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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70901	The pillar and ground of truth a treatise shewing that the Roman Chvrch falsly claims to be that church, and the pillar of that truth, mentioned by S. Paul in his First epistle to Timothy, Chap. III. vers. 15, which is explained in three parts.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.; Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1687 (1687)	Wing P833; ESTC R12795	90,521	140

discourses in that very Book against Manichaeus (q) Cap. XIV contra Epist quam vocant Fundamenti his Letter from whence the fore-named saying I had not believed the Gospel unless the Churches Authority had moved me to it is wont at every turn to be objected to us by those of the Romish perswasion Thou dost nothing but praise what thou believest and deride what I believe Now since I can be even with thee and do the very same praise what I believe and deride what thou believest what is to be done but that we leave and relinquish those who invite us to know things certain and afterwards require us to believe things uncertain let those of the Roman Church mark this and that we follow them who invite us first to believe that which we cannot yet see into that being made stronger in the Faith it self we may come to understand what we believe NOT MEN NOW BUT GOD HIMSELF INWARDLY ESTABLISHING AND ILLUMINATING OUR MIND It is impossible to read this passage and not see that this Father thought our Faith is not ultimately resolved into the Testimony of the Church but by that being invited to believe the Holy Scriptures we are established upon the serious reading of them in the Christian Faith and Knowledge of the Truth by God himself Upon whose Word in the Holy Scripture and not upon Men we bottom our Faith. Upon the Testimony and Authority of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Testimony of divine Men inspired by them who by Miracles and Signs and mighty Deeds and a prophetical Spirit proved themselves to be sent of God and have left his Mind and Will upon Record in the Scriptures of Truth Which the Church indeed in all parts of the World hath kept and preserved and faithfully transmitted down to us and now propounds to our Faith but it is not merely what the Church saith that makes us believe but what God himself saith in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ saith concerning his rising from the Dead and sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles Which being fulfilled evidently proved him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the World and them to be his Apostles and Ministers who declared to Men the true way of Salvation So the Church directs and guides us to the Scriptures of Truth but they resolve and assure our Faith being the very Word of God. The authority of God's Church is the first motive which leads us to esteem the Scriptures but being led thither we find in the matter of them that which gives us full satisfaction by bestowing our pains in reading or hearing and considering the Mysteries contained therein The Church holds out this light to us but it is by this light that we see what is the mind and will of God. To this the Church points us and bids us attend to it for this it disposes and prepares us it leads us by the hand to this as the only sure foundation of our Faith because herein we find God himself speaking to us and moreover by the Ministery of the Church we are assisted in understanding the sence of the Holy Scriptures but they contain in themselves that Divine Authority and Truth whereby we come to a certain Faith. The Church tells us such and such things are true and we find them to be so by examining the Scriptures Which the Beraeans searched daily whether those things were so which the Apostles preached and therefore many of them believed not merely because the Apostles told them they ought so to do but because they found what they said in the Holy Scriptures XVII Act. 11 12. And so far as any Church speaks according to the truth contained therein it is to be believed and followed But if it bring no Divine word for its warrant if it propound other Doctrines which are not there it hath no authority to make such Doctrines the matter of our Faith much less to set up its own authority above the Scriptures as they do who say The Scriptures receive their authority from the Church Which is the Doctrine of no less Men than Baronius and Bellarmine to name no more The former of (r) Ad Annum 53 〈◊〉 X XI which argues that because we receive these Holy Books to be writings of the Apostles and Evangelists and not forged under their Names upon the testimony of the Church therefore all the writings of the New Testament received their authority from the Churches tradition which is fundamentum Scripturarum as he ventures to say the foundation of the Scriptures The other (s) L. 2. de Sacrament C. 25. Tertium is no less positive that if we take away the authority of the present Church and the present Council we call in doubt the whole Christian Faith. For the firmness of all ancient Councils and of all Doctrines depends upon the authority of the present Church This is very presumptuous talk for by the Church they mean themselves and then by the testimony of the Church that is their own testimony they mean such a Divine witness as assures us by its own authority without any other proof Which are the great points of difference between us in this matter For we assert first that the office of leading Men to the Holy Scriptures and so to Faith belongs to every Church as much as to them and secondly that no Church can bring People to Faith by its own testimony and authority but by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures nor is any Church whatsoever to be heard in matters of Divine Truth further than it can prove its Doctrines by the authority of God's Word and teaches things agreeable thereunto II. Which leads to the Second thing briefly to shew what power and authority the Church cannot pretend unto in matters of Faith. 