Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
truth_n according_a believe_v scripture_n 1,612 5 5.8214 4 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A67649 Dr. Stillingfleet's principles of Protestancy cleared, confuted, and retorted And the infallibility of the Roman-Catholick Church asserted; and that the same church alone is the whole Catholick church. In a letter from a Catholick gentleman to a Protestant knight. Warner, John, 1628-1692. 1673 (1673) Wing W911; ESTC R219411 19,248 38

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

only Rule of Salvation and by consequence that it is not repugnant to the wisdome and goodness of God not to set down all his will in writing in the Law of grace or not agreeable to the same that God make men insallible in writing so much of his will as is contained in Scripture or even all that is necessary for Salvation though that writing be not clear to every sincere and sober person 't is sufficient it may be explained to every man by the Doctors and Pastors of the Church according to that of Deut. 17.8 Thou shalt go to the Priests to enquire and they shall shew thee Deut. 33.10 They shall teach thy Law Neh. 8.8 They caused the people to understand the Law And Mat. 23.2 They sat in Moses chair all things therefore c. which last Text doth not agree with the Proposition saying that for some ages before Christ there was no body infallible among the Jews to attest or explain to them the Writings of Moses or the Prophets As for the Testimonies of the New Testament see Mat. 7.24 and 13.19 and 24.14.16 and 28.19 and Mark 16.15 and Matth. 18.17 c. But Dr. Stillingfleet will demonstrate by his 16. Proposition That the Roman-Catholick Church is intolerable by its pretending to Gods infallible assistance in proposing matters of faith And why so Because forsooth every Preacher of that Church doth not work as great Miracles as Christ and his Apostles Doth every Protestant Preacher work such Miracles Did you Dr. Stillingfleet Did any of your Church or Reformation ever work a Miracle If not why do you expect or exact that any should beleeve your Reformation or that your Church is assisted by the holy Ghost If all rational persons must grant that Miracles are necessary to plant any new Doctrine pretended to be divine how much more necessary must they be to reverse the old and reject Doctrine held for many ages as Divine and confirmed as such by so many Prodigies against whose supernaturality our adversaries have no other Arguments then their own arbitrary Interpretations of Scripture and those things which the Jews objected against the Doctrine and Miracles of Christ and his Apostles This much we may at least exact and expect from Dr Stillingfleet that he will either confesse the truth of our Doctrine and Miracles or confute them by some better reason then by a bare supposition that they are against Scripture or by rashly averring they are but tricks of covetous Monks and crafty * Dr Field in his Treatise of the Church lib. 3. cap. 48. Jesuites Other Protestant Writers confesse ingeniously that our Massing Priests and Jesuites have wrought many true Miracles in the Indies Japan Congo and China converting those Nations to Popery And Mr. Hartwell ‖ M. Abraham Hartwell in his Report of the Kingdom of Congo edit An. 1597. in his Epistle to the Reader Symon Lythus in Respons altera ad alteram Gretseri Apol. pag. 331. Daneus contra Bellar. pag. 781. speaking of the Conversion of the Kingdom of Congo saith Shall this Action which tendeth to the Glory of God be concealed and not committed to memory because it was performed by Popish Priests and Popish means God forbid If Dr. Stillingfleet thinks that his Church or the Reformation by not pretending to Miracles or Infallibility in proposing matters of Faith be a more certain and safe Guide to Salvation then the Roman-Catholick Church that with undeniable moral evidence pretends to both few considering and consciencious persons will be of his opinion it being a clear principle in Moral Theology That in matters of Eternity we are bound to choose the surest way and no prudent man will deny but that it is a surer way to Heaven to be directed by a Guide that pretends to be certain of that way and produceth moral evidence for that certainty then to follow a guide that plainly confesseth his own uncertainty of the way and hath nothing to say against the moral evidence and assurance of the other but railing Raillery or turning to Ridicule such forged and incredible Miracles as we our selves discover and punish To conclude it is not necessary that every particular Doctor or Preacher of the Faith shew or work a Miracle 't is sufficient that any one of that Faith do it or did it to prove the Faith and