Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	ghost_n	holy_a	inspire_v	2,844	5	10.2489	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50644	A letter to Dr. E.S. concerning his late letter to Mr. G. and the account he gives in it of a conference between Mr. G. and himself from one who was present at the conference.	Meredith, Edward, 1648-1689?	1687 (1687)	Wing M1782; ESTC R15938	20,616	40

breed a conceit in very many that an Enquiry after Truth is both difficult and fruitless And therefore they often chuse rather to despair with ease than to labour as they fancy without any hope of Success Whereas these shorter Conferences will either satisfie them sooner or at least more easily engage them in so necessary a search There are several other Reasons which might be alledged to the same purpose but I think these are sufficient to convince the World that if Mr. G should prefer a personal Conference to the Writing of Books as I hope he will it would not be any Tergiversation but the choice of the best and most useful way of deciding Controversies and particularly this And since you are now become the Challenger he ought according to the Laws of Duel to chuse his Weapon or manner of Fight Hitherto I have found fault with you and now perhaps it will not be amiss if I acknowledge an Error or Weakness of my own which is that at first I imagin ed my self to have found a great advantage against you by a Reflection which I and several others made on the perusal of your two Propositions viz. That in your first you seem to affirm that the Tradition of all Christian Churches which speaking in general you call in your Disputation the Christian Church is a ground of Absolute Certainty for the admittance of Scripture And in your Second you would infer That Tradition is no infallible Conveyance of Matters of Faith. Now supposing it a Matter of Faith that all the Books of Scripture owned by you were inspired by the Holy Ghost that is are true Scripture as I presume you will not deny I do not see but your Propositions contradict one another and we have once more Dr. St. against Dr. St. viz. Tradition the ground of Absolute Certainty on the one hand and no infallible Conveyance on the other I must confess I say that I looked on this Implication as manifest to that degree that it would not be easie for you to get clear of it but when I considered how great a Talent you have of reconciling what we ordinary Folks account Contradictions and how evident you have already made it That a Church may be true and yet Idolatrous and that Roman Catholics may be saved and yet by being Roman Catholics must be guilty of Sins inconsistent with Salvation I thought it more advisable to let this new seeming Contradiction pass Muster than to offer an occasion for more Volumes of that kind However you must give me leave to tell you that when you have sufficiently proved the first of these Propositions which if any Body's is truly your Task viz. That Tradition is a ground of absolute Certainty for the receiving of the Scripture It is ten to one but you furnish Mr. G with Arguments to prove the Second which is his Province viz. That Tradition is an Infallible Conveyance of Matters of Faith. I hope my Readers will not imagin by what they find here that I have any purpose of being engaged in these Disputations It would be too great an Arrogance for me to pretend either to succeed Mr. G or to oppose Dr. St And therefore I have medled with the Controversie no farther than I thought it necessary to the clearing of Matter of Fact by shewing as well as I could how the Disputations were carried on how they ended what still remained to be proved by both Sides and to what manner of Proving viz. Whether by Personal Conference or otherwise they seemed to be obliged In a word my Design hath been nothing else than as far as I have been able to rescue Mr. G from those Imputations which your Accusation and Challenge would bring upon him till such time as he himself may have an opportunity of doing it more fully by his own Pen. But I suppose enough is shewed already to convince the World that if in the Conference the Victory lay on your side you were not much mistaken when you thought it not worth boasting of You seem to many of your Readers to lay some stress on Mr. G's going to Coffee-Houses and your not going to them as if therefore the more Credit were to be given to you and the less to him But I do not think that you could have any such meaning when I find you had your main Intelligence concerning Mr. G's behaviour from those Houses and consequently by such persons as made no scruple of visiting them whom I presume you would not believe so easily and thoroughly as you do did you esteem them the less credible for those visits I know many Lies are told in Coffee-houses but if all places were to be avoided wherein Lies are told I am afraid that Dr. St would run the hazard of being silenced for want of a Pulpit which might be ventur'd on Certainly it is no Crime to go to Coffee-houses tho' I confess to talk in them as many do is a very great one But instead of this if any one should as far as Prudence and Opportunity will give way divert those Discourses from what is Seditious Idle or Profane to that which is serious and useful either for this life or the next he would be so far from committing a fault that he would prevent many and perhaps by leaving some good impression or other in those he converses with do a greater Service to the Common-wealth and to Almighty God than if he had kept at home But this is a kind of Missionary Zeal and therefore what the Children of the Reformation are little acquainted with However forasmuch as concerns the Coffee-Houses we have far more in them of Dr. St's Coat than of Mr. G's But whether with any better motive than that of entertaining and recreating themselves I will not determine And therefore if it pass for loosness or want of due Gravity to visit a Coffee-house I desire Dr. St to tell me what Spirit leads so many of his own Brethren thither But some people so they may strike those whom they take for their Enemies care not if at the same time they fall foul on their Friends But for such as cry so often What have we to do with Religion in a Coffee-house I would fain know of them whether or no it be lawful to visit any Place or Conversation where it will be improper to Honor God or Edifie our Neighbor For my part I think it is not And therefore if a Coffee-house be a place wherein Religion is not to be medled with I shall be of Dr. St's mind if his mind be such and conclude That it ought not to be visited But because I remember that during the Conference you complain'd of want of Time which as I should have told you was also a principal occasion of Mr. T 's hast it will not be fit that I should detain you much longer And therefore to the mean Opinion which you seem to express of your Adversary I shall only say that methinks you ought not to make us think so poorly of our selves whilst you endeavour to perswade us that we have no need of any Guide in the most Mysterious Things since nothing can be a greater Argument for the necessity of Direction than the sight of our own Weakness Wherefore if you please let us compound the Business We will be contented to pass for Weak and Ignorant and you shall be obliged to shew by whom we may be protected from Error It being most uncomfortable to be shewn that we ought not to trust our Reason and to be told that we ought And I question not but you will effectually perform this whenever you comply with what appears to be your Task already and give us some distinguishing Mark for the finding out those Christians on whose Tradition we may safely rely for the reception of the Holy Scriptures since if we may venture on * S. Aug. libro contra Epist Fundamenti Ego verò Evangelio non crederem nisi me Catholicae Ecclesiae commoveret Authoritas Quibus ergo obtemperavi dicentibus Credite Evangelio cur eis non obtemperem dicentibus mihi Noli credere Manichaeo c. St. Augustins Judgment it would be a Madness to disbelieve those in any other Matter of Faith whom we believe in so important a Point Tell us then from whom we are to receive the Scriptures and we will not ask you to whom we ought to go for Certainty in other Doctrins I have but one thing more to acquaint you with which is that tho' I have shewn that the Answering your Challenge hath nothing to do with our present Dispute and that even for the finishing of the first Controversies I like Conferring better than Writing yet there are some amongst us who think that you ought not to want your satisfaction even in that way which you will suppose the least liable to the injury of false Copies And consequently your Objection concerning the Greek Church is undertaken which being the Argument you seem fondest of and that which you have pickt out of the whole Conference to flourish with in your Letter I promise my self that my News will be very grateful to you and here in the Close make some kind of amends for any Term or Expression which through my attending oftentimes more to the nature of the Things treated of than to the Dignity of the Person with whom I treat may have slipt from my Pen less agreeing with that Respect wherewith I desire to continue SIR Your most humble Servant E. M. London March 28. 1687.