Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n
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A53727
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A short and plain answer to two questions: I. Where was your religion before Luther? II. How know you the Scriuptures to be the word of God? By a Protestant.
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Owen, John, 1616-1683.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing O806A; ESTC R214595
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12,344
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27
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Duty 4. Things to be believed or matter of Faith As for the Historical part of that Book how hath it bidden defiance to Time to discover any just Exception Nay even the Enemies of Truth have own'd and confirm'd the matters of Fact therein contained And many profane Writers who either knew not of or have not rightly acknowledged the Scriptures have nevertheless inserted into their own Stories the same things therein contained as is well known and hath been oft observed by those that look into Books And though the Divine History bears such Authority and Majesty in its Style that it needs not the Confirmation of Prophane ones yet the Testimony of Adversaries against themselves is always considerable And hath not much of the Prophetick part been verified to the amazement of all those that duly consider it How many and how punctually were the Prophesies concerning our Redemption by Christ How plain was that concerning the Type thereof namely Israels deliverance from Egyptian Slavery Gen. 15. verse 13 14. and yet how wonderfully fulfill'd many hundreds of Years after they were fore-told But I am not at leisure to enlarge upon these things many Learned Men have done it more especially the incomparable Sir Charles Wolseley And then for the Preceptive part containing Rules of Life and Manners it is so Rooted in the Nature of things so obvious to Sense so agreeable to Reason so beneficial to the World and so confirmed by the Experience of all Men whose Faculties are not depraved That Heaven and Earth shall pass away before one jot or tittle thereof shall fail or be found deficient Lastly The Divine Mysteries therein revealed as the Doctrine of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Blessed Jesus c. though they are above our Capacity to explain the Nature of them yet are they so suitable to Gods Goodness and do make such a Harmony of Divine Attributes that Reason it self will rather from thence infer the truth of their being than that they cannot be because we understand not the manner how they are How could God be Just if Justice were not satisfied And could be Merciful if all Men were to be damned How could lost Man Redeem himself Or how could he be saved if he should suffer for himself But now in the Person of our Blessed Redeemer the Law is satisfied Justice is done and even thereby Mercy doth the more eminently appear God is glorified and Man is not left to perish in his iniquity If a Man will be so morose as to urge that Three in one Eternal Generations a Virgins Conception and the like sound so harsh to Humane understanding that they cannot be true He may after the same rate conclude that there is no such thing as Humane Generation since the Nature and process thereof is very obscurely if at all understood That there are no Souls because it is not yet agreed whether they are immediately Created of God or they are Ex traduce or Pre-existent No such thing as Milk in a Womans Breast since Anatomists are confounded with difficulties to find what Matter it is made of or by what secret Chanels conveyed thither In so much that one very Learned Writer in that Faculty flies to the force of Imagination to produce it No such thing as Quantity because no Man ever yet could demonstrate unexceptionably whether it be infinitely divisible or ultimately resolvable into indivisibles No Bodies in the World since no Man knows what kind of Original Particles they are made of These and many things more as to the manner how they are have difficulties attending them which are insuperable and incomprehensible And methinks it is somewhat hard that we should do things our selves and see many things before our Eyes of which we can give no tolerable account and should yet think that God cannot do somewhat more than we can apprehend and should be so inclinable to reject even God himself his Word and all his Works of Wonder if they will not accommodate themselves to our little understandings From these considerations and many more that will occur to any impartial thinking Man it doth appear beyond all possibility of doubting that the Scripture is most certainly true and if so it must be the Word of God for it testifieth of it self that it is given by Divine Inspiration Never did any Book contain so much Wisdom Kindness and Usefulness to the Sons of Men as it doth Summ up the whole World together except the Bible and what is taken out of it and the Total will neither afford you half so many Excellent Rules and Observations for the government of Mens Lives nor one thousand part of that clear discovery of Divine Truth which that Book contains Shall we now say that this Book is a Forgery a Cheat and Imposture of the Devil For so it must be if it be not the Word of God And what follows Why that a Corrupt Tree brings forth good Fruit and that most pure and wholsome Streams proceed from a putrid Fountain That truth is falshood that good is evil and that light is darkness He that denies the Scriptures to be the Word of God must quit his Sense his Reason and his Conscience that he may admit of these Conclusions To which it may be added That all the malicious and cunning Adversaries of God and true Religion all the Pagans Popes and Hellish Apostates all the Devils themselves and their incarnate Brethren the Jesuits with all their Subtilty and Contrivance have not been able to destroy nor discredit that Book No nor to Corrupt it neither in any such degree but that still there remains good Copies thereof in several Languages And though there may be deficiency and Humane frailty in some Readings and Versions as to some particular words yet is not that any blemish unto or diminution of the Beauty and Excellency of the whole but may rather teach us to value it the more For since neither the failings of some nor the fraud of others hath availed in Sixteen hundred years to do any substantial dammage to that Book it is a convincing Argument that Divine Providence hath been engaged for it's preservation If it should be here objected That since there are so many various Readings of the Scriptures it may be doubtful which of them is the best I readily grant it but then there can be no doubt but that every one of them for the main Substance of it is the Word of God Let us suppose Religio Medici to be turned into several Laguages there may be divers faults in every one of them as is observed to be in the Latine Copy and some of them very gross ones But will any body from thence infer that Sir Tho. Brown is not the Author For though indeed he is not the Author of those Errors wherein the true Sense of some particular Words is mistaken Yet since they are not such nor so many as to evacuate the design and scope of the Book
