Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	bishop_n	church_n	pastor_n	3,273	5	9.0845	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64357	A Discourse concerning a guide in matters of faith with respect especially to the Romish pretence of the necessity of such a one as is infallible.	Tenison, Thomas, 1636-1715.	1683 (1683)	Wing T695; ESTC R37882	33,059	50

Church And as they like so they interpret Had not they governed themselves by this art we should not have found in the writings of their Popes and in the very Canon Law it self those words which were spoken to Jeremiah expounded of the Supremacy of the Bishop of Rome I have set thee over Kings to root out to pluck up and to destroy The Donatists found their Church in these words of the Canticles Tell me thou whom my Soul loveth where thou feedest where thou makest thy Flock to rest at noon For they expounded this as it liked them best of the Flock of their party in the Southern Country of Africa Such Expounders of Scripture are those Popish Writers who interpret Feed my Sheep of the Universal Monarchy of the Bishop of Rome and conclude that a Pastor must drive away Wolves or depose Princes hurtful to the Church But the straining of such Metaphorical expressions as an excellent Person saith proves only that they want better proofs And by a like way of interpretation from the same Text it might be concluded that all Christians are Fools because Sheep are silly Creatures No expositions are more besides the sense of the Text or more ridiculous then some of those which may be found in the Authentick Books of the Roman Church And those who composed them appear to have looked asquint on the Scriptures For whilst they looked on them they seem to have looked another way I will instance only in a few of those many absurd expositions with which the Roman Breviary abounds The words of the Angel to the Holy Virgin a Sword shall go through thine own Soul also are interpreted of that word of God which is quick and powerful and sharper then any two-edged Sword And this sense is designed as an evasion of their reasoning who from that Text conclude concerning the blessed Virgin that she died and was not miraculously assumed The Ascension of Elias is thus expounded He was taken up into the aerial not the aetherial Heavens from whence he was dropped in an obscure place on Earth there to remain to the end of the World and then to expire with it They say of Job That when he spake of a Bird and of her path in the Air he by a figure called Christ a Bird and by the motion of it in the Air figured also our Lords Ascension We may perceive by these few Instances what an entrance into the sense of Scripture is like to be given whilst a Pope has the Key of Knowledge in his keeping Thirdly If Men would use the Church as their Ministerial Guide and admit of the Scripture as the only Rule by which all Matters of Faith are to be measured they would agree in the proper means to the blessed end of Unity in the Faith This was the perswasion of St. Austin who thus applieth himself to Maximinus Neither ought I at this time to alledge the Council of Nice nor you that of Ariminum For neither am I bound to the Authority of the one nor you to that of the other Let us both dispute with the Authorities of Scripture which are Witnesses common to both of us Whilst the Romanists ascribe the differences which arise amongst the Reformed to their want of an infallible Guide and to their different interpretations of the Scriptures they unskilfully derive effects from causes which are not the natural Parents of them There is saith St. Austine one Mother of all strifes and she is Pride Neither doth the Scripture divide us nor does the infallibility of their judge unite them Their Union such as it is ariseth from the mighty force of their External Polity and they speak not differently because they dare not and the strength of that Polity arose at first from Rome not as the Chair of St. Peter but as the Seat of the Empire Our divisions like theirs arise as all Wars do be they Ecclesiastical or Civil from the unruly Lusts and Passions of Men. And from these likewise arise generally the misinterpretations of plain Laws and Rules the sense of which must be made to chime according to the Interest of prejudiced Men or else they will not give attention to them If the Lusts and Passions of Men were mortified all Christians agreeing in the certainty of the