Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	authority_n	church_n	interpretation_n	4,397	5	10.0901	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48884	A letter concerning toleration humbly submitted, etc.; Epistola de tolerantia. English	Locke, John, 1632-1704.; Popple, William, d. 1708.	1689 (1689)	Wing L2747; ESTC R14566	42,784	72

any other Bonds but what proceed from the certain expectation of eternal Life A Church then is a Society of Members voluntarily uniting to this end It follows now that we consider what is the Power of this Church and unto what Laws it is subject Forasmuch as no Society how free soever or upon whatsoever slight occasion instituted whether of Philophers for Learning of Merchants for Commerce or of men of leisure for mutual Conversation and Discourse No Church or Company I say can in the least subsist and hold together but will presently dissolve and break to pieces unless it be regulated by some Laws and the Members all consent to observe some Order Place and time of meeting must be agreed on Rules for admitting and excluding Members must be establisht Distinction of Officers and putting things into a regular Course and such like cannot be omitted But since the joyning together of several Members into this Church-Society as has already been demonstrated is absolutely free and spontaneous it necessarily follows that the Right of making its Laws can belong to none but the Society it self or at least which is the same thing to those whom the Society by common consent has authorised thereunto Some perhaps may object that no such Society can be said to be a true Church unless it have in it a Bishop or Presbyter with Ruling Authority derived from the very Apostles and continued down unto the present times by an uninterrupted Succession To these I answer In the first place Let them shew me the Edict by which Christ has imposed that Law upon his Church And let not any man think me impertinent if in a thing of this consequence I require that the Terms of that Edict be very express and positive For the Promise he has made us that wheresoever two or three are gathered together in his Name he will be in the midst of them seems to imply the contrary Whether such an Assembly want any thing necessary to a true Church pray do you consider Certain I am that nothing can be there wanting unto the Salvation of Souls Which is sufficient to our purpose Next Pray observe how great have always been the Divisions amongst even those who lay so much stress upon the Divine Institution and continued Succession of a certain Order of Rulers in the Church Now their very Dissention unavoidably puts us upon a necessity of deliberating and consequently allows a liberty of choosing that which upon consideration we prefer And in the last place I consent that these men have a Ruler of their Church established by such a long Series of Succession as they judge necessary provided I may have liberty at the same time to join my self to that Society in which I am perswaded those things are to be found which are necessary to the Salvation of my Soul. In this manner Ecclesiastical Liberty will be preserved on all sides and no man will have a Legislator imposed upon him but whom himself has chosen But since men are so sollicitous about the true Church I would only ask them here by the way if it be not more agreeable to the Church of Christ to make the Conditions of her Communion consist in such things and such things only as the Holy Spirit has in the Holy Scriptures declared in express Words to be necessary to Salvation I ask I say whether this be not more agreeable to the Church of Christ than for men to impose their own Inventions and Interpretations upon others as if they were of Divine Authority and to establish by Ecclesiastical Laws as absolutely necessary to the Profession of Christianity such things as the Holy Scriptures do either not mention or at least not expresly command Whosoever requires those things in order to Ecclesiastical Communion which Christ does not require in order to Life Eternal he may perhaps indeed constitute a Society accommodated to his own Opinion and his own Advantage but how that can be called the Church of Christ which is established upon Laws that are not his and which excludes such Persons from its Communion as he will one day receive into the Kingdom of Heaven I understand not But this being not a proper place to enquire into the marks of the true Church I will only mind those that contend so earnestly for the Decrees of their own Society and that cry out continually the Church the Church with as much noise and perhaps upon the same Principle as the Ephesian Silversmiths did for their Diana this I say I desire to mind them of That the Gospel frequently declares that the true Disciples of Christ must suffer Persecution but that the Church of Christ should persecute others and force others by Fire and Sword to embrace her Faith and Doctrine I could never yet find in any of the Books of the New Testament The End of a Religious Society as has already been said is the Publick Worship of God and by means thereof the acquisition of Eternal Life All Discipline ought therefore to tend to that End and all Ecclesiastical Laws to be thereunto confined Nothing ought nor can be transacted in this Society relating to the Possession of Civil and Worldly Goods No Force is here to be made use of upon any occasion whatsoever For Force belongs wholly to the Civil Magistrate and the Possession of all outward Goods is subject to his Jurisdiction But it may be asked By what means then shall Ecclesiastical Laws be established if they must be thus destitute of all Compulsive Power I answer They must be established by Means suitable to the Nature of such Things whereof the external Profession and Observation if not proceeding from a thorow Conviction and Approbation of the Mind is altogether useless and unprofitable The Arms by which the Members of this Society are to be kept within their Duty are Exhortations Admonitions and Advices If by these means the Offenders will not be reclaimed and the Erroneous convinced there remains nothing farther to be done but that such stubborn and obstinate Persons who give no ground to hope for their Reformation should be cast out and separated from the Society This is the last and utmost Force of Ecclesiastical Authority No other Punishment can thereby be inflicted than that the Relation ceasing between the Body and the Member which is cut off the Person so condemned ceases to be a Part of that Church These things being thus determined let us inquire in the next place how far the Duty of Toleration extends and what is required from every one by it And first I hold That no Church is bound by the Duty of Toleration to retain any such Person in her Bosom as after Admonition continues obstinately to offend against the Laws of the Society For these being the Condition of Communion and the Bond of the Society if the Breach of them were permitted without any Animadversion the Society would immediately be thereby dissolved But nevertheless in all

