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
A93282	The true church of Christ exposed to the view of all sober Christians, from the Word of God, sound reason, and the ancient fathers / by James Salgado, a Spaniard, a converted priest.	Salgado, James, fl. 1680.	1681 (1681)	Wing S384; ESTC R42935	23,389	69

THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST EXPOSED To the View of all SOBER CHRISTIANS from the Word of GOD Sound Reason AND THE Ancient FATHERS By JAMES SALGADO a Spaniard a Converted Priest London Printed by T. B. for the Author 1681. To the Right Honourable HENEAGE Earl of Nottingham Lord Chancellour of England THis most Important Affair which concerns the Conversion of a Man to God cannot better be offered to any Person than to one that manages the greatest Affairs of a Mighty Monarch to the Glory of his God to the Credit and Interest of his Prince to the Honour and Repute of the Nation to the gladding of the hearts of all good Subjects therein and the Terrour of Offenders to his own Immortal praise here and Immortal Felicity hereafter with universal steady unshaken Loyalty Justice and Integrity It is to speak in short most agreeable for one that is the Quintessence of all Excellencies both Divine and Humane The boldness which I have to present this Book to your Honour doth not only bid me hope for Excuse but also promise my self that your Honour will receive it according to your wonted Noble and Generous Condescention being your Poor Offerer tenders it with the Profoundest Reverence and Respects imaginable I humbly pray your Lordship to take both my Self and Book to your Honours Protection and it shall be my daily Prayers to Almighty God to take under his Especial Charge your Honours Person and under his Especial Conduct all your Honours Actions so that both may be acceptable to his Divine Majesty and his Majesty of Great Britain and to all true English Spirits being My Lord Your Honours most obedient Servant JAMES SALGADO THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST c. IT was not without Reason that the Fathers compared the Church to the Ark of Noah because that as none that were out of the Ark could escape destruction by the Flood so none that are without the Bosom of the Church can escape Everlasting Damnation for those that are no Members of the Church cannot partake of her peculiar Priviledges such as Vocation Justification Sanctification c. without which it 's impossible to attain Eternal Life And as any Member cut off from the Body is thereby deprived of Life Sense and Motion because it is no more united to nor influenced from the Head even so those that are cut off from the Church are thereby deprived of Eternal Life because they are not united unto Christ who is the Head of the Church and therefore want that influence of his Spirit which is the Author of all Spiritual Life For this reason David affirms that the Heathen knew not the Laws of God even because they were not in the Communion of Israel to which the Church was confined under the Old Testament Psa 147.19 20. The Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians doth yet further confirm this Assertion At that time you were without Christ being Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and Strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2.12 Namely because they were not in the Bosom of the Church they were therefore excluded from the Communion of Christ who is the faithful Husband of the Church his only Spouse as he himself affirms Cant. 6.1 My Dove my Vndefiled is but one But when the Fathers used this similitude they meant the Universal Church whose beginning Augustine deriveth from Abel and deduceth the continuation thereof even to the end of the World Therefore it is not this or that Church in this or that part of the World that can be called Catholick in this sense but that Church which was which is and which is to come and comprehends the Triumphant as well as the Militant And if that be properly Catholick which hath been always and every where believed by all Vincent Lirinensis contra profanas novitates then that is the Catholick Church which hath and will be always found in all Nations for the thing ruled cannot be narrower than the Rule and Faith cannot be found but in believers I don't deny that there are many particular Assemblies and many Provincial or National Churches and some of these purer than others but none of these Assemblies or Churches can be called Catholick taking the word strictly because they are only parts or members constituting one general body and therefore cannot be called universal without a plain contradiction unless you would give to the Hand or Foot the name of the whole body Hence it follows that the Roman Church being but a particular Church supposing that it were Orthodox which yet we utterly deny cannot claim unto it self alone exclusively to other Churches that profess Christ the Title of Catholick I confess I am not so rigid as to exclude the Roman Church and her Followers from the Latitude of the Universal Church because besides that men living in that Communion but in the simplicity