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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70901	The pillar and ground of truth a treatise shewing that the Roman Chvrch falsly claims to be that church, and the pillar of that truth, mentioned by S. Paul in his First epistle to Timothy, Chap. III. vers. 15, which is explained in three parts.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.; Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1687 (1687)	Wing P833; ESTC R12795	90,521	140

Austin when he was yet in part an Infidel being a Manichee to believe the Gospel according to that famous Discourse of his in answer to the Epistle of Manichaeus which contained in a manner the whole Belief of that party Ego non crederem Evangelio nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae authoritas commoveret (m) Tom. VI. contra Epistolam Fandamenti Cap. 5. which is to be thus translated according to the Phrase of the Asricans I had not believed the Gospel unless the Authority of the Catholique Church had moved me thereunto For it is evident as hath been shown by our Writers since the beginning of the Reformation * D. Whitakeram de sa●●a Sc●i●t Q. 3. cap. 8. he speaks of himself when a Manichee as the words immediately following declare Those whom I obeyed when they said Believe the Gospel why should I not obey when they say Do not believe Manichaeus Which doth not signifie that the credit of the Gospel is founded upon the Churches Authority but that this was the first motive to incline him to look into the Gospel and consider it as a Divine Book which would inform him in the way of Salvation Thus he explains himself in the very foregoing Chapter where setting aside the sincere Wisdom taught in the Church which they would not believe he reckons up abundance of other things which might serve to keep him in the Catholique Church viz. the consent of People and Nations c. and then thus concludes These numerous and great and most dear tyes of the Christian name may very well hold a Man that believes in the Catholique Church although by reason of the slowness of his understanding or the defects of his life the truth do not yet show it self most openly unto him Whereas among the Manichees there were none of these things to invite or to hold him but a bare promise of Truth wherewith they made a noise which if they could have shown so manifestly that it could not be doubted he confesses it was to be preferred before all those things whereby he was held in the Catholique Church Which words are an evident proof that he speaks of the Authority of the Church as only moving and inducing him to believe the Scriptures and to joyn himself to their Society before the TRUTH was manifested to him which he was to sind there in the Scriptures and which he preferred before the Authority of the Church Which he elsewhere tells the Donatists was not to be believed upon its own credit L. de unitate Ecclesie cap. 16. But whether they hold the Church let them not show but from the Canonical Books of the Divine Scriptures for we neither do not say that we ought to be believed because we are in Christ's Church because that Church which we hold was commended to us by Optatus or Ambrose or other innumerable Bishops of our Communion or because it is approved by Councils or because Miracles are every where wrought in it These and such like things are therefore to be approved because they are done in the Catholique Church but it is not therefore manifested to be the Catholique Church because these things are done in it Our Lord Jesus himself when he rose from the dead and offered his Body to be toucht as well as seen by his Disciples lest they should think there was any fallacy in it judged it meet rather to confirm them by the testimonies of the Law and the Prophets and Psalms showing how all things were fulfilled which were predicted And so he commanded his Church saving that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his Name beginning at Hierusalem This he testified was written in the Law the Prophets and Psalms this we hold commended from his Mouth These are the Documents these the Foundations these the strong Grounds of our Cause We read in the Acts of the Apostles of some Believers that they sought the Scriptures daily whether those things were so What Scriptures but the Canonical Books of the Law and the Prophets to which are added the Gospels the Apostolical Epistles the Acts of Apostles and the Revelation of S. John. Search all these and bring forth something manifest whereby ye may demonstrate the Church either to have remained only in Africa or to be to come out of Africa c. This is an illustrious Testimony he thought the Church it self was to be warranted by the Scriptures which did not therefore receive their Authority from the Church but give it all the Authority it hath And after all it was not the Authority of the present Church barely that moved him when he was a Manichee but of the Catholique Church from the beginning Occham * Fr White 's Answer to Fisher's second Conference p. 24. thinks he speaks of the Church in the Apostles