Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	holy_a	person_n	trinity_n	2,662	5	9.6888	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67882	The way to peace amongst all Protestants: being a letter of reconciliation sent by Bp. Ridley to Bp. Hooper, with some observations upon it. Licensed, July the 14. 1688.	Johnson, Samuel, 1649-1703.; Ridley, Nicholas, 1500?-1555.; Hooper, John, d. 1555.	1688 (1688)	Wing J847A; ESTC R3678	9,940	11

else to do Or as Ridley's words are When the World so furiously rageth against the Grounds and substantial points of our Religion in these our days Is it a time for us to trouble our heads with trivial matters when the sum and substance of our Religion is in danger and lies at stake For have we not lately seen the Papists laying the Axe to the root of the Tree and the weekly Representer in particular for several Weeks successively Ridiculing and making Sport with our Bible which is the whole Religion of Protestants Does he not say that we have as many Bibles as Heads that is to say That the Bible it self without their Infallible Blind Guides to interpret it is wholly Useless to us and every Man may as well frame a several Religion of his own Head without any Bible at all Truly if it be so Useless and so Mischievous a Book as that Author has Represented it it is not enough to put a stop to the Printing of it but it ought also to be Prohibited Do they not daily make Scandalous attempts and efforts against the Trinity of Divine Persons Father Son and Holy Ghost in whose Names we are Baptized only because we will not also believe in a Breaden God Almighty In a word Do they not endeavour to wrest all Scripture out of our Hands because we will not receive their false and forged Traditions with the same Reverenc● Our present Business therefore is to lay a dead hold upon our Bibles and to maintain the Grounds and Substantial Points of our Religion and to suffer Circumstances and By-matters to take their Chance Nay we ought to be in a readiness to Compound for our Bibles and rather to throw all Ceremonies over-board with our own Hands than to endanger the Protestant Religion which is infinitely more Valuable And though I know not of any one Ceremony injoyned in the Church of England which is not both Lawful and Primitive and of an elder date than Popery yet because the Slovenly Papists have spit in them and by corrupting and abusing them have endeavoured to make them their Own I hope the Wisedom of the Nation may hereafter suffer them to be so Especially since all wise Protestants know very well that we can Live without them And we ought the rather to be of this mind because 3. In the third place we see to what Terms of Abatement and Accommodation that Blessed Martyr Ridley has descended in these following words Howsoever in time past in certain By-matters and circumstances of Religion your Wisdom and my Simplicity I grant hath a little jarred each of us following the abundance of his own Sense and Iudgement Ridley had sincerely followed his own great Judgement in this Dispute but because that Judgement had jarred with the Sense of as Hearty a Protestant as himself therefore you see how he undervalues and disparages it We take it for granted that Hooper was in the wrong and Ridley was in the right especially because a Law had interposed in that behalf And yet here it seems that the two Contending Parties were Hooper's Wisdom and Ridley's Simplicity A little of these Good Mens inward humility self-denial and mutual condescension would heal our Breaches and compose our Differences much better than the most strict outward Uniformity could For as the Levelling project to make all Mens Estates Equal was only a Project for a Day for on the Morrow all their Estates would have been Unequal again Whereas Contentment is that standing Leveller which makes every man always as rich as another In like manner a perfect Uniformity in these Circumstances and By-matters if it were possible to be attained would not last long because as our Church in the Preface to the Common-Prayer has wisely observed Rites and Ceremonies are in their own nature Alterable and Changeable according to the variety of Times and Occasions whereby they are Expedient at one time and Inexpedient at another for which reason even the same Persons and those the most Constant the farthest from newfangledness cannot be always alike satisfied with them much more they will be sure to be Liked and Disliked by several Persons according to their several apprehensions who must needs differ about them But on the other hand a mutual forbearance allowance and condescension in these By-matters would supply the place of a perfect Uniformity to the worlds end I must confess that Ridley says these Diminishing things of himself in the absence of the Law and after those Statutes which enacted these Ceremonies were Repealed and swallowed up by Popery For which cause it cannot be Expected That the Church of England-Clergy should make such Condescensions at this time as Ridley did and acknowledge their Simplicity in adhering to the Laws For Laws while they are in Being have as much Reverence due to them as is owing to the wisdom of the whole Community by which they were made and nothing else but our Preingagements to God himself can excuse us from the observance of them And therefore it cannot be required by the Dissenters in order to that good Understanding which I here endeavour and humbly beg there may be amongst Protestants that we should arraign Five and twenty Statute Laws at once under the Infamous Name of Draconica Especially when by one of the Draconica the whole Church of England and under the Covert of the Church of England all the Dissenters in England hold their Bibles● No Every wise and considerate Protestant though he be not a Nonconformist would rather lie under all the penalties of Non-conformity than go about to weaken or undermine the Authority of the Laws which secure to all Protestants their Lives and a much greater thing than their Lives I mean the Bible which I say again is the whole Religion of all Protestants As for By-matters they may very well be left where the Law for Ages Immemorial has lodged all the Concerns of the English Church which is in a Lawful English Parliament whose necessary Power in that behalf appears by the very Writ both of their Summons and of their due Election And in the mean time notwithstanding our different apprehensions about them let us love one another And which brings me to the next point 4ly Let us mutually express our selves in the following words of the Blessed Martyr Now I say be you assured that even with my whole heart God is my Witness in the bowels of Iesus Christ I love you in the Truth and for the Truth's-sake which abideth in us and as I am perswaded shall by the Grace of God abide in us for evermore Men that love the Truth for God's sake will love other Men for the Truth 's sake which they all Profess And I am satisfied that this was the reason which moved Hooper to seek first to Ridley and to prevent him with two kind Letters before his present Answer was written For when Hooper saw Ridley stand up as a Champion for the