Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	creed_n	2,605	5	10.2206	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47046	Of the rule of faith a sermon at the visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God, William Lord Bishop of Lincolne, holden at Bedford August 5, 1674 / by William Jackson ...	Jackson, William, 1636 or 7-1680.	1675 (1675)	Wing J95; ESTC R16801	18,948	43

of them with that Zeal and constancy which the greatness of the Cause it self and our unchangeable concernment in it require and was the second part of our earnest Contention proposed they would not fail through Gods blessing who never deserts the Cause of Faith to make our Church and People happy But they have generally had that bad fortune that other good things have to be better known and valued from the want then from the enjoyment and benefit of them A miscarriage which surely we have since his Majesties most happy Restauration been guilty of A miscarriage that must from the notion and nature of it make Mankind miserable all happiness consisting in the right apprehension and enjoyment of the good we are possest of And the more extreamly miserable the greater Importance and Necessity the things themselves are of which was the Third member of the Text and hath two parts First the importance of our carnest contending for our Rule of Faith It is the securing of the foundation and the very Being of the Church and the Pillars of our future Happiness and undoubtedly of the greatest consequence Secondly the necessity of it now the Greater because of the restless importunity and unrestrained licenciousness of our Adversaries which is so visible and causes so much complaint already that I shall not spend time in speaking of it nor I hope need to caution you to defend yourselves against it Yet must not forget to put you in the right way to do it and that is by laying at home in your own Souls a good foundation of this Ancient and Holy Faith by a diligent learning of and resolute adhering to these Articles to this Rule of Faith as it is literally delivered in the plainest places of Holy Scripture and comprised and explained in the three Creeds and the Church Catechism If we forsake these holds there is nothing in the Christian World can secure our Faith These we are therefore constantly to teach our Flocks and they diligently to learn and to consider that exhortation of the Apostle Hebr. 13. 7 8 9. Remember them which have the rule over you who have spoken unto you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation Iesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever And be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines FINIS a Sure Foot Disc. 1. Para. ●7 b Lib. 1. capp 2 3. c De Praescript Regula est autem fidei ut jam hinc quid credamus defendamus illa scilicet quâ creditur unum ominino deum esse Haec regula à Christo Instituta nullas habet apud nos quaestiones nisi quas Haereses inferunt quae Haereticos faciunt Ceterùm manente forma ejus in suo ordine quantum libet quaeras tractes Fides in regulâ posita est Cedet Curiositas Fidei Certè aut non strepant aut quiescant adversus Regulam Idem de Veland Virg. Regula quidem fidei una omnino est soimmobilis irreformalis credendi scilicet in unicum Deum omnipotentem mundi Conditorem d Serm. de temp 119. Symbolum est breviter complexa Regula fidei Idem de fide symbolo Idem de Genesi ad literam Catholica fides Est haec Deum Patrem omnipotentem universam creaturam fecisse Idem similiter pluries alibi e Adversus Valentin 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contra Marcosios versus finem In Ancoratu versus finem In compendiariâ verâ doctrinâ De fide Catholicae Apostolicae Ecclesiae In Marcelli fide conscriptâ f Ad Cledonium adversus Apollinarium Orat. 52. Fidem Nicaenam vocat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide sequentia ibid. Idem Contra Iulian. Orat. 3. g Epist. ad Pulcheriam August Siquidem ipsa Catholici Symboli brevis perfecta confessio Tam instructa sit munitione coelesti ut omnes Haereticorum opiniones solo ipsius gladio possunt detruncari Hujus symboli plenitudincm si Eutiches Sure foot Disc. 4. Par. 5. Lib. 3. Cap. 4. Verbo Dei ● 1. cap 2. Concil Triden Sess. 4. Ibid. 1 Cor. 4. 13. S. Mar. 13. 10. Sure foot Disc. 2. para 2. Ibid. Edw. Injunct 5. Q. Eliz. Injunct 5. Rubr. before the Apostles Creed Canon de Concionator pag. 19 True relation of the Form and Government of the Kirk of Scotland 1640. Primo Eliz. cap. 1. Hooker Eccles Pol. l. 5. par 79.

