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A94272 A treatise of the schism of England. Wherein particularly Mr. Hales and Mr. Hobbs are modestly accosted. / By Philip Scot. Permissu superiorum. Scot, Philip. 1650 (1650) Wing S942; Thomason E1395_1; ESTC R2593 51,556 285

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is hurt in their fancies as I have observed some though otherwise able to make unbroken discourses in other matters of less concernment which is easily possible according to Philosophy or else God for other sins blindeth their understandings as he did Pharoah's which obstacle they must labour to remove that they may learn to obey God in his Church else their condition will be every way most miserable if they obey not for want of Christian humility they are in evident danger of hell if they do obey they are in danger because they do against Conscience but the remedy of this is at hand if they relinquish their own judgments not by satisfying which they pretend they cannot do but by captivating to a sure Authority Certainly wicked fury hath made and increased this Schism for granting which is my second answer to the former objection that when unity cannot be kept without detriment of eternal Salvation it may and ought to be broken without sin but when by the conservation of unity no detriment of salvation is incurred and that if this also may be obtained by persevering in unity then at least there shall be no lawful cause to break unity and those who break it do incur certain damnation for sacrilegious Schism But now Protestants remaining in union with the Church of Rome should have suffered no detriment of their eternal Salvation but had been in a certain way to arrive unto it As we have shewed before by their own confession that Catholicks persevering in the same unity may attain unto salvation wherefore it manifestly followeth that they without any cause went out of the Church wherein they might have been saved and cast themselves and their followers into the state of damnation according to that of St. Augustine De unit Eccl. c. 19. None come unto Salvation and life everlasting except he hath Christ for his head and none can have Christ for his head except he he in his body which is the Church Again which is chiefly to be pondered and always to be repeated those damnable doctrins as they call them taught in the Church of Rome ought to have been declared by a general Councel and not by themselves who are the least if any part of the Church Otherwise if it should be lawful for every one to accuse the Church his mother of Heresie and to leave her without any other discussing of the cause a gate should be open to all Heresies the Church of God would be trodden under foot yea all Christianity fall to ruine this hath been the plea of all separatists which they thought sufficiently proved if onely accusing of error be proving as in the cause of England D. Bilson and Covell teach the necessities of Synods in these things the first part p. 374. the other p. 110. And that which another replied first that England might sufficiently judge of heresies newly brought in seeing it is matter of fact to wit whether this or the other doctrin came down from our Fathers Grandfathers c. or whether it were heard of but yesterday or the day before for this even children may perceive The second point also which he not onely by mouth but by pen now frequent in other hands so much urged saying that it is not needful to call a general Councel since by your confessions as Cressy fol. 443. seemeth to insinuate that there is no infallable power in them A doctrin which I was glad to finde amongst you yet I wondred at it being already repugnant to what I had read in your former authors as D. Stapleton and D. Stratford of the Church and of late in a book made by a Country-man of ours in Latine called Systema Fidei Cressie's words are these No man will endeavour to oblige them further then c. to beleeve an obliging authority in the Catholick Church let is be limitted and confined as straitly and with as many provises as any Catholick or indeed any resonable man shall think good I say according to this power of defining and establishing faith it is to no purpose to call a general Councel to declare heresies when every ignorant fellow can do as much in order to the verity of declaring though perhaps not in order to the coercive manner of declaring yea in the very power it self for asmuch as according to this position of Cressy the power of the Church in this particular may be restrained by any silly fellow c. Thus far this Author To these I answer For asmuch as concerneth matter of fact every nation may witness what they have recived but they cannot make infallable discernment of matters of Faith without the supreme judgment of the whole Church in whose onely mouth there can be no errors which is our principal question Many things are conveyed to posterity which are not matters of Faith sometimes not of truth this the Church onely suerly determines To the second objection out of Gressy I answer that his words though very harsh yet in my judgment they may receive a more favourable gloss upon connexion with the other parts of his discourse He doth indeed to much even suspiciously savour of his old friendship with that vertiginous and flashy Apostata Chillingworth a man whom few examples have paralel'd in often turning religion But Cressy wrote this book in Neophitism not being yet fully instructed in the mysteries of our holy faith as St. Hierome noteth of Arnobius which therefore is more excusable in him though he should express his not throughly digested conceits hardly endugh