Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
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A66957
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[Catholick theses]
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R. H., 1609-1678.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing W3438; ESTC R222050
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115,558
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162
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must needs be also the most supreme Guide of Christians 5. That therefore no inferior or subordinate Person or Synod when they are known to oppose this Supreme may be taken by particular Persons for their Guide in Spiritual matters 6. Nor yet a minor part of the Fathers in these supreme Councils differing from the rest or out of these Councils a minor part of Christian Churches opposing the rest may be followed as our Guide For so notwithstanding these Guides appointed us we are left in the same uncertainty for our way as if we had none except only when all of them unanimously agree and if of two parties opposite it is left to us to choose which we will to guide us it is all one for those points wherein these differ as if we were left to guide our selves HEAD II. Concerning the Church Catholick of several Ages her being equally this Guide Concerning the Church Catholick of several Ages her being equally this Guide 1. IT is affirmed That the Church Catholick of every Age since the Apostles and consequently the Church Catholick of this present Age hath the same indefectibility in Truth and authority in Goverment as that of any other Both these Indefectibility and Authority being as necessary for the preserving of Christianity in one Age as in another and that our Saviour's Promise of Indefectibility is made good to the Church Catholick of every Age taken distinctly Else his Promise that the Church of all Ages should not fail would sufficiently be verified if that of any one Age hath not failed 2. From hence it is gathered That the present Catholick Church of any Age can never deliver any thing contrary to the Church of former Ages in necessary matters of Faith or Manners 3. Supposing that in matters not so necessary the Catholick Church of several Ages should differ yet that the former having no more Promise of not erring herein then the later therefore a Christian hath no greater security of the not erring of the one then of the other and therefore ought to acquiesce in the Judgment of the present under whose regency and guidance God hath actually placed him 4. If for the performance of Christian Obedience there be any necessity to have such Points as these first decided viz. What former Councils have been lawful and obliging and what unlawful What are fundamental and necessary Points of Faith and what not necessary What is the Doctrine of the Ancient Church in such and such Controversies And what is the true sense of the Fathers Writings or of a Councils Decree If these I say or so far as these are necessary to be known by him it follows that in these a Christian ought also to submit to the Resolutions of the present Church Catholick so far as it hath or shall decide them unto him i. e. to the Resolution of the supremest Authority thereof that he can arrive to and herein to acquiesce For thus far he is secure that in things necessary she cannot misguide him And it seems unreasonable That when she is appointed his unfailable Guide in all Points necessary See Num. 1. Head 1. He not she should undertake to judge what Points are necessary and what not for this is in effect to choose himself in what particular Points she shall guide him and in what not Unreasonable when he is obliged to obey her Councils that He not she should decide of those Councils which are lawful and ought to be owned by her for this is in effect to choose what Councils he pleaseth to command his obedience and exclude the rest Unreasonable when he is to learn of her what is the Doctrine and true Sense of the Holy Scriptures that He not she should judge what is the Doctrine of Antiquity or the true sense of former Fathers or Councils and wherein the present Church accords with or departs from them i. e. that she that is his Judge in greater Matters may not be so in the less HEAD III. Concerning the necessary Tradition of the former Ages of the Church for all the Points of Faith that are taught in the present Concerning the necessary Tradition of the former Ages of the Church for all the points of Faith that are taught in the present 1. CAtholicks grant That every Article of Faith is to all later Ages derived either in express terms or in its necessary Principles from the times of the Apostles 2. And consequently That no Article of Faith can be justly received in any later Age which was not acknowledged as such in all the former i. e. either in express terms or in its Principles 3. But 3 it is not hence necessary that every Article of Faith professed in a later Age be professed also in express Terms in the former 4. Nor 4 that all those Articles that are professed by a former Age must needs be found in those Writers we have of the same Age For all their Writings are not now extant nor all that they professed necessarily written but only such things of which the Suppression of Sects instruction of the times or the Author 's particular design ministred occasion 5. As that Rule of Vincentius Lerinensis is allowed most true Illud tenendum quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est So this Nihil tenendum nisi quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus creditum est especially as it is restrained to and required to be shewed and verified in the Writers of former Ages and in these not in respect of Principles of Faith but all the deductions too is affirmed most erroneous and such as if the omnibus and semper be not confined to the Members only of the Catholick Communion one particular Church or Person in any Age Heretical will void the Catholick Faith HEAD IV. So also concerning the Canonical Scriptures Concerning the Canon of Scripture 1. CAtholicks do profess That as the Church Governors or General Councils can make no new Article of Faith See H. 5. Num. 2. So neither new Canon of Holy Scripture and that no Book can be part of these Holy Scriptures now which hath not been so always since the Apostles days But notwithstanding this 2. It must be granted 1 That in some former Ages and Churches fewer Books have been acknowledged and received as the Canon of Scripture than in some other later Churches and Ages and some Books by some in some Ages doubted of which now all accept 3. That where any such doubt ariseth the Governours of the Church have Power and Authority and that not more in one Age than in another to decide and declare what particular Books are to be esteemed and received as Canonical and descending to Posterity as such from the Apostles times and what not 4. All those Books are received by Catholicks as Canonical which the most or more General Councils See the Council in Trullo Can. 2. accepting the Council of Carthage as well as of
