Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A34345
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Considerations about subscription, humbly submitted to the convocation, on behalf of the conformable clergy with some reflections on the late subscription, made by our dissenting brethren.
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1690
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Wing C5906; ESTC R18960
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13,980
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37
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own Friends especially who scruple the Ceremonies more than any other thing who take thus much for granted If you say they are mistaken though I won't be positive I am afraid so too and therefore press for some Redress However when you pass Censure on them you must remember that it 's not for an Equivocal Subscription but their mistaking the Churches Sence But 2. you and your Party Dear Brother of all Men in the World since your own Subscription should not complain of ours Your Case and ours is now the same Though we have run farther than you by our Subscription yet you have followed us in the same Path and have fallen on some of the same Rocks and have got a great way within the same Labyrinth and need as much the help of the Convocation and Parliament to extricate your selves as any of our Communion do I will endeavour to clear thus much by making some Reflections R. B's Sense of the Subscribed Articles of Religion p. 3. on two or three of your Subscribed Articles Art 3. HE WENT DOWN INTO HELL that is into Hades the State of separated Souls Of which See Arch-Bishop Ushers Answer to the Jesuits This Article you cannot Subscribe without an Exposition and your Exposition such as makes your sense more doubtful For though by Hell you understand Hades by which you mean the State of separated Souls yet it is as delivered by Arch-Bishop Usher who gives such different accounts of the signification of Hades that we cannot tell but by Hell you may intend Heaven for Hades as it imports the State of separate Souls is by some in Usher used to signifie Heaven In the Ecclesiastical Use of the Word Hell saith Usher Answer to the Jesuits Challenge of Limbus Patrum p. 316. is extended to express the Greek Hades and the Latin Inferi and whatsoever is contained under them and so signifies the place of all the Dead in common and not of the Wicked only Now as the common condition of the Dead is considerable three manner of ways either in respect of the Body separated from the Soul or of the Soul separated from the Body or of the WHOLE MAN indefinitely considered in this State of separation So do we find the word Hades to be applied by the Antient Greek interpreters of the Old Testament to the common state and place of the Body severed from the Soul By the Heathen Greeks to the common state and place of the Soul severed from the Body and by both of them to the common state of the Dead But you in your Exposition terminating your sense to the state of separate Souls as explicated by p. 360. the Arch-Bishop we will see what it is that he saith of it and it is thus With Forreign Authors the word Hades signifies ordinarily the Common Lodge of Souls separated from their Bodies whether the particular Place assigned unto each of them be conceived to be an Habitation of BLISS or of MISERY To heap up many Testimonies out of p. 364. of Heathen Authors to prove that in their understanding All Souls went to Hades received there either PUNISHMENT or REWARD according to the Life they lived in this World would be but a needless work If any Man desire to inform himself herein he may repair to Plutarchs Consolatory Discourse written to Apollonius where he shall find the Testimonies of Pindarus and many others alledged touching the State of the Godly in HADES Thus the word Hell imports as much as Hades and Hades is the place of separate Souls whether in Bliss or Misery but whether you mean by Hell the place of Misery or Bliss is not clear It 's probable that as some Papists by Paradise which is the third Heaven understand Hell so by Hell as Doctor Bishop falsely chargeth the generality of Protestants you really intend Heaven Master Broughton as the Arch-Bishop intimates has been too forward in owning this Opinion which yet he might Defend as what the words will bear for Heaven it self may be comprized within the Notion of Hades and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred Descend though Ten times used in the Acts of the Apostles yet in none of all these places signifieth any Descending from a Higher place unto a Lower but removing simply from one place to another I omit the Phrases of Descending in Praelium in Forum in Campum in Amicitiam in Causam c. So far the Arch-Bishop But though the Greek in the Apostles Creed will bear this sense yet the Article being in English unless by Descending we may understand Ascending and by Hell we may understand Heaven 't will not be easie for you to fasten this sense on the words or to come more close to your own way of speaking we may return your own Argument upon you If by went down you mean not went down and if by Hell you mean not Hell we must better know what you mean before we subscribe in your sense else you may make it lawful to subscribe to any thing in the World and say you mean better than you speak That I take you right appears thus When you speak by way of Explication that by Hell you mean the State of separate Souls all know that those Souls thus separated must be Lodged somewhere they must be either in Heaven or in Hell or in Limbo or in Purgatory and seeing 't would be the greatest abuse to Insinuate that you hold any other Place after this Life than Heaven and Hell you must believe that as soon as Christ's Soul was separated from His Body it went somewhere it must be to one of these places If you had been of Opinion that it went to Hell there had been no need of any Exposition your Naked subscription as unto an Article of Faith wou'd import so much The words are plain going down into Hell Descended into Hell all know what going down meaneth and all take Hell to signifie the place of the Damned Thus it signified in Edward the Sixth his Days as appears by the additional Clause For his Body lay in the Grave till the Resurrection but his Soul being separate from his Body remained with the Spirits which were detained in Prison that is to say in Hell and there Preached unto them as witnesseth that Place of PETER so that the Words of our Article in Edward the Sixth's time were expressive of the Descent of Christs Soul into Hell which being retained by us still must be supposed to be in the * In the Synod in the days of Q. Elizabeth the Articles which continue still in Force deliver the Same Descent but without any the least Explication or Reference to any particular Place of Scripture Bishop Peirsons Expos of the Creed Ed. 4. p. 226. Same sense The leaving out this Clause only sheweth that we are not bound to believe that Christ went into Hell to Preach But as †Of the Church lib. 5. cap. 19. Doctor Field