1. And first it appears by what hath been said that it hath not a Soveraign Absolute Prophetical authority independent upon the Rule of the Holy Scriptures so that we must take whatsoever it saith for true without consulting them This is the ambitious pretence of the great Doctors of the Roman Church who give the Church meaning thereby the present Roman Church an authority over all things not depending on the Scriptures but upon which the Scriptures themselves depend So that without the authority of this Church all truth is doubtful Which is a manifest principle of Infidelity making all Religion stand to the courtesie of a company of Men who in such matters are the least to be trusted of all other Christians that we are acquainted withall 2. The Church hath no authority to propound any Doctrine as necessary to Salvation which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures but depends solely on the authority of its own Tradition This is another of their ambitious attempts who having arrogated to themselves alone the whole power of the Church make that power so unlimited that it can supply the

The Pillar and Ground of Truth A TREATISE SHEWING That the ROMAN CHVRCH falsly claims to be That CHURCH and the PILLAR of That TRUTH mentioned by S. Paul in his First Epistle to Timothy Chap. III. Vers 15. Which is explained in THREE PARTS Imprimatur JO. BATTELY May 9. 1687. LONDON Printed for Richard Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in S. Paul's Church-Yard MDCLXXXVII TO THE READER AMONG all the places of Scripture which they of the Church of Rome are wont to alledge for a proof of their pretended Infallibility I find none whereon they more rely than that of S. Paul to Timothy 1 III. 15. That thou may'st know how thou oughtest to behave thy self in the house of God which is the CHURCH of the living God the PILLAR AND GROUND OF THE TRUTH Which place say the Rhemists pincheth the Hereticks wonderfully and so it ever did and therefore they oppose themselves directly against the very letter and confessed sense of the same I have thought it therefore worth my pains to show how unjust this accusation is by opening the plain and evident meaning the literal and confessed sense of those words whereby it will appear that we are far from being Hereticks and that they not we are pinched by this place and that there is no ground at all in it for their Infallibility nor for their vain flourishes that the very Name of CHURCH terrifies us and makes us pale with fear as Campian insolently vapoured (a) Ratio III. and that we not only fear but altogether abhor the word CATHOLIQUE so as to leave it clean out of our Bibles as the fore-named Rhemists (b) Preface to Epistle of S. James most senslesly misrepresent us For as I have proved in the following Book that we not they are the true CATHOLIQVES so there is nothing further from truth I have likewise shown than that the Apostle here speaks with any particular respect to the Church of Rome Which is so far from striking any terror into us when it appropriates to it self the name of CHVRCH that we look upon the pretence to be as ridiculous as the proof is they give us of it Which is the sole Authority of a false S. Ambrose his Commentaries upon this place who thus glosses All the World being God's yet the Church only is his House the Rector or Ruler whereof at this time is DAMASUS Where the Rhemists (c) Annot. in 1 Tim. III. 15. desire us to note How clear a case it was then that the Pope of Rome was not the Governor only of one particular See but of Christ's whole House which is the Universal Church c. And further improve this conceit in these words The Church which is the House of God whose Rector saith S. Ambrose in his time was Damasus and now Gregory the thirteenth and in the Apostles time S. Peter is the Pillar of Truth the establishment of Verity and therefore it cannot err And truly it is worth our noting how clear a Case it is that they were sorely pinched to use their own word again for want of proofs when they betook themselves to such as this For it is hard to think that Men of their education whom we will not despise as they do the Hereticks a little before (d) Annot. in 1 Tim. I. 7. as most ignorant of the Word of God not knowing the very Principles of Divinity should not know that S. Ambrose was not the Author of those Commentaries they being acknowledged by the greatest Men in their Church to be spurious Brats of some other Writer Baronius (e) Annal. Tom. V. ad an 397. n. 38. for instance saith The Exposition of Ambrose upon all Paul 's Epistles began to be wanting in the time of Cassiodorus but being plainly lost it is apparent the work of another Author was foisted in its room And their other great Cardinal Bellarmine