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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A32854 Mr. Chillingworths letter touching infallibility Chillingworth, William, 1602-1644. 1662 (1662) Wing C3888; ESTC R18524 4,488 13

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to it selfe and each part heretical and schismatical to the other what direction could I then an ignorant man have found from that Text of Scripture Unless he hear the Church let him be unto thee as an heathen 〈◊〉 a Publican Or from another Text Upon this R●●k will I build my Church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it 2 Again give me leave to wonder that neither S. Paul writing to the Romans should so much as intimate this their priviledg of Infallibility but rather on the contrary put them in fear in the 11 th Chapter that they as well as the Iews were in danger of falling away 3 That S. Peter the pretended Bishop of Rome writing two Catholick Epistles mentioning his departure should not once acquaint the Christians whom he writes to what Guide they were to follow after he was taken from them 4 That the Writers of the New Testament should so frequently forewarn men of Hereticks false Christs false Prophets and not once arme them against them with letting them know this onely sure meanes of avoiding their danger 5 That so great a part of the New Testament should be employed about Antichrist and so little and indeed none about the Vicar of Christ and the guide of the faithful 6 That our Saviour should leave this onely means for the ending of Controversies and yet speak so obscurely and ambiguously of it that ●ow our Judge is the greatest Controversie and ●●e greatest hindrance of ending of them 7 That there should be better evidence in the Scripture to entitle the King to this office who disclaims it then the Pope who pretends it 8 That Saint Peter should never exercise over the Apostles any act of Jurisdiction nor they ever give him any one title of Authority over them 9 That if the Apostles did know that S. Peter was made Head of them when our Saviour said Thou art Peter and on this Rock c. they should still contest who should be greatest and that our Saviour should never tell them that S. Peter was the man 10 That S. Paul should say that he was nothing inferior to the very chief of the Apostles 11 That the Catechumeni or Novices in the Primitive Church should never be taught this foundation of their faith that the Church of Rome was the guide of their faith 12 That the Fathers Tertullian S. Ierome and Optatus when they flew highest in commendation of the Romane Church should attribute no more to her then to all other Apostolical Churches 13 That in the Controversie about Easter the Bishops and Churches of Asia should be so ill catechized as not to know this principle of Christian Religion the necessity of conformity in Doctrine with the Church of Rome 14 That they should never be pressed with any such necessity of conformity in all things but only with the particular tradition of the Western Churches in that point 15 That Irenaeus and many other Bishops notwithstanding Ad hanc Ecclesiam necesse est omnem convenire Ecclesiam should not yet think that a necessary Doctrine nor a sufficient ground of Excommunication which the Church of Rome thought to be so 16 That S. Cyprian and the Bishops of Africa should be so ill instructed in their faith as not to know this foundation of it 17 That they likewise were never urged with any such necessity of conformity with the Church of Rome nor ever charged with heresie or error for denying of it 18 That when Liberius joyned in communion with the Arrians and subscribed their heresie the Arrians should not then be the Church and guide of faith 19 That never any Hereticks for five Ages after Christ were pressed with this Argument of the Infallibility of the present Church of Rome or charged with the denyal of it as a distinct Heresie so that Aeneas Sylvius who was himself as Pope should have cause to say Ante tempora Concilii Nicaeni quisque sibi vivebat parvus respectus habebatur ad Ecclesiam Romanam 20. That the Ecclesiastical story of those times mention no Acts of Authority of the Church of Rome over other Churches as if there should be a Monarchy and the King for some ages together should exercise no Act of Jurisdiction in it 21. That to supply this defect the decretal Epistles should be so impudently forged which in a manner speak nothing else but Reges atque Monarchas I mean the Popes making Lawes for and exercising authority over all other Churches 22. That the Africane Churches in St. Austins time should be ignorant that the Pope was head of the Church and judg of Appeals Iure divino and that there was a necessity of conformity with that Church in this and all other points of doctrine 23. Nay that the Popes themselves should be so Ignorant of the true ground of this their Authoritie as to pretend to it not upon Scripture or Universal Tradition but upon an Imaginary pretended non-such Canon of the Councel of Nice 24 That Vincentius Lirinensis seeking for a guide of his faith and a preservation from Heresie should be ignorant of this so ready a one the Infallibility of the Church of Rome All these things and many more are very strange to me if the infalliblity of the Roman Church be indeed and were alwayes by Christians acknowledged the foundation of our Faith and therefore I beseech you pardon me if I chuse to build mine upon one that is much firmer and safer and lies open to none of these objections which is Scripture and Universal Tradition and if one who is of this Faith may have leave to do so I will subscribe with hand and heart Your very loving and true Friend W. C. Imprimatur M. FRANCK R. in Christo P. Dom. Episc. Lond. à Sacris Domesticis Sextil 5. 1662.
