Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	doctrine_n	prove_v	3,310	5	5.9535	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42453	The papists bait or their usual method in gaining proselites answered by Charles Gataker ... ; to which is added, a letter of the Lord Viscount Falkland to the same gentleman, much to this present purpose.	Gataker, Charles, 1614 or 15-1680.; Falkland, Lucius Cary, Viscount, 1610?-1643.	1674 (1674)	Wing G308; ESTC R9378	63,487	89

as the giving of the Eucharist to Infants was once held by D. Innocentius 3. as a Doctrine of Faith and a Tradition of the Church but after 600 years practise wore out insensibly and hath been condemned by the Councils of Constance and Trent with an Anathema and to increases also and therefore their Religion is indeed Irregular But concerning Traditions as the word signifies particular points of beliefe or practise in Christian Religion these 3 Rules are worth Observation 1. Whatsoever is offered to us or enjoyned to us in belief or practise under colour of being a Tradition if it be repugnant to the written word of God or destructive of Gods precepts ought to be rejected by Christians Christs reason together with the refutation of Pharisaical Traditions confirms the Truth of this Rule 2. Whatsoever is obtruded upon us under the pretext of being a Tradition that is neither clearly delivered in nor fairly by good consequence deduced out of Gods written word needs not and ought not to be received as a matter necessary to Salvation The manner of conveniency or necessity wherein things which are strangers to Scripture are held is carefully to be taken notice of For several practises have been in early times introduced under shew of conveniency as the Apostle says some bodily exercises carry a plausible shew of wisdome which having once obtained credit by the favourable commendation of eminent persons and custome have been in succession of time adorned with the Title of Tradition and grown up from being thought convenient to be accounted and prest as necessary to Salvation This danger is to be prevented by circumspection And the perfection of Scripture as it is a compleat Rule of Religion proves the truth and usefulness of this second Rule 3. Doctrines of Faith and divine Worship being secured by Gods written word from intrusions of humane inventions if any Rites or Ceremonies can be proved by fair Testimonies of Antiquity to have been practised by the Church universal of primitive times and are still continued by the Authority of Church Governors as tending to edification or the free and open profession of our Faith whether they be called Traditions or no are not lightly to be rejected much less violently opposed by private Christians Thus much for Traditions as meaning Matters of Religion delivered down from former times to posterity But Tradition often bears another sence and is taken formally for the manner of conveyance of matters that concern Religion which is partly oral partly practical The joynt agreement of Doctrine and practice continued by succession of one Age after another whilst one generation derives to another the whole body of Religion is now called Tradition and of late is asserted by Papists in this Kingdom to be the only Principle and Rule of Faith and affirmed to be of its own nature infallible and incorruptible and to be evident by its own light And thus the order of inquiring for the ancient dayes and old wayes is quite inverted for now we need only as they teach mark what the present Church of Rome doth and because Tradition cannot fail nor vary therefore the Popes Court at this day with the Church Altars Pictures Wafers mangled Eucharist adoration of the Virgin Mary Invocation of Angels and Saints offering of a real Sacrifice for Souls in Purgatory and offering of the Masse to God for the honour of Saints is a true Glasse wherein you may see the face of the Church when St. Peter sate Bishop of Rome This is the aim of the Querists Discourse to set up this Tradition instead of Scripture If you will not believe him you may choose because he tels you plainly it is not his work to prove any thing But I will give you a little touch of proving the vanity of this pretence The experience of all Ages before the flood after the flood in the Jewish Nation and in the Christian Churches doth manifestly shew that the derivation of Religion from mouth to ear from hand to hand from Fathers to children from Priests to Successors from Age to Age this course of Tradition which is opposed unto and preferred before the Scriptural way of preserving and propagating and recovering of Religion hath been and may be quickly corrupted often interrupted and hath suffered notorious changes and may do at any time when sloth and sensuality and neglect of the light and vanity of mind set forward by the Devils malice and cunning make men weary of the true Religion But I will add another Argument to another purpose St. Paul by word of mouth taught the Thessalonians what he thought not expedient to write to wit what hindered the Man of sin from being revealed Here was a matter of consequence that concerned the Church delivered by word of