Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	christian_a	great_a	part_n	3,442	5	4.1248	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59860	The protestant resolution of faith being an answer to three questions : I. How far we must depend on the authority of the church for the true sense of Scripture? II. Whether a visible succession from Christ to this day makes a church, which has this succession, an infallible interpreter of Scripture, and whether no church, which has not this succession, can teach the true sense of Scripture? III. Whether the Church of England can make out such a visible succession?	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1683 (1683)	Wing S3332; ESTC R22228	24,360	46

there is in the Premises The only use I shall make of it at present is this That we can at least be as certain of the meaning of Scripture as the Papists are that their Church is infallible for they can be no more infallibly assured of this than we are of our interpretations of Scripture and therefore if the diversity of Opinions about the sense of Scriptures proves that we cannot be certain what the true Sense of it t is the same Argument proves that they cannot be certain that their Church is infallible because this is not only doubted but absolutely denied by the greatest part of the Christian World and was never thought of by the best and purest Ages of it So that this Argument proves too much and recoils upon themselves like a Gun which is over-charged and if for their own sakes they will grant that we may be certain of some things which are as confidently denied and disputed by others then the diversity of Opinions in the Church is no Argument that we cannot be certain of our Religion but only teaches us greater Caution and Diligence and Honesty in our inquiries after Truth 3. These Divisions and Heresies that are in the Christian Church are no better Argument against the truth and certainty of our Religion than the diversities of Religions that are in the World are against the truth of Christianity The whole World is far enough from being Christian great part of it are Jews or Pagans or Mahumetanes still and this is as good an Argument to prove the uncertainty of all Religions as the different Parties and Professions of Christians are to prove that we cannot be certain what the true Christian Church nor what true Christianity is The Gospel of our Saviour was not designed to offer any force or violence to mens Faith or Understanding no more than to their Wills Were there such an irresistible and compulsory Evidence in the Gospel that wherever it were Preach'd it should be impossible for any man though never so wicked and ill disposed to continue an Infidel or to prove a Heretick Faith would be no greater a Virtue than forc'd Obedience and Compliance is The Gospel has Evidence enough to Convince honest Minds and is plain enough to be understood by those who are honest and teachable and therefore has its Effects upon those who are Curable which is all that it was designed for Those who will not believe may continue Infidels and those who will not understand may fall into Errors and believe a Lye and yet there is Evidence enough to Convince and Plainness enough to Instruct well disposed minds and certainty enough in each to be the foundation of a Divine Faith The sum is this Though the Instructions of the Church are a very good means for the understanding of the sense of Scripture yet they are not the only means the Holy Scripture is a very intelligible Book in such matters as are absolutely necessary to Salvation and could we suppose that a man who had never heard of a Church should have the use of the Bible in a Language which he understood by a diligent reading of it he might understand enough to be saved 2. If by Church is meant any particular Church as suppose the Roman Catholick Church or the Church of the present Age it is absolutely false to say that the Church in this sense is always a sure and safe means of understanding the Scripture What has been Unversally believed by all Christian Churches in all Ages or at least by all Churches of the first and purest Ages of Christianity which were nearest the times of the Apostles and might be presumed best to understand the sense of the Apostles in the great Articles of our Faith is a very safe Rule for the interpretation of Scripture and the general Practice of those Primitive Apostolick Churches in matters of Government and Discipline before they were corrupted by worldly Ambition and secular Interest is a very safe Rule for our Practice also and this is the Rule whereby our Church is reformed and to which we appeal There are but three things necessary to be understood by Christians either the Articles of Faith or the Rules of Life or the external Order and Discipline of the Church and Administration of Religious Offices 1. As for the Rules of Life all those Duties which we owe to God and Men they are so plainly contained in the Holy Scriptures that no honest man can mistake them I suppose the Church of Rome her self will not pretend that there is any need of an infallible Interpreter to teach men what is meant by Loving God with all our Heart and