Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	church_n	infallibility_n	infallible_a	6,723	5	9.8615	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58868	An answer to Dr. Sherlock's Preservative against Popery shewing that Protestancy cannot be defended nor Catholic faith opposed, but by principles which make void all reason, faith, fathers, councils, Scripture, moral honesty.	Sabran, Lewis, 1652-1732.	1688 (1688)	Wing S214; ESTC R28119	9,604	10

Command Fol. 9. Now the Doctor takes the Catholic's part and tho' saintly yet speaks well in so clear a Cause The intention of these Disputes is only to lead you to the Infallible Church and set you upon a Rock and then 't is very natural to renounce your own Judgment when you have an Infallible Guide But now for convincing Reasons against this plain Truth The first is They cannot with any sense dispute with us about the particular Articles of Faith because the sense given of Scripture and Fathers takes its Authority from the Church understanding it so This is false The sense takes its Authority from God who spoke that Word tho' we are certain that we have the true Sense of that Word because we receive it from the Church which is protected and guided in delivering us both the Letter and Sense by the Infallible Spirit of God that is to abide with her for ever according to Christ's promise Jo. 14. 16. If John and William dispute which is the right way to a place is John disabled from convincing William of his mistake by Reasons because he hath with him a Guide who certainly knows the way and that he would himself pass by those Reasons if his Guide assur'd him that he apply'd them ill and wrongly to that way Fol. 11. Must the belief of an Infallible Judge be resolved into every man's private judgment Must it not be believed with a Divine Faith and can there be a Divine Faith without an Infallible Judge There can be no Divine Faith without a Divine Revelation nor a Prudent One without a moral Evidence in the motives of Credibility on which may be grounded the evident Obligation to accept of it The Judgment being possest with that moral Infallibility rests not there but observing that Goodness and Mercy of God which cannot permit that Falshood should be propounded in his Name with all the apparent Marks of his Hand and Seal and without any like appearance on the contrary inclin'd by a pious motion of the will called by the famous Council of Orange affectio credibilitatis and strengthened by that Grace of God which bestows the Gift of Faith fastens on God's Veracity and with a submission not capable of any doubt embraces the revealed Truth If the Infallibility of the Church were more than morally evident it were impossible that any Heresie should be Fol. 17. No understanding Protestant can be disputed into Popery which owns an Infallible Church First because no Arguments or Disputations can give me an Infallible certainty of the Infallibility of the Church We saw Dr. Sherlock just now pleading for the Jews against St. Paul now he reasons even against Christ our God blessed for evermore His words prove that Christ who own'd himself Infallible did imprudently to Preach or work Miracles for since they could not give an Infallible Certainty an evident one he means by his whole Discourse no prudent Jew or Gentile could be disputed by him into Faith. Arguments so offensive to pious ears ought to meet with no other Answer than Prayers for him who offers them 'T is impossible by reason to prove that men must not make use of their own Reason and Judgment in matters of Religion That men must use Reason to come to the Knowledge that God hath revealed what they believe is very certain as the Jews Exod. 14. Crediderunt Domino Moysi servo ejus did believe God and Moyses his Servant all Nations Christ and his Apostles so each Christian now Christ and his Church the first as Author the second as Witnesses commissioned from God of their Faith by conceiving the Proofs they offered of their Commission So far Judgment So the Apostles believed Christ saying of himself that he was the Son of God their Judgment being convinced that God spoke by him which method appears most particularly in the man born blind whom he cur'd and who was thereby convinced that God was with him Nisi Deus esset cum illo but after that there is no further use of Reason if we believe St. Paul but in order to the bringing into Captivity all Understanding into the Obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. The Doctor frames a Dispute fol. 21. betwixt a sturdy Protestant as he calls him and a Catholic You may guess how well he manages the Catholic's part In the Couclusion he gives this topping reason for the Protestant Religion We have as much assurance of every Article of our Faith as you have of the Infallibility of your Church This is the great point indeed which if a Protestant loses he loses all for 't is certain and evident that the Catholic has the same assurance for each Article of his Faith proposed by the Church which he hath of the Churches Infallibility He proves it first because we are in general assured that the Scriptures are the word of God. Hitherto there holds some parity tho' but lame but suppose it were entire The Conclusion would be this Catholics are as certain of the Sense of Scripture as Protestants are that they have the Letter whence it follows demonstratively that when Protestants differ in the Sense from Catholics they have less assurance for it than Catholics who have always as much as the Protestants have for the Letter whereas Protestants must never be more certain of the Sense of the Letter than of the Letter it self 2dly And in particular we are assured that the Faith which we profess is agreeable to Scripture If he means they have the same proofs for this which Catholics have for the Infallibility of the Church that is for the being of that Church which declares her self Infallible for a Church erring in such a point would cease to be the Church of Christ then 't is evidently false since each Christian in this Age hath the same Evidence of her being the Church of Christ and of her teaching Truth and consequently of her Infallibility which he hath of Christ viz. Prophesies Miracles c. which no Protestant as much as challenges for the Certainty of the particular Sense of Scripture What other Sense this Proposition can have I do not conceive Fol. 23. If you must not use Reason and private Judgment then you must not by any Reason be persuaded to condemn the use of Reason I never read so much and so little of Reason there is such a rumbling of the word which for eight or nine lines occurs at least once in each and yet so little sense All he says might be with equal weight said by a sick man who dissuaded from choosing his own Remedies and desir'd to send for a skilful Doctor should answer 'T is impossible by reason to persuade me not to use my reason in governing my self by reason as my own reason teaches me which would be to condemn reason and yet be guided by your reason Such Discourse would prove the sick party at least somewhat light-headed what 't is a Symptom of in Dr. Sherlock

