Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
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A36673
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Religio laici, or, A laymans faith a poem.
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Dryden, John, 1631-1700.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing D2342; ESTC R71
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17,325
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45
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not every where Free from Corruption or intire or clear Are uncorrupt sufficient clear intire In all things which our needfull Faith require If others in the same Glass better see 'T is for Themselves they look but not for me For MY Salvation must its Doom receive Not from what OTHERS but what I believe Must all Tradition then be set aside This to affirm were Ignorance or Pride Are there not many points some needfull sure To saving Faith that Scripture leaves obscure Which every Sect will wrest a several way For what one Sect Interprets all Sects may We hold and say we prove from Scripture plain That Christ is GOD the bold Socinian From the same Scripture urges he 's but MAN Now what Appeal can end th' important Suit Both parts talk loudly but the Rule is mute Shall I speak plain and in a Nation free Assume an honest Layman's Liberty I think according to my little Skill To my own mother-Mother-Church submitting still That many have been sav'd and many may Who never heard this Question brought in play Th' unletter'd Christian who believes in gross Plods on to Heaven and ne'er is at a loss For the Streight-gate wou'd be made streighter yet Were none admitted there but men of Wit The few by Nature form'd with Learning fraught Born to instruct as others to be taught Must Study well the Sacred Page and see Which Doctrine this or that does best agree With the whole Tenour of the Work Divine And plainlyest points to Heaven 's reveal'd Design Which Exposition flows from genuine Sense And which is forc'd by Wit and Eloquence Not that Traditions parts are useless here When general old disinteress'd and clear That Ancient Fathers thus expound the Page Gives Truth the reverend Majesty of Age Confirms its force by biding every Test For best Authority's next Rules are best And still the nearer to the Spring we go More limpid more unsoyl'd the Waters flow Thus first Traditions were a proof alone Cou'd we be certain such they were so known But since some Flaws in long descent may be They make not Truth but Probability Even Arius and Pelagius durst provoke To what the Centuries preceding spoke Such difference is there in an oft-told Tale But Truth by its own Sinews will prevail Tradition written therefore more commends Authority than what from Voice descends And this as perfect as its kind can be Rouls down to us the Sacred History Which from the Vniversal Church receiv'd Is try'd and after for its self believ'd The partial Papists wou'd infer from hence Their Church in last resort shou'd Judge the Sense But first they wou'd assume with wondrous Art Themselves to be the whole who are but part Of that vast Frame the Church yet grant they were The handers down can they from thence infer A right t' interpret or wou'd they alone Who brought the Present claim it for their own The Book 's a Common Largess to Mankind Not more for them than every Man design'd The welcome News is in the Letter found The Carrier's not Commission'd to expound It speaks it Self and what it does contain In all things needfull to be known is plain In times o'ergrown with Rust and Ignorance A gainfull Trade their Clergy did advance When want of Learning kept the Laymen low And none but Priests were Authoriz'd to know When what small Knowledge was in them did dwell And he a God who cou'd but Reade or Spell Then Mother Church did mightily prevail She parcel'd out the Bible by retail But still expounded what She sold or gave To keep it in her Power to Damn and Save Scripture was scarce and as the Market went Poor Laymen took Salvation on Content As needy men take Money good or bad God's Word they had not but the Priests they had Yet whate'er false Conveyances they made The Lawyer still was certain to be paid In those dark times they learn'd their knack so well That by long use they grew Infallible At last a knowing Age began t' enquire If they the Book or That did them inspire And making narrower search they found thô late That what they thought the Priest's was Their Estate Taught by the Will produc'd the written Word How long they had been cheated on Record Then every man who saw the Title fair Claim'd a Child's part and put in for a Share Consulted Soberly his private good And sav'd himself as cheap as e'er he cou'd 'T is true