mouth which if it had been written as well as that Character of the Man of sin the fame Scripture which preserved and conveyed the one would have also secured the knowledge of the other to posterity If now an eminent Church failed in deriving one point of Doctrine to after Ages which with little difficulty might have been kept and taught but is now lost for not being recorded in Scripture what likelihood is there that the whole body of Christian Religion was or could be traduced entire and pure meerly by oral Tradition without dependance on the Scripture for 1600 years For my part I think still that as the Church of the Jews were either more or less pure and their Religion more or less Hourished in truth and sincerity as the Governors gave heed more or less to the light of the Law written in like manner according to the degrees of Pastors attendance to the holy Scriptures the Tradition of Christianity hath varied Therefore the Scriptures are the only fixed and stable Rule of Religion 7. Lastly Let us allow the Rule of Vincentius Lirinensis Quod ubique quod semper quod ab omnibus non est erratum sed traditum That which hath been taught every where always and by all Pastors of the Church is not an error but a true Tradition If we make Antiquity Universality and Consent twisted together the measure of our faith for certain we shall have a very short Creed and that large Assumentum that new piece of Italian stuff which was woven in the Shop at Trent and by the Popes stitching is added to the old garment of the Church the Constantinopolitan Creed must of necessity be pared off and thrown away But the main thing to be considered at present is the difficulty of applying this Rule for the examination of the Doctrines which pretend to Tradition and the tryal of the Spirits even of all Doctrines before we trust any Teacher is alwayes an act of Christian prudence so long as the world is pestered with false Prophets For can you or any reasonable man imagin that Universal Tradition of the Catholick Church is more evident in it self and more conspicuous to learned

more necessary for Christians then now Little Children keep your selves warily from Idols And Christs Admonition concerns us nearly Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees Since Papists are thus manifestly the heirs and successors of the Scribes and Pharisees let all that love their own souls decline the snares of these travellers to make Proselytes lest while they think to find a new way to Heaven which is called Tradition they be made the children of Hell Here indeed we have set one snare of the Devil before thine eyes the Papists first set it to take Christians captive and set it in secret in chambers whispering in the dark but now what was spoken in the dark and in the closet is brought forth to be examined by the light and I hope that this stratagem of our enemies is defeated by being discovered Indeed it is a happy ignorance not at all to know the depths of Satan but since God hath in his wise and just providence let loose Satan amongst us who can transform himself into an Angel of light and transfigure's his messengers into the Apostles of Christ who spare no pains to vent his delusions we had need to pray heartily that God will be our Sun to enlighten us with the saving beams of his heavenly truth which shine in his written Word and our shield our shelter our shadow to secure us from the snare of the Fowler from the pestilence that walketh in darkness and the destruction the bold faced Devil that wasteth at noon-day And that the Christian Reader may be provided of an Antidote against this noysom pestilence and that he may both see and escape the deceit and destruction of this snare is the end of this publication which God make prosperous to his Glory Amen C. G. First SECTION Containing the PAPISTS QUERIES Five Queries propounded in Religion _1 WHether there is not in all ages a visible Catholick Church 2. Whether out of the visible Catholick Church any can attain Salvation 3. Seeing there are now very many Professions amongst Christians which give themselves out to be either the holy Catholick Church or part of it I desire to know by designation which amongst them all is now the holy Catholick Church 4. Whether the Holy Catholick Church so designed can teach her Children any error as matter of Christian Faith either destructive of Salvation or endangering the attaining of it 5. If the said Catholick Church can teach errors as matter of Christian Faith how any Christian can be infallibly certain that She hath not taught some error in determining the Canon of Scripture and in teaching some Book or Books to be the word of God which is not so and then what certainty any one can have that all those Books are Gods word which Gods Church delivers to be his word A Categorical Answer to these Queries is demanded Second Section containing the Divines Answer 1. THe Queries answered by propounding others reflecting upon the State of the Jewish Church of God to which God had made as ample promises of its continuance till Shiloh came in humility as he made of the Christian Churches perpetuity till the same Saviour come in glory 1. Whether according to the veracity of Gods promises there were not then to be a Visible Church of the Jewes 2. Seeing the Kingdom and Church of the ten tribes pretended to the truth and service of God as well as the House of David with the Priesthood at Hierusalem and even that Kingdom and Priesthood were sometime infected with gross Idolatry and that publickly set up and erected I desire to know by what designation a Jew that was truly inquisitive of the way and means of Salvation should then discern and discover that Church in which he might find it and out of which he could not since as Christ himself affirms John 4. 