Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	err_v	infallible_a	1,696	5	10.0673	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58868	An answer to Dr. Sherlock's Preservative against Popery shewing that Protestancy cannot be defended nor Catholic faith opposed, but by principles which make void all reason, faith, fathers, councils, Scripture, moral honesty.	Sabran, Lewis, 1652-1732.	1688 (1688)	Wing S214; ESTC R28119	9,604	10

Command Fol. 9. Now the Doctor takes the Catholic's part and tho' saintly yet speaks well in so clear a Cause The intention of these Disputes is only to lead you to the Infallible Church and set you upon a Rock and then 't is very natural to renounce your own Judgment when you have an Infallible Guide But now for convincing Reasons against this plain Truth The first is They cannot with any sense dispute with us about the particular Articles of Faith because the sense given of Scripture and Fathers takes its Authority from the Church understanding it so This is false The sense takes its Authority from God who spoke that Word tho' we are certain that we have the true Sense of that Word because we receive it from the Church which is protected and guided in delivering us both the Letter and Sense by the Infallible Spirit of God that is to abide with her for ever according to Christ's promise Jo. 14. 16. If John and William dispute which is the right way to a place is John disabled from convincing William of his mistake by Reasons because he hath with him a Guide who certainly knows the way and that he would himself pass by those Reasons if his Guide assur'd him that he apply'd them ill and wrongly to that way Fol. 11. Must the belief of an Infallible Judge be resolved into every man's private judgment Must it not be believed with a Divine Faith and can there be a Divine Faith without an Infallible Judge There can be no Divine Faith without a Divine Revelation nor a Prudent One without a moral Evidence in the motives of Credibility on which may be grounded the evident Obligation to accept of it The Judgment being possest with that moral Infallibility rests not there but observing that Goodness and Mercy of God which cannot permit that Falshood should be propounded in his Name with all the apparent Marks of his Hand and Seal and without any like appearance on the contrary inclin'd by a pious motion of the will called by the famous Council of Orange affectio credibilitatis and strengthened by that Grace of God which bestows the Gift of Faith fastens on God's Veracity and with a submission not capable of any doubt embraces the revealed Truth If the Infallibility of the Church were more than morally evident it were impossible that any Heresie should be Fol. 17. No understanding Protestant can be disputed into Popery which owns an Infallible Church First because no Arguments or Disputations can give me an Infallible certainty of the Infallibility of the Church We saw Dr. Sherlock just now pleading for the Jews against St. Paul now he reasons even against Christ our God blessed for evermore His words prove that Christ who own'd himself Infallible did imprudently to Preach or work Miracles for since they could not give an Infallible Certainty an evident one he means by his whole Discourse no prudent Jew or Gentile could be disputed by him into Faith. Arguments so offensive to pious ears ought to meet with no other Answer than Prayers for him who offers them 'T is impossible by reason to prove that men must not make use of their own Reason and Judgment in matters of Religion That men must use Reason to come to the Knowledge that God hath revealed what they believe is very certain as the Jews Exod. 14. Crediderunt Domino Moysi servo ejus did believe God and Moyses his Servant all Nations Christ and his Apostles so each Christian now Christ and his Church the first as Author the second as Witnesses commissioned from God of their Faith by conceiving the Proofs they offered of their Commission So far Judgment So the Apostles believed Christ saying of himself that he was the Son of God their Judgment being convinced that God spoke by him which method appears most particularly in the man born blind whom he cur'd and who was thereby convinced that God was with him Nisi Deus esset cum illo but after that there is no further use of Reason if we believe St. Paul but in order to the bringing into Captivity all Understanding into the Obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10. The Doctor frames a Dispute fol. 21. betwixt a sturdy Protestant as he calls him and a Catholic You may guess how well he manages the Catholic's part In the Couclusion he gives this topping reason for the Protestant Religion We have as much assurance of every Article of our Faith as you have of the Infallibility of your Church This is the great point indeed which if a Protestant loses he loses all for 't is certain and evident that the Catholic has the same assurance for each Article of his Faith proposed by the Church which he hath of the Churches Infallibility He proves it first because we are in general assured that the Scriptures are the word of God. Hitherto there holds some parity tho' but lame but suppose it were entire The Conclusion would be this Catholics are as certain of the Sense of Scripture as Protestants are that they have the Letter whence it follows demonstratively that when Protestants differ in the Sense from Catholics they have less assurance for it than Catholics who have always as much as the Protestants have for the Letter whereas Protestants must never be more certain of the Sense of the Letter than of the Letter it self 2dly And in particular we are assured that the Faith which we profess is agreeable to Scripture If he means they have the same proofs for this which Catholics have for the Infallibility of the Church that is for the being of that Church which declares her self Infallible for a Church erring in such a point would cease to be the Church of Christ then 't is evidently false since each Christian in this Age hath the same Evidence of her being the Church of Christ and of her teaching Truth and consequently of her Infallibility which he hath of Christ viz. Prophesies Miracles c. which no Protestant as much as challenges for the Certainty of the particular Sense of Scripture What other Sense this Proposition can have I do not conceive Fol. 23. If you must not use Reason and private Judgment then you must not by any Reason be persuaded to condemn the use of Reason I never read so much and so little of Reason there is such a rumbling of the word which for eight or nine lines occurs at least once in each and yet so little sense All he says might be with equal weight said by a sick man who dissuaded from choosing his own Remedies and desir'd to send for a skilful Doctor should answer 'T is impossible by reason to persuade me not to use my reason in governing my self by reason as my own reason teaches me which would be to condemn reason and yet be guided by your reason Such Discourse would prove the sick party at least somewhat light-headed what 't is a Symptom of in Dr. Sherlock