of their heart professing God and his Christ and sincerely endeavouring to work out their Salvation although in many points they neither understand the thing it self nor the manner of the thing because of an invincible ignorance may attain unto eternal life for God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Act. 10.34 35. I say besides this the Popish Church may be called a Church in a Physical though not in a Moral sense even rs an Adulterous Wife doth not lose the name of a Wife although she lose the name of an honest Wife But because the Court of Rome will have their Church to consist in the Pope or Council or both I shall evince their Church so taken to be fallible erroneous and false And although the Church in this sense be but representative yet seeing all the rest do depend upon her as infallible and have nothing left them but a blind obedience taking the denomination of the whole from the principal part I rightly affirm that the Roman Church is false uncatholick yea and no Church at all The Papists not contented to pronounce all Churches without their Communion Hereticks and Schismaticks and therefore without any hope of Salvation have moreover asserted that their own Church is infallible and void of all Errour A great Assertion indeed and which is not only false in it self but also is one great reason why other Churches dissenting from her cannot joyn into one Body nor hold Communion with her For besides that no particular Church such as the Roman is can be called infallible it necessitates them after the manner of the Athenians to worship they know not what and erect an Altar to the unknown God It is in vain to dispute concerning the property or priviledge of any thing while they that attribute these priviledges to it have no certain knowledge of the thing it self Therefore in vain do they assert that their Church is infallible while they cannot determine when or where this Church is

shunned not to declare the whole Counsel of God professeth that he had said no other things than those which Moses and the Prophets did say should come I quickly concluded that the only mark of the true Church is to be taken from this Fountain That the Church is built upon the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles and the chief Corner-stone is Jesus Christ And I found that Augustine that glorious Light of Antiquity did agree with me writing Contr. Ma. Arian l. 3. Neither will I alledge the Nicene Chuncil to your prejudice nor ought you to alledge the Council of Ariminum to mine Let us not make use of Writings partial to the one or to the other Party but of the holy Scriptures that are impartial Judges of both and compare Cause with Cause Matter with Matter and Reason with Reason And elsewhere writing against Donatus There namely in the Scriptures let us seek for the True Church there let us discuss the point Being now fully confirmed in this general Principle I began to enquire narrowly into the Purity of particular Churches and upon enquiry found that none do so exactly agree with the Scriptures as the Reformed Churches Wherefore I firmly resolved with my self to forsake the Roman Idolatry and associate my self to the Protestants which I accordingly performed in France and having renounced the Romish Superstitions I adjoyned my self to the Reformed Church as being the true Church of Christ which I shall now shortly evince by the following Arguments That is the true Church which 1. Vindicates and maintains the Authority of the Scriptures 2. Teacheth Doctrine agreeable to the Scriptures 3. Because I will not be so Scripturary as to neglect the Testimony of the Fathers and Councils Which agrees also with the Testimony of Ancient Fathers and Councils But the Reformed Church is such Therefore the Reformed is the true Church As for the first the Reformed Church maintains the Authority of the Scriptures against the Papists who affirm That the Scriptures have no Authority as to us at least but from the Church Which distinction was found out by Bellarmine namely that the Authority of the Scripture considered in it self doth not depend upon the Church but only in respect of us But how frivolous is this distinction For all Authority is Relative and therefore it cannot be considered without a relation to us And moreover the Supposition is false that the Scriptures Authority as to us depends upon the Church But before I come to overthrow this Assertion it will not be amiss to observe that the reason which induceth the Papists to defend it is evidently this They know not how to answer the Protestants Arguments from Scripture without wresting the sense and therefore hold that the sense of the Scriptures depends upon the interpretation of the Church which obligeth them to desend that the Authority of the Scriptures depends also upon the Church being that without the Churches Tradition we can have no certainty of the Scriptures themselves nor of their sense In this they imitate exactly the Ancient Hereticks of whom Tertullian says When the Hereticks are confuted from the Scriptures they presently begin to accuse the Scriptures as if they were not of