22. Salvation was then of the Jews 3. Whether the Visible Society of the Jewish Nation that was in covenant with God could not teach her Children any error as matter of Religion that was corruptive of the same and destructive of Salvation 4. If the said Church could teach such errors how any Jew could be infallibly certain that the living Oracles committed to that people were not corrupted or lying legends obstructed under pretence of Holy Scripture 5. If God in that Oeconomie did preserve the Holy Scriptures which were to be the standing Rule of Religion to which private persons were to have recourse for their direction to secure themselves from the seducement of erring Guides Esa 8. 20. and 9. 16. compared and also the Instrument of publick Authority for reformation of a corrupted Church why may not the Scriptures of the New Testament added to the Oracles of the Old be sufficient to make us wise unto Salvation and to enable them who have their senses exercised therein to discern between good and evil If the Querist can frame a good Answer that might satisty the conscience of a Jew then mutatis mutandis the same will be an Answer to his own Queries II. Take this Categorical Answer to the said Queries 1. There was is and shall be till the worlds end ae Catholick Church that in every age is visible by the profession of Christianity to the persons then living 2. Out of this Catholick Church ordinarily there is no Salvation 3. That is the Holy Catholick Church which professeth that One Holy Catholick Faith once for all delivered unto the Saints whereof the Holy Scriptures are the Conservative and Rule 4. That Holy Catholick Church teaches no error destructive of Salvation 5. Therefore cannot so long as it continues so abuse the world by imposing false or forged Scriptures upon it Quere further What reason now from hence can be deduced why any rational person should desert the Church of England that adheres to the acknowledged Rule of Faith the Scriptures and enter into the present Church of Rome which at the threshold requires him to renounce his Senses Reason and Charity and obliges him to the belief of a Creed composed a few years ago at Trent which we desire the Papists to prove was the Catholick Faith of the truly antient and Catholick Church Third Section containing the Papists Reply N. 1. A Categorical Answer to the Queries concerning the Jewish Church I Admit the promises of God here mentioned respectively to Jews and Christians To the first I answer affirmatively The Second commits a fallacy of Ignoratio elenchi The Queries about the Christian Church to which these ought to correspond proceed not upon any particular Kingdom no nor upon any particular Church nor on every one or any particular mumber of the Priests or Pastors of the Church but upon the representative Catholick Church in a full and lawful meeting of the chief Pastors to teach the Church diffusive what she is to believe as matter of Faith or to reject as errors in Faith when questions arise about

or to the ending of frivolous Disputes The Rule of Faith is that publick standard of Christian Religion which includes things of belief and practice both in the service of God and also in conversation with men The adequate Rule of Faith for Christians is the Word of God revealed by Christ or the Gospel which was first preached and then written by the instinct of the same Spirit Rom. 10. 8. 1 Pet. 1. 25 The Gospel in this sence doth include in it the whole Scripture of the Old Testament the divine Authority whereof it affirms and confirms by the harmony of both This Rule is one and immoveable and so entirely delivered by the Apostles that it is uncapable of addition and the attempt of addition or mutilation or any corruption makes the falsifier of this Rule liable to a dreadfull Anothema denounced by St. Paul Gal. 1. 