Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	doctrine_n	faith_n	scripture_n	3,083	5	5.9043	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36261	Two short discourses against the Romanists by Henry Dodwell ...	Dodwell, Henry, 1641-1711.	1676 (1676)	Wing D1825; ESTC R1351	55,174	261

necessary by the exigences of the Communities for which they are intrusted And if in any Case this may be allowed to be Expedient there can be no reason to doubt but that it is so here The thing is of that importance as that upon it depends the Reconciliation of the Divided Parties of Christendome which are neither likely to be subdued by the Power of any one nor possible to be reconciled without Concessions on some if not on all sides by Churches as well as by private Persons and it cannot appear on which side the Concession is fit to be made unless all submit to a tryal and resolve upon tryal to yield to what they shall judge reasonable Besides there is a particular Reason why the Church should reserve an open Ear for all things that can be urged for her information in matters of Faith Not only in regard that the things are such as do not derive their Lawfulness or Unlawfulness from her Authority but are what they are either True or False Antecedently to it so that her Authority as it cannot change the Nature of the things in themselves so neither can it alter their obligation in reference to the Consciences of those who are otherwise perswaded Nor that She must be Responsible to God how little soever She be so to her Subjects if She betray her trust in the Faith once delivered to her and thereupon drive out of her Communion Persons who ought to have been encouraged to continue it and break off from the Communion of other Churches with whom She ought to have maintained a correspondence But also because her whole Authority depends on it For if She be Erroneous in Fundamentals especially if her Error be by way of Defect in them She is uncapable of being a Christian Church and consequently uncapable of Ecclesiastical Authority So that as She tenders her whole Authority in other things She is obliged to use all diligence to secure her self from Error in these and it must be her best Policy to do so Nay the greatest Human Authorities that are and who are most Critical in insisting on these Punctualities of Policy in maintaining what they have once determined yet think it no disparagement to them to condescend to a review and to change their Judgments upon better Information And since the retriving of that sort of Learning which is requisite for clearing Apostolical Tradition which came in with the Reformation of Religion the Church of Rome her self is much better informed and better qualified for Judging than She was in those obscurer Ages wherein She first defined them § 25. Supposing therefore that She were thus disposed to come to a review it plainly follows further that the whole force of her new Decrees upon this review must be resolved into the merit of the Cause For when her Judgment has once been acknowledged Fallible there can then remain no further pretence of any greater Certainty in her Conclusions than in the Premises from whence they were deduced by her And from hence it would be very reasonable to expect 1. that She would not upon this new review define what She should believe insufficiently proved Antecedently to her Definition This being applyed to particulars would cut off very many of her newly introduced Articles which her most eminent Champions confess inevident Antecedently to her defining them And we might expect the number of Articles which would be reduced upon this way of Tryal the more considerable if 2. all those counterfeit Miracles and Revelations and all those counterfeit Authors and Authorities were waved which at the defining of these Articles were generally believed genuine but are since as generally acknowledged to have been Forgeries All those Doctrines which upon such Testimonies as these were taken for Apostolical must lose their Credit of being so as soon as these Testimonies shall be convicted of incompetency for assuring us what was Apostolical Especally 3. if none but the earliest Writers be trusted as indeed none else are competent for conveying Apostolical Tradition to us And 4. if they were wary in this kind to impose no Doctrines as Conditions of their Communion but such as might appear even to themselves very Necessary and very Evident If the defalcations were made which we have reason to believe would be made even by themselves upon the Suppositions now mentioned I do not see any reason to despair of so much Liberty to be allowed by them as would suffice to reconcile our Communions And this I believe will be an information very useful and very acceptable to all hearty desires of the Peace of Christendom that is indeed to all truly-Christian Spirits use V § 26. A fifth Use of this Hypothesis is that it will serve for a Scheme of Principles to justifie the Reformation for which some of our modern Adversaries have been so very importunate Nor do I pretend hereby to supersede the Endeavours of that admirable Person who has already undertaken them His Principles do excellently well shew that as to the Resolution of our Faith in those Particulars which are truly of an Apostolical Original and wherein we do agree with the Romanists themselves we can sufficiently prove them derived from the Apostles by competent Testimonies of the several Ages through which they must have passed without being any ways beholden to an Infallible Judge of Controversies Nay that such an Infallible Judge is indeed a Means improper for such an End as requiring many such things for its proof to us who must be supposed to live at a distance from the time of its Original Institution as are every way at least as liable to Dispute as the Controversies to be determined by it So that hence it appears that we may be Christians nay and Catholicks too that is that we may believe as many Articles as at first were imposed as necessary to be believed without the least obligation of being Romanists that is of believing all their superinduced Novel Doctrines And this is of excellent use against them in the whole Dispute concerning the Resolution of Faith where they pretend that the Books of the Scriptures themselves and the Sense of those Books and consequently all the Articles which are proved from those Senses cannot be proved Credible to Us without the Authority of their Judge of Controversies and therefore that as we follow this Authority in these things so we ought to follow it in all other things equally recommended by it which must therefore be equally Credible with them This Consequence will indeed hold with them concerning whom the Supposition is true and therefore it cannot be strange that the Romanists who profess to believe our common Articles on the Credit of this Authority should look on those whom they call Hereticks as choosers in Religion and as self condemned in refusing to believe other things as credible and credible on the same Principles with those they do believe they still supposing that they whom they call