sufficient Authority or were otherwise written than they are cited by the Orthodox and of which there is no certainty without Tradition Where you may see an exact Portraicture of the Modern Papists But to return to our purpose we assert That the Scriptures Authority doth no way depend upon the Authority of the Church but of the Holy Ghost only speaking internally in our hearts and externally in the Scriptures because he is their Author 2 Tim. 3.16 2 Pet. 1.21 and therefore he alone can give them their Authority And as Christ seeks a Testimony from none besides the Father so neither doth his Word need any other which he hath left upon Earth instead of his own Person And as it were very absurd to affirm that the Authority of the Kings Proclamation depends upon the Cryer or a Rule upon the thing ruled or that the Sun borrows his light from his own Orb or Vortex so it is no less ridiculous to affirm that the Authority of the Scriptures depends upon the Church The Church is the Candlestick the Word of God is the Candle Revel 1.20 Luk. 8.16 Now as a Candlestick contributes nothing to the light of the Candle so neither doth the Church to the Authority of the Scriptures We reject not the Ministerial Testimony of the Church in this affair because thereby we come to the knowledge of the Scriptures as the Samaritans came to the knowledge of Christ by the Samaritan Womans Testimony which nevertheless was not the reason or ground of their Faith but the Instrument only The Papists object that the Church is called the Pillar and Ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 And from hence they conclude that the Authority of the Scriptures as to us depends entirely upon the Church But to pass Camero's observation that these words belong to the sixteenth verse where there is a Copulative Particle which otherwise were useless and that the Apostle first compares the Church to a House and then teacheth us what is the chief Pillar of that House viz. God manifest in the Flesh For a House cannot be called a Pillar but a Pillar is in a House In this place Paul means not an Architectonical Pillar that sustains the Authority of the Scriptures but a Political to which the Fdicts of the Supreme Governour are affixed Nor is Bellarmines Exception against this distinction of any weight that the Church may be as well called a Bibliotheck as a Pillar in this sense For we affirm that the Church doth not only keep these Books but also teach and publish the Contents thereof and expose them to the view of the people So then the Testimony of the Church may be one Motive to induce us to believe the Divine Authority of the Scriptures but cannot beget in our minds a firm and certain perswasion of it which is the work of the Holy Ghost only whom God joyns with his Word Isa 59.21 My Spirit which is upon thee and my words which I have put in thy mouth shall not depart out of thy mouth c. Augustine speaks well to this purpose in his Confessions But how shall I know that these are thy words Moses said so indeed but Moses is gone and if he were present and should speak Hebrew I could not understand him but if he spoke Latin and I understood him how could I be certain that he spoke the truth The Truth it self which is neither Greck Latin Hebrew nor Barbarian without any sound of the tongue or noise of Syllables would say unto me inwardly in the Cabinet of my heart he speaketh truth You see Christian Readers how Augustine was perswaded of the Divinity of the Scriptures not by the Authority of the Church nor of Moses and the Prophets but by the Internal Truth

Popes pronouncing from or without his Chair so that what he Decrees in the former way is infallible though in the latter he may deceive and be deceived But you 'l find that even this distinction can very little advantage but rather prejudice your Cause For how can it be conceived that one and the same Man without any fear or compulsion can contradict himself in one and the same matter Again the Pope who being out of the Chair may deceive ought to advise with himself as sitting in the Chair lest he fall into an errour or the Cardinals if they would have this Holy Father to be always infallible should bind the good Old Man to the Chair with Chains as Prometheus was tyed to Caucasus that he may never be moved out of this Infallible Seat Besides it is manifest that the Popes even pronouncing from the Chair have frequently erred as appears by the examples of John the XXIII Stephanus Formosus and others as hath been made manifest to the World by many of the Reformed Writers yea even by the Papists themselves witness Platina concerning the Lives of the Popes which Platina was the Popes own Library-keeper at Rome 2. They can give no account what they mean by this Chair for the material Chair can contribute nothing to the Popes Infallibility by any physical or internal vertue else a Herds-man if set upon this Infallible Chair would be no less Infallible than the Pope himself But by the formal or rather Moral Chair in which sense our Saviour makes mention of Moses Chair there can nothing else be understood than the Holy Scripture it self and if the Pope