times alone which moved him to Believe And others as Gabriel Biel confess he speaks of the Authority of the Church à tempore Christi Apostolorum c. from the time of Christ and of the Apostles down to his days Such Authority cannot but weigh 〈◊〉 much even with those that do not yet believe if 〈…〉 ●eriously pondered but much more with those that are already Christians Whether they be Novices and weaklings who are as yet doubtful in the Faith though in the Church the Testimony and Authority of it ought to confirm and quiet their minds as it did S. Austin's it appears by the place before-named and keep them close to the Christian Society till they may themselves come better acquainted with the Truth and more fully understand the Holy Scriptures which the Church delivers to them and puts into their hands as the Word of God. Or whether they be more grown Christians and indeed all sorts of Persons in the Church who ought to be so far wrought upon even by its Authority as to be perswaded thereby to read constantly to consider and ponder seriously and to practise those plain Lessons faithfully which the Holy Scripture teaches them till it work effectually upon their hearts and purge them so throughly from all bad affections that they may more perfectly understand the Truth Thus much is indisputable for God hath appointed outward means for the conveying Divine Truth to our Belief and this means is ordinarily the Church to which we ascribe these two great things in this business (p) Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. V. First the office of a Witness testifying the Authority of Holy Scripture to us Secondly of an Instrument in Gods Hand to lead us into the understanding of the Scriptures and by its Ministry in preaching and expounding them to beget a Divine Faith in us But further than this we cannot we must not go For the last resolution of our Faith is not into the Testimony of the Church but into the Testimony of God himself which we find recorded in the Holy Scripture delivered by the Church unto us Thus S. Austin most admirably

defects of the Scripture and make things unwritten to become matters of Faith. Which is such an unbounded Prerogative that we may have a new Faith as often as they please to pretend a Tradition for it though they cannot prove it For we must rest in the authority of the present Church which affirms it and that against the very Scripture it self which tells us it is able to make a Man of God perfect and against the testimony of the Universal Church which I have shown forbids the producing of any other Faith but that which was evidently delivered by the Apostles there 3. We cannot allow the Church an Infallible authority that is such an assistance in her Doctrines and proposals that she cannot err in any thing she defines In Controversies indeed arising about matters of Faith we own and reverence the authority of the Church (t) Artic. XX. so as not to contest the publique judgement but to prefer it before our own private conceits in doubtful things But as it ought to proceed in its determinations by the Rule of Gods word So we think it possible it may mistake in the application of this Rule and therefore we do not blindly resign our selves to its authority without all regard to the Holy Scriptures unto which the Church ought to have a respect in all its determinations No that 's another proud pretence of the present Roman Church that they cannot mistake in their definitions and therefore we must submit unto them without examination From whence this intollerable mischief hath insued that it hath made them both insensible of their errors and careless to seek any cure of them nay utterly incapable of a remedy For as one of our own Divines excellently speaks (u) Dr. Petter's Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. 5. whose words those are this conceit of their Infallibility is to them both a sufficient reason for that which is most unreasonable and a sufficient answer to that which is most unanswerable To this they retreat upon all occasions when they are not able to maintain their ground they have no other way to defend their errors when they are plainly set before their eyes but to tell us confidently they cannot err Which is a very strange boldness for we demonstrate in manay instances that they have erred erred most grosly particularly in this that they have added new Articles to the old Creed to be believed under pain of Damnation and added a new Canon of Scripture to the Old Testament against the clearest evidence in the Records of the Universal Church that the Books they have newly received were never acknowledged for Canonical Scripture If by the Church indeed they would understand the Church truly Catholique the whole Body of Christ in all times places and ages and if by matters of Faith they would understand those grand Articles which I have mentioned in the first part of this Discourse and if by being Infallible they would understand not an absolute impossibility of erring which humane nature is not capable of but not actual error there are none of us make any question but the Church