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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77522	Letters between the Ld George Digby, and Sr Kenelm Digby kt. concerning religion.	Bristol, George Digby, Earl of, 1612-1677.; Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665.	1651 (1651)	Wing B4768; Thomason E1355_2; ESTC R209464	61,686	137

and consequently the insufficiency of your rule of faith tradition hath been made appeare it will be fit to vindicate the sufficiency of that rule which we relie upon In which work the first hinderance that I meet with is this objection of yours That the particular books of Scripture were written for other particular ends and not to give us a compleat body of faith To which I answer that if by particular books of Scripture you understand each book a part severed from its relation to the whole I then agree with you that every particular book was no more intended for a compleat body of Faith then every particular Chapter for a compleat body of the book or then a Window or a Door to be a compleat body of a House but as the one was designed to give entrance the other light to some room or passage of the Edisice so the several books of Scripture were written some to give entrance to Christianity some to illustrate dark places of the whole some to inform us of matters of fact that we might understand in what chiefly to praise God some to discipline us in matters of practice that we might know how aptliest to serve and please him And others to instruct us in matter of belief that we might learn to relie upon him But on the other side if you remit the least of this abstract and Independent consideration of the particular books of Scripture I must then profess that I stedfastly beleeve that they were all designed to this chief and primary end of composing that compleat body of Faith whereon Christs perfect Church should be built as certainly as so many several parts of a building having each a particular end besides of their erection are yet in the general and main intention all destin'd to the making up of one compleat and intire Fabrick yea further without urging the comparison till it halt I am perswaded that as the Master Architect having an Idaea form'd of the whole directs many a part to the perfection of that when the subordinate workman that frames it thinks of nothing farther then of the peice he is in hand with So oftentimes the Almighty Architect when his Ministers perhaps never look'd further then that service in particular wherein they were imployed some perhaps in a Gospel in an Epistle some he by his infinite Wisdom directed each particular to the making up of the whole and compleat body and rule of Faith the written Word which by his admirable providence he hath and will I am consident ever preserve intire and uncorrupt in all parts necessary to its own perfection and harmony and to mans eternal safety and direction Insomuch that I cannot but think it at the best loss of time to be solicitous after any other rule and irreverence if not impiety to question the sufficiency of this But because my opinion is little considerable with one of so far a better Judgment take in this Point the Opinion of the Fathers which you so much relie upon To begin with Tertullian these are the last words of his 22. Chapter against Hermogines Scriptum esse doceat Hermogenis officina If it be not written saith he let him fear the Woe destin'd to such as shall adde or take away Can any thing be inferred more rightly then from this passage the sufficiency of Scripture and the superfluity of any other rule But take yet somewhat more direct from † Oratio ad Gentiles towards the beginning Athanasius The holy and from God inspired Scriptures saith he are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of themselves sufficient to the discovery of truth I appeal to St Basil himself of all the Fathers the greatest attributer to Tradition in all things wherein regard is justly due unto it Hear what he sayes handling a point wherein Scripture I think is as dark as in any necessary one whatsoever I mean that of the Trinity Believe what 's written saith * Hom. 29. advers Calum stan Trin. page 623. he what is not written seek not And in another place It is a manifest falling from the Faith sayes † De vera ac Pia side page 251. he and an argument of Arrogance either to reject any of those things that are written or to introduce any that are not of the written And lastly to sum up all that can be said by a Protestant in one sentence of a Father of greatest Learning and authority Listen but to St. Augustine De doctrina Christian lib. 2. cap. 9. In its quae appertè in Scriptura positasunt inveniuntur illa omnia quae continent fidem moresque vivendi He had need be a confident Sophister that would undertake to evade these Authorities but yet if they may not be admitted let Scripture be heard for it self It is a priviledge and preeminence solely peculiar to that sacred Volume to be Witness Advocate and Judge in its own cause Surely the Spirit spake in St. Paul when he told Timothy That holy Writ was able to make him wise unto salvation 2 Tim. 3. in fine And when numbring up almost all the particular parts that can be required to the compleat Institution of a Christian he concludes that in these by Scripture the man of God is made perfect and fitted to every good work And I am confident by the same Spirit he spake his own minde when he spake ours so directly to the Corinthians Vt dicsatis in nobis supra id quod scriptum est non sapere Epist 1. cap. 4. Where by the way it is to be noted that the Apostle applies this doctrine as an Antidote to that very inconvenience which I have heard some Papists object against the reliance on the search and use of Scripture namely that by it those of greater capacity were lkely to be blown up and to glory in their clearer discerning over weaker whereas the guidance of the Church and Tradition was equaller to all To this I say 't is worth observing what he delivers as it were by way of reason for the contrary Doctrine to wit of confining our selves to Scripture 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I profess Consin that these and many other passages of Scripture which for brevities sake I note only in the * Deut. cap. 4. cap. 12. Epist ad Gal. cap. 1. Margent prenounce to me in as clear a sense as may be the sufficiencie of Scripture and supersluity of relying on tradition for a rule of faith And yet I sweare I am none of those of whom St. Basil speaks p. 621. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How they may sound or what other sense they may bear to you I know not since now adayes Gods Word proves to men of divers opinions as the Apostles language when the devided tongues had sat upon them in Dr. * This was likewise the fantastique opinion of the Authour of the book de Spiritu sancto fathered upon Cyprian Alabasters conceit to severall Nations at one and the same

and evidenter capacity to instruct then the whole Body of Scripture Or if you do What are Private Instructions of kin to Traditions Thomas of Aquine puts in this kinde the highest complement upon Idiots towards the beginning of his first Book adversus Gentiles by sinking down the learnedst to their level For he teaches us I remember to this effect That the wisest ought not to embrace by Natural Reason and Discourse any Article in Religion were it as manifest as that the Whole is bigger then the Part since there may be one so ignorant as to have no notion of what the Whole is or what the Part. And Religion that imparts all alike must be grounded says he upon some Principle common and equal to all Herein the Doctor I must needs say is rightly Angelique for he walks to me in the clouds If he mean by that Principle Faith I understand not how that can be severed either from Reason and Discourse of which it is the last result or from Grace which is not common If he mean by the Principle that Tradition of the Church which you relie on I know not how that can be an easie guidance to the Ignorant since it is so difficult a matter to the wisest to know which is the right Church whose Traditions are so sacred for unless that appear neither the Ignorant nor the Wise are like to be much satisfied in conscience by governing the tenour of their Faith according unto them If we must judge of the Church by Bellarmine's Marks in what mis-mazes shall the Ignorant be guided whilst we finde the most Knowing involved in such intricacies in the examination of what is meant by Visibility Succession and Conformity with Antiquity and to what Society of Christians those attributes belong If you will have the true Church known by Scripture which is surely the easiest and best course even in the opinion of many learned Papists what is that but to flee back and make Tradition clear and certain by that Rule from which you flee as from what you judge obscure to Tradition that you pretend to be evident And then the Protestants will have reason to take it heavily that they should be condemned for founding each part of their Religion upon the same ground whereon the Papists build all theirs at once Yea great reason shall we have to resent it unless a Patent be produced from God Almighty declaring the Rule of Faith for such a Commodity as may be taken from Scripture in gross but not by retail Now that I have answered your Objections I will not be nice in declaring unto you to the full my sence concerning the Sufficiencie and Perspicuity of Scripture I believe that those Canonical Books which God by his providence hath preserved unto these Times and which are acknowledged by all Christians to have been Divinely dictated do make up a compleat Body of all the material objects of Faith necessary to salvation whether explicitely or implicitely necessary to be believed I further believe that in that blessed Sacrary there is not onely an inclusive sufficiencie to wit a perfect comprisal of all Saving Doctrines absolutely essential to Christianity but an exclusive also that is such a sufficiencie as excludes and forbids any Doctrines should be imposed on Christians for a necessary Article of Faith that is not recorded there Nobis