Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	book_n	holy_a	scripture_n	2,474	5	6.0561	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70901	The pillar and ground of truth a treatise shewing that the Roman Chvrch falsly claims to be that church, and the pillar of that truth, mentioned by S. Paul in his First epistle to Timothy, Chap. III. vers. 15, which is explained in three parts.	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.; Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1687 (1687)	Wing P833; ESTC R12795	90,521	140

he that can say but a little doth take away or make it less Which is such a plain declaration that the Creed contains the whole Apostolical Tradition or Faith for they are the same in his Language and the only Catholique Doctrine that if we were at this day to contrive words on purpose for the asserting this Truth we could not invent any more full or express than these Which show us that this Faith is sufficient not only for the ignorant the Catechumens and beginners in Religion but for the most improved in Christian knowledge for those that instructed and ruled the Church who had no Authority to preach or impose any other belief This is a thing that runs through his whole Book for he repeats it again in fewer words in the latter end of the next Chapter that the true Church hath but that one and the same Faith before mentioned throughout the whole World. Which in the 19th Chapter he calls the Rule of Truth by which all error was discovered for holding this rule though they speak very various and many things we easily evince that they have deviated from the Truth And again in the third Book (g) L. III. Chap. 3. he hath recourse to the same Rule of Truth unto which whosoever will hearken may see what is the tradition of the Apostles manifested in the whole World in every Church Where he saith they were able to tell what Bishops were settled by the Apostles and their Successors untill his time who neither taught nor thought of any thing like to the dotages of the Hereticks of those days And because it would have been too long to reckon up all the Churches he instances in the Church of Rome to which all had occasion to go upon some business or other because it was the Imperial City by whose Bishop he saith that Tradition and that Preaching or Doctrine of Truth which was from the Apostles in the Church is come to us and is a most full proof that one and the same life giving faith which was from the Apostles in the Church is conferred to this time and delivered in Truth The very same which Polycarp wrote to the Philippians mark these words which they of the present Roman Church are wont to conceal that they may make the World believe Irenaeus thought the Tradition of the Apostles that is the Christian Faith was to be sought only in their Church and which was in the Church of Ephesus founded by Paul and having John continuing in it till the time of Trajan which Church is a true witness of the Tradition of the Apostles And that there may be no mistake about this Tradition L. III. Cap. 4. he repeats it again in the next Chapter and informs us in very remarkable words it was nothing else but the Doctrine contained in the Creed Since these things are so plain we ought not to seek further among others for truth which we may easily find in the Church For the Apostles left most fully in it as in a rich Repository all things that belong to truth So that every one who will may take from thence the Water of Life c. out of the Holy Scriptures he means as appears by what follows And suppose the Apostles had not left us the Scriptures shall we not follow the Order of the Tradition or Rule of Faith which they delivered to those unto whom they committed the Churches To which Ordination many barbarous Nations who believe on Christ assent having the Doctrine of Salvation without Paper and Ink written by the Spirit in their Heart and diligently preserving the ANCIENT TRADITION believing in one God the maker of Heaven and Earth and of all things which are therein by Christ Jesus the Son of God Who out of his most eminent love to his Creature vouchsafed to be born of the Virgin uniting Man to God by himself and suffering under Pontius Pilate and rising again and being illustriously received in glory shall come again the Saviour of those that are saved and the Judge of those that are judged Sending into eternal fire the misshapers of Truth and the contemners of his Father and of his coming Those that have believed this Faith without Letters we in our Language call barbarous but as to their opinion and custom and conversation they please God because of their Faith by which they are most wise living in all Righteousness Chastity and Wisdom Vnto whom if any one should speak in their Language those things which Hereticks have invented they would presently stop their ears and run away not induring to hear the blasphemy Thus by that OLD TRADITION of the Apostles viz. the Creed they do not so much as admit into their thoughts the portentous talk of those Hereticks in his days These things I have thought fit to set down the more largely because they are an evident demonstration what the OLD TRADITION of the Apostles is which is nothing else but that summary of Christian Truth contained in the Creed unto which they would suffer no other Tradition to be added but contented themselves with this as fully sufficient and by this judged of all other things that pretended to come from the