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	primitive_a	2,508	5	9.0550	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45208	Loves companion, or, A short treatise of the nature, necessity, and advantages of moderation being the substance of two sermons preached at Ousburne, By J. H. M.A. and minsiter of Ousburne.	Hunter, Josiah, minister in York.	1656 (1656)	Wing H3768; ESTC R221350	40,104	56

Loves Companion OR A SHORT TREATISE Of the Nature Necessity and Advantages of MODERATION Being the substance of two Sermons preached at Ousburne by J. H. M. A. and Minister of Ousburne Be not righteous over-much neither make thy self over-wise why shouldest thou destroy thy self 7. Ecclesiast 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot lib. 2. Ethic. capit 6. LONDON Printed by Francis Leach 1656. To the Worshipfull THOMAS DICKINSON Esq and a worthy Member of the Honourable House of Parliament SIR IT is the observation of a learned man out of Tertullian that Christ is always crucified between two Theeves that is Truth suffers between two extream Errors and I have observed that the moderate man is ever crushed between two extream parties who because he would have them both friends is looked upon by both as an Enemy Yet methinks now if ever a Treatise of Moderation should be acceptable after we have had such sore and sure experience of the evils that arise from its contrary I know it would have been to as little purpose to have presented to publike view a subject of this nature in the times of our busie wars as it is to give advice to a man in the heat and height of his passion but now that things after so many years of confusion are grown more calm and composed I hope likewise that mens spirits are accordingly tempered especially having proved by trial that because they would suffer nothing before they are now forced almost to suffer every thing this is a sharp remedy but Pride Uncharitableness and Hypocrisie are sore diseases if the Lord shall hereby cure us of these sins and afterwards restore and settle us we shall have cause to acknowledge his dealing with us not only just but mercifull One great enemy unto moderation are deep and dangerous engagements unto a party which make men of that desperate humour as to resolve according to the Proverb That because they have gone over Shooes they will over Boots too There is but one thing required to make a wise man that is Consideration yet that Consideration is twofold either before or after the fact the former tends to prevent a mischief before it come the latter to remove and heal it when through inadvertency it is come the former is better yet the latter is good if not out of season for as we say Better late wise than never But such is the proud humour of deeply-engaged persons that they refuse to put in practice the latter because they would not be thought to have neglected the former and resolve rather to continue fools even ad delirium insaniam than they will be thought once not to have been so wise as they might have been These men are of the Forlorne hope and their Word is Go forward but their forwardness is frowardness and if not seasonably repressed by Authority will precipitate themselves and others into destruction I confess that to backslide in matters of Religion is both base and sinfull but if a man hath over-shot himself and gone too far it is both his wisdom and safety in time to look back God forbid that any who professeth himself to be an Israelite should think of returning back to Aegypt no farewell all cringing and crossing and bowing with such like dregs of refined Popery that they may never return again till his Holinesse by the help of his Catholike Son reduce the Church of England is my Prayer unfeignedly But in things that tend to the order and well-being of the Church which are at present together with the other utterly demolished there is no doubt but Authority will give us leave to look back to the Constitutions of the Primitive Church and the Constitutions of our own Church formerly so far forrh as agreeing with them and not repugnant to the Scriptures except we should depend upon an immediate Revelation for our direction A second enemy unto Moderation is Hypocrisie and self-endedness these make men that they do not so much desire publike settlement as private safety and causeth them altogether to hold off from engaging themselves to take up the quarrels of the Church lest if their endeavours should prove unsuccessfull they might suffer by it Such as these may be observed to stand not in medio but in bivio expecting the event that they may apply themselves accordingly Pelago se non ita commissurum esse qui● quando liberet pedem referre posset Melch. Adam in Vit. Bez. As King Henry the fourth of Navarre told Beza who urged him to shew himself in the quarrel of the Protestants Religion that he would keep upon the shore and not launch too ar out into the deep but so that if a storm should arise he might soon get to land again A Lesson that it seems Baldwin a man in great esteem among the French but a very Ecebolus in Religion taught him It was once the Speech