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	doctrine_n	know_v	1,727	5	3.8363	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66427	A short discourse concerning the churches authority in matters of faith shewing that the pretenses of the Church of Rome are weak and precarious in the resolution of it.	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1687 (1687)	Wing W2734; ESTC R7663	18,741	33

Will of God or rather Whether God has Discovered it to be his Will. For though the Will of God be the Fountain of all Duty and Obligation yet it cannot be a binding Law to any body till it be made known to him or sufficient means given for him to know it That God can make his Will known to any Man is too certain to be doubted but that his Will should be known before he has discovered it can never be pretended And because every Man considered as a Creature and more especially every Christian is bound to obey the Will of God therefore every Man is bound to inform himself of so much as God has made necessary to be known for his Salvation I have added this to shew that Implicit Faith is a dangerous bottom for any body to rest upon For to believe as another believes unless a Man knows what it is he believes and upon what account is very absurd as may be made out anon So much of the Will of God as may be discovered by the Light of Nature is besides my present Business because there is little difference among us about it But that part of the Will of God which we are bound to know and adhere to as we are Christians by Profession distinguished from the rest of Mankind as being in Covenant with God is the Subject of this ensuing Discourse Now this part of the Will of God is either revealed to the Mind of every individual Christian by particular and immediate Inspiration from God or it was made known to some particular select Persons who were to instruct the rest The first of these ways is not pretended or allowed either by Protestants or Papists but the second is viz. That God did Discover his Will to some that they might Publish it to the rest And thus far I take it to be agreed betwixt us Before we advance another step we will lay it down as a Ground That no Man knows the Mind of a Man save the Spirit of a Man that is in him No Man can know the Mind of another farther than it is Discovered to him And by Consequence no Man can know Revelations from God made to the Mind and Understanding of another but by one of these two ways in the first place either God by Inspiration must assure him that he has made such Revelations to the other As when God sent St. Paul at his Conversion to Damascus to be instructed by Ananias which was an extraordinary Case not fit to be drawn into Precedent and so neither pretended to nor to be expected since stances of it hitherto are so rare Or in the second place he to whom the Revelation is made must bring such Testimony and Evidence as may Convince Men that it is really Divine His bare word for it will not be a Competent Proof Nor will the Testimony of other Men satisfie the Minds of reasonable Enquirers in this Case for those others must have some to Witness for them too and so on without End. Which plainly evinces that this is not a Basis for Faith to rest upon Let us see then what will do for we cannot forget what our Saviour confesses of himself to the Jews viz. That if he bear Witness of himself his Witness is not true that is it is not of force to Convince But then he tells the Jews They ought to Believe him for his Works sake and accordingly he appealed to his Hearers That the Works which he did in his Fathers Name bore Witness of him the Miracles which he wrought among them were sufficient to prove his Authority to be Divine and his Doctrin to be from God. Nicodemus freely confessed as much when he owned him a Teacher come from God because no Man could do the Miracles which he did except God were with him And as our Saviour did demonstrate his Divinity by his Works so when he sent his Apostles to publish his Doctrin to the World he sealed their Commission by giving them a Power to work Miracles which might convince their Hearers of its Truth And they the Apostles went forth and preached every where the Lord working with them and confirming the Word with Signs following So that it is not to be doubted but that the Doctrine which the Apostles preached was Divine and the Miracles which they wrought are our assurance that it was so And hitherto all Christians proceed with little or no difference Having thus laid down Miracles as a foundation upon which we are in some manner to ensure our Faith it seems necessary before we proceed in few words to set down 1. What we mean by Miracles and 2. How far this Testimony of Miracles may extend so as to authorise our Belief First by Miracles we must understand such Works as are not only without the Lines of ordinary Course and measure of Nature for of this kind many things happen which may be called Wonders but not Miracles but such as are above the power of Nature to effect But because many such Works have in appearance been wrought for very different Purposes we must in the second place look what Judgment must be made of all such things And certainly some way there is to distinguish or else the Minds of Men would be involved in most perplexing and inextricable Difficulties by such Contradictions as have been abetted with Signs and Wonders Let us see then by what Rules we must examine and judge Miracles themselves or such Doctrines as are advanced upon them For to receive all without distinction would come to the same thing as to allow none Because that can never prove any one Point which may be alledged or colourably pretended in favour of another unless there be some way to appropriate it to one side as by the Rules following it may Whatsoever Doctrin is proposed that is contrary to right Reason or the fundamental Laws of Nature cannot be Divine or such as we ought to believe though never so many Signs should be shew'd to confirm it For right Reason is only a Judgment made according to that Law and Standard of Justice and Truth which God our Creator has stamped upon the Minds of Men. And the Fundamentals of Reason issuing from God as Light flows from its Fountain the Sun must always remain unchangeably the same because he himself from whom they Spring has no variation And if the Principles of Reason were not so fixed we should be exposed to all manner of illusion and should never be able to believe any thing because we could be certain of nothing Upon this ground God directs the Jews to try their Prophets who if they preached up other Gods were not to be hearkned to though they worked Miracles nothing being more absurd or inconsistent with right Reason than allowing many Gods. Yet further God when he created Man according to the exact Laws of eternal Justice implanted in our Natures the Seeds of it and the Sense