our Neighbour as our selves 2. As for the Articles of Faith those which are fundamental to the Christian Religion and which every Christian ought to believe are so plain in Scripture that every honest and unprejudiced man may understand them but however as I observed before we govern our selves in these things by the received Doctrine of the Catholick Church of the first and purest Ages and if this be not a safe Rule we can be certain of nothing And what the Catholick Faith was we learn from those short summaries of Faith which were universally owned by all Catholick Churches For what we now call the Apostles Creed was very anciently received in all Churches with some little variety indeed of Words and Phrase but without any difference of sense and the Catholick Faith was not only preserved in such short Summaries and Creeds which were as liable to be perverted by Hereticks as the Scriptures themselves but was more largely explained in the Writings of the ancient Fathers and though this will not inable us to understand every Phrase and Expression of Scripture but we must use other means to do that as Skill in the Original Languages a knowledge of ancient Customs and ancient Disputes to which the Apostles frequently allude a consideration of the Scope and Design of the place c. Yet the Catholick Faith received and owned by the Primitive Church is so far a Rule as it directs us to Expound Scripture to a true Catholick sense As St. Paul commands the Romans that those who prophesie should Prophesie according to the proportion of Faith Rom. 12. 6. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Analogie of Faith That is that in the interpreting the Scriptures of the Old Testament they should expound them to a Christian sense according to those Doctrines of the Christian Faith which he had taught them and this was a safe Rule for expounding the Old Testament which contained the Types and Figures and Prophesies of the Gospel-State And thus in expounding the new Testament now it is committed to writing we must Prophesie according to the Analogie of Faith or as he commands Timothy in his Preaching Hold fast the form of sound words which thou hast heard from me 2 Tim. 1. 13. It seems the Apostle had given him a form of

THE PROTESTANT RESOLUTION OF FAITH Being an Answer to Three Questions I. How far we must depend on the Authority of the Church for the true sense of Scripture II. Whether a visible Succession from Christ to this day makes a Church which has this Succession an infallible Interpreter of Scripture and whether no Church which has not this Succession can teach the true sense of Scripture III. Whether the Church of England can make out such a visible Succession LONDON Printed for F. Gardiner at the White-horse in Ludgate-street 1683. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THese Papers which are here presented to thee were writ for the use of a private Person and by the Advice of some Friends are now made Publick We find how busie the Romish Emissaries are to corrupt our People and think our selves equally concerned to Antidote them against Popery and Fanaticism Two extreams equally dangerous to the Government of Church and State in these Kingdoms both in their Principles and Practices and both of them very great Corruptions of the Christian Religion and very dangerous to mens Souls Some of our Clergy have already been so charitable to our Dissenters as to warn them of their danger and by the Strength and Evidence of Scripture and Reason to Convince them of their mistakes and I pray God forgive those men and turn their Hearts who will not contribute so much to their own Conviction and Satisfaction as diligently and impartially to read and consider what is so charitably offered to them Ignorance and mistake may excuse men who have no opportunities of knowing better but such willful and resolved Ignorance which bars up mens minds against all means of better Information will as soon damn them as sins against knowledge And now it might justly be thought want of Charity to those of the Roman Communion should we take no care at all of them nay want of Charity to those of our own Communion and to Dissenters themselves who are daily assaulted by the busie Factors for Rome For the Disputes against the Church of Rome as well as against Dissenters are for the most part too Learned and too Voluminous for the instruction of ordinary People and therefore some short and plain Discourses about the principal Matters in dispute between us is the most effectual way we can take to confirm men in their Religion and preserve them from the crafty Insinuations of such as lie in wait to deceive Some few Attempts which have been already made of that kind give me some hope that several other Tracts will follow that the ruine of the Church of England if God shall please ever to permit such a thing whether by Popery or Fanaticism may not be charged upon our neglect to instruct People better Some Persons it seems whose Talent lies more in censuring what others do than in doing any good themselves are pleased to put some sinister Constructions on this Design as it is impossible to design any thing so well but men of ill minds