Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	rule_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	12,255	5	9.8749	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71250	A second defence of the exposition of the doctrine of the Church of England against the new exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux, Late Bishop of Condom, and his vindicator, the first part, in which the account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition, is fully vindicated ...	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1687 (1687)	Wing W260; ESTC R4642	179,775	220

Plots Persecutions and such like 2. The Means of Fraud and Deceit your false Expositions and Misrepresentations of your Doctrine to deceive the ignorant and unwary till you get them into your Nets 3. The Means of Confidence and Vncharitableness your bold Anathema's and vain thundrings of Damnation against all that differ from you your assuming the Name and Priviledges of the Church Catholick to your single Communion and excluding all others out of it as Schismaticks and Hereticks And lastly to mention no more the Means of gross Ignorance and blind Obedience by depriving Men of their liberty of reading the Holy Scripture by keeping your Service in an unknown Tongue by teaching Men to depend intirely upon your Churches Dictates and not to depart from them tho Sense Reason Scripture all be contrary to them These are I confess some of those peculiar Means whereby you have sought to procure Christian Peace and Experience tells you that they are indeed the most advantageous of any to the Cause you have to defend And if these be the Means which you say we have opposed I hope we shall always continue so to do and rather bear all the Evils of these Divisions than either buy Peace upon such Terms or pursue it by such Means as these 5. Ad p. 2 3. To what I observed from the late Methods that had been taken up in our Neighbour Country to avoid the entring upon particular Disputes which I said you were sensible had been the least favourable of any to your Cause you reply That you have never declined fighting with us at any Weapon which how true it is the account before given of your managing the present Controversie with us sufficiently declares And indeed you seem in some sort to have been sensible of it and therefore recur to your Antient Authors for proof of your Assertion The Sum of what you say is this 6. Reply That there have been three sorts of Protestants since the Reformation 1. Some who appealed to Scripture only neither would they admit of Primitive Fathers nor Councils 2. Others who perceived that they could not maintain several Tenets and Practices of their own by the bare words of Scripture and despairing of Fathers and Councils of latter Ages pretended at least to admit of the first four General Councils and of the Fathers of the first three or four hundred Years 3. Others finally who ventured to name Tradition as a useful Means to arrive at the true Faith. And all these you say you have convinced of their Errors 7. Answ It has always been your way to multiply Sects and Divisions among Protestants as much as ever you were able and then to complain against us upon the account of them and here you have given us a notable Instance of it The three Opinions you have drawn out as so many different Parties amongst us do all resolve into the very same Principle That the Holy Scripture is the only perfect and sufficient Rule of Faith So that all other Authorities whether of Fathers or Councils or unwritten Tradition are to be examined by it and no farther to be admitted by us than they agree with it This is in effect the common belief of all Protestants whatsoever as appears from their several Confessions and might easily be shewn out of the Writings of our first Reformers and the most eminent of those who have lived since and built their Faith upon the same Foundation It is true indeed there have been some who the better to maintain their Separation from the Church of England have from this sound Principle That nothing is to be received by us as a Matter of Faith but what is either plainly expressed in the Holy Scripture or can evidently be proved by it drawn a very ill Consequence viz. That nothing might lawfully be done or used in the Worship of God unless there were some Command or Example for it in Scripture and have by this means run themselves into great Inconveniences But the Rule of Faith which an uninterrupted Tradition by the common consent of all Parties of Christians however otherwise disagreeing in other Points has brought down to us and delivered into our hands as the Word of God this has among all Protestants been ever the same viz. The Holy Scripture And if for the farther proof of the Truth of our Doctrine we have at any time put the issue of our Cause to the decision of the Church of the first three or four hundred Years it is not because we suppose that those Fathers who then lived have any more right to judg us or determine our Faith than those that follow'd after but because upon examination we find them to have yet continued at least as to the common Belief received and establish'd amongst them in their Purity and that what was generally establish'd and practised by them was indeed conformable both to their and our Rule the Word of God. 8. This then is our Common Principle and this you cannot deny to be most reasonable For whatsoever Authority you would have us give to those Holy Fathers yet it cannot be doubted but that 1st Being * Durandus l. 4. Sent. d. 7. q. 4. de S. Gregorio Nescio cur non possit dici quòd Gregorius cum fuerit Homo non Deus potuerit Errare Men subject to the same Infirmities with our selves they were by consequence obnoxious to Errors as well as we and therefore may not without all examination be securely follow'd by us Especially if we consider 2dly That we are expresly forbid in Holy Scripture to rely on any Persons whatsoever without enquiry whether what they teach be true or not Dearly Beloved says St. John believe not every Spirit 1 John 4.1 but try the Spirits whether they be of God or no. The same is St. Paul's Doctrine To prove all things and then hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 St. Peter exhorts all Christians to be ready to give a reason of the Hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3.15 And our Blessed Saviour himself once gave the same encouragement of examining even his own Doctrine And why says he of your selves do you not judg that which is right Luke 12 57. Nay but 3dly these Holy Fathers were not only capable of Erring but in many things they actually did Err and are forsaken by you upon that account The Millenary Opinion was generally received in the first Ages of the Church They derived it from St. John to Papias from him to Justin Martyr Irenaeus Melito Tertullian c. Yet is this Opinion now rejected by you The Doctrine of the necessity of Communicating Infants was the Common Doctrine of the Fathers in S. Austin's Time and is confess'd by your most Learned Men Cardinal Perron and Others to have been generally practised in the Church for the first six hundred Years Concil Trid. Sess 21. Can. 4. Yet have you Anathematized those who shall now assert with