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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	according_a	church_n	doctrine_n	2,019	5	6.0761	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26887	The certainty of Christianity without popery, or, Whether the Catholick-Protestant or the papist have the surer faith being an answer to one of the oft canted questions and challenges of the papists, sent to one who desired this : published to direct the unskilful, how to defend their faith against papists and infidels, but especially against the temptations of the Devil, that by saving their faith, they may save their holiness, their comfort and their souls / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1672 (1672)	Wing B1213; ESTC R5291	42,876	122

Commentators And yet must we know Translations and Copies only by the Popes determination III. Your own Popes ex Cathedra have given the Church various Translations That Edition of the Vulgar Latine made by Sixtus 5. and that made about two years after Clemens 8. differ in so many hundred passages and abundance of whole verses and sentences that if a Bible be a Divine Revelation one of them shamefully erred about Divine Revelations or de fide See Dr. Iames his Bellum Papale and its Defence against Gretser Where then is your Certainty IV. You are utterly uncertain and disagreed among your selves who it is that hath this Ascertaining Determining Authority You say it is your Church But some say that the Infallibility and Power is in the Pope alone in Cathedra Some say it is a General Council though the Pope dissent Some say that the Pope and Council must agree and some say that the Church Essential of all Countries must receive the decrees before they are infallibly ascertaining And who can be Certain of Gods word by an Authority which is it self so uncertain See the proof in Safe Relig. p. 192 193 194. V. Your own sentence condemneth your own Judges as uncertain General Councils as Constance and Basil have concluded that Popes may err in matters of faith yea accused and Condemned them as Hereticks if not Infidels And shall we not believe a General Council in matter of present fact and yet must believe them what is Gods word And that one Council hath Condemned another and Popes have Condemned Councils I have ibid. proved at large And if Popes and General Councils distinct are deceitful how shall we be sure that two false parties when they meet do make one true one VI. Popes and General Councils have often erred from the faith as our Church of England truly asserteth and therefore we are not sure that they never will do so more Bellarmine himself noteth about fourty Popes charged with error or Heresie Liberius subscribeth the sentence against Athanasius and received the Arrians to Communion and subscribed the Sirmian faith Hane ego libenti animo suscepi in nullo contradicens See his Epist. 7. in Binnius To. 1. p. 465. and his notes on it See more in my safe Relig. p. 249 c. And of Councils p. 274 c. The sixth General Council at Constantin approved by Pope Adrian and by the seventh Council hath many errors as have many others there instanced in What Certainty then can they give us VII The Ancient Christians and Churches received not the Certainty of their faith upon the Authoritative determination of a Pope and Council Therefore there is a Certainty to be had without it The Churches that Paul or any Apostle Converted believed not at first upon the Authority of a General Council nor of a Pope Till the Council of Nice for above 300. years the world was without a General Council And were they without faith Frumentius and Aedesius that preached to the Indians and all other Christian Preachers that then converted souls took another course They did not first convince men of the Authority of a Pope and General Council to tell them what was Gods word before they brought them to believe it VIII Scripture it self never mentioneth this Method or Evidence And would it be silent of the only way of Certainty It never saith to the world You must know by the Judgement of Peter or the Pope and a General Council what is the word of God Did Christ forget it IX The Ancient Defenders of the Christian Faith did all go another way Iustin Tertullian Athenagoras Tatianus Minutius Faelix Arnobius Lactantius Eusebius in his two first Volumes de Praepar Demonstrat Augustine and all such writers seek to prove our faith by other Evidence and never say the Pope and a General Council are the only ascertaining declarers of it X. Our Proof of the Matters of fact is incomparably more certain than yours For 1. As to the Power of Judging we maintain a concurrence of the peoples Discerning Iudgement the Pastors Teaching or Directing Iudgement and both Magistrates and Pastors Deciding and Governing Judgement not to be the only Determiner of mens minds de fide but to Rule the publick Doctrine and Communion of the Church according to Gods foreknown Laws And as to the Truth of Copies Miracles and the actual delivery of the Gospel in the Scripture and in the distinct Catechistical Articles aforesaid we rest on Tradition which hath a Natural Infallibility and not a pretended Authoritative Iudge Your Tradition receiveth its credit from pretended Power to Iudge which all the wise men in the world will deny till it s proved Our Tradition hath its credit from a Natural Impossibility that the History should be false I have shewed you the proof of this in my More Reasons for the Christian Religion and else where