Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	catholic_n	church_n	tradition_n	2,180	5	9.3701	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76020	A treatise of adhering to God; written by Albert the Great, Bishop of Ratisbon. Put into English by Sir Kenelme Digby, Kt. Also a conference with a lady about choyce of religion.; De adhærendo Deo. English	Albertus, Magnus, Saint, 1193?-1280.; Digby, Kenelm, Sir, 1603-1665.	1653 (1653)	Wing A876; Thomason E1529_2; ESTC R25226	62,177	159

life for sanctitie and neer union with God and contempt of worldly and transitory things raised above the pitch of nature and morality we may conclude the holy Ghost inhabiteth not there for every agent produceth effects proportionable to the dignity of it and the excellency of any cause shineth eminently in the noblenesse of its effects Now that this gift of the holy Ghost is to remaine with the Church as long as the Church remaineth to illuminate it with the spirit of truth and to give it a supernaturall and divine unction will appear manifestly upon consideration of the cause why the holy Ghost was to be given at the first which remaineth alwaies the same and therefore the same effect must alwaies follow and accordingly Christ promised his Church upon his ascending into heaven that he would alwaies remaine with them untill the end of the world to wit by this holy spirit for he was then at the point of withdrawing his corporeall presence from them 15. Our next conclusion shall be that this Church or congregation of men spread over the world conserving and delivering the faith of Christ from hand to hand is even in its owne nature perpetuall in time and cannot faile as long as mankind remaineth in the world This needeth no further proofe then that which we have already made which is derived from the necessity of supernaturall faith to bring mankind to the end it was created for and that there is no meanes to deliver this faith to mankind in the ages after Christ but by the tradition of the Church and therefore as long as mankind lasteth this meanes must be continued Yet in this way of reasoning that I use we are to examine our conclusions as well by the genuine and orderly causes that beget them and by their owne particular principles as to assent unto them for the necessity that we see in them in regard of the end that they are referred unto And when we haue retrived those and evidently discerned their force it giveth an admirable content and satisfaction to the understanding Thus then as philosophers conclude that it is impossible any whole species or kind of beasts should ever be utterly exterminated and destroyed that is diffused up and downe over the whole face of the earth because the amplitude of the universe is greater then the variety of causes can be from which such a generall and entire corruption must proceed In like manner we may confidently conclude that it is impossible any depraved affections should so universally prevaile and so absolutely raigne in mens mindes throughout the whole world as would be requisite to extirpate and roote out a doctrine universally spread over it all that was at the first taught and confirmed with such seales of truth as the miracles that Christ and the apostles wrought that in its selfe is so pure and agreeable to the seedes that every man findeth sowed even by nature in his owne soule that worketh such admirable effects as the reformation of manners in mankind that withdraweth mens affections from humane and worldly contentments and carrieth them with a sweet violence to intellectuall objects and to hopes of immortality and happinesse in another life that prescribeth lawes for happy living even in this world to all men of what condition soever either publicke or private as working a moderation in mens affections to the commodities and goods of this life which else in nature is apt to blind mens mindes and is the cause of all mischiefs and evills and lastly that is delivered over from hand to hand from worlds of fathers to worlds of sonnes with such care and exactnesse as greater cannot be imagined and as it is requisite to the importance of that affaire which is infinitely beyond all others as on which the salvation and damnation of mankind wholly dependeth Now unto these rationall considerations let us adde the promise which Christ made to his Church that the gates of hell should not prevaile against it and I thinke we have sufficiently maintained that the Church of Christ in which the true doctrine of Christ is conserved can never faile but must infallibly continue unto the worlds end Thus having proved that a supernatural doctrine is necessary to bring mankind to beatitude that Christ taught this doctrine that from him the Church received it and is the sacrary in which it is conserved that this Church cannot erre in the tradition of this doctrine that besides the infallibility of it this Church is perpetuall It remaineth now that we close up this discourse by applying all these premises unto the question in hand which is where we shall find out this infallible Church that by it we may gaine the knowledge of the true saith of Christ whereby we are to be saved 16. For this end our sixteenth and last conclusion shall be that the congregation of men spread over the world joyning in communion with the Church of Rome is the true Catholike Church in which is conserved and taught the true saving faith of Christ The truth of this conclusion will without bringing any new proofes appeare evidently by reflecting upon what we have said and onely examining whether the Romane Church be such a one as we have determined the true Church of Christ must be or whether the notes which we may inferre out of our discourse to belong inseparably to the true Church may not rather with more reason be acknowledged of some other then of that in communion with the see of Rome This point after these grounds layed requireth no very subtill disquisition but is discernable even by the weakest sights and therefore this way of arguing appeareth to me most satisfactory and contentfull when taking the whole body of the question into survey and beginning with the first and remotest considerations of it we drive the difficulties still before us and pursuing of them orderly at every steppe we establish a solid principle and so become secure of the truth and certainty of all we leave behind us which course although it may at the first fight appear to be a great way about and looking but superficially upon the matter we may seeme to meete with difficulties which concerne not our question yet in the effect we shall perceive it is the most summary method of handling any controversie and the onely meanes to be secured of the truth of what we conclude and that will recompence the precedent difficulties by making the conclusion which is the knot of the affair plaine easie and open I say then first that unity of doctrine in matters of faith is inseparable from the Roman Church and can never be found in any other it onely having a precise and determinate rule of faith For it hath believed in every age all that hath bin plainly and positively taught unto it by their Fathers as the doctrine of faith derived from Christ and admitteth no other article whatsoever as an article of faith Whereas on the other

