Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	believe_v	church_n	creed_n	9,079	5	10.7231	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40636	A sermon to the clergie at Stony-Stratford in the county of Bucks, Octob. 27, 1670 by Ignatius Fuller.	Fuller, Ignatius, 1624 or 5-1711.	1672 (1672)	Wing F2392; ESTC R2184	24,037	46

Christians amongst Desinunt tum Christiani haberi apud nos Apol. Haec non admittet omnino qui natus à Deo fuerit non futurus Dei filius si admise●it Devestro numero carcer exaestuat Christianus ibi nullus nisi aut reus sua c. us And in another Treatise having enumerated very many of the works of the Flesh he says He that is born of God will by no means commit these things for if he should commit them he would be no longer the son of God So Minucius Felix Your Prisons are crowded with your own number but not a Christian amongst them nisi aut reus suae Religionis aut profugus unless guilty only of his Religion or a Runagado from it So Lucian in his Peregrinus tells us They worshipped their crucified Sophist 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ep. 97. and lived according to his Laws So Pliny to Trajan tells us speaking of Christians They were wont to convene on a set day before it was light and there Carmen Christo quasi Deo dicere secum invicem Ne furta ne latrocinia ne adulteria committerent ne fidem fallerent ne depositum appellati abnegarent Ad capiendum ●ibum premiscuum tamen innoxium Mic. 6. 8. James 1. 27. to sing alternatly an Hymn to Christ as if he were God and to bind themselves by oath to no wickedness but that they would commit no Thefts nor Robberies nor Adulteries nor break their faith nor betray their trust which done they were wont to depart and to meet again to eat bread in common but very innocently Agreeably hereunto doth the Prophet Micah reduce Religion to Righteousness Mercy and an humble Piety and Saint James places true and genuine Religion in Beneficence and Purity of life So that if Christians will contend as such there remains to them only a laudable Ambition to excel in Meekness and Humility in Mercy and Charity in Purity and Peaceableness and not in multiplying Articles of Faith and then like foolish Builders making all of them of the foundation whereof St. Hilary doth gravely complain to Constantius That after the Councel of Nice Christians did Conscii nobis invicem sumus post Niceni Conventus Synodum nihil aliud quam fidem scribi little else but write Creeds Nor in determining fruitless and indeterminable Questions which all Christendom may truly say is Fundus nostrae Calamitatis the Ground of all our Schisms and Divisions Had the Tridentine Fathers had a right notion of Christianity they would have spared their Anathemata and Geneva their Fires and Dort their Wagons had they considered that such and only such Articles are necessary without the explicit knowledge of which we could not perform the conditions of the new Covenant That is Believe in God and Christ and observe their Precepts this entitles us to the Promises They would rather have spent their Zeal in preaching The worthy Author of Causes of the decays of Christian piety hath one chapter of the mischiefs arising from disputes St. Paul's Doctrine of Repentance from dead works and the exercise of Charity For I would the Proud Disputer and the whole Polemick Rabble should know that necessary Articles are neither many nor obscure Not many How succinct was that Creed upon which our Lord built his Church We believe and are sure that Matth. 16. 19. thou art the Son of the living God and this was Marthas Creed and Salvation John 11. 27. was particularly promised to it This was the end of writing St. John's Gospel that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that John 20. 31. believing we might have life through his name That Jesus Christ was the Son of Acts 8. 37. God was the Eunuchs Creed So St. Paul Rom. 10. 8 9. This is the word of Faith which we preach that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus and shalt believe in thy heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved And this simplicity did the antient Church retain Irenaeus who when he had recited that Creed which then was not so long as now it is adds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Not the most eloquent of all the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deminorabit traditionem Iren. l. 1. 23. Prelats in the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 believes any more and the most simple Ideot believes no less the Faith being one and the same They who have the greatest plenty of words do not exceed it and they who have the fewest do not diminish it So Tertullian tells us the Rule of Faith is only one stable and unalterable Regula fidei una omnino est sola immobilis irreformabilis Arbitratur Rex rerum absolute necessariarum ad salutem non magnum esse numerum So that it is no wonder that excellent Prince in his Answer to Perrone thinks the number of things necessary to Salvation is not very great And further his Majesty thought there was no more expedite way to Peace than diligently to seperate Necessaries from Non-necessaries and that we might all agree in Necessaries in non necessariis Libertati Christianae locus detur in unnecessary Articles let Christian liberty take place The King further says That if we made use of this distinction for deciding of Controversies Videsis responsionem ad Epist Card. Per. Londini 1612 at this day there would be neither long nor fierce Contention amongst Pious and Modest men about Articles absolutely necessary Nam pauca illa sunt ferè ex aequo ab omnibus probantur i. e. That they are both few and upon the matter receiv'd by all who would be accounted Christians Nay that learned and pacifick King doth so much value this distinction for the lessening of Controversies which excercise Gods Church that he judges it the Duty of all that are studious of Peace diligentissimè hanc explicare urgere docere most diligently to explicate urge and teach it And this is but the breathing of that Spirit which influenced the first and best Ages of the Church How else shall we understand Justin Martyr who answering that objection of Trypho That Christ should be God before the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 World was and be made man and be born and yet not be born according to the manner of men 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. saith Trypho it seems to me not only incredible but also foolish The holy man answers If I cannot demonstrate that he did pre-exist the Son of him that made the Vniverse and was a Man born of a Virgin herein only 't was sit to say I was mistaken but not to deny that he was the Christ if it should 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Videsis Just Mart. p. 63. Edit R. Steph. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril p. 101. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appear that he was a Man born according to the manner of men and

