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	spirit_n	2,517	5	4.9028	4	true

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

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

ANIMADVERSIONS ON Mr. HILL's BOOK ENTITULED A Vindication of the Primitive Fathers c. 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 LONDON Printed for Ri. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul 's Church-Yard 1695. ANIMADVERSIONS ON Mr. HILL's BOOK ENTITULED A Vindication of the Primitive Fathers c. SIR IN obedience to your Commands I here send you my Thoughts upon Mr. Hill's Book the whole of which consists of Four Heads The First contains a Censure of what the Bishop compendiously supposes concerning the Doctrine of the Trinity The Second Criticises upon what he says about the Mystery of the Incarnation The Third is a Vindication of the Fathers whom he thinks the Bishop has treated very ill as to the Explication they have given of these Two Mysteries The Fourth and last is an Explanation of the Mystery of the Trinity which he advances as much more agreeable to the System of Scripture and of the Ancients than the Bishop's As to the first Mr. Hill picks a Quarrel with the Bishop because in speaking of the Persuasions of Socinians Arians and Orthodox concerning the Nature of Christ he calls them three different Opinions He would not have had the Bishop use the word Opinion in speaking of that which we look upon as founded on Divine Revelation and receive as the Object of our Faith This doubtless is a most heinous Crime which deserved all Mr. Hill's Exaggerations tho Gregory of Nazianzen has used the same word Orat. 35. Certainly when an Author undertakes to consider the principal Tenets touching the Nature of Jesus Christ namely that of Artemas that of Arius and that of the Church he may I think without a Crime call them three Opinions especially as the Bishop has done before he had proved any thing by Revelation Every body knows that strong Expressions are not to be used in the stating of a question but only after the matter has been well proved So that a Criticism of this Nature gives us no great Character of the Author With as much sincerity does Mr. Hill endeavour to bring under suspicion the Bishop's Expressions because he does not distinctly say whether the Socinian or Arian Opinions have been within or without the Church For says he page 2. if the Bishop supposes that these Opinions have been within the Church Then indeed here is an Insinuation laid for the Communion with Socinians which is a blessed comprehension This he repeats or insinuates again somewhere else If a Pagan had made this Reflection against a Bishop he might have been charged with want of Candour But what can we say when these words come from the Mouth of a Priest against a Bishop of the Church of England And what means Mr. Hill when he finds fault with the Notion of Faith given by the Bishop to wit that we believe Points of Doctrine because we are persuaded that they are revealed in Scripture Does it follow from thence as Mr. Hill supposes p. 6. That Faith resolves it self into each private Man's Opinion Which indeed has occasioned all the Heresies and Divisions that have been in the Church This Censure has somewhat so singular in it that it well deserves to be taken notice of and I promise you to remember it and to shew you that the Author espouses a Principle as dangerous as any in Point of Religion But I must not do this at present for it would lead us out of our way and bring us off from the Article of the Trinity which we have now chiefly in view Mr. Hill pretends that the Bishop does not explain himself clearly upon this Mystery These are his surmises The Bishop has not distinctly set down that there are Three Persons and every Bishop who does not express himself by the word Person which is received in this matter gives a right to any one to say that he denies the Trinity whereas this at most were but S●bellianism Upon this unjust foundation he takes occasion to divert his Reader borrowing for that purpose the witty Conceit of the Socinian Author of a little Book Entituled The Doctrine of the Trinity set in its True Light p. 40. c. For p. 19. he brings in a Catechumen who desires to know of the Bishop what he understands by the Three of the Trinity and seeing that the Bishop avoids the word Person he laughs at the Instruction which the Bishop gives him and leaves him to seek some comfort in the Doctrine of the Philosophers I am surprized that Mr. Hill gives himself so much trouble to prove that the word Person occurs in the Epistle to the Hebrews and in Tertullian since he shews himself that the Bishop believes as much as he does upon this Article p. 17. The Bishop had expressed himself very clearly upon the matter p. 97. These are his words This is the Doctrine that I intend now to explain to you I do not mean that I will pretend to tell you how this is to be understood and in what respect these Persons are believed to be One and in what respects they are Three But Mr. Hill was resolved to give his Suspicions a full scope and he would rather rob the Bishop of this Consession than do him Justice by acknowledging the truth All this savours very much of a Spirit of Disputation and argues but little sincerity But after all it may be asked why has not the Bishop made use every where of the word Person which is consecrated by so long a Custom in the Church and why does he more frequently say the Blessed Three Any body else but Mr. Hill would easily have apprehended the reason of it The nature of the dispute with Arians and Socinians who will have us stick to the words of Scripture requires that we should express the truths of Christianity in Scripture words if we would have them to be received If we at first dash mingle with them words which they look upon as foreign and which need to be softned to give them a sense free from absurdity in the matter of the Trinity this serves only to render the Dispute intricate whereas we should aim at the convincing of them by that principle which they acknowledge namely the Authority of the Scripture But there is something more to be said for the Bishop In all likelihood he would not engage himself in the Method of those who to defend the Doctrine of the Trinity against the Socinians seem to have given them great Advantages by laying down Principles from which it 's to be feared occasion may be taken to impute Tritheism to the Defenders of the Trinity This inconveniency may be avoided by reducing the dispute to the terms of Scripture which cannot so easily be done when we employ such words as are made use of by the Socinians against the Orthodox to prove them guilty of