Scriptures though not of any Living Guide and the words of the one being as intelligible as those of the other All might agree in one Creed and put an end to those unnecessary Controversies which entangle Truth and extinguish Charity FINIS The Question The moment of ●his Question The Temptations to believe the Affirmative part of this Question The true Resolution of the Query Prop. I. * Nisi una est Fides non est L. M.Ser 23. † See Ferrand l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 4. disquis Relig. * Acts 4.19 20. * S. Mat. 28.20 Prop. II. * Jo● 15.22 24. Prop. III. * To the Reader of the Dis. of Govern of Church●s * R. H. Guide in Controv. in Pref. p. 3. Prop. IV. Consid. I. * Isai. 56.10 Jez 2.8 Ez. 7.26 C. 22.26 † M●l 2.7 8. * Deut. 17.8 to 12. See Levit. 4.13 Consid. II. * S. Mat. 16.18 † S. Mat. 28.20 Revel 3.1 2 3. * S. Luke 10.16 † S. Luke 10.1 9. * Ver. 12. 1 Tim. 3.15 † Ryc of the Greek Ch. p. 44. * Revel 3.12 † In 1 Cor. 9.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * S. Mat. 18.15 16 17. See Deut. 17.6 * Launoy in Epist ad Carol. magistrum ad Jacob. Bevil ad Guil. Voell ad Raim Formentinum in 5. par Epist. Consid. III. * Joh. 20.21 † S. Mat. 9.36 C. 10.6 2. Pet. 5.2 * S. Mat. 28.16 17 18 19. † S. Chrys. in 1 Cor. 9.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. † See R. H. Guide in Controv Dis. 1. p. 5. and Socin in Loc. * S. Hil. de Trin. l. 6. dixit Petrus Tu es filius Dei c. super hanc igitur Confessionis Petram Ecclesiae edificatio est v. Launoy in Epist ad Voellum † Revel 21.14 Ephes. 2.20 * Act. 2.14 41 47. IV. Consid. † Euseb. l. 3. vit Const. c. 7. 8. p. 487. Socrat. E. H. l. c. 8. p. 19. * V. Concil Lab● Tom. 2. p. 50 c. † Socr. Eccl. Hist. l. 1. c. 6. p. 9. * From A. 1545. to A. 1563. † V. Council Const. sess 39. * V. Greg. magn Ep. 6.31 Leo. 1. Ep. 53. Gelas 1. Ep. 13. † Concil Labb Tom. 10. p. 23 379. Pontific Roman (a) A. D. 1542. in Coll. Sorb See Richer H. Conc. general vol. 4. p. 162 163 c. Object * R.H. Annot. on D. Still Answer p. 82 83. † Art 31. Ch. 5. du consistoire si un ou plusieurs c. * Syn. Dord sess 138. Answer (a) See Artic. 20 21 22. (b) Camp Rat. 3. p. 180. Rat. 5. p. 185. * Lib. diurn Pontif. p. 35. etenim hujus Apostolicae

was hortatory and not compulsive It is true he erred not as Head of the Church for such he was not neither as such was he owned But he erred as a publick person and with Heretical obstinacy For Pope Leo as he noteth said concerning him that he had made it his business to betray and subvert the Holy Faith Now this matter of Fact sufficeth for the refuting all the fallacious reasonings of the patrons of Papal infallibility For all must agree that they are not unerring Guides who actually err The Sieur de Balzac mocks at the weakness of one of the Romish Fathers who offered four reasons to prove that the Duke D' Espernon was not returned out of England And offered them to a Gentleman who had seen him since his return There seemeth no sitness in the constituting of such a Guide nor any necessity for it Had it been agreeable to Gods Wisdom his Wisdom would not have been wanting to it self God having made Man a Reasonable Creature would not make void the use of deliberation and the freedom of his judgment There is no vertue in the Assent where the Eye is forced open and the Light held directly to it It is enough that God the rewarder of them who believe hath given Men sufficient faculties and sufficient means And seeing Holiness is as necessary to the pleasing of God and to the peace of the World as Union in Doctrine to which there is too frequently given a lifeless Assent seeing there must be Christian Obedience as long as there is a Church seeing as the Guide in Controversy himself urgeth the Catholick Church and all the parts of it are believed in the Creed to be Holy as well as Orthodox We ask not the Romanists an impertinent Question when we desire them to tell us why a means to infallibility in the judgment rather than irresistibleness in the pious choice of the Will is to be by Heaven provided in the Church Both seem a kind of Destination of equal necessity But though the Reformed especially those of the Church of England see no necessity for an infallible Guide nor believe there is one on the face of the Earth yet they do not reject all Ecclesiastical Guidance but allow it great place in matters of Discipline and Order and some place also though not that of an unerring