be demonstrated that he was made the Christ by Election For there are some friends quoth he of our Profession who do confess him to be the Christ yet do affirm him to be a man born according to the manner of men So Cyril of Hierusalem That God hath a Son that you are to believe but be not so curious as to enquire into the Modus of that Filiation for if you seek it you shall not find it Do not flie too high lest you fall but attend to those things alone which he hath commanded you And a little after he tells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. It is sufficient to assist thy Piety to know that God has but one Son So Gregory Nazianzen speaking of the holy Spirit tells you There are that do depress him into the degree of a Creature they he says are injurious and bad 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nazianz Orat. 44. pag. 709. and the worst of servants There are that think him God and they are Divine Spirits and of clear and bright understandings There are that name him so if it be in presence of men of good judgement They are noble souls but if in presence of weak Christians they are not wise dispencers of the word 'T is all one as to cast a pearl into the dirt to object the voice of So the Greeks if they believed the procession of the holy Ghost from the Son yet did not condemn those of Heresie who did not See the Judicious and Learned Doctor Stilling in his Rational Account pag. 10 11 12 13. Thunder or the brightness of the Sun to a weak ear or eye to give solid meat to him that needs and uses milk And to these excellent men I shall subjoyn a worthy Prelate of our own See relation of a conference p. 25. Church who considering the proceedings of Rome in the Article Filioque concludes 't is hard to add and to anathematise too All which passages cannot For the modus of that Procession See Cyril late Patriarch of Alexandria to the Pious and Learned Vtenbogard 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epipham Ego me refero ad illas scripturae voces quae jubent invocare Christum quod est ei honorem divinitatis tribuere plenum consolationis est 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Melancthon Ep. 140. p. 708. be understood without that Royal distinction of necessary Articles and non-necessary And so we see what stress holy and good men laid upon the niceties of the Christian Faith Yet all this notwithstanding the boutefeues and incendiaries of Christendome suppose nor Creed nor Scripture sufficient to make up an Orthodox Christians Confession of Faith To all such superfine wits I shall oppose Tertullian What is Athens to Jerusalem or the Academy Quid ergo Athenis Hierosolumis quid Academiae Ecclesiae quid haereticis Christianis Viderint qui Stoicum Platonicum dialecticum Christianismum protulerunt De Praescript C. 7 8. Nobis curositate non ●st opus post Christum Jesum nec inquisitione post evangelium Cum credimus nihil desideramus ultra credere Hoc enim prius credimus non esse ultra quod credere debeamus to the Church or Hereticks to Christians Let them see to it who have introduced a Stoical Platonick or a subtle Christianity What needs any curiosity after and beyond Christ Jesus or farther disquisition after we have receiv'd the Gospel So soon as we believe we desire nothing farther than to believe for this we first of all believe that there is nothing further that we ought to believe In vain I say did he adore the fulness of the Scripture and provoke the shop Adoro Scripturae plenitudinem Advers Herm. c. 22. of Hermogenes to shew where the matter in controversie was written if not to bid him fear that woe which is denounced against all such as add to or detract from the Sacred Scriptures In vain did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Euseb●us l. 5. c. 16. Apollinaris fear to write against the Heresie of Miltiades lest he should seem to some men to make additions to the Doctrine of the New Testament To or from which he may neither add nor substract who would institute his life according to the precepts of the Gospel They who think they can speak more properly than the Wisdom of God has spoken let them reconcile themselves to Athanasius who avers the Sacred and Divinely inspir'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Orat. cont gentes Scriptures are abundantly sufficient for the declaration of the truth and to Saint Basil who makes it without all doubt a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a manifest falling from the Faith and a most certain proof of pride 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 either to reject any thing De vera fide p. 251. J 10. that is written nor to introduce any thing that is not written Our Lord having said my sheep will hear my voice and a stranger will they not follow but will flee from him for they know the voyce of strangers And again enquiring of what mind the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ought to be he saith he would have them always to fear lest he should affirm or determine any thing besides the Will of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Regul● brevior 98. without controversie laid down in the Sacred Scriptures lest he be found a false witness of God And again he tells us 't is the property of a faithful minister to preserve intire and without the adulterate mixtures of any other Doctrines that which was concredited to him by his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de Ver. fid p. 249. merciful Lord to be communicated to his fellow servants and he assigns irrefragable reason because neither our Lord nor the Spirit of God spake from themselves Nay a little after he tells us he would spare to use such terms and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 de ver fid p. 25. words which in so many syllables are not found in the divine Scriptures though they did retain the same sence and assigns this reason for it such kind of terms and words besides their novelty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are apt to innovate the sence of things and were never found used by holy men heretofore These I have by all means declined 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as strange and forreign to the holy Faith Nothing can be more concluding unless I should end this observation with that voice out of the Cloud which said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well Mat. 17. 5. pleased Hear ye him Nor Obscure Though some men think nothing makes a Solemnity but Shades Cette parole contient nettement clairement tout ce qui est necessaire pour former la Foy pour regler le Culte les Moeurs saith the learned Claude in his Answer to Arnaud lib. 1. c. 4. speaking of God's Word Nay he further adds these excellent words Il est aise