whatever reasons there may be for a thing he who believes it hath for the motive of his Belief those certain Reasons There are for Example certain Reasons whereon to ground a Faith in Jesus Christ yet he that believes in Christ because his Mother hath taught him so hath a very uncertain and no Divine Faith. We believe the Apostles Creed and whatever is contained in the Writings of the Evangelists and Apostles This is all we believe and I hope they will not say these things are uncertain They are in themselves very certain but not to any Protestant whose Rule of Faith cannot make him certain of any one Article But the pleasant Answer which justifies Turk Jew and Gentile For this is the Rule of Faith according to Dr. Sherlock most sufficient We believe all that God hath revealed and nothing else Is not all that He hath revealed certain Here lies the Doctor 's gross mistake that no one is an Heretic for not believing what God has revealed to be true 't is impossible to come to so mad an Heresie But They are so for not believing him to have revealed what in effect he hath and hath given sufficient methods to come to the knowledge of if they would but use them Fol. 81. If these things be not built upon certain reasons their Infallible Church can have no certainty of the Christian Faith. Even this is most notoriously false since she is not Infallible by any Light of her own but by the Guidance of the Spirit of Truth Were not the Apostles certain of what Christ told them when they had acknowledg'd him the Son of God before he gave them certain reason for it 'T is a blind Impiety even to think so Fol. 82. 'T is their common Argument That there is a great variety amongst Protestants and that they condemn one another with equal confidence and assurance 'T is one of your usual Artifices to leave out always the pressing part of our Arguments You should have added tho' they use the same Rule of Faith and apply it by the same means Thus propos'd 't is an unanswerable Argument against your Rule of Faith and evidently proves it uncertain Fol 83. Were all Protestants of a mind would their consent and agreement prove the certainty of the Protestant Faith Not at all Yet 't is a most ridiculous Inference of yours fol. 84. This is the same Rule and their disagreement proves not their uncertainty All Union is no Argument of the Spirit of God for people may combine to do ill yet St. Paul assures us Disunion and Dissention is a certain Mark of the absence of the Spirit of God. Dr. Sherlock's Position which makes void all Scripture-proof 'T is this fol. 72. If a Mystery appear against sense and reason we must have a Scripture-proof as cannot possibly signifie any thing else or else it will not answer that Evidence which we have against it Sense and Reason proving it naturally impossible A Text which cannot possibly have another sense doth not leave it in any ones liberty who owns Scripture to be an Heretic therefore the Church produced no such Text against the Arians or Nestorians whence it evidently follows That according to Dr. Sherlock the Arians and Nestorians were bound not to believe the Trinity and the Incarnation of Christ A happy Ministerial Guide and well led those who follow such Dr. Sherlock's Position making void all use of Holy Fathers and General Councils 'T is this After he hath most respectfully told us fol. 73. That Learned men may squabble about them he gives these Rules without which they be of no use We must know first That the Father is really Author of the Book or the Council of such a Decree secondly That he was not corrupted by the Ignorance or Knavery of Transcribers while they were in the hands of the Monks and to make this impossible he assures us they not only par'd their Nails but alter'd their very Habit and Dress to fit them to the modes of the Times thirdly That the Father doth not in some other place contradict what here he says fourthly That he did not alter his Opinion after That 's to say some of these requisites not being possibly to be known no use is to be made of any Dr. Sherlock's Principle making void all use of Civil Charity and Moral Justice to our Neighbor It lies in his last Chapter in which he attempts in vain to colour the Misrepresentations his Party hath ever been guilty of It is when a man 's exterior Actions are naturally capable of a good and pious meaning and he ever and clearly declares that it is his yet to fasten upon him another opposite design and meaning taken from his Opposers contrary Principles than which there cannot be a greater or more unjust disingenuity This he calls to joyn Protestant Principles with Popish Practices Then he gives several instances that he is as good at the Practice as at the Theory of this his Maxim For Example To insinuate fol. 89. that a Catholic thinks the Blessed Virgin more powerful in Heaven than Christ he tells you that he says ten Ave Maria's for one Pater Noster tho' he knows that half the Ave Mary is in Memory of and Thanksgiving for the Incarnation of Christ the other asks of the Virgin only to pray for us to Christ which is all the Power we give her His other Instances have more of Malice yet and less of Truth To conclude in the very Chapter where he would excuse Misrepresentations he proves the continual Practice of his Party for it so to the full that to be thorough-Sherlock and thorough-Protestant-Minister he concludes with the most disingenuous Misrepresentation and the most false Calumny imaginable as a supposed and owned Truth to wit That Catholics worship the visible Species in the Eucharist A most impudent Slander no Catholic being guilty of it no more than the Apostles of worshiping and adoring the Cloaths of Christ when they ador'd him upon Earth An Advice to Protestants In Dr. Sherlock's words only putting the word Scripture in lieu of Fathers Fol. 76. Amongst Christians there is not one in a hundred thousand who understand all Scripture and it is morally impossible they should and therefore certainly there must be an easier and shorter way to understand Christian Religion than this or else the generality of Mankind even of profest Christians are out of possibility of Salvation Think well on it as you will answer at God's Tribunal for the care you took of the One only Necessary the saving of your Souls Seek out that easier and shorter way and walk faithfully in it Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam FINIS