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	propose_v	2,269	5	9.3924	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A02520	Christian moderation In two books. By Jos: Exon.	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.	1640 (1640)	STC 12648B; ESTC S103629	96,446	388

shall teach thee that which thou canst not heare from thy masters thinkst thou not thou maist suck hon●e from the rock and oyle out of the hardest stone Marvelous is the improvement both of the meanes and measure of knowledge in these last dayes in comparison of the former Of old saith Erasmus there were no schooles of Divinity and Augustine was held an invincible Logician for that he had read Aristotles Categories At last Divinity came to the height if not beyond it the sacred Scriptures with the ancient authors were layd aside c. The time was when Synodes were faine to enact that none should be promoted to Ecclesiasticall Benefices but those which could competently read and sing Nor to Canon-ships in Cathedrals but those which could read sing and competenly construe Not to holy Ord●rs but those that could Literaliter loqui The world is w●ll mended with us since our King Alured translated Gregories Pastorale out of Latin into Saxon that it might be understood of the Bishops and Priests and in his Preface to it writes thus Knowledge was so utterly lost from among the English Nation that there were very few on this side of Humber that could so much as understand their owne common prayers in the Engl●sh tongue or transl●te any writing out of Latin in●o English surely there were so ●ew that I do not remember one on the South-part of Thames when ●●●gan to raigne Thus Alured Before whose time W●●●redus King of Kent was faine to su●signe his Characters wi●h a Cros●e professing to doe it pro●gror●ntia literarum And the 〈…〉 wa● A ●●shop that is i●●●ran● of his Grammar is to b● d●p●●●● Now blessed be G●d k●●w●●dge abounds every 〈◊〉 The Pr●sse hath help● 〈…〉 it all the world over whi●● whiles it was only tran●m●tted by the labour of a single penne must needs be more sparingly imp●rted and as it uses to b● in other cas●s plenty hath bred wantonnes prodigall expence of w●● wherby we are growne to such excesse ●hat it were happy except men had more rule of their 〈…〉 there vvere lesse 〈…〉 the vvorld and 〈…〉 vve have reason in this regard to envy the safe and quiet simplicity of our fore-fathers vvho contented themselves vvith the honest plaine-song of that vvhereof vve affect to run upon infinit descant It is vvell observed by Gerson that it falls out oftentimes there is more fervour of devotion where there is lesse naturall knowledge whence we finde great praise of sanctity given to some eminent persons who came short even of ordinary skill Bernard saith of his devout brother Gerard that he had no learning at all but that he had a cleare understanding and an illuminated spirit and Sozomen when hee speakes of Antony the Hermite says he neither had any skill in learning neither did greatly esteeme it but cared only to have a pure and holy minde as that which was more ancient and more worthy then any learning in the world And Paul the simple a man famous both for sanctimony and miracles had so little knowledge as that which I have stood amazed to read hee askt whether the Prophets were before Christ and his Apostles or after The truth is religion as the Chancelor of Paris well is not a schoole of Learning but a discipline of living and he is much more acceptable to God that hath so much knowledge as doth inable him to worship and serve that Di●ine Majesty devoutly and to live ●olily then he who with Bere●g●t●u● could dispute of Omne scibt●e 〈◊〉 with Salomon could d●scou●●● of all things from the moss● 〈◊〉 the wall to the highest Cedar Gregory s●id truly nothing can be offered to God more rich and precious then a good will and Phocyons law is magnified for a divine one Let vertue and goodnesse take place and let all other things passe for trifles That therefore which was wont to be said of Pythagoras that h●e reduced the speculative Philosophy to use and that which was said of the Cynicks that without regard of Logicke and naturall Philosophy they were all for Morality I could be apt to wish in our divine Philosophy It were happy for the Church of God if laying aside all curious disquisitions of impertinent truthes wee would apply our selves wholly to the knowledge and maintenance of those only points which are necessary to salvation and to the zealous practise of those things which we assuredly know Leaving the rest to those Schoole-divines who have both faculty and leasure to discusse them §. VII The fourth rule of Moderation to rest in those fundamentall truthes which are revealed clearely in the Scriptures NOw that we be not left upon uncertaineties in this quest of saving truth it will be requisite for us to know and resolve fourthly that all these fundamentall verities necessary to salvation are clearely layd before us in the sacred monuments of divine Scriptures in them is the full and easie direction of a Christians both beleefe and practice It is the question appointed by our Church to be proposed to every Candidate of holy Orders whether he beleeve this truth and his ingagement thereupon punctually followes and if here be enough to make the man of God perfect much more an ordinary Christian There are indeed unfadomable depths in that Ocean wherin we shall vainly hope to pitch our anchor but all necessary truthes need not much line In those things which are clearely layd downe in Scripture saith Saint Austen are found all those points which containe faith and rules of living viz. Hope and Charity And need we care for more then these Let me beleeve well live well let who list take thought for more what a madnesse were it to forsake the living waters and to dig for our selves Cisternes that will hold no water what a disease in our appetite when wee have wholesome provision laid before us to nauseate all good dishes and to long for mushromes whereof some are venemous all unwholesome It was the Iustice of Lacedaemon that when Terpander the Musitian added one string more to his Harpe then ordinary banisht him the Citty The great Doctor of the Gentiles could say If wee or an Angell from heaven preach any other Gospell to you let him be accursed hee doth not say a contrary Gospell but another such as that Evangelium aeternum of the Friers such as that Symbole of the twelve new Articles in Pius his profession It had some colour that Tannerus the Iesuite held in the publique disputation with Hunnius who stoutly defended it to be a matter of faith that Tobye had a Dog because it rested upon the authority of that which hee supposed Canonicall scripture the indubitate truth whereof is the first principle of Christianity how ever some particular clauses in themselves considered may carry no such weight but to obtrude a necessity of new and traditionall truthes besides those

