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
A61567	A letter to Mr. G. giving a true account of a late conference at the D. of P.	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.; Godden, Thomas, 1624-1688.	1687 (1687)	Wing S5602; ESTC R7652	2,801	8

A LETTER To Mr. G. Giving a True Account of a Late Conference At the D. of P. Imprimatur Martii 12. 1686 7. Guil. Needham LONDON Printed for H. Mortlock at the Phoenix in Saint Paul's Church-yard 1687. A LETTER To Mr. G. Giving a True Account of a Late CONFERENCE At the D. of P. SIR I Was very much surprised at the sight of several Copies you have given out of the Conference between us at my House in Ianuary last For although you took great care in the Conference it self to keep me from expecting any great Ingenuity from you after it yet I could hardly believe you would have ventured so far as to have given out such false and imperfect Copies of what past as all those have been which came to my hands and were all said to be dispersed by you You know very well that the Gentleman who wrote for you never read his Papers in the Conclusion that we might judge how fairly he had represented both sides and when they were neither Read nor Compared nor Signed as they ought to have been with what Ingenuity can these be dispersed through so many hands for true and Authentick Copies At least you ought to have sent them to me and to have answered my Objections against them before you had read them in Coffee-houses and made such Descants upon them in places where you were sure I would not be present to contradict you But when nothing was done to make your Copy appear to be good they must be of very easie faith and understanding who would take your word in this matter without so much as any Motives of Credibility I hear you made great boasts of your Victory after the Conference which I onely smiled at and thought you hoped to make your self considerable by your Vanity If you gain no greater Victories you will very little increase the Number of your Converts For the Gentleman for whose sake the Conference was declared immediately after it that he was much more confirmed in the Communion of our Church by it and resolved to continue in it which he hath since repeated several times to me But of all the Persons of your Church I have yet met with you had least Reason to go away with the boast of a Victory For I pray call but to mind how the Conference ended and I think you will be ashamed of your boasting When you came to your Demonstration of Infallibility in the Church of Rome which came to this in short That all Traditionary Christians believe the same to day which they did yesterday and so up to the time of our Blessed Saviour and if they follow this Rule they can never err in faith therefore are infallible And you proved they could not innovate in Faith unless they did forget what they held the day before or out of malice alter it I thought the best way to shew the Vanity of this rare Demonstration was to produce an Instance of such as followed Tradition and yet you could not deny to have erred and that was of the Greek Church which went upon Tradition from Father to Son as much as ever the Roman did And I desired to know of you whether the Greek Church notwithstanding did not err in matters of Faith And if it did then a Church holding to Tradition was not infallible Your answer was That the Greek Church followed Tradition till the Arians left that Rule and took up a new one i. e. Scripture privately interpreted I told you I did not mean the Arians but the present Greek Church which you charge with Heresie and yet they follow Tradition from Father to Son. This I was forced to repeat over and over but no answer could I get from you but you still ran back to the Arians and compared them and the Calvinists which I told you was not at all to the purpose for I insisted upon the present Greek Church and so you rose up in a heat and endeavoured to keep those who wrote from setting down this last part as it ought to have been In the Papers dispersed by you you make me barely put the question Whether the Greek Church did follow Tradition from Father to Son in matters of Faith or no But do not mention the Inference I drew from it and which is set down in the Original Paper that was read aloud and approved by both parties That if the Greek Church followed Tradition which is undeniably true and is granted by your self in your Answer then a Church holding to Tradition as its Rule may err in matters of Faith which unavoidably overthrows your pretended Demonstration For you cannot make an evasion by saying That though the Greek Church once adhered to Tradition yet in the Time of Arianism it left that Rule and took up another and so ever since fell into errour as the Calvinists did for that is apparently false as to the present Greek Church of which I spake as is known to every one that knows any thing of the Greek Church which in all its differences with the Roman Church as to the Procession of the Holy Ghost the Pope's Supremacy Purgatory c. still pleaded Tradition and adhered to it Neither is so much of your Answer true as that even the Arians went off from the Rule of Tradition for they insisted on it and Petavius thinks they had good Reason for it But however I said my Instance was not about them but the present Greek Church and this I do affirm you gave no Answer at all to I know what Arts have been used to get Mr. T. to approve your Copy I have not seen what he wrote and I desired him to bring the Gentleman to me who wrote for you that we might compare ours together but word was left with my Servant that he was not well But suppose he should now correct his Copy this will be too late for my Vindication since so many imperfect ones have been given out and dispersed not onely here in Town but over several parts of the Nation And therefore I am 〈◊〉 to take this way to put a stop to such dis 〈…〉 ceeding I hear Mr. M. pretends that I gave but false Copies which is so far from being true that I was often solicited on the account of your Papers before I let one be seen and then it was onely to correct the Errours of yours And mine was taken by a Person of Learning as well as Integrity who was present at the whole Conference and very well understood the whole matter But because your Writer's Copy was not then read and none signed I desire you now to make good these two things which the whole Conference depended upon 1. That we have no absolute Certainty as to the Rule of our Faith viz. the Scripture although we have a larger and firmer Tradition for it viz. the Consent of all Christian Churches than you can have for the Points of Faith in difference between us 2. That the Tradition from Father to Son is an infallible conveyance of matters of Faith notwithstanding the Greek Church is charged by you with Errour which adhered to Tradition If you give a satisfactory Account of these two things you will acquit your self much better than by boasting in Coffee-houses and dispersing such Copies of Conferences If you decline giving an Answer to this just and necessary Vindication of my self the World will easily see on whose side the Victory lay but I confess I did not think it worth boasting of If you are really such a man at Controversie as I hear you would be taken for I offer you a fair opportunity to shew your self and I do promise by God's Assistance to return an Answer to you in such a manner as will be least liable to the Injury of False Copies I am SIR Your Humble Servant E. S. March 7. 1686 7. THE END