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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	believe_v	church_n	scripture_n	4,985	5	6.5050	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93282	The true church of Christ exposed to the view of all sober Christians, from the Word of God, sound reason, and the ancient fathers / by James Salgado, a Spaniard, a converted priest.	Salgado, James, fl. 1680.	1681 (1681)	Wing S384; ESTC R42935	23,389	69

shunned not to declare the whole Counsel of God professeth that he had said no other things than those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come I quickly concluded that the only mark of the true Church is to be taken from this Fountain That the Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and the chief Corner-stone is Jesus Christ And I found that Augustine that glorious Light of Antiquity did agree with me writing Contr. Ma. Arian l. 3. Neither will I alledge the Nicene Chuncil to your prejudice nor ought you to alledge the Council of Ariminum to mine Let us not make use of Writings partial to the one or to the other Party but of the holy Scriptures that are impartial Judges of both and compare Cause with Cause Matter with Matter and Reason with Reason And elsewhere writing against Donatus There namely in the Scriptures let us seek for the True Church there let us discuss the point Being now fully confirmed in this general Principle I began to enquire narrowly into the Purity of particular Churches and upon enquiry found that none do so exactly agree with the Scriptures as the Reformed Churches Wherefore I firmly resolved with my self to forsake the Roman Idolatry and associate my self to the Protestants which I accordingly performed in France and having renounced the Romish Superstitions I adjoyned my self to the Reformed Church as being the true Church of Christ which I shall now shortly evince by the following Arguments That is the true Church which 1. Vindicates and maintains the Authority of the Scriptures 2. Teacheth Doctrine agreeable to the Scriptures 3. Because I will not be so Scripturary as to neglect the Testimony of the Fathers and Councils Which agrees also with the Testimony of Ancient Fathers and Councils But the Reformed Church is such Therefore the Reformed is the true Church As for the first the Reformed Church maintains the Authority of the Scriptures against the Papists who affirm That the Scriptures have no Authority as to us at least but from the Church Which distinction was found out by Bellarmine namely that the Authority of the Scripture considered in it self doth not depend upon the Church but only in respect of us But how frivolous is this distinction For all Authority is Relative and therefore it cannot be considered without a relation to us And moreover the Supposition is false that the Scriptures Authority as to us depends upon the Church But before I come to overthrow this Assertion it will not be amiss to observe that the reason which induceth the Papists to defend it is evidently this They know not how to answer the Protestants Arguments from Scripture without wresting the sense and therefore hold that the sense of the Scriptures depends upon the interpretation of the Church which obligeth them to desend that the Authority of the Scriptures depends also upon the Church being that without the Churches Tradition we can have no certainty of the Scriptures themselves nor of their sense In this they imitate exactly the Ancient Hereticks of whom Tertullian says When the Hereticks are confuted from the Scriptures they presently begin to accuse the Scriptures as if they were not of sufficient Authority or were otherwise written than they are cited by the Orthodox and of which there is no certainty without Tradition Where you may see an exact Portraicture of the Modern Papists But to return to our purpose we assert That the Scriptures Authority doth no way depend upon the Authority of the Church but of the Holy Ghost only speaking internally in our hearts and externally in the Scriptures because he is their Author 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.21 and therefore he alone can give them their Authority And as Christ seeks a Testimony from none besides the Father so neither doth his Word need any other which he hath left upon Earth instead of his own Person And as it were very absurd to affirm that the Authority of the Kings Proclamation depends upon the Cryer or a Rule upon the thing ruled or that the Sun borrows his light from his own Orb or Vortex so it is no less ridiculous to affirm that the Authority of the Scriptures depends upon the Church The Church is the Candlestick the Word of God is the Candle Revel 1.20 Luk. 8.16 Now as a Candlestick contributes nothing to the light of the Candle so neither doth the Church to the Authority of the Scriptures We reject not the Ministerial Testimony of the Church in this affair because thereby we come to the knowledge of the Scriptures as the Samaritans came to the knowledge of Christ by the Samaritan Womans Testimony which nevertheless was not the reason or ground of their Faith