by which it is to be tried as by a Rule So that if men would speak properly and distinctly as certainly they ought to do in Controversies especially of this grand importance by this question what is the Rule of Faith can onely be meant what or where are the points articles or Propositions that are fundamentall in the faith of the Church For as to points not fundamentall they depend upon those that are and therefore do not come primarily into the question I would not trouble you with so much Metaphysicks but that they are of so necessary use to clear the foundation of our Faith from that rubbish and confusion which the sophistry and petulancy of our Adversaries have thrown upon it who in this point make it their business to confound the Notion of a Rule and a Iudge and then all those arguments that prove the necessity of an infallible Rule are easily brought to prove an infallible Iudge a Viva regula fidei which some of them make such a noise and a clamor with as if a person and a proposition were the same thing This gives also an easie answer to those of them that tell us The Apostles went not with books in their hands to preach and deliver Christs doctrine but with words in their Mouths that the Scripture is a dead letter and much other civil language of the like nature as they are pleased to give it It is not you see either the letter of Scripture or the sound of the Apostles preaching which is the Rule of our Faith but the great Doctrines which they preach't which were afterwards written and is the same Rule of faith I trow whether conveyed to us by writing or without it as Irenaus tells us of some Christians that had no written word at all 2. The Rule of Faith is the word of God who is our Creator and supream Lawgiver and the Author and object of that immortall happiness to which true faith leads us The word of God is indeed a glorious Title and therefore no wonder that so many have laid claim to it It would I confess look something like an adventure to range at large through the history of all times and places in quest of that which was but once delivered And yet did the time give us leave to be exact it would be necessary to examine the claims of at least the most vogued and considerable pretenders There was never yet any Lawgiver in the world that did not bear the People in hand that his Laws were dictated an● given at least ratified and auth orised by the Deity But of all these there is none except them whose history is in the Bible that have not been known and laught at for fables by the most able and greatest maintainers of them Those in the Bible are chiefly two which make up the two volumes of it respectively The one a Revelation made to the Iews by Moses the other to all Mankind by Christ Iesus The first of these appears to any understanding Reader to be wholly relative and propheticall consisting of Prophesies and other Praesignifications of a great Lawgiver and Prince that was not to appear till the world had attended his coming 4000 years The second volume contains the historicall relation of the life and gesta of that great Prince and the travels of his Ministers And therefore our Faith was not nor could be delivered sooner because the chief contents and matter of it are the conception birth speeches actions and sufferings of this Great One. And so S. Iudes phrase of once delivered is to be understood of that one age whvn this Divine Person the Son of God was incarnate suffered death rose again from death and did actually perform and transact all those passages and events which are the object matter of our Faith and Creed and also when this and all the rest was preached and attested by them that had seen these things done and had Especiall Commission from him to propose them as matters of Faith to all the world And therefore our Rule of Faith is contained in the Narrative of Our Saviours pilgrimage and his Apostles preaching that is in the four Gospels in the Epistles and Acts of the Apostles which were all extant in St Iudes time in writing and this writing taken for an undoubted Rule of Faith by the Church and therefore alone called Canonicall and so continued till the many and monstrous changes made in the Faith by the Church of Rome made it necessary for them to look out for another Rule Wherein how well they have acquitted themselves shall be seen by and by In the mean while her single testimony ought not to overballance so great a cloud of Witnesses as have deposed even life it self for the Scripture and against her own Iudgement for much above 1000 years Especially if it be added what arguments the present Church of Rome affords to prove that the Rule of Faith is contained in the Holy Scripture I. In the Iudgement of the Church of Rome it contains all necessary points of Faith and therefore contains the Rule of Faith Look over their Divinity-writers of all Sorts Especially of Controversies and bodyes of Divinity The decrees and Catechisme of the Councill of Trent You will find them as well as we labouring to prove their main points out of this written Word Yea the very infallibility of the Pope and such other doctrines as they set up against the Scripture And this they do in the first place as may be seen in Bellarmine and other their best writers as fetching their prime foundation from thence Nor have they been so bold as to say that they make use of Scripture onely ad hominem and not that they believe it For however they may deal with us in Controversie it is to be hoped they are more faithfull to the Souls of their own People So that would they be true to their own Consciences and the Consciences of their flocks they must return to the Rule of Faith contained in Scripture and confess with the said Bellarmine that Sacra Scriptura is Regula credendi certissima tutissima The most certain and safe Rule of believing That so all Christendom might once again if possible have one Faith II. The Rule of Faith in the Church of Rome is contained in the Holy Scriptures or else they have none Yes may some say The Church of Rome in full Council teaches us that her Faith is contained in libris scriptis sine scripto traditionibus in the written word and in unwritten traditions But then they must mean either that some of their Articles of Faith are contained in the written word and othersome in unwritten traditions onely or that all their Articles are proved partly from the written word and partly from unwritten traditions Not the first for they endeavour to prove all out of Scripture as was shewed even now Not the second for Divine warrant from the