Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	believe_v	church_n	father_n	2,359	5	5.4153	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A96976	Meditations upon the marks of the true Church of Christ: or, Motives of credibility in behalf of the true religion: and, the easiest way to finde it out. / By H.W.	H. W.; Wilkinson, Henry, 1610-1675,	1655 (1655)	Wing W36A; Thomason E1666_1; ESTC R208388	95,687	283

is to hazard the winning or losing heaven Heaven is the Wager Resolution shoots the Arrow the true Church is the white let deliberation take right aym and earnestly beg the direction of the Almighty who hath also bent his how and prepared it by saying Lord demonstrate unto me thy wayes and teach me thy paths send forth thy light and thy truth that they may lead me unto thy holy mountain and into the Tabernacles of thy Church Amen The Second Meditation Of Divine Faith The first Point Consider first what Faith is both in respect of the habit and the act Habitual Faith is a supernatural vertue infused by God into the soule of man by which his understanding is illuminated inabled and inclined to believe stedfastly all those things to be true which God hath revealed to his Church It differs much from other intellectuall habits as from Science which relyes on the evidence of the thing Faith on Authority to wit of God From opinion doubtfulnesse suspicion which do not satissie the understanding Faith convinceth it from civil or humane faith which is subject to error but Theologicall and divine Faith is that cui non potest subesse falsum no falshood dare insinuate it self into the company of Divine Faith Actuall Faith is no other thing but the exercise or act proceeding from the habit of Faith it is a firm assent of the understanding believing such particulars revealed by God to wit that one and the self same nature and essence of God is in three distinct persons that Christ is both God and man and yet not two but only one thing that there is heaven that there is hell and the like to be true so that the material things believed are the objects of those acts Consider secondly The insallible certainty which an act of divine faith hath in it the certainty of it hangs upon these two cardinal attributes of divine wisdome and goodnesse by the former of which we are warranted that God cannot by ignorance be deceived by the second we are secured that he will not deceive by revealing that for a truth which is false since both these perfections are in him infinite This infinite authority therefore of God revealing being the motive or formal object of an act of faith for therefore we believe such a thing to be true because God hath revealed it makes these acts most true Gather hence what an admirable benefit the gift of divine Faith is and not the habit onely but the acts also are such since to the producing of every one of them is required a congruous cogitation and a pious affection of the will besides the application of mans endeavour both which are favours from Almighty God Purpose a frequent exercise of producing acts of Faith about those holy misteries which God hath revealed to his Church thou that art a member of it The second Point Consider now the necessity of this virtue of Divine Faith first from the Testimonies of holy Scripture without faith faith Saint Paul it is impossible to please God He that shall be found at his death devoid of this virtue shall not onely not please God a misery great enough but shall moreover inevitably incur the greatest of all miseries eternal damnation He that will not believe shall be condemned fearfull words but spoken by Christ himself heavy news for such as die not Catholicks but told by truth it self Hence resolve that as the means to please God is to begin by true Faith so the means to get true Faith is by becoming a Member of the true Church Consider also that as the eye is the light of the body and the understanding the natural eye and light of the Soule so Divine Faith is the supernatural light of the understanding Nisi credideritis non intelligetis what say you Socinians to this Oracle of divine Truth unlesse you believe what The mysteries of the Kingdom of God and amongst the rest the possibility and actuall gift of infallible Faith How With Divine Faith What will follow Non intelliget is you shall have no understanding of those arcana or sacred secrets into which Faith dives true it is that humane faith and natural reason drawn from the consideration of those things which are marks of the true Church are previous conditions prerequisite to divine Faith whose acts are rational and it an intellectual habit but this is not to make natural reason the formal object or basis and ultimate resolution of maters of faith Mans intellect hath but a small sphere of activity in Order to a perception of divine things but so sarre forth as it is elevated by Divine Faith As for us who hope we are true believers let not us content our selves with humane Faith but petition Gods divine Majesty for that Faith which is his heavenly gift Lord adauge nobis fidem increase in us Faith true faith infallible Faith divine Faith make us strong in