Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	2,130	5	9.1915	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23822	Animadversions on Mr. Hill's book entituled, A vindication of the primitive fathers, against the imputations of Gilbert, Lord Bishop of Sarum in a letter to a person of quality.	Allix, Pierre, 1641-1717.	1695 (1695)	Wing A1218; ESTC R22827	36,802	72

singularly odd concerning the Production of the Second Person And yet it 's very observable that Tertullian says nothing but what has been advanced by many other Ecclesiastical Writers before the Council of Nice so that notwithstanding all Dr. Bull 's Endeavours to reduce what these Fathers say to an Orthodox sense Mr. Hill must of necessity involve them in the same censure with Tertullian 2ly Mr. Hill affirms concerning the Fathers that in his opinion they generally taught a gracious Adoption and a Metaphorical 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of our Nature in Jesus Christ and of all the Saints by him But to justifie them in this Particular we must say either that Mr. Hill never read them or that if he did he quarrels with them with as little ground as when he censures the Bishop for using the Expression of Divine Person in speaking of the Flesh for both the Bishop and the Fathers who often call Jesus Christ the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 have had the same Idea so that they must either stand or fall together But I shall take leave of this unfair Writer when I have performed one thing that I promised I told you that I was very much surprized to find in Mr. Hills Book a most dangerous Principle I must now make you sensible of it These are his words Pag. 6. What I require is that the Catholick Doctrine be asserted as a Rule of Faith which the Church is bound to adhere to on the certain Authority of Divine Revelation this Revelation appearing real not only to particular mens private Opinions but originally committed to the charge and custody of the whole Church by the Apostles and so preserved by their Successors throughout the whole diffusive body Whereas his Lordship only lays down this notion or form of Faith That we believe Points of Doctrine because we are perswaded that they are revealed to us in Scripture which is so languid and unsafe a Rule that it will resolve Faith into every man's private Fancies and Contradictory Opinions Since each man's Faith is his Perswasion that what he believes for a Doctrine is revealed in Scripture Whereas the act of a Christian Faith believes such Doctrine to be true and fundamental in Christianity from the certain evidence thereof in the Scriptures acknowledged by all Churches not led by casual perswasions but by a Primitive perpetual universal and unanimous Conviction and Tradition The deviation from which Rule and Notion to private Opinions and Perswasions is the cause of all Heresies and by its consequent divisions naturally tends to the ruine of the True Christian and Catholick Faith You see that Mr. Hill is angry with the Bishop for saying that we believe Points of Doctrine because we are perswaded that they are revealed in Scripture he thinks the Bishop should have said that we receive a Doctrine for fundamental from the evidence thereof in the Scriptures acknowledged by all Churches not led by casual perswasions c. These Expressions are so intricate that it 's hard to guess at Mr. Hill's meaning If these words acknowledged by all Churches relate to the word Scripture which goes immediately before it 's very hard to apply what he says to all the Books of Scripture so as that they may retain their Authority with Christians for it is notorious that divers Books of Scripture as the Epistle to the Hebrews c. have not that Primitive Universal and unanimous Tradition to establish their Authority This one Clause of Mr. Hill's will deprive us at one dash of all the Books the Authority whereof we are told in Eusebius's Ecclesiastical History was for a long time questioned by great Churches But if he refers the words acknowledged by all Churches c. to the evidence of Fundamental Doctrines as the series of his Discourse the Maxim of Vincentius Lyrinensis which he cites and what he says concerning the Creeds seem to intimate then this Proposition is not less dangerous than the other It is true that a Fundamental Doctrine the Revelation whereof is acknowledged by all the Churches is most evident by that very thing that all the World does acknowledge it But must therefore all the Fundamental Doctrines which have not been acknowledged by all the Churches tho they are clearly revealed in Scripture be thought not fundamental because they want this Evidence I confess Mr. Hill says that he will not examine what Rules private men are to follow but he affirms that those who desire to arrive at a ripeness of Judgment and Knowledge ought to take the Rule of Vincentius Lyrinensis p. 7. which the Bishop has rejected But this I say first of all is a Notion that has no solid ground in Divinity 'T is granted that Certainty of Revelation in respect to those who live now I depends upon the Certainty of Revelation which the Apostolical and after it the Christian Church has had down to this time But it is not a wild imagination to oppose h●r Certainty which the Apostolical Church in a Body has bad to the perswasion of each Member of the Apostolical Church What Certainty could the Body of the Apostolical Church have but the Certainty which each single member of which it was composed had Who ever heard among Protestants but that the Faith of each private man resolves it self into the Certainty of Revelation which way soever he may come by that Certainty of Revelation Is it not rank Popery to assert that our Faith is not immediately resolved into the Authority of God who proposes a Doctrine to us in Scripture Pray where shall we find Christians if to be so it is not enough to believe a Doctrine because Christ has revealed it but one must believe besides such a Doctrine to be true and fundamental in Christianity from its certain evidence in Scripture acknowledged by all Churches not led by casual perswasions but by a Primitive perpetual universal and unanimous Conviction and Tradition One might perhaps think at first that this addition to the definition of Faith were no great matter but I assure you Sir it destroys entirely the nature of Faith and contains the whole Doctrine of the Church of Rome upon this Point it imports that the Gospel has no Authority quo ad nos till it is vouched by the Authority of the Church The Church has been believed hitherto to be the Depositary of Scripture But it was never believed that her Authority went so far as that we ought not to receive a truth evident in Revelation but as it is acknowledged by all the Churches not led by casual perswasions but by a Primitive perpetual universal and unanimous Conviction and Tradition Indeed Sir if what Mr. Hill lays down be true it 's hard to tell who has Faith now I desire Mr. Hill to reflect upon that Article of the Creed which establishes the Procession ab utroque and to tell me whether he does not think himself bound to believe it till he has examined whether this is