Apostles and were every where so well instructed in this that in those Churches which as yet had not received the Apostolical Writings the Holy Scriptures of the N. T. they had this Doctrine as the contents of those Scriptures and were thought most wise being wise enough to salvation in this faith alone without any other But because this is such a very important Truth I shall take a little more pains to set down the sense of the Church in all Ages concerning it that the Reader may be satisfied there is no other Truth but this alone which is absolutely necessary to his Salvation Which they sometime comprehend in fewer words but never add any one article beyond those in the Creed If we had the Letters of Ignatius intire and sincere we should be able to tell what he took for Truth immediately after the Apostles were dead And thus much is evident from them as they now are that they or he who contrived the Epistle to the Philippians under his name for it is not thought to be his took this to be the Doctrine of that Second Age when after the mention of the Doctrine of the Trinity and that the Son of God was truly made Man truly born and truly crucified dead and rose again not seemingly not in appearance only but in Truth they make him conclude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 He that believes these things as they are and were really done is a blessed Man. Which is an undoubted testimony they took this Creed to be sufficient to salvation which Ignatius in an unquestioned Epistle of his to the Church of Smyrna calls the unmoveable Faith wherein he blessed God they were perfected or knit together mentioning no other Articles but those before named Polycarp also in the same

〈◊〉 〈◊〉 any thing that was different or contrary to it Both these they acknowledge to be prohibited in those words No man shall bring in another Faith than that at Nice 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is contrary or opposite or different or diverse or strange from the true Faith. Where it is remarkable a different another Faith is acknowledged to be forbidden as well as a contrary Nay they acknowledge that none but a General Council could make so much as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another explication of the Articles of that Creed though not different from it In the Creed of the Apostles that is there are some things contained implicitely as Thomas Aquinas you heard speaks and being virtually there either in the Letter or the sence may be drawn from thence by evident consequence such as the Deity of Christ his two Natures the Catholique Church which was included in those words I believe the holy Church as this Article is exprest in the old Roman Creed and the like and yet such an explication these Fathers confessed could by no Man no assembly of Men less than an Oecumenical Council be lawfully made and imposed upon the Church For which they quote Aquinas whom † Ib. p. 163. they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that there never was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an explication of the Creed but in an Oecumenical Council and he speaks of any Creed whatsoever which was common in the Church And therefore in conclusion they absolutely deny that the Latine Church had added any thing to the Creed For the Nicene and the Constantinopolitan Creed are both one So that the one being read the other is understood For though they differ in words they agree in sense and in truth And the like they affirm of all other Creeds and thereby answer the objection that they had added a word to the Creed about the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son which is true they confessed with respect to the words but not with respect to the sense For still the Creed remains 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * Ib. p. 170. one and the same though it differ in the words And therefore it follows it was not properly an addition but one and the same thing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the exposition of the very self same thing All which I have set down thus largely to show that thus far therefore all things continued as they had done from the beginning that is notwithstanding the new Opinions there were in the Church there was no new Creed made no new Article added to the Creed nothing but what had been so at the first made necessary to Salvation Which is the last thing I observe that till the conclusion of the Council of Trent that is till a little more than an hundred years ago there were no other Creeds but those which we confess and believe in this Church which are the Apostles Creed expounded not inlarged by any new Articles But then indeed Pope Pius IV. in pursuance of the Councils Order framed another Confession of Faith consisting of no less than XII new Articles added to the old never heard of in any Creed throughout the whole Church till this time And it must be called and esteemed a New Faith and it makes that to be a New Church which falsly calls it self the Ancient Catholique Apostolique Church of Christ For it is none of these neither Ancient nor Catholique nor Apostolique but New Roman Tridentine Church derived I mean from the Roman Bishops at Trent It will be fit I think to set down this New Creed that the Reader may compare it with those I have shown were hitherto the intire Faith of the Catholique Church It may be found in several of our Writers but I wish it were in every bodies hand and therefore