Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	authority_n	church_n	infallible_a	2,088	5	9.4927	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66372	An answer to the address presented to the ministers of the Church of England	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1688 (1688)	Wing W2680; ESTC R96	20,716	37

are sensible they are not to be proved in the same way they find themselves obliged to give the same Authority to one as the other and to bring down the Scripture to the Church or exalt the Church to the Authority of Scripture So that if we will look for things necessary not contained in Scripture we must have recourse to the Church which can as they say ordain new Articles of Faith and which whenever so ordained are as much to be believed and received as those which have their Authority immediately from Scripture And after our Author hath beat about and done his endeavour to loosen the Articles of our Faith from the written Revelation and the Foundation of the Prophets and Apostles hither he would bring the Case that we are obliged to stand to the Determination of one particular Church as he insinuates page 4. But now to return his own words upon him If you remit me to the Decision of the true Church it will be necessary to know which is that Church For since there are several pretenders and there are Christian Arrians as he saith and many other Dissenters how shall I find out this True Church and why that more than others Is it because she herself saith she is the True Church All the rest claim the like Character of being a True Church and besides this is to demand the thing that is to be proved Is it that she is like a City upon an Hill or the Sun in the Firmament to be known by a self-evident Light Why is it not then as well known and indisputably owned to be the true Church and the only True Church as a City to be a City or the Sun to be the Sun Is it to be found out by the Notes and Marks of the True Church Then we must find out the Marks before we find out the Church that is to be known by them And then the pinching Question comes on Where must I seek these Notes It 's to be feared that will lead us to the Scripture and then we know what follows Lastly Are we to find out the Church by an Infallible Guide Then we are to find such a Guide out of the Church and that we have no direction where to seek or by what Notes we may know it Here indeed we are left in a Maze to beat out the way and they that have made the Church a Guide have appointed no Guide to lead us to the Church That is a Track we must find of our selves there we must use our own simple Reason Consideration and Enquiry So that how certain soever we may be when in the Church we can never be infallibly certain which is the Church that we are bound to follow because this kind of certainty is peculiar to the Church and not to be had out of it But since we have gone thus far upon Supposition let us take it for granted once more that the Church is upon the Hill visible and demonstrable yet because the Church is a Collective Body where is the Seat of that Infallible Authority that I am to attend to and finally to be determined by Is it in every particular person Then because Infallibility knows no degrees I my self should in that Church be as Infallible as the Supreme Pastor of it Is it in one particular person or in a General Council Who and where is it Must I suspend till I know or till all the parts of the Church agree in it If you tell me all joyned together as our Author has taught me to Reason then it follows I am bound to believe nothing of this kind but what all agree in for what they disagree in cannot be the Sentiment or Decision of the whole Church but only of a part of it I am not then obliged to believe the Pope's Infallibility for the Councils of Basil and Constance and the French Church tho Papists deny it Nor am I obliged to believe a Council Infallible without the Pope because those at Rome deny it And because what 's a good Argument in one case is good in another let me have our Author's Warrant that I am bound to believe neither Infallible since neither of these agree with the other For certainly I am no more obliged to believe the Infallibility of their Church which they do thus disagree in than our Author would perswade us that we are not obliged to believe the Trinity because the Arrians tho Christians deny it But supposing that the Seat of Infallibility be clear and evident Yet how can I that am at a vast distance of years or place from that Oracle whatever it is be infallibly assured that these that are put into my hands are the very Results and Decrees of that Authority Or that this that I think or am told is the true and undoubted sense of them Or to speak modestly How can I be as much assured of the Truth of these matters as I am of the Authority and Sence of Scripture Or that Christ hath not spoken as plainly and intelligibly in the Scriptures as his Vicar or Substitutes have in any of their Canons and Decrees So that tho the Church be Infallible and I a Member of that Infallible Church yet what will that Infallibility avail me when I am without the doors of that Infallible Council or out of the reach of the immediate Dictates of the Infallible Chair And unless the spirit of Infallibility descends from the Chair to the meanest Priest who is to instruct and direct me or is indorsed upon every Decree and inspires every Article with its own unerring sense I am not infallibly certain And I may be no more certain of the true Doctrine of the Infallible Church than I am of the sense of Scripture under the Conduct of a Fallible Church since the immediate Authority I depend upon for the Doctrine and the Sense of it is all this while Fallible As for example I am told that there is such a Creed as that before mentioned of Pope Pius IV. that contains in it such Articles that every one is so bound to believe as without the belief of which no Man can be saved And I find in that Creed that the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches And yet how shall I be Infallibly assured first that there ever was such a person as Pope Pius the 4th or that he ever composed such a Creed or that the foresaid Supremacy of the Church of Rome is one of those Articles The Pope I never saw nor am like to see A Council is a rare thing and what they care not to hear of at Rome and are able to do as well without as with it And therefore where shall I be infallibly instructed in these matters How shall I then be sure that the Article aforesaid is not to be understood that the Church of Rome is the Mistress of all Churches within the particular Diocess of Rome only For

