Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	authority_n	divine_a	infallible_a	4,224	5	9.5906	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95414	The scriptures sufficiency to determine all matters of faith, made good against the Papist: or, That a Christian may be infallibly certain of his faith and religion by the Holy Scriptures. By that great and famous light of Gods Church, William Twisse D.D. and prolocutor of the late assembly of divines.	Twisse, William, 1578?-1646.	1656 (1656)	Wing T3424; Thomason E1698_2; ESTC R209446	47,921	167

mercy at Gods hands are all one Rom. 11.30 Now if it be granted that faith may be had in what degree of certainty soever what sober Christian can make doubt but that if question be made about the means whereby we may have it it may be had by holy Scripture as well as by any other means yea and far better considering that faith is in the proper notion thereof the assent to somewhat from the authority of the speaker and if the speaker is but a man it is no better than faith human if the speaker be God that and that alone makes it to be faith divine Now we all confess that the holy Scripture is the Word of God and therefore if by any word faith may be had in what degree of certainty soever sure it may be had by the Word of God yea and that no other way can Divine Faith be had but by the Word of God not by the word of the creature whether man or Angell And if faith may be wrought by the power of Gods Spirit in the heart of any man he that makes question whether this may be done by the holy Scriptures had need of some good measure of Ellebore to purge his brain for he seems to me to be in the next degree to a mad-man for seeing faith is no faith unless it depend upon some word that God should work his faith by another word than his own is as uncouth and contradictious assertion I should think as ever was heard among the learned But it may be this Author through the confusion of his wits hath not hitherto been so happy as to deliver himself fairly of his own meaning Therefore let us take notice of the Discourse it self whether it may bear any better state of the Question than yet we have been acquainted with For I guess that in the issue the state of the Question will come to this Whether it be possible for us by the holy Scripture to have any certain assurance of the meaning of it Disc The reason of our doubting is this Both Papists and Calvinists holding contrary opinions do maintain prove by the holy Scriptures as they suppose the contrary to that which the Lutherans hold seriously affirming that in the Scriptures the Lutheran Religion is condemned and theirs confirmed Which thing no man will deny to be an evident Argument of the obseurity of theholy Scriptures If there be two Physicians of equall learning and of the same intent in curing the sick that is alike desirous to cure the disease and if these Physicians should out of one and the same Book gather the one that a Fever is cured with wine and the other that wine is as bad as poyson to them that have the Fever how I pray shall we know which of these two to take part withall A man can gather nothing but that the remedy for that disease is obscurely expressed in that Book Consid The sum of all this is that the Scripture is obscure and that which the Author would infer from hence is this therefore it is impossible to be sure of the meaning of it whereby now I perceive the Perplexed Question and Doubtfull case of Conscience comes but to this in plain terms Whether it be possible for a man to be sure of the meaning of Scripture the Author maintains the Negative proves it because the Scripture is obscure and the obscurity of Scripture he proves by this that men differ in the exposition of it Now this I will examine in order and first observe the dodging disposition of this Author and manifest evidence of his corrupt affection and that he comes to this work with an intention not to seek the truth but to circumvent it rather For whereas the force of his Argument to prove that the Scripture is obscure is but this that Divines differ in the interpretation of Scripture yet it served his turn rather to instance in Papists and Calvinists joyning together in the interpretation of Scripture contrary to the Lutherans Might he not as well give instance in Papists and Lutherans holding together in interpretation of Scripture contrary to the Calvinists Might he not as well have instanced in Lutherans and Calvinists joyning together in the interpretation of Scripture contrary to the Papists undoubtedly he might for it is but an indefinite proposition and the matter is clearly contingent Now an indesinite proposition in a contingent matter is confessed in Schools to have no greater force than of a particular proposition As much as to say they differ one from another in the interpretation of some Scriptures Now this may very well be true not onely of Papists differing from Protestants but of Papists differing from Papists as Maldonate from Jansemus and Protestants from Protestants not onely Lutherans from Calvinists but one Lutheran from another and one Calvinist from another in the interpretation of some places of Scripture Nay doth not one Father differ from another after this very manner And do not Modern Divines even Papists as well as Protestants take liberty of dissenting from all the Antients in the interpretation of some places of Scripture Witness Maldonate in the interpretation of that Mat. 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit who takes a way of interpretation different from all the Antients by his own confession And Cardinall Cajetan when he was put upon the studying of Scripture by occasion of his conference with Martin Luther who would hear nothing but Scripture see what a profession he makes in his entrance upon writing Commentaries on the Scriptures Si quando occurrerit novus sensus Textui consonus nec à sacra Scriptura nec ab Ecclesiae Doctrina dissonus quamvis à Torrente Doctorum sacrorum alienum aequos se praebeant censores And when Austin takes notice of the multiplicity of translations of the Scripture he was so far from being offended thereat that he professed there was more profit than damage redounding thereby to the Church and why may it not be so by different interpretations also it being more easie to judge which of them is the right or by refuting them all to find out the true interpretation than at the first dash to find out the true meaning 2. Observe the absurd and malicious carriage of this Author 1. In shaping different Religions according to different interpretations of Scriptures whereas I have shewed that the force of the proposition is onely a particular namely that they differ in the interpretation of some places of Scripture which difference I have shewed may be found and ever hath been found more or less even amongst them that are of the same Religion as amongst none have been more different interpretations of Scripture found than amongst the Antients yet what Christian is found to be so impudent and immodest as to lay to their charge that they differed in Religion and look how many different interpretations of Scripture were found amongst them so many different