faith that by it we may know thee and whom thou sent Jesus Christ Gather out of this point one reason amongst others why many Sectaries are so bad Paraphrastes and expounders of Scripture and why they hold such Paradoxes and improbable opinions in these main matters of Faith To wit because they want divine and Theological fith so true that truth is unlesse ye will believe ye shall not understand The third Point Consider now what is to be believed and how we are to proceed in the exercise of the virtue of faith this will be facilitated by understanding the precepts of Faith which are two the one Affirmative the other Negative The Affirmative Precept obligeth every one to believe actually and expresly some particular points of Faith and the rest implicitly or in general that is all whatsoever the holy Catholike Church believes yet so in general that every one is bound to be in a readinesse and disposition to embrace and assent to the other particulars when and accordingly as they shall be sufficiently propounded by the true Church Now for a better information of what particulars are expresly to be believed Note that of these materiall objects or points of Faith some are so essentially requisite to salvation that a pure non-knowledgement or not believing them expresly and in particular is destructive of salvation these are called necessary necessitate medii such are these two which Saint Paul mentions in these words but without faith it is impossible to please God for he that cometh to God must believe that he is to wit that there is a God and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Here it is expresly set down that there is no coming to God no enjoying him without believing that there is a God and that he is a rewarder and these two are to be believed by all even Ethnicks and Infidels But those to whom the Evangelicall law hath been sufficiently propounded must believe besides these two Christ and the blessed Trinity

Other things are onely necessarily to be known and expresly to be believed necessitate proecepti that is by reason of a precept obliging thereunto such are the Creed the Ten Commandements and those of the Church our Lords Prayer and the Sacraments Now lgnorance or want of actuall belief of these is not inconsistent with salvation though negligence in that point is seldom without sin The Negative precept of Faith is of a sarre different nature from the affirmative and obligeth all Christians not to deny or disbelieve any one point of Faith sufficiently proposed by the Church as a truth revealed by God This admits no limitation or latitude the affirmative precept ariseth from the material Points or Objects from which also as they are more or lesse necessary to be expresly known and believed ariseth that distinction of them into points Fundamental and not Fundamental but the negativeprecept is taken from the formal Object which is the infallible testimony of God revealing which being the same in allpoints it makes all fundamentalls a like and here the forementioned distinction hath no place Hence may be inferred what a misery it is to deny or disbelieve any one point which the Church proposeth as a revealed truth It belongs undoubtedly to the goodness of Gods providence over his Church and m●ns souls to leave us some infallible means by which we may know clearly and infallibly what he hath revealed and what points we are to believe First because otherwise men would be perpetually perplexed full of frights and fears and alwaies doubtful what were revealed and to be believed what not Secondly God commands us to belive under pain of damnation therefore to disbelieve any one Proposall of the Church is dangerous because a disbeliever of even any one point is neerer incurring that dreadfull sentence than he who disbelieves nothing The Tenents of Roman Catholikes are affirmative those of Sectaries are almost all negative and consequently not acts of belief Hence also they are in greater danger of that Sentence above mentioned were not that also a hard sentence and repugnant to the sweet mercy of God unlesse he should by some means declare unto usplainly and clearly what particulars we were to believe under so dreadful a penalty The scripture so obscure in many places so subject to various Interpretations and one of the things which are to be believed it self cannot be this easie means for it hath never yet nor can possibly end the many main Controverfies about points of Faith so long in agitation This is a Demonstration therefore that the Churches living and clear voice must do the deed What She sayes is true is so O what a misery and madnes is it then to disbelieve or deny any one point that she propounds as a divine Revelation One point alone denied makes an Heretick divests that soul and deprives it of all divine Faith For the proposition of the Church being of the same authority in that as in all the rest either She is to be believed in all or in none and as he that is guilty of the breach of one Commandement is guilty of all for he violates that supream legislative power of God so he that denies giving credit to one proposition of the Church denies her