but the Instrument only The Papists object that the Church is called the Pillar and Ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 And from hence they conclude that the Authority of the Scriptures as to us depends entirely upon the Church But to pass Camero's observation that these words belong to the sixteenth verse where there is a Copulative Particle which otherwise were useless and that the Apostle first compares the Church to a House and then teacheth us what is the chief Pillar of that House viz. God manifest in the Flesh For a House cannot be called a Pillar but a Pillar is in a House In this place Paul means not an Architectonical Pillar that sustains the Authority of the Scriptures but a Political to which the Fdicts of the Supreme Governour are affixed Nor is Bellarmines Exception against this distinction of any weight that the Church may be as well called a Bibliotheck as a Pillar in this sense For we affirm that the Church doth not only keep these Books but also teach and publish the Contents thereof and expose them to the view of the people So then the Testimony of the Church may be one Motive to induce us to believe the Divine Authority of the Scriptures but cannot beget in our minds a firm and certain perswasion of it which is the work of the Holy Ghost only whom God joyns with his Word Isa 59.21 My Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth c. Augustine speaks well to this purpose in his Confessions But how shall I know that these are thy words Moses said so indeed but Moses is gone and if he were present and should speak Hebrew I could not understand him but if he spoke Latin and I understood him how could I be certain that he spoke the truth The Truth it self which is neither Greck Latin Hebrew nor Barbarian without any sound of the tongue or noise of Syllables would say unto me inwardly in the Cabinet of my heart he speaketh truth You see Christian Readers how Augustine was perswaded of the Divinity of the Scriptures not by the Authority of the Church nor of Moses and the Prophets but by the Internal Truth

Popes pronouncing from or without his Chair so that what he Decrees in the former way is infallible though in the latter he may deceive and be deceived But you 'l find that even this distinction can very little advantage but rather prejudice your Cause For how can it be conceived that one and the same Man without any fear or compulsion can contradict himself in one and the same matter Again the Pope who being out of the Chair may deceive ought to advise with himself as sitting in the Chair lest he fall into an errour or the Cardinals if they would have this Holy Father to be always infallible should bind the good Old Man to the Chair with Chains as Prometheus was tyed to Caucasus that he may never be moved out of this Infallible Seat Besides it is manifest that the Popes even pronouncing from the Chair have frequently erred as appears by the examples of John the XXIII Stephanus Formosus and others as hath been made manifest to the World by many of the Reformed Writers yea even by the Papists themselves witness Platina concerning the Lives of the Popes which Platina was the Popes own Library-keeper at Rome 2. They can give no account what they mean by this Chair for the material Chair can contribute nothing to the Popes Infallibility by any physical or internal vertue else a Herds-man if set upon this Infallible Chair would be no less Infallible than the Pope himself But by the formal or rather Moral Chair in which sense our Saviour makes mention of Moses Chair there can nothing else be understood than the Holy Scripture it self and if the Pope pronounceth according to the tenour thereof we shall willingly hearken to him 3. The Holy Spirit upon whom the Popes Infallibility is said to depend is not tyed to this or that place but bloweth when and where and upon whom he listeth Others more sharp-sighted observing the foolishness of this distinction have devised another namely that the Pope cannot erre in a question of Right though he may be deceived in matters of Fact But this also is a broken Reed upon which if a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce it although it was invented by the Jansenists to heal that Wound which Alexnnder the VII gave them in that famous business of the five Articles For first when the Pope Anathematizeth a man he considers him as believing so and so Nor doth it appear how he that is free from all possible errour in matters of Right can be subject to errour in matters of Fact for when he pronounceth concerning the sense of any Book being an Infallible Interpreter of the sense and meaning which they do affirm he may fall from a question of Right into a question of Fact and so may determine that this and no other was the Authors meaning 2. Seeing Law prescribes to matter of Fact it is not likely that he who is Infallible in matter of Right can erre in matter of Fact 3. Right doth sometimes arise from Fact therefore that which before was a question of Fact afterwards turning to a question of Right the Pope may give an infallible judgment concerning it 4. If this be true