eternal save only upon his free and gracious promise made to them or at least in commutative justice do deserve it from any worth in them that equals it and for both these doth not always depend only on the Merits of Christ is held by Catholicks to err from Truth and to be guilty of a most false presumption 2ly For the true concurrence that good Works have by Christ's Merits thro God's free promise for obtaining or meriting life eternal here also as every one ought in general to believe most certainly and infallibly that all who perform such Evangelical Obedience shall obtain life Eternal So they affirm 1st That none is obliged to believe specially that his own Works or Obedience is such as cannot miss of it or that if he have not a full perswasion of the merit of his own Works or of his own Justification or Salvation or of the particular application of Christ's Merits to himself he cannot be justified or saved or partake of his Merits 2ly That by reason of the liableness of the once justified by or in their Baptisme to fall away again by committing Mortal Sin from their Justification and then the difficulty of discerning exactly among their Sins committed what are Mortal and losing the Divine Grace what are not then again by reason of the difficulty of knowing in our regaining a second Justification when we have a sufficient repentance or sorrow and contrition for our former Sins without which the Churches Sacraments do not profit us and a different measure of which is required according to the greatness of our fault and when we have not And 3ly by reason If we were ascertained of our regained estate of the great allay and impairment which our actions in this estate may receive from the mixture of many Venial sins so that our faults do many times equal sometimes exceed our good deeds nay sometimes that which we think a good act is no better than a true tho Venial Sin and is augmented also in our presumption that it is none By reason also of the difficulty to distinguish between Evangelical Counsels and Precepts in respect of which a different observance is required under penalty of falling into some Mortal Sin or only failing of Perfection And lastly by reason of the uncertainty of our perseverance and that our present Merits or Piety may not be all evacuated by some future miscarriages I say by reason of all these Catholicks affirm it the safest course especially for those who have not attained to any great perfection not to put any or much least it should happen to be a mistaken confidence in any merit or sufficiency of their own present works to those ends for which God requireth them of us But rather wholly to trust in and rely on God's mercy both for our present condition that if it be not safe he will through Christ's Merits by improving our Faith and Repentance change and amend it and for our present actions when we are in a safe condition that if they be full of defects and miscarriages he will for Christ's Merits remit these and for the future more sanctify them and give us also perseverance in them We ever remembring that of the Apostle 1. Cor. 4.4 Nihil mihi conscius sum sed non in hoc justificatus sum qui autem judicat me Dominus est Of which matter thus the Council of Trent Sess 6. c. 9. Sicut nemo pius de Dei misericordia Christi Meritis Sacramentorum virtute efficacia dubitare potest Sic quilibet dum seipsum suamque propriam infirmitatem indispositionem respicit de sua gratia i. e. of his Regeneration formidare timere potest 7ly Yet lastly they grant That such justified as are eminent in Sanctity both may have by special revelation which God sometimes condescending to a great familiarity communicates unto them an infallible certainty of their present justification and if persevering Salvation and may also without such revelation tho not attain any infallible certainty or perswasion cui non potest sub-esse falsum by reason of the possible defect of their judgment about some of the aforenamed particulars upon which therefore can never be built any Divine Faith the object of which is only Divine Revelation and therefore that only which is absolutely infallible yet have a strong and moral-certain perswasion or faith cui non sub-est dubium or dubitatio may have a fearless and calm security that they are actually justified and consequently if persevering shall be glorified Which is called the Testimony of a good Conscience grounded on their present Obedience as the condition and service required of them for rendring them capable of such a reward and of Christ's most perfect obedience the adequate meritorious cause thereof See 2. Cor. 1.12 1. Jo. 3.18 19 20. c. 24.4.17 2. Pet. 1.10 2. Tim. 4.7 8. To which Testimony of a good Conscience is added also the witness within them of the Holy Spirit Rom. 8.15 tho this witness as also it s other ordinary operations in us most-what is not certainly known by us to be its witness or operation for if it were so this would amount to special revelation Catholicks therefore affirm not a particular application of Christ's Merits to themselves or a confidence of their own Salvation in any justified to be unlawful but only an infallible certainty of these to be except by revelation unattainable and whilst they say that one tho in the state of Justification de sua gratia formidare timere potest yet they say not that every one timere debet ξ. ξ. See the Roman Writers quoted to this purpose by Dr. Field Append. 3. l. p. 318. c. And by Bishop Forbes de Justificat 3. l. 1. c. p. 95. c. Where Communior Romanensium sententia saith he libenter admittit ex vivae fidei sensu seu charitatis bonorum operum experimento certitudinem aliquam minoris inferioris gradus oriri quae conjecturalis probabilis nominari potest quae licet non omnem formidinem pellat tamen tollit omnem anxietatem haesitationem Progrediuntur alii quidam Romani ulterius certitudinem aliquam aliam minorem quidem certitudine fidei divinae Conjecturali tamen majorem quam certitudinem moralem appellandam censent admittunt Ita ut nullam habeant de sua justificatione formidinem deceptionis The Pharisee very confident Luk. 18.11 went home unjustified the Publican very fearful justified and so the Leper believing Christ's Power but doubting his good Pleasure si vis potes yet was cleansed Matt. 8.2 HEAD XVII Concerning Sin Venial and Mortal Concerning Sin Venial and Mortal THE Catholick Doctrine is 1. That all the Baptized are truely Regenerate 2. That a Man falls not from this state of Regeneration or from God's Grace and favour by committing any Sin how small soever nor yet continues still in this State whilst committing any Sin how