consistent with the verities of the Catholick faith I do not beleeve that his intention was so soon to play the master in teaching what he had not perfectly learned which had been too preposterous 〈◊〉 this whole books 〈◊〉 to give the History or gradation of his conversion how he did reach from one degree to another and how he gathereth the sence of our doctrin and Doctors in his passage wherein as I said it is no wonder if being a Neophite he should boggle in his manner of explication as his expression seemeth to do in this but where he now is he will better and more fully inform himself and I doubt not but wil rectifie those passages which savour of mistakes Neither doth it avail much though many here stumble at these and other of his passages for St. Hier saith ep 76. I think Origen to be read So sometimes for application as Tertullian Novatus Apollinaris Cressy and many more Ecclesiastical writers both Greek and Latin that we may choose what is good in them and avoid the contrary There are some very good things in that book though intermixt with other passages more harsh as he seems to express them which a prudent reader may pick out and discern to his profit It remaineth therefore firm and certain that our Country men are bound under the pain of Schism and rebellion to reunite themselves unto the Church of Rome their mother as
beleeving and doing what she propounds and prescribes shall attain unto eternal salvation which sufficiently followeth out of what hath been said in the first Chapter if well attended much more also might be produced from Christian discoursing upon principles of holy Scripture and consent of old and modern Doctors But to bring our Doctors here is superfluous labour seeing Protestants with whom I have dealt sincerely acknowledge and ingeniously confess so much and many of them of no small account have delivered in books that the Church of Rome is the Church of God and that the errors in her are not so much as do overthrow the foundation of Salvation and therefore with them many have and may now be saved So Morton Regn. Jer. page 94. the Papists are to be thought of the Church of God because they hold the foundation of the Gospel which is faith in Christ Jesus the Son of God Hooker Eccles Polit. page 140. we willingly acknowledge Papists to be of the family of Christ Covel Apol. ad Archep Cant. we affirm those who are of the Churh of Rome to be part of the Church of Christ and those who live and die in the Church of Rome may notwithstanding be saved and he accuseth the Puritans of ignorance that think the contrary Soame Apol. p. 146. if you think that all Papists that die in the Papistical Church are damned you think absurdly and you dissent from the judgment of learned Protestants D. Burlo in his 3. Sermon ad Clerum saith I dare not deny c. D. Laud late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury in his great volume against the Jesuite doubteth not of ordinary Papists salvations and of late Doctor Taylour in his liberty of Prophecying out of his principles necessarily concludes so much in his twentieth Paragraph and number the 3 d. he speaks thus They keep the foundation c. and therefore all the wisest personages of the adverse party allowed to them possibility of Salvation whilest their errors are not faults of their will but weaknesses and deceptions of the understanding c. The foundation of faith stands secure enough for all these vain and unhandsome superstructures c. Chillingworth hath both the same tenents frequently and as you may gather by his maner of expression he grants them yet very plainly though unwillingly somtimes he saith that they are not damnable othertimes that they are damnable in themselves but not to Catholicks except they stick to them out of affection of error It was well he added this else he had in one stroke broken the whole phantastick fabrick of his verbal not rational volume flashy no way substantial as any sober man will judge The whole result of his work is that every man beleeving Scriptures and feriously labouring to deduce a probable sence out of them is sufficiently provided for in order to his salvation which is to exclude a necessity of communion with any in point of Religion as every man seeth against all Scripture and the Creed This is by the way There are indeed some amongst them as Field Usher and others who seem somtimes to speak more rigidly touching Catholiks Salvation But they observe not how repugnant this is to a generally admitted and cried up principle amongst them which is this namely that they differ not from us in fuundamentals or necessaries By this they labour hard to make their breach from from us not to be damnable being they differ not in points of necessary belief Which if it hath force doth it not inevitably and with more strength conclude a security for us We must therefore conclude that whether they will or no they do all conclude a possibility of salvation for us adhereing to our faith delivered from our forefathers and to omit innumerable others King James shall serve for all for he speaks in the name of all in his speech to the Parliament Novemb. 9. 1605. we rightly saith he confess that many Papists especially our progenitors putting their onely trust in Jesus Christ and his merits may and are frequently saved detesting according to that and judging the cruelty of the Puritans worthy of fire who will grant no salvation to any Papists Yea D. Potter in his book set forth by the command of King Charles pag. 76. 