If you will not read them there I know not whether you will read them here and therefore will not write them again We have all your Evidence which is Evidence indeed and far more with it And as Hierom saith The world is more than the City Your Tradition is that of a Popes judging Power only as some say and of a Pope with his Council as others say and of the Pope with his subjects as your few moderate Latitudinarians say You are not above the third or fourth part of the Christian world If you deny this your Impudent lying may cheat a woman that never read the state of the world but will shame you the more with learned men And is not the Tradition 1. Of all the Christian world for 300. years before there was any General Council 2. And of all the Christian world since even Greeks Armenians Syrians Copties Abassines and all others more than the Tradition of a Pope and a few inslaved Priests The Council of Trent had for a considerable time but 42. Bishops even when it set up your Tradition as a supplement to Scripture And is the Pope and these 42. of equal historical credit to all the Christian world 3. Yea our History takes in Hereticks yea and Infidels and Heathens too so far as they have left us any Testimony of these things Even a Pliny a Celsus a Porphyry a Iulian and any other the bitterest Enemies Because we prove it Impossible that so many men of different Countries and no converse and contrary minds and Interests should confederate or agree to deceive the world and be undetected in such a matter And what is the Pope and 42. or two hundred Prelates most of Italy to such Historical Evidence as this O that you could lay by partiality and base selfish respects but for one day or hour What if the Question among us were whether ever Paul was at Rome Or Iustin wrote his Apologie Or Origen was a professed Christian Or Constantine the Great professed Christianity Or whether the writings of Iustin Tertullian Cyprian Augustine c. be

that they attested every phrase method yea or the truth of every word of the penmen so as that none of them could through oversight or forgetfulness misrecite a name number or circumstance Though we have here sufficient satisfaction yet not so full a Certainty as we have of the Doctrine of the Gospel which the Apostles converted the world by Preaching of before the New Testament was written and which in the Sacramental Covenants the Creed Lords Prayer and Decalogue and Catechisms was distinctly by it self delivered to the Churches and so cometh to us by a double way of tradition CHAP. VII Quest. IV. What Certainty have we of the Copies § 1. Answ. THE same that we have of the Statute Books in England save that the Recorded Originals of some Laws remain And the same that you have of the Copies of the most Certain Councils and Authors extant § 2. 1. They are delivered to us by men of so many Countries minds and interests as could not possibly agree to falsifie them in the substance and in those points in which the Copies agree § 3. 2. They were constantly read in the holy Assemblies through the Christian world and by private Christians and especially all Teachers And therefore any great depravation could not grow common § 4. 3. The Copies all over the world of Greatest antiquity still agree so far as is aforesaid and the Commentaries of the Fathers containing the Text with all the Citations are the same in the main So that we have a Historical Certainty of the Copies so far as they are commonly known to agree which the Old Translations also Confirm § 5. The words in which they disagree though many are such as no article necessary to Salvation dependeth on and are plainly the errors of Scribes and not of the holy Penmen § 6. In the points where any late or inconsiderable Copy differeth from the generality which have Evidence of Antiquity and Concord that singularity is no cause of doubting § 7. Many slips are such as the Context will sufficiently detect § 8. In all those points where the Copies so differ as that it cannot be proved which is the truest by certain proof we can have no certainty Nor is our uncertainty of any danger to us CHAP. VIII Quest. V. What Certainty have we of the Canonical Books § 1. Answ. 1. OF all those Canonical Books which the Christian world now commonly receiveth there is the same Certainty by the same means which I before mentioned of the Copies The Doctrine of them was spoken of before it being that Divine Revelation which God hath attested as was opened We have the Certain History and Tradition of all ages from the first common notice and reception of them agreeing which are the true Books § 2. 2. But yet even of these Canonical Books agreed on the Evidence of Divinity is not equal For 1. Some of them have more Evident Impressions of Gods Image upon them in the Matter than others have As the Psalms more than Ruth the Chronicles c. The Doctrinal Books more than the Genealogies Chronologies particular Histories 2. God did confirm some more notoriously by Miracles and publick attestations than others So Moses his words had more confirmation by Miracles than Ruth Chronicles Ecclesiastes Canticles c. 3. Some have had a fuller testimony by Tradition than others As the Pentateuch and Psalms more than the Chronicles part of Daniel c. 4. In all these respects the New Testament cometh to us with fuller and clearer Evidence than the Old As being of later date and so the Historical proof more discernible And hath more clear Impressions of Divinity and was confirmed by the most