Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n
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A64788
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A letter to the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esq., defending the divine authority of the Holy Scripture and that it alone is the rule of faith in answer to Father Simon's Critical history of the Old Testament / written by C.M. Du Veil.
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Veil, Charles-Marie de, 1630-1685.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing V176; ESTC R6969
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10,928
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20
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Apostolus quia in Apostolo ipse loquitur Christus This Controversy requires a Judge therefore let Christ judge and say of what Advantage his Death hath been and let the Apostle judge with him because Christ himself speaks in the Apostle In his Book of Grace and free will Chap. 13. Sedeat inter nos judex Apostolus Joannes Let the Apostle John judge between us And in the 2d Book against Cresconius Chap. 32. Litter as Cypriani non ut Canonicas habeo sed eas ex Canonicis considero quod in eis divinarum Scripturarum autoritati congruit cum laude ejus accipio quod autem non congruit cum pace ejus respuo I do not allow of the Letters of Cyprian as Canonical but I judge of them by the canonical Scriptures and what in them is congruous to the Authority of the Holy Scriptures I receive with due praise to him but what is incongruous I Reject with his leave In short this Abridgement was unknown to the Councils seeing they placed the Scriptures in the midst of them to serve for a Rule to their Decisions which would have been to no purpose if there had been in all times in the Church an Abridgement of Religion independant of the Scriptures Father Simons saying That the Apostles preached the Gospel before they wrote it and that in the time of St. Irenaeus there were still several Churches who believed in the Gospel by Tradition without having seen it in Writing serves little to Authorize his pretended Abridgement for certain it is that when we say that the Scriptures contain clearly all that is necessary to Salvation we do not oppose the Truths couched upon Paper in the Scripture against the same truths uttered by the tongue of the Preachers we know that the Prophets and Apostles ought to have been believed when they preached the Truths which the Holy Ghost inspired into them as well as when they reduced 'em into Writing But we only say that the Apostles and Prophets have reduced the same truths which they Preached into Writing after such a manner that for the Regulating of our Faith we only need to have recourse to their Writing This is what St. Irenaeus says in his third Book against Heresies Chap. 1. Non enim per alios dispositionem salutis nostrae cognovimus quam per eos per quos evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc praeconiaverunt postea vero per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futurum We know not by others the Disposition of our Salvation than by those from whom the Gospel came to us which indeed they then Preached But afterwards by the will of God they delivered to us in Scriptures to be the Foundation and Pillar of our Faith If Father Simon asks us what assurance we can have that the saving truths were not altered in the Holy Writ we can answer him that the Tradition or Preaching of the Gospel in all Ages was the instrument which God made use of to make known to us that the Scripture is the Word of God and that it was never altered after such a manner but that it still contains very clearly what we ought to believe and what we ought to do to be saved Fides ex audi tu Rom. 10.17 But that it is God who hath perswaded us inwardly of the Truth of this Preaching and this answer is very true since that the Faith is a gift from God and very conformable to what St. Augustine sayes speaking to God in the 5. chap. of his 6th Book of his Confessions Persuasisti mihi non qui crederent libris tuis sed qui non crederent esse culpandos Nec audiendos esse si qui forte dicerent Vnde scis illos unius veri veracissimi Dei Spiritu esse humano generi ministratos Thou hast perswaded me that those who do not believe in thy Books not those who do believe are guilty nor are they to be given Ear to if they should by chance say Whence knowest thou that they were administred to Humane Kind in the Spirit of the most true and upright God I have nothing more Sir then to make an end with beseeching you to thank God for me that he has given me by his mercy that precious gift of the faith and perswaded me to renounce the Idolatry Heterodox Traditions Superstitious Noveities of the Church of Rome to embrace an Orthodox Communion which professes to love the Brotherhood fear God and honour the King and to Rule her Morels as well as her worship and Faith onely by the Scripture divinely inspired non taliter fecit omni Nationi and to desire the same God to continue to me his Grace and Protection whom I heartily pray that he would more and more shed abroad his Blessings over your worthy Person and over the Lady Katherine Viscountess Ranelaugh Your most Accomplished Godly Charitable and Bountiful Sister and over all your Noble Family I am Sir Your Honours most Humble and most Obedient Servant C. M. Du Veil