confesses as much in several places but in one more fully (f) L. I. de Mitrimonio cap. 17. where he assoils an Objection of Chemnitius who following the rule of the Civil Law (g) Tistem quem quis inducit prose tenetar recipere contra se the witness which any Man produces for himself he is bound to receive against himself quotes this Book as Bellarmine oft had done in a Case of Marriage by this Answer That the Author of these Commentaries is not S. Ambrose as learned Men know and more than that whosoever was the Author he was none ex celebratis patribus of the famous or eminent Fathers And indeed there is great reason for what these and many others of that Church say as I might show out of the Commentaries themselves which contradict the very words of the true S. Ambrose But suppose he had been the Author or these the Work of some celebrated Writer it is a clear case and I desire it may be noted that these Rhemist Annotators were not so knowing as they would be esteemed or not so conscientious as they ought to have been when they gather from these words that Damasus was Ruler over more than his own See even over the Universal Church as S. Peter they say was in the Apostles times For S. Ambrose himself saith in his Book of the Priestly Dignity (h) Tom. IV. de Sacerdotali dignitate cap. 2. which Priests one would think should read that when Christ said Feed my Sheep those Sheep and that Flock not only blessed Peter then received but both he received them with us and with him we all have received them And it is an unusual thing in Ancient Writers to say the same of other Bishops that this Writer doth of Damasus when they mean no more but that they were Rulers of that part of the Catholique Church which was committed to their charge Thus Arsenius for instance writes to Athanasius as he himself hath set down his Letter which begins thus We loving Peace and Unity with the Catholique Church over which thou by the Grace of God dost preside or rule (i) Athan. Tom. 1. Apolog 2. p. 786. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. And more than this such great Clerks as they should not have been ignorant being also such lofty Censurers of the Hereticks that Gregory Nazianzene called the Divine whom they read it is to be supposed to learn the principles of Divinity saith S. Cyprian was made not only a Pastor but a Pastor that had the largest dominion (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Orat. XVIII p. 281. being set over not the Church of Carthage only or Africa but all the West and almost all the East it self and the North and South unto whom his fame reached But if these things escaped their observation or they studiously concealed them they must have been most ignorant of the word of God as they say the Hereticks are if they did not know that S. Paul saith the same of the Elders of Ephesus that this Writer doth of Damasus

Austin when he was yet in part an Infidel being a Manichee to believe the Gospel according to that famous Discourse of his in answer to the Epistle of Manichaeus which contained in a manner the whole Belief of that party Ego non crederem Evangelio nisi me Ecclesiae Catholicae authoritas commoveret (m) Tom. VI. contra Epistolam Fandamenti Cap. 5. which is to be thus translated according to the Phrase of the Asricans I had not believed the Gospel unless the Authority of the Catholique Church had moved me thereunto For it is evident as hath been shown by our Writers since the beginning of the Reformation * D. Whitakeram de sa●●a Sc●i●t Q. 3. cap. 8. he speaks of himself when a Manichee as the words immediately following declare Those whom I obeyed when they said Believe the Gospel why should I not obey when they say Do not believe Manichaeus Which doth not signifie that the credit of the Gospel is founded upon the Churches Authority but that this was the first motive to incline him to look into the Gospel and consider it as a Divine Book which would inform him in the way of Salvation Thus he explains himself in the very foregoing Chapter where setting aside the sincere Wisdom taught in the Church which they would not believe he reckons up abundance of other things which might serve to keep him in the Catholique Church viz. the consent of People and Nations c. and then thus concludes These numerous and great and most dear tyes of the Christian name may very well hold a Man that believes in the Catholique Church although by reason of the slowness of his understanding or the defects of his life the truth do not yet show it self most openly unto him Whereas among the Manichees there were none of these things to invite or to hold him but a bare promise of Truth wherewith they made a noise which if they could have shown so manifestly that it could not be doubted he confesses it was to be preferred before all those things whereby he was held in the Catholique Church Which words are an evident proof that he speaks of the Authority of the Church as only moving and inducing him to believe the Scriptures and to joyn himself to their Society before the TRUTH was manifested to him which he was to sind there in the Scriptures and which he preferred before the Authority of the Church Which he elsewhere tells the Donatists was not to be believed upon its own credit L. de unitate Ecclesie cap. 16. But whether they hold the Church let them not show but from the Canonical Books of the Divine Scriptures for we neither do