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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A65779 Controversy-logicke, or, The methode to come to truth in debates of religion written by Thomas White, Gentleman. White, Thomas, 1593-1676. 1659 (1659) Wing W1816; ESTC R8954 77,289 240

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word Father But as it is a substance ●ove it is not well expressed by either ●f these names but by the common ●ame of an Holy Spirit or Ghost made proper by want of a proper expression And this is that wee meane when we ●ay there are in God three Persons Fa●her Sonne and Holy Ghost This indivisible thing we call God ●nd professe that he made time and in or with the beginning of time all other ●hings Whether spirituall and indivisible or bodily and subject to division and corruption or mortality Among the rest and as the principall of these Creatures which we know by our sense and conversation he made Man that is one man and one woman Hee made them such that by the corruption they were subject unto they should not be extinguished like the other Creatures sett round about them but should remaine spirituall things capable seeing him and of eternall happinesse These two he created in such state that reason was in them more powerfull then sense And could with ease have kept them from all unreasonable actions and from the unhappy effects of them had not the Envy of an other Intellectuall creature whom we call the Divell seduced the woman and by her meanes made the man also eate of fruits which they were fore-warned would bring them death and misery By this meanes disorder being brought into the two first men both in body and soule all their progeny became vicious every child drawing from his parents disorderly inclinations which avert him from the love and care of true Blisse and which strengthned by custome and opinion were able to carry the whole masse of Mankinde to eternall infelicity the just and deserved punishment of this default and its evill consequents This slavery of Man kinde to sinne was so strong that God Almighty was forced to lett great raines destroy it all reserving by his mercy onely 8. persons to people the world a new making the world it selfe much lesse distractive or inveighing with the pleasures of it by making it fuller of miseries And after a while againe he was forced to pitch upon one man and his seede neglecting the rest to conserve in them though weakely by lawes and speciall government the seedes of vertue often strengthening them by extraordinary meanes and encreasing their knowledge Yet for all that vertue faded much in them This people he governed first in Republike afterwardes in Royalty and lastly by Priests untill notwithstanding all his care and their science the people was growne into an extremity of perversenesse Then he came to the last remedy and taking or as it were grafting into his owne substance the nature of Man became the teacher and example to Man-kinde of all vertuous actions and good life And because mans nature was grafted by its noblest part that is by his Meus or roote of understanding to which God as a substance knowledge hath proportion It is rightly delivered unto us that the sonne of God tooke flesh upon him to be our guide and rule and not the Father or Holy Ghost though they both of them are inseparably in him So God who by his Ministers had hitherto instructed mankinde by Allegories and similitudes proportionable to their carnall imbecillity Now in his owne person opened the way to heaven in as plaine termes as mans nature is capable of teaching to abstract our selves from the love of creatures and to adhere to him by love of future blisse of our soules Having compleated the course of his teaching by word and example and having shewed us how to beare not feare the miseries of this world even death it selfe he thought good to give us a scantling of our future blisse of body being raised to life the third day after his death and during 40. days shewing us a new Nature which our bodies are to obtaine in the last resurrection if so we deserve it During his abode upon earth he chose certain believers called Apostles and under them did sett a number of disciples gave them authority to preach and practised them in it even during his owne life but ordered them more especially towards his departure how they should behave themselves in the conversion of Jewes and Gentils and how they should governe the people they converted and brought to his beliefe After this he left them ascending in their sight above the cloudes And after 10. dayes according to his promise he so replenished them with faith and charity that he made them fitt Executors of his commands and instruments of building the Church he intended to spread over all nations He gave them fervour of heart knowledge of tongues and power of miracles together with discretion to use all to the end for which he designed them This Church being to consist of all man-kinde as one Body-Politike He thought fitt to sett universall rules of certaine externall actions and practises common to all by and in which they should communicate together and know one another And the maine scope of this instruction being to bring Men to the honour and service of God He made likewise for the principall of our eternall actiōs one to be a publike testimony and recognisance that God is the sole Author of good to us and absolute Master of Life and death of Being and of Not-Being Such a ceremony is called a Sacrifice This he did immediatly before his death taking bread and wine and after imposition of his handes or blessing them he assured us that the thing he then gave was that very body which was to be wounded and that very Bloud which was to be shed for us And so against all prejudice of sense wee believe that the substances of bread and wine were changed really into the substance of this body and bloud notwithstanding that the Natures that is all the operations and resemblances of bread and wine do remaine as before This he commanded his Apostles to doe and by mediation of this sacrifice or obtestation or highest Prayer to obtaine for the quicke and the dead what ever is fitt to be impetrated for them He commanded also that doing this we should remember or rather commemorate that is offer in a human phrase to Gods remembrance his death and passion For as it is a true sacrifice by the reall and locall parting of his body and blood so this being done under the shapes of bread and wine becometh a figure and allegory of the reall and blondy separation of them made upon the holy Crosse This sacrifice performed which convenient ceremonies we usually call the Masse This incorporation of all Christians into the body of Christ by participation of this sacrifice is the highest motive of love to Christ and to one another that can fall into mans heart and therefore hath ever been a symbol or token of peace among Christians and is esteemed the Mystery or sacrament of Charity But because Christian life consisteth of seven vertues three Theologicall and foure Cardinall Christ delivered other six
