Selected quad for the lemma: father_n
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B02310
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An answer, to a little book call'd Protestancy to be embrac'd or, A new and infallible method to reduce Romanists from popery to Protestancy
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Con, Alexander.
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1686
(1686)
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Wing C5682; ESTC R171481
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80,364
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170
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say the Bible doth not contain all things necessary to Salvation we do not say that the Word of God does not contain all things necessary to Salvation because the Word of God is partly written partly unwritten Put these two together and you have all things necessary to Salvation Nay the Scripture alone has partly Explicitly partly Implicitly in as much as it sends us to the Church all things necessary to Salvation When we say that the Scripture is not absolutely But in some places obscure in others clear what do we say more then Protestants who teach that the Scripture is an Interpreter of it self if you compare the less clear passage with another or others more clear is not this to say that the less clear is obscure which obscurity is taken away by the clearness of the other Neither do we say that the Scripture is Imperfect when we say it is only a part of our Rule of Faith no more then we say the Almighty Power of God is Imperfect when we say 't is only a part of his Infinite Perfection As we do not say that God is Finit because he is a part of this Couple contained in Christ-God and Man or by which we say God and Man are two viz. natures SECT VI. The Scripture is not known to us to be the Word of God without the Tradition of the Church and therefore is not our sole Rule of Faith WE acknowledge the Holy Scriptures to be our Rule of Faith but not alone we believe them to be profitable to teach us in Justice that the Man of God may be perfect 2 Tim. 3. v. 16. But not sole sufficient to make him perfect We seem sayes our Adversary to doubt of the Originals of Scripture since we ask a Protestant how he knows it is the Word of God As if the Air Simplicity Majesty and way of Expression proper to God alone did not show this sufficiently as the King's Letters are known by their style and Royal Seal Answer We are so far from doubting of the Scriptures being the Word of God that we believe it with an Act of Divine Faith But we have asked and ask without any Answer that has so much as a jot of Reason by what Principle they will prove to us that the Scripture is the Word of God If besides the Scripture there is no Rule of Faith Not by the Scripture it self because self Testimony is none were it Written in any place of it that this Bible containing so many and such Books is the Word of GOD for the Question returns how know you that this Testimony is the Word of GOD Now to say that she Scripture shows it self is frivolous For I ask what 's that to say the Scripture shows it self Is it that by Reading it rises in the mind of a Man who has a well disposed understanding this apprehension The Scripture is the Word of God By which apprehension he sees it is so before he Judges or believes If so then he does not believe the Word of God to be the Word of God mov'd by the Word of God but by this apprehension which if you say is the Word of God then you admit a Word of God which is not Written and yet to you a Rule of Faith and so you have another Immediate Rule of Faith than the Written Word of God Again that apprehension and inward Testimony of the mind for which it s believed that the Scripture is the Word of GOD and that it shows it self does it rise from this that the Simplicity Majesty and way of Expression move Men to Judge that the Scripture is the Word of God But seeing all these particulars come from such Words Instituted by Men to signifie and that the more or less Majesty of the Style in a Speech or Sentence rises from a certain material placing and disposing of Words among themselves the whole thing is natural and so not the Word of God Next that Simplicity and Majesty of Style and what you please more is not so in every part of Scripture that I am bound for them to believe that that part is the Word of God For I pray what Air Simplicity or Majesty of Style is in the begining of the Gospel of St. Matthew when it s said there Abraham begot Isaac and Isaac begot Iacob what do you find more there then you would find in those same Words written in an Author not Sacred as in Ioseph the Iew Now if you ask us why we believe the Scripture to be the Word of God We Answer because an Infallible Tradition passing through all Ages and always believing it to be the Word of God has conveyed it to our Hands and that General approv'd Councils have confirm'd it by their Sacred Decrees and uncontrolable Authority as often as any Controversie arose among the Faithful either concerning certain Books or the certainty of the Tradition it self If you say you make use of this same Tradition of all Christians hitherto believing it to be the Word of God as a motive of Credibility to you that it is the Word of God I Answer You may but first by claiming to this you leave your own Principle of denying Tradition Next tho' this Universal Tradition be to you a motif of Credibility that the Bible is the Word of God as to the Letter yet you have none for the sense in which you take it Subsect This passage search the Scriptures John chap. 5. makes nothing for Protestants TO prove that the Scripture is the sole Rule of Faith at last our Adversary brings these Words of CHRIST to the Iews Search the Scriptures John cap. 5. v. 39. Answer You must know that there our Saviour was proving to the Iews his God-head or Divinity And he proves it First by the Testimony of St. Iohn Baptist v. 32. and lets them understand how worthy a Person Iohn was of Credit with them Secondly he proves it by his Works v. 36. Thirdly by the Testimony of his Eternal Father viz. This is my Son in whom I am well pleas'd Matth. 3. v. 17. Take notice that CHRIST for their Rule in believing his God-head did not fend them first to the Scripture but to the Testimony of Iohn his Miraculous Works and the Testimony of his Father and last of all he saies Search the Scriptures as if he should have said if you will not acknowledge me to be God for these great Arguments and Motives I have brought Take yet one more which is that since you think you have Eternal Life in the Scriptures Search them and there you will find that I am God because the Prophets in them give Testimony of me And this was said to their Doctors not to every private Person Secondly The Word Scrutamini in Lati◠〈◊〉 Ereunate in Greek is of the presenttence of 〈◊〉 dicative mood Cyrillus takes it in the Indicative as well as of the Imperative and so signisies you do Search the Scriptures as