not say that we ought to be believed because we are in Christ's Church because that Church which we hold was commended to us by Optatus or Ambrose or other innumerable Bishops of our Communion or because it is approved by Councils or because Miracles are every where wrought in it These and such like things are therefore to be approved because they are done in the Catholique Church but it is not therefore manifested to be the Catholique Church because these things are done in it Our Lord Jesus himself when he rose from the dead and offered his Body to be toucht as well as seen by his Disciples lest they should think there was any fallacy in it judged it meet rather to confirm them by the testimonies of the Law and the Prophets and Psalms showing how all things were fulfilled which were predicted And so he commanded his Church saving that repentance and remission of sin should be preached in his Name beginning at Hierusalem This he testified was written in the Law the Prophets and Psalms this we hold commended from his Mouth These are the Documents these the Foundations these the strong Grounds of our Cause We read in the Acts of the Apostles of some Believers that they sought the Scriptures daily whether those things were so What Scriptures but the Canonical Books of the Law and the Prophets to which are added the Gospels the Apostolical Epistles the Acts of Apostles and the Revelation of S. John. Search all these and bring forth something manifest whereby ye may demonstrate the Church either to have remained only in Africa or to be to come out of Africa c. This is an illustrious Testimony he thought the Church it self was to be warranted by the Scriptures which did not therefore receive their Authority from the Church but give it all the Authority it hath And after all it was not the Authority of the present Church barely that moved him when he was a Manichee but of the Catholique Church from the beginning Occham * Fr White 's Answer to Fisher's second Conference p. 24. thinks he speaks of the Church in the Apostles times alone which moved him to Believe And others as Gabriel Biel confess he speaks of the Authority of the Church à tempore Christi Apostolorum c. from the time of Christ and of the Apostles down to his days Such Authority cannot but weigh 〈◊〉 much even with those that do not yet believe if 〈…〉 ●eriously pondered but much more with those that are already Christians Whether they be Novices and weaklings who are as yet doubtful in the Faith though in the Church the Testimony and Authority of it ought to confirm and quiet their minds as it did S. Austin's it appears by the place before-named and keep them close to the Christian Society till they may themselves come better acquainted with the Truth and more fully understand the Holy Scriptures which the Church delivers to them and puts into their hands as the Word of God. Or whether they be more grown Christians and indeed all sorts of Persons in the Church who ought to be so far wrought upon even by its Authority as to be perswaded thereby to read constantly to consider and ponder seriously and to practise those plain Lessons faithfully which the Holy Scripture teaches them till it work effectually upon their hearts and purge them so throughly from all bad affections that they may more perfectly understand the Truth Thus much is indisputable for God hath appointed outward means for the conveying Divine Truth to our Belief and this means is ordinarily the Church to which we ascribe these two great things in this business (p) Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. V. First the office of a Witness testifying the Authority of Holy Scripture to us Secondly of an Instrument in Gods Hand to lead us into the understanding of the Scriptures and by its Ministry in preaching and expounding them to beget a Divine Faith in us But further than this we cannot we must not go For the last resolution of our Faith is not into the Testimony of the Church but into the Testimony of God himself which we find recorded in the Holy Scripture delivered by the Church unto us Thus S. Austin most admirably

defects of the Scripture and make things unwritten to become matters of Faith. Which is such an unbounded Prerogative that we may have a new Faith as often as they please to pretend a Tradition for it though they cannot prove it For we must rest in the authority of the present Church which affirms it and that against the very Scripture it self which tells us it is able to make a Man of God perfect and against the testimony of the Universal Church which I have shown forbids the producing of any other Faith but that which was evidently delivered by the Apostles there 3. We cannot allow the Church an Infallible authority that is such an assistance in her Doctrines and proposals that she cannot err in any thing she defines In Controversies indeed arising about matters of Faith we own and reverence the authority of the Church (t) Artic. XX. so as not to contest the publique judgement but to prefer it before our own private conceits in doubtful things But as it ought to proceed in its determinations by the Rule of Gods word So we think it possible it may mistake in the application of this Rule and therefore we do not blindly resign our selves to its authority without all regard to the Holy Scriptures unto which the Church ought to have a respect in all its determinations No that 's another proud pretence of the present Roman Church that they cannot mistake in their definitions and therefore we must submit unto them without examination From whence this intollerable mischief hath insued that it hath made them both insensible of their errors and careless to seek any cure of them nay utterly incapable of a remedy For as one of our own Divines excellently speaks (u) Dr. Petter's Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. 