curiositate opus non est post Christum Jesum nec inquisitione post Evangelium cùm credimus nihil desideramus ultra credere hoc enim prius credimus non esse quod ultra credere debemus Tert. de prax advers Haeret. cap. 8. And lastly I believe that all points whatsoever of Christian Religion are there set down as perspicuously and as clearly intelligible to all capacities as they are clearly necessary to be believed by all And that God's mercy in the merits of Christ accepting alike the Faith resultant from the dark mists of the Ignorant and from the clearest intelligence of the Learned The Lamb may wade to his bliss thorow the same water thorow which the Elephant may swim Quicquid est mihi crede in Scripturis illis altum divinum est inest omnino verit as reficiendis instaur andísque animis accommodatissima disciplina plane it a modificata ut nemo inde haurire non possit quod tibi satis est si modo ad hauriendum devote pie ut vera Religio poscit accedat Here is the saying of Heraclitus most truely applicable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor truely do I conceive besides God's equalizing capacities by his own gracious acceptance that there needs more then a very ordinary one to understand the Scripture in all points absolutely necessary to salvation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It may be as well understood of the Word of God as of God the Word to whom Clemens pag. 56. advers Gent. applies the saying Magnifice igitur salubriter Spiritus sanctus ita Scriptur as sanctas modificavit ut locis apertioribus famae occurreret obscurioribus autem fastidia detergeret Nihil enim fere de illis obscuritatibus eruitur quod non planissimè dictum alibi reperiatur Aug. The great difficulties and obscurities which are there found I understand chiefly to be in those less material points wherein mens part-taking subtilties have given to God's Word many various acceptions whilst not seeking the doctrines of Scripture but those that themselves are imbued with in it they use it not as the straight and stedfast Rule to judge of and avoid Obliquity by for which it was ordained but rather as a Lesbian Rule to be bent and deflected according to the several purposes of their own Architecture Verifying of the heavenly food of the soul that fantastick imagination of Israel's heavenly food of the body Manna which was said to have been to all differing palats the morsel that each one would have it and the taste that his mouth was made to Since then I am thus perswaded that God hath lodged within us a Pilot Reason how weak soever yet proportionate to the Vessel and the Voyage and that he hath likewise laid open before us a clear and faithful Card that varies not for any Elevation Scripture you must pardon me Cousin if I chuse rather to steer by that Compass thorow the depths of Religion to our Haven of rest and beatitude then like those ancient Navigators that wanted a true Directory to coast it from Doctors to Fathers from Fathers to Popes from Popes to Councels and from all these to but pretended unerring Tradition Quare oportet in care maxime in qua vitae ratio versatur sibi quemque confidere suóque judicio ac propriis sensibus nati ad investigandam perpendendam Veritatem quàm credentem alienis erroribus decipi tanquam ipsum Rationis expertem Dedit omnibus Deus pro virili portione sapientiam ut inaudita investigare possent audita perpendere nec quia nos illi

designe both of that and this It was to express unto you in the generall industriously avoiding particular questions how little certainty or satisfaction I think can be found on either side that shall rely on the Fathers testimonies for a clear determination of our differences I confess I lancht into the Ocean of them with eager hopes of such a discovery and from them at length can draw just as certain conclusions as Sea-men of the Soyle and dimensions of old Brasill The reasons prevalent with me of the uncertainty or rather in my conceipt impossibility of drawing out of the Fathers any such proofs either way in our controversies whereon an inquiring and judicious person should be obliged to relie and acquiesce are so amply and so learnedly set down by Mr. Dailby in Emploides peres that I think little of material or weighty can be said on this Subject that his rare and pierceing observation hath not anticipated But because you will expect from me somewhat more then a bare reverence take in short the chief inducements I will set down as briefly and perspicuously as I can not to insist upon the more frequent ones namely the few writings extant of the Primitive Doctors of the first second and third ages after Christ The many supposititious children that bear the name of Fathers they do not so much as Ore refer the alterations rasures and insertions which through ignorance fraud or maliciousness have defaced maimed and corrupted even those few monuments that remain of venerable antiquity I say not to dwell upon these supposing that in your fair and noble way of ratiocination you will not draw arguments from any but such as are on both sides received for intire