notorious multiplied long-continued Miracles and by the most notable effects of holiness in all true Believers c. And indeed its attestation to the Old Testament is not our weakest proof of its Divinity § 3. There is less doubt of those few books of the New-Testament which were unknown or doubted of but by some Churches for a time than of those which are controverted as belonging to the Old § 4. As to those Books which he saith the Ebionites and Valentinians denied they have as full Historical proof as any And those that denied them denied Christs Resurrection or some Essentials of Christianity and were no Christians but mad-brained factions withdrawn from Christians the Valentinian Gnosticks in their whole heresie plainly shewed themselves crackt-brained Fanaticks as Irenaeus and Epiphanius describe them so that for Number Quality and Cross-interest their Exceptions were not any considerable discredit of the History and indeed but excite the Christians the more carefully to examine and preserve their Canon Nor were their exceptions so much against the Matter of Fact whether Mark c. wrote those books as about the Divinity of them And were but of the like nature with all the Turks Heathens and other Infidels exceptions against the whole Gospel § 5. And as for those Apocryphal books which are in Controversie between the Papists and us some Protestants say that they are Certainly none of Gods word and some that it is utterly uncertain to any man that they are his word And let the Papists who assert the Certainty that they are give us the proof of it and we will thank them Till then our denial or uncertainty of those books maketh no alteration in the Great and Necessary Articles of our faith CHAP. IX Quest. VI. What Certainty have we of the truth of Translations § 1. Answ. 1. THose that understand the Original and the Language into which it is Translated have a Certainty from the Known signification of the words answerable to the degree of their skill in those tongues The signification of the words is Certain to them by Infallible Tradition The use and sense of the words in Hebrew and Greek is known by Lexicons and the constant use of Authors and by the confession of all parties friends and Enemies and by present use so that as your Priests understand a true Translation of any Latine Greek or Hebrew Author Cicero Plutark Demosthenes Antonine Maimonides c. by the same means do the Learned know a true Translation of the Bible § 2. In the Essentials of Christianity and all the necessary Articles of faith the Ignorant themselves have an Infallible Certainty that the Translations are true so far as that all that is necessary to Salvation is contained concordantly in them all 1. Because it hath pleased God to deliver all those Necessary points in various words distinctly by themselves by all Baptizers and Pastors of the Churches as is aforesaid With which the Scripture Translations do agree 2. Because there is a natural Impossibility that men of so various minds and interests as all the Translators and all the Defenders of those Translations should agree till this day to deceive the world and not be discovered § 3. And by the same evidence it is certain to an unlearned man that

When also we see the wickedness of mens lives among you in common Fornication and other heinous sin when the certainest faith will have the holiest life when it is Subjectively as well as Objectively certain XXXIX You destroy or greatly discredit the Grand Evidence of the Christian faith even Miracles How then can your faith be the most Certain For when you pretend that Miracles are as common through all the world as Priests Masses are in turning bread into no bread as aforesaid and yet no man seeth any proof of one such Miracle when really it is no less than Christs Resurrection which you pretend to be so common before all the Churches what is this but to tempt men to take all the Scripture and Apostolical Miracles to be no surer And then where is our faith XL. Lastly I end where I almost began If our sense be true the Pope and his Council are false and therefore our faith not to be received only nor chiefly on their trust For their faith teacheth us not to believe Gods most Natural Revelations to the sound senses and Intellective perception of all men in the world as I have shewed about the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament And when a Controversie it brought to sense it self we can bring it no lower And when we must either believe your faith and its foundation false or believe Gods most Natural Evident Revelation false and all mens Senses and Intellective perception false we are not able I say not able to be of your faith And now judge whose faith is more Certain the Protestants or the Papists And whether you do well so zealously and busily to make use of such soul-traps and fool-traps as the paper is which I have answered September 12. 