Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	authority_n	church_n	infallible_a	2,008	5	9.8493	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56650	A discourse about tradition shewing what is meant by it, and what tradition is to be received, and what tradition is to be rejected.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1683 (1683)	Wing P787; ESTC R7194	31,259	57

A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION Shewing what is meant by it AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be received AND WHAT TRADITION Is to be rejected LONDON Printed by Miles Flesher for Robert Horne at the South Entrance of the Royal Exchange and Fincham Gardiner at the White Horse in Ludgate Street 1683. A DISCOURSE ABOUT TRADITION AN obligation being laid upon us at our Baptism to believe and to doe the whole will of God revealed unto us by Christ Jesus it concerns every one that would be saved to enquire where that whole intire will of God is to be found where he may so certainly meet with it and be so informed about it that he may rest satisfied he hath it all And there would be no difficulty in this matter had not the worldly interests of some men raised controversies about it and made that intricate and perplexed which in it self is easie and plain For the Rehearsal of the Apostles Creed at Baptism and of that alone as a Summary of that Faith whose sincere profession intitles us to the Grace there conferred warrants the Doctrine of the Church of England in its VI. Article that the Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation But this strikes off so many of the Doctrines of the present Roman Church which are not to be found in the Scripture nor have any countenance there that they are forced to say the faith once delivered to the Saints mentioned by S. Jude is not intirely delivered in the Scripture but we must seek for the rest in the Traditions of the Church Which Traditions say they are to be received as a part of the Rule of Faith with the same Religious reverence that we do the Holy Scripture Now though this is not really the bottom of their hearts as will appear before I have done but they finally rest for their satisfaction in matters of Faith somewhere else yet this being plausibly pretended by them in their own justification that they follow Tradition and in their accusations of us that we forsake Tradition I shall briefly let all our people see who are not willing to be deceived what they are to judge and say in this business of Tradition About which a great noise is made as if we durst not stand to it and as if they of the Roman Church stedfastly kept it without any variation neither of which is true I shall plainly shew in this short Discourse The meaning of the word Which for clearness sake shall begin with the meaning of the word TRADITION which in English is no more than delivering unto another and by a Figure signifies the matter which is delivered and among Christians the Doctrine of our Religion delivered to us And there being two ways of delivering Doctrines to us either by writing or by word of mouth it signifies either of them indifferently the Scriptures as you shall see presently being Traditions But custome hath determined this word to the last of these ways and distinguished Tradition from Scriptures or writings at least from the Holy Writings and made it signifie that which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures or writings For though the Scripture be Tradition also and the very first Tradition and the fountain of all true and legitimate Antiquity yet in common language Traditions now are such ancient Doctrines as are conveyed to us some other way whether by word of mouth as some will have it from one generation to another or by humane Writings which are not of the same authority with the Holy Scriptures How to judge of them Now there is no better way to judge aright of such Traditions than by considering these four things First The Authours of them whence they come Secondly The matter of them Thirdly Their Authority Fourthly The means by which we come to know they derive themselves from such Authours as they pretend unto and consequently have any authority to demand admission into our belief 1. For the First of these every body knows and confesses that all Traditions suppose some Authour from whom they originally come and who is the deliverer of those Doctrines to Christian people who being told by the present Church or any person in it that such and such Doctrines are to be received though not contained in the Holy Scriptures because they are Traditions ought in Conscience to inquire from whom those Traditions come or who first delivered them By which means they will be able to judge what credit is to be given to them when it is once cleared to them from what Authours they really come Now whatsoever is delivered to us in Christianity comes either from Christ or from his Apostles or from the Church either in General or in part or from private Doctours in the Church There is nothing now called a Tradition in the Christian World but proceeds from one or from all of these four Originals 2. And the matter which they deliver to us which is next to be considered is either concerning that Faith and godly life which is necessary to Salvation or concerning Opinions Rites Ceremonies Customs and things belonging to Order Both which as I said may be conveyed either by writing or without writing by the Divine writings or by humane writings though these two ways are not alike certain 3. Now it is evident to every understanding that things of both sorts which are delivered to us have their Authority from the Credit of the Authour from whence they first come If that be Divine their Authority is Divine if it be onely Humane their Authority can be no more And among Humane Authours if their credit be great the authority of what they deliver is great if it be little its authority is little and accordingly must be accepted with greater or lesser reverence Upon which score whatsoever can be made to appear to come from Christ it hath the highest authority and ought to be received with absolute submission to it because he is the Son of God And likewise whatsoever appears to have been delivered by the Apostles in his name hath the same Authority they being his Ministers sent by Him as He was by God the Father and indued with a Divine Power which attested unto them In like manner whatsoever is delivered by the Church hath the same Authority which the Church hath which though it be not equal to the foregoing the Church having no such Divine Power nor infallible judgment as the Apostles had yet is of such weight and moment that it ought to be reverenced next to theirs I mean the sense of the whole Church which must be acknowledged also to be of greater or lesser Authority as it was nearer or farther off from the times of the Apostles What was delivered by their immediate followers ought