take the pains to transcribe it for the benefit of those into whose hands this Book shall come Pope PIVS his Creed IN. Believe and profess with a firm Faith all and every thing contained in the Symbol of Faith which the holy Roman Church uses viz. I believe in one God the Father Almighty maker of Heaven and Earth c. to the end of that we call the Nicene Creed After which immediately follow the New Articles in these words The Apostolical and Ecclesiastical Traditions and the rest of the Observations and Constitutions of the same Church I most firmly admit and embrace I also admit or receive the Holy Scripture according to that sense which the holy Mother Church to whom it belongs to judge of the true sense hath held and doth hold nor will I ever understand and interpret it otherwise than according to the unanimous consent of the Fathers I profess also that there are truly and properly Seven Sacraments of the New Law instituted by Jesus Christ our Lord and necessary to the Salvation of mankind though not all of them necessary to every Man viz. Baptism Confirmation the Eucharist Pennance Extreme Vnction Orders and Matrimony and that they confer grace and that of these Baptism Confirmation and Orders cannot be repeated without Sacriledge I likewise receive and admit all the received and approved Rites of the Catholique Church in the solemn Administration of all the above-said Sacraments All and every thing which was defined and declared about Original sin and Justification by the most holy Council of Trent I embrace and receive I profess likewise that in the Mass is offered to God a true proper and propitiatory Sacrifice for the quick and dead and that in the most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist there is truly really and substantially the Body and Blood together with the Soul and Divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ and that there is a conversion made of the whole substance of Bread into his Body and of the whole substance of Wine into his Blood which conversion the Catholique Church calls TRANSUBSTANTIATION I confess also that under either kind or species only whole and intire Christ and the true Sacrament is received I constanly hold there is a Purgatory and that the Souls there detained are helpt by the suffrages of the faithful As also that the Saints who Reign together with Christ are to be worshipped and invocated and that they offer Prayers to God for us and that their Reliques are to be venerated I most firmly assert that the Images of Christ and the Mother of God the always-Virgin as also of other Saints are to be had and retained and due honour and veneration to be bestowed on them I affirm also that the power of Indulgences was left by Christ in his Church and that their use is most wholesom to Christian People I acknowledge the holy Catholique and Apostolique Roman Church to be the Mother and Mistress of all Churches and I promise and swear true Obedience to the Bishop of Rome Successor of S. Peter the Prince of Apostles and Vicar of Jesus Christ All the rest also

discourses in that very Book against Manichaeus (q) Cap. XIV contra Epist quam vocant Fundamenti his Letter from whence the fore-named saying I had not believed the Gospel unless the Churches Authority had moved me to it is wont at every turn to be objected to us by those of the Romish perswasion Thou dost nothing but praise what thou believest and deride what I believe Now since I can be even with thee and do the very same praise what I believe and deride what thou believest what is to be done but that we leave and relinquish those who invite us to know things certain and afterwards require us to believe things uncertain let those of the Roman Church mark this and that we follow them who invite us first to believe that which we cannot yet see into that being made stronger in the Faith it self we may come to understand what we believe NOT MEN NOW BUT GOD HIMSELF INWARDLY ESTABLISHING AND ILLUMINATING OUR MIND It is impossible to read this passage and not see that this Father thought our Faith is not ultimately resolved into the Testimony of the Church but by that being invited to believe the Holy Scriptures we are established upon the serious reading of them in the Christian Faith and Knowledge of the Truth by God himself Upon whose Word in the Holy Scripture and not upon Men we bottom our Faith. Upon the Testimony and Authority of God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the Testimony of divine Men inspired by them who by Miracles and Signs and mighty Deeds and a prophetical Spirit proved themselves to be sent of God and have left his Mind and Will upon Record in the Scriptures of Truth Which the Church indeed in all parts of the World hath kept and preserved and faithfully transmitted down to us and now propounds to our Faith but it is not merely what the Church saith that makes us believe but what God himself saith in the Holy Scriptures concerning his Son Jesus Christ and what Jesus Christ saith concerning his rising from the Dead and sending the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles Which being fulfilled evidently proved him to be the Son of God the Saviour of the World and them to be his Apostles and Ministers who declared to Men the true way of Salvation So the Church directs and guides us to the Scriptures of Truth but they resolve and assure our Faith being the very Word of God. The authority of God's Church is the first motive which leads