of a deep Politician that it was good to follow the truth but not too near at the heels lest it should dash out his brains But if all men were of this mind when would the quarrels of our Church be taken up certainly not till the day of judgement if out Church should continue so long A third Enemy unto Moderation is Pride and popularity I joyn them both together because they seldom goe asunder A man cannot be moderate who is not setled in his judgement and humble in his apprehension now Pride makes a man stiff where compliance is necessary popularity makes him base in condescension where fixedness of resolution is required Lastly there are some that live by quarrels and dissentions who are of all others the greatest Enemies unto Moderation These are of his mind that bade when the sword was drawn throw the Scabbard to the Devil We read in Plutarch of one Demades by profession a maker of Coffins that was banished out of the City of Athens for wishing that he might have good trading that Wise State truly interpreting the language of his wish as desiring some Epidemical disease his private profit being inconsistent with the publike flourishing of the Commonwealth so those people who are undone and cannot live but by undoing of others certainly wish no good to our Church or Nation but must needs be State Barretours to keep the sore alwayes raw between Magistrates and Ministers between Governours and their people Sir besides all these I have observed two great evils under the Sun and they are these That if a man be zealous he shall presently be accounted immoderate by prophane persons and if he be moderate he shall be thought to be lukewarm by hot professors So that between prophaness and indiscretion it is almost impossible for a man to maintain his reputation for those which condemn zeal that keeps it self within its own circuit under the pretence of immoderation they are scarce worth the answering Ahab accused Elijah for the troubler of Israel and Tertullus St. Paul for a pestilent fellow

if ye find that the Scripture approves of them then make use of their example for imitation and encouragement As a man in a ship hath his hand upon the rudder and his eye upon the Star so it is good to have your eye upon the examples of godly and judicious men but let your hand be alwaies upon the Scripture let go your hold of that ye will run the hazard of making a shipwrack of your faith I dare confidently say that there is no truly godly man though never so learned will presume so much upon himself as to impose upon others his example or practice farther than he can prove the necessity thereof by Scripture why then should any man take a yoke upon him which is not laid upon him I exhort you saith (t) Vos hortamur ut non quod vobis placet aut nobis audire quaeratis sed quod domino complacet consonum est Scripturis Basil in Hom. adv Sabellian Basil not so much to enquire what pleaseth you and what pleaseth me but what is pleasing to God and agreeable to the Scriptures To what inconveniences Augustine had bound himself if he had strictly tied himself to the Fathers before him though very holy and of great learning is well enough known But (u) Alios Scriptores praeter Canonicos ita lego ut quantâlibet sanctitate doctrinâve perpolleant non ideo verum putem quia ipsi ita senserunt sed quia mihi vel per alios auctores Canonicos vel probabili ratione quòd à veritate non abhorreat persuadere potuerint Aug. Epist 19. ad Hieron saith he other Writers besides those that are Canonical I so read that however they may excel in learning and pietie yet I do not think any thing to be true meerly because they have thought so unles they can perswade me by certain testimonies of the Scripture or probable reasons that what they say is true But was Augustine willing that other men after him should deal with his Writing as he did with the Fathers before him Yes For (x) Negare non possum nec debeo sicut in ipsis majoribus ita multa esse in tam multis opusculis meis quae possunt iusto judicio ac nullâ temeritate culpari Aug. ad Vincent Victor lib. 2. saith he I neither can nor ought to deny but as in the Antients so likewise in my works there are many things which may justly and without any rashness be blamed (y) Neminem velim sic amplecti omnia mea ut me sequatur nisi in ●is in quibus me non errata perspexerint Nam propter●ae nunc facio libros Retractionum ut nec meipsum in omnibus me secutum suisse demonstrem Aug lib. de Bon. perseverantiae cap. 21. And I would not have any man so to embrace all my writings as to follow me in all things unlesse he see that I have not erred in them for therefore do I make my book of Retractations to shew that I my self have not in all things followed my self Above all 4. Take heed of making crooked the rule and wresting it to the maintenance of any ertoneous or self-Conceit This is a dreadfull sin and he who doth it knowingly speaketh lies in hypocrisie It was a fearfull evil for Lucifer to say I will ascend up and be like the highest is it not as great a sin for any to seek to make the highest become like Lucifer so do they that drag down the Scriptures