Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	true_a	7,658	5	5.2374	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85394	Hagiomastix, or The scourge of the saints displayed in his colours of ignorance & blood: or, a vindication of some printed queries published some moneths since by authority, in way of answer to certaine anti-papers of syllogismes, entituled a Vindication of a printed paper, &c. ... / By John Goodwin, pastor of a Church of Christ in Colemanstreet.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1647 (1647)	Wing G1169; Thomason E374_1; ESTC R201334; ESTC R201335	139,798	168

Truth of this Doctrine yea and am ready God assisting to die for it that God is one in three Persons yet I know some who denie it who notwithstanding this denyall I know also in part by my owne experience and acquaintance but more fully by the testimony of others worthy credit in as great a matter as this to be of exemplary life fruitfull in good workes holy heavenly Christian in all their Conversation as farre as men are able to judge or discerne Shall wee say that such men as these hold not the foundations of Christian Religion But it is none of least or lowest of our Classick intrusions to umpire among the Starres I meane the Doctrines of Christian Religion and to determine positively and above all possibility of mistake which are of the first which of the second which of the third magnitude Sect. 28. and with all to call them all by their Names as if they knew them as exactly as he that made them Besides when the Ordinance sentenceth a denying of the Scriptures Sect. 28. to be the word of God with death I desire to know whether by the SCRIPTVRES it meaneth the English Scriptures or that book or rather volume of bookes called the Bible translated as is said and as I believe out of the originall Hebrew and Greek copies into the English tongue Or these Originall or Greek copies themselves or my third thing really differing from either of these I suppose it is no foundation of Christian Religion to believe that the SCRIPTVRES in the first sense are the word of God these Rabbies themselves doe not hold it for an Article of their Faith that God spake to his Prophets or Apostles in English no nor yet that our English Translation doth agree in all things with the true sense and meaning of the Originalls If they doe believe either of these I must thus farre professe my selfe an Anti-sidian to them If by the SCRIPTVRES the Ordinance meaneth the Originall Hebrew and Greek copies out of which the English Bible is said to be translated I desire to know upon what grounds either of Reason or Religion these men or any others can require of men under the paine of death yea under the paine of eternall death a The Vindicaters call the denying of the Scriptures to be the word of God a DAMN BLE heresie to believe such writings to be the word of God the matter or contents wherof they neither know nor are capable of knowing upon any better termes of assurance I meane in an ordinary way of providence then the testimony Common Report or Authority of men For what other or better assurance can plaine and unlearned men and such who are altogether ignorant of the originall Languages and not in any capacity of learning them which is the case of thousand thousands in the Land attaine or come unto that such and such things as the English Translation presenteth unto them are contained in those Originall Copies Yea in case they were expert in the Originall Languages themselves according to what is called expertnesse or skilfulnesse in them at this day what other or what better assurance can they have then the Testimony and Authority of those men from or by whom they have gained this knowledge that this skill or knowledge of theirs is according to the Truth or that those respective significations meanings importances of words and Sect. 29. phrases which they have learned from men are the very same with those which the Pen-men of their Originall Copies intended respectively in their writings It is well knowne amongst Scholars and men but of ordinary reading that words and phrases in other Languages by continuance of time and succession of generations lose their primitive and ancient force and significations and contract such which are very much differing from them Many instances might be given hereof both in the Latine tongue and our owne but I leave this for men the face of whose studies is set towards such observations And put the case there were no such mortality as wee speake of in the significations and importances of words but that they also were yesterday and to day and the same for ever yet the Scholler can have no better assurance then his Masters honesty or word that he is taught by him according to the best of his skill or knowledge except haply it be the concurrent testimony of other Teachers in the same Profession whose words and testimonies are but of the same line of fallibility with his So then the holding the Scriptures to be the word of God in either of these two senses or significations of the word can with no tolerable pretext or colour be called a foundation of Christian Religion unlesse