Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	apostle_n	new_a	testament_n	4,132	5	8.0648	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38830	An epistle to the several congregations of the non-conformists by Cap. Robert Everard, now by Gods Grace a member of the Holy Catholick Church of Christ, shewing the reasons of his conversion and submission to the said Catholick Church.	Everard, Robert, fl. 1664.	1664 (1664)	Wing E3538; ESTC R12403	34,789	46

informs us 6. It is necessary to know that the very Copies and Translations of the Scriptures which we have upon which we ground our selves are certainly true for if they are not we build upon uncertainties and consequently have no sure foundation for our Faith yet we cannot be assured nor have so much as any information as to this perticular from the Scriptures 7. It is necessary that the many manifest controversies about the true sence of Scripture should be decided because where two contrary sences are imposed or urged and both affirmed to be the meaning of God and his Revelation one only can be true and he who refuseth to beleive that which is true shall be damned yet these controversies cannot be decyded by Scripture 8. It is necessary to know what is purely and absolutely necessary to salvation to be beleived and what not that is as you say what is fundamental and what not fundamental and to be informed of this plainly lest we err and thereby be damned but in this the Scripture is silent 9. It is necessary to beleive that God the Father is not begotten ' that God the Son is not made but begotten by his Father only That God the Holy Ghost is neither made nor begotten but doth proceed and that from the Father and the Son That Christ is of one substance with the Father and that these three are One and that One Three I refer to consideration whether all these points be plainly and clearely to be found in Scripture if they were it had been almost impossible for so many divisions to have hapned about them as have done amongst persons on all sides admitting the Scriptures to be the word of God 10. It is necessary the Church of England saith that Infants should be Baptised that women should receive the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist that Christians should observe the Lords day yet none of these points are clearly or perticularly proved by Scripture 11. It is a Sin and as the Generality of Christians agree an Heresy to Re-baptise any one who hath been Baptised by an Heretick where doth the Scripture say so That there are in the Scriptures several places which seem Contradictions and consequently some part of the Scriptures seem untrue is easily proved and I shall here give you some few plain Instances for example to which many more might be added 1. In the 2. Kings C. 8. v. 26. You read thus Two and twenty years old was Ahazia when he began to reigne and he reigned one year in Ierusalem and his mothers name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri But in 2 Chron. c. 22. v. 2. You will read thus Forty and two years old was Ahazia when he began to reign and he reigned one year in Ierusalem his mothers name was Athaliah the daughter of O●…ri Now against the infallibility of Scripture Reason convinceth her self to have this infallible demonstration viz. No one who speaketh two things the one contrary to the other can be said to be infallible in speaking but to affirm of the same person that he began to reign when he was two and twenty years old and that he was two and forty years old when he began to reigne is to speak two things the one contrary to the other therefore saith Reason the Scripture is not infallible in speaking 2. In St. Matthews Gospel Chap. 1. v. 17. you read thus All the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations and from David till the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations Now if you please to consider that three fourteens must make forty and two and then please to reckon up all the persons named you shall find them demonstrably to be but one and forty and no more which is but two fourteens and one thirteen Now Reason asketh whether this can be infallibly true 3. In St. Lukes Gospel Ch. 3. v. 35. 36. you shall read thus Salah which was the son of Cainan which Cainan was the son of Arphaxad if you read Ge. c. 11. 12. you shall not find that Cainan was the Son of Arphaxad as St. Luke saith but that Arphaxad lived five and thirty years begat Salah Now according to St. Luke this Salah was the son of Cainan not of Arphaxad ' If it be answered that Salah was Arphaxads son because Arphaxad was his Grandfather I pray observe that Arphaxad is said to have begotten him and that when he was five and thirty years old And if you remark that Chapter in Genesis no one is said to have had a son before he was thirty years old But the greatest difficulty will be here It is said Arphaxad lived five and thirty years and begat Cainan If then Arphaxad was Granfather to Salah because he begat Cainan when he was five thirty years old in which year of his age he begat Salah then Salah his Grandchild and Cainan his son must be both born in the same year which saith Reason is impossible Now if Scripture can determine all controversies I hope you will shew me how to solve these difficulties by the Scripture which how to do I profess most seriously I do not understand The seventh Reason which I found against this Opinion of sole Scripture was that if the Scriptures had been appointed by God for this end of being our sole Rule Guide and Judge in all our doubts and the sole means to bring faith unto our souls they would have been so in the Apostles times at least after all the books of the New Testament were written but that they were so we do not find for then the Authority of the Apostles must have ceased so soon as they had made an end of Writing which I beleive no one will say much less prove And then even in the times of the Apostles if a controversie had arisen touching the true sence of any Text no address should have been to the Apostles to decide the doubt but to the book which every one must have judged though in opposition to the then present interpretation of the Apostles if they had then taken upon them to explain their own writings which to say I think will appear sufficiently absurd to all men Nay if the Scriptures had been intended for this it must have followed in all probability that our Lord Christ would have left his own law and doctrines in writing under his own hand which he hath not done at least he would have obleiged all his Apostles to write which he did not that we know of It should also follow that to write had been the chief part of the Apostles Ministry consequently that most part of the Apostles neglected to perform the chiefest part of their Ministry were negligent to do that which above all things was their duty will any of you presume to affirm this yet if you speak consequently it will be hard to avoid it The last