to patronize any erroneous opinion of their own heads or any evil of their own hearts they go about to make the blessed God and the Holy Ghost the Father of lies than which what can be more abominable It is accounted a capital crime in a Commonwealth to put the States stamp upon false Coin and to put the stamp of the Spirit of God upon an error upon a conceit of a mans own is certainly a great evil before the Lord. We doe with one consent blame the Papists for making the Scriptures a nose of wax that a man may writhe which way he pleaseth let not any Protestant practise that which he so severely condemns in a Papist be his pretence never so plausible Yet alas who doth not see and cannot but be grieved to see how horribly we wrest the Scriptures I should not have said it but that it is too manifest to be hid For it is but usual when mens opinions do not agree with the Scriptures to wrest the Scriptures to make them agree with their opinions The reason of it is this Men receive opinions before they have well examined them by the Scripture having once entertained them out of weakness the strength of their pride causeth them to use this means for the maintaining of them and though it be but some additional point in Divinitie yet now it must needs be fundamental in Religion because it is fundamental to his reputation (z) Optimus Scripturae lector est qui dictorū intelligentiam ex dictis expectat potius quàm importat et retulerit magis quàm attulerit nec cogat id videri dictis contineri quod ante lectionem praesumpserit intelligendum Hilar lib. 1. De Trin. Hilarie hath an excellent saying with which I will shut up this head He is the best reader of the Scripture saith he that carrieth away the sense of any place of Scripture after he hath read it not he that bringeth 〈◊〉 with him and so even after a forcible manner labours to make that appear to be in such a Scripture which he presumed was to be found there before he came to read it Men that do thus may not unfitly be compared to Camels that diink not of the fountain as Historians tell us till they have pudled in them with their feet But what if the Scripture in some things be silent prescribing only rules in the general as that 1 Cor. 14. Let all things be done decently and in order not peremptorily enjoining any thing in particular to be observed in such a Church what is most convenient for a moderate man to do in such a case To this I answer according to mine own judgement Fifthly That it is most meet where the Scripture is silent we should hearken to the voice of the Church in the first place the Primitive Church and next to that the Church wherein we live Where the Scripture speaks I would have the Church only our Comment but where the Scripture is silent I would have the Church our Text and judge it most fitting that men should follow the great Wheel of the Church and move by that not reserving any proper poles or motions from the Epycicles of their own brains It argues monstrous pride in any man in things of indifferency for in things of absolute necessity I presume the Scripture is resolute to lean unto his own judgement or the opinion of a party against the general assent of the Church I see no reason why our own Church should be slighted by them that cannot deny themselves to be her children much less the Primitive and Ancient Church from the Apostles times Where the Scripture is silent let us hearken and adhere to her testimony I knew that Novelty hath much prevailed against Antiquity in this last age but I see little hopes of Moderation till Antiquity come into more estimation than at present it is In the mean time for so I chuse to break off abruptly Consider what hath been spoken and the Lord give you understanding and Moderation in all things FINIS

understanding Now saith Mr. Vines though I do not concurre with this supposal that heresie is a meer act of the understanding for it hath its denomination from 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an act of the Wil chusing the error yet thus far I go with it that such pretended Physicians as hold that to be poison which is wholesome and on the contrary are not to be licensed to practise nor such mad men suffered to exercise their fury And if such a Physician shall after he is forbidden to practise yet go on and in the exercise thereof kill a man I see no reason at all why he should not be put to death as one guilty of murther for tho it proceed from ignorance yet it is a pertinacious ignorance In a word therefore a moderate judgement is a judgement well-weighed with truth and love one that is neither credulous nor censorious A moderate man will not have any mans person in such admiration or estimation as thereby to be drawn to an approbation of his errors for so he shall wrong the truth and wrong his own judgement yet however he hate the error he hath a charitable opinion of the person that holds it and walks according to it so it be not with obstinacy and a desire to seduce conceiving that he is misled through ignorance and upon better information will recant And if the error be in things of less moment that are meerly