Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	believe_v	church_n	interpretation_n	3,657	5	10.5181	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A20953	A letter vnto them of the Romish Church, by Peter du Moulin, minister in the reformed Church at Paris. Together with a true iubile or generall pardon of indulgence by the same author	Du Moulin, Pierre, 1568-1658.; Goring, Richard.	1621 (1621)	STC 7331; ESTC S118715	19,874	66

had in suspicion when there is anie question of their profit or authority Heere my Masters it is easie to shewe you that they lead you in a way by which it is altogether impossible you should bee saved for you are taught simply to beleeve the Church of Rome and without farther enquiry to depend entirely upon her authority and yet you are deprived of all means to know whether this Church whereunto you give credit bee pure and teacheth true doctrine For how should you knowe that should it be by the holy Scriptures yea but this book is not permitted you At Rome and in Spaine to read in it is no lesse than burning at a stake or would you knowe it by the Antients those are greek latin books which the people understand not What knowes an artificer or a woman or an husbandman amongst you whether the Church teacheth conformably unto the Scripture or if their church bee such as it was some 12. or 1500. years since or whether of a long list of Popes pictured the first have beleeved as the last and that the times have altered nothing In briefe you have no other proof of the purity of your church but the witnes of your Church it self whose Prelates vanting themselves that they cannot erre in the meane time deprive you of all means to discern of error from truth by hiding from you the rule of truth which is the holy Scriptures But wherfore should the Roman Church rather have this perfection that the Greek or the Syrian more antient and more pure than the Roman founded by Ies Christ himselfe and by his Apostles and who also brag to have Saint Peters chair Doth the Scripture give unto the Roman Church any prerogative above others or doth it give her the priviledge of not erring From hence doe ensue two things as cleere as the day the one that your faith is grounded onely upon the authority of men and by consequent that your religion is a humane religion and not divine Whosoever saith I beleeve the Gospell and the Word of GOD because the Church ordaineth it maketh the Church more credible than God To doubt of Gods truth is a lesse crime than to make it depend upon men The other is that of all humane witnesses you ground your selves upon the worst and most uncertain for you say your Church is good because shee saith it and so doo make her Iudge in her owne cause not considering that by this word Church you understand not Christian people nor the generality of Pastors but the Pope and some fewe Prelates whose rules are called Church-rules although they tend onely to the profit of the Clergie and the advancement of the Empire of the Bishop of Rome And you poor soules whom God hath framed after his owne Image whom hee hath redeemed with the blood of his Son whom God solliciteth by his Word will you languish alwaies in this captivity will you heap up unto your selves the wrath and indignation of the Lord by rejecting the salvation which is proposed you I confesse that the Roman Chur. in certain points alleageth scripture and that between her and us there is strife about the interpretation but we make use of the Scripture in another manner than those which teach you For first they are afraid the people should read the Scriptures but we exhort men thereunto Secondly they perswade you that the Scripture is obscure and ambiguous but we say all things necessary unto salvation are therein layd downe with much clearness Thirdly they say that the Scripture is an unperfect rule they will needs have another unwritten word and traditions of the Church equall in authority to the Scripture wee on the contrary say that the holie Scripture can make us wise unto salvation 1 Tim. 15. 1 and that wee ought not to bee wise beyond what is written 1 Cor. 6. 4 and that in that which is cleare in the Scriptures and needeth no interpretation are cōtained all the doctrines necessary unto salvation Fourthly when wee alleage the Scripture we alleage it as soveraign Iudge and as it that ruleth the Chur. and giveth her her authority but the Romane Church alleageth the Scripture as a doctrine authorized by the Church and that you ought to receive it because the Church hath ordained it Fiftly when wee interpret the Scriptures wee give not out our interpretations for lawes as doth the Roman Church nor call our selves judges or infallible interpreters of the holy Scriptures Finally when wee interpret the Scriptures wee draw our interpretations from the Scripture it self but the Roman Church draw their interpretations from the unwritten word and from tradition For example wee expound those words This is my body He took the bread gave it c. Do this in remembrance of me By the bread which I give you is the commemoration of my body the which expositiō is found in the text it self of the institution of the sacrament or by these words of the Apostle 1. Cor. 10. 16 The bread which wee break is the communion of the body of Christ Your Teachers do not thus interpret the Scriptures for they draw their interpretations from the unwritten word and from tradition When the Lord said to Peter I have prayed that thy faith fail not they say that by these words Saint Peter and the Popes of Rome his successours were promised the vertue that they could not erre but the Scripture speaketh not of Popes or of Bishops of Rome nor grants unto Saint Peter any successor in his Apostleship So Malachie speaketh of a pure oblation which was to bee made in all places Mal. 1. 11 This oblation according to the interpretation of these Masters is the Masse in which they say the body of Christ is really sacrificed But this interpretation is taken out of the unwritten word for the holy scripture speaketh not of any Masse nor of the sacrifice of the body of Iesus Christ nor establisheth any sacrificers in the Church to sacrifice the Son of God So when the Scripture saith Thou shalt worship one God and shalt serve him alone The interpretations of these Masters is that God forbiddeth onely the worship of Latria but not the adoratiō of Dulia which is an inferiour religious service But the Scripture speaketh not of the adoration of Dulia nor of any other religious service then that which is due unto God These are interpretations which the Romane Church draweth from the unwritten word which is at the discretion of the Romish Church nor can bee learned but from her mouth for I doo not think there is any that ever hath seen all the instructions of this unwritten word reduced into one body Bellar. in Barkl c. 3. He thinkes not rightly of the chur of the chur of Christ that admits nothing but what hee reads expresly to have bin alledged or practised in the old chu as if the Church of later time either ceast to be a chr or hath not