that sence which is certainly manifest and how shall that appear to be the sence of the Hebrew and Greek words he must intend here the true Originals but if they vary and swerve never so little from hence i. e. from the true Originals that sence which they give or express we judge neither to be Divine nor Authentick nor Canonical but merely humane Cham. Panstr Tom. 1. l. 1. 2. c. 2. S. 3. 5. So then we must have the true Originals or we have no perfect Rule of the Scriptures and therefore I would gladly see and speak with that man who can assure me infallibly that the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures which we have are these Originals Nay who will adventure to make Oath that these which we have do agree with the true Originals And yet if we could be secure of this I doubt it will be hard to finde any person who doth so infallibly understand the Originals as to give us a true Translation on which we may with as much infallible assurance rely as upon God interpreting And yet if this cannot be had we must confess that we are not certain whether we have this Rule pure or not Sure I am the Apostles did not translate these books into English we are so far from having St. Matthews Original that we know not in what Language it was written or whether he who translated it into Greek were an honest man or not we all agree that our English Translatours were fallible men they might be mistaken and have mistaken in multitudes of places themselves say they were careful to get the best Copies of the Hebrew and Greek they could find but were not infallibly certain that those they had were true Have we then in these a sufficent certainty to venture our soules upon supposing God to have appointed the Scriptures as our sole Rule Guide and Judge I think no man who hath any modesty or any consideration of his Souls good will say that we have But sure I am whoever shall dare to say it will never be able to prove it infallibly Give me leave to Expostulate thus with you who are for sole Scripture What Scriptures would ye have me to submit unto who am a meer English man If you say the Originals neither you nor I know where to find them If you say to such Copies as you have I ask by what Authority do you require this since they are but Copies of Copies which you cannot certainly tell me that th●… are not corrupted since the most Learned do affirm that there are variety of these Copies in some of which whole Verses are omitted which are sound in others and that there arē at least sixteen various Greek Copies of the New Testament If you tell me I must submit to your English Translations I aske farther to which of them for they have differences also the 9. and 18. verses of the 7th Chapter of Daniel of the Geneva Translation are directly contrary to the same Verses in the Translation put forth by the command of King Iames. Nay the Ministers of the County of Lincoln in King Iames his time in their grievances delivered unto his Majesty Pag. 11. 13. 14. do say that the English Translation of the Bible takes away from the Text and adds to the Text to the changing and obscuring the very sence and meaning of the Holy Ghost Our late great Linguist M. Broughton in his Advertisements of Corruptions affirms to the then Bishops of England That their publick Translation of Scripture into English is such as that it perverts the Text of the Old Testament in 848 places and that it causeth million of millions to reject the New Testament and to run into Eternal Flames And Dr. Daniel Feately in his Treatise Entituled The Dippers Dipped hath these words pag. 1. No Translation is simply Authentical or the undoubted word of God In the undoubted word of God there can be no error but in Translations there are and may be errors The Bible Translated therefore is not the undoubted word of God but so far only as it agreeth with the Original I pray consider how you will answer when thus pressed and how you will be able to satisfie me with certainty that what you would have me rely upon and submit unto is the undoubted word of God pure and uncorrupted And by what Rule shall I with certainty satisfie my self what books those are which are the Word of God for if that be not known I see not but that it is as possible for me to have other books imposed upon me then what I have yet heard of or at least seen as part of this Word of God as well as former Christians some Ages after the Apostles times had the Epistle to the Hebrews those of St. Iames St. Iude the latter of St. Peter the second and third of St. Iohn with the Apocalips or Revelation imposed upon them by Councils where the Pope was chief these things are fit to be clearly known and that with certainty too before a man submit in so high a measure as you require The sixt Reason which I met with was whatsoever is a sole sufficient Rule must be plain and clear in all necessary points atleast which relates unto Faith or the means by which Salvation is to be had which the Scripture is not and above all things it must not contradict it self which the Scriptures seem to do to prove these I shall give some few Instances which I think can never be infringed that they are not plain and clear as is beforesaid consider 1. All Christians generally except some few do agree that the Sacraments of the Gospel are necessary in order to salvation now as to these the Scriptures are so far from being clean that they do not so much as determine what a Sacrament is how many Christ ordained or whether there be any Sacraments or not 2. It is necessary to Salvation to beleive all the Books of the Holy Scriptures to be the word of God and to beleive nothing written to be the Word of God which is Apocryphall But by the Scriptures it cannot be made out plainly and clearly which Books are the Word of God and which are Apocriphall 3. It is necessary to beleive the Scriptures to be the Word of God but there is no Text or Texts of Scripture to prove that the Scriptures which we have are Gods word 4. It is necessary to know that the Scriptures are not corrupted for if they are corrupted they cease to be the word of God ad then they cannot be any Rule or sure guide unto us But of this we can have no assurance in Scripture 5. It is necessary in order to the knowing the true mind meaning and will of God and what he intended by such a Text that we know when a Text is to be understood liberally when figuratively when mistically but this cannot be understood from sole Scripture as dayly experience