who know not what it means to do good for goods sake shall be able to find some bad name for it Some guess that we now write against Popery only to play an after-Game and to regain the Favour and good Opinion of Dissenters which we have lost by writing against them But I know not that any man has lost their Favour by it nor that any man values their Favour for any other reason than to have the greater advantage of doing them good If so good a work as confuting the Errors of the Church of Rome will give the Dissenters such a good Opinion of us as to make them more impartially consider what has been writ to perswade them to Communion with the Church of England I know no reason any man has to be ashamed to own it though it were part of his design but whether it is or not is more than I know I dare undertake for those Persons I am acquainted with that they neither value the favour nor fear the displeasure either of Fanaticks or Papists but yet heartily desire to do good to them both But there is a more mischievous suggestion than this that the design of such Papers is only to raise a new cry and noise about Popery and to alarm the People and disturb the Government with new Fears and Jealousies Truly if I thought this would be the effect of it I would burn my Papers presently for I am sure the Church of England will get nothing by a Tumultuary and Clamorous Zeal against the Church of Rome and I had much rather suffer under Popery than contribute any thing towards raising a Popular Fury to keep it out We profess our selves as irreconcileable Enemies to Popery as we are to Fanaticism and desire that all the World may know it but we will never Rebell nor countenance any Rebellion against our lawful Soveraign to keep out either we leave such Principles and Practices to Papists and Fanaticks But when we find our People Assaulted by the Agents of Rome and do not think our selves secure from Popish Designs we think it our Duty to give them the best instructions we can to preserve them from such Errors as we believe will destroy their Souls and cannot but wonder that any men who are as much concerned to take care of Souls as we are should think this a needless or a scandalous undertaking I wish such men would speak out and tell us plainly what they think of Popery themselves If they think this Design not well managed by those who undertake it it would more become them to commend the Design and do it better themselves I know no man but would very gladly be excused as having other work enough to imploy his time but yet I had rather spend my vacant minutes this way than in censuring the good that other men do while I do none my self The Words of the Paper which was sent to me are these IT is my Opinion that the infinite Goodness of our Legislator has left to us a means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures which is the Church Now I judge this Church must be known to be the true Church by its continual visible Succession from Christ till our Days But I doubt whether or no the Protestant Church can make out this continual visible Succession and desire to be informed ANSWER THAT Christ has left a means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Holy Scriptures I readily grant or else it had been to no purpose to have left us the Scriptures But the latter Clause is very ambiguous for the meaning may either be that we may understand by the Scriptures which is the Church or that the Church is the means whereby we must understand the true sense and meaning of the Scripture The first is a true Protestant Principle and therefore I presume not intended by this Objector For how we should know that there is any Church without

the Information we receive by the Scripture I cannot Divine and yet we may as easily know that there is a Church as we can know which is the true Church without the Scripture For there is no other means of knowing either that there is a Church or what this Church is or what are the Properties of a True and Sound and Orthodox Church but by Revelation and we have no other Revelation of this but what is contained in the Holy Scriptures As for the Second That the Church is the means of knowing the true sense and meaning of the Scriptures it is in some sense very true in some sense very false 1. It is in some sense true and acknowledged by all sober Protestants As 1. If by the Church we understand the Universal Church of all Ages as we receive the Scriptures themselves handed down by them to our time so whatever Doctrines of Faith have been universally received by them is one of the best means to find out the true sense of Scripture For the nearer they were to the times of the Apostles the more likely they were to understand the true sense of their Writings being instructed by the Apostles themselves in the meaning of them And thus we have a certain Rule to secure us from all dangerous Errors in expounding Scripture For the great and fundamental Doctrines of the Christian Religion are as plainly contained in the Writings of the first Fathers of the Church and as unanimously asserted by them as the Authority of the Scriptures themselves and therefore though we have not a Traditionary Exposition