Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	authority_n	believe_v	infallibility_n	2,951	5	11.3667	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A33462	Capel's remains being an useful appendix to his excellent Treatise of tentations, concerning the translations of the Holy Scriptures : left written with his own hand / by that incomparably learned and jucicious divine, Mr. Richard Capel, sometimes fellow of Magdalen-Colledge in Oxford ; with a preface prefixed, wherein is contained an abridgement of the authors life, by his friend Valentine Marshall.	Capel, Richard, 1586-1656.; Marshall, Valentine.; Capel, Richard, 1586-1656. Tentations.	1658 (1658)	Wing C471; ESTC R5922	60,793	168

is to take us off from the Scriptures and to cast us and our consciences on the authority of the Church We list not to dispute with them about the Infallibility of that which they call their Church For I doubt not but that the learned among them do not themselves beleeve what themselves do write But our work lies not in that road We grant what they would have as touching the Church by way of Ministry but for that which they call the Churches Authority we know not any such authority the Church as Church being not a Domination but a Ministration But that we may not leave any rubb in the consciences of the weak as touching the authority of the Scriptures as touching the Originals and Translations we will shut up all in brief For the Originals though we have not the Primitive Copies written by the finger of God in the Tables or by Moses and the Prophets in the Hebrew or by the Apostles and the rest in the Greek for the New Testament yet we have Copies in both languages which Copies vary not from the Primitive writings in any matter which may stumble any This concernes onely the learned and they know that by consent of all parties the most learned on all sides amongst Christians do shake hands in this that God by his providence hath preserved them uncorrupt What if there be variety of readings in some Copies and some mistakes in writing or Printing this makes nothing against our doctrine sith for all this the fountaine runs clear and if the fountain be not clear all translations must needs be muddie Besides 't is a saying of a wise Philosopher That what some say is like to be false what many say may be false But what all say is more then like to be true Now Christians of all parties do agree as touching the Originals that they are kept pure Onely some of and among the Papists passionate men do bite at the Originals but herein they do but bl●t their own vulgar translation sith they confesse it to be drawn out of the Originals I confesse some men by their picking quarrels with the Originals as a matter whereof they talk as though there were no certainty of faith as touching them have troubled the spirits of some men with a thorny tentation which my b●sinesse is to do what I can to remove which I now endeavour to do as briefly as I can The foundation I first lay is That we may have a certainty moral of things whereof we have no evidence which is sufficient to settle us in an acquired faith free from all feare and material doubt of the contrary We beleeve without making any question of it that there is such a place as Rome though we never saw it that such a man is our father such a woman our mother and we out of conscience do duties to them albeit we have no evident certainty of it but by belief that such a Prince is true heir to a Crown and out of conscience we do performe obedience and yet we can have no more certainty of this but moral For who hath or can have an evidence of this that such an heire is the true begotten of such a King It 's agreed on by almost all Divines of all sides that if one of the Propositions be in the Scripture and the other be but a moral certainty which leaves no dubitation behinde it the conclusion bindes the conscience As thus every childe is bound in conscience to honour his Parents this is an act of faith grounded on the Scripture such or such a man is my father this is but a moral certainty yet hence it followes that in conscience I stand bound in conscience to honour such a man as my Father And that he is my Father all the certainty I can have is but moral built on the credit of my mother If these reasonings were not firme it would destroy all Policy and Order in this life nor could Gods Law to honour father and mother binde the conscience nor can a man tell that he was baptized in his youth but by such Testimonies as these Therefore I like that of Bellarmine who stands upon it that of such like things a certainty may be had from the testimonies of men in some sort comparable to natural evidence it self for that it leaves no scruple or dubitation in our minds But what of all this Why it shewes that the general consent of in a manner all Hebricians and Grecians in the Christian world consenting that our Originals are by the good hand of God preserved uncorrupt and pure is a sufficient perswasion to breed a moral certainty answerable to natural evidence excluding all reasonable dubitation to the contrary That the Originals were for the provision and food of the soules of his Church kept pure and uncorrupt by the Prophets and Jewes for the old by the Apostles and Christian Churches for the New Testament sealed up by St. John the Secretary of Christ as Scotus calls him Else the Lord must have been wanting to his Church which cannot be imagined And that acquired faith makes way for