Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A47911
|
Remarks on the growth and progress of non-conformity
|
L'Estrange, Roger, Sir, 1616-1704.
|
1682
(1682)
|
Wing L1296; ESTC R7094
|
33,007
|
58
|
Love Popery will grow says he out of our divisions thousands have been drawn to and confirmed in it by this means I am persuaded says he that all the arguments in Bellarmine and other Books have not done so much to make Papists in England as our Divisions and multiplied Sects And afterward who sees not how fair a game the Papists have to play by our divisions Archbishop Whitgist in his Letter to the Lord Treasurer and Dr. Oats in his Narrative and others speak it as upon their own personal knowledge that the Dissenters have been animated to Non-conformity by the Jesuits It hath been lately made out by a Peer of this Realm that their making a Court-party and a Country-party and fomenting fears and jealousies between both was an expedient agreed upon in France and sent over into England for the promoting of Popish Interests And in Queen Elizabeths time as soon as ever the Puritan had made the Schism over came Sanders and Harding into England and practised in that sort as proselyted many to the Church of Rome 4. They promote Popery by vilifying the Church and Church-men of England when in Queen Elizabeths time they traduced Archbishop Whitgift that great and pious Prelate calling him Beelzebub of Canterbury Pope of Lambeth bloudy opposer of Gods Saints Esau Antichristian Beast c. and the rest of the Bishops as Petty-Popes the Ordinance of the Devil paultry Prelates pestilent Usurpers in the Convocation they called them Clergy-masters of the Confocation-house Monsters of the Conspiration-house the Convocation house of Devils and Beelzebub of Canterbury the chief and when they called the inferiour Clergy Dolts and Drunkards Hogs and Dogs Wolves and Foxes Simoniacks and Usurpers c. See what advantage the Papists made of this Parsons in his Book of Three Conversions reports these Slanders and Calumnies for undoubted Truths Martin Mar-Prelate is said by Sir Edwin Sandys to pass in those days for unquestioned Credit in the Court of Rome and his authority much insisted on to disgrace the Protestant Religion Kellison a later one doth build as much on the credit of these Libellers to defame the Reformed Religion as if they had been inspired by some infallible Spirit And Mason tells it as a serious thing Appellant Episcopum Cantuariensem Pseudo-episcopum Principem Daemoniorum Caiapham Esaum Monstrosum c. Alios autem Episcopos Angliae degeneres perniciosos Usurpatores Lupos Episcopos Diaboli c. Now upon these considerations judge who will what reason these men have to charge the Church or Church-men of England as fautoring of Popery to amuse the People with fears and jealousies concerning it and to arrogate to themselves the reputation of the most zealous opposers of it and yet by exerting their zeal these three ways they have strengthened their Faction and promoted their interest in Church and State 4. Their Veneration to the Scriptures pretended above others Another way by which they increase their Party and Interest is the great veneration which they above others pretend to have for the Holy Scriptures their confident appeals to Scripture as Judge of their Controversie and constant retreat to it for defence of their Cause teaching their Followers even in matters of indifferency which the Scriptures are silent in and leave to humane prudence to swagger with the demand Where do you find in Scripture such precept or example And this to the more unwary and less knowing Professors is one thousand Arguments and as apt to take with them as any thing Now there are three things among others which do much liable this pretence to hypocrisie and delusion 1. Their gross perverting and misinterpreting of Scripture beyond what the Papists themselves do 2. The impracticableness and errour of demanding a Scripture-Text for the very externals of Gods worship 3. Their disregard and slâ—ght of those Scriptures though speaking never so plainly which contradict their errours and practices 1. Their perverting and misinterpreting of Scripture when Fathers and Councils Reason Antiquity and Scripture fail them then a good Gloss must serve for a Text vexing and urging the Holy Writ which the Apostle calls emphatically 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. cogging the Die to make it speak what they list and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. crafty deceitful applying and expounding it Thus by Babylon they understand Episcopacy by beggarly Elements they mean Church-Ceremonies they justifie their out-rages against the late King and Nobility with a Bind your Kings with chains and your Nobles with fetters of iron they have commented Rebellion out of the very thirteenth of the Romans which enjoins Subjection and Loyalty upon pain of damnation and have fetcht Presbytery out of the first of Titus ver 5. which plainly exhibits the very essentials of Episcopacy The Murder of the late King they have out of Daniel's Dream and from the Beast and the little Horn in the Revelations and because the Apostle says Moses was faithful in all the house of God therefore there must be nothing in the externals of God's Worship but what you have a Text for for the like reason that that ignorant Popish Priest urged out of the Psalms Paveant illi non paveam ego to prove his Parishioners ought to pave the Chancel Look in the Geneva Bibles their Note on Rev. 9. 3. you will find that by the Locusts which came out of the Smoak they say is meant false Teachers worldly subtle Prelates Monks Friers Cardinals Patriarchs Archbishops Bishops Doctors Batchelors Masters to which is subjoined which forsake Christ to maintain false Doctrine where they bring all Archbishops Bishops and all that take University Degrees under the name of Locusts and rank them with Monks and Friars whom they beheld as no other than the limbs of Antichrist One would think that that Curse at the end of the Revelations should make them afraid so to wrack Scripture-Texts those God-breathed Oracles to make them obstetricate to their Impieties and confess such abominable falsities But thus it was ab origine The Donatists justified their separation with that 1 Cant. 7. Tell us where thou makest thy Flocks to rest at Noon Meridiem versus the French Translation is towards the South therefore they being Southern confine the Church of God to themselves and separate from the Orthodox Christian Churches And we know who it was that first practised this Art by the manner of his urging our Saviour with a Scriptum est in all his temptations Matth. 4. 2. A second thing that liables their pretended veneration for the Scriptures above other men to the suspicion of seducing is their frequent use of demanding Scripture-Texts for every thing in the Discipline and Orders of the Church denying Church-rulers the power of appointing Ceremonies Before I come to speak of the delusion of this pretence I would premise something concerning its errour which did not the constant practice of the Seduced require it were a shame