of every particular Text of Scripture yet we have of the great and fundamental Doctrines of Faith and therefore must never expound Scripture so as to contradict the known and avowed sense of the Catholick Church And this course the Church of England takes she receives the Definitions of the four first General Councils and requires her Bishops and Clergy to Expound the Scriptures according to the profest Doctrines of those first and purest Ages of the Church 2. We ought to pay great deference to and not lightly and wantonly oppose the Judgment and Authority of the particular Church wherein we live when her Expositions of Scripture do not evidently and notoriously contradict the sense of the Catholick Church especially of the first and best Ages of it For it does not become private men to oppose their Sentiments and Opinions to the Judgment of the Church unless in such plain Cases as every honest man may be presumed a very Competent Judge in the matter and no Church nor all the Churches in the World have such Authority that we must renounce our Senses and deny the first principles of Reason to follow them with a blind and implicite Faith And thus the Church that is the Sense and Judgment of the Catholick Church is a means for the finding out the true sense of Scripture and though we may mistake the sense of some particular Texts which the Romanists themselves will not deny but that even infallible Councils may do who tho' they are infallible in their Conclusions yet are not always so in the Arguments or Mediums whether drawn from Scripture or Reason whereby they prove them yet it is Morally impossible we should be guilty of any dangerous mistake while we make the Catholick Doctrine of the Church our Rule and in other matters follow the Judgment and submit to the Authority of the Church wherein we live which is as absolutely necessary as Peace and Order and good Government in the Church 2. But then this is very false if we mean that the Church is the only means of finding out the true sense of the Scriptures or if by the Church we understand any particular Church as I suppose this Person does the Roman Catholick that is the particular universal Church of Rome or if we mean the Church of the present Age or by Means understand such a Decretory Sentence as must determine our Faith and command our Assent that we must seek for no other Reason of our Faith but the Authority of the Church in expounding Scriptures I shall discourse something briefly of each of these 1. To say that the Church is the only Means to find out the true sense of Scripture is very false and absurd For 1. This supposes the Holy Scriptures to be a very unintelligible Book which is a great reproach to the Holy Spirit by which it was Indited that he either could not or would not speak intelligibly to the World 2. This is a direct Contradiction to those Exhortations of Christ and his Apostles to study the Scriptures which were made to private men and therefore necessarily supposes that the Holy Scriptures are to be understood as other Writings are by considering the Propriety of the Words and Language wherein they are written the Scope and Design of the place and such other means as honest and studious Inquirers use to find out the meaning of any other Book 3. If the Scriptures are so unintelligible that an honest man cannot find out the meaning of them without the infallible interpretation of the Church I would desire to know whether Christ and his Apostles Preach'd intelligibly to their Hearers If they did not to what purpose did they Preach at all By what means were men Converted to the Faith If they did how come these Sermons to be so unintelligible now they are written which were so intelligible when they were spoken For the Gospels contain a plain History of what Christ did and of what he said and the Apostles wrote the same things to the Churches when they were absent which they Preach'd to them when they were present and we reasonably suppose that they as much designed that the Churches should understand what they Wrote as what they Preach'd and therefore that they generally used the same form of words in their writing and in their Preaching And this makes it a great Riddle how one should be very plain and easie to be understood and the other signifie nothing without an infallible Interpreter 4. If the Scriptures be in themselves unintelligible I would desire to know how the Church comes to understand them If by any humane means together with the ordinary Assistances of the Divine Spirit then they are to be understood and then why may not every Christian in proportion to his Skill in Languages and in the Rules of Reason and Discourse understand them also If the Church cannot understand the Scriptures by any humane means but only by Inspiration for there is no Medium between these two to what purpose were the Scriptures written For we might as well have learnt the will of God from the Church without the Scriptures as with them God could have immediately revealed his will to the Church without a written Rule as well as reveal the meaning of that written Rule which it seems has no signification at all till the Church by Inspiration gives an Orthodox