the Pope cannot condemn nor Anathematize an Heretick his judgment being fallible in matters of Fact 5. We have before shortly proved that the Pope hath erred most abominably in matters of Right And thus you may see what difficulties they involve themselves in who place the Church and its Infallibility in the Pope alone Now followeth the third and last Opinion of the Papists concerning the Church and its Infallibility namely that it consists in the Pope and the Council together But Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim For the same difficulties that were before proposed do press them equally And moreover these doubts will arise Whether the Pope have his Infallibility from the Council or the Council from the Pope Whether if the Pope be absent his Legates have the same Infallibility that he himself would have if Present if so whether he might not as easily Delegate this Infallibility to the Bishops of the Council as to his Legates Whether Decrees made in the Popes absence be Infallible and binding to the Conscience For if no Decrees be binding without the Popes Confirmation it cannot be conceived how he can extrajudicially or out of Council ratifie the Decrees made in Council being the Popes Infallibility consists not in his own Person as separate from but joyntly with the Council From what I have said it evidently appears that the Papists catch at a Shadow instead of the Body and though they obstinately assert the Infallibility of their Church yet they cannot agree nor do they know where this Church is to be found So that they are altogether ignorant how to satisfie a doubting Soul in this matter and yet they desist not Projicere ampullas sesquipedalia verba While I was yet in the Roman Communion I perceived my self intangled in these Labaryinths and often considered how to extricate my self that so I might with a clear Conscience worship God in purity and holiness And although I had heard much in my own Country which is Spain of the Reformed Churches yet I could never light on any of the Books of their Learned Divines being forbidden to read them under the severest penalties But hearing that they founded all their Doctrines upon the Holy Scriptures I became very desirous to search into the same for in Spain it self the Clergy is not forbidden to read the Scriptures and having met with these words of the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works It seemed to me that the Apostle had drawn a lively Portraicture of a Minister of the Gospel and described at once what ought to be the matter and Fountain as well as Method of Preaching yea and declared by what means the Man of God that is a Minister of Christ may undoubtedly attain unto the full perfection of his Ministry as well in reference to his own accomplishments for the work as to the good effects of his labour upon the Souls committed to his care namely he asserteth that the Scriptures contain a rich Treasure of Divine Knowledge able to make a man wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 and pronounceth him accursed that should preach another Gospel even though it were an Angel from Heaven Gal. 1.8 but peace upon as many as walk according to this Rule Gal. 6.16 And God himself sends his people to the Law and to the Testimony as the most effectual way to reduce them from seeking unto false Prophets and Wizards Isa 8.19 20. Having pondered these things seriously and often within my self and observed that Paul speaks so magnificent things of the Scriptures and that he who

speaking in his heart which is the Holy Spirit It 's in vain to reply hereunto that every one may pretend the Spirit for pretensions cannot prejudice the Truth the Question between us and the Papists is not Whether the Scriptures are of Divine Authority or not for both of us assert that they are But Whether he that admits this is perswaded of it To which whether they or we give the most satisfactory answer we leave the whole Christian World that are not partial to either Party to judge We conclude therefore that as this Question Whether the Scriptures are the Word of God is unworthy of a Christian So Jesuit Sambays's Assertion de fide Orthodoxa is foolish and ridiculous That the Protestants have not the Scriptures For besides that he defends it for no other end but that he may shun the dint of their Arguments drawn from the Scriptures He useth no other Medium to prove that Assertion but that the Reformed Church wanting the Marks of the true Church is a false Church and therefore cannot have the Scriptures which do both in their matter and form depend upon the Church Which Argument is most false and doth manifestly beg the Question viz. That the Scriptures and their sense depend upon the Authority of the Church which we utterly deny and that not without reason as I shewed above Moreover the Jesuit sheweth his Cause to be desperate by endeavouring to rob us of the Scriptures for none of the Ancient Fathers denied the Scriptures to any Heretick that argued his own Cause from them and Augustine that we quoted above affirms that the Scriptures are not peculiar to any one Party but impartial