77. confesseth that those things which Protestants think erroneous in the Roman Church are not in themselves damnable to those who beleeve as they profess and that all may be saved with them who bona fide beleeve and profess the Roman Religion as long as they finde no motives sufficient whereby their judgment is convinced that they be in error To conclude all Protestants of any moderation who are not poysoned with the tincture of rigid Calvinisme freely confess that Catholicks in their religion may be faved and do accuse them of want of Charity that they do not think so of them So our adversaries are our judges as appears by their own confession that we may attain unto salvation in the Church of Rome I could give you a longer list but it were superfluous in a confessed doctrine CHAP. 3. Schism is an enormous Crime SChism if we look upon the force of the word it signifieth division if it be in the civil common wealth it is called Sedition if in the Church Schism or the same word may be used for both and be distinguished by Epithites in the one case it is civil Sedition in the other Ecclesiastical Division The Church may be divided two wayes first by revolting from faith which doth not only make Schism but heresie hence it is that they who fall from the faith and doctrin of the Church setting up their contrary opinions as Arrians Macedonians and the like are not onely termed Scismaticks but Hereticks Secondly the Church is divided by revolting from the chief Pastor or general Councels by disobedience or from communion with the other members although faith be conserved intire and this makes pure Schism as it is distinguished from heresie So the Donatists and Meletians at first keeping the faith of the Church but abstaining from communion with the other members in divine worship prayer and other holy rites or when they erected altar against altar then and not before they were properly accounted Schismaticks from whence it is gathered that although Schism continuing is wont to degenerate into heresie because as St. Hierom saith in Tit. 3. There is no Schim which doth not frame to it self some heresie that they may seem to have just cause to revolt from the Church Hence St. Augustine l. 2. contra Cresconium c. 7. Schism is a new revolt Heresie is an inveterate Schism yet speaking in rigour heresie violating the faith of the Church Schism breaking her charity they are both grevious sins seeing they seperate from the Church and consequently from the head which is Christ But now we will onely treat of the greviousness of Schism There are a sort of people who cannot conceive that a Christian Common-wealth
remaining obedient to the civil Magistrate can be guilty of Schism because they do so far subject Ecclesiastical persons and causes to civil magistracy that they do scarcely acknowledge any Ecclesiastical power at all contradistinct from the Temporal in a Christian Common-wealth except in things internal as Mr. Hobbs holds Chap. 17. n. 21 22. c. though afterwards he gives some smal nothings to them he will have the Prince supreme even in spirituals c. 18. n. 13. and therefore they must depend on the Prince in the use of all and at last in his last chapter and number he repeales all he had granted The truth is he is so zealous in his structure of a civil Common-wealth wherein he hath some excellent things that he either neglects or reduceth the spiritual common-weath or Church almost to a Platonical inexistent Idea Reason tells us that as natural so moral powers and offices are known to be specifically different and not onely numerically distinct by their several operations the difference of operations is known by their several objects or sometime by the very several tending to the same specifical object as Philosophers know Now the offices of ecclesiastical and civil magistracy are obviously known to have these ways to declare their real and specifical differences St. Paul in his fifth chapt to the Hebrews even from the very beginning sufficiently declares it from their operations and objects and tells us that the Priest is taken to his office from amongst men by men is understood the temperal power from whence this other power is severed by St. Paul I wish the ingenuous Reader to peruse it all and compare Mr. Hobbs his grounds to St. Paul and what I annex in the ensuing discourse I am sure besides scriptures the judgement o● ancient Christians was fa● otherwise There were bounds for ecclesiastical and temporal magistracy alwayes acknowledged great Athanasius in his Epistle to these who observe Solitary life to this purpose reciteth and applaudeth an● epistle of Hosius of Cordub● to Constantius the Arriar● Emperor Cease I beseech thee and remember that th●● art mortal fear the day of judgment intermeddle not with ecclesiastical matters neither do thou command us in this kinde but rather learn them of us to thee God hath committed the Empire to us he hath committed the things that belong to the Church and as he who with malicious eyes carpeth thine Empire gainsayeth the ordinance of God so do thou also beware least in drawing to thee Ecclesiastical matters thou be made guilty of a horrible crime It is written give ye the things that are Caesars to Caesar and the things that are Gods to God Therefore neither is it lawful for us in earth to hold the Empire neither hast thou O Emperor power over incense and sacred things This extent is far beyond internals or Mr. Hobb's limits St. Ambrose also to Valentinian in his fifth book of Epistles in his oration of delivering up of Churches Valentinian by ill advise of his mother Justina an Arrian required to have one Church deputed in Milan for the Arrians saith thus We pay that which is Caesars to Caesar and that which is Gods to God Tribute is Caesars it is not denied The Church is Gods it may not verily