THE Scriptures Sufficiency To Determine All Matters of Faith Made good against the PAPIST OR That a Christian may be infallibly certain of his Faith and Religion by the Holy Scriptures By that Great and Famous Light of Gods Church William Twisse D.D. And Prolocutor of the late Assembly of Divines LONDON Printed for Matthew Keynton at the Fountain in S. Pauls Church-yard 1656. SIR I Have read this learned and satisfactory Answer to the Perplexing Question and Doubtfull Case of Conscience in the life time of D. Twisse and if you shall please to give it your Imprimatur I think it may be advantageous in this juncture of time I rest Yours Ja. Cranford May 3. 1652. Imprimatur Edm. Calamy THE APPROBATION OF That Reverend Father of the Church Joseph Hall Bishop of NORWICH In a Letter to his worthily respected friend Mr. W. S. Worthy Sir I Return you many thanks for the favour you have done me in affording me the view of this solid and seasonable piece of Dr. Twisse in full answer to this pretended Questionist who under the colour of a Perplexing Case of Conscience from a Preacher of the Gospell sends forth a foolish kind of challenge to all Protestant Divines Had you not named the Author of the satisfactory Answer and seconded it by anothers attestation I could both have known and avouched him There is a face of a style by which we Scholars know one another no less than our persons by a visible countenance whosoever hath read the witty accute exercitations of this Author upon the writings of Doctor Jackson will easily finde him in this Tractate both for form and matter This sculking and disguised Chalenger could not have met with a meeter Combatant a man so eminent in School-Divinity that the Jesuits have felt and for ought I see shrunk under his strength in their Scientia Media and whom the States of the Netherlands out of the fame of his worth would fain have tempted away with large profers to a Publick Professorship in one of their Universities I onely wish he had met with a more able Adversary For certainly as I intimated to you in my last this Beagle whosoever he be whether out of misprision or craft hunts counter and runs all the while upon a wrong ground vainly supposing that differences in points not fundamentall make a diversity of Religions and weakly conceiving that because there are many false claims to Truth in the world God hath not left us means enough in his revealed Will to distinguish Truth from Error as if because there are store of counterfeit coyns abroad it could not be safe for a man to receive or possible to discern currant money whereas if his wit would have served him he might have considered that all both Agenda and Credenda necessary to salvation which only can difference Religion are clearly laid down in the sacred Oracles of Scripture with which if any refractory soul will unjustly quarrell he may by those helps which God hath left to his Church be either convinced or shamed in the mean while it is no reason that his absurd obstinacy should cast any blemish upon the clear face of truth or be any prejudice to others who are blessed with better apprehensions whose not-forestalled souls out of that judgment of discretion which God hath endowed all wise Christians withall upon due search may by those good means which God hath held forth to us give himself so ful satisfaction in all important Truths as wherein he may securely rest with a resolute defiance of all oppositions Had this Questionist but consulted with learned Bishop Davenant's irrefragable Discourse De judice ac norma fidei he had forborn the blurring of his Paper and spared the labor of this his perplexed and shuffling proposall of his pretend edly-perplexing Question which in very truth is no other than a stale and often exploded Cavill newly furbushed over with a false colour of a tenderly-conscientious irresolution The man will finde himself here over-answer'd and receive too much honour from such an Antagonist in that it may be said of him Aeneae magni dextrâ cadis Now since you are pleased to desire my Opinion of the whole work to speak freely One or two passages I confess to meet with in this learned and weighty Discourse as concerning the name and number of the Apocalypticall Beast 666. which doe not altogether carry my assent That Mysterie must and will lye still close after all the scanning of the sharpest Wits and Judgements But for all the Doctrinall points I cannot but applaud them as worthy of the Authour and satisfactory to the Reader and convictive of the Adversary Farewell from your much devoted J.H.B.N. Higham April 29. 1652. A Perplexing Question OR A doubtfull Case of CONSCIENCE Of a certain Preacher of the GOSPEL OVR Religion is our Faith Faith either saves or condemns justly ought we therefore to be able to understand and prove our Faith But now there ariseth a great doubt to me and other of the simpler sort of Christians Whether it be possible for us to have an infallible certainty of our Faith out of the holy Scriptures and so consequently to rely on and trust to this faith as to an unshaken foundation The reason of our doubting is this Both Papists and Calvinists holding contrary opinions do maintain and prove by the holy Scriptures as they suppose the contrary to that which the Lutherans hold seriously affirming that in the Scriptures the Lutheran Religion is condemned and theirs confirmed Which thing no man will deny to be an evident Argument of the obscurity of the holy Scriptures If there be two Physicians of equall learning and of the same intent in curing the sick that is alike desirous to cure the disease and if these Physicians should out of one and the same Book gather the one that a Fever is cured with wine and the other that wine is as bad as poyson to them that have the Fever how I pray shall we know which of these two to take part withall A man can gather nothing but that the remedy for that disease is obscurely expressed in that Book Some may object The Sects doe not follow the Scriptures onely but they add their traditions the Calvinists add their reason the Anabaptists their dreams I answer They do so in those things which are not cleerly taught in the holy Scriptures but in the controversies between them and Lutherans they proceed not so but by Scriptures they fight against Lutheran Tenents which are confirmed by the Scriptures and indeavour by the help of the Scriptures to sight for and defend their own which the Lutherans by Scriptures doe condemn Nay more there are some viz. the Anabaptists that urge the Scriptures in the very Letter more than the rest The Calvinists use their reason and out of the Scriptures draw Arguments which thing the Lutherans also doe never suffering any of theirs to reason against the Scriptures 2.

