Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A59899
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A vindication of both parts of the Preservative against popery in an answer to the cavils of Lewis Sabran, Jesuit / by William Sherlock ...
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Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.
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1688
(1688)
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Wing S3370; ESTC R21011
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87,156
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120
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to an infallible Teacher that is when we are convinced of his infallibility we must then believe him upon his own word but not till then And therefore we must of necessity judge of all Prophets till we can prove them true Prophets and then we must believe them without judging The Miracles Moses wrought were a sufficient reason to believe him to be a true Prophet while he did not contradict the Laws of Nature and thus far all men were to judge of him and not to rely upon his Authority but when by his Miracles and the agreement of his Doctrine with natural Principles they were satisfied he was a true Prophet they were to judge no farther but to receive every thing else upon his Authority When Christ appeared in the World men were to judge of him before they believed and that not only by Miracles and the Conformity of his Doctrine to the Light of Nature but by his Agreement with the Law of Moses which was a standing Revelation and when by these Marks he was known to be the true Messias they were to believe every thing else he said upon his own Authority But Christ having now given us a perfect Revelation of God'â— Will to which no additions must be made we are to believe no men how infallible soever any further than they agree with the Gospel-Revelation and therefore must judge for our selves both of the sense of Scripture and the Doctrine they teach which is a plain demonstration that as there never was such an infallible Teacher whom we must in all cases believe without examination which is what the Church of Rome means by an infallible Judge for Moses his Doctrine was to be examined by the Light of Nature and Christ's by the Light of Nature and the Law of Moses so now especially can there be no such infallible Judge because the Gospel is the entire and perfect Rule of Faith and we must believe no man against or beyond the Gospel-Revelation and therefore must judge for our selves and compare his Doctrine with the Rule which confounds the Infallibility of the Church of Rome This is the Scheme of my Principles and now he knows what he has to answer when he has a mind to it 4 ly I observed farther To pretend the Scripture to be an obscure or imperfect Rule is a direct contradiction to the design of the Gospel to improve and perfect Knowledge He says nothing about the Obscurity of the Rule as for the Imperfections of it I observed they pretended to supply the Defects of Scripture by Unwritten Traditions The first Answer I gave to this which alone he pretends to say something to was this If the Sriptures be an imperfect Rule then all Christians have not a perfect Rule because they have not the keeping of unwritten Traditions and know not what they are till the Church is pleased to tell them and it seems it was a very great while before the Church thought fit to do it for suppose all the new Articles of the Council of Trent were unwritten Traditions fifteen hundred Years was somewhat of the longest to have so considerable a part of the Rule of Faith concealed from the World. Which the Jesuite thus repeats The Catholicks by unwritten Traditions that make up a part of their Rule of Faith mean such things as may be concealed from the World for 1500 Years never heard of before in the Church of God kept very privately and secretly for several Ages and totally unwritten Whereas I said nothing at all of this but that if the Twelve new Articles of Pope Pius his Creed in the Council of Trent be pretended as they do pretend to be the Tradition of the Church then de facto this Tradition was concealed for near 1500 Years for there was no such Tradition known before nor at the time of the Council of Trent as has been proved as to several Articles by the learned Dean of St. Pauls and when our Jesuite pleases he may try to confute him 5 ly I observed that an implicit Faith or believing as the Church believes without knowing what it is we believe can be no Gospel Doctrine because it is not for the improvement of Knowledge And here I observed that some Roman Doctors think it sufficient that a man believes as the Church believes without an explicite knowledge of any thing they believe but the general Opinion is that a man must have an explicite belief of the Aposâ—les Creed but as for every thing else it suffices if he believes as the Church believes That is as I inferred it is not necessary men should so much as know what the new Articles of the Trent Faith are if they believe the Apostles Creed and in other things resign up their Faith implicitely to the Church From whence I concluded that by their own confession all the Doctrines in dispute between us and the Church of Rome are of no use much less necessary to salvation for if they were they would be as necessary to be known and explicitely believed as the Apostles Creed and therefore Protestants who believe the Apostles Creed may be saved without believing the Trent Creed for what we need not know we need not believe What does our Jesuite say to this is an implicite Faith no Doctrine of their Church have I misrepresented their Doctrine he says nothing of this But this Calumniator he says meaning poor calumniated me confounds what is to be known necessitate medii so that he who through no fault of his hath not learned it is however uncapable of salvation which is all contained in the Creed with what must be known necessitate praecepti because God hath commanded all those who are in the occasion and in the capacity of being instructed in it to learn it Whatever I confounded I am sure this is a distinction would confound any man to reconcile it with an implicite Faith. Some things are so necesâ—ary to be known that a man shall be damned meerly for not knowing them though he had no opportunity to know them which some will say is very hard other things are necessaâ—y to be known to those who have opportunity to know them for that I suppose he means by occasion and capacity or he means nothing but a trick and what place is here for an implicite Faith when they must know all that is a necessary means of salvation at the peril of their salvation and must know every thing as far as they have opportunity of learning it and therefore must never take up with an implicite Faith. He says Each man is not bound to know all that Christ hath taught but yet all that Christ has taught as necessary to him in his station So that if all Christians are not bound to have an explicite belief and knowledge of any thing but the Apostles Creed then the knowledge of all the peculiar Doctrines of Popery it seems are not necessary for them in their station and if they
