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	reject_v	2,895	5	9.0049	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A91322	Dissertatio de pace, &c. Or, A discourse touching the peace & concord of the Church. Wherein is elegantly and acutely argued, that not so much a bad opinion, as a bad life, excludes a Christian out of the kingdom of heaven; and that the things necessary to be known for the attainment of salvation, are very few and easie: and finally, that those, who pass amongst us under the name of hereticks, are notwithstanding to be tolerated.; Dissertatio de pace. English	Przypkowski, Samuel, 1592-1670.; Biddle, John, 1615-1662,	1653 (1653)	Wing P4133; Thomason E1495_1; ESTC R203302	40,192	82

DISSERTATIO de Pace c. OR A DISCOURSE Touching the PEACE CONCORD OF THE Church Wherein is elegantly and acutely argued That not so much a bad Opinion as a bad Life excludes a Christian out of the kingdom of heaven and that the things necessary to be known for the attainment of salvation are very few and easie and finally that those who pass amongst us under the name of Hereticks are notwithstanding to be tolerated LONDON Printed by Ja Co●trel for Rich. Moone at the seven stars in Paul's Church-yard 1653. The Publisher TO THE READER THe Author of this Discourse Christian Reader a man as it appeareth both pious and learned knowing that of all the Families and Societies of Christians they are most hated who by their Profession and Writings maintain the Opinion of Socinus touching the Essence and Office of Christ endeavoured by this Discourse to abate the hatred of certain Zelots against the Socinians not that he approved their Doctrine for he once and again disowns it but because he was perswaded that if the harsh judgements of men were once mitigated concerning the most odious Opinion of all the heat of that bitter zeal wherewith Christians are generally incited to persecute dissenters in Religion would by degrees evaporate But if thou Christian Reader dost from thy heart aspire to the knowledge of GOD and his Son Jesus Christ wherein as Christ himself testifieth eternal life doth consist Iohn 17. 3. fetch not the beginning thereof either from Socinus a man otherwise of great understanding in the mystery of the Gospel nor from his Adversaries but being mindful of those words Luke 10. 22. None knoweth who the Son is but the Father and who the Father is but the Son and he to whom the Son will reveal him Lay aside for a while Controversal Writings together with those prejudicate Opinions that have been instilled into thine unwary Understanding and closely applying thy self to the search of the New Covenant most ardently implore the Grace of Christ that he would be pleased to manifest Himself and the Father to thee and make no doubt but the true Light will at length illuminate the eyes of thy minde that thou mayst walk in the way that leadeth unto Life Farewel The Contents CHAP. I. THe lot of Truth and Innocencie in this world A Ghess of the Author touching himself CHAP. II. What things concerning God and Christ are necessary to be known unto salvation and what are the parts of True Faith CHAP. III. That sincere Love towards God and Christ is sufficient to Salvation and that the same may be in such as erre CHAP. IIII. That though Faith and the Holy Spirit be the Gifts of God yet erring persons have and may have them CHAP. V. That nothing but Disobedience and Unbelief exclude a man from Eternal Salvation and that such as erre are free from these Whether bare Errors of the Understanding damn a man CHAP. VI. That the things necessary to be known unto Salvation are few and very simple and easie to be understood by the simplest Such is not the common doctrine touching the Trinity CHAP. VII That there is not in this life a perfect knowledge of God and of Divine Mysteries but in the other life and that Faith Hope and Charity are sufficient to Salvation CHAP. VIII A General Apologie for the Socinians that they are not of such a Perswasion out of Ambition Avarice Pleasure or Superstition nor offend out of any Malice but onely out of the Care of their Salvation CHAP. IX An Answer to the Objection about rejecting the Consent of the Church for the Authority of the Scripture onely CHAP. X. An Answer to three other Objections a Comparison of Calvin's Doctrine touching Fatal Predestination with the Doctrine of others CHAP. XI Reasons and Examples for tolerating Hereticks and who are true Hereticks CHAP. XII What Hereticks are to be excommunicated what not and a fuller Apologie for those who in our Age pass for Hereticks A DISCOURSE Touching the PEACE CONCORD OF THE Church CHAP. I. The lot of Truth and Innocencie in this world A Ghess of the Author touching himself TRUTH was never called into question but Innocencie was fain to plead for her self at the same bar nor hath the one been more hated then the other always envied Indeed we men are very prone to evil and therefore hate not onely the open freedom of a true judgement but also the tacite censure of another's integrity Nor is this a crime peculiar to our Age. 