Authority and is guilty of all the rest What he believes then is upon some humane ground and with humane Faith Domine ad quemibimus To whom Lord shall we have recourse in our doubts of Faith Dic Eccleiae Tell the Church hear her The least deviation in matter of Faith is dangerous but easily avoidable if you will hear her She was of some years growth when the Scriptures were not in being and that these were divine dictates not forged fables we had it upon trust from her Why then is not her word taken in all other points as well as in that mainly Fundamental one What strange inconsequence is this to believe her to be an Infallible Propounder in some particulars but not so in others The Third Meditation which is Of Christs true Church The first Point COnsider first that as there is a God whose existency and operations all men may read in the pages of the Elements and in the great Volume of the Universe whose creation and conservation are a Physicall demonstration of a deity to which may be added moral arguments as the opinion and consent of all Nations and of all the wise ones of the world prodigious miracles apparitions of spirits prophecies heathenish oracles sudden and unheard of punishments and the like which have made all excepting some Atheists co 〈…〉 ed believers that there is a God 〈…〉 this is a Patent verity so also is 〈◊〉 which came out of the golden mouth of Saint Chrysostome to wit Siest Deus est colendus if there be a God as it is undoubtedly true there is then he is to be Worshipped nature hath made a great connexion betwixt these two the conspiring consent of all Nations not onely the civillized but even the most barbarout exhibited some kinde of Worship to their Gods the Heathens had their Temples the Jews Synagogues and the Christians have their Churches for that end Consider secondly that as the want or neglect of divine Worship inclines to Atheisme so by this may be gathered what in all likelihood will at leng●h become of these modern sects in our Nation once so religious From the Protestants their form of Worship is taken away by Act of Parliament others will have none and the rest will not somuch as have Churches O Times O Tragedies what will this come to but down right Atheisme unlesse they repent and return to that Mother Church from which they had their first tincture of Christianity which Jesus for thy mercies sake effect The second Point Consider first how that the Son of God descended from heaven and invested himself with humane nature thereby to work that great work of mans eternal salvation but by what means and after what manner One drop of his deified blood was a more than sufficient ransome for the whole World any one of those theandrical actions of his was a sufficient summe for the purchase of eternal felicity for all mankind for what end then was it that he spent all the moments which were contained in thirty three years so preciously Why did he shed every drop even till water issued out of his sacred side of that his royall blood The holy Doctours will tell us that he did this for two ends in order to us First to make himself a perfect Prototypon for man to imitate of all perfection by the long exercise of all virtues of which he left so many and so rare examples The second was that he might Found a Church adorn it with all the requisites proprieties and priviledges which might beseem such a Church of such a Founder and that he might leave in it the infinite treasures of his merits to be dispenced out by the Pastors of

sufficiency of the signes and marks by which God gives testimony that the doctrine of Christs Church is truly Orthodox Of this the Prophet David who by an anticipated knowledge which he had by divine instinct of the whole frame and composure of Christs Church uttered these most pat and pithy words Testimonia tua credibilia facta sunt nimis Thy testimonies are made too credible By which Hebraisme nimis he means that they are very credible and that that Church which is illustrated and confirmed with the testimonies of such marks as can be imprinted upon it by God only deserves to be credited in all things Our Saviour himself sent no other demonstration to Saint John of his being the Messias but this Go and tell John what ye have heard and seen the blind see the lame walke the leprous are clensed the deaf hear the dead rise and he urged the same argument when he said that the Jews had not been guilty of sin to wit of infidelity and disbelieving his doctrine if he had not effected amongst them works which no other mortall man was able to do The blind man who together with his corporal eyes had also those of his soul opened by Christ urged the same argument against them averring that it was a thing unheard of since the creation of the world that a man could give sight to the blind unlesse God were with him And Nicodemus yeelded to the like argument by his ingenious and voluntary acknowledgement that our Saviour was a teacher sent by God because no man could do those miracles which he did unlesse God were with him so that the sufficiency of these marks is perfectly established out of Scripture it self Ponder secondly how