infused faith to act I have learned long since out of Scotus Thus the case stands The Originals are to be received and believed That the Hebrew and Greek are the true Originals we believe by humane testimonies which leave the mind without perplexitie without all doubting and so it follows that by mans testimonie the Originals are to be received and believed by us so that the heart stands free from any true cause of any doubting at all which being equivalent to the highest certainty that is it cannot but lay a foundation to build our faith upon this certainty being a meanes by which we come to the other of the Scriptures being the last ground on which we build our faith we are not to look for demonstrations in arguments of this nature It 's a foolish thing to expect from a Mathematician to deale by perswasion his Art lies in evident and ocular demonstration Now 't is as absurd to expect demonstration from an Orator or Moralist his businesse lies in perswasion But yet in our point in hand our perswasions must be grounded on such moral certainty as is to us without question and without feare of the contrary It is a piece of wise counsel of Aristotle That it is the wisdome of a learned man so farre forth to seek after proofs of truth in any matter as the nature of the subject matter will beare And it is agreed upon that in all learning in the highest science of all the principles are proving but not proved For that which is the first cannot be proved by any thing before it else the first were not the first as the first mover is never moved And in all Inferiour Sciences the first principles of that Science must be proved in an higher Schoole Now the first principle in the School of

do the work till they come to the testimony of the spirit They may and do work and acquire in us an humane faith which may stand free from actual hesitation and doubting but not from possible dubitation for lay them all together yet they may deceive or be deceived Canus disputes strongly against Scotus Durand Gabriel and others who rested themselves on the authority of the Church by an acquired faith first before they come to an infused faith This saith he were to sit down by the Authority of man not of God and the formal reason of our infused faith would be other then the increated truth of God whereas the difference of faith gotten by helps may erre but faith infused by God cannot erre So that when we have all done and got all the help we can to rest on the Scriptures the work is not done till we by the Spirit of God have this sealed by infused faith in our souls that these books which we have translated are the very words of God Smith himself that grand backbiter of translations confesseth at last that if the translations of the Word of God do agree with the Originals that then they are the Word of God nor are they the Translations except they do and as far as they do concord w with the Originals If an Ambassadour deliver his minde by an Interpreter and the Interpreter do relate things right else he is not an Interpreter then his words are the speeches of the Ambassadour Well then though all humane reasons the consent of all the world will not help us to that faith in the Word which will help us to heaven yet they are a preparation and such a preparation to this faith infused that we cannot ordinarily look for faith infused but by the way of this faith which is gotten by the arguments reasons considerations convictions and helps wrought by the Argumentations and considerations proposed by men which do work as most often it doth in us an acquired humane faith free from actual though not from possible mistake and doubting This may be and is a faire meanes to bring us to look on the Scripture without any actual question made of it as the Word of God And then by the use of the Word to attain to a Divine faith which is infallible by reason of the Divine infallible truth rightly conceived and believed by it For it is out of question that by the Ministry of men who are not simply infallible both we may and do attain unto that faith in the divine Revelations of the Word which are or is infallible It s no Paradox to hold that a thing not infallible may by way of Ministry lead us to that certainty which is infallible For my part I hold universal tradition as far as it looks onely on the votes and vices of men to be of all reasons the weakest For the arguments from the authority of God be the strongest yet conclusions from the authority of men is an unartificial argument the weakest However what Arminius saith is true that this humane faith built on such an universal tradition may be a fit preparation to that other faith which is built on the Authority of God I am far●e from once thinking that in universal tradition men do once dreame to make the last resolution of their faith into the veracity of any such universal tradition For our faith must rest on the same that the Apostles and Prophets did rest their faith on But they did resolve their faith onely on truth uncreated and divine and not on the votes of the Church or any universal tradition Canus speaks the truth when he saith that the authority of the divine Scriptures is not to be sought from the reason or authority of men For the assent to a conclusion cannot be more certain then the assent to the premisses and proofs of that conclusion Now if our infused faith did rest onely or chiefly on the credit of the Church or universal tradition then our infused faith could go no higher