absurdity of Praying to God in an Unknown Tongue when neither our Understandings nor Affections can joyn in our Prayers For I suppose no man will say that to pray to God or praise him in words which we do not understand is to worship God in Spirit unless he thinks that a Parrot may be taught to pray in the Spirit This he calls a Calumny He would insinuate that Catholicks when they assist to present he should have said at Prayers which they do not understand are not commanded to pray in Spirit by devout Thoughts and pious Affections Now I insinuate no such thing when they are present at Prayers which they do not understand they may have other devout thoughts for ought I know but I say they cannot offer those Prayers to God with their understanding which they do not understand and in such Prayers they do not pray with the Mind and Spirit and therefore all such Prayers are absurd and contrary to the nature of Christian Worship which is to worship God in Spirit But my work is not at an end yet there are some other Misrepresentations and Calumnies which he has picked out of the fourth Section of the Preservative which must be considered The fourth Section concerns the reformation and improvement of Humane Nature which I shewed to be the great design of the Gospel and that particularly with respect to Knowledge and Holiness and I examined how far the Principles and Practices of the Church of Rome did comply with this great Gospel Design 1. As for Knowledge I supposed neither the Church of Rome nor any one for her would pretend that she is any great Friend to Knowledge which is so apt to make men Hereticks That knowing Papists are not beholden to their Church for their Knowledge which deprives them of all the means of Knowledge will not allow them to believe their senses but commands them to believe Transubstantiation which is contrary to the evidence of sense forbids men the use of Reason in matters of Religion suffers them not to judge for themselves nor examine the Reasons of their Faith and denies them the use of the Bible which is the only means to know the revealed Will of God and when men must neither believe their Senses nor use their Reason nor read the Scripture it is easie to guess what knowing and understanding Christians they must needs be Against this it may be objected that the Church of Rome does instruct her Children in the true Christian Faith though she will not allow them to read the Scriptures nor judge for themselves which is the safer way to teach them the pure Catholick Faith without danger of Error or Heresie To this I answered This were something did the Church of Rome take care to instruct them in all necessary Doctrines and to teach nothing but what is true and could such men who thus tamely receive the dictates of the Church be said to know and to understand their Religion so that here were two Inquiries 1. Whether the Church of Rome instructs her Children in all necessary truth and nothing but the truth 2. Whether she so instructs them that they may be said to know and understand How far the Church of Rome is from doing the first I said all Christians in the World are sensible but themselves but that is not our present Dispute But our Jesuite it seems will make it the Dispâ—te or it shall pass for a perfect Slander for thus he repeats it they take no care to instruct mâ—n in all necâ—ssary Doctrines Which I did not positively affirm bâ—t since he will have it so I do now affirm That they do not instruct men in all necessary Doctrines and that thâ—y teach them a great many false Doctrines But then he must remember what I mean by instructing it is not meerly to teach them to repeat the Articles of their Creed but to give them the true sense and meaning of them and I do affirm and am ready to prove it and possibly may do so when leisure permits that they do not rightly instruct men in the great and necessary Doctrine of forgiveness of Sins in the Name of Christ nor in the nature of Christ's Mediation and Intercession for us nor in the nature of Justification or of Gospel and Obedience but teach such Errors as overthrow the true Gospel notion of these great and necessary Doctrines Then as for their manner of Teaching to require men to believe what they say meerly upon the Authority of the Church without suffering them to examine whether such Doctrines are taught in Scripture or to exercise their own reason and judgment about it can make no man a knowing and understanding Christian. For no man understands his Religion who does not in some measure know the reasons of his Faith and judge whether they be sufficient or not who knows not how to distinguish between Truth and Error who has no Rule to go by but must take all upon trust and the credit of his Teachers who believes whatever he is told and learns his Creed as School-boys do their Grammar without understanding it this is not an active but a kind of passive knowledge Such men receive the impression that is made on them as Wax does and understand no more of the matter These Sayings that are marked out are more of his Misrepresentations which need no other Vindication but to be shewn in their own light and proper places And yet I did not deny but some men might be so dull and stupid as to be capable of little more than to be taught their Religion as Children but certainly this is not the utmost perfection of knowledge that any Christian must aim at which he thus represents With them this is the utmost perfection of Knowledge that any Christian must aim at This I did not say but this I say that it is the utmost perfection of Knowledge which any man can attain to who will be contented with the Methods of the Church of Rome not to examine his Religion but to take all upon the credit of the Church Well How does our Jesuite confute this heavy Charge and perfect Slander Does he shew that they teach all necessary Truths and nothing but Truth Does he prove that men may be very knowing Christians without understanding the Reasons of their Faith Not one word of this which alone was to his purpose but he says hundreds of thousands of Religious men are employed in instructing the Ignorant and teaching Children and whoever denied this that they do teach Men and Children after their fashion But does this prove that they teach them all necessary Truths and nothing but truth Or that they make them ever the wiser for their teaching As for those ignorant Protestants he has had to deal with if he made Converts of them I believe they were very ignorant otherwise if there were Ignorance between them it was as likely to lie on the Jesuite's side Having laid down