1672. FINIS APENDIX CHAP. I. I. WHereas I have here and more fully in my More Reasons for the Christian Religion asserted a Certainty in some Morals it will give some light into the matter if I give you Ocham's decision of the Certainty of Moral Science in it self which because it is short I will translate Quod lib. l. 2. q. 14. Quest. Whether there can be a Demonstrative knowledge of Morals Resp. It seemeth not Because there can be no demonstrative knowledge of those things that are subject to the will But such are Morals ergo c. But contrarily Morals are a Science In this Question 1. I will expound one Term of the Question 2. I will give you one distinction 3. And then answer the Question 1. As to the first I say that Moral is sometime taken largely for humane Acts which are under the will absolutely Sometime more strictly for Acts subject to the Power of the will according to the natural dictate of Reason and according to other circumstances 2. As to the second you must know that Moral Doctrine hath many parts of which one is Positive another is Not-positive Moral Science Positive is that which containeth humane Laws and Divine which oblige us to follow or avoid things which are neither good nor evil nor because prohibited and commanded by a superiour to whom it belongeth to give Laws But Moral Science not positive is that which without any command of a Superidirecteth humane actions as Principles known by themselves or known by experience so direct As that all that is honest is to be done and all that is dishonest is to be avoided and such like of which Aristotle speaketh in his Moral Philosophie 3. As to the third I say That Moral Positive Science such as the Science of Lawyers is is not Demonstrative though in many things it be regulated by that which is demonstrative Because the reasons of Lawyers are founded on humane Positive Laws which receive not propositions evidently known But Moral Science not positive is Demonstrative I prove it Because all knowledge deducing conclusions Syllogistically from Principles known by themselves or by experience of him that knoweth is demonstrative But such is Moral Doctrine ergo c. The Major is known The Minor is proved Because in Moral Philosophie there are many Principles known by themselves As that the will is to conform it self to right reason that all evil is to be avoided and such like In like manner many Principles are known by Experience as is evident to him that followeth experience And I further say that This is more Certain than many other things in as much as every man may have more Experience of his own acts than of other things From whence it is plain that this is a Science very Subtile Profitable and Evident To the Argument for the Contrary I say That of things subject to the will may be formed Propositions true and known by themselves which can demonstrate many Conclusions CHAP. II. How much the wisest Papists are for our way of Resolving faith before Luthers time by controversie perverted them IT was ordinary till Luthers disputing convinced them that the Scriptures would not serve their turn for the wisest Papists 1. To make Scripture the perfect Rule of faith without the supplement of Tradition to add more 2. And to give such Reasons for their Faith as we now do for ours I. I must not be tedious in citing many 1. Aquinas Cont. Gent. Cap. 9. fol. 3. saith But the singular manner of convincing an adversary of this truth is by the Authority of the Scripture confirmed of God by miracles And Summ. 1. q. 1. a. 8. ad secundum he saith that Sacred Doctrine useth the authority of the Canonical Scripture arguing properly and from necessity but the authorities of other Doctors of the Church as arguing from its own but Probably For our faith resteth on the Revelation made to the Apostles and Prophets who wrote the Canonical Books but not on the Revelation made to other Doctors if there were any such Whence August to Hier. I have learnt to give this honour only to the Books of Scripture called Canonical as that I firmly believe that no Author of them did at all err in writing them But others I read so as that how excellent soever they were in Learning and Holiness I take it not to be therefore true because they so thought or wrote Durandus in his Preface hath little else but of the Scripture excellency in Dignity Goodness Certainty and Profundity And from Hier. ad Paulin. saith Let us learn that on Earth the knowledge of which will continue with us in Heaven But this is only in the Holy Scripture 3. The Holy Scripture exceedeth all in Certainty of Truth We must speak of the mystery of Christ and universally of those things which meerly concern faith comformably to what the Holy Scripture delivereth As Christ Joh. 5. Search the Scripture c. If any man observe not this c. The Measure is not to exceed the Measure of Faith which Measure consisteth in two things that is that we take not that from faith which belongs to faith nor attribute that to faith which is not

of faith For both waies is the Measure of faith exceeded and men deviate from the continence of the Holy Scripture which expresseth the Measure of faith And this Measure God assisting we will hold that we may write or teach nothing dissonant from the Holy Scripture But if by ignorance or inadvertencie we should write any thing let it be ipso facto esteemed as not written And so on And Prolog q. 1. his description of Theologie is 1. For a habit by which we only or principally assent to those things that are delivered in Scripture and as they are there delivered And so Theologie differs not from faith The reason of which is because the things that are delivered in the Scripture are so only held by Divine Authority Scotus Prolog Q. 2. doth conclude p. 7. that the Doctrine of the Canonical Scripture is sufficient to the attainment of our end And that the Holy Scripture containeth sufficiently the Doctrine necessary to a Viator a man in this life II. And to prove this Scripture to be true he giveth us these ten proofs which I must not repeat at large 1. From the predictions of Scripture which God only could do 2. From