Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	book_n	divine_a	scripture_n	2,963	5	6.0860	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39260	A letter to a friend reflecting on some passages in A letter to the D. of P., in answer to the arguing part of his first letter to Mr. G.	Ellis, Clement, 1630-1700.	1687 (1687)	Wing E565; ESTC R18718	18,279	34

that there is such a thing to be found among men Then will he have us grant That there are no means by which men may be secured from being deceived and then they will not take all that pains that are necessary to compass that good which for ought they can tell they may not compass with all their pains Ibid. But here he is too hasty for thô we know not where to find infallible men now living on Earth yet we know there is an Infallible and Living God and He by Men indued with his Infallible Spirit hath given us his Word plainly Written and this Word is a sufficient means to secure us from being dangerously deceived in any thing necessary to our Salvation if we diligently attend unto it and use the proper helps of understanding it And this is our encouragement to take all pains to compass the good we desire that the same Infallible God who hath given the means hath assured his blessing to them that diligently use them Yet I a little wonder to hear him talk of men's being discouraged from taking pains to be well assured of the truth for want of an Infallible Guide when it hath been the common Argument a long time whereby such a Guide has been commended to us that it would save us the pains of examining the particulars of our faith If we be in love with ease or if we be content to take pains all 's one there 's enough in the Infallibility of the Church of Rome for all the pleasure of the one or the necessity of the other may be a Motive sufficient to enter into that Communion wherein we may it seems have our free choice of either What cunning Gamesters are these men that hope to win with any hand Certainly they trust more to their Art than to their Cards After we have been sent from place to place to seek this Infallibility where now shall we find it at last In Tradition if any where for we have miss'd it everywhere else And there we have already found it if our Authour must be trusted The certainty of Scripture is from Tradition therefore there is no refusing that Tradition causes certainty and makes faith as certain as Scripture page 7. Yet it may be this Certainty comes not up to Infallibility yes it is the very same as you heard before and he adds page 23. This makes Tradition to be an Infallible ascertainer of some things at least and so unless some special difficulty be found in other things that light into the same channel it must needs bring them down Infallibly too Now it is very true that we have the Books of Scriptures by Tradition and what other way such antient Books could be convey'd unto us I confess I do not know neither indeed can I see what greater Certainty any man can reasonably desire that these indeed are the very same Books which the Authors of them left to the Church and which the Church hath always received as the Word of God. And this Tradition we look upon as a ground of sufficient certainty of this matter of Fact wherein no man was ever wont to desire better nor in reason can But then first This Tradition is not that of the Church of Rome only which is the only Tradition that I ever heard of that has been pretended to be the ground of Infallibility but a more Vniversal Tradition of all Christians if some of whom had not been more careful to preserve these Books than they of Rome we might for ought I know have lost some of them at least that Excellent Epistle to the Hebrews And in the next place this Vniversal Tradition is no more but Humane Testimony and that can be no ground of Infallibility which excludes all possibility of Error A Moral Certainty is enough to stand on such a foundation and all that can be rationally desired in this case These Books as writ by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost are the foundation of our Christian Faith and he knows I hope that neither Papists nor Protestants content themselves with Tradition but produce abundance of other Arguments for the Confirmation of Scripture's Divine Authority And whereas he saith it makes Faith as Certain as Scripture no man can doubt but conveying the Book to us it conveys to us all points of Faith contained in the Book and witnessing the Book to be writ by men divinely inspired it also gives as good credit to the Faith contained in it as humane Testimony can give But he means another thing when he thus explains himself Vnless some special difficulty be found in other things that light into the same channel it must needs bring them down infallibly too These other things are things unwritten in that Holy Book and without more ado we will promise him that when ever he can shew us those other things and assure us that they light into the same channel of Vniversal not only Roman Tradition and are so convey'd to us we will entertain them with the same Certainty as we entertain the Scripture upon account of that Tradition only But for these other things which are to be parts of Faith too I fear we must either fish for them in the Channel of Tiber or not at all find them All Traditionary Christians believe the same to day which they did yesterday and so up to the time of our Blessed Saviour page 8. So saith Mr. G. And saith our Author There is no denying this but by denying that Traditionary Christians are Traditionary Christians But suppose these Traditionary Christians be so call'd from their adhering to a Tradition which reacheth not so high as our Blessed Saviour's time but only pretends to it as they are by others if not by themselves may we not call them Traditionary Christians and confess too that they believe the same to day as they did yesterday yea and as they did ever since the Council of Trent or some hundreds of years before that and yet deny that they believe the same that was believed quite up to the time of our Blessed Saviour Yes this is and will be denied till he can prove it Next Mr. G. faith If they follow this Rule they can never err in Faith. And his Friend tell us This is palpably self-evident and p. 9. therefore they are infallible But unless the Rule of Tradition which they follow be longer than it is yet proved to be they may follow it and err all along by following it And let it be never so long yet if they follow it not they may err and therefore are not infallible except he shew that they cannot choose but follow it So that unless it be first as was before said proved that God hath given a Rule which no man can possibly swerve from which supposed not only a Pope or Council but all who have it are infallible we must all be content to be fallible still Yea but They could not innovate in Faith

