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	faith_n	tradition_n	5,923	5	9.2715	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69762	A perswasive to an ingenuous tryal of opinions in religion	Clagett, Nicholas, 1654-1727.	1685 (1685)	Wing C4370; ESTC R927	37,500	66

Scripture that belongeth to a Discourse be agreeable to the designe and scope of that Discourse to which it belongeth This Rule as it is necessary for all to observe so it is especially to be urged upon men that are apt to interpret places that are not of themselves plain by those Opinions that they are already possessed with a belief of but for which they have little ground besides the mere sound of some Texts which at first hearing seem to be of their side but which if they were compared with the designe of the holy Writer in that Chapter or Book would be found to mean quite another thing All that I shall say besides of this Rule is that the difficulty of many places that are not of themselves plain will be removed by observing it For instance by this way we shall easily be satisfied that that forementioned place of St. Paul Who maketh thee to differ from another was chiefly meant of those extraordinary gifts which were distributed amongst believers in the first Ages of the Church and therefore though in a qualified sence this is true of all saving Graces it is very consistent with all those Scriptures that suppose the difference between the righteous and the wicked to depend upon something which is in the power of the righteous If we mangle coherent Discourses and take a shred or a phrase of Scripture by it self without regard to the main scope of the place and this to prove what what we would have we do not try our Opinions by Scripture but we interpret Scripture by our own Opinions Thus I have shewn what Cautions are to be observed in judging by Scripture I doubt not but all will acknowledge them to be very reasonable and equal and if all men had observed them who have a just veneration for the Scriptures the Word of God had been better understood and less wrested unsound Divinity had not easily passed for Scriptural Truth and all occasion of those unjust Reproaches had been taken away which the Church of Rome throws upon us for allowing to all Christians the free use of Gods Holy Book And thus much for the Rules of Reason and Scripture 3. The third I mentioned was Antiquity and Catholick Tradition Now if this Rule as I said at first be of excellent use then they are in the best way to find out what is the true Christian Religion by it who stick to the Holy Scriptures though they are not capable of using it otherwise For if that be true which was most anciently taught and believed in the Church and which was received all along in the best Ages of the Church then he that can prove his Faith by Scripture has the Argument of Antiquity and Catholick Tradition unquestionably on his side because the Scriptures are the most ancient Records of our Religion and they have been delivered down to us as such from the beginning through all Ages to our present times But we acknowledge also the testimony of Antiquity of something of a later date that is of the antient Fathers of the Church to be of very good use for the clearing of some places in Scripture for shewing what Order and Discipline was left in the Church by the Apostles for confirming us in points of Faith grounded upon the Scriptures but which have been disputed and opposed by Hereticks and likewise for confuting those gross errours in Belief or Practice which of later days have been brought in amongst Christians especially those of the Church of Rome But how things are to be examined by this Rule I shall not here direct because this is the subject of an excellent Discourse already published And thus much concerning Rules whereby to try Opinions in Religion § 7. III. The Dispositions wherewith we are to search for the Truth by these means are also of necessary consideration for whatever other advantages we have if we be greatly defective in these we shall very often lose our labour and fall into mistakes of dangerous consequence To qualifie a man for receiving Truth when propounded with sufficient evidence or to find it out by his own search there must be these three things 1. A prepared mind 2. Competent Diligence 3. Prayer to God for his blessing upon that Diligence 1. A prepared mind which our Saviour calls a good and honest heart Now this consists in Humility Ingenuity and Sincerity Humility is necessary because overweening and self-concit makes a man apt to despise what those of a different Perswasion can say for themselves before their Arguments are considered and in general to neglect that help which may be had by the advice and reasoning of others So likewise vain-glory fixeth a man in an errour he hath once defended and while he is unwilling to acknowledge a mistake he strains all his Wit to delude himself into a stronger belief of it and of his ability to defend it In Controversies he is desirous of victory and would fain be thought some-body and therefore he studies more to expose an adversary than to inform himself And if he be yet to chuse his side of a Question he takes the wrong one if it be more fashionable than the right Therefore says our Saviour Whosoever doth not receive the Kingdom of God as a little child i. e. with a meek and pliable spirit shall not enter therein Again says he My sheep hear my voice intimating that they would be easily convinced who were of tractable and humble minds And therefore he adds concerning the Pharisees that they rejected him because they were not of his Sheep i. e. because of their haughty and inflexible dispositions Prejudice is apt to bar the mind against conviction as well as Pride and therefore to Humility we must adde Ingenuity and Sincerity by which a man is qualified to distinguish between the suggestions of Prejudice on the one side and the force of good Reasons on the other Ingenuity is opposed to those Prejudices that are either unavoidably contracted or taken up through weakness of understanding Of the former sort are the Prejudices of Education or conversing altogether with our own Party Men are generally prepossess'd with great favour to those Opinions in which they have been all along trained up and which have been instilled into them by all that they have conversed with And therefore we cannot be meet Inquirers after Truth if we want the ingenuity of suspecting our selves on this side and trying those Perswasions in which we have been bred up with the greater impartiality and severity Some men are prejudiced by an unaccountable inclination toward an Opinion or an antipathy against it and these ought the more carefully to distinguish between the warmth of their imaginations on the one side and the force of Arguments on the other and not to take a passionate fondness for a conclusion or an aversion from it to be a Reason one way or other It is very incident to weak minds to prejudg in favour of