Word of God In the first place then I shall consider what would be said by our Adversaries in Answer to those extravagant Questions I mention'd even now and if I mistake their Sense in this matter I pray do you inform me better by the next opportunity For I seldom come in their Company and when I do if they forbear I am not forward to raise Disputes I suppose therefore they would tell me That these Questions are about such things as all the World takes for granted upon the Evidence of Sense and the uniform Experience of all Ages that thus to deny Principles were to turn Sceptick and so take the ready way never to come to any Conclusion just as if one that pretended to the Mathematicks should deny the Definitions and Postulata of Geometry which have endured the Test of most Ages and as the common Notions and Sentiments of Mankind have bid defiance to all Exceptions Who would trouble his head to Argue with such a Person as should deny that two and three make five or that the whole is bigger than the half We find by daily experience and no body can perswade us to the contrary that when the Sun is above the Horizon we can see our way before us the Objects that are about us and how to do our business which in the dark we cannot do If any Man walk in the day saith our Saviour he stumbleth not Why Because he seeth the light of this World he needs not that any Man should tell him it is light he sees it himself and his own sight is beyond all other Mens Arguments But if a Man walk in the dark he stumbleth and when Night cometh Men cannot work So that these Questions you propound are altogether unquestionable 1. From the undeniable Evidence of our Senses 2. From the clearest inferences of Reason And 3. From the universal acknowledgment of Mankind In this manner I presume they would answer my Queries nor do I know any better way And just thus it is in the Case before us for from these very grounds it will appear that the Scriptures have proceeded from God The Sun doth not more plainly direct our Steps than the Scriptures do our Lives and Actions The first enlightens our Natural and the latter our Moral walking The one makes us discern the Creatures that are about us the other teaches how to use them to our greatest Comfort and highest Advantage By the one we may conclude there is a God as he is knowable by the things that are made by the other we are instructed what to think of Him and how to behave our selves in reference to Him and to our Neighbour The Scriptures are a Lamp unto our Feet and a Light unto our Ways and whilst we take heed thereunto we walk securely and never fail to find the benefit thereof but when we forsake their Conduct we fall into a thousand Errours and mischiefs oftimes discovered to our outward Senses in the discomposure of our Bodies and detriment of our Estates often too in the trouble and disorder of our Minds and not seldom in both these respects at once As for Example the Scripture Commands us to live soberly to love our Neighbour to feed the hungry to forgive injuries and to deal justly with all Men. And what are the consequences of our Obedience in these things Why these some sleep a healthful Body a peaceful Soul a chearful Life Bread to eat the love of Neighbours the Prayers of the Poor and a kind of universal Respect and deference which vertue doth command wherever it comes But then our Disobedience to these Precepts is usually follow'd with restless Nights racking Pains anxious Thoughts scaring Dreams trembling fears perplexing doubts the hatred of some the Curses of others and the just condemnation of all It 's true there are some reserv'd Cases God doth sometimes trie a vertuous Soul with Afflictions and often makes a Soul vertuous by Afflictions He doth again sometimes feed the Epicure unto the day of Slaughter and court the Vicious by Temporal Enjoyments to reclaim them Yet in the mean time the Good are born up with peace of Mind and expectation of a Crown and the Wicked are busied in stupefying their Senses to abate the Sting of Conscience and fear of Hell But not withstanding these reserv'd Cases I dare adventure to affirm that there is not any thing in the World whereof I am more certain than that the Scripture is a most excellent Rule for the Government of my Life and Actions and the ground of this Assurance in a great measure is taken from Sense I am no more assured that the Sun shines or the Fire warms than I am that my Conformity to the Scriptures is highly advantageous to me The Sun is not more necessary to the being of Mankind than the Scriptures are to his well-being The one gives natural Life and light to the Creation the other enlightens the Mind and teaches how to manage our Lives and the Blessings thereof to the best purpose Without the first the World would be a Chaos without the later it would be a kind of Hell Now the very first step of Reason infers the Conclusion For from whence should such a Treasure of Wisdom and Truth proceed but from the inexhaustible Fountain of all Goodness God Almighty And let any Man in the World unto whose hands Divine Providence shall bring it carefully peruse that Book and consider well the vast Stock of Wisdom the immense Treasures of Love and Bounty therein contained Let him observe the excellent Rules it propounds so fitted for all purposes and occasions of Humane Life that an universal Conformity to it would make Heaven upon Earth Let him mark how all the Disorders and Miseries Contentions and Blood-shed in the World proceed from Mens disobedience thereunto and do Constitute the formal Reason of Hell it self And in a word let him observe that whatever he doth well and which afterwards leaves him a grateful Relish and easiness of Mind is done according to the Precepts of that Book and whatever he doth amiss which leaves a Sting and Poyson behind it is nothing else but a deviation from that Rule I say Let him but diligently read and impartially consider these things and he can be no better assured that there is a God who is Good and Wise Merciful and Just than that the Holy Scriptures are the Result of his Goodness and Mercy towards the Sons of Men and that they do contain a declaration of his Mind with respect unto us and the Rule of our Duty in relation to him Why might not our Adversaries demand of us how we come to be certain that God is Righteous and the Devil Wicked Is it lest the Question should recur upon themselves For since so many of their holy Fathers have been so Flagicious as History makes mention and since Villany is so far Patronized by their Church that the blackest Criminals in that Communion are