is Infallible That is the whole Church hath not erred nor shall not err in the whole Faith or in any necessary part thereof for such error would cut Men off from Christ the head and so leave him no Church at all which is impossible It hath been the very scope of first my Discourse to show that the Church hath always kept the great fundamental truths of our Religion and not erred in them but transmitted them down to us whole and undefiled till the Church of Rome in the Council of Trent corrupted the Faith by their errors which they have mixed with it For to a particular Church such as that of Rome is we cannot allow this priviledge of not erring because we know they have erred even in fundamental Truths and thereby ceased to be Churches Witness those glorious Churches to which Christ himself sent his Letters by S. John the Apostle These Prerogatives therefore not belonging to any Church every one must be content with those two Offices before mentioned which are sufficient First The Office of a Witness testifying the authority of the Holy Scriptures unto its members Secondly of Gods instrument by whose Ministry in opening expounding and urging the Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost begets a divine Faith in us And by performing these Offices it supports and continues and propagates the Truth and so may be called the Pillar and Ground thereof The meaning of which I shall now distinctly set before the Readers eyes that I may give a short account of the fourth and last thing propounded in the beginning IV. How the Church may appropriate to it self this Title 1. First Every Church and every person in it especially the Bishops and Pastors are the Pillar and Ground of Truth officio by Duty and Office whereby they are obliged to keep maintain and uphold the Truth This always was and always will be incumbent on them which is sufficient to fill up the sense of such attributes as these which do not always note performance of Duty but only obligation to it As when our Saviour saith to his Disciples Ye are the salt of the Earth it doth not signifie that they were necessarily so for he supposes immediately the salt might lose its savour but that they ought to be so and if they were not so would be good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot Matth. V. 13. 2. But Secondly The first Churches of Christ in the Apostles times were actu effectu actually and effectually the Pillar of Truth that is they faithfully discharg'd this Office and perform'd their Duty constantly maintaining the Truth as it is in Christ in its purity and simplicity For the Apostles were a part of those Churches whom God led into all Truth which they taught sincerely and intirely while they lived and do at this day instruct us in the Holy Scriptures in the whole Truth necessary to our Salvation 3. But we cannot say the same of all succeeding Churches that they did faithfully perform this office though in duty they also were bound so to do No some of them were so far from being Pillars of the Truth that they let it fall to the ground We have strange instances of it with which I shall not fill these Papers in the History of the Church which show us that if we take not heed to our selves and the Doctrine that is delivered to us we have no security that we or any other particular Church shall continue firm and stedfast supporters of the Truth For Pillars themselves may decay and if they be not well lookt after will go to ruin and fall to the Earth 4. Even this very Church of Ephesus which was a Pillar and Ground of Truth while Timothy presided in it afterward began before all the Apostles were dead to remit its first love and zeal for

common the Philosophers he tells him had their abstruse Doctrines as well as Christians To this purpose we meet with a notable passage in Epiphanius in the succeeding Age which shows that the substance of the Christian Faith concerning our Saviour was commonly known even by those who did not profess it and understood to be this which Origen mentions For a Jew coming to see an eminent Man of his Nation who was sick whispered this in his Ear when they despaired of his life * Hares XXX n. 9. Believe in Jesus who was crucified under Pontius Pilate the Governor being the Son of GOD and afterward born of Mary the Christ of GOD and raised from the dead and that He shall come to judge the quick and the dead S. Cyprian (o) Epist ad Magnum de bapt Novat edit Rig. p. 152. also plainly shows there was no other Faith in his Church when he answers those who said the Novatians held the same Law that the Catholick Church held and baptized into the same Creed believing the same God the Father the same Christ the Son the same Holy Ghost that this would not avail them for Chore and Dathan and Abiram believed the same God with Moses and Aaron and besides they did not believe remission of sins and eternal life by the holy Church since they had left the Church Lucianus also a famous Presbyter of the Church of Antioch and a Martyr for the Faith of Christ left a form of believing written with his own hand * Sozomen L. III. c. 5. if we may believe