Infallibility of the Roman Church If this be credibly reported to the dissenters they are bound to beleeve it and become Roman Catholicks Herod never did see any of Christ or the Apostles Miracles at least many of the Jews did not and yet they who heard them credibly reported were obliged under pain of damnation to beleeve the Christian doctrine because they were credibly informed that it was confirmed by Miracles So that it is a rash mistake to maintain that no Protestant is bound to submit to the Authority and Doctrine of the Roman-Catholick Church unless he be convinct first by seeing a Miracle Such things as are own'd to be Miracles by our Church are so well examined and so authentickly proved that any one may prudently beleeve them for though perhaps none now living did see them yet many credible persons that lived when they were wrought did see them and we may rely upon their sight and search with as much Reason and more Religion then upon our own according to Christs saying to S. Thomas Blessed are they who have not seen and yet believed Proposition XVII Nothing is more absurd then to pretend the necessity of such an infallible Commission and assistance to assure us of the truth of these Writings and to interpret them and at the same time to prove that Commission from those Writings from which we are told nothing can be certainly deduced such an assistance not being supposed or to pretend that Infallibility in a body of men is not as liable to doubts and disputes as in those Books from whence only they derive their Infallibility The 17. Proposition is a gross or wilful mistake of the Roman-Catholick Doctrine We do not ground the Infallibility of the Church upon the words of Scripture which assert it but upon an impossibility or incredibility that God would permit such a Church as the Roman-Catholick qualified with so many seeming supernatural signes of his favour and seals of his Divine Commission as our Miracles Sanctity Conversion of Nations to Christianity c. upon an Impossibility I say that God would permit a Church so apparently qualified with supernatural Marks of Divine * See Father Thomas Bartons Treatise of Religion and Government edit 1670. where he cleareth this point as also the obscurity of Christian faith Authority to leade men into any errour when it pretends to propose and declare Gods Revelation This we say is not compatible with Gods Veracity or with his infinite sincerity or inclination to truth and aversnesse from falshood whether in fundamental or not fundamental points of faith For even amongst men he that
and certain knowledge of Gods Revelation and Will is necessary for believing the one and obeying the other Besides it is a prerogative due to Superiors not to be obliged to signifie their will and pleasure to their Subjects by themselves immediately but may and do appoint their subordinate Officers to publish and proclaim their commands either by word of mouth or writing And though Dr. Stillingfleet in his seventh Principle seems to grant God ought to enjoy this Prerogative yet if he proceeds consequently he must deny it seeing there can be no clear undeniable certainty of Gods revealing or commanding when he trusts his Revelations and Commands to the proposal and Ministry of others though confirmed by such Miracles as Christ himself and his Apostles wrought because such Miracles do not clearly demonstrate that themselves are supernatural as is manifest by the obstinate lews who artributed them to Beelzebub or that the Doctrin confirmeed by them is Divine or that the words uttered or written by men is the Word of God If therefore a clear certainty or Demonstrative Evidence of Gods Will and Revelation be requisite for Christian Obedience and belief we deprive God of that Prerogative which is inseparable from Soveraigns and consists in the Obligation of their Subjects to beleeve and obey them when they speak and command by subordinate Officers though these shew no clear or undeniable evidence for their office some signs Gods Ministers must shew as Seals of their Commission which may create even in the most serupulous a moral certainty of Divine Truth and Trust reposed in them but no such undeniable evidence of Gods revealing and commanding by them as D. Stillingfleet and all Protestants are forc't to exact by not contenting themselves with that moral certainty and evidence of supernatural signes which is visible in the Roman-Catholick Church And truly by exacting greater evidence of Gods Revelations then appears by the signes of the Roman-Catholick Church Dr. Stillingfleet destroys all Religion and the nature of Christian Faith which according to S. Paul Heb. 11. involves obscurity or the Not-appearance of the Truth of Mysteries believed And reason