5. whose words those are this conceit of their Infallibility is to them both a sufficient reason for that which is most unreasonable and a sufficient answer to that which is most unanswerable To this they retreat upon all occasions when they are not able to maintain their ground they have no other way to defend their errors when they are plainly set before their eyes but to tell us confidently they cannot err Which is a very strange boldness for we demonstrate in manay instances that they have erred erred most grosly particularly in this that they have added new Articles to the old Creed to be believed under pain of Damnation and added a new Canon of Scripture to the Old Testament against the clearest evidence in the Records of the Universal Church that the Books they have newly received were never acknowledged for Canonical Scripture If by the Church indeed they would understand the Church truly Catholique the whole Body of Christ in all times places and ages and if by matters of Faith they would understand those grand Articles which I have mentioned in the first part of this Discourse and if by being Infallible they would understand not an absolute impossibility of erring which humane nature is not capable of but not actual error there are none of us make any question but the Church is Infallible That is the whole Church hath not erred nor shall not err in the whole Faith or in any necessary part thereof for such error would cut Men off from Christ the head and so leave him no Church at all which is impossible It hath been the very scope of first my Discourse to show that the Church hath always kept the great fundamental truths of our Religion and not erred in them but transmitted them down to us whole and undefiled till the Church of Rome in the Council of Trent corrupted the Faith by their errors which they have mixed with it For to a particular Church such as that of Rome is we cannot allow this priviledge of not erring because we know they have erred even in fundamental Truths and thereby ceased to be Churches Witness those glorious Churches to which Christ himself sent his Letters by S. John the Apostle These Prerogatives therefore not belonging to any Church every one must be content with those two Offices before mentioned which are sufficient First The Office of a Witness testifying the authority of the Holy Scriptures unto its members Secondly of Gods instrument by whose Ministry in opening expounding and urging the Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost begets a divine Faith in us And by performing these Offices it supports and continues and propagates the Truth and so may be called the Pillar and Ground thereof The meaning of which I shall now distinctly set before the Readers eyes that I may give a short account of the fourth and last thing propounded in the beginning IV. How the Church may appropriate to it self this Title 1. First Every Church and every person in it especially the Bishops and Pastors are the Pillar and Ground of Truth officio by Duty and Office whereby they are obliged to keep maintain and uphold the Truth This always was and always will be incumbent on them which is sufficient to fill up the sense of such attributes as these which do not always note performance of Duty but only obligation to it As when our Saviour saith to his Disciples Ye are the salt of the Earth it doth not signifie that they were necessarily so for he supposes immediately the salt might lose its savour but that they ought to be so and if they were not so would be good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot Matth. V. 13. 2. But Secondly The first Churches of Christ in the Apostles times were actu effectu actually and effectually the Pillar of Truth that is they faithfully discharg'd this Office and perform'd their Duty constantly maintaining the Truth as it is in Christ in its purity and simplicity For the Apostles were a part of those Churches whom God led into all Truth which they taught sincerely and intirely while they lived and do at this day instruct us in the Holy Scriptures in the whole Truth necessary to our Salvation 3. But we cannot say the same of all succeeding Churches that they did faithfully perform this office though in duty they also were bound so to do No some of them were so far from being Pillars of the Truth that they let it fall to the ground We have strange instances of it with which I shall not fill these Papers in the History of the Church which show us that if we take not heed to our selves and the Doctrine that is delivered to us we have no security that we or any other particular Church shall continue firm and stedfast supporters of the Truth For Pillars themselves may decay and if they be not well lookt after will go to ruin and fall to the Earth 4. Even this very Church of Ephesus which was a Pillar and Ground of Truth while Timothy presided in it afterward began before all the Apostles were dead to remit its first love and zeal for