the very goodnes of GOD. Nay which is more it was never seene that any of the people did ever forge any Heresie through reading of the Scripture All our Heresiarchs have been persons that have had place in the Church Now if to reade the holy Scripture wee must have speciall leave given us is it not a miserable thing that wee may not obey God but upon sufferance and that God can have no servants without the Bishop of Romes permission Or if they say it is not for ignorant people to read them I answer that all men are ignorant in religion before they read them and that men may not without impiety ascribe any skil unto themselves in religion besides or without the Scripture Shake off then my Masters this scrupulous feare by which God is wronged as if his Word were contagious and a snare laid for weake consciences lest upon you bee accomplished the Prophecy of Esay Esay 5. 13 My people are in captivity because they bee without knowledge and the saying of our Saviour You erre not knowing the Scriptures Let not this pretious treasure bee wrung out of your hands this contract of our spirituall marriage with the Sonne of God hould them as suspected persons who during this night of ignorance do hide this heavenly Light and in the mean time light up their owne candles at high-noon Hope not to bee saved by the faith of others for God declares unto us Hab. 4. 2 that The iust shall live by his owne faith Mat. 15. 14 and that If the blinde lead the blinde they shall both fall into the ditch Now that you may knowe that they take the Scriptures away from you not to keep you in sobriety but to detaine you in ignorance consider that in the Roman Church they read publikely unto you some chapters of the Bible in a tongue which you understand not If in these chapters GOD were spoken unto one might excuse it saying that GOD understands all languages but these chapters are divine Lectures in which God speaketh unto men Tell me in conscience wherefore should God bee a Barbarian unto us and speak to us in an unknowne tongue Wherefore speaks hee unto men but to the end they should understand him Wherefore should those things which every where else would be esteemed ridiculous and against cōmon sense bee thought good and comely in religion But is it not a sleight of the enimy of our salvation that he might make Christianity ridiculous and hinder the Word of God from beeing understood of you to the end likewise that the threatning may be accomplished which God useth to a people with whom hee is angry I will speak to this people by men of other language 1 Cor. 14. 21. in a strange tongue and so they shall not understand mee This evil hath produced another for in taking away from you the holy Scriptures which make men learned they have given you Images which they call the books of ignorant men because they nourish ignorance therewithall they busie the people in stead of instructing them in stead of teaching them they make them passe-time But because that against this same the second of Gods commandements is expresse which forbids in matter of Gods service to make any Image and to fall downe before any representation of anie thing in Heaven or earth and that his Law pronounced with thundering affrighteth even to this day this superstition these Doctours have imposed silence unto this Lawe of God and dare to raze out this commandement out of those books praiers and service-bookes which they appoint them to use A thing wherin wee may suspect our owne eyes and hardly beleeve when wee see it that very wormes of the earth have made so bould as to correct the Law of God pronounced with his owne mouth yea that same Lawe by which they shall bee judged at the last day Vnto such enterprises the holie sacred name of Church serveth as a cloak It is said that the Church cannot erre that she is soveraign Iudge of the points and doubts of faith that shee is the faithfull interpreter of the Scripture By which Church is understood not the Greek nor the Syrian nor the African although more ancient more pure than the Romane but onely the Romane Church which having never been but a particular Church cals herself the Vniversall By this meanes the Church of Rome is becomne Iudge in her own cause The Greek Chur. more ancient than the Roman complaineth that the Roman Church is revolted and separated from her producing against her her chaires her succession her antiquity In this contestation the Romane Church vanteth herself to bee Iudge and so will bee both Iudge and Party In the question whether the Romane Church can erre shee herselfe will be Iudge and which is more whē there is question of deciding what the Churches duty is the Romane Church will bee soveraigne Iudge to the end shee may have no other lawes but of her owne establishing and what shee will carve out for her owne self And moreover when the sense and interpretation of the Lawe of God lieth at the stake shee esteemeth herself the infallible expounder and reputes her owne interpretation of equall authority with the Law of God yet is it certaine that by this Law shee shall bee judged at the later day Now there is no rashnes so extravagant as to put sinners for infallible judges of the sense of the Lawe by which their sinnes are to be judged What obedience think you is the Soveraign Master to look for if his servants may say unto him Thou hast indeed commanded us that same but wee interpret it thus and doo judge that thy commandement ought thus to bee understood and thou knowest that wee are undoubted judges in such matters and that our interpretations are of equal authority to thy commandements By this reckoning it were better to bee servant than Master By which of these two thinke you shall the Prelates of the Church of Rome be judged at the last day whether by the Law of God or by their owne interpretations I referre this to the judgement of any man that hath but the remainder of common sense left him or any spark of free and unpreocupate conceipt which of the two ought rather to be supream Iudge in religion whether God ruling and teaching the Church by his Word or the church that ought to receive this Word and obey him Who shall rather be Iudge the scripture which cōmands there should be a Church and giveth it lawes or the Church which onely giveth attestation that that is the Scripture specially considering that even this testimony may be given by a corrupt Church and disobedient to this Scripture Who shall bee rather Iudge the Scripture which is one and judgeth without passion or the Church which is divided into cōtrary churches which cannot bee assembled and whose Pastors are subject to ambition and avarice and fitter to bee