then an humane and created truth I mean onely or chiefly on the voices or reasons of men and not on the voice and authority of God But what is this to translations Much every way I argue thus The end of the Church and people of God is that they should be saved Now if God set down the end he will provide the means of their salvation and that is faith and faith is not built on the authority of the Church or of universal tradition all which are the voices of men but on the Word of God Now this Word of God cannot concerne common people but onely as translated Now what shall a poore unlearned Christian do if that he hath nothing to rest his poore soul on the originals he understands not if he did the first Copies are not to be had and he cannot tell whether the Hebrew and Greek Copies be the right Hebrew or the right Greek or that which is said to be the meaning of the Hebrew or Greek but as men tell us who are not Prophets and may mistake Besides the Transcribers were men and might erre These considerations may let in Atheisme like a flood To help all this we will deliver our mind in some Propositions I. That God as I shewed did lay up the Hebrew Copies to be kept by the Jewes who were ordered by God to be faithful notaries to keep these Records and a world of places are cited out of the Old in the New Testament according as they are nowe in the Hebrew Copies and the Old Testament hath in it the life and soule of the New Testament Moses and the Prophets wrote of Christ The New Testament is but a cleare and infallible counter-part of the Old It s cleare that the Hebrew of the Old Testament stood cleare and uncorrupt without any breaches made in them by transcribers or otherwise till the time of the publishing of the New Testament as appears by the manie places cited in the New out of the Old chiefly where Hebrew words are kept and repeated as Hosanna Golgotha Eli Eli Lamasabachthani Mat. ●7 sutable unto the places whence they are taken out of the Old chiefly in Saint Matthews Gospel who was most punctual in applying and suiting the Prophesies of the Old Testament of all the holy penmen of the New Testament And it is easie to be proved that Matthew wrote after that was done which Luke wrote in the Acts of the Apostles Doctor Jackson saith a long time after Peter made that Sermon Act. 1. Saint Matthew addes and saith saith he it was called the field of blood unto this day Which argueth that he wrote his Gospel a long time after St. Peter made his Comment upon the Psalmist Acts 1. 15 16 17. Well then as God committed the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament to the Jewes and did and do●h move their hearts to keep it untainted to this day

So I dare lay it on the same God that he in his providence is so with the Church of the Gentiles that they have and do preserve the Greek Text uncorrupt and clear As for some scapes by Transcribers that comes to no more then to censure a book to be corrupt because of some scapes in the printing and 't is certaine that what mistake is in one print is correctin another A second Proposition is That God never did suffer his Church to be without a sufficient Rule and there can be no rule but translations to the Vulgar Therefore I make no question but the sweet providence of God hath held the hearts and hands and pens of translators so in all true Churches in all times that the virnacular and popular translation into mother tongues have beene made pure without any considerable tincture of errour to endanger the soules of his Church For what if Interpreters and Translators were not Prophets yet God hath and doth use so to guide them that they have been are and shall be preserved from so erring in translating the Scriptures that the souls of his people may have that which will feed them to eternal life that they shall have sufficient for their instruction and consolation here and salvation hereafter This is the opinion of Bellarmine himselfe albeit he appropriates it to their vulgar Translation yet I think the eye of providence provides for all vulgar and vernacular translations in their mother tongue for all true Churches in the world Translations are sufficient with all their mistakes to save the Church I will deliver this in the words of Master Baine Faith cometh by hearing of the word from a particular Minister who by confession of all is subject to errour As God hath not immediately and infallibly assisted Ministers that they cannot erre at all so we know that he is in some measure with them that they cannot altogether erre A Translation that erreth cannot beget faith so farre forth as it erreth The word Translated though subject to errour is Gods Word and begetteth and increaseth faith not so farre forth as man through frailty erreth but as he is assisted through speaking and translating to write the truth So he This gives full satisfaction to me and I hope it will to others The maine Conclusion for a ground of all is the evidence and seale of the Spirit of God which perswadeth us of the saving truth in the Translation and by way of Ministry to come to saving faith by the preaching of the Word by our several Ministers Papists cry up the inerrable and infallible authority of the Church and yet they themselves deny not but their particular preachers whom they heare are as subject to erre as any of ours are I know no authority the Church hath whatever the Church doth is but Ministerial The Papists and we agree in this That Translations Originals Reading