Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	faith_n	scripture_n	1,687	5	6.6095	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

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

shows that the Ancient Christians lookt upon the Church as the Pillar and Ground of Truth no other ways but as it professes preaches establishes and keeps up the Doctrine of Christ and of his Apostles recorded in the Holy Scriptures unto all which they indifferently apply these words of S. Paul which are thought immediately to speak of the Church which supports the Truth delivered in the Holy Scriptures from Christ and from his Apostles Upon which account the Creed also which is a comprehensive breviary of the great Scripture Doctrines is wont to have the same attribute given to it Particularly by Epiphanius (m) In Exposit fidei Cathol n. 19. who calls it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Pillar as the Greek word signifies in good Authors or prop of Truth c. our life our hope and the assurance of immortality And by S. Austin (n) De Symbolo ad Catechum L. III. C. 1. who tells the Catechumens in his Exposition of the Creed to them that it is fidei Catholicae fundamentum c. the Foundation of the Catholique Faith upon which the edifice of the Church arose built by the hands of the Apostles and Prophets Which hath made some learned Men (o) Jo. Camer Jac. Capellus refer these words of S. Paul not to what goes before but to the words following making a full stop at God and then beginning a new sentence in this manner The Pillar and Ground of the Truth and without Controversie great is the mystery of godliness c. which reading is countenanced by a Greek Edition of the New Testament at Basil 1540. where the words are so pointed as if the sence were this God incarnate and the great Truths depending thereupon ought to be the very Foundation of the Doctrine thou preachest The Doctrines of the Creed that is are the very Foundation and Pillars of the Christian Faith as the Jews it is known call the great principle of their Religion the Foundation of the Foundation the Pillar of Wisdom as Maimon speaks when he treats of this matter Stick close therefore to the Holy Scriptures and to these Articles of the Faith in the Apostles Creed which are the fundamental truths of Christianity it appears by what I have now said by which the Church maintains and defends the Truth and the Truth upholds the Church and we defend both Hold this fast as the ground of all and likewise lay up the word of God in your heart that it may setle there and take root and bring forth fruit unto Holiness that your end may be everlasting Life Make the Holy Scriptures your Rule and trust to them according to what the Son of Sirach saith of its ancient Books Ecclus XXXIII 3. A Man of understanding trusts in the Law and the Law is faithful to him as an Oracle or as the asking of Vrim That is here he may enquire and have a certain answer which will not deceive him Show your selves such Men of understanding as to enquire no where else And if any Church or Person would have you enquire of them only take that for an undoubted proof they are not to be trusted If they would not guide you by the Holy Scriptures that is by Christ the way as you have seen who hath shown us no where else that we know of what we ought to believe if they would have you follow their ungrounded Traditions whereby they would inlarge your Creed beyond the ancient bounds know that you ought not to follow them nor be led by them For such may soon cease to be the pillars and supporters of the Truth because they leave that whereby they should support it and place themselves whom they call the Church in the stead of it An evident sign they are not what they pretend for the Church it self ought to be demonstrated by the Scriptures So S. Austin (p) L. de Vnitate Ecclesiae cap. XVI tells the Donatists in those known words which are worthy to be preserved in remembrance Setting aside all such things as these which he had said they could likewise alledge let them demonstrate their Church if they can not in the discourses and rumours of the Africans not in the Councils of their Bishops not in the Letters of any disputers whatsoever not in signs and fallacious wonders for we are prepared and rendred cautious against these by the word of the Lord but in the prescript of the Law in the predictions of the Prophets in the Songs of the Psalms in the words of the SHEPHERD himself i. e. Christ in the preachings and labours of the Evangelists that is in all the Canonical authorities of the holy Books Let this be done so as not to gather and relate those things which are obscurely or ambiguously or figuratively spoken there which every one may interpret as he pleases according to his own sense For such things cannot be rightly understood and expounded unless those things which are most clearly spoken be first held by a firm Faith. This is the very sense of the Church of England which teaches all her members first to hold by a firm Faith those things which are clearly revealed in the Holy Scriptures and by them to understand and expound those things that are more obscurely delivered believing nothing to be necessary which is not read therein nor may be proved thereby nor receiving the Doctrines and Decrees of any Church unless it may be declared that they be taken from thence For haec sunt causae nostrae documenta haec fundamenta haec firmamenta as he there speaks you heard before These are the proofs of our Cause these are its foundations these are its supports And therefore as he also speaks in another Chapter of the same Book (q) Cap. III. de Vnitate Ecclesiae which he begins thus Let us not hear such speeches as these These things say I Those things sayest thou but let us hear These things saith the LORD These are certainly Books of the Lord to whose authority we both consent we both believe we both obey There let us seek the Church there let us discuss our Cause And let us not so much as think of looking after any other Articles of Faith but those which were from the beginning which our Church firmly believes in the three Creeds Nice-Creed Athanasius and that commonly called the Apostles (r) Article VIII because they may be proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture For after the Faith confessed and sworn in Baptism as S. Hilary (ſ) Ad Constantium August speaks we ought not quicquam aliud vel ambigere vel innovare either to doubt or innovate any other thing It is absurd that is to doubt whether this be sufficient or to add any other to it as if this were not enough So he interprets it a little after Faith is still inquired after as if there were no Faith already Faith is to be written as if it were not in the