circumstantial he bears with him altogether being willing that he should speak as a child and understand as a child and think as a child till he come to more maturity of understanding 1 Cor. 13.11 remembring that of the Apostle That the strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves Rom. 15.1 Contrary therefore to this moderate judgement I say is first a credulous judgement in the defect which is apt upon the good opinion it hath of such a mans person with better liking to entertain his errors whether in Doctrine or practice and to think certainly there is not so much poison in them because administred by such a person This though it doth argue much honesty yet it doth also argue much weakness Charity is commendable but not this credulity I will never be so charitable to any as to wrong my own judgement and the truth out of a good affection that I bear to any mans person (m) Cypriani literas non ut canonicas habeo sed ex canonicis considero quod in iis divinarum Scripturarum autoritati congruit cum laude ejus accipio quod autem non congruit cum pace ejus respuo Aug. adv Crescon lib. 2. ca. 32. St. Augustines practice in this is worrhy our imitation I do not hold saith he the writings of Cyprian though a famous godly and learned Martyr for canonical but I compare them with those that are canonical and what I find in them agreeable to the authority of divine writ I do with his praise receive but what I find doth not agree with the Scripture I do with his leave refuse 2. Contrary to this moderate judgement is a censorious judgement and this respects a mans person as the other did his error A credulous man is apt too much to like the Error for the Person sake the censorious too much to dislike the Persons for the Errors sake now the moderate man goes between both he likes not the Error one jot better for the Persons sake no more than he would poyson presented in a Golden Cup neither doth he at the first much more dislike the Person for the Errors sake till he see him proudly obstinate in his Error after admonition and take up a loose and carnal course of life in patronage of his Error then indeed he shakes hands with him as one departed from the Church yet with Prayers that he may rerurn again A censorious judgement therefore I call that which is too rash too harsh 1. Too rash Iudging things before the time 1 Cor. 4 5. Iudging what men will be before they profess themselves to be so and what they will do before they do it A wisely suspicious judgment is commendable but a rashly censorious is to be condemned 2. Too harsh in judging of mens affections and conditions towards God by one or two unjustifiable actions 2 Kin. 9 10 cha For I am so charitable as to think that as Jehu destroyed Ahabs house and the Idolatry thereof which was a good action with a corrupt intention so may good men sometimes do unjustifiable actions yet with a sincere and upright intention Now as he errs in the one hand that should go about any way to justifie their actions so he erres no less in the other that doth rigidly censure and condemn their persons and their affections before they profess themselves to be such Hence it is that we are in Scripture so much warnd to to take heed of judging Judge not that ye be not judged Mat. 7.1 Why dost thou judge thy Brother let us not judge one another any more Rom. 14.10 13. Iudge nothing before the time untill the Lord come who both will bring to light the hidden things of darkness and will manifest the counsels of the heart 1 Cor. 4.5 For though some mens sins are open before hand going before to judgement yet some mens they follow after 1 Tim. 5.24 They are so secret or else so specious that they must be referred wholly to the judgment of the last day The sum of all is this a moderate man though he be not so judicial or judging as to wrong others yet he is so judicious as not to wrong himself or wrong the truth and therefore I say this Moderation in the judgement is a mixture of discretion and charity 2. Moderation in the affections 2. This Moderation may be considered in the Affections and that is when a Christian is seriously sensible of and thereupon doth hate and grieve for the evills and errors practised and professed by others yet with much meekness First I say when he doth hate the evills and errors practised and professed by others Ye that love the Lord hate evill Psal 97.10 I hate the works of them that turn aside saith David Psalm 101.3 I hate every false way Psal 119.104 And the Church of Ephesus how ever she was in some things defective having left her first love yet saith Christ this thou hast that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitanes which I also hate Rev. 2.6 Again I say a moderate man as he hates so he grieves for the evills and errors of others When I came to Jerusalem saith Nehemiah and understood of the evill that Eliashib did for Tobiah in preparing him a Chamber in the Courts of the house of God it grieved me sore and I cast forth all the Houshold-stuff of Tobiah out of the Chamber Nehe. 13.7.8 Every Christian may be thus grieved as Nehemiah was when such evills are done though