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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	according_a	church_n	tradition_n	2,646	5	9.0706	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58738	Several weighty considerations humbly recommended to the serious perusal of all, but more especially to the Roman Catholicks of England to which is prefix'd, An epistle from one who was lately of that communion to Dr. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Pauls, declaring the occasion of the following discourse.	T. S. Epistle from a late Roman Catholick to the Very Reverend Dr. Edward Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Paul's.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1679 (1679)	Wing S183; ESTC R16533	49,205	54

precede the Faithful themselves and if the Faithful then must it have Preheminence before the Church it self which is nothing else but the Congregation of the Faithful Thus the Church of Rome will evidently fall short of that Prerogative she so presumptuously arrogates of being both Before and Above the Scripture Again a Rule consisting in Indivisibili as we say i. e. being of that Nature that it is not to be inlarged or diminished how guilty are they who either make Additions to or Substractions from it Both which the Roman Church practiseth as de facio will be manifest in the Sequele of this small Tract In Fine they hold the Word of God written to be that one infallible entire Rule whereby all men Learned and Unlearned may in all necessary and fundamental Points of Faith and Manners be sufficiently instructed what is to be embraced for True and Good That it is a Rule most Certain Plain Universal Impartial not addicted to one Side more than another which neither Pope Conclave nor Councel can so much as pretend to of Power and Authority able to convince the Consciences of such as use it and from which there can be no Appeal And the only Cause why any miss of the True Faith is because they do not sincerely seek and find out this infallible Rule or having found it will not with an obedient Mind captivate their Understanding but have Access to it with Pride Curiosity Prejudice or some other unmortifyed Lust or Impediment More especially the Church of England besides that high Veneration that she her self hath for these sacred Books labours to confirm and root the same in the Hearts of her obedient Children by her Devout Practice For to omit the Frequent Laborious and Judicious Preaching and Expounding of them in this Church she hath so prudently disposed of her publick Liturgy that every day some Part and Portion of both Testaments is appointed to be read The whole Book of Psalms is gone through once a Moneth the Old Testament once and the New thrice every year with other most excellent Exercises of Piety at which even the Romanists themselves can take no just Exception and a very great Author affirms that a modern Pope would have approved the whole Service-Book had his Authority but been acknowledged which discreet Course cannot but afford much heavenly Instruction and Consolation to the constant Attenders on such Blessed Opportunities But what saith the Church of Rome all this while in this Business In her Tridentine Council Sess. 4. Can. 1. She expresly Decrees that unwritten Traditions are of equal Authority with the written Word that they are to be received with the same Reverence and Affection And Cardinal Hosius who was one who in the Popes Name presided at that Council defends that most Blasphemous Speech of Wolfangus Hermannus that the Scripture is of no more Authority than Esop's Fables but for the Churches and Popes Approbation lib. 3. de Authorit Script The Council of Basil would fain perswade us that the Churches Acts and Customs must be to us instead of the Scriptures Instar habeant Sacrarum Scripturarum for that the Scripture and Churches Customs both require the same Affection and Respect Indeed I find the Romish Doctors in nothing more fluent than in degrading and vilifying the Scriptures Our Country man Dr. Stapleton positively affirms that the Church hath Authority to put into the Number of Books of Scripture and to make Canonical the Writings of Hermes and Constitutions of Clemens two famous Counterfeits and that then they would have the same Authority which other Books have canonized by the Apostles themselves Some call them a Nose of Wax to be wrested any way Cardinal Cusanus blushes not to write that the Scriptures are fitted to the time and variously understood the sense thereof being one while this and another while that according as it pleases the Church to change her Judgment Some teach that the Scripture is not simply necessary that God gave it not to the People but to the Doctors and Pastors and that we must live more according to the Dictates of the Church than the Scripture Eckius the great Antagonist of Luther would make us believe that Christ never gave any Command to his Apostles to write any thing Which yet seems very odd when such an express Injunction was lay'd on S. John to write that mystical Book of the Apocalypse which certainly is not more conducing to the Churches Edification than our B. Saviour's Sermon on the Mount and the many other practical Discourses both of himself and his Disciples In a word the most ingenuous and civil among their Writers think they have pay'd all due Respect to Holy writ when they term it a Dumb Judge Dead Ink or Ink shaped into various Forms and Characters Notwithstanding