Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	able_a	salvation_n	word_n	2,196	5	4.1078	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31233	The Earl of Castlemain's manifesto; Manifesto	Castlemaine, Roger Palmer, Earl of, 1634-1705.	1681 (1681)	Wing C1245; ESTC R8304	54,743	145

still with me Mr. Lytcott had 't is true some other accidental Recommendations as related to several persons of very considerable fashion and quality whom I esteem'd Nor do I by any means deny the giving him order to take Notes at Tryals nay this or the equivalent I desir'd of others also till I freed my self from the calumny of the Plot. But had I known it a Crime against any Law either human or divine and till I do I cannot repent me of the Action I should not have sent him neither would he I dare say have gone for his Colledge and Friends cannot but own as well his great Probity as his constant zeal for the Government And as he who very well knew it attested being summon'd to my Lord Staffords Tryal that I was not at Powis Castle in the years 72 nor 73 so by what I have here already shown the whole matter has been prov'd and made good beyond the possibility of the least doubt or scruple In the next place as to my being so famous in the Popish Party as Sir William says I am I do not know I confess what he means Certainly that man is a very weak one who considering the hardships we struggle with the Obloquy we lie under and the mis-interpretation of all our actions hopes to geat Fame by being a Papist but if this Gentleman puts Fame in the worst sence for the word has opposite significations and so intimates as if I were become to the World Infamous by my Religion and Practice I shall here in a few words give him a true and short account of both That I am a Catholick I shall always acknowledge as often as I am ask'd but tho' my Religion were erronious yet to me it must be a true and saving one according to the Principles of our learnedst Adversaries for I have often and diligently searcht the Scriptures which they own to be the Rule of Faith I have earnestly pray'd to God as they require for his Illumination I have argu'd with learned men a thing too enjoyn'd by them I have always been ready to give a Reason of my Belief to whomsoever should ask it of me according to the Apostle's advice and theirs and lastly I have read not only as much Controversie as perchance most men of my age in England but twenty Protestant Books I dare say for one Catholick and yet still I am the same Nor will any body I hope pretend partiality or prepossession in the case seeing that must have much rather enclin'd me to the contrary side for had I been of a Religion not obnoxious to the Laws I might as well it may be have advanc'd my Fortunes as others wanting I thank God neither Relations Friends nor Estate to give me a Rise or beginning Nay so great a propensity have I still for the Religion of all Governments and particularly my own that I thus far declare with Mr. Hobbs who thought every body bound to be of his Prince's Faith that it is a great fault not to comply with the establish'd Practice in every particular that is not truly sinful in my Judgment 'T is Conscience then that makes me a Dissenter and therefore I may be pitied but not blam'd for should any Turk or Jew profess the Gospel and yet in his heart think it false he would be damn'd notwithstanding the verity of it Humane Reason can demand nothing of one as eminent Protestants tell us but a sincere Conviction nor does the profoundest among them propose more And if that shocking Article to flesh and bloud and reckon'd also by our Enemies as our most dangerous Tenet I mean the real and substantial presence of Christ in the Sacrament blots not a Lutheran out of the Book of Life why should it me 'T is true we differ in the Mode or Manner of his being there but not in the Reality so that as great hardships and as seeming contradictions arise to man's capacity from the one as from the other opinion To confirm further also those who might otherwise doubt of my being in the way of Salvation as to Faith I unfeignedly believe all those very Points which Protestant Divines call the grand Fundamentals of Christianity for I believe the Incarnation I believe the Trinity things as incomprehensible and opposite to our finite Nature as can be thought of nor could any Doctrine be more stifly deny'd and rejected than this has been by several Christians nay I declare as the Church of England does when she reads the Creed of St. Athanasius That whosoever will be saved must necessarily hold what is there express'd I believe also in the Merits Mediation and Satisfaction of Christ so that no Action of ours can possibly please but through his Merits no Mediation of any Creature can have the least force or weight without the virtue of his Mediation and no Satisfaction of ours can be valid but as it is grounded on and perfected by the All-sufficiency of his Satisfaction I further believe that Faith and Good Works must joyntly help in the great business of Salvation that both are God's gifts and that we are not able so much as to think one good thought or do the least good Action without his free Grace and Assistance Lastly I believe that the Holy Scriptures are the Word of God that the Reading of them is profitable that it is lawful to have them in the Vulgar Tongue but I believe and the like perchance do all Christian Churches that there are some things * 2 Pet. 3.16 hard in them which the unlearned and unstable may wrest to their own destruction and that they are not of a * 1 Pet. 1.20 private Interpretation Now should any judge otherwise viz. That every body truly interprets who sincerely considers them yet I am still in the right for then as a private man I think and this with all sincerity that the hardness before express'd and the other words of St. Peter which intimate they are not of a private interpretation ought to be understood in the plain and obvious sence If then by agreeing thus with Protestants in what they call the chief Fundamentals of Christianity and if also by the consent of their great and famous Authors several persons that have lived and died in our Religion are in Heaven for they stile them Saints they admire their Actions they propose them as Examples and the like I say if then by reason of these things I may rationally be assur'd that this Interior part of my Belief to wit that which principally relates to my self cannot damn me I will now very strictly examine the Exterior or what touches others and consequently the matters that concern the Government First As to Government in general I believe Monarchy from my heart to be the best and I think far the better of it as often as I consider our late Miseries and Disorders yet had I been born in a lawful Commonwealth Aristocracy or Elective