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	scripture_n	tradition_n	2,838	5	9.5550	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29214	A sermon preached at the opening of the lecture at Maldon in Essex, lately established by the Lord Bishop of London in vindication of the antiquity of the doctrine of the Church of England / by William Bramston ...	Bramston, William, d. 1735.	1697 (1697)	Wing B4243; ESTC R18304	16,131	26

still he is to be sure that he is in the right But can any thing here touch the Proselytes of Rome who without troubling Scripture or Reason for the confirmations of their Evidence tell us they enjoy a far more insallible Rock and certainty of their Faith to wit the Voice and Testimony of the Church In truth if we search into this Rock it will appear no other than that Sandy Foundation which was the choice of the foolish Builder Let us reason the Case with some Roman Votary Does thy Church sayest thou tell thee thy Faith is true then let me ask thee how thou knowest that the Church which tells thee so is true her self doest thou appeal to the Marks and Notes of a true Church then I demand again how dost thou know what peculiar Marks and Notes are the Marks and Notes of the true Church Or again how is it become certain to thee that all these peculiar Marks and Notes do particularly fit and agree with thy particular Church in all respects He that gets over these Questions without Scripture and Reason must be Master of more than a Jesuitical slight and artifice for this must be to judge of Notes without Judgment to pronounce a conclusion without Premises for where the conclusion is the result of Premises there must needs be reasoning Indeed this can be no other than to reply Why she is true because she is true And yet I dare boldly affirm they shall never be able to get further in the certainty of Faith who shall first reject the Scriptures as too ambiguous and unintelligible and then renounce their Reason as a thing dangerous and reducing all to a private Spirit But they are not brought to a stand yet they have behind a glorious reserve they will still tell us they have Councils and Fathers on their side but to express the weakness of this hold how many Volumes of Learn'd Protestants are there extant which remain so many monuments of the groundless vanity of their Plea from Fathers and if the four first general Councils may be allow'd worthy of the name of Councils we defie the most Artificial Crafts men of them all to produce thence but one line which may appear serviceable to the cause of Popery But to leave this Contest with the Learned must it not be ridiculous in any unlearned Man to renounce the Scriptures which were written on purpose for his Instruction in Religion and which he may of himself be able both to read and understand as to all matters of belief and practice and betake himself to pleas from Fathers and Councils when he is not able so much as to tell the Letters of that Language in which those Fathers and Councils were written when he can be able to judge neither when those Fathers writ nor yet what one Opinion they have left behind them must there not be a much more rarional satisfaction from such a plain Text of Scripture as this Drink ye all of this to invite us to receive the Cup than a Thousand pretended Quotations from such Fathers and Councils which the unlearn'd are able neither to disprove nor comprehend to affright us from the Cup that we shou'd be deceived by the plain real truths of the Gospel 't is impossible but the real Doctrines of fallible Men will be liable to deceive us But after all is not this to relapse and be found tampering with the dangerous consequences of protestant reasoning thus to alledge Councils and Fathers For why does any Man appeal to Councils and Fathers fancies he makes them the measures of his belief at least of the truth of that point in which he appeals to them wou'd he believe as he does if he apprehended he had no reason from their authorities to believe so and then how does his Faith disser more from that of a private judgment than the Faith of a credulous Protestant who declaies he believes thus and thus because he judges the Scriptures enjoyn him to believe thus and thus all the difference that I can perceive between the two Churches here is this The one to wit the Papist Reasons from the Testimonies of fallible Men but the other namely the Protestant from the assurances of the infallible Dictates of God's Holy Spirit That which here determines the Belief in both is no doubt one and the same thing viz. Man's private Judgment which influences the one to believe so and so and the other to believe thus and thus because it appears most reasonable to them to believe so And I appeal to any one of that Church whether he wou'd thus absolutely give up his Faith to the Church did he not think he had great reason so to do and then again whether that Man which owns thus much does not in great measure acknowledge himself a Judge of the Principles of his Religion let them talk what they will the Papist judges for himself as well as the Protestant for if we are said to judge when we declare to believe the Scriptures upon the authority of an Universal Tradition may not they be said to judge when they declare they believe in the Church upon the single authority of her own assertion If they please they may deny what both they and we do practice and indeed what is not only undeniable but what the very Voice and Commandment of God has enjoyn'd us to perform in one place directing us to try all things and hold fast that which is good in another place believe not every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they be of God or no Again be ye ready to render a reason of the hope that is in you nay lastly we have the express approbation of our Saviour himself telling us If the Blind lead the Blind they shall both fall into the Ditch and again why of your selves judge ye not what is right Can any thing be more clear than that the Holy Ghost in these places excites us to respect our own Judgment and Reason in the choice of our Religion For how shall that Man be able to render a Reason of his hope who makes a Profession of a hope upon no Reason at all How shall he judge the Spirits that tries them not Or again how shall he make tryals who professes to use neither Judgment nor Reason in matters of Religion Nay further how comes our Saviour to wonder so much why Judge not of your selves what is right if nothing be more disagreeable to true Righteousness than a Man 's own private Conclusions and Judgment I say again these Texts must refer to the tryals of Religion and therefore we may bid much good may do them with their implicit Faith which is as much as to declare as to my Religion I believe what I know not and I know not what I must believe which is to approve the Spirits without trying and to conclude them to be of God without so much as enquiring what kind of Spirits they are of