their foundations be made of the credits Learnings and Authorities of men If the Ordinance intendeth any third sense of the word SCRIPTVRES when it threatneth the denyall of them to be the word of God with death these undertakers for the Innocencie of it shall doe well to declare and explain this sense and not to leave it as a Lyon hid in a thicker to break out upon and destroy those that passe by at unawares Thus have wee prov'd at large that the two legs on which Sect. 29. the Anti-Querists Answer to their second Argument stands to be but two sticks covered with rotten or proud flesh and this skin'd over onely with a superficiall or washie colour of Reason and consequently that the said Argument remaineth still in full force strength and vertue and so the Querie from whence it was drawne to be impregnable honest sober and harmelesse as well in the proposall as consideration of it no wayes unbecomming the wisdome gravity or zeale of a sound Christian As for that distinction which they subjoyne concerning a mans being infallible I cannot likely thinke but that they are self-condemned in it Sect. 30. For surely they could not imagine that the Querie speaks of any absolute or universall infallibility or that the Querist doth not partake so farre in common sense with the Anti-Querists themselves as to know that an infallibility in discerning some one thing from another doth not necessarily require an universall or infinite infallibility And th●fore to what purpose come they forth with this grave Aphorisme that ●●● may certainely know some things and yet not be infallible in all things Had it not been a saying of as much savour if they had said certainly men may be worth an hundred pound in estate though they be not worth a thousand a Sparrow may be as big as a Partrich though it be not as big as a Swan And yet notwithstanding though they build their Answers with such hey stubble as these they must needs glory over the work of their hands with this acclamati●n Thus this second Querie is sufficiently answered c. Surely the word SVFFICIENTLY in these mens Dialect imports the manner of all actings and pleadings for the High-Presbyterian

alone with his owne words yet they exchange meanings with him For he doth not here speake of cutting off by the sword of the Magistrate which is by death but by the sword of the Church which is by excommunication Chrysostome with whom Calvin agrees in his notion conceives that the Apostle in his expression of cutting off alludes to circumcision which was made by abs●ission and wisheth that as they distracted the Church by preaching and urging the Doctrine of Circumcision or cutting off so themselves should be cut off Now that cutting off which was by circumcision was not to the death or destruction but to Sect. 62. the benefit of the circumcised Mr. Perkins calls the passage in hand an imprecation or curse pronounced by Paul upon the false Apostles and moveth this question upon it Whether we may not curse our enemies as Paul did To which he answers negatively No his reason For we have not the like spirit to discern the persons of men what they are and our zeale for Gods glory is mixed with many corrupt affections and therefore to be suspected So that his judgement is not onely that no argument can be drawne from this Scripture for the death or imprisonment of any teachers of errors or troublers of Churches in that kind but not so much as for any imprecation or wishing of evill against such Luthers interpretation of the place differs not much who expounds the Apostles malediction or imprecation as he calls it against the disturbers of the Church in the nature of an Anathema and makes this to be the sense of it that God would not guide or prosper either their Doctrine or their doings * Rectè igitur facit Paulus quod perturbatores ●llos maledicit pronunciat sententiam eos esse Anathema cun omnibus quae sunt docent faciunt quodque imprecatur eis ut ex●i●dantur ex bac vitâ precipue ex Ecclesia hoc est ne Deus gubernet fortunet Doctrinam omnes actiones eorum Luther ad Gal. 5. 12. Musculus understands the place cleerly of excommunication I would they were cut off saith he But from whence Even from the body of the Churches of Christ into which they had infinuated themselves as if they had been members of them whereas indeed they were pernicious pests They who are cut off are abalienated from all communion and fellowship therewith c. It is true he speaks afterwards of cutting off by the Christian Magistrate but his Text according to his own interpretation of it administers no ground at all unto him so to wish Nor indeed doth he wish any such cutting off as this but upon this ground or supposition that the Churches of Christ have no other meanes whereby to be rid of those unworthy teachers and Pastors whom he judgeth meet to be cut off which yet they ought to have yea and might have if they did not willingly suffer themselves to be deprived of it and then they should stand in no need at all of the strong hand of the Magistrate for such a purpose Whereas they adde that Christians in former ages submitted to Sect. 62. suffer with profession that if they had been Heretiques or Blasphemers they had deservedly suffered and for proofe hereof alledge that of the Apostle Paul when he was accused to have offended against the law of the Jews and the Temple If I be an offender or have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not to dye Act. 25. 