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	holy_a	teach_v	4,620	5	6.0021	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71250	A second defence of the exposition of the doctrine of the Church of England against the new exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux, Late Bishop of Condom, and his vindicator, the first part, in which the account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition, is fully vindicated ...	Wake, William, 1657-1737.	1687 (1687)	Wing W260; ESTC R4642	179,775	220

an Observance of the Law together with the Gospel taught also that Angels were to be worshipped saying that the Law was given by them This Custom remained a long time in Phrygia and Pisidia Upon which account the Synod of Laodicea in Phrygia forbad them by a Law to PRAY TO ANGELS But. 116. Thirdly And to come more immediately to the Worship of Invocation Rom. X. 14. The same Apostle in that Question Rom. X. 14. How shall they call upon Him in whom they have not believed furnishes us with another maxime of Holy Scripture against all such Prayers viz. That no one is to be invoked in our religious addresses but He only in whom we believe But now Reason Scripture the Common Creeds of all Christians shew that we are to believe ONLY in God the Father Son and Holy Ghost and therefore upon Him ONLY must we Call. As for your distinction that this indeed in one sense is very true but then in another and secondary sense Others besides God may be both believed in Reply p. 21. and called upon if you mean in a civil respect it is indeed very true but nothing to your purpose seeing in this sense we can no more believe in than we can call upon such persons as are absent from us and know nothing at all of us which is the Case of the Saints departed But for believing in a religious sense as it is properly an Act of Divine Faith and the foundation of that Assurance with which we call upon God by our Saviour Jesus Christ this admits of no distinction nor may it by any means or in any measure be applied without Sin to any other than God alone 117. I will add but one principle more of Holy Scripture against this Service and so close this first Point Rom. XIV 23. Rom. XIV 23. That whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin. But now those Prayers which have no foundation in Holy Scripture cannot be of Faith for says the same Apostle Rom. X. 17. Faith cometh by Hearing and Hearing by the word of God And therefore such Prayers must be Sin. If God has any where revealed it to you that you may lawfully give such a religious Worship to the Saints shew this and our dispute is ended But if you cannot do this nor by consequence cannot pray to them with any well grounded perswasion of Conscience that this is what God allows and what the Saints are capable of receiving I do not see how it can be avoided but that to you it must be sin so to do S. Basil Reg. Miral 78. cap. 22. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As an ancient Father argues from this very principle in the like manner 118. For the Other part of this Service the intercession of the Saints for us I might to this Oppose all those passages of the New Testament where Christ is set forth to us as our only Mediator But I shall content my self with one single text 1 Tim. II. 5 6. There is one God 1 Tim. II. 5.6 and one Mediator between God and Men the Man Christ Jesus who gave himself a Ransome for all Now if there be but one Mediator then Saints and Angels are not Mediators as you pretend If the foundation of Christs Mediatorship be this That he gave himself a Ransome for all then seeing the Saints have not done this it must follow that neither can they be our Mediators And this cuts off your new distinction of a Mediator of Intercession and a Mediator of Redemption which besides that it is the issue of your own Brains and was invented only to support a tottering Cause is here utterly destroy'd seeing the Foundation of Christs Mediating now in Heaven and appearing in the presence of God for us is by vertue of His being our Mediator of Redemption upon Earth and he therefore is become our intercessor there because He shed his bloud for our Expiation here This is that great Argument upon which the Author to the Hebrews so much insists Chap. IX X. And the Analogy of the High Priest under the Law making first the Expiatory Sacrifice for the people and then Entring into the Holiest to appear before God for them most evidently confirms it to us And this may suffice for the 1st Point That this Service is contrary to the principles of Holy Scripture II. It is Contrary to Antiquity 119. And here I am fallen into a vast Ocean and should never have ended should I go about particularly to shew how vain your pretences are to possession for this superstition It shall suffice me at present only to point out to you a few of those Remarks which others have more largely pursu'd and which do abundantly declare how little conformable the best and highest Antiquity has been to what you now practise 120. I have already given some short account of the first three Centuries And how little able you are to lay any claim to the Authority of them You have there