it as every Man of a moderate Capacity may read without Tediousness and understand without Difficulty And which if it does not wholly satisfie him may yet serve to put his Thoughts into a Method and himself upon seeking for farther Satisfaction The first Part of this small Work I put forth some time since and finding that it has not proved altogether unacceptable to Men of Judgment and Moderation I have been encouraged to finish and publish the Second and Third Parts also My Design is certainly good and if I have not well performed what I have undertaken I hope at

to those Faculties which are implanted in the Mind of Man and that internal Uprightness in which he was at first created which do carry in them an evident Similitude and Analogy unto some of those Attributes and Perfections which are in God himself That the Body of Man is made originally of the Earth by which it is nourished and into which it is again resolved is obvious to be collected from Reason And if I had never been told that God breathed into his Nostrils the Breath of Life whereby he became a Living Soul yet those Powers and Faculties which I find in my self of Thinking Judging Drawing Consequences and those sometimes in a very long Train reflecting back upon my own Thoughts and determining my own Actions as I please together with that inward Satisfaction which I reap from doing what is morally good tho naturally and to my Body painful and uneasy and the Trouble which I find upon the doing of any thing which is morally evil tho otherwise never so pleasant and delightful would I think have sufficiently taught and assured me that there is a Principle within me which tho united to my Body and thereby affected with its Delights or Pains yet is really distinct from it and of a different Nature and more noble Original which I call my Soul 29. That God who has originally a Love for all Mankind § 16. should have created any Man with an Intent to make him eternally and unavoidably miserable is to me a Contradiction And since on the contrary he has naturally implanted in every Man a vehement and unextinguishable Desire of being Happy and of always remaining so I cannot but conclude that God intended Man at his first Creation unto eternal Happiness For that he should implant the Seed and Principle of such a Desire in us all which never fails to spring forth and shew its self in every Man who comes to Years of Knowledge and this to be only a Torment to us without any Possibility either of suppressing or satisfying it is I think not to be conceived except we should suppose that at the first he made us to be Objects not of his Love but Hatred 30. As even by the Ruins of a noble Structure we may be able to give a Guess how goodly the Building was at its first Erection so when I at present consider how distorted the Nature of Man is his Lusts and Passions always strugling with and often getting the Victory over his Reason which evidently was designed for the superiour Faculty own my Understanding alone methinks suggests to me that Man was at first created in a more perfect and upright State and Condition than what he is in at present But how our Nature was so far perverted as that all our Reason and Endeavours cannot again reduce it to that firm and perfect Regularity in which we are sensible it ought to be and therefore have cause to believe that it was at first framed by God is what of our selves we never could have collected from any Suggestions of our own Understanding 31. Whether the second and third Chapters of the Book of Genesis are all to be understood literally or whether an allegorical Interpretation is in some parts to be admitted I think my self not much concerned to debate But which way soever we take the plain Result will be that whereas God placed our first Parents at their Creation in a state both of Innocency and Happiness they by transgressing his Law and thereby incurring his Displeasure sell both from the one and the other Now that they by their sin might deprave their own Natures and vitiate their Constitutions is no way irrational to suppose And that from the depraved Nature and vitiated Constitution of Parents divers inconveniences may be entailed upon their Posterity who do derive not only their bodily Temper and Complection but frequently also their Passions and Inclinations from those of their Parents is what common Experience does daily testifie When therefore the Holy Scripture assigns the sin of our first Parents as the Cause of the Corruption of the Nature of Mankind I see nothing therein which is not very reasonably to be allowed 32. He who grants a Favour to another barely and only of his own free will and pleasure may without any violation of Justice whenever he pleases withdraw that which he is under no Obligation to continue any longer than he thinks fit Nor is it any way to be reckoned as unmerciful or cruel to cease the continuance of a purely voluntary kindness if the stopping of it does not render the Person actually miserable without any fault committed by him If therefore God had thought fit even for no other reason but his own Pleasure to divert the stream of his kindness from Man and that altho he had continued in a State of Innocency provided he had not put him into a state of unavoidable Misery who could have any just reason to complain or find fault with him for doing what he should please with his own Much more then will it follow that If upon the occason of our first Parents Transgression and the Corruption of our Nature which thereupon ensued God had resolved to cut us all forever off from the inheritance of those Blessings to which Man was designed at his first creation but now rendred naturally unfit for by this original pollution even in this there had been nothing contrary to the strict Rules of Justice or Mercy Especially if we consider that all the World have ever thought it reasonable that in some cases Children should on account of their Parents Faults lose some benefits and advantages which otherwise they would have enjoyed But actually to inflict a positive Punishment upon any one for a Fault which he never committed nor any way voluntarily concurred to nor was at all capable of hindering in him who committed it being so directly contrary not only unto Mercy but also to the common Rules of Justice I can not but conclude that tho' the original Corruption of our Nature may be reckoned as a just occasion why God might if he had pleased have excluded us all for ever from the Joys of Heaven Yet that alone is not to be assigned as a Cause why he will doom any Man to the Torments of Hell who does not otherwise deserve it by his own actual sins and Transgressions 33. That by the Corruption of our Nature we are all of us mightily inclined to things that are evil and immoral is most evident from our constant Experience But that we have not thereby lost all knowledge and power of doing that which is good I think is no less apparent from the Writings and Examples of so many brave Heathens Who having no other Divine Law but that which was written in their Hearts by the Suggestions of their natural Understanding yet both taught and did so many of the things contained in the written Law of God But curiously to distinguish and assign