Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	divine_a	faith_n	tradition_n	3,373	5	9.2926	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

the rest If therefore Protestants are in the wrong we are certainly in the right as far as we are opposite to them And besides since that all the positive Proofs that can be brought for the infallible Authority of Church-Teachers express also in what Church they are by evident Marks not to be found but in our Catholic Church it follows if the Protestants be in the wrong as to that Principle we are certainly in the right as to each Point of our Religion taught us by an unerring Interpreter Preserv f. 80. This that the Protestant Faith is uncertain may signifie two things First That the Objects of our Faith are uncertain and cannot be proved by certain Reasons Secondly That our Persuasion is wavering Answ f. 7. Besides the two mention'd it fignfies a Third thing also to wit That whatever Reasons there may be for a thing he who believes it hath not for the Motive of his Belief those certain Reasons There are for Example certain Reasons whereon to ground a Faith in Jesus Christ yet he that believes in Christ meerly because his Mother or a Minister hath taught him so to do hath a very uncertain and no Divine Faith. Defence f. 18. What can be the Gentleman's meaning I cannot conceive unless it be this That because Protestants take the Reason of their Faith from Scripture and not from the Church of Rome that therefore they can have no certain or Divine Faith which if it be I pity him if it be not I must desire him to explain himself Answer The honest Footman is grown very tender-hearted But is not this very plain that altho' there be very good Reasons for the belief of an Article of Christian Religion yet one that should believe it on the account of some silly Motive only such as I cited would have no Divine Faith But how can this be applied to Protestants who take the Reasons of their Faith from Scripture This I had shewed Fol. 6. but the Footman passes it by with this Answer only I shall say nothing to that Harangue so often Answered by our Divines It seems he had forgot those Answers or was conscious of their weakness Thus I discoursed there The Catholics prove that an uncertain or wavering Faith is no Divine Faith which the Protestants can never have of any one Article of their Religion because they never can have a certain one 'T is easily proved because they cannot have an act of Faith of any one Article till their Rule of Faith proposes it i. e. till they know certainly by their private Reading and Judgment what the Scriptures teach of it not by some one Text or two but by comparing all the Texts that treat of that Subject for the Sense of a single Text for Examp. My Father is greater than I cannot be had but by expounding it by other Texts on the same Subject Till a Protestant then hath a certain knowledge First that he hath all the Books of Holy Writ Secondly that all those he owns for such were really written by inspired Pens Thirdly that he hath a true and sound Translation in case he understood not the Original Languages and in case he doth a true Copy not altered by the Error or Malice of our Forefathers Fourthly since the Letter kills that he understands the true Meaning and Sense of each Text which relates to the Object of his Act of Faith Fifthly that he remember them all so as comparing them to see which be the clearer that must expound the obscurer and what is the true result of them all for any one which he understands not or hath forgotten may possibly be that one that must expound the rest he cannot have one Act of Faith. Now Catholics say this is impossible to most if not to all Protestants who are in each of these Points to Judge for themselves and not to submit to any Authority where a Doubt arises therefore few or no Protestants can in their whole Life-time frame one Act of Divine Faith concerning any one Mystery not that Scripture is not a very certain Rule but because they have chosen an useless because impossible and uncertain way of applying it Preservat ib. We believe the Apostles Creed and whatever is contained in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles This is all we believe and I hope they will not say these things are uncertain Answer They are very certain but not to any Protestant whose Rule of Faith considering the Method he applies it by cannot make him certain of any one Article But the pleasant Answer which Justifies Turk Jew and Gentile For this is a Rule of Faith most sufficient according to Dr. Sherlock and a good Plea We believe all that God hath revealed and nothing else is not all that he hath revealed certain Here lies the Doctor 's gross Mistake that no one is an Heretic for not believing that what God hath revealed is true 't is impossible to fall into so mad an Heresie But Heretics are such for not believing him to have revealed what in effect he hath