all Christians agree and let me have your Warrant that I am bound to believe neither the Trinity nor Incarnation nor any thing wherein all Christians do not agree Now if you tell me I am obliged to stand to the Determination of one particular Church or some and not all tell me which and why that or those more than others What Church for Example were particular Persons bound to follow Two hundred years ago before the Reformation Our Author at first put the Question Whether all things necessary to Salvation are contained in Scripture And upon this he argues If they be then they are either clearly contained in it so that there is no need of an Interpreter for the meaning of them or not If the Addresser could have gained the first Point That all necessaries are not contained in Scripture then the Case lay fair before him and it would follow as he supposes that there must be some external and speaking Authority from whence those Necessaries not contained in Scripture are to be received and where they are to be fought This is a Case he puts to the Question If not where must I seek them But there he leaves it Indeed it was a tender Point because of late they would have us believe that they have Scripture for what they differ from us in and then to talk of Necessaries not to be found in Scripture and to instance in those Necessaries would be to give up that Cause which they have so much laboured to support in that way and to tell the World that the Church of Rome is the Treasurer of all those Necessaries is a Doctrine not so suitable to the Genius of the present Age as it was to others heretofore But if that would not be yielded That all Necessaries are not contained in Scripture he then puts in with a Second That they are not so Clearly contained in it as not to need an Interpreter and if this be yielded he would in his own opinion save his Cause for then he concludes there must be some Guide and Interpreter and it will be necessary to know who and where the Interpreter is Now if we may guess what kind of Interpreter or Guide it is that he would have it 's one that is necessary for all to believe and whose Interpretation all are obliged to receive a Guide that is a Judg and whose Judgment is absolute final and conclusive into which all is to be resolved and from which there is no appeal that is to teach all Necessaries to Salvation not contained in Scripture and to interpret the meaning of those that are without which we cannot know whether there be a Trinity or our Saviour was Incarnate and upon whose determination all the Articles of our Faith do depend for their declaration Here the Case is immutably fixed says our Author I must believe it 's necessary to believe I am obliged to believe and am bound to follow as he puts the Case But now we that are for Ministerial Guides and Interpreters that are appointed by God for the teaching his Church and whose Office it is to teach them so as they may understand and judg for themselves know nothing of such a Guide as he would introduce upon us and we have reason to be cautious when we find both the Apostle declaring against it 2 Cor. 1.24 Not for that we have dominion over your Faith but are helpers and our Saviour warning us against such an Imposition Matth. 23.8 9 10. Call no man master on earth for one is your master It 's his Prerogative alone to challenge such an absolute submission from us and it 's a gross Usurpation in any other to claim and assume it So that we may leave our Author to find out Who and where the Interpreter is for we own no such Guide or Interpreter as he would impose upon us whether he means by it any particular Church or any part or Society of that Church or indeed any humane Authority whatsoever And when he or his Partizans think it worth the while to undertake the proof of it and shall as clearly prove it as the Trinity and Incarnation are from Scripture we that profess the latter and are as sincerely desirous of finding out the Truth as he can be do promise him to own the former and for this Reason and that they may have a fair occasion offered to try their skill upon it I shall put the Case a little forward I am sensible our Author would take it in good part to have it granted that all things necessary to Salvation are not contained in Scripture and to have it brought to his first Question If so where must I seek them Or that They are not clear enough in Scripture without an Interpreter that at least the next Question may be brought on Who and where the Interpreter is And therefore to gratifie him as much as I can I shall for the present suppose that all things necessary are not in Scripture and then in his order and words I ask What those necessaries to Salvation are that are not contained in Scripture and where each of them may be found Now he that supposes this must proceed upon the Principles of the Church of Rome since no Church besides that I know of is of this mind And whither may we expect to be directed so soon as to the Creed of Pope Pius IV. which contains the chief of those Doctrines they differ from other Churches in and which are made as necessary to be received and believed as the Articles of the Nicene Creed being by that Pope's Authority in consequence of the Order of the Council of Trent incorporated into one and the same Profession of Faith. By which means they are forced upon one of these two Difficulties either to prove their new-coined Articles by Scripture as well as those of the Nicene Creed or to show that the Articles of the Nicene Creed are no more to be proved from Scripture without Tradition and the Churches Explication than those of Pope Pius The former they are never able to do and all their attempts that way have proved vain and unsuccessful and therefore they have taken several ways for the latter sometimes detracting from the Sufficiency or Perspicuity of Scripture at other times exalting Tradition and Church-Authority to an equality with it For since all these Points are made by this means equally necessary to Salvation and since it 's as necessary to believe on pain of Damnation That the Church of Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and that the Body and Blood of Christ are truly really and substantially together with his Soul and Divinity in the Sacrament and the whole Substance of the Bread is turned into the Body and the whole Substance of the Wine into his Blood c. Since it 's as necessary to believe this as the Being of a God the Trinity and Incarnation of our Blessed Saviour and that they