acknowledged by all the Churches not led by casual perswasions but by a Primitive perpetual universal and unanimous Conviction and Tradition It is somewhat strange to see a Protestant use that as a necessary Character to establish Faith which the Papists employ to destroy it The Papist thinks to have driven the Protestant to the impossibility of shewing how Faith is produced in a man who reads the Scripture because such a man can't be sure whether his being persuaded by Revelation of some Fundamental Truth is a ground he may safely rely upon before he has Examined whether all the Churches agree upon that point that seems to be Revealed or not And Mr. Hill it seems being not satisfied with what we answer to this Objection thinks fit to side with the Papist How edifying this proceeding can be let Divines judge Pray Sir tell me what you think of this when you hear it said that Faith has been so intrusted to the Custody of the whole Church by the Apostles that it was preserved by the Successors of the Apostles But what I require says Mr. Hill is that the Catholick Doctrine be asserted as a Rule of Faith which the Church is bound to adhere to on the certain Authority of Divine Revelation this Revelation appearing real not only to particular Mens private Opinions but originally committed to the charge and custody of the whole Church by the Apostles and so preserved by their Successors throughout the whole diffusive body p. 6. Does Faith then depend upon the knowledge of the Apostles Successors or their faithfulness or unfaithfulness in keeping this Sacred Depositum This puts me in mind of what Vasquez says that the Faith of a Christian does so absolutely depend upon the Authority of his Leaders that if at this day a Heathen being cast by a storm into England did embrace the Belief of our Church which rejects Transubstantiation he would be in a state of Salvation tho' the Church of Rome which alledges Tradition for this Dogma and has it in her Creed declares that one can't be Saved without professing that monstrous Doctrine I know St. Augustine has said non crederem Evangelio nisi me moveret Ecclesiae Authoritas it seems Mr. Hill was deceived by this Maxim which the Papists have adopted after they had corrupted it For St. Augustine speaks only of the Ministery of the Church in proposing the Gospels as written by Authors Divinely Inspired This was well observed by Melchior Canus lib. 2. c. 8. The same Ministry may be attributed to the Church with relation to the Creeds that it proposes to us as a faithful Abridgment of the Apostles Doctrine but it is ridiculous to imagine that we cannot produce an Act of Christian Faith without knowing the general consent of all the Churches in professing the same Truths It is not the consent of the Church that makes a Doctrine either true or fundamental the Nature of the Doctrine it self makes it so A Divine who has pored long upon Antiquity may by an exact study and meditation have informed himself of that consent but this serves more for his particular Instruction and for the confirmation of his own Theological Notions concerning the distinction of Points fundamental from Points that are not fundamental than to confirm his Faith as he is a Christian Mr. Hill makes a strange use of the Maxim of Vincentius Lyrinensis quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus c. That Priest was a Semipelagian that is he thought that a Man could believe by his own strength and that afterward God gave him Grace to Execute his Good and Pious Resolutions He introduced this Maxim merely in opposition to St. Augustine who pretended to have found his Doctrine concerning Grace in St. Paul's Epistles so that this Father was obliged either to confute the Fathers or to abandon his Doctrine which he had caused to be Authorised by the Councils of Africa After all he confesses himself that his Method could only be of use against new-born Heresies such as he pretended St. Augustine's Doctrine to be There is nothing more easie says Mr. Hill than for us to be informed of the Belief of Antiquity I confess we have their Symbols and Summaries of Faith but Symbols have no Authority but as they are extracted from Scripture this our Articles expresly tell us And the Apostles Creed as we call it was never known in the East till within these few Centuries What I have before mentioned upon the Article of the Procession ab utroque shews that Mr. Hill has confounded what belongs to a Christian with what belongs only to Divines However Mr. Hill grants that Faith cannot be produced in a Man's Heart but as far as he himself is persuaded of the Truth of what he believes But what he adds is extream rash when he assures us that he who cannot be persuaded to receive the common and established Systems of the Faith of the Universal Church upon the Authority of which it always stood and stands to this day or frames fundamental Principles upon his own private Opinion does not belong to the Communion of Christ's Church tho' he fancies his Notions to be Revealed in Scripture I grant what Mr. Hill lays down as to those who advance fundamental Articles upon their private Opinion he seems thereby to reject the Articles which the Papists have introduced into the Creed framed by Pius the fourth but he can ascribe no other Authority to Confessions of Faith or Symbols but that which they borrow from their Conformity with Revelation the summ of which they contain What he affirms that the Catholick Church has always stood upon the Authority of Symbols is a meer Vision the Church indeed made an Abstract of Faith for the use of Cathecumenes which we call the Creed she taught it to those Cathecumenes as an Abridgment of what 's Revealed the Faith therefore of Cathecumenes has an immediate respect to Revelation it must rely and be founded upon that if it be true In a word Mr. Hill either because he does not understand the matter or out of a desire to censure and contradict the Bishop explains his Opinion after a very odd manner his Expressions do very much favour the Church of Rome and are far from being so exact as a Censor ought to be he shews that he himself stands in need of a great deal of Indulgence and Christian forbearance I wish from my Heart he may come to himself consider his fault and repent If he could but for a minute reflect in cool blood upon his outragious way of writing and upon the Service that he has done to the Enemies of the Trinity by endeavouring to sacrifice to them one of the Defenders of it for whose Talents he cannot but express some esteem how averse soever he may be to his Person I am sure he would be ashamed of his Book For notwithstanding all his Passion I am willing to believe that the Christian Spirit is