tho' he hath given sufficient Methods to come to the knowledge of it if they would use them Defence Do Jews Turks and Gentiles believe all that is contained in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles Answer No Sir nor you neither If they believed all that God hath revealed as they pretend they would believe all that is delivered in the Bible which you pretend but upon as little ground What they think in their Judgment God hath revealed they believe what they think he hath not revealed they disbelieve that 's their Rule of Faith and 't is yours your own private Judgments being on both hands your Guides and not any Authority Established by Almighty God. Preservat f. 81. If these things which are believed by those who take their Faith from the Bible interpreted by their own final Sense be not built upon certain Reasons their Infallible Church can have no certainty of the Christian Faith. Answer Even this is most notoriously false since she is not Infallible by any Light of her own but by the Guidance of the Spirit of Truth Were not the Apostles when they had once acknowledged Christ to be the Son of God certain of all he revealed to them before he had given them certain Reasons for it It were a blind Impiety to think so Defence f. 19. Was there in that Case of the Apostles a certain Faith without a certain Reason An infallible Man must know things as they are or else he is mistaken Answer The Footman is very dull here and cannot distinguish between a certain Reason moving me to believe him that speaks and a certain Reason in the things that are delivered moving me to believe them This Second Dr. Sherlock requires saying That if these things which are believed be not built upon certain Reasons the Infallible Church seeing not any such Reasons can have no certainty of the Christian Faith. An

Name not found in Scripture which so displeased the Arians heretofore and Calvin of late not by making any new Article of Faith but more clearly delivering what was ever believed by the Apostles and all Catholics from their time to this so that still we own Sanctae Scripturae sufficienter Continent omnem scientiam Necessariam Scotus Q. 2. prologi Viatori That Holy Scripture contain all that is necessary to a Christian to know in this life and with Bellarmin Non est de fide nisi quod Deus per Apostolos aut Prophetas revelavit aut quod evidenter inde deducitur That nothing is of Faith but what Christ revealed by the Prophets or Apostles or what is Evidently deduced from it The Church being only our Guide to the understanding of the true and full sense of Scripture This Pope Celestin owned to the General Council of Ephesus Agendum nunc est ut Labore Ep. 7. Communi Credita per Apostolorum successione detenta servemus That the whole work of the Church representative is only to Conserve by a clear Exposition of it what the Church diffusive retained in a continual Succession as first taught by the holy Apostles and so continually by their Successors This is all the Council of Trent pretended unto For Councils says an Eminent Member of it have the assisting presence of the Holy Ghost only to declare those Articles infallibly true which Christ from the beginning revealed And Secondly When Errors and Abuses arise to a growth to gather infallibly from what hath been revealed those Truths which all Christians are bound to believe and to follow in Faith and Manners Ad Extirpandos errores abusus infallibiliter etiam ex revelatis Colligere populo Christiano credenda Vega. usurpanda in fide moribus Then continues the same They are gathered in the Name of Christ when they declare only such things as were revealed by Christ and brought down to us in the Holy Scripture or certain Apostolical Traditions The Apostles themselves used no other Method and St. Paul as Infallible as he was owned That he presumed Rom. 15. to teach only what he had from Christ to which witness was born by Miracles Non Audio aliquid loqui eorum quae Per me non efficit Christus in veritate signorum And this infallible Certainty we allow to the Church only in such things as She declares necessary to be known and believed in order to our Salvation not in impertinent or indifferent things For we say still with Tertullian Nobis curiositate non opus est post Christum inquisitione post Evangelium We seek not curiously into any thing but what is clearly revealed but what was taught when the Gospel was first preached Our Church then hath not power to make new Articles of Faith nor ever pretended to it but is a mere yet infallible Witness to the anciently revealed ones In Her Name Tertullian declares Ibidem Nobis nihil licet ex nostro arbitrio inducere Apostolos Domini habemus Authores qui nec ipsi quidquam de suo arbitrio elegerunt quod inducerent We can bring in nothing of our choice the Apostles are the Authors of what we teach who themselves taught nothing of themselves Christ promised to be with them and