to weigh so much with us as to have the greatest humane Authority and to be look'd upon as little less than Divine The Universal consent of the next Generation is an Authority approaching as near to the former as the Ages do one to another But what is delivered in latter times hath less humane Authority though pretending to come but without proof from more early days and hath no Authority at all if it contradict the sense of the Church when it was capable to be better acquainted with the mind of Christ and of his Apostles As for particular Churches their Authority ought to be reverenced by every member of them when they profess to deliver sincerely the sense of the Church Universal and when they determine as they have power to do Controversies of Faith or decree Rites and Ceremonies not contrary to God's word in which enery one ought to acquiesce But we cannot say the same of that which comes from any private Doctour in the Church modern or Ancient which can have no greater Authority than he himself was of but is more or less credible according as he was more or less diligent knowing and strictly religious 4. But to all this it is necessary that it do sufficiently appear that such Doctrines do really come from those Authours whose Traditions they pretend to be This is the great and the onely thing about which there is any question among sober and judicious persons How to be sufficiently assured that any thing which is not delivered unto us in the Scriptures doth certainly come for instance from Christ or his holy Apostles For in this all Christians are agreed that whatsoever was delivered by Christ from God the Father or by the Apostles from Christ is to be embraced and firmly retained whether it be written or not written that makes no difference at all if we can be certain it came from Him or them For what is contained in the Holy Scripture hath not its Authority because it is written but because it came from God If Christ said a thing it is enough we ought to submit unto it but we must first know that he said it and let the means of knowing it be what they will if we can certainly know He said it we yield to it But how we can be certain at this distance of time from his being in the world that any thing now pretending to it was said by Christ which is not recorded in the Holy Scriptures there is the business And it is a matter of such importance that it cannot be expected any man should be satisfied without very good evidence of it but he may very reasonably question whether many things be not falsly ascribed unto Him and unto his Apostles which never came from them Nay whether those things which are affirmed to be the Doctrines of the Primitive Church and of the whole Church be not of some later Original and of some particular Church or private Doctours in the Church unto whose Authority that reverence is not due which ought to be paid and which we willingly give unto the former Now according to this state of the matter any good Christian among us who is desirous to know the Truth and to preserve himself from Errour may easily discern what Traditions ought to be received and held fast and what we are not bound unto without any alteration and what are not to be received at all but to be rejected and how far those things are from being credible which the Roman Church now would obtrude upon us under the name of Apostolical or ancient Traditions without any Authority from the Holy Scriptures or in truth any Authority but their own and some private Doctours whose opinions cannot challenge an absolute submission to them But to give every one that would be rightly informed fuller satisfaction in this business I shall not content my self with this General Discourse but shall particularly and distinctly shew what Traditions we own and heartily receive and then what Traditions we cannot own but with good reason refuse These shall be the two Parts of this short Treatise wherein I shall endeavour that our people may be instructed not merely to reject Errours but also to affirm the Truth PART I. What Traditions we receive I. AND in the first place we acknowledge that what is now holy Scripture was once onely Tradition properly so called that is Doctrine by word of mouth In this we all agree I say that the whole Gospel or Doctrine of Christ which is now upon record in those Books we call the Scriptures was once unwritten when it was first preached by our blessed Saviour and his Apostles Which must be noted to remove that small Objection with which they of the Roman Church are wont to trouble some peoples minds merely from the Name of Traditions which Saint Paul in his Epistles requires those to whom he writes carefully to observe Particularly in that famous place 1 Thess II. 15. where we find this exhortation Therefore Brethren stand fast and hold the Traditions which ye have been taught whether by word or our Epistle Behold say they here are things not written but delivered by word of mouth which the Thessalonians are commanded to hold Very true should the people of our Church say to those that insist upon this but behold also we beseech you what the Traditions are of which the Apostle here writes and mark also when it was that they were partly unwritten For the first of these it is manifest that he means by Traditions the Doctrines which we now reade in the holy Scriptures For the very first word therefore is an indication that this verse is an inference from what he had said in the foregoing Now the things he before treated of are the grand Doctrines of the Gospel or the way of Salvation revealed unto us by Christ Jesus from God the Father who hath from the beginning saith he v. 13. 14. chosen you to Salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth whereunto he hath called you c. This is the sum of the Gospel and whatsoever he had delivered unto them about these matters of their sanctification or of their faith or of their salvation by obtaining the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ to which they were chosen and called through their sanctification and faith this he exhorts them to hold fast whether it was contained in this Epistle or in his former preaching for he had not occasion now to write all that he had formerly delivered by word of mouth Which afterward was put in writing for mark which is the second thing the time when some things remained unwritten which was when this Epistle was sent to the Thessalonians Then some things concerning their salvation were not contained in this Letter but as yet delivered onely by word of mouth unto this Church I say to this Church for it doth not follow that all Churches whatsoever were at the time