Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	9,173	5	9.2350	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25674	A vindication of the Roman Catholicks from the foul aspersions thrown upon them by John Tillotson ... in a sermon preached by him in November, 1687 ...	Antoine.	1688 (1688)	Wing A3517; ESTC R6580	11,687	16

I may be worthy to know it I will readily answer it Then he brings Fathers If the Doctor will be so kind as to let me know out of what part of their Writings he took his Quotations I will readily answer him Then follows his Bold Challenge to his Adversaries to bring him any Father who discourages the Vulgar from reading the Scripture I answer his Challenge producing these following The whole Epistle to the Romans wants interpretation and is involved in so great abscurities that we want the aid of the H. Ghost to understand it The same Father confesses that in Scripture he never trusted to his own knowledge nor believed upon his own strength but where he thought he knew yet there he asked the learned This Saint had no Protestant spirit St. Augustin saith That the Exposition of the Holy Scripture is to be asked of those who profess themselves Doctors St. Epiphanius commits the scrutiny of the Scriptures to the Learned St. Gregory saith the Word of God abhors carnal and rude Men and that the Law is partly manifest and partly hidden To the Weak Faithful we ought to open those things which are more perfect and when they are become proficients and have clear sight then to put the light before them The reasons why Heresies are is the obscurity of the Divine Scriptures The unlearned ought not to presume to read the Holy Scriptures before they have despised and cast off the pomp of the World. I conclude with St. Hierome When there is no one Art that any of Vulgar can say they know yet this the knowledge of the Scriptures every old prating Woman every old doting Fellow every talking Sophister pretends to know They tear the Scripture and teach it before they have learnd it I could have given farther testimony out of the Fathers if it had been needful but these will suffice to vindicate the Roman Catholick Practice in contradiction to the Doctor who so boldly affirmed that we had not one rag of Antiquity to cover our Nakedness in this point I assure the Doctor that some would have been glad of such Rags to have made the Church of Englands Wedding Garments The Roman Catholick Practice in the second point which the Doctor calls Prayers in an unknown Tongue is thus The chief part of the Roman Liturgie is the Mass the substance of which is an Action to wit An Offering to God of the Body and Blood of his Son under the form of Bread and Wine by the Hands of the Priest A Sacrifice commemorative and applicative of the great Sacrifice of the Cross The Doctor dares not deny us Antiquity and Universality as to the truth of this Doctrine The rest of the Roman Liturgie is subservient to this That part of the Liturgie which the Vulgar do frequent is the Mass as Morning Prayer Even-song Compline and Litanies as Evening Prayers The rest of the Liturgie is said by Church-Men at Mid-night or at three four or five of the Clock in the Morning or at such hours as the Vulgar is seldom present and perhaps the Doctor would not leave his warm Bed and Wife to hear it although he pretends to understand Latin. Now that part of the Liturgie which the Vulgar do frequent they do understand as well as the Vulgar in the Protestant Church do their Common-Prayer for the Mass I told the Doctor it was an Action and Seeing is their most proper sense for it and the Vulgar may have as good Eyes as the Doctor As to that part which is properly Prayer it is Translated into the Vulgar Tongue and they have it in their Prayer-Books and being obliged to Church-Service every Sunday and Holy day they understand it as well as their daily Prayers The Epistles and Gospels of the Mass are likewise in the Vulgar Tongue with the meaning of every Circumstance And as to the understanding of every word of the Mass which the Doctor was pleased to reflect upon I answer that the greatest part of the Words of the Mass are the Priest's secret Prayers to God for himself and the people There is moreover daily Preaching and Catechising in the Church by which there is enough given to the weakest Capacitie to let him understand what he ought to believe and do in order to Salvation To the Question Must the Vulgar be acquainted with every thing which is done in and belongs to the Church before they can or will be satisfied edified or no If they must then the Church of England Edifieth not the greatest part of her Children in her Cathedrals where when they sing Musically few understand them neither are the Vulgar satisfied and edified in the Protestant Ceremonies neither am I edified that the Doctor should so much extoll Knowledge when not one in ten thousand ever read the Protestant Profession of Faith Nor one in the like Number knows how much he is obliged to believe So that when we rightly examine things we shall find ignorance a Protestant Vertue And is it not to stumble at a Straw and leap over a Block to Damn the people if they read not the Scripture but let the Tenents of those who read it be ever so perverse so they protest against Popery they are Members of Crist's Church as the Bishop of Bath and Wells called the French Hugonots in his Pastoral-Letter and go to Heaven And is not this Pharisaical in the Doctor to Damn people for not reading the Scripture a Protestant Tradition and not Condemn them for their Schismatical and Heretical Opinions things Condemned by God his Son his Apostles and his Church in all Ages I argue farther thus It is not necessary that the Vulgar understand explicitly all and every thing that is believed in the Church as such decrees of the four first General Councils as are de Fide or the Thirty Nine Articles in the Protestant Church destinctly If the Doctor denys this Proposition he must Condemn most of the Ministers and Laity of his Church so by parity of Reason a Man may be a true Worshiper and yet not understand distinctly and verbatim every Word which is spoken in the Church Farther the Doctor cannot shew any Divine precept or decree of any General Council which contradicts the practice of the Roman Church in this point which he should have done if he had spoken Doctor like before he had pronounced Damnation upon the people Now where there is no precept contradicted the Church is to be obeyed These reasons I give the Doctor for the Latin Church Liturgy being every where in Latin. 1 st That the Governours of the Church may have a certain knowledge of the true practice of it which they could not conveniently have if it were in every petty Speech 2 dly To avoid danger of the nullity of the Sacraments which would happen if the Priest should not pronounce the Words rightly of which there is danger when the Priest is not perfect in the Language 3 dly