Mr. Chillingworths LETTER TOUCHING JNFALLIBILITY LONDON Printed by D. Maxwell for Timothy Garthwait at the Kings Head in S. Pauls Church-yard 1662. Good Mr. Leuger THough I am resolved not to be much afflicted for the loss of that which is not in my power to keep yet I cannot deny but the loss of a Friend goes very neer to my heart and by this name of a Friend I did presume till of late I might have called you because though perhaps for want of power and opportunity I have done you no good office yet I have been alwayes willing and ready to do you the best service I could and therefore I cannot but admire the affected strangeness which in your last Letter to me you seem to take upon you renouncing in a manner all Relation to me and tacitly excommunicating me from all Interest in you The superscription of your Letter is to Mr. William Chillingworth and the subscription Iohn Leuger as if you either disdained or made a conscience of stiling me your Friend or your self mine If this proceed from passion and weakness pray mend it if from reason pray shew it if you think me one of those to whom St. Iohn forbids you to say God save you then you are to think and prove me one of those deceivers Who deny Christ Jesus to be come in the flesh if you think me an Heretick and therefore to be avoided you must prove me 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 condemned by mine own judgment which I know I cannot and therefore I think you cannot If you say I do not hear the Church and therefore am to be an Heathen or a Publicane you are to prove then that by the Church is meant your Church of Rome and yet when you have done so I hope Christians are not forbidden to shew humanity and civility even to Pagans For Gods sake Mr. Leuger free your self from this blind zeal at least for a little space and consider with reason and moderation what strange Crime you can charge me with that should deserve this strange usage especially from you is it a crime with all my understanding to endeavour to find your Religion true and make my self a Believer of it and not to be able to do so Is it a crime to imploy all my reason upon the justification of the Infallibilitie of the Romish Church and to find it impossible to be justified I will call God to witness who knows my heart better than you do that I have evened the scale of my judgment as much as possibly I could and have not willingly allowed any one grane of worldly Motives on either side but have weighed the reasons for your Religion and against it with as much indifferencie as if there were nothing in the world but God and my self and is it my fault that the scale goes down which hath the most weight in it That the building falls that hath a false foundation have you such power over your understanding that you can believe what you please though you see no reason or that you can suspend your belief when you do see reason if you have I pray for old friendship-sake teach me that trick but until I have learned it pray blame me not for going in the ordinarie way I mean for believing or not believing as I shall see reason If you can convince me of wilfull opposition against the known truth of negligence in seeking it of unwillingness to find it of preferring temporal respects before it or of any other fault which is in my power to amend that indeed is a fault if I amend it not be as angry with me as you please but to impute to me involuntary errors or that I do not see that which I would see but cannot or that I will not confess that which I do not believe certainly this is a far more unreasonable error then any you can justly charge me with But let me tell you that imputing Socinianism to me whosoever was the Author of it was a wicked and groundless slander Perhaps you will say for this is the usual song of that side that Pride is a voluntary fault and with this I am justly chargeable for forsaking that guide which God hath appointed me to follow but what if I forsook it because I had reason to fear it was one of those blind guides which whosoever blindly follows is threatned by our Saviour that both he and his guide shall fall into the ditch Then I hope you will grant it was not Pride but Conscience that caused me to do so for as it is wise humility to obey those whom God hath set over me so it is sinfull credulity to follow every man or every Church that without warrant will take upon them to guide me Shew then some good and evident title which the Church of Rome hath to this office produce but one reason for it which upon trial will not finally be resolved and vanish into uncertainty and if I yield not unto it say if you please I am as proud as Lucifer In the mean time give me leave to think it strange and not far from a Prodigy that this doctrine of the Romane Churches being the guide of Faith if it be true doctrine should either not be known to the four Evangelists or if it were known to them that they being wise and good men should either be so envious of the Churches happiness or so forgetfull of the good work they took in hand which was to write the whole Gospel of Christ as that not one of them should so much as mention so much as once this so necessary a part of the Gospel without the belief whereof there is as you would make the world believe no salvation and with the belief whereof unless men be snatcht away by sudden death there is hardly any damnation It is evident they do all of them with one consent speak very plainly of many things of no importance in comparison hereof and is it credible or indeed possible that with one consent or rather conspiracy they should be so deeply silent concerning this Unum necessarium this one very necessary thing You may believe it if you can for my part I cannot unless I see demonstration for it For if you say they send us to the Church and consequently to the Church of Rome this is to suppose that which never can be proved That the Church of Rome is the only Church and without this supposal upon the division of the Church I am as far to seek of a Guide of my Faith as ever 1 As for example in that great division of the Church when the whole world wondred saith S Ierome that it was become Arian when Liberius Bishop of Rome as S. Athanasius S. Ierome and S. Hillary testifie subscribed their Heresie and joyned communion with them Or in the division between the Greek and the Romane Church about the Procession of the Holy Ghost when either side was the Church