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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	speak_v	time_n	write_v	3,365	5	5.2822	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47046	Of the rule of faith a sermon at the visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God, William Lord Bishop of Lincolne, holden at Bedford August 5, 1674 / by William Jackson ...	Jackson, William, 1636 or 7-1680.	1675 (1675)	Wing J95; ESTC R16801	18,948	43

written word if they have it is surely a sufficient Basis for any or all the Articles of their Faith and tradition or the voice of the Church being but an humane testimony cannot cause a Divine infallible Faith Yes The testimony of the Church say they is divine and infallible But here they lie cross one to another For by the voice of the Church some of them mean a traditional delivery of the Faith from age to age without writing as the Roman Catholick writers of England especially Others mean the voice or sentence of the present Pope or Church as the great Pontiff and Court of Rome with the Iesuits and other their close Adherents And these are as profest adversaries to one another as they are to us Those laying the stress upon the indefectibility of Oral and Practical tradition These upon an infallible assistance given to the present Pope or Church And so far hath the opposition between them proceeded that our Countreymen have been about twelve years since condemn'd at Rome of Heresie by a solemn censure of the Inquisition for their stiff maintaining tradition in opposition to the present Infallibility And on the other side they of Rome have been condemn'd by them in England for their illimited Pretences to Infallibility And which is worst of all both have forsaken the Faith of their Trent-Fathers For they profess to receive the written word and unwritten traditions pari Pietatis affectu Reverentiâ with equal devotion and submission But our assertors of Tradition are for it alone in opposition to the Scripture and the pretenders to a present Infallibility think themselves able to overrule both Scripture and Tradition Whereby you may see that since they have quitted the old foundation they have not been able to fix any that all their members can agree in And withall may be seen how necessary an implicite Faith is for those that will be of the Romish Communion since did they use but half an eye they must needs discover instead of A Guide in Controversies an endless Maze wherein it is no wonder that many even of the greatest Wits lose all Religion and take up in Atheism But we have many and greater arguments for this point more and more convincing then for any one point either in Reason or Religion except it be for the Existence of a God It will be impossible to speak to all and it will be too great an ingratitude to the goodness of God to omit all I shall therefore mention two or three of them I. This book alone contains a Doctrine and institution without error and which therefore by vertue of that qualification can alone be an infallible Rule of our Faith It is strange to consider that for so long a time as it hath been in the world so much read and canvass'd and written upon more then any other book whatsoever nay I might say but that it would look like a solaecism more then all other books put together so many Commentaries Annotations Paraphrases Versions Animadversions Scholia critica Anticritica Collationes Lucubrationes Diatriba Exercitationes Myrothecia Antitheses and a hundred more sorts of disquisitions and discussions of the truth of it Yet not the least error or misprision of error hath been found in it An abundant proof that there is none in it that it is the dictate of an infallible understanding which could not be put forth into the world for any other end then to be a standing and infallible Rule to Mankind who is of their naturall condition confessedly overrun with Error II. The Scripture contains the onely doctrine that ever could prevail upon Mankind in that way which the Rule of Faith onely doth and can prevail And that is by the strength and power of the light and truth that shines in it and by the assistance of that Almighty arm which never vouchsafed to give the Testimony of a Miracle to any thing but to Truths of the greatest Consequence Did it not think you seem strange to those that lived in the times when it was first published and did observe a doctrine so unlikely to take either with the weakness and humour of Mankind in Generall or with the pomp and powers of the world in Particular as the worship of a poor beggerly Iew which was our Saviours condition while he lived and a crucified and derided Malefactor which were the terms whereon he suffered That this weak and creeping pretender unarm'd and unattended by any but poor and ignorant men that in worldly respects were indeed as they confess'd of themselves the very refuse of Mankind like Master like Apostles That it should notwithstanding in less then fifty years obtain so great and universall an Interest in all parts of the world as to shake and in few years after to overthrow all Religions that had had so long undisturbed and unquestioned possession Maugre that multitude of Priests and Daemons by which they were maintained and all that might and opposition which the supream Powers of the world the malice and cunning of the devil yea the very bent and inclination of all Mankind could set against it And this without any humane helps but onely the bare preaching and proposall of it Which from the mouths of such ragged and forlorn Commissioners as were employed must and did much prejudice the promotion of it Especially considering what absolute obedience it required of bringing down even every imagination and what hard terms is propos'd of mortification taking up the Cross and forsaking all that was before counted dear in this world and which is hardest of all requiring self condemnation and that in instances of greater and more pungent concernment then the world had before been acquainted with What could any sober man in those days Iudge from these things and many more of the like Nature but that it was a Doctrine given by the Supream Lord and Lawgiver of the World to be an absolute Rule both of Faith and practice to all the World III. The Scripture contains that doctrine which alone of all doctrines that ever were publish't doth entirely agree with the Soul of Man and with the principles of reason within him And which consequently can alone be an infallible help to his understanding and propose a Rule of Faith to him It teaches us the same lessons that we learn from the light of Nature that there is a God that he made the World and governs it that he punishes the Evil and rewards the Good It instructs us in the knowledge and belief of these and many more such doctrines more clearly and convincingly then all the Philosophy in the World so fully and undeniably as force the Soul to have what arguments and discourses she drawes from her own bottom and to betake her self to this word as the onely safe and impregnable rock and hold of Truth It informs and extricates our Souls from those errors and perplexities concerning our own nature and condition which

