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
A61101	A Protestants account of his orthodox holding in matters of religion at this present in difference in the church, and for his own and others better confirmation or rectification in the points treated on : humbly submitted to the censure of the Church of England.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Spelman, John, Sir, 1594-1643.	1642 (1642)	Wing S4940; ESTC R12772	24,078	35

A Protestants Account OF HIS Orthodox Holding In Matters of Religion at this present In difference in the CHURCH And For his own and others better confirmation or rectification in the points treated on Humbly submitted to the censure of the Church of England Printed Anno Dom. 1642. Good Reader THE dissentions in our Church about matters of Religion being so great as that there is scarce any thing in practice so well established but is by some or other called in question and the distempers of the State being such as not any man scarcely knows where to make addresse for resolution I do here as I hold it my duty make a publique presentment and submission of the judgement that upon calling my understanding to an account I have been able to make in these matters to the pious censure of our Mother the Church of England to the end that from her sincere admonishment both thou and I may receive as the case shall require either approbation or rectification in our judgements which I heartily wishing rest Thine in all faithfull affections J. S. A Protestants Account of his Orthodox holding in matters of RELIGION WHen in all Controversies about matter of Religion the dictate of the Word of God is principally to be attended and the certainty of that dictate depends upon the assurance of the true sense and interpretation of the Scripture It is necessary that in the first place we have consideration of the assurance one may have of the true and genuine sense thereof For though without controversie the Scripture be a Rule of the highest most absolute and most sacred Authority that may be and such as wheresoever it extends to give Rule bindes and regulates all humane Laws and Constitutions from what authority soever derived and though in many things as namely in the Fundamentalls of Religion in matters of necessary faith and in the expresse Commands of God the truths thereof are so manifest and of so assured receipt as that no authority no not of an Angel from Heaven is to be received to the contrary but every one must of his own illumination embrace and hold them yet are there other truths which may so easily admit dispute as that without the awe of some authorized Moderator men of perverse affections would inevitably subvert the peace of the Church with their infinite dissentions about them It is true that to the great calamities of the Church there is much dissention made about the Morator or Interpreter of the Scripture but that is not so much through error of Judgement as obstinacy of parties among whom the two most adverse and dangerous parties are neither of them so blamelesse but that they are culpable of detracting from the authority of the Scripture by authorizing unwarrantable interpretation of it It is true that in the first place the Church of Rome is the great subverter of the Scripture by assuming to her self the person of the whole Church Catholique and by vertue thereof to have infallibility of judgement in interpretation of Scripture for whilst she as Judge arrogates to her self infallibility she makes that there is no more regard to be had what the Text is than there is heed to be taken what was the Warrant that the holy Ghost had for those things which he hath at any time delivered for he that is infallible pronounces of his own authority and can no more depend or be restrayned to any originall out of himself than infinitenesse can be restrayned to a finite thing or God himself unto a creature wherefore there can be no extrneall Judge of Scripture of infallible authority for that of necessity annulls the Scripture and makes it no other than a dead Letter But in the second place they also destroy the Authority of Scripture who when in word and outward profession they magnifie it above all things do then by subjecting it indifferently to the judgement of every one that takes upon him to interpret it trample under foot the honour that they gave unto it for as infallibility of the Interpreter takes away the Scripture from the hearer so incertainty in the Interpreter takes away the hearer from the Scripture for how can one hear when he may either doubt the judgement or fidelity of the Interpreter or when as it often happens the Interpreters that are authorized one as much as another do make a diverse perhaps an adverse delivery of the Scripture As in the Romish errour the Scripture is made a dead letter so in this it is made a Trumpet of incertain sound which none can with safety hear and receive unlesse you will suppose some hearer also infallible To say truth as in the question whether one God or many it was truely said Dicite plure● dicite null●s so in the Interpreters of Gods Word whereof none can be authentique but with whom the Spirit of God is warrantably to be presumed if in equall degree and authority we make many we make as good as none at all We must therefore finde an especiall Interpreter and that of such potiority of judgement before all others as that we may safely confide therein and yet so confide as that we may not detract ought from the Authority of the Scripture by ascribing infallibility to the Interpreter We are taught negatively That no Prophesie of the Scripture is of private Interpretation We are also told That the Church is the ground and pillar of the truth And we are warned not to adhere to the doctrines of particular men be they never so eminent and famous in the Congregation but to weigh their Doctrines delivered as the Word of God and to see if they have alwayes been so understood and received by the Church for if we finde not authority of our own Church at least for them we are then but cautiously to receive them but if we finde the judgement of the Church Catholique against them we are altogether then to reject them for when the promises of the holy Ghosts assistance were made not to single disciples nor to some in particular but indefinitely to the universality of them I am with you unto the end He that heareth you heareth me He the Spirit of Truth will guide you into all Truth that is not some nor every one of you but generally the Body of you We cannot receive Doctrines with any confident assurance but from the concurrent Judgement of all the Pastors of the whole Church Universall to whom the promise of assistance is properly and in the first place made or in defect thereof from the concurrent Judgement of the Pastors of our particular Church which as to her own Members is to be received as the Judgement of the whole till the Judgement of the whole appeareth to the contrary For as the spirits of the particular Prophets in every Church ought to be heard and received of all the Members thereof untill it appear that their particular spirits and Doctrines recede