'T was heretofore the disposition of Wickedness no less to fear the mute innocencie of another then the living voice of a reprover nor can it be otherwise hereafter but that vertue should become a goad to their senses whose mindes have been seized with vices But though our wickedness may seem to have a kind of right to detest such Truth as toucheth the ulcers of ours sins yet why should we abominate her that casts a harmless eye towards heaven Is it because as both these cure the two diseases of the minde our Errors namely and our Vices so we are delighted with both those Distempers Undoubtedly here lies the pinch We are more enamoured of our Errours then of all our darlings either because they wink at the scapes and dalliance of our affections or because we are enraged against dissenters with obstinate prejudice and frantick affectation of parties Howbeit we never erre with greater delight then about the sense of divine matters and are so far from acknowledging those slips the witnesses of humane imbecillity that we account them for Oracles Nor is our rashness content to have pleased her self herein but obtrudeth her notions upon others against their wills and the license of determining is wont to assume so much to it self that it excludeth a liberty of dissenting in the smallest tittle After the judgements of mankinde had been oppressed in this maner the Church for many ages was overspread with thick darkness whilst the greatest part had neither liberty to utter what they understood nor list to understand what they might not utter And though there have been so many windes and storms of Contention in the Christian world yet have they not to this very day been able to dispel so great a fog so that amidst the clouds dispersed over all the skie there are some few who through the intervals behold the whole face of the sun whilst others see afar off some gleams of the light but shall ere long discover the very sun it self The Truth being thus muffled with errors hath not yet shewn her self to all with a full countenance although she hath aforehand darted out the rays of her light unto a great part of men But whatsoever is to come hereafter divine things are at present envelloped with gross darkness Yet is there nothing that more obscureth the Mystery of Eternal Salvation then the ignorance of the way that leadeth us to the top of so great happiness For as all

those things to be true which are false Truly we are very injurious to mortality if we suppose the errors and failings of our minde to be crimes You will say They sin of set purpose and fall not casually but by a voluntary slip But who told you so Or who hath discovered unto you their intimate counsels Certainly not charity which is an enemy to evil surmises but bitterness and malignity of spirit which is apt to make a sinister construction of anothers meaning Although they had no evident proof of their innocency yet in a doubtful matter and such as is known onely to the judge of hearts it became us not to make any sad decree against them How much less can they be condemned when there appeareth nothing that might invite and drive them to so wretched and dangerous malice we should at least here make use of that notable saying of Piso's For what advantage is this done For if they be neither seised with a longing after honours and riches nor with an itch of pleasures nor can have any hopes of earthly solace and if they conform their life to the prescript of that most holy Law where lyeth the incitement to so great improbity as that they should purposely procure to themselves so many troubles together with eternal destruction CHAP. IX An Answer to the Objection about rejecting the Consent of the Church for the Authority of the Scripture onely BUt you will say that they have been so daring as to question a Mystery for so many ages since received by all the Christian world with great applause venerable for its very antiquity and ratified by the authority of so many Holy Fathers and Councels and so are come to the very height of wickedness in attempting to discuss with sacrilegious curiosity such things as ought to be believed The reprehension then is this that they have begun to make a doubt of so certain a thing But what Is it unlawful to busie your wit about a thing of undoubted truth that after a more strict examination you may the sooner impetrate assent from your self Certainly it is a disparagement to the Truth if we suppose her to be afraid of mens judgments For neither is it unbecoming her to plead for herself at the bar of Reason that she may bravely overcome and draw the very judge to her side whereas if she decline the tryal of this court she suffers not a little in the confidence of her cause For though we may not enquire into the truth of the Divine Oracle yet we both may and ought into the true meaning thereof and they are slanderers who say that the Socinians believe not the words of the Scripture because they doubt of the received sense But what if they seem also to have just causes of doubting For they conceive that the Holy Fathers and the consent of so many ages do adde more dignity and veneration then stress to the doctrine of the Trinity How well grounded this conceit is I dispute not However certain it is that they are not the first who have charged the publike authority of the Church and the consent of many Synods and ages with the suspicion of most grievous crimes For since they see the foresaid authority in many other things of great moment not onely accused but also convicted of falshood what so hainous crime have they committed who dare not entrust their faith and opinion of Divine things unto her For of sixteen ages the twelve latter cannot warrant many things to the greatest part of Christians It cannot be denyed that the Socinians going farther then others do also reject the consent of the four former but especially of the third and fourth ages For since the Truth hath found little assurance in humane authority for so many ages of the lowest antiquity they thought that their opinions were to be squared onely by the rule of the holy Scripture Wherein truly they could not erre so greatly but that they had a far greater cause of erring For what could the faith of the Church being once suspected ratifie to them how could they know that the Christian world hath