their notable concord 3. He proveth that their own Doctrine against Lying and such like prove that the writers lied not 4. From the great diligence and concord of the Receivers 5. From the Rationability of the Contents 6. From the unreasonableness of all other waies 7. From the stability of the Church 8. From the Miracles which God would never affix to a lie which he largely urgeth 9. From the testimony of aliens and adversaries 10. That God would not give up those to a lie who so seek him with all their hearts as many Christians do Abundance of their Authors more I could cite who thus argue for the truth of Scripture and not from an Authoritative decision of a Pope or Council only And what in this they give to them at other times doth but shew that their foundation was so much weaker than ours CHAP. III. That where the Learned Papists differ from us they are so far from building on a Certainer foundation that so far they are forced to deny all Certainty of faith TO prove this it may suffice to mind the Learned Reader how even the most judicious as Greg. Armin. Prolog Estius and commonly most Schoolmen deny a proper Certainty of Evidence to faith Not only that the Object is not Evident to sense which all confess but that the truth of the conclusion is not Demonstrable and that Faith is a pious act of the Election of the will which were not meritorious if it had rational demonstration or evidence And that it is but opinion which is resolved into humane Authority and yet that they believe the Scripture to be Gods word and this or that to be the sense meerly because the Church holdeth it I cannot stay to cite many Plain Durandus shall be instead of all Who Prolog q. 1. saith p. 6. c. 1. Faith which resteth on humane Authority differeth not from opinion because the place from humane authority is topical and an argument thence taken is the weakest And therefore the faith which resteth on that authority is the weakest opinion But pag. 9. of the faith which resteth on Gods authority he granteth us that it may stand with Science of many of the same things and that Divine authority and demonstrative reason may concur to cause the same assent But p. 10. he dissenteth from them that hold that Gods attestations were such to those that saw Christs Miracles and Resurrection c. as certainly proved the truth of his Godhead and so of his word which is Aquinas his honest Doctrine 3. q. 43. act 4. against which Durandus writeth this And because it is us as well as Aquinas that he opposeth I will briefly confute his reasons The first is Because Demonstration necessitateth the understanding to believe But many that saw Lazarus raised c. believed not Christ to be God c. Therefore Miracles were not a sufficient demonstration Answ. Not sufficient to all things but sufficient to do their own part By this you would prove that there is no demonstration of any thing almost in the world For there is almost nothing which convinceth all men I distinguish therefore of a disposed and an indisposed understanding And as to the later I deny the major Demonstrations constrein not millions of undisposed Intellects Recipitur ad modum recipientis What need any other proof than your oft mentioned denial of Bread in the Eucharist Because millions deny the perception of all mens Senses and Intellects thereby are not things sensible demonstrable or evident Can you hope to bring more cogent proof And yet this is rejected And so were Christs miracles The second is Gregory Faith hath no merit where humane reason hath experience and there is Science Answ. A falshood as easily denied as asserted without proof If by Merit you mean Rewardableness For it is only Natural involuntary necessity which evacuateth moral Good or Evil. The will may shew its virtue or vice in receiving or rejecting Objective ascertaining Evidence The third is that it was not known of it self that this miracle attested the truth of what Christ said But whether per se or by consequence it is a most evident certainty that a man yea abundance of men that assert such a point of unspeakable consequence to the world doing abundance of open notorious miracles as professed witnesses or proofs of their Doctrine could not do this but by Gods extraordinary providence And that if this be not to be taken for a Divine Testimony we know of none that mortals are capable of nor a possibility of the worlds escaping the deceit as caused unresistibly by God His Answers to this are not worthy the repeating The same Author li. 3. d. 23. q 7. Enquiring of the Certainty of faith whether it be certainer than Science brings in the several answers of others 1. That there is a Certainty of Evidence and this Science hath and a Certainty of Adhesion and this Faith hath But this he rejecteth and sheweth truly that Adhesion is not properly Certainty and also that the fullest Evidence causeth the closest Adhesion 2. That Faith hath most Certainty in se in the thing and Science most Certainly quoad nos as to us But the vanity of this he truly sheweth For to be Certain in it self and not to us is but to be True And all things True are equally True But no truth is Certain to us or Credible without revelation to us And as he saith The Certainty of Act or habit is not from the Certainty of the object in it self but from the mode which the habit putteth as to the person and the act No way therefore saith he is the act or habit called Certain unless it be certain as to us Therefore he is forced to conclude that many habits and acts of