Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	effect_n	reason_n	see_v	2,645	5	3.6710	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66427	A short discourse concerning the churches authority in matters of faith shewing that the pretenses of the Church of Rome are weak and precarious in the resolution of it.	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1687 (1687)	Wing W2734; ESTC R7663	18,741	33

and divided by many Heresies and contrary Opinions How must the Truth be cleared and Peace be restored to Christendom By the Churches Authority say the Papists But it has been proved that the Churches Authority extends no farther than she has Infallibility and the Pope being not Infallible alone and their being no Council assembled under him the present Church has no Infallibility and so by Consequence no Authority to determine Controversies about Faith. Peradventure it will be said the Council which sat in the last Age defined all Points and so determined our Faith. I answer That what that Council defined is one thing and its setling Faith and determining Controversies appears by the effect to be another It will be said it determined all but what Pride and Obstinacy still kept on foot But if Controversies still remain whether from Pride or Heretical-pravity or from any other Cause whatever it matters not Why should the Scripture be taxed as insufficient to be a Rule of Faith for not effecting what their Infallibility cannot bring to pass Sure there is no reason why it should Well but for obstinate and prejudiced Persons we will set them aside and see what can be done for inquisitive People such as are Willing to be Convinced what shall these do They tell us They must be guided by the Definitions and Decrees of the last General Council assembled at Trent But how shall they be ascertained that they have a true Copy of the Acts of that Council For upon occasion Suppositious Canons have been alledged by the Church of Rome The Authority of the present Church cannot do it as you may conclude from that which has already been said besides it is the thing in Question However suppose from the Testimony of the present Church witnessing though not authorising and by such Methods as we receive the Works of other Writers we should admit the Acts of the Council of Trent to be truly derived to us What shall we do to attain the true Sense and Meaning of them without which they can signifie nothing And to shew you that this is no Captious Question some great Men among them have interpreted that Councils Decrees very differently And the late Representer of a Papist has construed them in a Sense very wide from what some eminent Doctors long since gave of them Are we not now in a fair way for Peace and Unity After all if so many Difficulties surround the Learned what shall Women do and such as only understand their Mother Tongue I can meet with no Answer to this but that the Learned must with honest Minds and just Diligence search out the Sense of the Churches Definitions and from them must those of less Judgment and meaner Capacities receive it But if the matter must rest here for my Life I cannot see why the like Care and Pains should not bring a Man to the true Sense of the Scripture as well as of a Council 'T would be an ill Reflection upon God's Wisdom to say he ordered his Will to be written but not so intelligible as human Writings And if there be some who for want of Ability in themselves must rest their Faith upon other Mens Judgments I do not see why the Clergy of the Church of England may not as well be relied on as the Priests of the Church of Rome since the World has no reason to think them less Learned or less Sincere The Church of England among all impartial Men has this manifest advantage that She derives Her Faith from Scripture not fancifully Interpreted but Expounded to a Sense which the Text reasonably leads to And to strengthen Her Exposition She takes in the Testimony of the Church in Her four first General Councils Not that She rests upon an Authority in them but She takes them as Witnesses to shew that in Her Interpretation She is neither Singular nor Private Thus in short a Member of the Church of England proceeds He is certain his Faith is right and true because it is founded as to its Object upon the Will of God. He is certain it stands upon the Will of God because it stands upon the Word of God. He is certain it is built upon the Word of God because it is built upon the Scripture He is certain the Scripture is the Word of God because the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles that wrote it were Divinely Inspired And he is made certain that they were Divinely Inspired by the Divine Testimony of Miracles which God gave them Nor lastly can he doubt but whatsoever God sets his Seal to is Truth for he will not he cannot Lye or Deceive If he be asked how he knows these Books to be Written by those Inspired Men to whom they are attributed He Answers for that he has an universal Testimony of Friends and Enemies through all Ages Which is as good an Evidence as a Matter of Fact can bear or does require and when he reads them he is farther Confirm'd by finding them so admirably Compiled and Suited to that Character If he be asked how he attains the right Sense of them He answers by using due Attention and an unprejudiced Mind with such other helps as are fit for that Purpose he gains as great Certainty of the true meaning of Scripture as Sense and Reason can bear in an ordinary Capacity I mean as far as concerns the Articles of Faith summ'd into his Creed and is as safe in this Resolution as was the Primitive Church with which he agrees More than this he does not apprehend necessary After this since the Papists have taxed our Faith as wavering and uncertain how unjustly you may easily discern I might here make them a Requital by telling the World that upon their own Principles they can have no Faith at all For if what Faith they have arises from the Churches Authority then if the Church has no Authority they can have no Faith. But I have proved before the Church can have no such Authority because it has not Infallibility and it cannot reasonably pretend to Infallibility because it can make no Evidence of it and without Evidence no Man can believe But God forbid I should say or think they have no Faith I only offered this to shew the weakness and insufficiency of the Principles they go upon and what little Reason they have to charge us And now to that Question so often asked By what Authority we depart from the Faith of the Church of Rome I answer by an Authority which is inseparable from the Mind of every Man to refuse to believe any thing for which he has not a Reason to him sufcient indeed no Man can believe without it For the Mind of Man is so disposed as to Truth that it immediately imbraces it and closes with it as soon as ever it discerns it But if the Mind discerns no Truth in a Proposition it cannot assent to it whatever Profession the Man makes The Church of Rome