Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	ghost_n	holy_a	trinity_n	34,129	5	10.2134	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58886	Dr. Sherlock's preservative considered the first part, and its defence, proved to contain principles which destroy all right use of reason, fathers, councils, undermine divine faith, and abuse moral honesty : in the second part, forty malicious calumnies and forged untruths laid open, besides several fanatical principals which destroy all church discipline, and oppose Christs divine authority : in two letters of Lewis Sabran of the Society of Jesus.	Sabran, Lewis, 1652-1732.	1688 (1688)	Wing S217; ESTC R16398	73,086	90

this Principle of Dr. Sherlock be reasonable the Jews ought when he disputed in their Synagouge not to have stirr'd an inch not to have hearkened to him till he had disowned infallibility In the Defence the Honest Footman is ashamed of so unchristian a Principle and would disown it saying That it appears plain and natural to him that he may submit his judgment to an Infallible Judge and yet the Church of Rome may not be that Judge true but this is contrary to Dr. Sherlock's Principle For how long is the Protestant not to stir an inch till the Catholic hath proved his Churches infallibility There would have been some common sense and reason in that Advice but not so says Dr. Sherlock but till he disowns infallibility 'T is as evident then as Noon-day-light that Dr. Sherlock lookt upon infallibility pretended unto as inconsistent with disputing and pretending by reason to convince an other of the truth and that consequently he takes the Jews's part against St. Paul. The Footman Mistook here his Masters Errant Preservative fol. 6. Dr. Sherlock asks this Question What difference is there betwixt mens using their private judgment to turn Papists or to turn Protestants I answered the same as betwixt two sick men the one whereof chooses to put himself in an able Doctors hands whom he knows to have an infallible Remedy whilst 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 Council c. The Doctor 's second Answers by this Question And is not here private Judgment used all this while A shrewd Question indeed Dr. Sherlock had asked what difference there was in these two uses of private Judgment I produce the difference then as if the Question had been forgot still says the Footman there is use made of private Judgment it were as nice a Reply had one asked what difference is there betwixt an Ounce of Gold and an Ounce of Silver if when the different value is express'd he should wisely return this answer why there is still an Ounce in both cases Is there no difference then betwixt one who follows his fancy in choosing his way and him who chooses a good Guide and follows him because both choose do both equally rely on their fancy What Position can more abuse common sense Certainly the Ingenious and Learned Gentlemen of the Temple cannot but smile at this strange way of Reasoning in their Master so different from theirs Preservative fol. 9. 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 I Replyed that the sense takes its Authority from God who spake the Word though we are certain that we have the true sense of that Word because we receive it from the Church which is guided in delivering to us both the Letter and Sense by the infallible Spirit of God that is to abide with Her for ever according to Christs promise Joh. 14. 16. I added that if John and William dispute which is the right way to a place John is not disabled of convincing William of his mistake because he receives the Reasons he uses from an infallible Guide This was plain and full what answers the Doctor 's second He cites some Catholic Divines how truly it belongs not to my present purpose saying that the words of Scripture brought in proof of Transubstantiation might be taken in a different sense from that which the Catholic Church hath ever received and delivered and that had not the Church ever taught that sense one might believe otherwise for all the Letter of Scripture Let it be so but what follows here But the necessity of an unerring Interpreter So that Text 1 Joh. 5. 