Wisdom from Jeremy Taylor for 15th August

From Taylor's 1661 visitation sermon, 'The Minister's Duty in Life and Doctrine', the second part addressing doctrine.

On this day, let the reader understand.

It is the rule of S. Paul, 'let him that prophesies do it according to the proportion of faith;' that is, let him teach nothing but what is revealed, or agreeable to the auтómora, the prime credibilities of Christianity; that is, by the plain words of scripture let him expound the less plain, and the superstructure by the measures of the foundation, and doctrines be answerable to faith, and speculations relating to practice, and nothing taught as simply necessary to be believed, but what is evidently and plainly set down in the holy scriptures; for he that calls a proposition necessary which the apostles did not declare to be so, or which they did not teach to all Christians learned and unlearned, he is gone beyond his proportions. For everything is to be kept in that order where God hath placed it: there is a classis of necessary articles, and that is the Apostles' Creed, which Tertullian calls regulam fidei, 'the rule of faith;' and according to this we must teach necessities; but what comes after this, is not so necessary; and he that puts upon his own doctrines a weight equal to this of the apostle's declaration, either must have an apostolical authority and an apostolical infallibility, or else he transgresses the proportion of faith, and becomes a false apostle.

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