was added to Noah and his sonnes of not eating flesh alive viz. in the blood of it yet after this one more was given to Abraham concerning Circumcision At last the complete Law is given in Ten words to Moses in Horeb The judicials are for commentaries upon those morall statutes With these Gods people contented themselves till traditions began to be obtruded upon them by presumptuous teachers these our Saviour cryes downe as intolerable insolent depravations of the Law The Messiah is come with how few charges doth hee load his people That they should beleeve repent deny themselves constantly professe him search the Scriptures follow peace love one another and Communicate in his remembrance And his Apostles with only Go teach and baptize and strive who shall serve best After his glorious Ascension into heaven the Apostles assembled in their Councell at Hierusalem lay no other new weight upon the Gentile-Converts but to abstaine from pollutions of Idols from fornication things strangled and blood When the Church was well enlarged and setled what did the foure Generals Councels offer to the world but the condemnation of those foure heresies which then infested the Church Time and busie heads drew on these varieties of conclusions and deductions which have bred this grievous danger and vexation to Gods people in so much as it is now come to that passe that as he said of old it is better to live in a Common-wealth where nothing is lawfull then where every thing so it may no lesse justly be said that it is safer to live where is no faith professed then where every thing is made matter of faith The remedy must be that our judgements revert to that first simplicity of the Gospell from which the busie and quarrelsome spirits of men have drawne us and that wee fixe and rest there §. VI. The third rule of Moderation viz. The avoydance of curiosity TO which end it shall be requisite thirdly to avoyd curiosity in the search or determination of immateriall and superfluous truthes I know not whether the minde of man be more unsatiable in the desire of knowledge or more unweariable in the pursuit of it which we are all apt to affect upon severall grounds for as Bernard well some would know that they might be knowne this is vanity others that they might sell their knowledge this is basenesse some that they may edifie others this is Charity some that they may be edified this is wisedome and some lastly would know only that they may know this is fond curiosity a vicious disposition of the soule which doth not more shew it selfe in the end then in the object of our knowledge for surely to seek after the knowl●dge of those things which are necessary or usefull can be no other then praise-worthy There are saith Saint Austen two kinds of persons very commendable in religion the former those who have found the truth the latter those who do studiously inquire for it It is most true of those truthes which are important and essentiall but to spend our se●ves in the search of those truthes which are either unrevealed or unprofitable it is no other then a labour ill lost yet alas these are they which commonly take up the thoughts of men How busily have some disputed whether Adam if hee had continued in his inocence should have sl●pt or no or whether hee would have needed that repose Others whether if Adam in his innocency had known his wife after she was conceived of child he had in this sinned or no Others if he had begotten children in the state of innocence whether they should immediatly upon their birth have had the use of their limmes and members for their present provision as other creatures have Others whether in that first estate there should have been more males or females borne Others what space there was betwixt the Creation of Angels and man and their fall Thus a Peter Lombard is devising a distinction betwixt mo●o quodam and quodam modo and a Io Maior disputed whether a man may equitare fine equo and Matreas as Suidas hath it in a Poeme that he frames of Aristotles doubts makes this one How the Sunne should in his setting go downe into the Ocean and not swim Thus an overleasured Italian hath made a long discourse how a man may walke all day through the streets of Rome in the shade Thus a Licentiate of Paris takes upon him to defend That there is something God really which is not formally God Another that there are other priorities and posteriorities in the divine Persons besides those of their origination Another that the divine Persons are distinguisht per absoluta Another as our Bradwardine and Io. Maior and Vasquez that God is in vacuo And in our dayes Hurtado de Mendoza a Spaniard straines his wit to prove the possibility of an infinity of magnitude and what subtile disq●isitions and long volumes are spent upon a certaine middle knowledge in God betweene his knowledge of simple intelligence which is of what may be or is fit to be and that of vision which is his knowledge of what shall be Betwixt which two some have placed a third a mid-knowledge of future-conditionate-Contingents And lastly what a world of worke is on foot betwixt the Scotists on the one side and the Thomists and Dominicans on the other concerning Gods foreknowledge of Evill and concerning the reall existence of future things in eternity and other the like sut●leties Good Lord where will the minde of man take up how restlesse how boundlesse are the brayn●s of curious men and especially in this last age for surely it is a true word of Gerson Mundus senescens patitur phantasias the world now in his old age is full of fancies It is with it as it is with u● the sleepe of the aged must needs be so much fuller of imaginations as they have lived to see more obj●cts to furnish them justly may wee take up that complaint of Alvarez Pelag●us He is nobody for knowledge now a dayes that devises not s●me novelty Festus sclandered Saint Paul when he said too much learning had made him mad certainly it is no sclaunder to say of too many that too much learning as it is used hath made them foolish and wanton in their speculations there cannot be a truer sentence then that of the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Wisdome consists not in the knowledge of many things but of things profitable Our fore-fathers as they came short of us in knowledge so they went beyond us in piety and peace The Iewish Doctors say of Father Abraham that hee had no master but his owne reynes those holy David said were his teachers also and devout Bernard tells his friend Murdach with an Experto crede that he shall find more in the woods then in his bookes the trees and stones saith he