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	doctrine_n	prove_v	3,310	5	5.9535	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26882	Catholick communion doubly defended by Dr. Owens, vindicator, and Richard Baxter and the state of that communion opened, and the questions discussed, whether there be any displeasure at sin, or repentance for it in Heaven : with a parallel of the case of using a faulty translation of Scripture, and a faulty lyturgy.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1684 (1684)	Wing B1208; ESTC R11859	46,778	44

erroneous and uncharitable and sinful yet is not to Excommunicate that Congregation as no Church or no Christians But to say of any Congregation that they want any thing essential to Christianity or to make them capable to be loved as Christians or that their Worship of God is Idolatry or so bad as that God accepteth it not the evil of it being greater than the good as poyson in our food and on this reason to declare that no good Christian should Communicate with them this is to Excommunicate such Congregation as far as one Church may Excommunicate another which is but by such renouncing their Communion XXXVIII There is no History that I have seen or heard that tells us of any Churches on Earth that for many hundred years together did Worship God without a Lyturgy as faulty as ours To make them all Idolaters and such whose Worship God cursed and accepted not is to make them no true Churches and if Christ had no Church he was no Head and King of it and so no Christ. XXXIX The use of faulty Lyturgies is no worse than the use of faulty Translations of the Holy Scripture which yet Christ and his Apostles ordinarily used of which I shall say more anon XL. I have before proved how faulty the Priests Calling was in Christs time and the Temple and Synagogue Worship and the Pharisees long Lyturgies on pretence whereof they devoured Widows Houses and their corrupt Doctrine and how great the faults were in the Churches of Corinth Galatia Ephesus Sardis Laodicea Thyatira Pergamos and those that James wrote to from which none were commanded to depart And to Condemn Christ or his Apostles as favouring or using sinful Communion is worse in Christians than it was in the Pharisees These are the Principles and this is the Cause for which I write And I cannot defend it without opposing those that openly militate against it If the Woman of Tekoah could have told David that any one had held or hindered her Son from killing his Brother she would not have called him unpeaceable It was hard measure that the striving Israelite offered to Moses that said Who made thee a Prince and a Iudge over us Intendest thou to kill me as thou killedst the Aegyptian And all for saying Wherefore smitest thou thy fellow If we could as charitably judge of a godly man that differs from us as of our selves and most esteemed Partners how much sin should we avoid But Reader agree with me in this cause of Christian Love and Concord and then think of me and my Writings what thou seest meet The question is not which of us is the Wisest or hath done best but how we should all please the God of Love and Peace and avoid the Evils which have long threatned us and which with grief I must say our mistakes and miscarriages in Religion have brought upon us and are like to increase Many seem like a Ship of Passengers whose Pilot hath cast them by Errour on the Sands or Rocks and some that pity them as they are sinking tell them that their Pilots mistake hath endangered them and they must take better advice And instead of accepting help they revile the helpers as injurious unpeaceable dishonourers of their wise and faithful Pilot. And if far worse be not yet at hand Free-grace must wonderfully frustrate this prognostick SECT 3. IV. BUt somewhat Reverend Sir you oblige me to say about my supposed Doctrinal Errours which you have found in my praises of Dr. O. Had I dispraised him as much you might have found more I said that I doubt not but his Soul is now with Christ and though Heaven have no sorrow it hath great Repentance and that Dr. O. is now more against the receiving of this mistake than I am and by defending it you far more displease him than me Here my supposed Errours are three I. That I suppose him to know so much in Heaven This being but played with as in jeast I answer the more briefly to it in earnest 1. I am not of the Socinians mind that lay the Soul as in nuda potentia to sleep till the Resurrection Nor do I believe that Souls in Paradise with Christ are more ignorant than they were in the Body 2. And therefore I think the Doctor knoweth what he wrote and did on Earth and is not fallen into forgetfulness 3. And that he knoweth into whose hands he gave those Papers and what mind the men were of and how they were received while he lived if they have been so long extant as you seem to intimate and that they were justifyed then 4. And if the Saints shall judge the world and be like or equal to the Angels I do not think that the concerns of this life are any more below their regard nor more impertinent to them than to the Angels Nor that they live as unconcerned Strangers to Earth when a Sun-beam can reach so far The Souls under the Altar that cryed how long knew that their blood was unrevenged on Earth 5. Nor do I believe that Christ with whom they are and the Angels that here attended them are so strange to them as to tell them nothing of the Earth But lest you feign that I suppose them to have News-books Gazetts or Post-letters hence I only advise you that justly extol his Learning and Wisdom on Earth not to bring him too low in Heaven in comparison of us imprisoned Sinners nor make him an ignoramus And then we will but agree that if he know of our faults here he is against them but if he think you are all changed since he died there is mistake in Heaven It followeth not that Souls in Heaven know nothing by Angels because they know not all things Nor that of themselves they know not what a man here may know by common reason that the effects will be like the Cause and his many Friends that owned his mistake on Earth will some of them yet own them I can but be sorry for I am not so presumptuous as to think to change your Judgment if the contrary supposition be your best Weapon against the Popish Superstition of praying to Saints For all this I will hope that you do not pray to Dr. O. for so much as you believe he knoweth nor yet feign him stark ignorant for fear of praying to him Do you think he hath forgotten the ●ase of England Or will you pray to him to intercede for it II. My second supposed Errour is that the Saints in Heaven have any displeasure And this is said to be a Contradiction to the generally received Opinion of all that you have met with I doubt not but your Acquaintance is large but I perceive it is not with all sorts of men I am sorry they should generally deny so great and clear a truth 1. Let us examine the Controversy as of the Matter and 2. As of the Name Displeasure 1. Complacence is the first act of the

