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
A48362	A reply to the Answer made upon the three royal papers	Dryden, John, 1631-1700.; Leyburn, John, 1620-1702.	1686 (1686)	Wing L1941; ESTC R9204	29,581	64

as any for it confounds Phancy and Tradition whereas the one is publick to the whole World and the other is private His next Paragraph adulterates the Royal Coin for when the King demands to know where the power of deciding matters of Faith is given to every particular person the sense is clear for the question cannot be meant otherwise than in relation to himself But he extends it so as if every one was to give Laws to another's Faith and this without any ground is made the first Member of the division But he adds If by deciding matters of Faith no more be meant but every Man 's being satisfied of the reasons why he believes one thing to be true and not another that belongs to every Man as he is bound to take care of his Soul So that by his reply every Man whose Soul is dear to him may and ought to discuss and dispute every Article of his Faith and bring it to the Test of his own reason and so the Omnipotence of a God revealing and the Authority of a Church declaring what is revealed weighs not with him until reason be satisfy'd and the understanding becomes a measure of all revealed Truths Whereas in truth Authority is the correlative of Believing and Reason of Knowledge And though we make use of our reason to find out that Authority which ought to sway us as a blind Man serves himself with his reason to find out his Guide yet after that 't is Authority not Reason that moves us and the previous motives inducing us to embrace the Authority of the Church from whence we have Scriptures and all other inscrutable Mysteries are much more visible and resplendent than for any other Article of our Faith The King goes on Christ left power in his Church even to forgive sins c. He replys But where then was the Roman Catholic Church Undoubtedly where now it is one and the same from whence all other pretended Churches went out she never departing from any Church that was elder than her self If she had I doubt not but her Eagle-ey'd adversaries would long er'e this have brought to light the Fathers the Councils or whatever else stood in opposition against her and since they never did nor can their plea against her is common to all whoever opposed the true Church In a good Sense therefore she alone remains Heir general to the Apostles as to those gifts which were not personal but given by Christ for the necessary support and government of her self which is to continue untill the consummation of Time And though he seems surprised that God should keep Man more from Error than from Sin Yet if he recalls but to mind that some of the Prophets were led into truths by the holy Spirit and were great Sinners at the same time and that all the Prophets though infallible in delivering such truths as God put into their mouths yet were obnoxious to sin the miraculous surprize will cease and the reason why infallibility is necessary and not impeccability is manifest because without the first the Church could not subsist for if once she makes Shipwrack of her Faith she is no more a Church an effect not so proper to sin And whereas he demands Would any have believed the Apostles infallible if they had known them to have been persons of ill lives I answer yes for either by Miracles wrought in confirmation of their Infallibility or any other way they could have an assurance of it As to any concession that the Church may err in deposing Princes if he means she may err in the decision of Truth or definition of Faith about it he is purely beholding to himself for that concession not to the King or any else I know of who only engage for her inerrability in delivering what she received from Christ and his Apostles by an uninterrupted Tradition and in conformity to this Rule the Church of Rome with all those in Communion with her the rest either by Heresie or Apostacy being divided from her was judge even of the Scripture it self what was Canonical what not or else it had been impossible for the Church of England to have known any thing of Truth concerning that Point there being no other Church to inform her but what had forfeited her Credit by manifest Heresie and that owned by the Church of England this is a vindication of the King against three of his Paragraphs The King having put the question by what Authority Men separate themselves from that Church He replies that they have not separated themselves from the Catholick and Apostolick Church but are disjoyned from the Roman Church that we may keep up the Stricter Vnion with the truly Catholick and Apostolick Church But if the English Church reputes it self a Member of the Chatholick Church because she professes to stand to the three Creeds and four first general Councils then certainly the Arians Nestorians Eutichians and the Eastern Churches above-mentioned cannot be parts of the Catholick Apostolick Church because they hold not the Apostolick Doctrine contain'd in those Creeds and Councils But besides those Churches there were no other in Being at the time of Separation but those Churches which were in communion with the Church of Rome consequently the Church of England going out from them separated her self from the Catholick Apostolick Church and therefore unless he can prove the Church of Rome to have deserted any other elder Church than her self by Usurpation or otherwise his Story of an Usurper will be but a Shift and may authorise all Rebellion either in Church or State The last Paragraph is since Protestants do charge the Church of Rome with Imposition of new Articles of Faith the King desires to know who is to be judg of that whether the whole Church the Succession whereof hath continued to this Day without Interruption or particular Men who have raised Schisms to their own Advantage The Roman Church having been in Possession of all those Truths now questioned by the Men of the Church of England nothing can be more unreasonable than to devest her of her just Possession and to require her to fall a proving whereas this ought to be the Province of those who under the Pretence of Innovation revolted from her For either they must make good their charge or else by all Laws they stand condemned and she remains justified Wherefore since at the time of separation she owned the Papal Supremacy and other Articles to have descended to her by an universal Tradition whoever questions the Title must convince her of that pretended Usurpation and then as it is well observed by the King who shall be judg in that case To have answered the Royal Paper this Method he should have minded which in disputes of another Nature I doubt not but he would have Practised However after his challenging the Church to prove her Possession he proceeds to declare that the Protestants being now by falling from the Church