seen what the Opinion was of those Holy Fathers touching the State of the Saints departed How they thought that they do not yet enjoy the Beatifick Vision and by consequence were not in a condition to be called upon by the Church on Earth I have shewn you the Fathers arguing against the Arrians for the Divinity of Christ from the Churches praying to Him and which evidently proves that they thought none but God was capable of such a service I have offer'd you the definition which those Holy Men gave of Prayer viz. That it was an Address to God a Conversing with God and the like and in all which they still restrain'd it to Him as His own peculiar prerogative There we find no mention of any calling upon the Blessed Virgin or the Saints No distinction of supreme and inferiour religious Worship of Mediators of Redemption and Intercession in short none of those Evasions with which all your discourses on this Point are now filled and without which indeed according to your principles it is impossible to explain it 121. But I will now add yet more It was a general custome in the third and following Ages concerning which we are particularly to enquire to pray for the Saints departed for Martyrs and Confessors Discourse of Purgatory and Prayers for the dead nay for the Blessed Virgin her self as has been elsewhere fully proved and I suppose you will not have the confidence to deny it Now let me appeal to any reasonable man to say could the Church in those times have prayed in a suppliant manner to the Saints as Reigning with God nay and Gods themselves by participation to aid and assist them when on the contrary they thought them in such a State as to need prayers to God for them Is it to be believed that they Addressed to those as Mediators and Intercessors with God for whom they themselves interceded to God It is a memorable remark that has been made to confirm the force

Plots Persecutions and such like 2. The Means of Fraud and Deceit your false Expositions and Misrepresentations of your Doctrine to deceive the ignorant and unwary till you get them into your Nets 3. The Means of Confidence and Vncharitableness your bold Anathema's and vain thundrings of Damnation against all that differ from you your assuming the Name and Priviledges of the Church Catholick to your single Communion and excluding all others out of it as Schismaticks and Hereticks And lastly to mention no more the Means of gross Ignorance and blind Obedience by depriving Men of their liberty of reading the Holy Scripture by keeping your Service in an unknown Tongue by teaching Men to depend intirely upon your Churches Dictates and not to depart from them tho Sense Reason Scripture all be contrary to them These are I confess some of those peculiar Means whereby you have sought to procure Christian Peace and Experience tells you that they are indeed the most advantageous of any to the Cause you have to defend And if these be the Means which you say we have opposed I hope we shall always continue so to do and rather bear all the Evils of these Divisions than either buy Peace upon such Terms or pursue it by such Means as these 5. Ad p. 2 3. To what I observed from the late Methods that had been taken up in our Neighbour Country to avoid the entring upon particular Disputes which I said you were sensible had been the least favourable of any to your Cause you reply That you have never declined fighting with us at any Weapon which how true it is the account before given of your managing the present Controversie with us sufficiently declares And indeed you seem in some sort to have been sensible of it and therefore recur to your Antient Authors for proof of your Assertion The Sum of what you say is this 6. Reply That there have been three sorts of Protestants since the Reformation 1. Some who appealed to Scripture only neither would they admit of Primitive Fathers nor Councils 2. Others who perceived that they could not maintain several Tenets and Practices of their own by the bare words of Scripture and despairing of Fathers and Councils of latter Ages pretended at least to admit of the first four General Councils and of the Fathers of the first three or four hundred Years 3. Others finally who ventured to name Tradition as a useful Means to arrive at the true Faith. And all these you say you have convinced of their Errors 7. Answ It has always been your way to multiply Sects and Divisions among Protestants as much as ever you were able and then to complain against us upon the account of them and here you have given us a notable Instance of it The three Opinions you have drawn out as so many different Parties amongst us do all resolve into the very same Principle That the Holy Scripture is the only perfect and sufficient Rule of Faith So that all other Authorities whether of Fathers or Councils or unwritten Tradition are to be examined by it and no farther to be admitted by us than they agree with it This is in effect the common belief of all Protestants whatsoever as appears from their several Confessions and might easily be shewn out of the Writings of our first Reformers and the most eminent of those who have lived since and built their Faith upon