Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
judgement_n church_n scripture_n tradition_n 1,430 5 9.3304 5 false
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A30916 A letter to a lady furnishing her with Scripture testimonies against the principal points and doctrines of popery Barecroft, Charles. 1688 (1688) Wing B757; ESTC R20623 57,234 84

There is 1 snippet containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

the most effectual They says he who are sensible of their own Blindness since there is no other way to be rid of it but by the Word of God they should apply themselves to that and they cannot miss of a Cure. Which is enough to prove the Insufficiency of the Churches Customes or Authority as to Matters of Faith at least Secondly Neither will the Testimonies of the Fathers be of any Force in this Particular For a Rule of Faith must be full of Knowledge and sufficiently able to instruct us But what says S. Austin of himself I am Aug. ep 119. not only ignorant says he in many other Things but even in the Holy Scriptures themselves I am yet to learn more than I know already And thus he elsewhere Ep. ad Hi●● expresses himself To the Books of the Scriptures only which are called Canonical do I owe this Honour that I firmly believe That none of their Pen-Men have err'd in any thing they have written But I esteem other Writers according to their Sanctity and Learning I do not think any thing true meerly because it was their Opinion Which very well agrees with that Axiom of Tertullian If says he a Bishop Tertul. de praescr haeret or Deacon if a Widow or Maid if a Doctor or even a Martyr should err from the Rule would the Error be e'r the Truer or Better for their Sakes We do not prove the Faith by the Persons but the Persons by the Faith. And the Acknowledgment of Biel is to the Bie● sup Can. Miss l. 41. same purpose That the Authority of the Fathers compells no Man to assent to their Sayings unless they build on the Holy Scriptures or Divine Revelation On this account therefore S. Austin might well cry out Aug. in Psal 57. Let our Writings be withdrawn that the Book of God may be introduced And as for Apostolical Traditions let the Testimony Iren. l. 3. c. 1. of Irenaeus serve for all By the Apostles says he the Gospel came down to us which they then preached and afterward by the Will of God they delivered to us in the Scriptures what was to be the future Foundation and Pillar of our Faith. Now if neither the Customes of the Church nor the Judgment of the Fathers nor Tradition can be a perfect Rule of Faith no more can all these united in a General Council be so For a Rule must be in every respect perfect But we have seen That the Church is in many respects Defective and the Fathers subject to Ignorance and Error And if Irenaeus may be credited The Apostles preached nothing contrary to what they have left us in Writing and therefore there can be no Place for Apostolical Traditions So that a Rule which is Imperfect and Defective in every Part must needs be so in the whole And Bellarmin himself has proved Bellarm. de Concil l. 2. c. 12. That the Decrees of General Councils cannot be a perfect Rule because they cannot pretend to immediate Divine Revelation That they may Err in some things and in many of their Definitions they conclude only Probably But a Rule of Faith ought to be every way Perfect and to conclude necessarily And such an absolute Perfect Rule the Scriptures appear to be not only from their own Testimony but from Testimonies of the greatest Pillars of the Church in the Second Third Fourth and Fifth Centuries And therefore if any Man's Interest has led him to a contrary Judgment in the later Ages of the Church his Opinions ought not to be set up as a Standard against Antiquity joyn'd with Truth From hence then we may infer what has been already asserted That the Scriptures being of themselves a perfect and Un-erring Rule nothing must be put to or taken from them To which purpose besides what has been produced already the Reader may give himself the trouble of Perusing the following Texts Deut. 12. 32. Josh 1. 7. Prov. 30. 6. Gal. 1. 8. and 3. 15. Rev. 22. 18 19. And let him learn the Danger of Adding or Taking away that is Doing any thing contrary to the Scriptures From these Lev. 10. 2. Isai 1. 12 13 14 and 66. 3. Hos 9. 15. Matth. 15. 6 9. Mark 7. 9. Gal. 4. 10. From all which Texts will evidently appear the Invalidity of any thing that is not built upon the true Foundation and the danger of being led away by such Vanities And so I hope I have sufficiently vindicated my Relyance on the Testimony of the Scriptures in the Business of the following Undertaking I shall only trouble the Reader with two or three necessary Cautions concerning the right Use and Understanding of those Sacred Writings and then give him his Liberty to proceed I. If any Man will make choice of the Scriptures for his Guide in matters that concern his Well-being here and hereafter he must have a care of believing every Spirit We must not take things of such Moment on Trust meerly because they are asserted by one that Pretends to great Learning or Inspiration for we are to look on the Gentlemen of these Times as such as will make the best they can of every Word when they meet with one of an ordinary Capacity Therefore II. It behoveth every Man that hath any regard to his own Safety to search into these things himself to read the Holy Scriptures diligently that so he may learn from them whether such things are true or no. But as I am now Writing to those of the meanest Rank in Learning lat east It is necessary that I caution such Readers of the Scriptures against laying too much stress on the literal Interpretation of a Text For the Holy Ghost very often makes use of Metaphors and other Obscurities wherein the Sense is not obvious to every Eye And tho' as S. Austin says There is nothing so obscure in one Place which in another is not made plain Yet it is not supposed that an ordinary Reader knows how to find that Place out or if he does that he has Judgment enough to satisfie himself For the Scriptures consist of a Soul and a Body The Body is the Letter and the Soul is the true Interpretation Every Man therefore says Origen that De princip lib. 4. desires to come to the Knowledge of the Truth must have his Eye on every Word for every Nation has a different way of speaking let him therefore mind rather what is signified than with what Words it is expressed For there are some things which no Human Words can explain but they are only conceivable in an honest Vnderstanding By which Rule also we come to the Knowledge and Vnderstanding of the Holy Scriptures that what we read is not to be understood according to the Letter but according to the Divinity of that Holy Spirit which inspired it Wherefore the Honest Reader will do well to take care That he is not drawn by the Letter out of the right