and ligitimate pieces differences being rightly reconcileable only by such mediums as both parties consent in those which seem of greatest force with me to invalidate their authority in our questions are these Four First Their contradictions to one another Secondly their variance from themselves Thirdly their repugnances both to Papists and Protestants Fourthly and lastly Their want of ability in many points of our controversies in most of will to decide them Their thwartings of one another both in their writings and votes in Councels will easily appear to any man that shall but with indifferent observation survey their works and this in matters of government of practise and of belief which are the three particulars wherein you advise me out of the Fathers to judge the conformity of your Church or ours to antiquity For their Clashings in point of government to name the superiority of the Sea of Rome will be enough to call to your memory the Epistles of * Epist 53. ad Anatol. 54. ad Martian 55. ad Pul●her 59. ad Martian 61. ad Juvenal Leo contrary to the 28. Canon of the Fathers of the Councel of Calcedon who had elevated that of Constantinople to an equal height with the other And likewise those Epistles of Gregory the great 32. ad Maurit 34. Constant L. 4. wherein he enveighs in sharpe terms against whosoever should take upon him the title of Universal Bishop hardly reconcilable with those passages of the Fathers that the Roman Doctors cite for the Popes supremacy and least of all with the practice of Boniface the 3d that soon after assumed the Appellation To name the question of Appeals to Rome will suffice to draw an acknowledgment from you of the great contestations between the Affrican Bishops and the Roman condemning that point which was likewise oppositely decreed by the Synods of Sardis and Calcedon Concil Sard. Can. 3. 2 Concil Calced Can. 9. To name the election of Bishops will be sufficient to recal to your thoughts the direct opposition in that point of the Fathers of the eighth General Councel in their two and twentieth Canon against what * Epist 68. p. 166 Cyprian taught at large to be Apostolick tradition to wit that the people should have their votes also in the choice of Bishops And lastly not to dwell too long upon the least material point you will easily be put in minde how that which is delivered by many and particularly by Epiphanius p. 908. against Arrius for a received sense of the Church touching the preeminence of a Bishop above a Presbyter is flatly impugned by S. Jerom. Ep. ad Occan. 83. p. 614. and others Their clashings about matters of practice are altogether as obvious Call but to minde Victors heats against the Bishops of Asia touching the observance of Easter day Tatianus and Tertullian's tenents concerning marriage against the opinion of so many Fathers as would be endless to name But because the first was declared an Heretick for holding all marriage pollution the last for esteeming the second unlawful I beseech you turn over S. Jerom's Epistles to Furia to Agerachia and weigh some passages in his first book against Jovinian And then tell me not how far he is from making Marriage a Sacrament of the Church but how far his words are from importing the others Heresy Cast but your Eie upon that passage of Origen Cont. Cels l. 5. to p. 479. Where speaking of Angels he saith that in consideration of their divine nature they are sometimes in the Scriptures called gods but not so as that we should be commanded to adore them or worship them with divine honors although they be the conveyers of Gods gifts unto us for al desires al prayers al deprecations al thanksgivings are to be sent up to God the Lord of all things by the high Priest who is above all Angels who is the living word and God Be pleased likewise to consider the 394. pag. of Athanasius in his first Oration against the Arrians where he teaches that God onely is to be worshipped c. And inform me how I shall comprimise the matter betwixt them and those passages of other Fathers alledged by Bellarmine for the worship and invocation of Saints L. de Beatitudine sanctorum c. 13. Where those which he cites out of Justine and Augustine are not like the rest so impertinent but they may stand in some opposition with the two above mentioned Let me but remember you of the opinion that Hereticks ought to be baptized so contradicted by Optatus by Austine and generally by all that impugne the Donatists which was notwithstanding most peremtorily maintained by Tertullian Cyprian Ep. ad Pompeium Firmilian so far as that Cyprian for this cause brake into most notorious heats against Stephanus Bishop of Rome both Stephanus and Cyprian urging tradition for contrary Doctrines and Firmilian against all the Roman Church in general saying in an Epistle of his which is the seventy fifth among Cyprian's works that Rome did not in all things observe the tradition of the Apostles and in vain boasted of their Authority Accord I beseech you that passage of S. Austin Serm. 17. de verbis Apost Injuria est pro Martyre orare with the practise of the Church in that