Preaching is of no saving effect without the Revelation and Testimony of the Spirit Canus I rather choose to mention him the oftener because Dr. John Rainolds saith that he was of better minde and sounder judgement then Popish Doctors are the most of them It is a great errour saith he in them who think they can either understand or interpret the Scripture without the peculiar gift of the holy Ghost And againe The last resolution of our faith must be in the inner efficiency of God moving to beleeve We believe not for that John or any man else saith it but because God hath revealed it Now that God hath revealed his minde we do immediately believe it by special instinct And again The formal reason of our assent is the light of God which God doth infuse into us and for this he cites Aquinas Lect. 2. ad Rom. 10. And as the understanding in us discernes of natural things and the taste in matters of sense so when the minde of a man is inlightened by the Spirit we are inabled to discerne doctrines necessary to salvation from errours which are not of God This his resolution is often up and down in his book Bellarmine is for the same conclusion A man cannot saith he without the special illustration of God believe the mysteries of faith And again Faith cannot arise in the heart but by divine revelation which is either immediately from God alone or by the instrument of the Word reade or preached I think it hath truth in it which Canus observes That Peter had heard the Testimony of John Baptist when with open voice he proclaimed Christ to be the Son of God John 1. 84. and had moreover with his own eyes seene many miracles of Christ yet after all these Christ doth ascribe Peters confession of his saith to none of of these but onely to divine revelation So then Protestants and Papists we and they concurre in this That at last we must sit down by the evidence and sealing testimony of the Spirit but with this difference They say The Spirit gives light and evidence to the authority of the Church we say To the Sovereignty of the Scriptures Nothing can be seene without some light or other Things of Reason cannot be conceived without the light of reason nor things of the Spirit without the light of Faith and of the Spirit Though Wotton hath cast an unhappy stone or two at translations yet when he comes to answer Fisher who said That the Spirit of God teacheth and perswadeth men to believe the Church Are you saith Wotton they who mock at private spirits and yet are glad to flie that help Is it not as likely the Spirit should teach men which is the Scripture as which is the Church and assure them of a translation as of this or that mans Ordination and Priesthood So he thus at last he is for the divine authority of translations But is not this to fall upon private revelations No such matter for we call not in for the Testimony of revealing of the Spirit to teach us any thing but what is revealed in the word that wer to bring in privat revelations But because none doth or can know the secrets of God but the Spirit of God therefore we say that we are made to see the evidence of truth first revealed in the Word and then by that light which the Spirit kindleth in our hearts both the Scripture to be the Word of God and the minde of the Sripture is not onely revealed but confirmed to us by the Testimony of the Spirit in us and to us So here is no use of the Spirit to reveal new lights but to shew us the evidence of these truthes which are in the Word A private spirit is to lead us from this is to lead us to the Word And all this is done by illightning our understandings and sanctifying our wills to discern and to approve the evidence of truth which is in the Scripture and no other They

say their Church cannot erre in matters of Faith And why forsooth Because it is infallibly guided by the strait line of the spirit We say The true Church cannot so erre in matters of faith or life as to fall away from Christ and so to fall into damnation And why Because besides other helps the true Church is guided by the certain and infallible direction of the spirit the vicar general to our Lord Jesus Why then may not we twit them rather then they do us with the private spirit Aquinas the first through-Papist that ever was It is Dr. John Rainolds censure of him shall speak last for this point All holy learning is proved out of the Scriptures onely necessarily out of all other authors only probably For our faith doth rest on the revelation made to the Apostles and Prophets who wrote the Canonical Books and not on any other revelation if any be made to other Doctors So he and he was preferred by Innocent the Pope before all Writers next to the Scriptures well might the Pope so do saith the same Dr. Rainolds for that he deserved better of the Papacy then all the Fathers These things are so plaine that to argue more were to weaken them As I have read it to be the observation of Tully That things perspicuous and clear are much obscured by much arguing I hope the Papists for shame will give over fooling against us that we run after private Spirits and revelations since Aquinas the flower of the Papists speaks out as much as we do as touching the sealing of the Spirit The Application of all I have made a long and tedious discourse about the Originals and Translations because I find by my self that things let fall in Print by learned men and great reformers as touching the Originals that none can say this is the Hebrew that the Greek but because Linguists