ancient Copies Versions and Paraphrases especially the Septuagint and the Chaldee Paraphrast by observing the various readings and applications of places as we find them scatter'd in the writings of the Fathers and many other ways wherein you are better experienced then my self 2. To preserve the Faith it is necessary to distinguish in the Scripture points fundamentall from those which are not so This was proposed by the wise and learned King Iames as the best expedient for ending the Controversies of Christendom For as no book or doctrine so especially not the doctrine of the Scripture can be well understood much less maintain'd without an Analysis separation and digestion of the parts of it It being a Collection of the writings of so many Pen-men and those written upon severall occasions no one regularly delivering the whole Faith Now by Fundamentall points we do not mean necessary for all to know and believe to Salvation for to some more to some fewer are necessary according to their severall abilities and opportunities But we mean points principall and most essentiall in respect of the whole System of the doctrine of Salvation such as are necessary to make up the Unity of the Faith and so constitute a Church A perfect Catalogue of these we have in the Apostles Creed so called as the Fathers generally tell us because made by the Apostles before their dispersion to be a Rule in their preaching And therefore we need not go so far for a Rule of Faith or look upon it as so strange a thing and so difficult to find having it in our dayly prayers For this Creed is I conceive proposed in the Church of England to her Sons and Daughters as a Rule of Faith and was therefore in the beginning of the Reformation injoyned to be taught the People in English together with the Pater Noster and Ten Commandments the Breviats of our petenda and agenda respectively as that is of our Credenda And hath been therefore commanded ever since to be repeated twice a day that we might not if possible be to seek in so necessary a thing as the Rule of Faith This Creed the Ancients appeal to as to their Rule of Faith and thought their Faith sufficiently secured so long as this was stuck to Especially as it is opened in some parts by the Catholique Creeds of Nice Constantinople Ephesus Chalcedon and Athanasius This way they took to defend the Faith and with good reason for the defence of the Articles of our Creed involves the defence of all the Catholique Doctrine As in all sciences the principles Iustifie those Conclusions that are truly made from them 3. For the defence of the Faith it is necessary to study the old Ecclesiasticall Writers Fathers Councels Historians or whatsoever other they be For a great part of the points of our Faith being matters of fact such as our Saviours Birth Death Resurrection c. And our knowledge of the rest that are not matters of fact depending upon those that are they must in reason be best learned from the study of those books where they are best delivered historically whereof Scripture is the first and most Authentick record And next to it are the Christian writers of the eldest times For what is not recorded in Scripture cannot now be expected any where but in their writings Tradition whatever some men would make of it having so early and so grosly fail'd in the business of Easter admitting infants to the Eucharist and some other things Besides the many and great conflicts that they had with the Hereticks who oppugned the chief points of Faith give us a sight of all that can be objected against them and of enough though not all that is to be said in defence of them We do not say they are to be read with an implicite Faith as the Scripture is The infallible Inspiration of the Holy Ghost being withdrawn when the first Planters of the Gospel had finished their course and left the Word written Yet it seems the Holy Spirit did not take away all his extraordinary light at once having guided them to profess defend and deliver to us a more pure and unmingled Faith and this embraced with a more fervent and divine Love then the following ages could boast of How carefully the Church of England hath followed the ancient Fathers in this matter of Faith how much she relies on their Iudgement herein appears from the constant allegations of her ablest defenders since the Reformation and from her own act in Convocation 1571 where she forbids her publick Preachers to propose any thing to the People as matter of Faith but that which Catholici Patres veteres Episcopi ex S. Scripturae Doctrinâ collegerint which the Ancient Pastors and Catholick Doctors of the Church have drawn out of the Holy Scripture And it were no great boldness to challenge all her adversaries to show where she hath once swerved from this Rule or own'd any one point of Faith which she hath not proved after Scripture from a full consent of the Ancient Church To these must be added the study of the Schoolmen and of the chief writers of all Christian Churches that are or have been Since what is confess'd that there always hath been and now is one Catholick Church therefore one because professing this same Rule of Faith is to be demonstrated from the records of the severall Churches in the volumes of their Writers 4. The fourth means is the often teaching and explaining these chief articles and other approved and authorised forms of sound words to those that are most apt to learn and use best to remember what they learn And they are the younger sort to whom these points are made most intelligible by the familiar way of Catechising This is doubtless next to the inward operation of Gods grace the best and most effectual preaching and planting the Faith in any Soul To these it is commonly delivered in the most plain and free manner without any false glosses or sophistry which may hide or adulterate the light of it And in these tender and untainted minds it finds the least enmity and opposition obtains an easie quiet and secure possession and growing up with them becomes a rock and shelter against the winds of strange doctrines Whereas on the other hand even the reading of the written Word of God and much more the hearing of it paraphras'd upon in popular discourses and sermons is of far less use often of dangerous consequence to those that not onely want their first principles but it may be are leavened with false ones And therefore it is necessary that this be done as was said with approved and authorised forms of words For as the wisdom of the Church is best able to prescribe what is generally necessary for all her members to know and believe for their souls health So the interest that both Church and State have in the right principling of Youth