which I humbly conceive that let an Indifferent Person open the Bible and the Canons of the Council of Trent together and he will receive at least as clear and full Satisfaction from the Bible as from the other unless we will impiously deny Almighty God the Faculty of expressing his holy Will and Pleasure as intelligibly as frail Men can theirs or without any shew of Reason affirm with a late Divine that Religion it self was never fully setled till that upstart Conventicle Conformable to the Sentiments are the Practices of that Church in keeping the Bible lock'd up in an Unknown Tongue from the Use of the Vulgar Clement the Eighth very strictly orders all Vulgar Translations to be put into the Index of Prohibited Books And in Italy and Spain and wherever the Inquisition hath the least Jurisdiction the very keeping of them is a Crime no less than Capital It is true where the Reformation hath got any footing Faculties are sometimes granted to read a Translation but clog'd with so many Proviso's and various Cautions and their Spiritual Guides give so small Encouragement to it that it seems rather a Trick to stop the Mouthes of their Adversaries when they Object the Prohibition of Reading Scripture than any real Intention of Promoting so Pious an Exercise among their Devotes Besides their other Forms of Devotion Rosaries or saying over the Beads after divers Methods our Ladies Office Prayers for the Dead Manuals the long Litanies of Saints hearing of Masses reading of Legends c. are in so great Vogue and take up so considerable a Time that I scarce see how any can be allotted for that contemned Employment of studying Gods Word which ought to be the Meditation of every good Christian Day and Night Indeed this neglect to say no worse of Holy Scripture is so notorious among and so peculiar to those of that Way and the Ignorance not only of the Laity but of divers of the Clergy in that kind of Learning especially is so gross that it would be a Work of Supererogation to attempt the proof of it Their Doctors generally pretending Translations of Scripture to be the cause of all Heresies

some Evangelists some Pastors and Teachers for the Perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the Body of Christ. And when he recommends Unity by reason of one Body one Spirit one Hope one Faith one Baptism one Lord there is no mention at all of any Pontifical Monarch In all the New Testament there is not any one called the Head of the Church but only our Blessed Saviour Eph. 1. 22. God hath put all things under his feet and given him to be Head over all things to his Church And chap. 4. 15. Grow up to him in all things who is the Head even Christ. Colos. 1. 18. He is the Head of the Body the Church Wherefore they are highly injurious to our Saviour who set up any other Nor do Protestant Princes take themselves to be Heads of their own particular Churches in any other sence than the good Kings of Israel and Juda were to defend the Orthodox Religion and maintain good Order and Discipline in the Church and take cognizance of abuses crept in among any persons Ecclesiastical or Civil and reform what they find amiss according to the Canon of the Scripture by the advice of their Chief Clergy And not as the Papists impertinently object concerning Q. Elizabeth that she had assumed power to preach administer the Sacraments c. And all this as I said before is the undoubted Right of Soveraign Princes in their own Territories and was practised by the Good Princes under the Old Law with great Commendation and Reward It was likewise promised to the New That Kings should be Nursing Fathers and Queens Nursing Mothers to the Church In fine that Paternal Wisdom and Providence of God which so plentifully revealed to us All matters of importanee for our own private Good for the Being or Well-being of his Church and certainly this great pretended Jurisdiction most be of that Nature that the most Curious Inquirer can desire nothing more and which did under the Mosaical Dispensation so exactly describe the Condition and Power of the High Priest even to the minute Circumstances of his Garments so that none could be so stupid among the Jews but if he read the Books of Moses he might sufficiently understand that there was a High Priest constituted and what Authority he had would certainly have left us some intimation of the like Regiment under the Gospel had there been any such matter to be expected Whereas on the contrary we cannot there find so much as the Name or Title of any such Dignity nor of any Seat appointed for his Residence no singular Office is assigned to him above others no Ensigns of Soveraignty are recorded whereby He might be distinguished from others no manner of Succession is provided for nor is there the least practice or exercise of such a singular Absolute Power so much as hinted at in the whole New Testament And therefore we may justly conclude it to be an upstart Usurpation and no Authority of Divine Institution There are but two passages in Scripture that with any tollerable shew can be made use of to countenance this Supremacy that is so much urged to be conferred on S. Peter and intayled on his Successors The one wherein it seems to be promised the other wherein they say it was actually bestowed The first is that famous place the Achilles of the Roman Cause Matth. 16. 