groaned under the darkness of errors no longer then for ten or twelve ages Or that those ancient times had any priviledge above the following ones so that they could not erre They saw them to be men yea such men as were alas defiled for a great part with vices and crimes Nor could they be ignorant of the factions amongst the Nicene Fathers nor of their evident ambition nor of the evil arts of sundry others nor of the shameful errors of men otherwise most holy And though it were to be held that about the three hundredth yeer of Salvation the Church did still retain the primitive Truth yet in so many dissentions and so many adverse Councels they judged that at least the choyce of the truer opinion did pertain to themselves In chusing which they ought not to follow the judgement of the successive Church which had been already justly condemned in many points of fait● but the infallible rule of the holy Scripture For how could the Church warrant unto them the opinion of others when she was not able to make good her own Besides they called to minde the genius of that age and the dispositions of those Fathers concerning whom that great man Justus Lipsius in our age wrote that many did then so put-on Christ by an outward profession that in their minde they did not put-off Plato And therefore they not without cause suspected that in many heads of doctrine plain words were wrested to forrain and Philosphical senses whilst the Fathers did with ingenious comments tack the mysteries of their Philosophy to the word of God that they might not seem to have learned in vain For what should be the cause say they that touching the received explication of the holy Trinity Plato and Trismegistus speak more clearly then the sacred Scripture Or what reason should there be why the Scripture should more timorously and obscurely deliver so holy a Mystery then the foresaid Philosophers These and the like things though they do not acquit them of error yet do they clear them from the imputation of rashness For nothing is more certain then that the doctrine of Christ is not built on so weak a foundation as some constitute in humane authority Now did we heretofore wrest these arms out of the hands of Papists that we our selves might use them against others Certainly it becometh not us either to take their weapons or deliver ours up to them but when we are summoned to the tribunal of the holy Scripture onely we ought not to yield this p●aise to the Adversaries that they should seem to hope better then we concerning the equity and favour of so great a judge CHAP. X. An Answer to three other Objections a Comparison of Calvin 's Doctrine touching Fatal Predestination with the Doctrine of others BUt it will be further objected

that the Socinians impiously contradict the manifest words of the sacred Scripture and scornfully reject the clear Truth coming-in upon them To which I answer That whatsoever pains and travel they undertake in this business is employed not against the holy Trinity as they are unjustly defamed nor against the Sacred Scripture but against the Humane Explications of both Hence we may see that they willingly assent and give credit to all the Sacred Oracles touching this matter onely rejecting certain interpretations and forms sprung-up certain ages after They believe that they are according to the command of Christ to be baptized into the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit Matth. 28. They believe those three sacred Witnesses in heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Spirit 1 Joh. 5. They acknowledge that in the beginning was the Word and the Word was a God Joh. 1. yet such a one to whom all power in heaven and earth was given as he speaketh of himself Matth. 28. It would be tedious to recko● up all the Scripture-testimonics of this kinde to which they give credence without any exception Those hard and subtil opinions concerning the Essence and Person of God concerning the communication of properties and others of that batch they either understand not or think them repugnant to the simple and plain word of God Give us leave say they to be ignorant of such things as are believed with danger In these so subtil and thorny explications if they after the maner of men chance to erre shall they presently be termed the enemies of God and Christ Shall there be found no pardon for an error in so great difficulty of things no excuse for weakness which notwithstanding we ingeniously seek even for the greatest crimes though we be never so well provided of means to avoid them Are they who out of ignorance and error violate the Edicts of Princes acquitted from the crime of treason and shall he that offendeth about the Divine Oracles in our opinion have no refuge for his weakness in the mercy of the Heavenly Father But you will reply that their Blasphemies are horrid wherein impiety leaveth no place for pity and reproachful against the Son of God and overthrowing the foundation of our faith To which I answer that if there have been any amongst them of a more intemperate tongue or quill they are infamous not onely with us but also with them But what is here meant by the Foundation of Faith I do not sufficiently perceive It hath been abundantly evidenced before that such errors do necessarily take away neither our Faith nor our Salvation For it is not the foundation of Salvation to know his Essence who hath promised the salvation to us so that we have no impious and contumelious opinion of him as the ignorance of the nature of the promiser taketh not away the certainty of the promise unless he hath promised us anything under the condition of such knowledge As for the knowlege of the Father they therein do in a maner