and divided by many Heresies and contrary Opinions How must the Truth be cleared and Peace be restored to Christendom By the Churches Authority say the Papists But it has been proved that the Churches Authority extends no farther than she has Infallibility and the Pope being not Infallible alone and their being no Council assembled under him the present Church has no Infallibility and so by Consequence no Authority to determine Controversies about Faith. Peradventure it will be said the Council which sat in the last Age defined all Points and so determined our Faith. I answer That what that Council defined is one thing and its setling Faith and determining Controversies appears by the effect to be another It will be said it determined all but what Pride and Obstinacy still kept on foot But if Controversies still remain whether from Pride or Heretical-pravity or from any other Cause whatever it matters not Why should the Scripture be taxed as insufficient to be a Rule of Faith for not effecting what their Infallibility cannot bring to pass Sure there is no reason why it should Well but for obstinate and prejudiced Persons we will set them aside and see what can be done for inquisitive People such as are Willing to be Convinced what shall these do They tell us They must be guided by the Definitions and Decrees of the last General Council assembled at Trent But how shall they be ascertained that they have a true Copy of the Acts of that Council For upon occasion Suppositious Canons have been alledged by the Church of Rome The Authority of the present Church cannot do it as you may conclude from that which has already been said besides it is the thing in Question However suppose from the Testimony of the present Church witnessing though not authorising and by such Methods as we receive the Works of other Writers we should admit the Acts of the Council of Trent to be truly derived to us What shall we do to attain the true Sense and Meaning of them without which they can signifie nothing And to shew you that this is no Captious Question some great Men among them have interpreted that Councils Decrees very differently And the late Representer of a Papist has construed them in a Sense very wide from what some eminent Doctors long since gave of them Are we not now in a fair way for Peace and Unity After all if so many Difficulties surround the Learned what shall Women do and such as only understand their Mother Tongue I can meet with no Answer to this but that the Learned must with honest Minds and just Diligence search out the Sense of the Churches Definitions and from them must those of less Judgment and meaner Capacities receive it But if the matter must rest here for my Life I cannot see why the like Care and Pains should not bring a Man to the true Sense of the Scripture as well as of a Council 'T would be an ill Reflection upon God's Wisdom to say he ordered his Will to be written but not so intelligible as human Writings And if there be some who for want of Ability in themselves must rest their Faith upon other Mens Judgments I do not see why the Clergy of the Church of England may not as well be relied on as the Priests of the Church of Rome since the World has no reason to think them less Learned or less Sincere The Church of England among all impartial Men has this manifest advantage that She derives Her Faith from Scripture not fancifully Interpreted but Expounded to a Sense which the Text reasonably leads to And to strengthen Her Exposition She takes in the Testimony of the Church in Her four first General Councils Not that She rests upon an Authority in them but She takes them as Witnesses to shew that in Her Interpretation She is neither Singular nor Private Thus in short a Member of the Church of England proceeds He is certain his Faith is right and true because it is founded as to its Object upon the Will of God. He is certain it stands upon the Will of God because it stands upon the Word of God. He is certain it is built upon the Word of God because it is built upon the Scripture He is certain the Scripture is the Word of God because the Prophets Evangelists and Apostles that wrote it were Divinely Inspired And he is made certain that they were Divinely Inspired by the Divine Testimony of Miracles which God gave them Nor lastly can he doubt but whatsoever God sets his Seal to is Truth for he will not he cannot Lye or Deceive If he be asked how he knows these Books to be Written by those Inspired Men to whom they are attributed He Answers for that he has an universal Testimony of Friends and Enemies through all Ages Which is as good an Evidence as a Matter of Fact can bear or does require and when he reads them he is farther Confirm'd by finding them so admirably Compiled and Suited to that Character If he be asked how he attains the right Sense of them He answers by using due Attention and an unprejudiced Mind with such other helps as are fit for that Purpose he gains as great Certainty of the true meaning of Scripture as Sense and Reason can bear in an ordinary Capacity I mean as far as concerns the Articles of Faith summ'd into his Creed and is as safe in this Resolution as was the Primitive Church with which he agrees More than this he does not apprehend necessary After this since the Papists have taxed our Faith as wavering and uncertain how unjustly you may easily discern I might here make them a Requital by telling the World that upon their own Principles they can have no Faith at all For if what Faith they have arises from the Churches Authority then if the Church has no Authority they can have no Faith. But I have proved before the Church can have no such Authority because it has not Infallibility and it cannot reasonably pretend to Infallibility because it can make no Evidence of it and without Evidence no Man can believe But God forbid I should say or think they have no Faith I only offered this to shew the weakness and insufficiency of the Principles they go upon and what little Reason they have to charge us And now to that Question so often asked By what Authority we depart from the Faith of the Church of Rome I answer by an Authority which is inseparable from the Mind of every Man to refuse to believe any thing for which he has not a Reason to him sufcient indeed no Man can believe without it For the Mind of Man is so disposed as to Truth that it immediately imbraces it and closes with it as soon as ever it discerns it But if the Mind discerns no Truth in a Proposition it cannot assent to it whatever Profession the Man makes The Church of Rome