my Friend and far be Flattery hence This good had full as bad a Consequence The Book thus put in every vulgar hand Which each presum'd he best cou'd understand The Common Rule was made the common Prey And at the mercy of the Rabble lay The tender Page with horney Fists was gaul'd And he was gifted most that loudest baul'd The Spirit gave the Doctoral Degree And every member of a Company Was of his Trade and of the Bible free Plain Truths enough for needfull use they found But men wou'd still be itching to expound Each was ambitious of th' obscurest place No measure ta'n from Knowledge all from GRACE Study and Pains were now no more their Care Texts were explain'd by Fasting and by Prayer This was the Fruit the private Spirit brought Occasion'd by great Zeal and little Thought While Crouds unlearn'd with rude Devotion warm About the Sacred Viands buz and swarm The Fly-blown Text creates a crawling Brood And turns to Maggots what was meant for Food A Thousand daily Sects rise up and dye A Thousand more the perish'd Race supply So all we make of Heavens discover'd Will Is not to have it or to use it ill The Danger 's much the same on several Shelves If others wreck us or we wreck our selves What then remains but waving each Extreme The Tides of Ignorance and Pride to stem Neither so rich a Treasure to forgo Nor proudly seek beyond our pow'r to know Faith is not built on disquisitions vain The things we must believe are few and plain But since men will believe more than they need And every man will make himself a Creed In doubtfull questions 't is the safest way To learn what unsuspected Ancients say For 't is not likely we shou'd higher Soar In search of Heav'n than all the Church before Nor can we be deceiv'd unless we see The Scripture and the Fathers disagree If after all they stand suspected still For no man's Faith depends upon his Will 'T is some Relief that points not clearly known Without much hazard may be let alone And after hearing what our Church can say If still our Reason runs another way That private Reason 't is more Just to curb Than by Disputes the publick Peace disturb For points obscure are of small use to learn But Common quiet is Mankind's concern Thus have I made my own Opinions clear Yet neither Praise expect nor Censure fear And this unpolish'd rugged Verse I chose As fittest for Discourse and nearest Prose For while from Sacred Truth I do not swerve Tom Sternhold 's or Tom Sha ll 's Rhimes will serve FINIS Opinions of the several Sects of Philosophers concerning the Summum Bonum Systeme of Deisme Of Reveal'd Religion Socrates Objection of the Deist The Objection answer'd Digression to the Translatour of Father Simon 's Critical History of the Old Testament Of the Infallibility of Tradition in General Objection in behalf of Tradition urg'd by Father Simon The Second Objection Answer to the Objection
his own Materials Reason is always striving and always at a loss and of necessity it must so come to pass while 't is exercis'd about that which is not its proper object Let us be content at last to know God by his own Methods at least so much of him as he is pleas'd to reveal to us in the sacred Scriptures to apprehend them to be the word of God is all our Reason has to do for all beyond it is the work of Faith which is the Seal of Heaven impress'd upon our humane understanding And now for what concerns the Holy Bishop Athanasius the Preface of whose Creed seems inconsistent with my opinion which is That Heathens may possibly be sav'd in the first place I desire it may be consider'd that it is the Preface onely not the Creed it self which till I am better inform'd is of too hard a digestion for my Charity 'T is not that I am ignorant how many several Texts of Scripture seemingly support that Cause but neither am I ignorant how all those Texts may receive a kinder and more mollified Interpretation Every man who is read in Church History knows that Belief was drawn up after a long contestation with Arrius concerning the Divinity of our Blessed Saviour and his being one Substance with the Father and that thus compild it was sent abroad among the Christian Churches as a kind of Test which whosoever took was look'd on as an Orthodox Believer 'T is manifest from hence that the Heathen part of the Empire was not concerned in it for its business was not to distinguish betwixt Pagans and Christians but betwixt Heriticks and true Believers This well consider'd takes off the heavy weight of Censure which I wou'd willingly avoid from so venerable a Man for if this Proportion whosoever will be sav'd be restrained onely to those to whom it was intended and for whom it was compos'd I mean the Christians then the Anathema reaches not the Heathens who had never heard of Christ and were nothing