AN ANSWER TO Dr. SHERLOCK's PRESERVATIVE AGAINST POPERY SHEWING That Protestancy cannot be Defended nor Catholic Faith Opposed but by Principles which make void all Reason Faith Fathers Councils Scripture Moral Honesty Published with Allowance LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's Most Excellent Majesty for His Houshold and Chappel And are to be sold at his Printing-house on the Ditch-side in Black-Fryers 1688. They are also to be sold at Lime-street Chappel-door AN ANSWER TO Dr. SHERLOCK's Preservative against POPERY SHEWING That Protestancy cannot be Defended nor Catholic Faith Opposed but by Principles which make void all Reason Faith Fathers Councils Scripture Moral Honesty TRUTH being all of a piece hath this advantage that it can never be opposed by Truth and Reason whatever charge is drawn up against it must prove either false in the Premises or erroneous in the Consequence The first Opposers of Catholic Truth in England being sensible of this fell presently to Forgeries clipping of Texts Fathers and Councils and by Misrepresentations to cast so much dirt upon the face of Truth as disfigured so her native Beauty that the common Herd not discovering so soon the Cheat were frighted into the opposite Errors glaz'd over with a false varnish This method they still follow'd on as long as the liberty of Press and Pulpit was deny'd to those who could easily have wip'd off that dirt and laid open such gross Cheats The Advice to Roman Catholics tho' reprinted since yet first set forth by Dr. Cumber in the time of the pretended Plot when whatever was boldly sworn or said against Innocence and Religion tho' false to the degree of impossibility was greedily swallow'd is a fair instance in this case whence such false Citations tho' they bore in the front of a Preface all assurance of Truth can be produced by dozens Now that Innocency and Truth have room to gather breath and speak for themselves the method is somewhat alter'd and those who write against Catholic Verities tho' they cannot wholly forget the old trick of Misrepresenting ever continu'd from Tyndall and Jewell to Dr. Tenison yet generally they make use of the second shift of erroneous Consequences and false Inferences not so readily seen through by less cautions and prepossest Readers From particular Propositions true in themselves they infer such general Assertions or joyn Principles so loose wild and erroneous to a plain Text of Scripture that any Error may shelter it self in the Close tho' the meanest Logician cannot but blush at so open a Fraud I happened to be lately present at a full mix'd Assembly in the City where this method well follow'd by the Answerer unto the Address to the Ministers of the Church of England being fairly laid open most of the Protestants there asham'd of it found no better salvo than to disown the Answerer as an ignorant Scribler who had betray'd his Cause The Name of him that licens'd the Paper should I conceive have covered it from such reproaches I know not the Answerer and will not charge him with any other fault than of having undertaken the defence of a bad Cause which may as well be the effect of Engagement and Prejudice as of Ignorance To justifie him so far I will give an instance taken from the Preservative against Popery that the Cause bears no better defence tho' it might otherwise have been expected from so fam'd an Author as Dr. Sherlock who yet could not support it but by such Principles as make void all use of Reason Faith Fathers Councils Scripture and moral Honesty as I shall make appear in few lines enlarging my self somewhat more on Reason the Gift I perceive which he most values himself upon especia●ly in a Cause in which he tells us 〈…〉 ●eanest Trades-man can now dispute against Popery with sufficient skill and undertakes to teach such how to baffle all the Catholics Principles of Dr. Sherlock which overthrow all right use of common sense He charges Catholics with this great Crime fol. 3. That they will not allow the reading heretical Books and proves his Charge because God not only allows but requires it Since one Error may infer another that Congregation indeed which allows to each man and even obliges him to stand to his own Choice and Judgment must allow that liberty and how his Fellow-Ministers can justifie themselves who use all endeavors to hinder their Flock from hearing Catholic Sermons and reading Catholic Books I know not much less how the Congregation established here lately by Law having declared that each man was bound as Dr. Sherlock often repeats it in his Preservative to judge for himself yet could force all Dissenters not to stand to that their Judgment but to comply against it and that by Excommunications Sequestrations Imprisonments Exclusion from all the Preferments and Advantages of a free-born Subject even by Hanging and Quartering this I confess comes not within the reach of common sense reason But for us Catholics who have inherited from St. Paul Gal. 1. 8. that Faith that if an Angel from Heaven should teach us any thing in opposition to it we ought not to mind him or return him any other Answer than Anathema How God should require from Us to read heretical Books I confess my reason cannot teach me He blames then this Inference You have an Infallible Guide therefore you are no more to seek Fol. 4. Ask them Whether they will allow you to judge for your selves in matters of Religion If they do not why will they trouble you with disputing you cannot be convinc'd unless you judge too and thereby resolve Faith into a private Spirit Here let our Protestant fix his foot and not stir an inch till they disown Infallibility This is to say 't is impossible to convince a man that in reason he ought to submit his Judgment to that of any other tho' infallible Doth not this pretty Logic make void all the right use of common sense and reason when it should lead us to submit to any just Authority We find St. Paul Act. 19. frequently disputing in the Synagogue he pretended to Infallibility through the Spirit of God who directed him But Dr. Sherlock takes the Jews part against him bids them not stir an inch not hearken to him till he disowns Infallibility Spoken like a Christian Doctor Fol. 6. What difference is there betwixt mens using their private Judgments to turn Papists or to turn Protestants The same as betwixt two sick men the One whereof chooses to put himself in an able Doctor 's hands whom he knows to have an Infallible Remedy whil'st the other chooses his own Simples and makes his own Medicin as between two at Law the One whereof is guided by his reason to take Advice from a Wise Counsellor the Other to be his own Counsel as between two Subjects the One whereof is guided by his reason to take up Arms for his King the Other to judge of his King 's Right and