we should allow to this Letter of his that it contains good Sense expressed in words significant and intelligible we deny his Assumption that Scripture's Letter is not this way Again if by these words interpretable by private Iudgments he mean the Scripture any way interpretable as any private man may possibly wrest the words to make them comply with his own Sentiments or through ignorance and laziness and neglect of such helps and means as are fit to be used may misunderstand them he must have as wide a Conscience and as little Modesty as the impudent and wicked Author of Pax Vobis who has the face to fasten such a meaning to the 6th of our 39. Articles which hath no respect at all to the Interpretation of Scripture but only to the Sufficiency and Canon thereof But if his meaning be that Scripture as it may be understood by a private Man of a competent Iudgment using such helps as are proper is not the way we again deny his Assumption For we suppose these things That the Scripture is Gods Word That it was written to be understood That it was written for the Instruction of private men That they are concerned to understand it That they may believe and live as it directs That they have means left them of God for the understanding of it so far as it is of necessary concernment to them And that using these means as they ought they may understand it and thus it is to them the way to know surely what Christ and his Apostles taught as necessary to their Salvation And now let him shew when he can that these Suppositions are unreasonable or false But he offers at a Proof of what he saith For saith he we experience Presbyterians and Socinians for Example both take that way and yet differ in such high Fundamentals as the Trinity and the Godhead of Christ. I might here talk with him in his own ridiculing Language Page II. We bring our Argument and he his Instance against it What are People the wiser now And which shall they be for the Argument or the Instance For if an Instance such as this in Presbyterians and Socinians is enough to stand in Bar against any Argument proving the Holy Scripture to be the Way to know what Christ and his Apostles taught what Reason can he give us why the like Instance should not be as good against an Argument for Tradition's being the Way Tradition it seems is so precious a thing with these men that Experience is nothing in comparison of any Argument that they have advanced to defend it but the Scripture is a thing of so little worth seeing it favours them so little that Experience or any thing else is thought enough to shew the Folly of trusting to it But to let this pass the force of his Argument is this If any Men can be found who wrest or misinterpret Scripture then can it not be the Way to know what Christ and his Apostles taught Now to find men wresting the Scripture he needed not have sought amongst Presbyterians and Socinians he might have met with Instances enow amongst Popes and Councils But for the validity of the Consequence he must yet seek a little farther or get a Decree of some new Council to make it good tho this will not do his Work neither for 't is granted us that the same Infallible Authority which by a bare Declaration can make an Article of Faith may be mistaken in the Arguments it useth to prove it so And indeed this Argument proves nothing but that he has no good Opinion of the Scripture For must a Rule be no good Rule because some who use it misunderstand it and abuse it Must a Way be a wrong Way because some that take it will not keep it In short till it be proved that God hath left such a Way or Rule as no man can possibly err out of it mistake it or abuse it and that it is not enough that he hath left us such a Way or Rule as men may understand and observe if they be not wanting to themselves it will not follow that the Scripture's Letter in the Sense we have own'd it is not the Way tho not only Presbyterians and Socinians but the greater number of Mankind should own it and yet differ about fundamental Points contained in it no more than it follows that because we see men misinterpret and break good Laws daily therefore those Laws are unintelligible or cannot be kept and must be thought insufficient to shew them what the Lawgiver expects from them Yet if this Instance in Presbyterians and Socinians be not a sufficient Proof that Scripture is not the way left us by God to know the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles you must expect no other in this unanswerable discourse for all that follows is but two Therefores and one Conclusion twice repeated as you here see IV. Therefore Scripture's Letter interpretable by private Iudgments is not the way left by God to know surely what Christ and his Apostles taught or surely to arrive at right Faith. And again V. Therefore they who take only that way cannot by it arrive surely at right Faith since 't is impossible to arrive at the end without the means or way that leads to it And so you have an unanswerable Discourse Is this the Thing the Mountain has at last brought forth to send us home a Laughing Is this the Man that undertakes to read Logick to the D. of P. What trifling is this in him who pretends to so much care of Souls Thus he should have argued to have made sure work God hath left us some Rule which no man can possibly misunderstand or abuse But Scripture Letter is not such a Rule as no man can possibly misunderstand or abuse Therefore The Scriptures Letter is not the Rule which God hath left us Had we now denied the Minor in this Syllogism then his instance of Presbyterians and Socinians would have done him good Service But if we had chanced to have denied the Major as in all likelyhood we should have done he had been at an utter loss as we shall clearly see now we come to consider how he handles his own Rule viz. Tradition The next Question is How it may appear that the Church of Rome is Infallible To prove she is he will grant us to be his part if he think it need any proof as I question whether he doth or no. For page 12 he tells us It is vain to talk against one Infallibility unless we will set up another An Infallibility he supposeth there must be among men and then the old Argument must take place that seeing no other pretends to it but the Roman Catholicks it must be among them we must therefore either prove it to be with us or in vain shall we deny it to be with them whether they prove it or no for some where it must be But now suppose we deny