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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	know_v	see_v	word_n	2,759	5	3.8676	3	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

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

Reason which I shall recount unto you is this that to make the Scripture this sole Rule and Judge is in effect not to make the Scripture so but to make every individual man and woman who take upon them to read and understand the Scriptures such a Rule and Judge unto themselves for what difference is there between judging by my own Reason and judging by a Law to be Interpreted by my own Reason This is to make the Scripture not Gods Word but the word of every private man Hence I concluded that if Christ be God as certainly and infallibly he is and if he truly loved those soules for which he dyed he hath certainly provided for them some more assured means by which to know the true Faith without which he will not save them then by leaving them to the Scriptures to be interpreted by each one as he thinks best for what Law maker was there ever found so ridiculous as to gather a people into a body and give them a Law book in writing to govern them and to be their only judge in all their differences without appointing nay expresly prohibeting that there should be any living judge or Judges or any Court to expound this Law and to have the Executive Authority and jurisdiction from whence there should be no appeal Having considered after this manner what could be said for the private Spirit Reason and the sole sufficiency of Scripture I was in the last place to see what could be said on the behalf of the Catholick Church resolving from these premises that if here I could not find a satisfaction in point of certainty and an infallible assurance I was not to expect it as far as I yet understood from the Principles of Christianity and consequently must conclude that Religion and Faith were no more then Fancy and Opinion I thought it not unreasonable and other persons would doubtless have thought the Argument strong enough if I had sought no further but concluded the Private spirit is not Reason is not the Scriptures are not this Rule and Judge therefore the Church is But I resolved to examine farther and having agreed the point that such a Rule and Judge there must alwaies be of necessity and therefore there hath alwaies been and ever shall be such a One unless we shall say which I hope none will that God is defective in necessaries I found first for the first 2000 years before any Scriptures were written the Church of God was this Rule and Judge Was not Circumcision and other Rights brought in by Abraham and practised by the Church then without any Scripture to try them by what would you have said if you had then lived would you have disobeyed the then Church and rejected those Ordinances because there were then no Scriptures to warrant them Secondly the Church of the Jews was so to the Jews after that the Scripture was written and this by the express direction of Scripture Deut. 17. 8. Thou shal come to the Priests the Levites and unto the Iudge that shall be in those daies and enquire and they shall shew thee the sentence of Iudgement c. And according to the judgement which they shall tell thee you shall do Thou shalt not decline from the sentence which they shall shew thee to the right hand nor to the left hand And the man that will do presumptuously and will not hearken unto the Priest or unto the Iudge even that man shall dye Therfore our Blessed Lord whilst the Jewish Church was yet in being gave directions Mat. 23. 2. 3. The Scribes and Pharisees sit in Moses Chair all therfore whatsoever they bid you observe that observe and do Would God direct them unto punish with Death for not obeying an Authority which might deceive them would our Lord command the doing of whatsoever should be done by an Authority when that Authority was capable of mistaking From hence I concluded that it was possible for the Church of God to be such a Rule and Judge and to be the means appointed by God to give infallible instructions in the Truth Now as concerning the Church in the new Law under Christ I found Thirdly that God had promised such a Church such an Authority by the mouthes of his Prophets Isa 2. v. 2. 3 c. It shall come to pass in the last dayes so the Apostles called the time of the New Law That the Mountain of the Lords house shall be Established in the top of the mountains behold its visibility All Nations shall slow unto it see its Universality and extent and say come ye and let us goe up to the mountain of the Lord to the house of the God of Jacob And He that is God will teach us his waies in this his house or Church for out of Sion shall go forth the Law as by the Apostles on Whitsunday and the Word of God from Ierusalem where the first Preaching of the Gospel begun And he shall judge amongst the Nations Not personally for Christ went not of Iewry but by his Churches Tribunal erected amongst all Nations so conspicuously that they may all flow to it Will any one say this judgement which is Gods judgement can be fallible Or that in this Tribunal he that teacheth can teach us Errors Isa 35. 8. where God promiseth to establish a way of holiness so direct unto us that Fooles should not erre therein Isa 54. 3. 13 17. Thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles thy children shall be taught of the Lord and every tongue that shall rise against thee in Iudgement thou shall condemne Isa 56. 21. As for me this is my Covenant with them saith the Lord my spirit infallible that is upon thee and my words infallible also which I have put in thy mouth the mouth by which the Church teacheth and judgeth shall not depart out of thy mouth nor out of the mouth of thy Seeds seed saith the Lord from henceforth and forever Behold here the spirit of Truth intailed upon the Church to preserve it from Error Isa 60. 10. 12 c. The sons of strangers shall build up thy walls their Kings shall minister unto thee thy Gates shall be open continually they shall not be shut day nor night that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles and that their Kings may be brought For the Nation and Kingdome which will not serve thee by submitting to thy doctrine shall perish I will make the place of my feet glorious they shall call thee the City of the Lord I will make thee an eternal Excellency thy sun shall no more go down nor shall thy moon withdraw it self but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting Light If those shall perish who refuse to submit to this Authority to whom God is an everlasting Light and whom he makes an everlasting Excellency we need not fear that it can deceive us or that it can ever so be Eclipsed as to be at any time invisible