us to esteem the Scriptures but being led thither we find in the matter of them that which gives us full satisfaction by bestowing our pains in reading or hearing and considering the Mysteries contained therein The Church holds out this light to us but it is by this light that we see what is the mind and will of God. To this the Church points us and bids us attend to it for this it disposes and prepares us it leads us by the hand to this as the only sure foundation of our Faith because herein we find God himself speaking to us and moreover by the Ministery of the Church we are assisted in understanding the sence of the Holy Scriptures but they contain in themselves that Divine Authority and Truth whereby we come to a certain Faith. The Church tells us such and such things are true and we find them to be so by examining the Scriptures Which the Beraeans searched daily whether those things were so which the Apostles preached and therefore many of them believed not merely because the Apostles told them they ought so to do but because they found what they said in the Holy Scriptures XVII Act. 11 12. And so far as any Church speaks according to the truth contained therein it is to be believed and followed But if it bring no Divine word for its warrant if it propound other Doctrines which are not there it hath no authority to make such Doctrines the matter of our Faith much less to set up its own authority above the Scriptures as they do who say The Scriptures receive their authority from the Church Which is the Doctrine of no less Men than Baronius and Bellarmine to name no more The former of (r) Ad Annum 53 〈◊〉 X XI which argues that because we receive these Holy Books to be writings of the Apostles and Evangelists and not forged under their Names upon the testimony of the Church therefore all the writings of the New Testament received their authority from the Churches tradition which is fundamentum Scripturarum as he ventures to say the foundation of the Scriptures The other (s) L. 2. de Sacrament C. 25. Tertium is no less positive that if we take away the authority of the present Church and the present Council we call in doubt the whole Christian Faith. For the firmness of all ancient Councils and of all Doctrines depends upon the authority of the present Church This is very presumptuous talk for by the Church they mean themselves and then by the testimony of the Church that is their own testimony they mean such a Divine witness as assures us by its own authority without any other proof Which are the great points of difference between us in this matter For we assert first that the office of leading Men to the Holy Scriptures and so to Faith belongs to every Church as much as to them and secondly that no Church can bring People to Faith by its own testimony and authority but by the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures nor is any Church whatsoever to be heard in matters of Divine Truth further than it can prove its Doctrines by the authority of God's Word and teaches things agreeable thereunto II. Which leads to the Second thing briefly to shew what power and authority the Church cannot pretend unto in matters of Faith. 1. And first it appears by what hath been said that it hath not a Soveraign Absolute Prophetical authority independent upon the Rule of the Holy Scriptures so that we must take whatsoever it saith for true without consulting them This is the ambitious pretence of the great Doctors of the Roman Church who give the Church meaning thereby the present Roman Church an authority over all things not depending on the Scriptures but upon which the Scriptures themselves depend So that without the authority of this Church all truth is doubtful Which is a manifest principle of Infidelity making all Religion stand to the courtesie of a company of Men who in such matters are the least to be trusted of all other Christians that we are acquainted withall 2. The Church hath no authority to propound any Doctrine as necessary to Salvation which is not delivered in the Holy Scriptures but depends solely on the authority of its own Tradition This is another of their ambitious attempts who having arrogated to themselves alone the whole power of the Church make that power so unlimited that it can supply the

defects of the Scripture and make things unwritten to become matters of Faith. Which is such an unbounded Prerogative that we may have a new Faith as often as they please to pretend a Tradition for it though they cannot prove it For we must rest in the authority of the present Church which affirms it and that against the very Scripture it self which tells us it is able to make a Man of God perfect and against the testimony of the Universal Church which I have shown forbids the producing of any other Faith but that which was evidently delivered by the Apostles there 3. We cannot allow the Church an Infallible authority that is such an assistance in her Doctrines and proposals that she cannot err in any thing she defines In Controversies indeed arising about matters of Faith we own and reverence the authority of the Church (t) Artic. XX. so as not to contest the publique judgement but to prefer it before our own private conceits in doubtful things But as it ought to proceed in its determinations by the Rule of Gods word So we think it possible it may mistake in the application of this Rule and therefore we do not blindly resign our selves to its authority without all regard to the