side all other Christian Churches among us that pretend reformation having no certaine and common rule of faith but every particular man governing himselfe in this matter by the collections of his owne braine and by his owne private understanding and interpretation of Scripture which onely he acknowledgeth as the entire rule of faith it must consequently follow that according to the variety of their tempers and judgements there must bee a variety and difference of their opinions and beliefes which difference of temper happening for the most part betweene every two men that are it likewise followeth scarce any two should in all particulars of their opinions agree together And accordingly wee see by experience that scarce any two authors out of the Roman Church that have written of matters of faith have agreed in their tenets but rather have dissented in fundamentall doctrine and have inveighed against one another in their writings with great vehemence bittesnes Whereas on the other side the Doctors of the Roman Church in al times in all places and of all tempers have agreed unanimously in all matters of faith although in the mean time severall of them have in divers other points great debates against one another and pursue them with much sharpnesse which strongly confirmeth the ground upon which we frame this observation But to insist a little further upon this materiall and important consideration it is evident that the proceeding of the reformers openeth the gate to all dissension schisme irreverence pride of understanding heresie ruine of Christian Religion for to justifie the new births of their rebellious braines the first stroake of their pen must be to lay a taint of ignorance error upon the whole current of ancient fathers and Doctors of the Church and generall Councells and to blast their authority which is so precisely contrary to their doctrine whose names and records ought to be sacred with posterity Which when they have done to settle a constant and like beliefe in all men they give no generall and certaine rule but leaving every man to the dictamens of his owne private judgement according to the severall tempers and circumstances as wee said before that sway every single man in particular there must result which we see by experience as great a variety of opinions as those are different And lastly since they quarrell at Catholickes beliefe in those points where they differ from them because they captivate their understandings with reverence to what the Church proposeth and teacheth and thereby admit into their beliefe articles which may seeme absurd to common sense they may as well with presumptuous hands graspe at and seeke to pluck up the very foundations of Christian Religion as namely the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the incarnation of Christ and of the resurrection and state of life of the future world since there are greater seeming contradictions in them especially in the two first then in those mysteries the reformers cavill at In the next place we may consider that as infallibility is pretended by the Roman Church alone so it is apparently entayled upon it for we have proved that no meanes or circumstance either morall naturall or supernaturall is wanting in it to beget infallibility in matters of faith Whereas on the other side from the reformers owne position we inferre by consequence that their doctrine cannot be hoped even by themselves to be infallible and therefore they that shall submitt their understanding to their conduct though they believe without controversy all they say must needs even by reason of what is taught them floate alwaies in a great deale of incertitude and anxious apprehension and feare of error For they looking upon the Church but with pure humane consideratiōs and as an ordinary company of men will have it lyable to mistaking according to the naturall imbecillity of mens witts and understandings and of humane passions and negligence and other such defects and weaknesses which every man is by nature subject unto Against which they produce no antidote to preserve and secure themselves from the infection taint they lay upon the Church For if they will have the conferences of severall passages of Scripture to be that which must give light in the severall controverted obscurities what eminency have these few late reformers shewne either in knowledge of tongues insight into antiquity profoundnesse in sciences and perfection and sanctity of life which hath not shined admirably more not to taxe them here of the contrary in multitudes of the adverse party And none will deny but these are the likelyest meanes to gaine a right intelligence of the true and deepe sence of Scriptures And besides we may observe that the reason why they deny the severall articles wherein they differ from the Catholicke Church is because it teacheth a doctrine which is repugnant to sence and of hard digestion to philosophy both which are uncompetent judges of divine and supernaturall truths And whosoever steereth by their compasse cannot hope for infallibility in a matter that transcendeth their reach Thirdly we may consider that the universality of the Church in regard of place which is necessary to the end that all mankind may have sufficient meanes to gaine knowledge of the true faith can be attributed to none but to the Roman Catholick Church which onely is diffused throughout the whold world whereas all others are circled in with narrow limits of particular provinces And even within them the professors scarce agree among themselves in any point of doctrine but in opposing the Roman Church And yet further besides this want of vniversality in regard of place the Religion taught by the reformers hath yet a greater restriction then that for even in its own nature it is not for all sorts of persons and for all capacities whereas the true saving faith to bring men to beatitude ought to be obvious to all mankind and open as well to the simple as to the learned For since they lay the Scriptures as the first and highest principle from whence they deduce all to that ought to be believed And that in all arts and sciences the primary and fundamentall principles therof ought to bee throughly known by them that aspire to the perfect knowledge of those sciences it followeth that one must have an exact knowledge of the learned tongues to examine punctually the true sense of the Scriptures and that one must bee perfectly versed in logick to bee able to reason solidly and to deduce true consequences from certaine principles for want of which we find by experience that great controversies arise daily among the learnedst men which would not bee if the force of consequences were of their owne nature easily discernable and one must be throughly skilled in naturall philosophy and Metaphysickes since unto appearing contradictions in subjects of those sciences they reduce most of their arguments against the supernaturall truths that Catholickes believe And lastly one must be indowed with