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
A67135	Reflections upon ancient and modern learning by William Wotton ...	Wotton, William, 1666-1727.	1694 (1694)	Wing W3658; ESTC R32928	155,991	392

I do not desire that any disputable things should ever be brought under Debate One Qualification indeed and that the greatest of all I have omitted but that relates not to the present Controversie since we are not now enquiring who were the holiest Men but who have been the greatest Masters of their Professions the ancient Fathers or the Modern Divines The first thing required is an exact Knowledge of the Text of the Old Testament Herein even the LXX Interpreters themselves have often failed as has been abundantly proved by Modern Criticks The Copies they used were sometimes faulty and since they did not mend those Faults it is very probable they did not see them It has been observed already That scarce any of the Fathers understood Hebrew besides Origen and St. Hierom who therefore were followed as Oracles by many of their Successors even that alone will not suffice because there are no other Books written in that Language For which Reason Syriac Chaldee Samaritan and Arabic have been studied by Modern Criticks not to mention the Writings of the Rabbins and the Talmudists to which the Ancients were utter Strangers If we come to Particulars who of the Ancients ever unravelled the Chronology of the Old Testament like Archbishop Usher and Sir John Marsham Though Eusebius's Chronicon is a standing Evidence how much he and Julius Africanus before him endeavoured to clear that Matter which was of so great Use to confound the vain Pretences to Antiquity of those other Nations that were so very unwilling to yield to the Jews in this Particular Who has ever given so rational and so intelligible an Account of the Design and Intent of the several parts of the ceremonial Law as Dr. Spencer Who has acquainted the World with the Geography of Genesis or the Natural History of the Bible like Monsieur Bochart These are much harder things than the lengthning of a fine-spun Allegory or than a few moral Reflections which constitute the greatest part of the Ancient Comments But the New Testament you will say was written in a Time that was nearer at Hand and so was certainly better understood Without doubt it was by the First Fathers for which Reason their Interpretations and their Reasonings if we could have recovered many of them would have been of infinite Value But when once the Synagogue and the Church broke off all their Correspondence when once the immediate Reasons of the first Establishment of many Parts of the Christian Discipline and of great Numbers of Allusions to Jewish Customs and Traditions which are to be found in the New Testament could only be known by Study and Reading all which the first Christians knew without Study as we do the Manners and Fashions of our own Age and Country then the ancient Interpretations of the New Testament began to fail and though some of them S. Chrysostom's and Theodoret's especially are in themselves setting Antiquity aside truly valuable yet for want of such a diffused Knowledge of Eastern Antiquities as was necessary and which only could be had by a long Conversation with the Books that are written in those Languages these admirable Commentators seem in several Places not to have found out the true Original of many things in the New Testament which have been discovered since To the next Thing which is Skill in Ecclesiastical Antiquity I have spoken already The Third and the Fourth which relate to a Divine as a Casuist or as a Preacher may be considered of together wherein we of the present Age may without Vanity boast of having the best Books and of them too the greatest Numbers upon these Subjects written in our own Language and by our own Countrymen of any People in the World The Excellency of a Casuist is to give such Resolutions of Doubts and Questions proposed to him as may both suit with the particular Circumstances of the Person who desires Satisfaction and also may be perfectly agreeable to the Law of God A Preacher then seems to perform his Office best when he can at once instruct and move his Auditors can raise their Passions and inform their Judgment That so every Sermon upon a Doctrinal Head may contain the Solution of a Case of Conscience For the first of these It is certain that many of the ablest of the Ancient Fathers were very excellent Casuists as indeed every Man who has a right Judgment an honest Mind and a thorough Acquaintance with the Design of our Blessed Saviour revealed in the Gospel must of necessity be And if at this distance many of their Decisions seem over-severe there is as great at least if not greater Reason to suspect that the Complaints now-a-days raised against them may arise from our Degeneracy as from their unwarrantable Strictness But for the Ancient Way of Preaching there is much more to be said The great Handle by which an Hearer is enabled to carry along with him a Preacher's Arguments is Method and Order Herein the Ancient Homilists are very defective Flights of Rhetorick which are more or less judiciously applied according to the Abilities of the several Preachers make up the greatest part of their Discourses And after Origen most Men busied themselves in giving the People Allegorical Interpretations of Passages of Scriptures which were infinite according to the Fancies of those that used them St. Chrysostom indeed reformed this Custom in the Greek Church His Authority went very far and his Interpretations were almost always Literal and suitably to his vast Genius very judicious But he that considers Preaching as an Art capable of Rules and Improvement will find a mighty Difference between a just methodical Discourse built upon a proper Text of Scripture wherein after the Text is carefully explained some one Duty or Doctrine of Religion thence arising is plainly proved by just and solid Arguments from which such Topicks of Persuasion are drawn at last as are the most likely to raise such an Affection and engage those Passions in the Minds of all the Auditors as will please and move good Men and silence at least if not persuade the Bad and between a loose paraphrastical Explication of a large Portion of Scripture which ends at last in a general Ethical Harangue which is the usual Method of most of St. Chrysostom's Homilies Whereas by the former Method strictly followed very many of our English Sermons especially those of the Great Men of our own Church since the Restauration are Solutions of the most difficult Questions in Divinity and just Discourses upon the several Duties of the Christian Life and this with so much Smoothness so great Beauty of Language and such a just Application of the greatest Ornaments of True and Masculine Eloquence to Things at first View very often the most opposite that the Hearer takes a Pleasure to think that then he is most instructed when he is best pleased The Want of this Method in the Ancient Homilists is the great Reason why they are so little read