Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	christian_n	church_n	scripture_n	1,902	5	5.9310	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30329	A collection of papers against popery and arbitrary government written by G. Burnet.	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1689 (1689)	Wing B5769; ESTC R32598	57,102	50

is more likely to be exact than a Speculation concerning their nature and yet we find a Tradition of giving Infants the Communion grounded on the indispensible necessity of the Sacrament continued a thousand Years in the Church A Tradition on which the Christians founded their Joy and Hope is less like to be changed than a more remote Speculation and yet the first Writers of the Christian Religion had a Tradition handed down to them by those who saw the Apostles of the Reign of Christ for a thousand Years upon Earth and if those who had Matters at second hand from the Apostles could be thus mistaken it is more reasonable to apprehend greater errours at such a distance A Tradition concerning the Book of the Scriptures is more like to be exact than the Exposition of some passages in it and yet we find the Church did unanimously believe the Translation of the 70. Interpreters to have been the effect of a miraculous Inspiration till St. Ierome examined this Matter better and made a New Translation from the Hebrew Copies But which is more then all the rest It seems plain that the Fathers befor the Council of Nice believed the Divinity of the Son of God to be in some sort Inferiour to that of the Father and for some Ages after the Council of Nice they believed them indeed both equal but they considered these as two different Beings and only one in Essence as three men have the same humane Nature in common among them and that as one Candle lights another so the one flowed from another and after the fifth Century the Doctrine of one Individual Essence was received If you will be farther informed concerning this Father Petau will satisfy you as to the first Period before the Council of Nice and the learned Dr. Cudmorth as to the second In all which particulars it appears how variable a thing Tradition is And upon the whole Matter the examining Tradition thus is still a searching among Books and here is no living Judge XII If then the Authority that must decide Controversies lies in the Body of the Pastors scattered over the World which is the last retrenchment here as many and as great Scruples will arise as we found in any of the former Heads Two difficulties appear at first view the one is How can we be assured that the present Pastors of the Church are derived in a just Succession from the Apostles there are no Registers extant that prove this So that we have nothing for it but some Histories that are so carelesly writ that we find many mistakes in them in other Matters and they are so different in the very first links of that Chain that immediatly succeeded the Apostles that the utmost can be made of this is that here is a Historical Relation somewhat doubtful but here is nothing to found our Faith on so that if a Succession from the Apostles times is necessary to the Constitution of that Church to which we must submit our selves we know not where to find it besides that the Doctrine of the necessity of the Intention of the Minister to the Validity of a Sacrament throws us into inextricable difficulties I know they generally say that by the Intention they do not mean the inward Acts of the Minister of the Sacrament but only that it must appear by his outward deportment that he is in earnest going about a Sacrament and not doing a thing in jest and this appeared so reasonable to me that I was sorry to find our Divines urge it too much till turning over the Rubricks that are at the beginning of the Missal I found upon the head of the Intention of the Minister that if a Priest has a Number of Hoslies before him to be consecrated and intends to consecrate them all except one in that case that Vagrant exception falls upon them all it not being affixed to any one and it is defined that he consecrates none at all Here it is plain that the secret Acts of a Priest can defeat the Sacrament so that this overthrows all certainty concerning a Succession But besides all this we are sure that the Greek Churches have a much more uncontested Succession than the Latines So that a Succession cannot direct us And if it is necessary to seek out the Doctrines that are universally received this is not possible for a private Man to know So that in Ignorant Countries where there is little Study the People have no other certainty concerning their Religion but what they take from their Curate and Confessor since they cannot examine what is generally received So that it must be confessed that all the Arguments that are brought for the necessity of a constant infallible Iudge turn against all those of the Church of Rome that do not acknowledge the Infallibility of the Pope for if he is not Infallible they have no other Iudge that can pretend to it It were also easy to shew that some Doctrines have been as Universally received in some Ages as they have been rejected in others Ê’ which shews that the Doctrine of the present Church is not alwayes a sure measure For five Ages together the Doctrine of the Popes Power to depose Heretical Princes was received without the least Opposition and this cannot be doubted by any that knows what has been the State of the Church since the End of the eleventh Century yet I believe few Princes would allow this notwithstanding all the concurring Authority of so many Ages to fortify it I could carry this into a great many other Instances but I single out this because it is a point in which Princes are naturally extream sensible Upon the whole Matter it can never enter into my mind that God who has made Man a Creature that naturally enquires and reasons and that feels as sensible a pleasure when he can give himself a good account of his actions as one that sees does perceive in comparison to a blind man that is led about and that this God that has also made Religion on design to perfect this humane Nature and to raise it to the utmost height to which it can arrive has contrived it to be dark and to be so much beyond the penetration of our Faculties that we cannot find out his mind in those things that are necessary for our Salvation and that the Scriptures that were writ by plain men in a very familiar stile and addrest without any discrimination to the Vulgar should become such an unintelligible Book in these Ages that we must have an Infallible Iudge to expound it and when I see not only Popes but even some Bodies that pass for General Councils have so expounded many passages of it and have wrested them so visibly that none of the Modern Writers of that Church pretend to excuse it I say I must freely own to you that when I find I need a Commentary on dark passages these will be the last persons to whom I