Holy Scriptures unto which the Church ought to have a respect in all its determinations No that 's another proud pretence of the present Roman Church that they cannot mistake in their definitions and therefore we must submit unto them without examination From whence this intollerable mischief hath insued that it hath made them both insensible of their errors and careless to seek any cure of them nay utterly incapable of a remedy For as one of our own Divines excellently speaks (u) Dr. Petter's Answer to Charity mistaken Sect. 5. whose words those are this conceit of their Infallibility is to them both a sufficient reason for that which is most unreasonable and a sufficient answer to that which is most unanswerable To this they retreat upon all occasions when they are not able to maintain their ground they have no other way to defend their errors when they are plainly set before their eyes but to tell us confidently they cannot err Which is a very strange boldness for we demonstrate in manay instances that they have erred erred most grosly particularly in this that they have added new Articles to the old Creed to be believed under pain of Damnation and added a new Canon of Scripture to the Old Testament against the clearest evidence in the Records of the Universal Church that the Books they have newly received were never acknowledged for Canonical Scripture If by the Church indeed they would understand the Church truly Catholique the whole Body of Christ in all times places and ages and if by matters of Faith they would understand those grand Articles which I have mentioned in the first part of this Discourse and if by being Infallible they would understand not an absolute impossibility of erring which humane nature is not capable of but not actual error there are none of us make any question but the Church is Infallible That is the whole Church hath not erred nor shall not err in the whole Faith or in any necessary part thereof for such error would cut Men off from Christ the head and so leave him no Church at all which is impossible It hath been the very scope of first my Discourse to show that the Church hath always kept the great fundamental truths of our Religion and not erred in them but transmitted them down to us whole and undefiled till the Church of Rome in the Council of Trent corrupted the Faith by their errors which they have mixed with it For to a particular Church such as that of Rome is we cannot allow this priviledge of not erring because we know they have erred even in fundamental Truths and thereby ceased to be Churches Witness those glorious Churches to which Christ himself sent his Letters by S. John the Apostle These Prerogatives therefore not belonging to any Church every one must be content with those two Offices before mentioned which are sufficient First The Office of a Witness testifying the authority of the Holy Scriptures unto its members Secondly of Gods instrument by whose Ministry in opening expounding and urging the Holy Scriptures the Holy Ghost begets a divine Faith in us And by performing these Offices it supports and continues and propagates the Truth and so may be called the Pillar and Ground thereof The meaning of which I shall now distinctly set before the Readers eyes that I may give a short account of the fourth and last thing propounded in the beginning IV. How the Church may appropriate to it self this Title 1. First Every Church and every person in it especially the Bishops and Pastors are the Pillar and Ground of Truth officio by Duty and Office whereby they are obliged to keep maintain and uphold the Truth This always was and always will be incumbent on them which is sufficient to fill up the sense of such attributes as these which do not always note performance of Duty but only obligation to it As when our Saviour saith to his Disciples Ye are the salt of the Earth it doth not signifie that they were necessarily so for he supposes immediately the salt might lose its savour but that they ought to be so and if they were not so would be good for nothing but to be cast out and trodden under foot Matth. V. 13. 2. But Secondly The first Churches of Christ in the Apostles times were actu effectu actually and effectually the Pillar of Truth that is they faithfully discharg'd this Office and perform'd their Duty constantly maintaining the Truth as it is in Christ in its purity and simplicity For the Apostles were a part of those Churches whom God led into all Truth which they taught sincerely and intirely while they lived and do at this day instruct us in the Holy Scriptures in the whole Truth necessary to our Salvation 3. But we cannot say the same of all succeeding Churches that they did faithfully perform this office though in duty they also were bound so to do No some of them were so far from being Pillars of the Truth that they let it fall to the ground We have strange instances of it with which I shall not fill these Papers in the History of the Church which show us that if we take not heed to our selves and the Doctrine that is delivered to us we have no security that we or any other particular Church shall continue firm and stedfast supporters of the Truth For Pillars themselves may decay and if they be not well lookt after will go to ruin and fall to the Earth 4. Even this very Church of Ephesus which was a Pillar and Ground of Truth while Timothy presided in it afterward began before all the Apostles were dead to remit its first love and zeal for