pronounceth according to the tenour thereof we shall willingly hearken to him 3. The Holy Spirit upon whom the Popes Infallibility is said to depend is not tyed to this or that place but bloweth when and where and upon whom he listeth Others more sharp-sighted observing the foolishness of this distinction have devised another namely that the Pope cannot erre in a question of Right though he may be deceived in matters of Fact But this also is a broken Reed upon which if a man lean it will go into his hand and pierce it although it was invented by the Jansenists to heal that Wound which Alexnnder the VII gave them in that famous business of the five Articles For first when the Pope Anathematizeth a man he considers him as believing so and so Nor doth it appear how he that is free from all possible errour in matters of Right can be subject to errour in matters of Fact for when he pronounceth concerning the sense of any Book being an Infallible Interpreter of the sense and meaning which they do affirm he may fall from a question of Right into a question of Fact and so may determine that this and no other was the Authors meaning 2. Seeing Law prescribes to matter of Fact it is not likely that he who is Infallible in matter of Right can erre in matter of Fact 3. Right doth sometimes arise from Fact therefore that which before was a question of Fact afterwards turning to a question of Right the Pope may give an infallible judgment concerning it 4. If this be true the Pope cannot condemn nor Anathematize an Heretick his judgment being fallible in matters of Fact 5. We have before shortly proved that the Pope hath erred most abominably in matters of Right And thus you may see what difficulties they involve themselves in who place the Church and its Infallibility in the Pope alone Now followeth the third and last Opinion of the Papists concerning the Church and its Infallibility namely that it consists in the Pope and the Council together But Incidit in Scyllam qui vult vitare Charybdim For the same difficulties that were before proposed do press them equally And moreover these doubts will arise Whether the Pope have his Infallibility from the Council or the Council from the Pope Whether if the Pope be absent his Legates have the same Infallibility that he himself would have if Present if so whether he might not as easily Delegate this Infallibility to the Bishops of the Council as to his Legates Whether Decrees made in the Popes absence be Infallible and binding to the Conscience For if no Decrees be binding without the Popes Confirmation it cannot be conceived how he can extrajudicially or out of Council ratifie the Decrees made in Council being the Popes Infallibility consists not in his own Person as separate from but joyntly with the Council From what I have said it evidently appears that the Papists catch at a Shadow instead of the Body and though they obstinately assert the Infallibility of their Church yet they cannot agree nor do they know where this Church is to be found So that they are altogether ignorant how to satisfie a doubting Soul in this matter and yet they desist not Projicere ampullas sesquipedalia verba While I was yet in the Roman Communion I perceived my self intangled in these Labaryinths and often considered how to extricate my self that so I might with a clear Conscience worship God in purity and holiness And although I had heard much in my own Country which is Spain of the Reformed Churches yet I could never light on any of the Books of their Learned Divines being forbidden to read them under the severest penalties But hearing that they founded all their Doctrines upon the Holy Scriptures I became very desirous to search into the same for in Spain it self the Clergy is not forbidden to read the Scriptures and having met with these words of the Apostle Paul 2 Tim. 3.16 17. All Scripture is given by Inspiration of God and is profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction in Righteousness that the Man of God may be perfect thoroughly furnished unto all good works It seemed to me that the Apostle had drawn a lively Portraicture of a Minister of the Gospel and described at once what ought to be the matter and Fountain as well as Method of Preaching yea and declared by what means the Man of God that is a Minister of Christ may undoubtedly attain unto the full perfection of his Ministry as well in reference to his own accomplishments for the work as to the good effects of his labour upon the Souls committed to his care namely he asserteth that the Scriptures contain a rich Treasure of Divine Knowledge able to make a man wise unto Salvation 2 Tim. 3.15 and pronounceth him accursed that should preach another Gospel even though it were an Angel from Heaven Gal. 1.8 but peace upon as many as walk according to this Rule Gal. 6.16 And God himself sends his people to the Law and to the Testimony as the most effectual way to reduce them from seeking unto false Prophets and Wizards Isa 8.19 20. Having pondered these things seriously and often within my self and observed that Paul speaks so magnificent things of the Scriptures and that he who