be yeelded to Caesar because the Temple of God cannot be Caesars right Which no man can deny but it is spoken with the honour of the Empire for what is more honorable then that the Emperor be said to be the Son of the Church for 〈◊〉 good Emperor is within the Church not above the Church He is diametpically opposite to Mr. Hobbs Out of these and infinite other texts or monuments of antiquity it is most clear that all Christians grounded upon Scriptures as they conceived did beleeve that the Church taken rigidly and strictly was understood to consist onely of spiritual men and a city or a common-wealth did and doth import a body of Christians considered as not consecrated to divine service and functions but as members of the civil or temporal body and that therefore though as civil persons they were subject onely to this or that city or country namely in civil or temporal things yet in Ecclesiastical they might be subject to Ecclesiastical power though sometimes seated in forrain countries Spiritual things are not circumscribed by place and consequently my own temporal Prince according to St. Ambrose might be a fellow subject with me in this which depends not at all upon the temporal power but is wholy of another and a higher nature though Mr. Hobbs denies it which I wonder at reason me-thinks will necessarily carry us to prefer spiritual before temporal and therefore St. Peter in his first Epistle Chap. 2. calls temporal magistracy a human creature that is in a peculiar way derived from man But St. Paul Acts 20. speaking of Ecclesiastical magistracy saith the Holy Ghost hath placed you to rule the Church of God and St. Ignatius contemporary to the Apostles gives us his own and the sense of Christians in those days when he exhorts the people of Smyrna in his Epistle to them first to honour God next the Bishop and then the King They are not therefore in the sense of Christians the same thing a Bishop and Christian King nor their office the same the one tending immediately to things which belong to God in order to souls The other immediatly to things of this world namely to the external peace of Subjects though secondarily with reference to God also but the Ecclesiastical by supernatural mediums the other properly by natural which is more remote and indirect and therefore St. Paul to the Hebrews cap. 5. saith this power is conversant circa ea quae ad Deum sunt which is no where simply asserted of the other and in the law those are called Sors Domini in a peculiar strain And to speak truth Mr. Hobbs had done very well if he had taken St. Paul along with him in framing his new model of a Christian City who distinguisheth each members office very often All authority is not in the Princes but Hebrews 13. lay people are commanded to obey their Provosts and to be subject to them c. where he sufficiently distinguisheth the Tribunals No Christian can be ignorant of the authority which the Holy Ghost giveth to Praelates regere Ecclesiam Dei to govern the Church of God so that this spiritual government is of God and it is a government and therefore not onely declarative or instructive as Mr. Hobbs saith even of Christ himself c. 17. n. 13. but it is a regitive power els S. Peter had most heavily transgressed his commission in adjudging Ananias and after his wife Saphira to present death for a spiritual crime St. Paul in his excommunicating the fornicator St. John and the rest had abused their power also which I touch in the seventh Chapter who went beyond pure declaration of their guilt expected not the cities sentence in it Mr.
sense and as St. Basil upon the 115. Psal They constitute their sense the measure of all things is not this to invert the whole frame of Gods spiritual world According to that of St. Basil in his 43. ep As in things which are seen with the eyes experience is of more consideration then reason so in the most excellent tenents of our faith is of more force then any juncture of reason O how St. Augustine meets with these socinians towards the end of his 56 Epistle To these straights they are driven who finding themselves most miserably laid on their backs when their authority is put in ballance to see how it will endure the test against the authority of the Church They do therefore endeavour under the shew and promise of reason to quel the inmoveable authority of the holy Church neither is it any news for it is the accustomary practise of all Here ticks and in his 22. Ep. he saith That if a Catholick desires a reason of his saith that he may understand what he beleeves there must be an eye had to his capacity that he may by reason obtain a proportionable measure of understanding whence we learn that 's the regular discipline of hereticks under a false vizard of reason to lay aside the most firm authority of Gods Church Hence we also learn how Catholicks make due use of reason in matters of Faith explicating holy mysteries according to each capacity I wondered to finde Mr. Hobbs in his 12. Chap. n. 6. to be so positive in attributing it to an error of the vulgar to hold that Faith is not begotten by study and natural reason His principal ground is because it were impertinent to oblige us to give an account of our Faith that is to render a reason of it as he would have it Englished if our reason doth not acquire it Of how great force this his reason is I leave any man to consider He deals fiercely against inspiration of Faith and saith all the world is mad in asserting it he conceives that every Christian would be a prophet if he had his Faith by supernatural infusion Therefore in order to him Chillingworth and the rest and any who shall desire to know in what