Judges of all We might with far better reason return this Argument upon the Papists because we have proved that their Representative Church is not only false but no Church at all But I am not so much afraid of their Arguments from Scripture and therefore do not deny them the Bible Having established the Opinion of the Reformed Churches in reference to the Authority of the Scriptures I shall now proceed to the properties of the same First therefore I affirm that the Scriptures are perfect by a perfection of parts as well as degrees and so sufficient to Salvation Psal 19. The Law of God is perfect Their sufficiency appears from the forecited place 2 Tim. 3.16 17. The accession of the New Testament to the Old doth not disprove the perfection and sufficiency of the Scriptures For he that revealed the whole Counsel of God to Believers did nevertheless reveal no other than what Moses and the Prophets had written before as we hinted above Hence the Ancient Fathers said very well As the New Testament is hid in the Old so the Old is made plain and clear in the New Nor doth a difference in degree alter the nature or species of a thing neither is the Question betwixt the Papists and us concerning this or that part of the Scriptures but concerning the whole Canon as it was received by the Ancient Church and enumerated by Hierom. So that in this Argument there is evidently the Fallacy of dividing what ought to be joyned together And as we justly cut off the Apocryphal Books from this perfection and sufficiency of the Scriptures because they contradict both themselves and the Canon nor were they ever received in the Jewish Church to which the Oracles of God were committed Rom. 3.2 So we reject the Popish distinction of Protocanonical Deuterocanonical Books with the same facility that they propose it being without proof Hence we do but little esteem unwritten Traditions because what is written doth sufficiently instruct us what we are to believe and do in order to life eternal John 20.31 It 's ridiculous to refer the several Orders of Monks and particularly the shaving of their Crowns to these unwritten Traditions because Christ says I have yet many things to say unto you but you cannot bear them now Joh. 16.12 For if this had been the thing that Christ had further to say unto them he might easily have sent for a Barber and caused their Heads to be shaved Besides that the Monks whose duty was to weep and not to teach saith Hierom were shaven as a sign of their penitence not of any honour or preeminence Secondly The Scriptures are plain and easie to be understood The Commandment enlightning the eyes Psal 19.8 Whatsoever things were written afore-time were written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope Rom. 15.4 Those things therefore which are absolutely necessary to Salvation being very few and very easie are clearly and plainly set down in the Scriptures though other things not so absolutely necessary may puzle the most Sagacious understandings Chrysostom says well The holy Scriptures are such that a Lamb may wade in them and yet an Elephant may swim Seeing then that the Scriptures are plain as is evident from Reason and the Testimony of the Fathers the Reformed Churches do with good reason attribute a judgment of discretion in Controversies of Faith to every true Christian So that every Believer by frequent reading and comparing of the Scriptures may easily understand their meaning at least as to things absolutely necessary to Salvation For no Prophesie of Scripture is of a●y private interpretation nor came by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.20 21. As for the Fathers of the Ancient Church and the four Primitive Councils we willingly imbrace them as Interpreters of the Scriptures yea moreover we affirm that in subordination to the Scriptures they may bind but not force our belief But we utterly deny that the Fathers or these Councils or the Pope are Judges of Controversies about matters of Faith but the only Judge of all such Controversies is the Holy Ghost speaking in the Scriptures or as Augustine saith Christ himself Let Christ judge of this Controversie who although he be absent in his Person yet is present in his Word Hence it doth appear that the Scriptures may rightly be called a Normal Judge deciding the question in manner of a Law though not outwardly proclaiming the sentence The Word of God is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart Heb. 4.12 We have sufficiently proved that the Reformed Churches do vindicate the Authority and Properties of the Scriptures It remains now to be proved that they teach according to the Scriptures I shall pass the Doctrines of God and his Attributes of the Trinity and the like because there is little difference between the Papists and us in there Points except in some Preter-fundamental things which the Jesuits and Dominicans do also dispute among themselves I shall now only take notice of this that the Jesuits do very absurdly define Free-will viz. A Faculty whereby all things requisite to action being present the will may act or not act act this or the contrary For