7 8. There be three which give Testimony in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three be one and there be three which give testimony on Earth the Spirit Water and Blood and these three be one in the sense the Church hath ever received it in proves the strict Unity of God in the Trinity of Persons The Arians gave it a contrary and as natural a sense doth this prove that we follow not Scripture and this very Text in our belief of the Holy Trinity Once more I appeal to the Learned Gentlemen of the Temple hoping they will join with me maintaining against their Master that all the Judges of the Land may very reasonably convince by Law an impertinent Party though he should oppose that they may not do it because their Interpretation of the Law is to deliver the true sense of it The Preservative fol. 11. moves this Question Must the belief of an infallible Judge be resolved into every mans private judgment Must it not be believed with a Divine Faith and can there be a Divine Faith without an infallible Judge I gave this answer 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 it The judgment being possess'd 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 inclined by a pious motion of the Will called by the famous Council of Orange affectio credibilitatis and strengthen'd by that Grace of God which bestows the Gift of Faith fastens on Gods 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 Heresy should be To this the Second of Dr. Sherlock hath nothing to oppose and is willing to submit if I can shew a Revelation that there is an infallible visible Church I will comply with so reasonable a demand and since not one in a thousand of those who oppose our Doctrin in this fundamental Point which once being cleared bears away all disputes understands what that infallibility means on which we ground the admirable certainty of each Point of our Belief give me leave Sir to be somwhat more prolix on this Subject than the narrow compass of a Letter would otherwise allow What is and whence proceeds this infallibility Many do suppose and object unto us that we hold a Man or many to be infallible in themselves a Title to which God alone can lay a Claim who only as he is truth so he is alone infallible They wilfully suppose that we place this infallibility in the sense and judgment of men so that whatever by their own Light they resolve and order must infallibly be true and just that such may frame new Articles

highest impiety or the most rash arrogancy In fine that by the Authority of such Councils Truth is setled and confirmed and all doubts are removed The Oracle of Christ our Lord in this case stands Mat. 8. If he submit not to the Church let him be to thee as a Heathen and a Publican This St. Cyprian was convinced of when he declared That no one can have God for a Father who pays not to the Church the submissive Duties which a Mother hath right to challenge that as no one out of the Ark escaped death in the Deluge so no one can avoid perishing if he revolt from the Church that no one can live to God and be out of her Obedience because that God hath but one House and no body can be saved out of the Church Next the practice of the Apostles for as we find Acts 15. there being a debate about the Obligation that Christians lay under in reference to the Law they appointed Paul and Barnabas to go up and certain others of the rest to the Apostles and Priests unto Hierusalem upon this Question There was made a great disputation and the Conclusion was this Decision of the Church It seemed good to the Holy-Ghost and unto us c. according to the Promise made by Christ Joh. 15. 16. When the Paraclite comes He shall give testimony to me and You shall give testimony to me which words assert the future perpetual union in the same sense betwixt the Invisible infallible Spirit and the Visible Church Hence St. Cyril Patriarch of Hierusalem owned the true Church to be called Catholic not only by reason of her Continuation in all Ages and extent into all places but also by reason that She teaches Catholicly that is Vniversally without Ecclesia vocatur Catholica quia docet Catholice hoc est universaliter sine ullo defectu vel differentiâ omnià dogmata quae debent venire in cognitionem Omne hominum genus pié subjugat Principes privatos Cyr. Hier. Catech. 8. any Error or Variance all that a Christian ought to know submitting piously to her Authority all sorts of men both Princes and People St. Paul though an Inspired Scripture-writer owned this Ordinary Authority as the only sure Guide saying of himself Gal. 2. 1. I went up according to Revelation God ordering it for our Example and instruction and confer'd with them the Gospel which I preached lest perhaps I should have run or had run in vain Not that the Churches approbation added any thing to the truth which had been revealed to him whence he says To me those that seemed to be something added nothing So now the Churches Authority addeth nothing to the truth revealed in Scripture but offers infallibly that truth to be obey'd In which sense St. Augustin owned that he would not believe the Gospel were Ego vero Evangelio non crederem nisi me Catholicae Ec clesiae commoveret Authoritas ad Ep. fund c. 5. Etisi contumax superba obundire volentium multitudo Ecclesia tamen â Christo non recedit Et illi sunt Ecclesia plebs sacerdoti adunata Pastori suo grex adhaerens Ep. 69. he not moved to it by the Authority of the Catholic Church to wit the present one then declaring against the Manicheans for the Church as St. Cyprian had observed before him that is the people united to their Priest the Flock adhering to their Pastor never falls off from Christ though stubborn and proud multitudes of men fall off from Her. How can God abandon the Church to Errors and yet give her Teachers and Pastors the Power to exact a full submission of judgment this St. Paul bears witness unto 2 Cor. 10. The weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty through God casting down all imaginations or reasonings and every thing that exalts it self against the knowledge and bringing into Captivity all understanding in obedience to Christ and he declares to the Ephesians 4. 