despise them but to receive them to our Communion as Christ receiveth us Rom. 14 15. Approving all so far that serve God in that which his Kingdom doth consist in Rom. 14. 17 18. VI. All Christians must earnestly oppose Divisions and Sects and sidings with Strife and Envy as a sign of Carnal Men and must labour to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment and to glorify God with one mind and mouth 1 Cor. 1. 10. 3. 3 c. And must not forsake the assembling of themselves Heb. 10. 25. VII It is by Love that the whole Body of Christ must edify itself and win and overcome their Adversaries even those that curse and hate and persecute them as God doth good to the just and unjust Love being the most powerful Conquerour of Hearts Eph. 4. 15 16. Matth. 5. 44 c. VIII No excellency of one Party above others nor no faultiness of any Christians must be pretended against any duty of Love and Communion But we must not sin for Communion with any IX Though we must not by profession word or subscription own the sin of any Church we must join in their Communion in the Worship of God with those whose Worship is mixt with sin in matter and manner so it be not sin that is by its evil predominant against the good of the duty to make the work rejected of God like Poyson in our food which makes the hurt greater than the good because else we must neither Worship God our selves nor join with any in the world All the works of sinful men being mixt with sin To deny this is virtually to separate from all the Christian world X. Therefore our bare presence is no signification that we approve all that is done in that Assembly The very nature of Christian Communion is a profession of the contrary we being bound by God to communicate in good and not to own the evil And if men command us to own all that they there do their command cannot bind us against Gods nor make our presence a profession that we obey them against God It being God that is the Master of us and our work And Christianity itself being a profession that we obey God before Man Else Man by commanding us to own some ill word or circumstance might drive us from all Christian Communion If Men should command us in our private Meetings to do it for an ill end or an ill Principle as in Obedience to Usurpers we must not therefore forbear all private Meetings nor will our bare meeting signify our Obedience to such Commands If the Pastor of a single Church or many Associate tell the people your meeting must be to own e. g. Anabaptistry Antinomianism Presbytery Erastianism Separation c. this binds them not either to own it or to withdraw without some greater reason He is no Master of their Faith XI Nor will the bare knowing beforehand that the Pastor will say or do somewhat unlawful make our presence guilty of approving it We know before-hand that we and all Men are sinners and shall sin in what we do And we may suppose Men will speak as they think And as we know not but any Man may speak amiss till we hear what he saith so when we know that the Pastors have tolerable Errours and will vent them it will not make us guilty of their sin nor bind us to depart We meet to own Christianity and not all that the Man will say or do known or unknown I know before that I shall have many faults in my own Prayer disorder dulness c. which I do not own though herein I am guilty XII Yet no Man should prefer worse before better if all things set together it be better indeed to the Person at that time XIII God hath by his Son Iesus and his Apostles instituted all that in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Conversation which is obligatory or necessary Universally to all the Church over and above what is required by the Law of Nature And no Man or Men have power to add any thing of universal obligation XIV God hath by Nature and Scripture obliged Men themselves to choose and determine divers subordinate expressions significations modes circumstances or accidents of this universal Religion which are not themselves meet for an universal and unchangeable obligation but local temporary and mutable Some of which every Man may choose for himself some the present Pastor must choose some the associated Pastors may choose and some the Magistrate may choose These must be added to the universal Duties so far is such addition from being sin I have often named many particulars As the Translation of the Scripture which to choose The version of the Psalms in rithme or metre the common use of new made Hymns the dividing the Scripture into Chapter and Verse the words of Sermons their method the particular Text to be chosen what Chapters to read at what hour to begin how long to Preach in what words to pray whether the same oft or changed whether fore-studied or not whether written or unwritten whether studied and written by our selves or by others where the place shall be where the Pulpit Font Table c. shall stand what Ornaments they shall have Linnen Silk silver Vessels or otherwise Whether we be bare-headed or covered at Prayer Sacrament c. Whether we shall kneel stand sit or be prostrate at Prayer c. what distinctive Garments Pastors shall use By what signs of consent and obligation Men vow and swear whether by putting the hand under the Thigh lifting it up subscribing laying it on the Book kissing the Book c. what Catechisms to use with many more such God hath commanded men to choose such things as these by the Rules of Edification Love Peace Concord Order Decency winning those without c. XV. These may be called Worship in a sense subservient to Gods Ordinances of Worship as we Worship Men by putting off the Hat kneeling bowing c But if any will not call it Worship they must not call it false Worship nor pretend that the Controversy is any more than about the bare name XVI They that feign such things as these to be sinful additions and an invading of Christs Office and denying his faithfulness c. condemn the Scripture that commandeth such determinations and contradict the Law of Nature and the practice of all Churches on Earth and would exterminate all Gods Worship which cannot be performed without some such determinations XVII As God hath not tied us to words in Prayer or Preaching though he have recorded many forms in Scripture but left all to choose what words time and circumstances make fit by Book or without so the conveniences and inconveniences both of set forms and of free speaking are on each part so great and undenyable that we have no cause to censure that Church which useth both that is which agreeth on a set form to