agree with us They likewise adore and reverence with Divine worship the Son of God as the author and mediator of their Salvation the heir and Lord of the Universe and the General of our warfare But you will here reply that they deny his eternity I answer that they together with holy Paul care not much to know any thing but Jesus Christ and him crucified and had rather with so great an Apostle rest in the simplicity of this knowledge then either with Arius to ascend to non-enliti●s or with Athanasius to co-essentialities As for the honour which they give to the Holy Spirit the greatness thereof appeareth in that they scarce distinguish him from the Supreme Father Shall they then be said to blaspheme against these if they be somewhat mistaken in the other knowledge of them Indeed many opinions are drawn out of their doctrines that the wretches may be loaded with more envie and that by them who whilst they are so vigilant in other mens errors are fast asleep in their own But if all the chaff were to be sifted out of humane opinions I would wish that a great part of the Reformed Churches would labour to defend their own cause before they undertake to oppose that of others but those above all who have from the age of Chrysippus recalled down to these very times that secret and inevitable law of Fate and who hold also that the sins and destruction of mankinde and finally all and singular motions and impulsions of our will proceed from the Decree of Eternal Destiny to whom this false perswasion also seemeth to be fatal From which opinion if we lay aside prejudice more and more shameful errors will be deduced then out of the books of Socinians For which is more reproachful unto God to hold that he is one as well in Person as Essence or that I may clothe naked injustice with soft words to bring-him-in punishing men for not doing those things which by his own procurement were impossible Is it more absurd to conceive that there is one Essence of the Father another of the Son then that God I shudder to speak it hath one thing open in his tongue and another thing contrary thereunto shut-up in his breast This is reproach enough to the most high God although we do not adde that this dissimulation is joyned with deceit Is the dignity of the Holy Spirit more traduced whilst he is said to be onely the vertue and power of God then the goodness of God whilst he is held the author of sin which consequence doth also flow by a fatal and inevitable flux from that doctrine of Fate For he that decreed men should necessarily sin certainly would have them sin otherwise he would have decreed every thing against his owne desire Now he whose decree and will the event doth immutably follow may certainly be termed the cause of that event whether he effect it by himself or by another Finally is it a greater derogation to the dignity of Christ to deny two natures in him lest we should make him two persons then to the wisdome of God to affirm that he would perswade men to that whereto nevertheless he hath not perswaded them namely that he would give salvation unto all when notwithstanding he hath designed it onely to a few Truly if we look more narrowly into the matter the doctrine of the Socinians touching the Holy Trinity is not to be accounted so much evil and impious in its owne nature as imperfect and maimed For it seemeth to ascribe to the Holy Trinity nothing false or absurd but only to take away something that is true namely the divine nature of Christ and the proper person of the Holy Spirit Whereas this doctrine touching the fatal predestination of particular men laboureth not with any defect but with manifest ptavity For it not onely offereth injury to God by most unworthy calumnies but also

his colours Which not belonging unto men who go astray from the common road out of meer ignorance or injury of the times what shall we do to them that make use of this exception Shall they who in these calamitous times in this desolation of the Church being born a great while after the rise of Antichrist and not able fully to dispel the darkness of that long night turn aside into by paths be judged to sin out of perversity of minde Where now is that royal high-way thorow which the godly may pass securely on with an unerring foot to Salvation If it lie in the authority of the Church she hath now for many ages been beset with the snares of Antichrist We wonder that they are afraid of the suspected faith of the Church when they do the same after our example and in so great danger to fear even all the things that are safe is a point of prudence And we still dare to upbraid them with rashness in departing from the common doctrine when they seem to do it out of a just and well-grounded fear But if this way consisteth in the authority of the holy Scripture they do not stray from it whilst they together with us honour those Sacred books with due reverence But you will say that the right and orthodox sense of the Holy Scripture is rather the onely path that is able to bring us to the very citadel of Truth I confess that this way was heretofore worn with the publike going of Christians but now being first hidden with the springing briars of Antichrist and therefore trodden by very few and not as yet discovered by having all the brake cut down and besides called into doubt by so many intervening false paths it hath not as yet recovered the name and nature of a Royal high-way which it had for a long time lost And therefore the greater pardon is due unto such as deviate from the same For neither do they erre through desperate malice of heart who do not always walk therein amidst so many cross-ways and turnings Let any one reckon up to me all the sects of Christian