manner or how far Catholicks use the assistance of reason perticularly in Faith I will briefly decipher it because here is the main scruple of our new modellers of Christianity To this end we must understand that Logick hath two questions The one is An sit Whether the thing questioned hath any real existence The other is Quid sit Or Propter quid sit That is what the essence of it is or by what cause it is In the first question as Neophites we make enquiry after the truth of Catholick Faith by weighing the motives which being considered ab intrinseco or from the internal principles of them we finde profoundness even surpassing the greatest jugdments with simplicity proportioned to the weak est understandings contempered with sanctity compared to the tenents of all sects either of Infidels or Hereticks wherein they do infinitety exceed them all If we do consider ab extrinseco that is by their inseparable annexed habiliments we finde perpetual and inviolable succession delivered from hand to hand from the very fountain to us witnessed sufficiently by the very Church walls we find also most exemplary holiness of those who imbrace this faith which St. Augustine celebrates in his book intituled of the manners of the Catholick Church also wonderful change of manners in those who are new converts by the ancient much valued Angelical purity and stupendious austerity of both Sexes who imbrace Heremitical Cenobitical or Anachoretical reclusions also the gallowes adorned with the blood of so many illustrous martyrs as in our Country where so many learned men expose themselves to all cruelties for the good of others and voluntarily under go ignominious death daily for the confirmation of others Lastly the working of miracles that is such wonders which either in substance transcend all nature as to restore sight to them that are born blinde or raise the dead and the like or in the manner as to cure diseases without applying causes c. Out of these and the rest of the motives by reason we attain to be able to make a firm judgment first of the manifest credibility of Catholick misteries insomuch that we clearly see that it is more reason to be matriculated into the Church then into any other Sect. This step being made and digested by further penetrating discursively all the motives we find the conjunction of them all to be impossible to the whole latitude of nature which a wise man weighing in comparison to the continual mutation and vicissitude of all natural causes will be able to demonstrate the Catholick to be supernatural and absolutely true because reavealed and inspired by God which is the last resolution of our Faith wherein as you see reason conducteth us in our enquiry to the full result that is to the formal object of our Faith which is God revealing where we stick not for our reason but for the revelation of God wherein Christian Faith is compleated It is true that the first Christians to whom these revelations were immediately made were prophets but to the especial assistance of God in our assenting to these supernatural truths already revealed doth not make prophets which is an action of a different nature from formal revelation as school-men at large demonstrate in the tract of Faith and it is evident in it self wherein Mr. Hobbs seems to have erred Hitherto we use reason in the disquisition of the truth of Faith according to the question An sit In the other question called Quid sit Or by what means or causes is it Which amongst Logicians is the nobler question In this we proceed not by doubtfully enquiring of the truth of objects of Faith or of their real existence which is disputed in the State of our Neophitism but all fluctuancy and doubt deposed touching the truth of them wherein our Socinians boggle for they stick still at An sit But our learned men proceed to the other question labouring to understand the truths speculating the essences and natures of each of them and the Subalternal connexion of them each to other which is the proper Sphear of a divine or school-man for his own and others satisfaction There are the bounds of our reason intervening to attain and to preserve already attained Faith wherein as is clear reason is the servant not mistris But on the contrary ye give no limits to reason but as in the progress or search so in the possession of Faith ye still stick most to your reason and therefore ye doubt or deny what ye understand not for ye perswade your selves that the mysteries necessary to be beleeved ought to be per se nota clear in their very terms insomuch that every one of you brag your absolute comprehension of them And hence it
rather of Luther the whole Catholick Church consisting of divers Kingdoms in which England is comprised did obey divers Princes were governed by divers civil Lawes and Statutes yet they worshiped God but in one faith and in one sacrifice were sanctified with the same Sacraments did acknowledge the same spiritual Rector the Bishop of Rome Then arose Luther Henry the eighth Queen Elizabeth c. Who brake Communion with the whole world to take away the sacrifice of the whole Church and the greater part of the Sacraments and the holy rites to revolt from the Bishop of Rome all the Church besides persevering in the same unity worship and obedience which before it did profess Who therefore doth not see that they have revolted from the Church and erected altar against altar if they have any and have been the sole Authors of the divided unity of the Church I add that Schism is alwayes a dividing of an united body or a separation of a part from the whole preexistent or fore being now the Catholick Church was an united body existent before