Judge in Matters of Faith At the beginning of the Reformation the Protestants though they refused the judgment of the Pope their Enemy yet they declined not the determination of a Council And in the Assembly at Ausburgh the Romanists and Protestants agreed in a Council as the Umpire of their publick difference At this the Pope was so alarumed saith the Sieur de Mezeray that he wrote to the Kings of France and England that he would do all they would desire provided they hindred the calling of a Council In the Reformation of the Church of England great regard was had to the Primitive Fathers and Councils And the aforesaid French Historian was as much mistaken in the affairs of Our Church when he said of our Religion that it was a medly of the Opinions of Calvin and Luther as he was afterwards in the affairs of our State when he said King James was elected at the Guild-hall King of England The Romannists represent us very falsly whilst they fix upon us a private Spirit as it stands in opposition to the Authority of the Catholick Church Mr. Alabaster expresseth one motive to his conversion to the Roman Church in these Words Weigh together the Spouse of Christ with Luther Calvin Melancthon Oecumenical Councils with private opinions The Reverend and Learned Fathers with Arius Aetius Vigilantius Men always in their time Burned for Hereticks of which words the former are false reasoning the latter are false History The Bishop of Meaux reasons after the same fallacious manner Supposing a Protestant to be of this perswasion that he can understand the Scriptures better than all the rest of the Church together of which perswasion he saith very truly that it exalteth Pride and removeth Docility The Guide in Controversies puts the Question wrong in these terms Whether a Protestant in refusing the submission of his judgment to the Authority or Infallibility of the Catholick Church in her Councils can have in several Articles of necessary Faith wherein the sense of Scripture is controverted as sure a Foundation of his Faith as he who submits his judgment to the foresaid Authority or also Infallibility Here the Catholick Church is put in place of the Roman Authority and Infallibility are joyned together and it is suggested dishonestly concerning the Reformed that they lay aside the Authority of the Catholick Church in her general Councils Authority may be owned where there is no infallibility for it is not in Parents Natural or Civil Yet both teach and govern us If others reject Church-Authority let them who are guilty of such disorderly irreverence see to it The Christians of the Church of England are of another Spirit Of that Church this is one of the Articles The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies and Authority in Controversies of Faith There is a Question saith Mr. Selden about that Article concerning the power of the Church whether these words of having power in Controversies of Faith were not stolen in But it 's most certain they were in the Book of Articles that was confirmed though in some Editions they have been left out They were so in Dr. Mocket's but he is to be considered in that Edition as a private Man Now this Article does not make the Church an infallible Guide in the Articles of Faith but a Moderator in the Controversies about Faith The Church doth not assume that Authority to it self in this Article which in the foregoing it denied to the Churches of Jerusalem Alexandria Antioch and Rome When perverse Men will raise such Controversies who is so fit for Peace sake to interpose as that Church where the Flame is kindled There can be no Church without a Creed and each particular Church ought to believe her Creed to be true and by consequence must exercise her Authority in the defence of presumed Truth Otherwise she is not true to her own constitution But still she acts under the caution given by St. Augustine You bind a Man on Earth Take heed they be just bonds in which you retain him For Justice will break such as are unjust in sunder And whilest the Church of England challengeth this Authority she doth not pretend to it from any supernatural gift of infallibility but so far only as she believes she hath sincerely followed an infallible Rule For of this importance are the next words of the Article before remembred It is not Lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written And besides the same it ought not to enforce any thing to