8. 11. they here also commit that iniquity by which they still build Sect. 63 their house of High Presbytery I mean they misuse the good Word of God For is there any thing in the passage they cite which so much as colours with that assertion which they argue from it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saith the Apostle i. e. if indeed I did or doe injustice or have committed any thing worthy of death I refuse not c. Doe any of the Heretiques or Sectaries now as these men are pleased to call all those who refuse eandem insanire insaniam with them refuse to suffer or die upon such tearmes as these Let them produce any one man of that generation which they so avile and tread under their feet like clay and mire or stones in the streets who ever refused to suffer for injustice proportionably to his offence or to dye having committed any thing worthy of death It may possibly be that some of them have pleaded their innocency when matters of injustice have been laid to their charge and others have declared their judgements in opposition to some who would make what they please or what pleaseth not them matters worthy of death But in both these they are so farre from going against that they follow the example of the Apostle Paul who denyed that he had done any injustice or committed things worthy of death as his malicious accusers had traduced and falsely charged him to have done O England when will thy Teachers cease to pervert the streight wayes and word of the Lord when shall it yet be Their Answer to their fifteenth Argument is somewhat faint Sect. 63. and tender They speake here as if they cared not much whether they spake or no yet they take courage to say that the publique holding of some opinions may be so prejudiciall to the publique peace as may deserve imprisonment and yet not deserve excommunication c. But their strength is wholy spent with bringing forth the bare assertion that they have not left wherewith to cloath or guard it with any proofe And indeed a thousand such sayings may more easily be asserted then any one of them substantially proved I desire to know what opinions those are the publique holding whereof may be so prejudiciall to the publique peace as to deserve punishment and yet not be so prejudiciall either to the honour of God or to the proceedings of the Gospell or to the well being of that particular Church which ought to take cognizance of them as to deserve excommunication I feare that the publique peace is oftener Sect. 63. prejudiciall to the publique holding forth of many truths then the publique holding forth of any opinion whatsoever prejudiciall unto that Whereas they adde that the Apostle did not call them beloved Brethren that at Corinth denyed the resurrection but the rest of the Church that ●●ld the Truth except either they will say that they speake it by Revelation or else give some either Scripture or reason to prove it I trust they will give us leave to judge it Apocryphall and to number it amongst the transgressions of their pen. That which followes is yet of a more ignoble calculation for they say neither were there any such in the Church of Corinth or Christian Churches then that held opinions of farre worse consequence then very many or even then any of those errours which the Ordinance threatens with death But first why or in relation

cause so that whatsoever they shall say or argue in order unto this it receives this modification from betweene the efficient and the end it is SVFFICIENTLY argued and prov'd May they no● in a manner as well pretend and say when they have onely cited those first words in Genesis In the beginning God made Heaven and Earth that they have by this Scripture SVFFICIENTLY proved the Jus Divinum of Presbytery as make their boast that they have SVFFICIENTLY answered my second Querie with those impertinent weake reasonlesse truth-lesse allegations as hath been abundantly proved of which this Answer so called is made But as it was in that old saying amongst the Romans between their two Captaines that Ode●●●u● conquered but Gallienus triumphed so is it between the present Syllogisme and the Answer to it The Syllogisme conquers and the Answer triumpheth Oh England my heart is inlarged towards thee and I will open my mouth proportionably unto thee Take heed of the grand Imposture of this word SVFFICIENTLY in the writings and in the teachings of thy Teachers they have learned to call their chaffe wheat and to say of stones that they are bread But in what degree these men were straightned for want of reason Sect. 30. in answering their owne Argument they are inlarged in Sect. 30. passion against my Querie But what were they so super-superlatively incens'd against it because they were able to make no better worke of answering it Or di● th● spirit of it touch the apple of their eye and so through the extream●ty of the paine their imaginations