to take notice of it hath been so oft refuted by Grotius Morton Sanderson and others shewing 1. That even in the Jewish Church from whence they fetch this doctrine in which God did by immediate Revelation prescribe the Rites and Orders of his Worship even in that Church the Magistrate had a power in the Circumstantials of Religion David altered some things and instituted others he appointed Instrumental Musick to be used in the Worship of God without any Commission from God that we read of He distributed the Priests into Orders for the conveniency of their Ministration yet 't was not accounted any innovation in Religion Hezekiah caused the Passover to be kept in all Judah and Israel on the second Moneth on the advice of his Council upon prudential and pious considerations though not according to any Divine Institution He appointed the Levites to kill the Passover which by God's appointment was to be done by the People He preferred the Levites to assist the Priests in killing the other Sacrifices which before they were never admitted to and all this was afterward retained in use without reprehension By all which it appears that the Magistrate had once a power of ordering matters in God's Worship and that even in times when God prescribed the rites and orders of his Worship by immediate revelation And in the New Testament the Apostle's circumcising Timothy after Circumcision had been abolish'd shews that all ceremonial appendages are but subordinate and ought to yield to the designs of Peace Charity and Edification The same Apostle in prescribing Church-Orders leaves out particulars prescribes onely generals viz. Obedience to Rulers doing things decently and in order to edification and the like Now all the question is who shall be Judge of that decency order and edification The Scriptures cannot for they no where determine it The People may not it was denied them in the Directory the Worcester-shire Association c. Therefore Church-Rulers must those higher Powers that are ordained of God and established in authority by the Fundamental Laws of the Land Besides that every Church-National hath authority to appoint and change Church-Ceremonies and Ecclesiastical Rites was a main Argument that the first Reformers Jewel Cox c. used against the Popish Bishops for the changing of Religion from Popish to Protestant But 't is enough to shew the errour and delusion of this pretence That the most learned of the old Non-conformists themselves have believed and taught that a Scripture-Precept or Example is not necessary to the Institution of Church-Discipline or Ceremonies Calvin teaches That Christ would not prescribe singularly and particularly concerning external Discipline and Ceremonies because he foresaw things to depend on the occasions and opportunities of Times nor did he think on Form to accord with all Ages whereupon says he we must have recourse to the general Rules that all things may be tried by them Finally he delivered nothing in these points expresly because they are not of necessity to salvation but ought to be accommodated to the edification of the Church according to the different disposition and custom of Times and Countries Thus Calvin himself and accordingly he practised when without a Scripture-Precept or Example he caused a consult to be held at Geneva in the Year 1543. for changing the Lords Day from Sunday to Thursday Master Baxter himself hath confest that the vesture gesture and other Ceremonies are all at the determination of the lawful Magistrate Now when they suggest thus to People what themselves believe not what can one think of their design in teaching the seduced Ignorants when they have nothing else to say to cry Where doth the Scripture this or that where have you Scripture-Precept or Example for it 3. If their pretending such Veneration for the Scriptures above other men were not delusory their regard to the Sriptures would certainly be more uniform They would not as they do disregard and contemn those Texts though speaking never so plainly which make any thing against them Tell them as the Apostle doth the Corinthians of Whisperings Back-biting Tumults c. and that while they are full of strife envyings and divisions one of Paul another of Apollos one of this mans Congregation another of that they are carnal they will perhaps laugh at you but neither regard you nor the Apostle And here is regardable what the learned Doctor Littleton observes in his Sermon entituled The Churches Peace asserted p. 25. of these Corinthians that the Apostle charges with envyings strife and Schisms which he calls carnality that they kept to their publick Ministers yet are charged with those things meerly because they preferred one before another who were both Paul and Apollos men of eminent abilities and extraordinary graces And if this be envying strife and carnality what would Paul have said of us How carnal are they who desert the publick Ministry and gad after not the Pauls and Apollos's there are not so many among them to gad after but as that Reverend Doctor speaks after every Will-in-the-Wisp men neither Orthodox nor able If you urge it to them that Christ and his Apostles have foretold us of false Prophets that should be amongst us and that the marks they have given us to know them by are such as these viz. They are such as separate themselves Geneva Translation Such as make Sects that they are such as despise dominion i. e. that cannot endure Superiority or Government that they are such as speak evil of dignities Geneva Translation of those that are in Authority that they are such as are murmurers and complainers i. e. never content under any Government Such as shall perish in the gain-saying of Korah which was disobedience to the Magistrate mutinying against Moses and Aaron the Prince and the Priest telling them that all the Lords People are holy that they had as good a right to govern as Moses and Aaron had that they took too much upon them c. Tell them that the Scriptures call Seducers false Accusers as those that accuse our Worship of Superstition and Idolatry Traitors as those who like Absalom draw away the hearts of the Kings Subjects with fine words and fair Speeches Tell them that the Scripture describes Seducers to be of that sort that creep into houses and lead silly women captive they will no more regard you than if you quoted the Alcoran Though these Characters hit them like the left-handed Benjamites to a hairs breadth yet 't is strange to see with what scorn and contempt they will reject that man that shall tell them of these things though with the greatest demission and meekness that may be and with what slight and disregard they will hear and read these plain Scripture-marks of Seducers though as competible to them as Treason to a Traitor Now upon these three considerations judge who will what fit persons these are to pretend to Scripture-rule above other men yet this pretence