as thorough a Protestant as any Dissenter in England tells us The end of Christs going down into the Hell of the Damned was only to fasten Condemnation to the Devils and his Angels to * Another Opinion hath obtained especially in our Church that the end for which Christ Descended into Hell was to Triumph over Satan and all the Powers below within their own Dominions Bishop Peirson ubi sup p. 247. See B. Bils p. 294. Triumph over the Principalities of Darkness to secure us from being surprized by them and to prevent our going thither not to fetch back any that were there already But that Christ Descended into the Hell of the Damned was generally received by Protestants is asserted by this Doctor And that others of our Church are of another Opinion I grant but then it doth the more strongly infer the necessity our Church lieth under of Declaring her sense of it and that until thus much be done the safest way of Subscription is as Chillingworth Usher and Bramhall affirm it to be However let the Subscription be after what manner soever it is manifest that this Reverend Nonconforming Brother can never Subscribe this one Article in his expounded sense more honestly than we subscribe all the rest And that notwithstanding his severity against us for subscribing the 4 Controverted Articles the Liturgy c. it 's not over difficult to run him and his Brethren to the same straits for subscribing 36 which he thinks he hath driven us unto by reason of our larger subscription We find as many Perplexities in those Articles they subscribe as they can shew us in any they refuse and even in this one Article I doubt not but the more Learned and thoughtful amongst that Party will see enough to Perplex them The Learned Arch-Bishop was of Opinion that it Usher ubi sup p. 417. was too Perplexing To speak the Truth saith he it is a matter above the reach of the common People to enter into the Discussion of the full meaning of this Point of the Descension into Hell He therefore leaves it to be considered by the Learned whether any such Controverted matter may fitly be brought in to expound the Rule of Faith by which being common both to the Great and Small Ones in the Church must contain such verities only as are generally agreed upon by the common consent of all True Christians Artic. 4. Christ took again his Body with Flesh and Bones and all things appertaining to the Perfection of Man's Nature wherewith He Ascended into Heaven and there sitteth c. The words of this Article are Plain and easie enough to be understood for what can Flesh Bones and all things Appertaining to the Perfection of Man's Nature import less than what to use the School term we call formally Flesh and Bones and it 's as clear that herewith Christ Ascended into Heaven and there he sitteth so that there is no need of an Exposition of this Article where the Sense is so evident we may immediately declare our Assent or Dissent And this Reverend Brother instead of Explicating it writes a confutation of it In your Preface you tell us that you Subscribe them and that you may not be Unconscionably Rash in subscribing you here tell all whom it may concern how you understand the words which you Subscribe And under this Article which speaks of formal Flesh and Bones you assure us that the Body of Christ now in Heaven is not the same thing which we call formally Flesh and Bones your subscription therefore must be in this sense by Flesh you mean not Flesh by Bones you mean not Bones and so Subscribe to this Part of the Article that Flesh and Bones are in Heaven Whether any of our Church ever did or can Subscribe in a larger sense let the World Judge Artic. 6. In the name of the Holy Scriptures we understand those Canonical Books of the Old and New Testament of whose Authority was NEVER any doubt in the Church These words are as Exclusive as the wit of Man can Invent What Books soever-therefore of whose Authority there hath been any doubt in the Church are by this Article shut out from the Number of Canonical Scriptures and yet to this Article this Reverend Brother doth thus subscribe Expos Not excluding the Epistle to the Hebrews James 2 Peter Jude 2 and 3 John Revelation which divers Churches long doubted of This Article excludes from the Canon all those Books of whose Authority there have been any doubt in the Church and you subscribe in a sense which excludes not every such Book so that by Never you mean not Never and in this sense subscribe If it be said that all our Clergy do the same I answer we do not by subscription Assent to every Article we only Promise not to contradict them waiting for the time in which the Church will Establish our sense or some other way give ease to the subscriber But this worthy Person doth expose our distinction and subscribes himself very strictly by putting this loose and contradictious sense on the Article I could give many other instances of this Nature but these are enough and yet I cannot forbear adding one more because this great Man hath said so much against it and yet unawares subscribed unto it without an Exposition The sixth Point of our Non-conformity saith he is a New The English Non-conformity c. 9. Article of Faith in these words in the Rubrick which we must profess Assent and Consent unto it is certain by the Word of God that Children which are Baptized and Dying before they Commit actual Sin are undoubtedly Saved This is a New Article never made for us before 1662. But wherein doth the New Article differ from this Assertion That Infants being Baptized and Dying in their Infancy are by Christs Sacrifice washed from their Sins brought to Gods Favour and made his Children and Inheritors of his Kingdom of Heaven Both these Articles speak of Infants Baptized and that Indefinitely and of their Dying in their Infancy or which is the same before actual Sin is committed and being washed from their Sins by Christ's Blood brought to Gods Favour made his Children and Inheritors of his Kingdom of Heaven signifie so much as that they shall be undoubtedly saved these several expressions are a full Description of Salvation I can see then no difference de re between these two Articles and how New soever the former may be the latter is as Old as the Homilies of our Church which our Clergy have subscribed above an Hundred Years And if we consider in what Homily this Article is and for what reason it is there inserted I am inclined to think that on an enquiry this Reverend Person and the Dissenting Ministers will be found to have really subscribed it It is in the Homily of Justification and it is there inserted as a special ground of the Comfortableness of that wholsom Doctrine we will therefore