Body from thence as the Apostle speaks by joynts and bands having nourishment and knit together may encrease with the encrease of God These same things doth our Saviour teach when giving a Rule for governing ones self in private offences betwixt his brother and him he bids him Tell it to the Church Our Saviour meant not that upon every such occasion the Church Catholique should or could be convoked but onely that the offended should complain to the Governours of the Church he lived in the doing whereof is properly to complain to the whole Church yea to the whole Church Catholique as appears by our Saviours adding that if the offender refused to hear the Church he should be as an Heathen man as much as to say That if by refusing to hear his particular Church he refused to hear the whole Chuch Catholique he should then be as an Heathen man cut off from the Communion of the whole Church for it were no just sentence to cut off one from the whole Church for disobeying the particular unlesse that disobedience to the particular were disobeying of the whole Church Every particular Church then hath so farre the authority of the Church Universall that as to her own Members her voyce is the voyce of the Catholique Church and tyes them all in conscience to submit their judgements to hers and to yeeld observance to all her Ordinances that are not against the expresse Word of God nor judgement of the Catholique Church And even in her Ordinances that minister question whether they be Orthodox and agreeable to the Word of God or no her authority is so farre binding as that even those Ordinances● are not to be rejected nor condemned upon the judgement of any of her private Members onely but either by her own review and censure by some more generall Nationall Assembly or if the consequence require it by a full and true Generall Assembly of the Church whose sentence when once it shall be obtained shall be received as the most sacred and most authentique judgement that may be had in that matter and neerest approaching to the judgement of the holy Ghost but shall not be received as infallible as if pronounced by a Judge infallible for what assistance soever God hath promised to his Church it is onely such as agrees with the condition of a Church Militant therefore he hath neither promised it to the single Ministers in every of their Preachings neither yet so to the Church it self as that in every of her Consultations and Decrees she should infallibly produce the sentence of the holy Ghost for then were the Scripture needlesse seeing the Church should be able to pronounce infallibly with authority equall to the very Text and the Church as to errour in knowledge and understanding should not be Militant but Triumphant but every judgement of every Church shall have such a potiority of credit and authority in respect of the judgement of any part or Member thereof as that it must not be rejected nor over-ruled by any other judgement than either her own revisall and censure Assembly of her proper Judges a more generall Nationall Assembly or a full generall Assembly of the Church To conclude then when for avoyding confusion in the Church God hath subjected the spirits of the particular Preachers to the concurrent judgement of all the Preachers for men under pretence of preaching Gods Word to preach their own private judgements in detraction from the authority of their Church and without submitting their opinions to the judgement of their Church this is so farre from honouring God by magnifying of his Word as that contrarily it destroyes the authority of the Scripture by confused and wrong arrogated judgement in interpreting of it it by sects and schismes subverts the peace of the Church and contrary to the Admonition that God hath given in that behalf makes God the author of confusion The assurance of our Orthodox profession depending upon the consideration of these things cannot but occasion a little further examination of them Religion a religando ex vi termini is that which whatsoever it be ought to binde the Professor but of all other Godlinesse which onely is the true Religion must not have that binding power of hers denyed and therefore will-worship as repugnant to Religion is to be rejected Ye shall not saith Moses to the people when they were to enter into the Land and be a setled Church Ye shall not saith he do as we do this day every one that which is good in his own eyes It is impossible for the Professor which followeth his own judgement or conscience onely to avoid disobedience and will-worship for private judgement and conscience are neither sure nor constant observers of Gods Law nor can a man alwayes tell whether his iudgement or his affection leads his conscience but as obedience is that which our Saviour himself learning sheweth that we all must learn so the power of Godlinesse is to constrain obedience And if there be a question what we shall obey the Scripture tells us the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and we should seek the Law at his mouth And our Saviour tells his disciples He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and bids that he that will not hear the Church be as an Heathen man And St Paul tells us The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth and against private singularities and indecencies in the service of God he obiects that their Church had no such custome neither the Churches of God We are also commanded to submit to all manner of Ordinance of man for the Lords sake And that every soul be subject to the higher power that he that resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and receiveth to himself damnation The Scripture is abundant to this purpose and among many other places Gen. 27. 6. is remarkable When Jacob or Israel was afraid in the apparell of his elder brother to seek his fathers supreme blessing lest by seeking it in a undue manner he should instead of a blessing get a curse his mother requires his obedience to her voye Israel obeyed her and by it obtained the blessing If this Allegory so much concern us as that we be the Israel the younger brother that want and seek the blessing our Saviour our elder brother in whose clothing we seek it and God our father that gives it who is our directing mother by oheying whose voyce we obtain the blessing but she that is the wife of our father the Church of God By these then and many other Scriptures it appears That in all matters of Religion wheresoever there is a doubt and consesequently use of judgement the iudgement of the Church is to be preferred So Gods Word which must be observed directs so the exigence of things requires the particular man cannot otherwise avoyd will-worship and singularity nor the