their Successors Mat. 28. till the end of the World only in order to the declaring of these things which he himself revealed and taught especially in those forty days betwixt his Resurrection and Omnia quaecunque mandavi vobis Et loquens de regno dei Ascension when he taught them all that concerned the Kingdom of God on Earth his Church The infallibility of the Church being thus Expounded and such is that which Catholics believe and are guided by I cannot conceive how any Christian can object any thing against it who believes that what God revealed must necessarily be true and that Christ and the Holy Ghost be infallible I proceed then to prove that God hath revealed the Catholic Church should ever be guided by his holy Spirit and ever follow that Guide and never fall into any Error in Faith and to do it most convincingly against all Sectaries I will prove it by the Texts of Holy Scripture such as their very Bible offers and this not by two or three which would suffice but by a number and that I may not seem to give my own sense to those Texts I will join to them the Exposition of the Holy Fathers given in all Ages according to the sense of the Catholic Church By the Catholic Church I mean not only the Church of all Ages but the whole Church of any Ages and consequently the Catholic Church of this Age for it is the same Church there being but One as all our Creed teaches us I say as the Jews did yield a full belief to God and his Servant Moyses to God as the author of their Faith and to Moyses as the Exod. 14. Crediderunt domino Moysi servo ejus Propounder and Witness of it so each Catholic in any Age believes God and the Church of his Age that Church being Causa Exemplaris the Pattern and Exposition of his Faith. That this Church is an infallible Witness to all that Christ did teach is evident from the Commands laid upon us by the Prophets by Christ our Lord by the Apostles to receive with an entire submission all that it delivers for it is inconsistent with Gods infinite Veracity that he should oblige us to believe an Error Almighty God by Isay teaches us that all Nations shall resort unto Her as a Judge Adding Every Isay 2. 3. 54. 7. 60. 12. Ezech. 44. tongue resisting thee in judgment thou shalt condemn and the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish The plain reason for it is given by Ezekiel where God promises that when Controversies arise he will decide by his Churches Verdict They shall stand in judgment and shall judge according to my Judgment Hence St. Augustin looking upon the judgment of the Church as certainly that of God declares the only reason why St. Cyprian though in an Error yet was no Heretic to be because his Error was not yet Condemned Nondum plenario Concilio decisus l. 1. c. 18. de Bapt. Certissimam fidem ibid. c. 9. c. 4. Nolle primasdare vel sumae impietatis est vel praecipitis arrogantiae De util Gred. c. 17. Donec plenario rotiqs orbis Concilio quod saluberrime sentiebatur etiam remotis dubitationibus firmaretur Habere Jam non potest Deus Patrem qui Ecclesiam non habet Matrem c. Neque enim vivere foris possunt cum Domus Dei una sit Et nemini salus esse nisi in Ecclesiä possit Cypr. de Unit. by the Churches Representative a General Council That a most firm belief is to be yielded to such Decisions and that Not to submit to the Church is the

love his King and pay Allegiance to him alone therefore no Reason can justifie the love of a Man for his Wife or of a Child for his Father St. Augustin drew from that very Text the contrary Conclusion he takes off all blame from Abraham who is said in Genesis to Q. 61. in Gen. have Adored or Worshipped the People of the Land because 't is observable says the Holy Doctor That in the Commandment 't is not said thou shalt Worship God alone as it is said and him alone thou shalt serve which in Greek is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for such a service of Latria is given to God alone Defence f. 12. What a delicate piece of Sophistry is here The Commandment is to serve God only which service we must of necessity understand to be that which is Divine but Worship is so Therefore the Text is plain against the Worship of any other but God. Answ All that is plain in this Answer is that men necessarily want a Guide in the interpreting of Scripture and that an infallible one also for such is the pride of some men that even an ignorant Foot-man as you see thinks he understands the Bible better than the Holiest and most Learned of Doctors S. Augustin and what reason teaches of the Service of God better than the most enlightened Patriarchs Abraham Worships men S. Augustin declares that the Commandment hath nothing against it there being an inferior Worship which is far below Divine Service but the Protestant Doctor teaches his Footman to aver that all Worship so he should have said to have spoken sense is Divine that the Text is plain against the Worship of any other but