Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
doctrine_n	church_n	faith_n	fundamental_a	4,207	5	10.5039	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66415	Scripture the rule of faith a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Febr. 3, 1695/6, being the second of the lecture for this present year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2722; ESTC R38942	12,524	32

as the Authority is such is our Faith Humane or Divine So that Divine Faith must have Divine Authority and Divine Authority is no other than Divine Revelation delivered at sundry times and in divers manners Written or Unwritten And where there is no verbal Revelation by Persons Divinely Inspired the Written Word is the only Authority that Faith can be resolved into which our Saviour here appeals to and propounds as a means sufficient and in their Circumstances as the only means for ending the Dispute The Question here in Debate was as I observed before Whether Jesus was the Messias prophesied of in the Old Testament This the Jews denied and our Saviour affirms appealing for proof of it to John Baptist to his own Works and to the Scriptures and there he leaves it For this was the old and true way of deciding matters of that nature To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word there is no light in them Indeed in After ages a party of the Jews rose up that taught for Doctrines the Commandments of men that did exalt their Traditions to an equal Authority with the Divine Law and made it equally a fault to transgress them as our Saviour charges it upon them of which more anon But our Saviour shews the invalidity of this and directs them to the Fountain of all Revealed Truth the Holy Scriptures then extant as a Rule sufficient to guide them and of Authority sufficient to determine them And this was the course he at other times took As doth the Young Ruler put a serious Case to him Good Master What shall I do that I may inherit Eternal Life Our Saviour Answers Thou knowest the Commandments Do the Sadduces that denied a Future State and a Resurrection to it contend with our Saviour about it He argues with them from the Scriptures Ye do err not knowing the Scriptures As touching the Resurrection of the Dead have ye not read c. Would he instruct the Disciples in the great Articles of Faith He doth it from those Sacred Oracles Ought not Christ to have suffer'd c. And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things concerning himself In like manner did the Apostles proceed to convince the Jews of their Incredulity So St. Paul reasoned with them out of the Scriptures opening and alledging That Christ must needs have suffered and risen again and that this Jesus is the Christ So Apollos shewed by the Scriptures That this Jesus was the Christ To this they always remitted them as to a Rule certain and sufficient and without which nothing was to be received as an Article of Faith To a Rule certain called therefore by St. Peter 2. 1 19. A more sure word of Prophecy and which he prefers before a Voice from Heaven And a Rule sufficient that is as St. Paul saith able to make wise unto Salvation and thoroughly to furnish even the Man of God the Teacher unto all good works And when these things were spoken at that time more immediately of the Jewish Canon of the Old Testament they may equally as well be applied to the New which is not only as much the Scripture as St. Peter calls it 2 Pet. 3. 19. as I have before proved but also by the addition of it renders the Old much more intelligible and complete Now there can be no imaginable reason assigned why the Scripture which was then sufficient in all points necessary to Salvation and for resolving of Faith should now be insufficient after the Revelation made by Christ That is that we should be more at a loss with the more clear full and perfect Revelation than they were under the less perfect that what in the last days God Deliver'd and Reveal'd by his Son should be less sufficient to direct us than what he Spoke at sundry times and in divers manners in times past to the Jews by the Prophets And especially considering that there was a time when their Circumstances were much the same with ours which was in the long interval of 400 or 450 Years between the finishing of the Jewish Canon in the Pr●phecy of Malachi with whom Revelation ceased and the appearance of John Baptist In which time they were left as we are wholly to the Written Word of God for their Direction and the Sole Authority they were to rely upon Since then in the Christian Church there is no more need of any Traditionary or Unwritten Word than the Jews had at that time at le●st under the Law and no more proof to be made of it now than there was then it follows that the Scripture is the only Rule in exclusion to all others and what is not contained therein by positive Proof nor by evident Consequence to be deduced from it can no more be of Divine Authority and Obligation to Christians than Unwritten Traditions were then to the Jews This is the true Re●olution of Faith and if our Saviour in a point of such Importance as his being the Messiah put the Case upon this issue we have good reason to think that it is still the true Method of reasoning among Christians and of resolving any Point of Faith and Doctrine necessary to Salvation And therefore supposing we would find out the truth of any Doctrine thus Necessary and Fundamental we must come hither for direction and resolution and if it has no Foundation in Scripture we are to reject it For it is a Rule in the Law Quod Instrum●ntum non dicit nec nos dicere debemus or as it is usually said Where that has not a Tongue to Speak we are not to have an Ear to Hear 'T is then a Doctrine of Men and may be a Tradition of the Elders but is no Fundamental Article of the Christian Faith But grant this yet it has been before yielded that Doubts and Disputes may arise in the Church about the sense of this Written Rule and therefore who shall be the Arbiter to Judge and Determine o● how shall the Doubter be resolved or how shall he be sure of the Sense and Meaning of that which is Disputed Our Saviour here directs what is to be done Search the Scriptures examine and prove all by this Rule He doth not direct them to any speaking Infallible Guide nor to any Church nor Persons into whom their Faith is to be resolv'd but puts them themselves upon the trial of it Whence it follows 2. That every Man is to judge for himself Certainly if ever there were a necessity of an Infallible Judge to Determine points of Controversy to Mens hands it had been in the long Interval before spoken of between the Cessation of Prophecy and the Appearance of our Saviour when there were divers Sects risen up among the Jews continually contending one with another and oftentimes about matters of very great Importance Of which I shall give a few