17 18. Thou art Peter and upon this Rock will I build my Church and the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven These words which they think so plain and obvious do yet contain two Metaphors of a Rock and the Keys and I cannot find in any other part of Scripture that they are explained in the Romanists sence Simply and without a Metaphor I am sure they were not so easie to the Aposiles themselves nor did they understand thereby any principality intended for S. Peter as appears by sundry contentions among them after these words were spoken who should be the Chiefest Nor can the Antient Fathers Good men discover any such Energy or Prerogative in them for S Peter or the Pope For our Saviour doth not plainly and literally affirm that he will build his Church upon S. Peter but upon the Rock which he confess'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this Rock not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 upon this Peter Non dictum est illi Tu es Petra sed Tu es Petrus Petra autem erat Christus It was not said to him Thou art the Rock but Thou art Peter for the Rock was Christ says S. Augustin Retract l. c. 21. The same Father in his 124 Tract on S. Joh. Ser. 13. deVer Dom. thus paraphrases this Text Upon this Rock which thou hast confessed upon this Rock which thou hast acknowledg'd saying Thou art Christ the Son of the Living God will I build my Church that is upon my self the Son of the Living God will I build my Church I will build Thee upon Me not Me upon Thee For the Rock was Christ whereon Peter himself was built I am punctual in citing this Great Doctor and Father of the Church because the Romanists give out that they desire to stand to the alone Judgment of this Learned Father The Holy Martyr S. Cyprian could not apprehend any such Intrigue in these words l. de Unit. Eccles. The rest of the Apostles saith he were the same that Peter was being endowed with an equal share both of Honour and Power Nor S. Ambrose Serm. 66. S. Peter and Paul were eminent among the Apostles and it is doubtful which is to he preferred before the other S. Hillary l. 6. de Trin. S. Chrysost. hom 55. in Matth. Euseb. Emissen Greg. the Great V. Beda Haymo the Gloss of Gratian Lyra and a multitude of others understand the Text of S. Matthew as S. Augustin doth Cardinal Cusanus l. 2. c. 13. Concord Cath. is very positive that nothing was here said to S. Peter but what was said to the rest of the Apostles And the words of Sixtus Senensis a very Learned Pontifician Biblioth l. 6. are worth our notice We believe and acknowledge with a sure faith that Christ is the first and Chief Foundation of the Whole Ecclesiastical Edifice But we also affirm that upon this Foundation there are other Rocks lay'd namely Peter and the rest of the Apostles whom John in the Apocalypse names the Twelve Foundations of the Heavenly Jerusalem In sum I find three Interpretations of these words among the Antients viz. That Christ is the Rock That the Confession Faith and Doctrine of Christ is the Rock and that S. Peter himself as an Apostle is Metonymically a partial Rock All which meanings agree very well together but nothing favour the Supremacy that the Romanists desire Nor do the Protestants

having Fellowship with any of those horrid Works of Darkness whereof many of its Professors and the Religion it self are accused And this may serve for my old Friends Now as for your self and all other candid disinterested Persons I know it will be satisfactory to put you in mind that to impute my Proceedings to the frowning of the Times on that Party is Fallacia non Causae pro Causa a Mistake of the Adjunct or Circumstance of Time for the Principal Motive The Conversion of a Sinner is the Work of Omnipoteuce who as he is most free in all his Actions ad Extra so especially in the reclaiming of a strayed Sheep He is no wayes tied up to the Circumstances of Whom How Where or When. Nescit tarda Molimina Spiritûs Sancti Gratia sayes S. Bernard And if he were graciously pleased more effectually to touch my Heart now than at any other time and times of Affliction are his especial Seasons Afflictio dat Intellectum Cum Occideret eos c. I know no other Account can be given of it than that of our B. Saviour Even so Father for so it seemed Good in thy Sight Nay I have before demonstrated that these Thoughts have been long hovering in my Mind though perhaps they had not been altogether so suddenly declared but out of a deep Resentment of the Dangers of any further neglecting the Divine Call and a seasonable Desire to Testifie to the World my perfect Abhorrence of such desperate Practices and Principles which I am convinced are pernicious both to Publick Polity and Civil Society And I hope none can reasonably be angry that I have gained more Experience now I am thirty six years old than I had when I was but twenty These are the Principal Matters I thought worth your Knowledge at present wherein I protest before God and Man that I have no other Design but the Quiet of my Conscience and the Salvation of my Soul And when I have given a publick Tolerable Account of this Affair I will take my leave of this Noble Science of Controversie as Mr. Serjeant calls it having alwayes been more addicted to Ascetick Theology and sit down with Divine Anselm's Resolution Quid restat per Totam Vitam meam nisi ut Defleam Totam Vitam meam Crosses and Afflictions are no more than I except and deserve having hitherto been so little acquainted with them The Wise man hath read my Doom to me Fili accedens ad servitutem Dei praepara Animum tuum ad Tentationem As for the sincerity of my