suffered yea and their Consciences also through a consent and sympathie with the part affected But whatsoever the true cause of the accident is I verily believe that never did there such a flood of prophane and senselesse passion breake out of the spirits of men that were called Christian from the first day of this Denomination in the world to this very houre as these men poure out upon a Querie whose innocencie I say not weight and worth hath been vindicated upon such grounds of evidence and Truth that the light of the Sunne is not more apparent at noone-day then it Were not the Fountaines of the great deep of Corruption within them all broken up when this Deluge of bitter waters issued from them And as Joshua that he and the people with him might be avenged of their enemies spake unto the Sunne and Moone to stand still Sunne stand thou still upon Gibeon and thou Moone in the valley of Ajalon a Josh 10. 12. so did not these men their hearts being set to take revenge upon the Querist when they girded themselves to the worke commanded their reasons and consciensces to stand still and cease from their motions each of them respectively directing themselves to their own and saying Reason stand thou still over passion and thou Conscience in the valley of Indignation untill wee have avenged our selves in fire and brimstone upon our enemies that Arch-Enemy of our most beloved Designes But if in the day of their Answer I meane in the Rationall part of it we found nothing but night and darknesse can wee hope in the night thereof I meane the passionate part of it to find day or so much as the dawnings of reason truth or understanding I had once thoughts of speaking particularly to every straine and passage herein but upon more mature debate with my self about the undertaking I considered that in case I were an Engineere I should doe but childishly to load a Cannon only to batter a mushrome or a bubble which children raise with soape and spittle out of a nut-shell And thus our second Querie that great abomination of Classick soules hath fully recovered her selfe out of those fogges and Sect. 31. mists which partly by the ignorance partly by the ill will of her adversaries were spread round about her and shines in perfect beautie being onely troubled and full of sorrow for this that ever shee should be an occasion to men pretending to Religion of so much rebuke and shame as must needs fall upon those who have opposed her Sect. 31. Their third Argument rejoyceth against their Answer given to it because this also is built upon sandy foundations As 1. that to be called Rabbi is to require men to beleeve that which they teach them meerly because they teach it without any Authoritie from God in his Word This is a most strange and truthlesse saying and excuseth Scribes and Pharisees and who not from ever desiring to be called Rabbi For certainly none of these were ever so simple as to require men to beleeve that which they taught them MEERLY because they taught it without any Authoritie from God in his word There was none of them all but pretended Authoritie from God in his word for what they taught but especially it is the first-borne of incredibilities that they should require men to beleeve what they taught them upon this ground MEERLY because they taught it without any Authoritie from God in his word Can it enter into the heart of a man especially of any man that professeth the service of the true God and beliefe of the Scriptures to thinke honorably of his Teacher MEERLY and simply because he teacheth without any Authoritie from God in his word Certainly if the Scribes and Pharisees had fish'd with this baite especially amongst the Jewes for the acclamations of Rabbi they had caught nothing but contempt and shame in stead thereof Therefore for men to enjoyne or compell men to call them Rabbi is in the sence of the Querie in the Scripture import of the phrase either to enjoyne them especially under any penaltie as of their dis-favour or the dis-favour of God or otherwise to receive or beleeve any Doctrine as the Truth of God because they teach it for such viz. either as a true Interpretation of or deduction from the word of God whether they give any sufficient account that it is either the one or the other unto those on whom they impose upon such terms this tribute of beliefe or else to prohibit them on the like terms the holding and maintaining of such or such Doctrines because they judge them to be contrary to the word of God without giving any sufficient account or reason unto the prohibited Sect. 32. to prove them so Now I querie the Anti-Querists whether the makers of the Ordinance doe not in this sence compell men to call them Rabbi i. Whether they doe not prohibit men under penalties and those most grievous from holding forth such and such Doctrines as being contrary to the word of God without giving any sufficient account or indeed any at all that I say not without being able to give any that is sufficient unto the persons thus prohibited that they are indeed contrary to this word 2. The Answer now under correction is polluted with this uncleane Sect. 32. supposition viz. that the makers of