the Bishops assembled at Antioch who sent it about in the time of the Arian Controversie to prove they were none of his followers but held 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Faith which had been set forth from the beginning and it is this as Socrates reports it (q) L. II. Eccles Hist c. 10. We have learnt from the beginning to believe in one God of the whole World the maker and preserver of all things intelligible and sensible and in one Only begotten Son of God subsisting before all Worlds and being together with the Father who begot him by whom all things were made whether visible or invisible who in the last days came down by the good pleasure of the Father and took flesh of the Holy Virgin and having fulfilled the whole Will of his Father suffered and rose again and returned to Heaven and sitteth at the right Hand of the Father and shall come to judge the quick and dead and remaineth King and God for ever And if it be needful to add it we believe the Resurrection of the flesh and life everlasting I will not trouble the Reader with a larger Creed of theirs which there follows more fully explaining the Doctrine of the Trinity because it belongs to the following Age Cent. IV. In which it is known the Nicene Fathers met to settle the Controversie about the Son of God but did not make any new Creed or add one Article to what had been believed before but only explain'd one Article the sense of which the Arians perverted No they were so far from inlarging the Christian Faith that when they met together they recited no other Creed but that of the Apostles as Laurentius Valla affirms he had read in some ancient Books of Isidore who collected the Canons of old Councils And accordingly when they had drawn up that Creed which they published they did not think they had made the least change in the matter of Faith but declared that this (r) Epiphanius in Anchorat was the Creed delivered by the Holy Apostles Which S. Ambrose (s) Serm. 38. Hieron Epist ad Pammach in that Age calls clavem the key S. Hierom indicium the mark or sign of Faith in which after the confession of the Trinity and of the Vnity of the Church the whole Mystery of the Christian Religion is concluded in the Resurrection of the flesh And which Greg. Nazianzen in his second Letter to Cledonius calls * Orat. L. II. beginning 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a short boundary and rule of our sense or judgment i. e. of the Faith of Christians S. Austin especially in a great number of places declares that this is the only Faith required to make a Man a Christian Particularly in his (t) L. de Fid Symbolo Tom. III. Book he wrote on purpose about this matter which he begins thus Since the just live by Faith the greater care must be taken that Faith be not corrupted and then adds Now the Catholique Faith is made known to the faithful in the Creed Which having explained he concludes his Book in these words which few words are known to the faithful that believing they may be subdued to God and being brought under his Yoke may live aright and living aright may cleanse their Heart and their Heart being cleansed they may understand what they believe In like manner before he begins the Explication of the Book of Genesis (u) De Genesi ad literam L. imperfectius he sets down what the Catholique Faith is because Hereticks were wont to draw the Scriptures to their own sense against the Catholique Faith. And the Catholique Faith by which he considers all things is nothing else but that in the Nicene Creed beginning with the belief of God the Father Almighty and concluding with the belief of eternal Life and the promise of the heavenly Kingdom Which is agreeable to the direction he gives to others in his Book of Christian Doctrine (x) L. III. c. 2. that in all ambiguous things the rule of Faith be consulted lest any sense that is contrary thereunto be admitted Which he elsewhere saith * Epist LVII is the rule of Faith common to little and great in the Church It is needless to add any more out of that Father and I shall but briefly mention the Creed of Pope Damasus in the same Age among S. Hierom's Works † Tom. IV. which is only a confession of the blessed Trinity with the rest of the Articles concerning the Conception Birth Death Resurrection Ascension Exaltation and coming again of our blessed Saviour to raise us from the Dead and to give to every Man according to his works concluding with these observable words Read these things believe these things retain these things subjugate thy Soul to this belief and thou shalt obtain life and reward from Christ But the words of the great Athanasius alone are sufficient to this purpose in the Letter which he and the Bishops with him sent to the Emperor Jovinian (z) Tom. I. pag. 245. 〈…〉 where they tell him the Faith confessed by the Nicene Fathers is that which was preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the very beginning unto which all the Churches every where consent whether they be in Spain or Britain or France or all Italy with those in Dalmatia Dacia Mysia Macedonia and all Greece all Africk Sardinia