Resolutions I can but Appeal to that Great Searcher of Hearts and Tryer of Reins And though some Folk talk of Dispensations from Rome for the taking All Oaths and Complying with All Externals and no meaner a Person than the Author of the Difference between the Church and Court of Rome out of Arch-Bishop Spotswood's History mentions some such like thing practised in Scotland yet with submission to the Learned Author I conceive there is no such matter since the Pope himself could never be induced to Approve even the single Oath of Allegiance but expresly condemned it and severely prohibited the taking of it as containing saith he divers Points contrary to Salvation And moreover put case any thing of that nature were in Being I here solemnly Avow that I disown all such Pretended Authority One Circumstance not very Material I confess but I would not too much swerve from the Accurate Exactness of Writers of Epistles Apologetical though Mr. Cressey observe it in the Beginning and I in the Conclusion must not be forgotten and thus it is To you above all Persons living I have an Obligation to recurr in Spiritual Concerns for I am your Parishioner Holborn having been the place of my Nativity I have nothing more but with all Respect and Gratitude to assure you I am December 15. 1678. Reverend and Honoured Sir Your most obliged and Humble Servant T. S. Several Weighty CONSIDERATIONS Humbly Recommended To the Serious Perusal of ALL especially the Roman Catholicks of England IT is a very good Rule prescribed by some Spiritual Writers That in Converse we should rather discourse of Things than Persons And I intend as much as the Matter will permit to observe it in this subsequent Treatise carefully avoiding all personal Reflections especially upon such as are living and shall only bring some Doctrines and Practices to the Test which though they pass for currant with many will yet be found adulterate and contrary to Holy Scripture the best Genuine Antiquity and Right Reason highly scandalous to the Christian Religion in General destructive of Civil Government fatal to Humane Society and very pernicious both to the Spiritual and Temporal Concerns of the Practisers even in their private Capacity In short I shall very plainly and briefly endeavour to make good two Assertions 1. That there is no sufficient Ground for any one to forsake the Communion of the Church of England and incorporate with that of Rome 2. That there is all Reason imaginable both for such as have been educated in the Roman Communion to Reform and for such as have unwarily ingaged with her to Return This was the happy Result of these following Considerations upon my own Heart And it shall be my Prayer that they may have the same Blessed Effect in the impartial Perusers of them The sacred Oracles of the Holy Scriptures deservedly Command our first Inquiry We have Cardinal Bellarmine's own Concession that in the grand Question of the Church the Scripture is better known than the Church Consequently then not only her Authority but her very Being must be subordinate to it And therefore in the first place let us see what Sentiments the Church of England hath of these Heavenly Records and whether Hers or those of the Roman Church be more Consonant to Pure Antiquity Reason and Holy Writ it self All Protestants and particularly the Church of England Artic. 6. look upon the Holy Scriptures to contain all things necessary to Salvation so that whatever is not read in them or cannot be proved from them is not to be Imposed on any to be received as an Article of Faith or a Necessary Requisite to Salvation Whence it appears that they take Them to be the Onely Complete and Adequate Rule both of Faith and Life sufficiently intelligible and easie in matters that concern what is simply necessary to make us Good and Happy They consequently hold that since Holy Scripture is the Rule of our Faith it must have an exact Proportion to that whereof it is a Rule So that Matters of Faith are not to be extended beyond this Rule nor can any unwritten Traditions any way be pretended to appertain to the Substance of Faith Moreover the Rule being the Idea Model and great Exemplar of what is regulated by it it is in order of Nature before the thing so regulated And if the word of God be antecedent to Faith it self it must likewise

and Phanaticism Nay I have met with one so frantick that he thinks it was the Devils invention to permit the people to read the Bible Martin Peres de Tradit And I remember Thyrraeus de Daemoniac c. 21. says that thence he knew certain Persons to be possess'd by the Devil because being but Husbandmen they were able to discourse concerning Scripture We will now see what Holy Writ it self untainted Antiquity and unprejudiced Reason alleage in this Case and which side they patronize the Reformation or the Church of Rome S. Paul gives this Encomium of his Disciple Timothy 2 Ep. c. 3. v. 15. That from a Child he had been Conversant in the Holy Scriptures and tells him they were able to make him Wise to Salvation which I hope is Knowledge enough and I am sure is a more plain compendious Path than the crooked Labyrinths of uncertain Traditions forged Decrees Canons and Fathers He further assures him that the same Divine Scriptures were profitable for Doctrine for Reproof for Correction for Instruction to Righteousness that the Man of God might be perfect throughly furnished to every good Work For my part I know not what remains then for Tradition and such like Trash to perform since the Word of God alone can so compleat us Solomon Prov. 2. 