8 9. Now because the holy Scriptures in their fulness contain this Gospel therefore they are usually called by the ancient Fathers both Greek and Latin the straight unerring unswerving Rule of Faith that can deceive none and needs no correction This Rule contains and like a Light holds forth the object of our Faith and is not the less a Rule of Faith because this holy Scripture comprehends many other things of great use for our instruction and spiritual delight as a Carpenters Rule justly carries that name and serves the turn of measuring stuff and work though it be set out with ornamental and useful Tables You may now apprehend what we mean by the Rule of Faith But the Means of Faith signifie another thing For whatsoever by its nature and efficacy doth serve to bring man to the knowledge right understanding and full assurance of the saving Truth comes under this Notion the Means of Faith The holy Scripture as it conveys unto us the Gospel which it contains and preserves is indeed a principal instrument of God to work that faith which is his gift Moreover God hath in his wise government of the World and his Church appointed many means which according to the course of his providence contribute to the working of faith in our hearts There are some outward whereof the chief is the publick Ministry which is compared to a Candlestick that holds forth the light to the houshold of faith And not only Pastors are the means of faith but also Parents and Masters of Families and every good Christian which is as Christ says of his Disciples in general for the twelve Apostles were not then selected out of the multitude the light and salt of the earth by communicating the Word unto others are very often the happy propagators of the faith Besides men some things as Books are instrumental to promote our knowledge and faith There are some inward means of faith as our sense and rat onal faculties in the exercise whereof if there be not an actual certainty allowed the whole frame of civil society will be dissolved into confusion and the foundation of Religion will sink since faith is a reasonable service and was first built upon their sight which were eye-witnesses of the Gospel and now comes by hearing Rom. 10. 17. which two senses are the instruments of Discipline Neither will I exclude Oral or Practical Tradition from being a means to propagate the faith But this is so slippery a way so changeable uncertain and liable to corruption and forgery as appears by the superstitions of Heathens and Jews for the divine Authority of all which Tradition was pretended that without Scripture to support it Tradition is too weak to hold up faith Thus it appears that the Rule of faith can be but one and it must be common to all as the faith and salvation are common and it must have the unmoveable certainty of a Rock for man to build on And this firmness you may call if you please Infallibility for this property of God who is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1. 2. Heb. 5. 18. can neither be deceived nor deceive is communicated to his Word which is the Truth it self and therefore the Rule of faith But the term Infallible is a Scholastical Novelty which neither Scripture nor the ancient Fathers used to attribute unto the Church but now it makes such a noise in the world with the incessant ringing of Papists that it stupifies many mens senses and understandings But the Means of faith are manifold which where God himself by his Spirit manages them are effectual to beget a saving faith though many of them are far short of Infallibility though Papists in their confused way of talking require Infallibility in the Ground Rule and Means of Faith equally 2. Again Pray note his unprosperous fraud in the abatement of the Scriptures perfection and all sufficiency to teach us the whole mystery of godliness without setting us to seek out elsewhere for a remnant of faith or an unwritten Word For he confesses the Scriptures to be a profitable but a partial Rule which contains many of the most important points of Religion clearly and expresly enough to satisfie any capacity but wilful pertinacy and for the rest which are not thus expressed it refers us to the Church and the Governors thereof c. For certain the Monarchy of the Pope and the Infallibility of the Church of Rome are the fundamental stones of the Romish Religion and if they could be proved true are of the most importance to the ease of conscience and the peace of Christendom in that sluggish and servile way wherein Papists would lead us and therefore it is no wonder that Papists who are true to their interest contend earnestly for these that are such points as being once admitted they facilitate the reception of all other Doctrines whatsoever Now let the Papists shew these two clearly expressed in Scripture or shew us a good reason why the Apostle should have a greater mind to tell the after-Ages of the Church of his Cloak and Parchments then to inform them of those points which according to their opinion are necessary to preserve the Church in peace especially then and there when St. Paul had it in his design to recount all the grounds motives and means of Christians keeping the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and yet hath left out the Headship of the Pope and the Magistery of the Infallible Guide the Roman Church What reason imaginable can be given why Christ and his Apostles should not have an equal kindness for all the important points of Religion and an equal care to conserve their memory by writing or indeed what need was there of writing any thing at all of particular points when one Reference of us to the Church for all would have served the turn would not one precept written of Ask the Church that is the governors of it or instead of Search the Scriptures Inquire for the universal Tradition of Christendome have been convenient and sufficient for our