and learned men say so and they may erre Nor that this is the English of the Hebrew or of the Greek which we say is but men subject to trip do so say That the Originals transcribed into many Copies might erre and mistake and for the translations that there be flaws in them too since the transcribers and translators were no Prophets but men though not willing perhaps yet subject to speak and write besides the matter that translations are not the Word of God nor our rule These and such things as these I doubt not do stagger the thoughts of weak of strong Christians too and drive a many towards Atheisme And now saith a sick soule What shall a poore feeble-hearted Christian do My counsel is that when he is come to be certain without actual doubting by reasons arguments consent of times of the Church that our Bible is the Word of God that he would in all humility and sincerity apply himselfe to read it to hear it read to heare it preached and he may promise to himself that by the use of the word the Spirit of God will infuse inspire divine saving faith into his soul and free him not only from all actual but possible doubting that the Bible translated is the word of God And if the translation then the Originals For what ever is the instrument to convert the soul must needs be the pure word of God Some are firme that God never works a miracle but to confirme truth This is past question that the Spirit of God doth never work this miracle to convert the soule but by Gods word So say Now I know that it is the pure word of God for that it is a means to convert my soul so Psal. 19. 7 The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the soul By this then I know that it is without dispute the perfect Law of the Lord because it doth not only evince and convince me but convert my soul St Austine saith that he was converted by reading the last verse of the thirteenth to the Romans and that did prove to Austine that it was the perfect Law and word of God It is storied that Cyprian was converted by reading the Prophet Jonas And Iunius in his life written by himself saith that he was converted by reading the first Chapter of the Gospel of Iohn For Austine Cyprian I think neither of them had much skill in the Originals no nor Iunius neither at that time wherefore it is plain enough that they were converted by reading translations When then a man doth finde that by reading or hearing translations read or preached upon it hath pleased God to warme thy heart to turn and change thy poor soul to convert thee into a new creature go thy ways doubt nothing its an argument past answer that the Bible even as translated is the Word of God Go on look on it as Gods word read on still be diligent to hear it with the best ears thou hast and thou shalt finde it more and more to convert and sanctifie thee and so by consequence to assure thee by an undoubtful and divine faith inspired and infused into thy poor soul by the Spirit of God that this book no other is the very Word of God By this you see where and how the poor crazy soul may find rest and it is to rest on the translated Word of God waiting therein on the line of the sweet providence who by the use of the word will breath into his soul divine faith infused by the sure influence of the Spirit of God which spirit brings a light with it by which we know that what we know this is done by a divine faith not by humane conjecture being wrought in us by a special providence of God perswading and drawing us to acknowledge the contents therein to be of Divine authority Nor is this as I said to make our private spirit the rule of our faith but we lay all at the foote of the divine providence to put light into our minds and then to work in us a firm assent to the Word of God that it is indeed and truth the very Word of God And none of this is done otherwise then by the Word of God itself and the spirit joyning with the Word In a word nothing can work saving grace in any man to the conversion of his soule but the very Word of God But this the word translated hath wrought in me therefore I know by this that the Scripture translated is the word of God sith nothing but Gods word can turne and convert the soul Make the most of that which some call universal tradition it can bring us no farther then an humane belief little better is it then that which the Papists call the authority of the Church The Ministry of the Church we grant needful and useful but for the authority of the Church we acknowledge none Thus the Jewes are for their Rabbines and their universal tradition So did the Saracens like as the Gentiles

did build on the universal tradition But after this tedious discourse the thing which we Christians are to rest our faith on which is common to all even to the meanest is that internal light infused into us all by the Spirit of God whereby we most firmely and most certainly are moved to believe that the bible and all the Bible and nothing but the Bible is our most certaine rule which cannot erre but that the Vniversal Tradition of Jewes Saracens Papists hath beene is and will be subject to errours more or lesse The end and use of all is to call upon all Christians chiefly when they are in some doubting veine to turne away from all authority of Churches of men of universal Tradition and to looke up to the providence who hath provided sincere food and physick for our poore soules which Christians have found do and shall finde to be the Bible translated into severall Languages for the use of those who cannot skill in the Originals And I think no man dares deny but a Minister who hath himselfe little skill in the Originals may by expounding and propounding the Translations convert the soules of such Christians as are the hearers of such Preachers C. 2. How it is said he that is borne of God cannot sinne 1 John 3. 