Religion and I will say he is a brave fellow if he omit none In so great a concourse of opinions if they have not chosen the truer who will say that this is rather done out of improbity then out of ignorance For by what argument after so many errors have been introduced ought the Truth to lie open to their view By the unanimous consent of the Church O unanimous consent amidst six hundred different sects You will say that in the doctrine contrary unto them the greatest part are agreed But this is nothing since they have also agreed in very many errors So that we must again seek out a priviledge for the doctrine of the Trinity whereby it came to pass that though men erred in other points yet could they not mistake in this But if we suppose that they ought to examine all opinions by the rule of the Holy Scripture and afterwards to chuse the truer they have done both save that in the latter they have not followed that which indeed was but onely that which they thought to be truer Which certainly is an error and no malice nor can they be said to sin self-condemned in holding such an opinion for which they are ready to lose their life and fortunes For neither doth he condemn himself at least in his conscience who in the midst of cruel tortures hopeth for eternal life from God as the reward of defending the truth Wherefore since we are not certain that they are perverse and self-condemned but well assured that they are not such even from the death which they willingly undergo for their Errors and since such Errors as hath been before proved do not subvert eternal salvation it seemeth that they ought not to be segregated from the communion of the Church if they will testifie their love towards the Lord Jesus by obeying his commandments CHAP. XII What Hereticks are to be excommunicated what not and a fuller Apologie for those who in our Age pass for Hereticks BY this reckoning will some say How few Hereticks must be excommunicated who will not invent plausible pretences for his pravity There is no doctrine so absurd and pestilent which being palliated with that cloke of error may not creep into the Church To which I answer that there is no cause why we should be solicitous lest we should have no occasion to use this rigid law of excommunication Would the Church had even at this day no voluntary rebels against the Divine Majesty But neither in the times of the Apostles were there men wanting who subverted either our faith in God or the hope of immortality or the piety and love that is enjoyned us and such as did not by deductions and consequences but with open face as they say vent blasphemies and impieties Whose endeavour and impiety is not so obscure but that it is apparent that they were conscious to themselves of their pravity and fraud As if any one should deny the resurrection of the dead who seeth not that such a man after he hath viewed the clear and certain sentence of the Holy Scripture will be convicted in himself although he may perhaps dissemble it There is the same reason in the patron of some manifest vice All which being manifest for so are the works of the flesh and manifestly forbidden such a man hath no starting-hole in the ambiguity or obscurity of the Sacred Scripture unless he disbelieve the same and so overthrow all Religion Whosoever therefore bring into the Church such doctrines as do in their own nature subvert our Salvation and Faith they are deservedly commanded to depart together with the former not onely lest they should hurt others but also because they themselves as hath been shewn are of incorrigible malice and perversity and consequently self condemned For a Chirurgian doth not presently fear or cut-off an infected part because it may with its contagion hurt the rest of the body but would first have that very part cured of the infection which if it doth not succeed he then cuts it off as incurable But those doctrines that stand not within the boundaries of necessity to salvation are such that an errour in them especially in this disturbed state of things cannot be taxed of wilful pravity nor can it either damn its author or exclude him from the bosome of the Church But some one will here object Shall we brand with this spiritual censure the obstinate maintainer of none even the greatest error if so be it overthrow not our Salvation But there are many things which though in their own nature they take not from us our Salvation yet do they by degrees so undermine and weaken the same that afterwards it falleth down of its own accord And do you like it that such diseases should be cherished in the Church To which I answer that I would

tenets which having once taken root can hardly be pulled thence in their riper age Now what cruelty is it to cast out of the bosome and lap of the Church such persons as are studious of honesty and truth yea seek an agreement onely for those errors which have been implanted in them without any fault of theirs and do not overthrow salvation But they are Hereticks and to be avoided as such who are condemned of their own conscience Yea for the fore-alleadged causes they are not condemned of their own conscience And therefore neither now to be avoided nor Hereticks Or if we take no compassion on them yet let us at least take pity on the very truth which we defend whose growth we envie first because we drive others from a neerer prying into her and next because we teach by our own example that she if charged with false suspicions of right may and ought to be excluded by other Christian Churches FINIS The Postscript to the Reader LEst the following papers Christian Reader being left empty should beguile thy sight I have thought good in this place again to bespeak thee with