dictates that belief or faith being by its own nature and primitive notion but an imperfect sight whereby we make a shift to supply the want of clearer knowledge to make it compatible with a clearer certainty of the truth believed or with more then a moral evidence of Gods Revelation which is certainly and clearly connected with the truth believed because it cannot deceive nor be deceived is to maintain that we want and do not want that clearness of knowledge whereof Faith doth suppose us defective and supplyeth the defect These Premisses being thus proved there can be no difficulty in discovering the fraud and falshood of D. Stillingfleets Principles and Conclusions and therefore granting his sixth last and common Principle I will proceed to his particular Propositions mentioning only such as I do impugn Dr. Stillingfleets Faith of Protestants reduced to Principles is False The Roman-Catholick Faith Resolved into the Inconsistency of its Falshood with Gods Veracity Proposition IV. Nothing ought to be admitted for Divine Revelation which overthrows the certainty of those Principles which must be antecedently supposed to all Divine R●velation for that were to overthrow the m●ans whereby we are to judge concerning the truth of any Divine Revelation Proposition V. There can be no other means imagined whereby we are to judge of the truth of Divine Revelation but a faculty in us of discerning truth and falshood in matters proposed to our belief which if we do not exercise in judging the truth of Divine Revelation we must be imposed upon by every thing which pretends to be so Proposition VI. The pretence of Infallibility in any person or society of men must be judged in the same way that the truth of Divine Revelation is c. DR Stillingfleets first and second Proposition may pass and his third also if the word certain be rightly understood but his Fourth Proposition if therein he supposeth that every one is to be judge concerning the truth of Divine Revelation is false as also the Fifth wherein he makes our humane Understanding a sufficient faculty nay the only means of discerning the truth and falshood in matters proposed to our belief and of Divine Revelations For the Objects of Divine Revelation are frequently Mysteries so sublime that they far exceed all humane or natural capacity how therefore can their truth or falshood be judged of by natural reason above its own reach And as for the Divine Revelation it self all Divines grant its Existence and by consequence its truth cannot be known by natural reason and therefore say that albeit you may prove the Existence of God by natural reason yet you cannot by the same faculty prove the Existence of any one of his Revelations because these taking their denomination from the exercise of Gods liberty are no subject for humane demonstration or concluding discourses unlets you will consine Gods free choice to one of those many contrary Decrees he might have fixt upon ab aeterno But of this Subject more in the Confutation of his sixth Conclusion To make every mans private judgement the touchstone of what is Divine Revelation for fear forsooth of being imposed upon by every thing which pretends to be so is to take too much upon our selves and savours more of the private Spirit then of that pious affection and profound submission wherewith St. Paul bids us captivate our understandings to the obedience of faith But surely Dr. Stillingfleet doth not consider what ill use himself makes of his discerning faculty when he judges that the Protestant Reformation is Divine Revelation let him reflect upon the incredibility of Gods permitting his Church to lurk in desarts or to lie in Errours from the Primitive times until Martin Luther's appearance Anno 1517. he will finde there is very little judgement exercised in giving that man or any of his Comrades so much credit as to forsake the sence of Scripture which the Church Then and for many preceding Ages held for new fancies and inventions of Luther Zuinglius Calvin and other debaucht Priests and Fryars without any other warrant for so great an undertaking but their own word impudently pretending that they were sent and inspired by God to plant a Doctrine suitable enough to the lewdness of their own lives and confessedly * Luther tom 5. Witenb in Galat. c. 1. fol. 290. in Coll q. Mensal fol. 273. tom 7. Witenb An. 1558. in lic de missa privata fol. 443.228 saith Dost thou O sole man take upon thee so great matters What if thou being but one offendert If God permit so many and all to erre why may he not permit thee to erre Hitherto appertain those Arguments the Church the Church the Fathers the Fathers the Councils the Customes the multitudes and greatness of wise men whom do not those clouds and doubts yea