spirituall man can nothing more avail him in that point than if he were not so And for this last cause it nothing also avails though the Clergie themselves actually vote amongst seculars for where the carriage of matters cannot certainly follow the votes of the Clergie but be subject to the votes of the Seculars their votes so given cannot have the authority of Ecclesiastique votes but of Lay. And both for the peace of private consciences and also for the peace of the Church it would advisedly be examined whether the votes of Clergy-men chosen by the Seculars say by the Body representative of a whole State be of more authority for deciding matters of Religion in question than the votes of the Seculars themselves that chose them be for when by the expresse Word of God The spirits of the Prophets are to be subject to the Prophets the Prophets must either all of them together hear and determine or all of them freely make choice of such of their Brethren as shall do it for them lest if the secular power assume the choice of the men they by assuming the choice of those that shall give the Clergies vote assume the giving of their vote and upon the matter reject the vote and judgement of the Clergie for the few men that so be chosen have no authority of themselves to judge by themselves but have the authority of those onely that made the fiduciary commitment of power to them and if they that committed the authority be Seculars then is the judgement and executing of the spirit of Seculars only And it would further be taker into consideration Whether as the Bishop of Romes usurpation of the authority of the universall Church manifested him to be the great spirit of Antichrist so in every particular Church any usurping or undue assuming of the authority thereof will not amount to an inferiour exercise of the same spirit Now whereas it is conceived that Forms of Government Ecclesiastique are not tyed to the Judgement of the Clergie but are arbitrary as the State shall judge expedient it is not denyed but that Church-Government may be accommodate to the occasions of the State but then those cautions are to be observed 1 That as the State is Judge what form of Church-Government will be most commodious for the well-fare thereof so the Clergie be Judges whether the form desired be safe for the Church and agreeable to the Word of God otherwise the one may be oppressed while the other is accommodate Therfore we see that upon every change and remove of the Camp not onely the taking down and folding up of the Tabernacle and all things belonging to it was committed to the Priests but even the utmost act of carrying of it when all was disposed and ordered by the Priests was given in charge to those onely that were Levites And whereunto are helps in Government reckoned among Apostles Prophets Teachers and other Members which Christ hath set in his Church if the Government of the Church be to be managed by those that are not to be numbred among them And if among Pastors which God hath set in his Church he hath ordained some to be helps in Government how dangerous a matter will it be for those that are not of their calling to iustifie them out of their authority and in that point usurp their Function Moses hath long since put terrour in the case when with a Propheticall spirit praying for Levi he saith Smite thorow the loyns of them that rise up against him And the Prophet likewise where speaking of the Church he saith No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper and every tongue that crieth against thee in Judgement thou shalt condemn And our Saviour himself where he saith to his Apostles What ye binde on earth shall be bound in Heaven Another Caution to be observed is That in accommodating Church-Government to the frame and occasion of the State nothing be disestablished or unsetled that seems to have been setled by any authority of the Scripture Therefore whereas we see there the Government of the Church first setled in the hands of Bishops that is of Pastors that had authority over Pastors To rebuke with all authority Not to suffer themselves to be despised a To ordain Elders b To receive accusation against them c To charge some to preach no other Doctrine d To step the mouthes of unruly deceivers e To set in order things that are wanting c. And we finde not any other form of Church-Government neither in the Scripture nor in the practice of the Universall Church as well where the Pope never ruled as where he did that therefore men make not such an accommoda●ing as by an entire rejecting of the Ordinance set on foot by the Apostles themselves so appearing in the Scripture and Universally so followed by the Church they reiect both the Judgement of the Universall Church and also of the Spirit of God revealed in the Scripture For as in the change of the Sabbath from the Saturday to the Lords Day the Church hath clearly shown that she had power to make such a change but that change being once made for important causes the like whereof hereafter can never happen that power of hers once lawfully used can never lawfully come to be used again because there can no more such ground and cause to do it come again to passe So it is likewise in point of Episcopall Government though the whole form and frame of it is not so expressely prescribed but that the Church may in many things have power of making therein accommodations to the times and exigence of State yet may not those acts of accommodation amount to such a height as to subvert or abolish the Government which by the iudgement of her Members than infallible was set on foot because no judgement of her present Members now can come in any competition with her first And if any State shall so accommodate it self the accommodators may perhaps be found fighters against the Spirit of God manifested both in the Scripture and in the Judgement and practice of the Universall Church of God One further particular depending upon these points and necessary for every one to have his conscience clear and well assured is the lawfulnesse of the Liturgie of our Church concerning which these considerations present themselves The Church being freed from the tyranny of the Heathen persecutors and setled in peace it was necessary that God that had done so great things for her should be honored not onely by the private devotion of her single Members but also with the publike service of her greatest Congregation And seeing that in the Church Jerusalem ever since Christianity becoming inhabited without walls occasions the making of as many places of Worship as there are places of severall cohabitation it was necessary both for observing decency and order for avoiding confusion and for