11. before cited that these Pastors whose teaching will preserve us from wavering and from being tost to and fro will still be until we all come unto the unity of Faith until the Body of Christ be built which will not be compleat till the Worlds End. Yet our Merciful God to bear away all cavilling excuses of those who should pretend the Church to have been lest and abandoned by her Teacher the infallible Spirit of God hath most clearly ingaged his unerring Word for the contrary This is my rest says he by David for ever and Psal 132. ever here will I dwell because I have chosen it And St. Paul assures us that this House of God is the Church of the living 1 Tim. 13. 15. God to omit the greater number of these Promises by Isay he offers these Thou shalt be no more for saken as the Synagogue Isay 60. 10. 62. 3. but thou shalt be called my delight in her upon thy Walls Hierusalem I have appointed Watchmen all the day and all the night in the calm of Peace and in the storms of Persecution for ever they shall not hold their peace There shall come Idem 59. a Redeemer to Sion and to them that shall return from iniquity in Jacob says our Lord as for me this is my Covenant with them my Spirit that is in thee and my words that I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seed nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds Seed from the present and for ever by Hieremy he promises I will give them one Hier. 32. heart and one way that they may fear me for ever I will make an everlasting Covenant with them that I will not turn away from them but will put my fear in their hearts that they shall not depart from me By Ezechiel he thus expresses himself There Ezech. 37. 24. shall be one Shepherd over them all they shall walk in my Judgements I will set my Sanctuary in the midst of them for ever By Malachy thus I will make her who was cast off the Church gathered amongst the Gentils a strong Nation and the Lord shall reign over them from hence forth and for ever And by the Prophet Osee he assures that Church That he hath Espoused her in Faith for ever Was it possible that God should reveal more expresly more fully that his Church should never fail to follow the directions of her Guide the Holy Ghost what wonder that all holy Fathers should continually deliver us a truth of which they had received so frequent and plain Revelations St. Cyprian following the Prophet Osee assures us that this Spouse of Christ can never fall into Adultery must remain Chast and unstained ever dwell in One House and Adulterari non potest sponsa Christi incorrupta est pudica unam domum novit Quisquis ab Ecclesiâ segregatus Adulterae jungitur à promissis Ecclesiae

separatur Cypr. de Unit. Eccles that consequently who ever forsakes her and adheres to an Adulteress any Heretical or Scismatical Congregation looses all right to the Promises made to the Church So certain was St. Gregory Nazianzen that this Si nunc vel ante suscepti sunt qui Apollinaris placita sectantur hoc ostendant nos aquiescemus Perspicuum enim Erit eos ut rectae Doctrinae assentientes susceptos fuisse nec enim se res aliter habere potest 〈◊〉 hoc consequuti sunt Church could never admit any Heretics into her Communion That as zealous an opposer as he was to the Apollinarists he owned he would acquiesce to them if they could prove they had ever been received into the Catholic Churches Communion which would be an undoubted proof that they were fallen into no Heresie And in that case it could not be otherwise but that they did assent to truth St. Athanasius owned this Rule so infallible that he conceived no other Arguments ought to be used against Heretics but this which alone Epist ad Cledon Tantummodo ad ea respondendum est quod ipsum per se sufficit ea Ecclesiae Orthodoxae noti esse nec Majores nostros it a sensisse Epist ad Epist Epist Corim. is sufficient that their Opinion was not the Doctrin of the Orthodex Church that our Ancestors were of another perswasion But what debate can there be of this truth amongst Christians after so plain a decision of Christs own Divine Mouth Matt. 16. 