the cause of this mans perplexity was it not his own extreme superstition most abominable If the Author of this Discourse had proposed any thing on the other side to the Scripture and pretended ambiguity and perplexity which of them he preferred according whereunto to order his faith that Martialists resolution of the doubt might have been congruous enough But onely concerning the Scripture-doubts are here proposed how a man should ground his faith thereupon what he is I know not and whether this be res gesta or ficta I am to seek for the present world is full of jugling But when wee make such doubts unto our selves do we well consider the goodness and wisdom of God in giving us his holy Word to direct us in the wayes of everlasting life if still there were just cause to complain of a perplexed condition whereinto we were cast not knowing whether we shall take hold of it or run away from it as Moses did from his rod when it was turned into a Serpent But do we finde any the like Metamorphosis here yet when the Lord bid Moses take the Serpent by the tail he was bold to do it surely Gods Word is no Serpent but we rather and his Word alone hath power to charm us and make us vomit all our poyson of erroneous and unholy ways and the Lord Christ hath bid us to take hold of them saying Search the Scriptures yet if any thing in this my Answer seem amiss and not answerable to the Authors expectation but savouring as hee thinks of partiality prejudice or passion I confess prejudice against such discourses as these accompting them most vile and nothing becomming an understanding and godly Christian but as for the rest let him impute it to my ignorance that know not so much as what is the way of his passion for he seems to me to be neither Lutheran nor Calvinist and would not seem to bee a Papist though I am most prone to conceive it to be the trick of some Papist least of all doe I know his person or Countrey But let every sober Christian consider well and inquire whether that since the beginning that Gods Word was committed to writing there were at any time any such questions moved untill this last and worst Age of the world when Cajetan the Cardinall a great School-Divine first encountred with Martin Luther and found that no Authority prevailed with him but Scripturall hereupon hee was moved to study Scripture and wrote Commentaries upon it in his old age But Silvester Prierius of Rome he thought that way too far about and therefore took a shorter course and maintained that the Scriptures contained not all things necessary to salvation and therefore the rule of faith to be made compleat must be pieced up with the unwritten Word added to the written Word which unwritten Word they called Traditions Since that the Papists have strengthned themselves with the Authority of the Church yet confess the true Church cannot bee known to be a true Church nor the Authority thereof known but by the Scriptures and the issue of the resolution of the Church must bee the resolution of the Pope concerning the true interpretation of Scripture shamefully obtruding upon us that we make the resolution of our faith into our own private spirit whereas we to the contrary extend the testimony of the spirit onely to each private mans best satisfaction and teach no other herein than the Papists themselves acknowledge to be most true as touching the resolution physicall of our faith as I am able to prove by variety of pregnant evidences ready at hand without any more adoe than the bare transcribing of them Now this light being not of a nature communicable unto others we meddle not with it in disputing upon any other point of Divinity with Papists or any other But therein walk in all our disputations by way of Resolution Logicall either into some confessed principles as concerning the Attributes Divine or into express passages of holy Scripture the meaning whereof if it be excepted against we are ready to justify it by rationall discourse against any adversary nothing doubting but we shall either convict him of obstinacy in shutting his eyes against the clear evidence of truth and make him condemned in his own conscience or at least in the conscience of all sober Christians being well assured that whosoever resisteth the evidence of Gods Word upon pretence of inevidence that Word shall be found of evidence enough to judge him at the last day ¶ This Jesuiticall Question was sent out of Germany when the Assembly of Divines were sitting at Westminster and was translated out of High-Dutch FINIS