Luther from which the Protestants might go out and divide themselves but the Protesants seeing they were no where could make no body from whence the Catholicks could recede therefore the Protestants could onely first make the division and blow up the Rebellion The other often heard phantastick refuge wherewith when these are branded with novelty like men in a desperate naufrage they catch at any broken reed namely that they always were of us and amongst us and so continued till they were cast out of us To the first part I answer That till Henry the eighth they were indeed amongst us that is all their progenitors were Catholicks this every man in the testaments and records of each family can witness for the world till then knew no other all publick profession of Religion was that To fly to interiours that is to say that they were in their hearts Protestants were to recur to divination which were more then childish in things of this nature when all exteriour acts contradict any such dreams and yet to this clear non-sense they are put being compelled to assert their Church for above a Thousand yeers to have been invisible as it is understood under the notion of a body separated from the Roman you will see it in Whittaker in his 2. and 3. Controversie p. 479. Field seeing how destructive this Tenent would be in his 10. C. Accounts it foolish to say that a Church should not have always known professors and White in his defence of the way c. 4. p. 790. Saith positively that Religion is false if it cannot shew a continual descent yet p. 520. he is not ashamed to say that their Church hath had indeed always succession but not visible so that being pressed to shew the real svccession he is constrained to recur to this ridiculous divination of mens interiour Protestancie though they professed otherwise Which contradictory shist of their's were enough to destroy their pretended Church Prideaux in his ninth Lesson of the invisibility of the Church after many braggs comes to this poor refuge and beats about like a man desperate to save his case upon a broken reed or distracted sentence in any obsolute or forlorn Author But sa I noted They will say that they divided not the Church neither did they recede from it but were cast out of it by excommunication of the Pope and therefore not they but the Pope was the Author of this division but this helpeth them nothing For to omit that excommunication is a punishment which is inflicted upon such as go out of the Church not so much casting them out of the Church as depriving them of the participation of common benefits thereof to omit this it is notoriously known to all that Henry the eighth Luther and Queen Elizabeth went out of the Church before they were excommunicated as being condemned by their own proper judgments and so they separated themselves and before any excommunication made the Schism in punishment whereof they were excommunicated touching Henry the eighth it is manifest that he was excommunicated for his disobedience and contumacy in grievous crimes and Queen Elizabeth by and by when she had gotten the Crown upon her she seeing the Pope difficult in declaring her lawful title unto it not for her religion for then she had not changed it but for illegitemacy even according to Acts of our Parliaments under her Father broke off all Communion with the Church of God So Camden in Elizabeth The English also compiled a book of Canons wherein they also confess they went out of the Church of Rome therefore it is a frivolous thing that they pretend they went not out but were driven out of the Church They may perchance reply that they were as amongst us so of us before this division and so are yet because it is sufficient to incorporate any body into the true Church of Christ if he beleeveth the Creed of the Apostles as here Protestants do To this I answer First that in some cases this may be enough yes even to beleeve Jesus Christ to be the Son of God is sufficient as in the case of the Eunuch and such like that is an implicite faith may suffice till other necessary truths are sufficiently propounded For the Gospel had and hath a time of growth in every new Christian In these and such like cases it is sufficient not to mis beleeve formerly other truths to constitute a man a member of Chirst's Church I answer Secondly That the same God who trusted his Church with this hath as well entrusted her with all other necessary truths The Holy Ghost hath taught her omnem veritatem all and every necessary truth as our blessed Saviour promised which she pro re nata as heresies pullulate declares to her children that they may be able to avoid the danger of swallowing stones insteed of bread These truths thus by supreme power propounded to the faithful they are obliged to receive by obeying their Prelats who have a charge over their souls according to that of the Apostle obedite praepesitis vestris c. Hence the Nicene Fathers declared as a most fundamental truth Christ Jesus to be Deum de Deo et consubstantialem Patri c. to be God of God consubstantial to the Father c. which is not in the Apostles Creed neither is it there that the Holy Ghost is God nor the Fathers of Nice did declare that great truth because yet heresies touched not that point as St. Basile and St. Gregory Nariane teach yet I beleeve that every true Christian will esteem it necessary to beleeve these truths it is easie to descend to many more particulars which all Christians admit to be necessary though not expressed in the Apostles Creed as concerning the Sacraments of Baptism and the Eucharist c. The Church hath therefore always from the beginning to this day beleeved and practised