interessed in that dispute After all I am far from blaming even that Prefatory addition to the Creed and as far from cavilling at the continuation of it in the Liturgy of the Church where on the days appointed 't is publickly read For I suppose there is the same reason for it now in opposition to the Socinians as there was then against the Arrians the one being a Heresy which seems to have been refin'd out of the other and with how much more plausibility of Reason it combats our Religion with so much more caution to be avoided and therefore the prudence of our Church is to be commended which has interpos'd her Authority for the recommendation of this Creed Yet to such as are grounded in the true belief those explanatory Creeds the Nicene and this of Athanasius might perhaps be spar'd for what is supernatural will always be a mystery in spight of Exposition and for my own part the plain Apostles Creed is most sutable to my weak understanding as the simplest diet is the most easy of Digestion I have dwelt longer on this Subject than I intended and longer than perhaps I ought for having laid down as my Foundation that the Scripture is a Rule that in all things needfull to Salvation it is clear sufficient and ordain'd by God Almighty for that purpose I have left my self no right to interpret obscure places such as concern the possibility of eternal happiness to Heathens because whatsoever is obscure is concluded not necessary to be known But by asserting the Scripture to be the Canon of our Faith I have unavoidably created to my self two sorts of Enemies The Papists indeed more directly because they have kept the Scripture from us what they cou'd and have reserv'd to themselves a right of Interpreting what they have deliver'd under the pretence of Infalibility and the Fanaticks more collaterally because they have assum'd what amounts to an Infalibility in the private Spirit and have detorted those Texts of Scripture which are not necessary to Salvation to the damnable uses of Sedition disturbance and destruction of the Civil Government To begin with the Papists and to speak freely I think them the less dangerous at least in appearance to our present State for not onely the Penal Laws are in Force against them and their number is contemptible but also their Peerage and Commons are excluded from Parliaments and consequently those Laws in no probability of being Repeal'd A General and Uninterrupted Plot of their Clergy ever since the Reformation I suppose all Protestants believe For 't is not reasonable to think but that so many of their Orders as were outed from their fat possessions wou'd endeavour a reentrance against those whom they account Hereticks As for the late design Mr. Colemans Letters for ought I know are the best Evidence and what they discover without wyre-drawing their Sence or malicious Glosses all Men of reason conclude credible If there be any thing more than this requir'd of me I must believe it as well as I am able in spight of the Witnesses and out of a decent conformity to the Votes of Parliament For I suppose the Fanaticks will not allow the private Spirit in this Case Here the Infallibility is at least in one part of the Government and our understandings as well as our wills are represented But to return to the Roman Catholicks how can we be secure from the practice of Jesuited Papists in that Religion For not two or three of that Order as some of them would impose upon us but almost the whole Body of them are of opinion that their Infallible Master has a right over Kings not onely in Spirituals but Temporals Not to name Mariana Bellarmine Emanuel Sa Molina Santarel Simancha and at the least twenty others of Foreign Countries we can produce of our own Nation Campian and Doleman or Parsons besides many are nam'd whom I have not read who all of them attest this Doctrine that the Pope can Depose and give away the Right of any Sovereign Prince si vel paulum deflexerit if he shall never so little Warpe but if he once comes to be Excommunicated then the Bond of obedience is taken off from Subjects and they may and ought to drive him like another Nebuchadnezzar ex hominum Christianorum Dominatu from exercising Dominion over Christians and to this they are bound by virtue of Divine Precept and by all the tyes of Conscience under no less Penalty than Damnation If they answer me as a Learned Priest has lately Written that this Doctrine of the Jesuits is not de fide and that consequently they are not oblig'd by it they must pardon me if I think they have said nothing to the purpose for 't is a Maxim in their Church where Points of Faith are not decided and that Doctors are of contrary opinions they may follow which part they please but more safely the most receiv'd and most Authoriz'd And