understanding For when Hypocrites have for their worldly interest debauched Religion in this manner they know that the meanest people will never swallow their gross absurdities unless they can first prevail with them to believe that 't is a dangerous thing to trust their own eyes or to hearken to any discourse from Principles of Reason though it be never so clear and strong and that it is a kind of merit to believe things incredible and to stick to a conclusion the faster the more impossible it seems to be true But by the way if Reason be one and that the first means by which we are to judge for our selves in matters of Religion as I shall make bold to say it is I should vehemently suspect without farther examination that they know their Opinions to be very foolish who at first dash renounce the most general and necessary Rule by which they are to be tried I shall onely adde that because the fundamental Principles of Reason are the same all the World over Reason is therefore the most publick Rule and Test whereby to judge between Truth and Errour And therefore if a Council defines things in that manner that I must forsake right Reason to follow its Definitions when I make this plain this is not opposing a private Spirit to a publick Judgment but appealing from a less publick Judgment to the most publick Sence and Judgment of mankind § 6. 2. As Reason is a Rule to all men so is Scripture a Rule to all Christians at least it ought to be so and all pretend to make it a Rule for their Judgment by appealing to it The Church of Rome indeed allows it to be but part of the Rule of Faith we say it is an intire and perfect Rule thereof However so long as she acknowledges the Scriptures to be a Rule though she pretends there is another Rule besides that she is to be concluded by the authority of the Scriptures and so we are to be acquitted by her in not believing her against the Scriptures Now every body must grant that we do not judge rightly by the Scriptures where we mistake the meaning of the Text. And we ought to be sure that the sence wherein we take any place is the true sence before we make our interpretation of it a Rule whereby to examine other things Where the sence is very plain it requires nothing more than common sence and common honesty to understand it and it is very reasonable to suppose that God hath revealed all points necessary to salvation so clearly and plainly that it is not difficult for an honest man to understand what they are But because there are many obscure places in the Scriptures we must be very careful not to ground any Doctrine upon them till we have well weighed and examined the meaning of those places and the way to be secure from any dangerous mistake in concluding from places of Scripture that are more or less hard to be understood is to observe such cautions as these are which I think all Christians must allow to be reasonable 1. That we take no Text in a sence which is repugnant to common Sense and natural Reason 2. That we put no sence upon a place of Scripture that is repugnant to the general scope and designe of the whole Word of God 3. That we understand no difficult places in a sence that is contrary to to those places whose meaning is plain and manifest to all men 4. That we mistake not those places for plain which are not so 5. That we put no other sence upon a Text than what agrees with the scope and designe of that particular Discourse wherein we find it 1. Before we conclude upon the sence of a Text so as to prove any thing by it we must be sure that sence is not repugnant to natural Reason For if it be it cannot be the true meaning of the Scripture For God is the Original of natural Truth as well as of that which comes by particular Revelation and as Hierocles saith to believe and obey right Reason and to follow God are the same thing And therefore no Proposition that is repugnant to the fundamental Principles of Reason can be the sence of any part of Gods Book and that which is false and contrary to Reason can no more be true and agreeable to the revelations of Scripture than God who is the Author of one as well as the other can contradict himself From hence it is evident that these words This is my body are not to be understood in that sence which makes for the Doctrine of Transubstantiation because it is impossible that contradictions should be true and we cannot be more certain that any thing is true than we are that that Doctrine is false There are some other Doctrines maintained by men of Name in the World that they have no better grounds for than obscure Texts interpreted contrary to the Principles of natural Reason and Religion This caution therefore is to be minded in the first place 2. We must put no sence upon a difficult place which contradicts the great end and drift of the whole Bible Now that is to work Faith in men and thereby to bring them to repentance and to a holy life And therefore whatsoever Doctrine does naturally tend to take men off from the care of holy living by nourishing them in foolish presumption or driving them to miserable despair cannot be the Doctrine of the Scriptures and therefore such a Doctrine cannot be proved from any obscure Text of the Bible and by consequence that sence of an obsure Text from which it may be proved is not the true sence unless we can believe that some part of the holy Books teaches something that undermines the great end of the whole There are too many Opinions amongst some Christians that have no other colour for them than Scripture interpreted without this necessary caution which must therefore be added to the former 3. We must not understand a difficult place in a sence that is contrary to those places whose meaning is plain and manifest to all men For the Scripture cannot teach one thing plainly in one place and the quite contrary obscurely in another It is but reasonable therefore in trying to understand a difficult place or in going about to prove any thing from it that we should compare Scripture with Scripture and the obscure places with those that are plain not to interpret the plain by the obscure which is contrary to all Rules of Discourse but the obscure by the plain especially because the plain places contain things that are most necessary to be understood and believed by us and therefore we cannot without great danger forsake the Doctrine which they teach as every man in effect does who takes a difficult place in a sence contrary to that Doctrine In a word the Scripture is our Rule principally where it is easiest to be understood and the