God. How likely is it they shall by their own judgment and reason understand the Bible who cannot construe right the Commandments no not the first of them and if Dr. Sherlock and his Footman understand right the first Commandment St. Augustin did not Do you not blush Sir to License the boldness of such ignorant Pride Preservative f. 26. Thou shalt not make to thy self any graven Image Is so express a Law against Image-Worship that no reason must be admitted for it Answ f. 6. What if you be told that the Jews may perhaps have had a Command of making no graven Image c. yet this being a positive Law and not renewed in the Gospel doth not oblige us will this Reason be admitted of No no reason and yet you have no other reason for passing by as Express a Law of Sanctifying Saturday What if it be rejoyn'd that only the making to themselves by private Authority making that to be which is not a Statue for Example which of its nature is the representation of a Man or a Calf to be to them a true God an Idol to adore it which divine Worship thus misapplyed is forbidden Cannot this Reason be heard No then Belezeel by Gods direction and Command making several likenesses of things on Earth below and in Heaven above Salomon placing such in the Temple sinned against the first Commandment for the making of such is as distinctly forbidden as the Adoring So if a Law thus says Thou shalt not carry any Arms thou shalt not strike the carrying of Arms would be as directly against the Law as the striking so do all Painters and Carvers and all our London Merchants that hang out a Sign-post The truth is what sense they put on any Text is the express Law against which no reason must be heard so they challenge to themselves that infallibility which they so sturdily deny to the Church of God. Defence f. 13 14. 'T is held on all hands that the keeping of the Seventh day was Figurative and so abolished at the death of Christ but as far as it was Moral namely that a Seventh Day should be kept that still remains Besides Christ and his Apostles were Authors of this change Christ as he rose on that day so he usually did appear on that day to his Disciples and Scripture maintains the Celebration of it by the constant practice of the Apostles Acts 20. 7. 1 Cor. 16. 21. Answ We have four untruths in very few lines The first that 't is agreed on all hands that the keeping of the Seventh day was Figurative all that understand Scripture right say the contrary to wit that it was not a meer Shadow of a thing to come as Figurative speaks but a Memory of the past and never to be forgotten benefit of the Creation from the work whereof God rested on that day and says Moses blessed the seventh day 'T is a second Untruth then that the Moral part of it was only the keeping a seventh day and that Christ our Lord altered it 'T is an untruth that Christ our Lord usually appeared on that day to his Apostles for Acts 1. 3. S. Luke assuresus he appeared every day to them Perdies quadraginta apparens Eis Act. 1. 3. Act. 2. 7. Salutatio mea manu Pauli 1 Cor. 16. 21. How St. Pauls meeting at Troas with many in the participation of the Sacraments and disputing till Midnight it being the Eve of his departure or his subscribing his Epistle with his own Hands for these are the two Texts produced is a Proof that the Scripture maintains the constant practice of the Apostles of keeping Sunday Holy I leave it to you Sir to make out the truth of it Defence f. 14. 'T is sufficient with Catholics to submit to an infallible Guide and that too if he declares as the Council of Constance did Concerning the Eucharist that notwithstanding our Lord did Institute it in both kinds and the Apostles so celebrated it yet now it should not be so But for us Protestants we cannot think that any Reason can be sufficient to lay aside an Express Text. Answ The meaning of these words as they lay here is to persuade the Readers that the Council of Constance did own that Christ did Institute or order that the Sacrament should be taken by all in both kinds and that in the Apostles time it was ever so taken yet that by the Church Authority it was ordered it should hereafter be otherwise If the Honest Footman means not so and would not have all to believe so there is no sense at all in this his Inference That Protestants cannot think that any reason can be sufficient to lay aside an express Text. But in this sense 't is a most outragious Calumny and though a Footman's ignorance may be excused yet with what face Sir can you pretend to judge of Books and License them if you are in the same gross Error or if wilfully and wittingly you License such impudent Slanders against the whole Churches Representative what Libels and Lampoons are you not qualified and disposed to License These Decreta Concil Cons Dec. 4. are the words of the Council Although Christ did Institute this Venerable Sacrament after Supper and did administer it to his Disciples under both the