heart being regenerated by Faith we are now taught what to believe as if that Regeneration were without Faith. We learn Christ after Baptism as if there could be any Baptism without the Faith of Christ It is most safe for us as it follows a little after to retain that first and only Evangelical Faith confessed and understood in Baptism V. And that a good and righteous cause may have good defenders and supporters let us read the Holy Scriptures wherein this Faith is contained chiefly for this end that we may order our steps that is our Lives and Conversation according to the rule of God's word Let us always remember that our Religion is a mystery of godliness as was shown before in which we are not well instructed if it do not teach us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in the World. Which is the best way also to continue in the Faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Apostle speaks most agreeable to these words which he writes to Timothy grounded and setled or stable and stedfast Colos I. 23. For they are the good ground in the Church who in an bonest and good heart having heard the word keep it and bring forth fruit with patience Luk. VIII 15. As much as to say if we would stand fast in the Faith and not fall away as our Saviour saith others would do in time of trial v. 13. we must first come to hear and read the word of God with unprejudiced minds and upright hearts desiring to know the Truth and resolved to receive it though never so contrary to our present inclinations and interests This is the honest and good heart which secondly must keep and preserve in mind and heart what it hath thus received and not presently let it slip or lay it aside as a thing never to be thought of more after we have heard it And lastly we must not only in a warm fit of zeal begin to put in practice what we learn but bring forth fruit with patience or continuance This is the way both to draw others into the Church and to continue our selves in it and to make us constant defenders of the Christian Faith That is to do our part in this great Office of being the Pillar and Ground of Truth Which is a thing incumbent upon the whole Church and consequently upon every one of us who are members of it And therefore remember that the Christian Religion for which we are to be Zealous is the acknowledgement of the Truth after godliness as I said before Tit. I. 1. It is the Doctrine of piety to the study of which if we seriously and heartily apply our selves it will be our best security against all impostures and preserve us from the subtil and crafty insinuations of those who corrupt or pervert the Christian Doctrine and finally be the most powerful means to make Christianity prevail in the World. Remember the advice of S. Paul to this Church of Ephesus Ephes IV. 14.15 where you may find the true way to continue firm and stedfast and not to be tossed about as Children with every blast of Doctrine c. and that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by speaking or rather following the Truth in love or according to the Hebrew Dialect being fixed and established in the love of God and of one another For the Hebrew word Aman to which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 answers signifies not only to speak Truth but likewise to be firm and constant fixed and established which if we be we shall have a settled unmoveable confidence of God's Love and Favour towards us For he that heartily loves God and his Neighbour will never be startled much less shaken by their bold Anathemas though all the World should tell him he shall be damned if he do not believe this or that proposition which they say is absolutely necessary to his Salvation because there is something within him that gives them the lye and assures him there is no truth in them who say that God hates and will reject him who believes all the ancient Faith which works by Love. God himself testifies the contrary by making the Truth efficacious in his heart to purge him from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit and by changing him into his own likeness in Holiness Love and Goodness And the more thoroughly any Man is renewed in the spirit of his mind the more perfectly will he be assured that they pronounce a false judgment upon him and consequently be the more heartily resolved against that Religion which makes men so liberal in pouring out Curses upon all them that do not embrace its novel opinions Which brings me to the last thing I would have considered that VI. We do not perform our duty I may safely affirm nay confidently aver we are not the Pillar and Stay of Truth as we ought to be unless every one of us in our several Places and Stations oppose with a becoming Zeal the Errors Innovations and Incroachments of the Church of Rome who are the Men that are of all other most guilty of the just-now named Uncharitableness or rather Pride and Cruelty For they utterly un-Church us and as much as in them lies cut us off from the Body of Christ and bar the Gates of the Kingdom of Heaven against us By this alone if there were nothing else we are sure they have grosly erred and live in error that they deny us to be a part of Christ's Church who believe and confess with Heart and Mouth the whole Catholique Faith every thing that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 confessedly and by Universal consent the Ancient Christian Belief in which the Apostles and Martyrs died by which alone Righteous Souls for many Ages went to Heaven knowing nothing of the Pope's Supremacy of Transubstantiation of the Propitiatory Sacrifice of the Mass for quick and dead and the rest of their new inventions We deserve not the name of Christians no nor of Men if we stand not up resolutely against such usurpations and corruptions of the Christian Doctrine and maintain that Faith which we profess and wherein we stand to be the true Grace of God the Faith once delivered to the Saints Which is incumbent chiefly upon the Bishops and Pastors of the Church who I have shown are the Principal Pillars of the Truth as Timothy was in the Church of Ephesus and therefore ought to appear with all their might for the support of God's true Religion here established instructing teaching exhorting all committed to their charge to be stedfast and immoveable in it to the death And every honest hearted Christian ought to do the same in his rank and condition by following those instructions by fortifying himself against Romish delusions by indeavouring to understand the Truth and to detect their Errors Which are the more earnestly to be opposed because the new Articles of their Creed are not a Mystery of Godliness but tend many

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