Religion● those who are gone astray from it be so important and perpetuall as it is What shall we determine to be the best course to deale with erring people to reduce them into the path of Salvation The answer is not hard for either their wil or their understanding is faulty If the will you are to consider what be the particular obstructions of it whether some love of temporall thinges or meerly tepidity Of the former the common remedy is to inculcate the vanities of this world and to represent what will become of us in the next Tepidity proceedeth from not being sufficiently acquainted as I may say with the affaires of Religion and the next life or out of a dullnesse of nature The first is to becured by engaging the party in familiar conversation with good compāy where he may heare such spirituall Matters often handled and discussed whether it be by sermons or by discourses or by colloquies and conferences whereby in pr●cesse of time the fire may kindle of it selfe and breake out into a quicke flame But the second is to be wrought upon with feares as by frequent commemoratiō and of hell-fire For by any other course nothing will be gained of such a temper especially if the dullnesse be of that nature that allurements have little force upon it If the fault be in the understanding It is because the true motives of Christianity do not sinke deepely into his soule Now seeing that both experience and reason do teach us how the soule judgeth best When it is most at rest and in quiet you are to draw your patient what you can into a kind of solitude That is to chuse the seasons when least turmoyle either of businesse or of pleasures doth infest him procuring also that there be no adversary at that time to hinder your reasons from taking root in him For it is cerraine that he who will heare nothing but in opposition and under contestation shall never or but very slowly come to understand truth his soule being like a Cistrne into which the water runneth by a spoute at one end and emptieth it self as fast by a hole at the other end For if as soone as one maketh a proposition or short discourse to enlighten the hearers understanding that hee may see the truth of what is layed before him an other att his elbow presently crosseth it saying it is false or raysing difficulties before it be rightly apprehended such a man shal never come to understand what is said to him Not but that happily he may gett some glimpse of it But it will be like a flying vision which permitteth not the judgement to worke upon it Let him therefore weigh deliberatly with himselfe how Religion is the seriousest the severest and the most important affaire we have or can have in our whole lives That it containeth many propositions or parts that every one of them requireth a quiet and a settled judgement to determine it That this judgment can not be made by him but in a calme serene and quiet position and state of his braine And after all this he will clearly see that it is impossible he should be able to performe that duty of Assent which is required in so grave a concernement whiles two adversaries doe disquiet and importune him with their earnestnesse and wrangling in which their sayings doe slide by with great violence and multiply themselves before any one of them can be quietly possessed But what then Must he not heare oppositions and the conflict of both parties Yes by all meanes But in doing so he must be sure first to make himselfe Master of what one party sayth And when he findeth himselfe able to propose his difficulty to the bottome then in the name of God let them encounter the adverse party For when onely two rationall men discourse of a point it will not be hard for him who seeketh truth to penetrate so farre as to see whether or no the adverse party is able to give satisfaction to the argument proposed If he can salve it then no change ought to be made in the inquirers opinion and judgement seeing both sides are equall But if he can not then it is apparent on which side the truth lyeth as farre as may be discerned out of the learning of these two men So that we may conclude there is no solide way but this of arriving to truth in matters of Religion To converse first with the maintainer of one opinion Afterwardes with the maintainer of the contrary opinion with both of them as much without passion as is possible But never to bring them to conflict together when both animosity and shame of being overcome shall debauch their endeavours and their quicke replyes and many ambayes shall leave the auditour unable to judge solidely of what they say though there were nothing besides to obscure and hinder the cleare sight of Truth The eighteenth REFLEXION On what is learning And how mistaken I finde still remaining a disadvantage to the disputant of either side which I must strive to remove if it be possible It is a certaine pre-possession settled in the beliefe of the Auditory or of him that is to be perswaded of the learning and goodnesse of some private person or Doctour upon whose authority truly dependeth the beliefe of the party though perhaps he pretendeth the authority of Scripture or of Fathers or some other rule for his assent This enforced by custom as impetuous a cause almost as nature it selfe lyeth like a great loade upon the heart of him who hath a long time either by his owne judgment or by the constant cry of his neighbours and of those with whom he converseth fixed and redoubled in himselfe a deepe apprehension of such a persons ability and honesty I shall therefore adde here some few markes or rather distinctions of learning to hinder men from erring in their judgments concerning it And first I must note that there are divers sortes of learning And that it doth not follow that he who is eminent in one sort must therefore of necessity excel in another Geometry Physicke Law Philosophy Metaphysikes and Divinity are all of them different sorts of learning all so independent of one another that he who is excellent in one of them may have but a small share in any of the rest Neverthelesse I often see that if a man hath any of these in such a measure as to deserve reputation for it the common sort of people thinketh he knoweth all things and hath recourse to him for what belongeth to another science As if all learning were but one because the name is but one Nor is this proper to the vulgar alone but even they of better ranke do often mistake the true kind of learning that concerneth their present occasion and purpose expecting to finde it in him who hath somewhat like it as will appeare by further discourse The next observation then which we have to make is