18. The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against her having first assured Peter that he was a Rock unmoveable and that on that Rock he would build his Church On Peter then and his Successors not on their Shoulders indeed as a Protestant Divine very briskly proved but on their personal unmoveable Faith this Church is ever to be built whence all holy Fathers have ever derived the Infallibility of Doctrin promised to the Church Let the great Patriarch of Alexandria S. Cyril be an Instance of it T●●s Sirname Petram opinor per agnominationem nihil aliud quam inconcussam firmissimam discipuli fidem vocavit in quâ Ecclesiâ Christi ita fundata firmata esset ut non laberetur esset inexpugnabilis inferorum portis in perpetuum manens Cyril in Dial. ad Prin. l. 4. of Rock says he is the unmoveable and most firm Faith of this Disciple on which the Church of Christ should be so founded and setled that it should prove impregnable to the Gates of Hell lasting for ever And that all might know that 't is the virtue of the Holy Ghost by whose Infallibility in Guiding the Church remains Infallible in being Guided our Saviour informs his Apostles of it and us by them Joh. 14. 16. He my Father will give you another Paraclite that may abide with you for ever and consequently with their Successors as a Land given to one for ever by force thereof belongs to his Heirs the Spirit of Truth whom the World knows not St. Ambrose who observed no such Promise made to particular Men reading Scripture had hence reason to conclude Let no Man make the Law the measure of his Faith but report it to Nemo fidem suam intra mensuram legis includat sed ad Ecclesiam conferat in quâ septiformis Spiritus gratia relucet uam Princeps ille Sacerdotum fulgore supernae divinitatis illuminat Lib. 7. c. 11. in Luc. the Church in which the Grace of the seven-fold Spirit shines whom that Prince of the Priests doth enlighten with Rays of the Divinity from above Hence Origen concuded That the Son of God as the Scriptures teach us is the Soul of the Body of Lib. 6. contra Gels Christ which is the Church of Christ That the Word of God by a wonderful Virtue moves together all the Members of his Church And can it enter into a Christians thought that a Body guided by the Holy Ghost moved by Christ shall ever go astray But Tertullian represents with a most sensible Energy the weakness of those who can harbor the least suspicion of it The Holy Ghost says he to this intent was sent by Christ to this end was asked of the Father that he should be the Teacher of Truth Did this Steward of God neglect his Office Did this Vicar of Christ permit the Church to believe to teach otherwise than Christ himself Preached by his Apostles St. Paul did not believe it possible when he called the Church not only the House of God but also the Pillar of Truth I omit here those plain Texts of Scripture to be found so frequently in it by which Christ declares this Churches Perpetuity only minding you Sir of that Saying of one of the most famous and Learned Primates of this Kingdom ' T is the same in the Church to Err and to Perish Idem est errare perire Ecclesiam Hanc sacrilegam vanitatem evertit Evangelica veritas Prophetarum atque SS Patrum non violanda authoritas Lanfranc contr Bereng Wherefore since the latter cannot happen if God in revealing cannot Err we may conclude with him that to say it can Err is a Sacrilegious Vanity which the Authority of the Prophets of the Gospels of the Fathers utterly reproves That what Promises were made to the Apostles for the Support and Continuance of the Church are made good to their Successors the lawful Pastors Reason it self evidently makes out God not withdrawing the Means whilst he designs the End. And St. Augustin expresses it fully in these words Commenting on those of the Royal Prophet For thy Fathers Children are born to thee The Apostles did beget thee they were sent they Preached they were thy Fathers but Genuerunt te Apostoli ipsi missi sunt ipsi praedicatores ipsi patres sed numquid nobiscum ipsi semper esse potuerunt Ergo eorum discessu deserta est Ecclesia Absit pro Apostolis nati sunt tibi filii constituti sunt Episcopi c. Aug. in Psal 44. could they remain for ever with us Was then the Church deserted by their departure God forbid For thy Fathers Children were born to thee Bishops were Constituted Think not thy self abandon'd because thou seest not Peter thou seest not Paul Out of thy Issue Fathers are given thee Hence in his Dispute he wonder'd at the sensless Position of Gaudentius Lib. 2. c. 8. contra Gauden the Donatist teaching that the Church had Perished and yet owning their Congregation to be the true Church since Donatus could not be a Father in the true Church had he not been a Son thereof had she Perished before he laid the Foundation of his Schismatical Body Against the same Heretics and the Schismatics of these Days he is as plain on the Psal 103. What mean some says he in the Name of the Church who abandoning me murmur against Quid est quod nescio qui recedentes a me