9. HOnest Melancthon speakes against some in his Countrey in his dayes called Swenkfeldians who held themselves after new birth to be just and perfect I have not long since seene a little English printed book cast into sundry propositions one whereof and as I remember the first is that after they are renued once they are as perfect as Jesus Christ was and as Adam was in Paradise which was the tenet of the Familists of old that being once indued with the Divine nature in their conversion that then they are Goddified The report is that those sprung up amongst us commonly called Quakers are of the same fancy and that they presse this place of John that being once borne of God they do not commit sinne for Gods seed remaineth in them and that they cannot commit sin because they are borne of God Their senslesse sense cannot be the meaning of that place For the same Apostle in the same Epistle saith that if we say that we have no sinne we make him a liar And is not this a sinne and a very great one too to make God a liar John saith not if you but if we comprehending himselfe too and I hope it cannot be thought but John a chiefe Apostle was born of God Besides it is not onely said That he who is borne of God doth not sinne but cannot sinne And all over the Bible in the stories of the best of men who were borne of God we see that they could sinne and did sinne and those sinnes which were very great too This then is not the sense of the place that there was is or ever shall be any meere man borne so of God as not to sin or to be in and under such a condition as to say truly of him that he cannot sin Now for that which these write that when once made partakers of the Divine nature they are as perfect as Adam in Paradise This is but their owne fancy it is no such matter But say it were so and not onely so but as perfect as the Angels in heaven yet from that it followes not that it could or can be said of them simply that they cannot sinne For Adam did and therefore could sinne he had indeed a Tempter without but no concupiscence to tempt him within Nay more then that the lapsed Angels before their fall had nothing from within nothing from without to tempt them Within nothing but purity and holinesse no sin no shadow of sinne Nothing from without to tempt them nothing within but holinesse nothing without but holinesse without spot or wrinkle yet then those very Angels were sin-able for they did fall and therefore could sin The truth is None but God ia absolutely free from all possibility of sinning God onely in this sense is holy he not only doth not lie but he cannot lie Adam in Paradise was made upright the Angels in Heaven were made more pure then Adam both Adam and the Angels had the advantage of the places to be kept from sinne but being creatures created with free will those Angels in heaven and Adam in Paradise that heaven upon earth might and did sinne and so might all the rest of the Angels too had they not been supported by grace for those were a elected and b Election is of grace And should the elect Angels sinne but once the least sin that is they could not be saved as it fell out with those Angels which did sin For c Christ took not the nature of Angels but the seed of Abraham therefore they cannot sin because they cannot be restored by a Mediatour The Angels are holy Daniel 4. 13. and so must be saved which could not be if they could and should sinne Matthew 21. 30 31. Againe those ministering spirits do alwayes see the face of God which were not true if they should sin For no sooner did those non-Elect Angels sin but they presently left their habitation Jude 6. and were cast downe into Tartar that is Hell 2 Pet. 2 4. Indeed when men are once in Heaven they are safe from sin there is no place for tears therefore not for sinne Revel. 21. 4. Now Luke 20. There is no more promised to the blessed men after the resurrection then to the Angels that then they shall be equal not superior to the Angels therefore nor men nor Angels Elect can or shall sin in Heaven which the other Angels did once in Heaven for that they were not Elect nor confirmed in and by grace Thus then you see that it could not be said of the unelect Angels once in heaven nor of any sort of men till they come to heaven that they nor do nor can sin For my part I think that those who say they do not they cannot sin though they say so yet I think they themselves do not think so I remember a golden saying of Austine He saith he who thinks he can live without sinne doth not avoid sinne but rather excludes all pardon So that this is not the sense of the words That ever any man was is or shall be in the world who either cannot or doth not sin Doctor Hammond following many Learned men saith this cannot sin is meant that upon that head and score he cannot sin to signifie that their being borne of God can be no patent or security for their sinning The same saith Austine to wit That the borne of God sinne not as or upon this that they are borne of God For this is alledged that of the same Saint John 1 Epist. 3. 6. Whosoevor sinneth hath not seene him neither known him meaning that the seeing and knowing him doth not