a word or two By this time thou hast perceived our minde and drift which both the author of this Discourse had before his eyes when he wrote it and I also when I published the same for thy behoof and benefit If thou hast but a grain of candor in thy heart and wilt pass sentence according to the prescript of Truth thou wilt judge and call this Writing not Heretical but Peaceable But you will say What peace what agreement either can or ought a Christian man to have with Hereticks Good Reader we undertake not the patronage of Hereticks But before you exclude others out of the verge of Christian Charity and throw the thunderbolt of an Anathema upon them you should well weigh and consider to whom the crime of Heresie is justly to be imputed In passing censure upon Hereticks it was not so easie a matter to mistake in that Golden age wherein the Christian Church was founded by the Apostles and governed by themselves as is in this Age of ours For though in those beginnings of the Christian Church there did divers errors yea and heresies spring up nevertheless from that confusion of dissenting opinions there were not peculiar Churches distinguished by divers forms of Confessions and Ceremonies as yet started up but there was then one onely Christian Church and she truly Apostolical and in all points of doctrine which she professed of a sound belief Wherefore to contradict this Church and her doctrine was truly blasphemous truly heretical and whomsoever either the Apostles themselves or also other Apostolical Doctors of the Primitive Church declared Hereticks they might also deservedly be accounted such by all Christians and there was no danger of error in that censure no not among the more ignorant Christians as following the judgement of the very Holy Spirit by whom those Divine Governours of the Church were guided as appeared by most evident arguments But at this day inasmuch as there are alas so many and so various Churches of Christians which of all will be so bold as to ascend with like confidence to that of the Apostles to that sacred Tribunal from which she may pronounce sentence on the rest as Heretical It is out of controversie that such an authority can agree to no more then one of them For the true Church can be but one and onely the true one is able to judge and condemn all the rest as Heretical Now forasmuch as amongst all those Churches which will at this day be called Christians I justly here except the vain arrogancie of the Roman Church none dares undoubtedly to arrogate to it self the infallible certainty of the Apostolical Truth in all the heads of her Confession it may hence clearly enough appear that the censure of Heretical Pravity doth so evidently agree to none of them that we deservedly ought also to acquiesce in her determination I am not ignorant of what the greatest part of our Divines are here wont to reply That the Primitive Apostolical Church say they is ceased we do not deny yet inasmuch as we have the doctrine of that Church consigned in the monuments of the Evangelists and the Apostles we cannot chuse but pronounce them Hereticks who contradict the doctrine there expressed I also dear Friends easily permit that in this dispute of ours the Divine Writings of the Apostles stand in this stead so that he which contradicteth them ●e no less esteemed an heretick then he that heretofore contumaciously opposed the Apostles preaching by word of mouth But even thus can we not chalenge that cens●rian r●d against Hereticks For they whom ye place in the rank of Hereticks are so far from contradicting the Holy Scripture that they wage war against you out of the same and appeal to the judgement thereof not without a certain hope of victory in the examination of their cause inasmuch as they embrace the Scripture in all things with as great veneration of minde as you do nor amongst all the Christian Churches which are at this day extant shall ye shew any one that I know of which doth not religiously and from the heart yield an undoubted assent to all those things that are proposed and taught in the Holy Scripture Wherefore there is no cause why ye should condemn any one of them for heresie since they agree with you in giving due credence to the Sacred Writ And therefore whatsoever pretence ye seek for your carnal zeal against such as you call Hereticks yet to indifferent judgements can no other ground hereof appear then their dissent from your interpretation of the Holy Scripture as to the controverted doctrines But I will here bountifully grant you that ye have in all things hit the true sense of the Scripture and defend it Nevertheless it is further requisite that ye make this plain to them whom ye brand with the crime of Heresie But what here is the stress of your Arguments Ye appeal again to the Holy Scripture and from thence condemn Hereticks But they have already stricken this weapon out of your hands shewing that the Holy Scripture maketh for y●● onely in your own sense and interpretation and that they are accordingly condemned by you not from the sacred Scripture but from your interpretation of the sacred Scripture And this is the circle of your arguing which they deservedly reject Draw-out therefore against Hereticks those truly Apostolical weapons not the T●rasonical prating of the Chayr in the Vniversity but the power of the holy Spirit wherewith the Apostles being indued could deliver Blasphemers to Satan 1 Tim. 1. 20. and slay Hypocrites with the speaking of a word Act. 5. If ye want the powerful efficacie of this Spirit acknowledge your rashness and iniquity in condemning them to whom ye are not able with evident and sufficient arguments to demonstrate your interpretation of the holy Scripture and