owed to God to a Creature Mindfull of this wonder no more that a Man who leaves God may become as void of Reason as a Calf To return then to our Foolish Israelits was that way of speaking these are thy Gods in the plural number a representation of one God in one Essence and Nature From the Golden Calf let us come to our Images they are called the Books of Ignorants but in our Adversaries Judgement ought rather to be term'd the Books of Ignorance because they are the occasion of many Errors sayes he For Example the Picture of an Old Man representing God the Father a Dove the Holy Ghost are apt to make the Ignorant sort believe they have indeed some such shape Answer VVe must then blot out of the Holy Scripture all these expressions and ways of speaking by which God is said to Heare to See to repent Gen c. 6. v. 6. Lest the Ignorant People think that God has Ears and Eyes and sorrow in his Hart as we have Now reflect that these Pictures are not representatives of God the Father or of the Holy Ghost immediatly but of an old Man and a Dove which are the Symbols of God the Father and the Holy Ghost in as much as they in some sort represent to us the destinctive perfections of those Divine Persons As the old Man is the Principle of his son and not mutualy principal'd by him so God the Father is the principle of God the Son and God the Holy Ghost and is not principal'd by them Also the puritie and fecundity of the Dove makes us more sensible of the Sanctity we are said to receave particularly from the Holy Ghost as a fountain of purity and of the fecundity of his grace brought forth in us The occasion then of Deception if there be any is not in the Images but in the things Immediatly represented by Them I hope the Zeal of our Antagonist will not be so blind on this account as to study the Extirpation of Doves and ridding the World of old Men since it is not to be thought that Christians are easily to be found of so gross an imagination as to think that the Nature or Essence of God or the Holy Ghost can be Painted out to our Eyes altho ' they may be Painted in that Figure it pleased them to appear as God appeared to Daniel with the Hairs of his Head as pure Wool Daniel 7. v. 9. And the Holy Ghost in Form of a Dove Luke 3. v. 22. SECT II. The Protestants do not Adore God in Spirit and Truth nor the R. Catholick the Cross as GOD. ALtho' our Adversary think it undeniable that Protestants Adore more than R. Catholicks in Spirit and Truth because they Adore God immediatly sayes he without having recourse to Images Yet I think I reasonably deny both parts of his proposition the first because as a Protestant to make me believe that he has Faith must prove it by his Works according to St. Iames 2. v. 18. so to perswade me that he Adores God in Spirit he must manifest it to me by his outward respect to him Shall I say that Mans Heart Adores God whose Hand does not do his duty to him Protestants do not give to God the chief Adoration which is due to him as he is above all Creatures I mean a proper Sacrifice which was ever esteemed by all and is the great Act of Religion and how shall I believe that their Spirit Adores him Self-denyals and Mortifications of the Flesh instituted and practised by the Antient Church out of a respect to God they retrench and how shall I know that in Spirit they Adore him He requires as an Homage from Men to keep his Commands saying my Yoke is easie and my Burden is light and Protestants tell him flatly they can't do it Is this to submit their Judgment to his and so in Spirit Adore him Neither do they Adore him in Truth Who knew which way God was to be truly Ador'd or according to his will before he reveal'd it Now that he has reveal'd it in the Holy Scriptures and addrest us to the Church for the understanding of this way of Adoring in these Words Matth. 18. v. 17. Who will not hear the Church let him be to the c. Since Protestants will not hear Her shall I say that doing contray to his Command they Honour him truly or in Truth Adore him When Saul sent to destroy Amalek spared the best of the spoil 1 Sam. 15. as he excus'd himself to Samuel to Sacrifice to God did he in that truly Adore God No but his own will transgressing the Command of God so Protestants taking a way of their own to serve God contrary to his Command in his Holy Word they do not truly serve him nor in Truth Adore him When our Adversary condemns our serving of God by the help of Images he condemns himself For he can't Adore God without thinking of him this thought a good will cherishes drives away others which hinder or weaken it strives to conserve it and beggs of God to continue it and so shows by all this a great respect for it And why so much respect for it Because it helps the will to move more frequently and attentively to GOD. And at last this good thought is found to be an Image for it is an Act of the understanding and every Act of the understanding is a representation of its Object and this representation is an Inâ—ge presupposing another Image more material in the Imagination And this same is all the use Romanists make of Images O but you Adore sayes he confessedly the Cross cultu latriae with that Soveraign cult belonging to God only and what can we instance in defence of our Innocency Answer This assertion is false I instance First the second Council of Nice Act. 7. Where it saies that Pictures are to be Worshiped but not with the cult of Latry which is the Worship we give to God And speaking particularly of the Cross saies our Adoration of it is only a Salutation Aspasmos and brings a number of Examples of it as Iacob is said to have Ador'd Esau Gen. 33. v. 3. And Abraham the Sons of Heth for the Field he received from them for the Burying place of Sara his Wise Gen. 23. v. 7. I instance secondly for our Innocency of this Crime the Council of Trents Words Ses 25. de Invoc Vener reliquiarum S. S. Sa. Imag. mandat Sancta Synodus c. Imagines Christi Deiparae Virginis aliorum Sanctorum in Templis presertim habendas retinendas eisque debitum honorem venerationem impertiendam non quod credatur inesse aliqua in iis divinitas vel virtus propter quam sint colendae vel quod ab eis sit aliquid petendum Vel quod fiducia in Imaginibus sit figenda vel uti olim fiebat a gentibus quae in Idolis spem suam collocabant sed quoniam honos qui eis