reason dictates that greater inducements and powerfuller perswasives cannot be brought to conciliate authority and esteem to a Religion than the above mentioned marks are for they are above the ability and reach of nature onely God or such as to whom God delegates this power can cause so prodigious effects Saint Austin and the holy Fathers urged these marks as strong maximes against all Heresies as they sprung up yea they themselves were kept within the bosome of the Catholike Church by these strong and sweet chains as appeared by their Writings Adde to this the conversions of Ethnick and idolatrous Nations what was it else but the forcible and powerfull charms if they may be be so termed of these strange priviledges and prerogatives with which the preachers of Christian doctrine to them were endowed which drew them from infidelity yea and barbarity to Christianity The fourth Point Consider lastly some inferences which may be drawn out of the precedent points First those that are already members of the Catholike Church have much to thank God for in being made members of that Church which is so very conspicuous with these rare endowments and proprieties Secondly since these marks here-briefly touched but in the ensuing pages more particularly to be looked into apart are on the one side so necessary and on the other so sufficient and satisfactory to reason it behoves every Protestant Presbyterian Independent Anabaptist and all these late Euthusiasticks to try the truth of their severall Sects by these touchstones Thirdly That he who makes a search after the true Religion by the direction of these marks proceeds most prudently and cannot be obnoxious to errour in his enquiry Fourthly that this is both the most convincing and also the most easie way of composing all Controversies for by this you may easily discover the true Church which being found out all are obliged to embrace it and 〈…〉 and to its verdict in all things and the Scripture whose obscure texts abused and variously interpreted have given occasion of these and of all Heresies will by this means need no searching into Lastly For a preparation to the ensuing meditations infer what dictamen and disposition a man is to come with that will benefit his soul by reading them First he must observe that there is a great difference betwixt Affirmative and Negative Propositions in this subject for it is evident that that Sect or Religion is not the true Church which is devoid of these marks why because they are inseparable from the true Church as will hereafter appear out of the first points of many of the Meditations Yet on the contrary you must not think that wheresoever any of these marks is to be found there is the true RELIGION for God can give a man power to work miracles or prophesie truly though he be of a false Sect but not in confirmation of that false Sect So Julian the Apostate going to sacrifice to the heathenish Gods and terrified with the sudden apparition of the devill he instantly drive him away by making the signe of the crosse which he had learned when he was a Catholike thus writes St. Greg. Naz. and Nicephorus recounts that the Persians bore the signe of the Crosse graven upon their Foreheads in memory of their being delivered from the plague by arming themselves as they were taught by the Christians with the same signe Now these examples make nothing against Roman Catholikes but confirm their tenent Secondly he must come with indifferency otherwise he cannot be an impartial and fit judge without any prejudicate opinion without passion and without obstinate resolution of persisting where he is be his Sect what it will be for this were affected ignorance which is malice and such an one is he of whom God complains saying Noluit intelligere ut beue ageret He would not understand whereby to do well this is dangerous this hath too great affinity with hardnesse of heart the greatest of all miseries and punishments in this life but read them with a desire of your own profit and spiritual good and then you will find just cause to say with King David to Almighty God Testimonia tua credibilia facta sunt nimis thy testimonies to wit the testimonies and marks of thy Church are made too credible that is very credible meaning thereby that the Church in behalf of which God gives these signes and testimonies deserves to be credited in whatsoever she propounds Yet it is worth taking notice of that the protestant translatours of the Bible interpret the forementioned words of the Psalme 93 with them thus Thy testimonies are very sure using here their wonted manner of explicating places that savour Catholike Tenents equivocally obscurely or two largely and without the restrictions which the places require For these words do not expresse the motives of credibility as the former do The Fifth Meditation Of Miracles The first Point COnsider first that Miracles are a mark of Christs true Church These signes sayes our Saviour of his Church shall follow them that believe in me in my name shall they cast out Devils they shall speake with new tongues they shall take up Serpents and if they drink any deadly thing it shall not hurt