manifest that those who have one and the same Rule of Faith and Worship are of the same Religion and those who have have not the same Rule of Faith and Worship are of different Religions For since all things that belong unto that Religion are contained in that Rule it follows necessarily that those who agree in one Rule are of one and the same Religion and vice versa Thus Turks and Christians are of different Religions because these take the Holy Scriptures to be the Rule of their Religion and those the Alcoran And for the same reason there may be different Religions also even amongst Christians The Papists and the Lutherans tho' both of them profess Faith in Christ and are therefore called Christians yet are not both of the same Religion because These acknowledge nothing but the Holy Scriptures to be the Rule and Foundation of their Religion Those take in also Traditions and the Decrees of Popes and of these together make the Rule of their Religion And thus the Christians of St. Iohn as they are called and the Christians of Geneva are of different Religions because These also take only the Scriptures and Those I know not what Traditions for the Rule of their Religion This being setled it follows First that Heresy is a Separation made in Ecclesiastical Communion between men of the same Religion for some Opinions no way contained in the Rule it self And Secondly that amongst those who acknowledge nothing but the Holy Scriptures to be their Rule of Faith Heresy is a Separation made in their Christian Communion for Opinions not contained in the express words of Scripture Now this Separation may be made in a twofold manner 1. When the greater part or by the Magistrate's Patronage the stronger part of the Church separates it self from others by excluding them out of her Communion because they will not profess their Belief of certain Opinions which are not the express words of the Scripture For it is not the paucity of those that are separated nor the Authority of the Magistrate that can make any man guilty of Heresy But he only is an Heretick who divides the Church into parts introduces Names and Marks of Distinction and voluntarily makes a Separation because of such Opinions 2. When any one separates himself from the Communion of a Church because that Church does not publickly profess some certain Opinions which the Holy Scriptures do not expresly teach Both these are Hereticks because they err in Fundamentals and they err obstinately against Knowledge For when they have determined the Holy Scriptures to be the only Foundation of Faith they nevertheless lay down certain Propositions as fundamental which are not in the Scripture and because others will not acknowledge these additional Opinions of theirs nor build upon them as if they were necessary and fundamental they therefore make a Separation in the Church either by withdrawing themselves from the others or expelling the others from them Nor does it signifie any thing for them to say that their Confessions and Symboles are agreeable to Scripture and to the Analogy of Faith. For if they be conceived in the express words of Scripture there can be no question about them because those things are acknowledged by all Christians to be of Divine Inspiration and therefore fundamental But if they say that the Articles which they require to be profess'd are Consequences deduced from the Scripture it is undoubtedly well done of them who believe and profess such things as seem unto them so agreeable to the Rule of Faith. But it would be very ill done to obtrude those things upon others unto whom they do not seem to be the indubitable Doctrines of the Scripture And to make a Separation for such things as these which neither are nor can be fundamental is to become Hereticks For I do not think there is any man arrived to that degree of madness as that he dare give out his Consequences and Interpretations of Scripture as Divine Inspirations and compare the Articles of Faith that he has framed according to his own Fancy with the Authority of the Scripture I know there are some Propositions so evidently agreeable to Scripture that no body can deny them to be drawn from thence but about those therefore there can be no difference This only I say that however clearly we may think this or the other Doctrine to be deduced from Scripture we ought not therefore to impose it upon others as a necessary Article of Faith because we believe it to be agreeable to the Rule of Faith unless we would be content also that other Doctrines should be imposed upon us in the same manner and that we should be compell'd to receive and profess all the different and contradictory Opinions of Lutherans Calvinists Remonstrants Anabaptists and other Sects which the Contrivers of Symbols Systems and Confessions are accustomed to deliver unto their Followers as genuine and necessary Deductions from the Holy Scripture I cannot but wonder at the extravagant arrogance of those men who think that they themselves can explain things necessary to Salvation more clearly than the Holy Ghost the Eternal and Infinite Wisdom of God. Thus much concerning Heresy which word in common use is applied only to the Doctrinal part of Religion Let us now consider Schism which is a Crime near a-kin to it For both those words seem unto me to signifie an ill-grounded Separation in Ecclesiastical Communion made about things not necessary But since Use which is the Supream Law in matter of Language has determined that Heresy relates to Errors in Faith and Schism to those in Worship or Discipline we must consider them under that Distinction Schism then for the same reasons that have already been alledged is nothing else but a Separation made in the Communion of the Church upon account of something in Divine Worship or Ecclesiastical Discipline that is not any necessary part of it Now nothing in Worship or Discipline can be necessary to Christian Communion but what Christ our Legislator or the Apostles by Inspiration of the Holy Spirit have commanded in express words In a word He that denies not any thing that the holy Scriptures teach in express words nor makes a Separation upon occasion of any thing that is not manifestly contained in the Sacred Text however he may be nick-named by any Sect of Christians and declared by some or all of them to be utterly void of true Christianity yet indeed and in truth this man cannot be either a Heretick or Schismatick These things might have been explained more largely and more advantageously but it is enough to have hinted at them thus briefly to a Person of your parts FINIS Books lately Printed for Awnsham Churchill at the Black Swan at Amen-Corner AN Historical Account of Making the Penal Laws by the Papists against the Protestants and by the Protestants against the Papists Wherein the true Ground and Reason of Making the Laws is given the