A LETTER To the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq DEFENDING The DIVINE AUTHORITY OF THE HOLY SCRIPTURE And that it alone is the RULE of FAITH IN ANSWER TO Father Simon 's Critical History OF THE Old Testament Written by C. M. Du Veil D D. Sufficit Christiano ad confutandum errorem quemlibet dicere Scriptura non habet Lutherus The Fathers in their Homilies did use constantly to declare to the People what they were to believe and what they were to practise out of the Scripture Dean Tillotson's Rule of Faith P. 1. Sect. 3. LONDON Printed for Thomas Malthus at the Sun in the Poultrey 1683. A LETTER To the Honourable Robert Boyle Esq To prove that the Scripture alone is the Rule of Faith c. Honourable Sir A Book indeed full of Learning Printed at Paris without a Title-Sheet came lately to my hands intituled The Critical History of the Old Testament Whereof Father Simon Priest of the Oratory of Paris is thought to be the Author He pretends to prove in that Work that nothing for certain can be asserted in Religion unless Tradition be joyned with the Scripture for the Decision of Questions of Faith There is without doubt Ignorance says that Author in his Preface or Prepossession in the Minds of the Protestants Who pretend that the Scripture is clear of it self Nevertheless Sir nothing is more certain in all that can be called Tradition than this Principle of the Protestants St. Chrysostom in his third Homily of Lazarus observes after Origen this difference between the Philosophers and the Authors of the Scripture that the Philosophers are obscure whereas the Apostles and Prophets being the common Masters of the Universe have written after so clear a manner that every Capacity may be instructed in their Doctrine by the reading alone thereof And in the same Homily that Doctor maintains that the ignorance of the Sacred Scriptures is the source of the Corrupted Morals as well as of all the Heresies St. Augustin in the second Book of the Christian Doctrine says Chap. 9. In iis quae aperte in Scriptura posita sunt inveniuntur illa omnia quae Continent fidem moresque vivendi In those things which are plainly laid down in Scripture are found all those things which pertain to Faith and the Rules of Living This the Learned Gerson Chancellor of the University of Paris expresses in these terms Sensus Literalis Scripturae satis expressus est in iis quae sunt necessaria ad Salutem And this induced the Church of England to make this Canon with great reason in the Synod of London in 1552 and 1562. The Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation So that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby although it be some time received of the Faithful as godly and profitable for an Order and Comeliness yet no man ought to be constrained to believe it as an Article of Faith or reputed requisite to the Necessity of Salvation Father Simon does disingeniously quote the thought of St. Augustin in the 7th Chap. of the third book of his Critical History That Holy Doctor supposes sayes he that the Scripture is obscure and hard to be understood and yet he adds that for the most part what is obscure in one place is found laid plainly open in another and that what regards the belief and manners is much more clearly expressed in the Bible than all the rest Now to read the thought of St. Augustin in the Book of Father Simon that Doctor seems only to assert that commonly the Scripture is clear in what concerns the belief and manners nay and more clear than in all the rest But St. Augustine says more in the Words Cited for he says absolutely that all we ought to believe and do is found clearly in the Scripture therefore according to Father Simon There is without doubt either Ignorance or Prepossession of Mind in St. Augustin as well as in St. Chrysostom Gerson generally in all the Great Divines of Antiquity who have been perswaded with * Tom. 1. in Jerem. Origen that not any Sentiment is worthy of Faith unless it be proved by Scripture nor any interpretation of the same Scripture to be admitted without it be confirmed and supported upon Passages of the Old or New Testament for this Reason is it that in the Decree of Gratian Distinct 27. in the Chap. which begins with this word Relatum there is an express order to decide all Controversies by the Holy Writ and to explain the obscure passages which are met with therein by the Scriptures themselves ex ipsis Scripturis But this is sufficient Entertaining you Sir with the groundless Sentiment of Father Simon touching the insufficiency of the Scripture for the instructing People in Religion Now I proceed to the three proofs which he makes use of for the Establishing of his Opinion The first is taken from the great Changes which have happen'd as well in the Original Text as in the Versions of the Scripture This proof may seem to have some force upon an Atheist or a Pagan but not upon a Christian Who knows that notwithstanding the Changes that have been made in Scripture Jesus Christ The Apostles and the Fathers of the Church have always proved the Truth of their Doctrine by the Scripture As for what concerns the Fathers I shall show it amply in my answer to the third proof of Father Simon though what I have already urged might suffice In regard of Jesus Christ and his Apostles Father Simon says That they have fitted the Testimonys which they Cited out of the Old Testament to the Explications received and authorized by Tradition But this is a false fore-judging of that Father of whom with reason these Words of St. Jerome may be said Hoc de Scripturis Authoritatem non habet ideo ea facilitate Contemnitur qua probatur This has no Authority from Scriptures therefore may be rejected with the same ease it is admitted Jesus reprehends Traditions and yet father Simon would make us believe that he establishes his Doctrine by Tradition and that he only makes use of the Word of God according to the Pre-judgment of Tradition It was a Tradition amongst the Jews founded upon a passage of the Prophet Malachy misunderstood that Elias was to precede by his Preaching the coming of the Messias but the Gospel tells us that tradition did ill interpret the Prophet Malachy who did not pretend to speak of the Person of the Prophet Elias but of John the Baptist who was to forego Jesus Christ in Spiritu Virtute Eliae It is evident by the 5th Chapter of St. Matth. that the Jews explaining the Scriptures by the Pre-judgment of Tradition had very faulty Morals But Jesus Christ who came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them rejects the false Expositions given to the Law by the Jews according to their Traditions and discovers the real sence thereof conformably to other