9. assures us that Gods Law alone will make a man understand Righteousness and Judgment and Equity and Every good Work The Prophet Esa. c. 8. 20. refers us to try all things by the Law and Testimony and that we must conclude those to have no light who speak not according to that Word Our B. Saviour Luke 10. 26. When a Lawyer inquired of him what he should do to inherit Eternal Life bids him have recourse to what was written in the Law and asked him how he read there S. Luke writ his Gospel to Theophilus a Lay Person Luke 1. 4. to the end he might certainly know those things wherein he had been instructed S. John writ his as he himself testifies c. 20. v. 31. that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing we might have Life through him Abraham sends Dives his Brethren to Moses and the Prophets rather than to Visions Apparitions and private Revelations which yet are so much pretended to and boasted of in the Roman Church Christ himself submitted the Tryal both of his Doctrine and Miracles to the Censure of the Scriptures John 5. 39. Search the Scriptures for they are they which testifie of me Thoughts are free and I am apt to think that some will take the Liberty to judge it a little unreasonable that our B. Saviour should so readily stand to the Verdict of Moses and the Prophets and yet his pretended Vicar should scorn to submit to the Censure of Christ and his Apostles but defie both their Doctrines and Practices with so many Non Obstante's as appears by their new model'd Creed at this day wherein Pius the fourth hath coined twelve new Articles of Faith to shew his single Power equivalent to that of all the Apostles in General who did but every one contribute his single Article to that ancient Symbole bearing their Name S. Paul's Auditors the Bereans are highly commended for searching the Scriptures daily to examine whether the Doctrine they heard were true or no. Act. 17. 11. In Sum the old Law was severely injoyned to the Reading and Meditation both of Prince Priest and People men Women and Children as is obvious to observe all along the Style thereof And the Jews were so versed in it as to be able to reckon up the Number of the Words nay Letters contained therein And the new Law excludes none either from that Common Salvation it holds forth or the means to attain it which is the Doctrine of the Gospel The Epistles are directed to Persons of all sorts and both Sexes In fine the whole Oeconomy both of the Old and New Testament is so diametrically opposite to the Practice of the Roman Church in this Point that it is but too too palpable that the three Main Pillars of Popery are to keep the Prince in awe the Priest in Honour and the People in Ignorance Antiquity is so luxuriant in this point that it will be a greater Difficulty to select than to accumulate Famous is that Speech of Constantine the great to the Fathers in the Niccne Council recorded by Theodor. Histor. l. 1. c. 7. and this Saying among the rest is very remarkable We have the teaching of the Holy Ghost written for the Evangelical and Apostolical Books and the old Prophets do evidently teach us the things that are needful to be known concerning God Wherefore laying aside all Contention let us out of the Divinely Inspired Scripture take the Resolution of those things we seek for Tertullian contr Hermog in plain terms calls the Scripture The Rule of Faith St. Chrysostom Hom. 13. in 2 ad Cor. styles it A most Excellent Rule and Exact Ballance to try All things by St. August in l. 2. de Nupt. Concup c. 33. speaks thus This Controversie depending between us requires a Judge let Christ therefore judge and let the Apostle Paul judge with him because Christ speaks in his Apostle But most Memorable is that Passage of Optatus contr Parmen l. 5. where he thus presses the Donatist We are saith he to enquire out some to be Judges between us in these Controversies The Christians cannot because both sides cannot yield them and by part-taking the Truth will be hindred the Judge must be had from without our selves If a Pagan he knows not the Mysteries of Christianity if a Jew he is an Enemy to Baptisme therefore on Earth no judgment concerning this matter can be found The Judge must be had from Heaven But to what end should we knock at Heaven when here we have one in the Gospel Quotations might be Infinite but I Supersede Nor did the Antient Fathers onely think this themselves but by their frequent Translations of the Scripture and vehement Exhortations to the People to read them so translated they endeavoured to beget the same awful Respect to Gods Holy Word in the Minds of all Ulphilas a Bishop of the Goths turned the Scripture into that Barbarous Language as Socrates witnesses Methodius into the Sclavonian S. Chrysostom hom 1. in Johan makes mention of Syrian Aegyptian Indian Persian and Ethiopian Translations Theodoret de Curand Graec. Affect assures us the Bible was turned into all Languages used in the World Greek Latin Armenian Scythian Sarmatian c. And we have at this day divers Fragments of them remaining Venerable Bede shews the same of our own Country To speak plain I know no Topick the Fathers are more Copious upon than in calling upon the People to get Bibles to read them to examin what they hear by them and severely inveighing against the Negligence of such as did not According to the Apostles Advice even to the Laity Colos. 3. 16.