the same Foundation It is true indeed there have been some who the better to maintain their Separation from the Church of England have from this sound Principle That nothing is to be received by us as a Matter of Faith but what is either plainly expressed in the Holy Scripture or can evidently be proved by it drawn a very ill Consequence viz. That nothing might lawfully be done or used in the Worship of God unless there were some Command or Example for it in Scripture and have by this means run themselves into great Inconveniences But the Rule of Faith which an uninterrupted Tradition by the common consent of all Parties of Christians however otherwise disagreeing in other Points has brought down to us and delivered into our hands as the Word of God this has among all Protestants been ever the same viz. The Holy Scripture And if for the farther proof of the Truth of our Doctrine we have at any time put the issue of our Cause to the decision of the Church of the first three or four hundred Years it is not because we suppose that those Fathers who then lived have any more right to judg us or determine our Faith than those that follow'd after but because upon examination we find them to have yet continued at least as to the common Belief received and establish'd amongst them in their Purity and that what was generally establish'd and practised by them was indeed conformable both to their and our Rule the Word of God. 8. This then is our Common Principle and this you cannot deny to be most reasonable For whatsoever Authority you would have us give to those Holy Fathers yet it cannot be doubted but that 1st Being * Durandus l. 4. Sent. d. 7. q. 4. de S. Gregorio Nescio cur non possit dici quòd Gregorius cum fuerit Homo non Deus potuerit Errare Men subject to the same Infirmities with our selves they were by consequence obnoxious to Errors as well as we and therefore may not without all examination be securely follow'd by us Especially if we consider 2dly That we are expresly forbid in Holy Scripture to rely on any Persons whatsoever without enquiry whether what they teach be true or not Dearly Beloved says St. John believe not every Spirit 1 John 4.1 but try the Spirits whether they be of God or no. The same is St. Paul's Doctrine To prove all things and then hold fast that which is good 1 Thess 5.21 St. Peter exhorts all Christians to be ready to give a reason of the Hope that is in them 1 Pet. 3.15 And our Blessed Saviour himself once gave the same encouragement of examining even his own Doctrine And why says he of your selves do you not judg that which is right Luke 12 57. Nay but 3dly these Holy Fathers were not only capable of Erring but in many things they actually did Err and are forsaken by you upon that account The Millenary Opinion was generally received in the first Ages of the Church They derived it from St. John to Papias from him to Justin Martyr Irenaeus Melito Tertullian c. Yet is this Opinion now rejected by you The Doctrine of the necessity of Communicating Infants was the Common Doctrine of the Fathers in S. Austin's Time and is confess'd by your most Learned Men Cardinal Perron and Others to have been generally practised in the Church for the first six hundred Years Concil Trid. Sess 21. Can. 4. Yet have you Anathematized those who shall now assert with

and that they may be of your Church and yet still believe or do what they please in this matter But if otherwise this be all gross Hypocrisie if there be nothing but cheat and design in these pretences then may I humbly desire all sincere Members of our Communion to beware of such Guides as value not how they charge ours or palliate their own Religion so they may but by any means draw unwary men into their Net. 109. But the Council of Trent goes yet further It does not only Establish this Doctrine but in express terms Anathematises those who oppose it Concil Trid. Ibid. For in the close of that Chapter I but now mentioned thus it decrees If any one shall teach or THINK contrary to these Decrees let him be ANATHEMA All which your Epitomator Caranza thus delivers in short Caranza Summ. Sess XXV Conc. Trid. p. 482. Lovanii 1681. ' The Synod commands all those who have the care of Souls that they should teach the Invocation of Saints the Honour of Reliques and the Use of Images and that those who teach otherwise do think WICKEDLY And if any one shall teach or think contrary to these Decrees Let him be ANATHEMA 110. It remains therefore that your Church does teach and require of all its Members both the profession and practise of such an Invocation as I have before explain'd And of which I now undertake to shew 1. That it is repugnant to Gods Holy word 2. Contrary to Antiquity 3. That is unreasonable in the constitution and 4. Unprofitable and unlawful in the Practise I. It is repugnant to Gods Holy Word 111. And here First I will not doubt once more to tell you that to pray to Saints after the manner that it is now done in the Church of Rome is contrary to all those passages of Holy Scripture which attribute Religious Worship to God only such as Deut. VI. 13. Thou shalt fear the Lord thy God and serve Him and swear by his Name and again Chap. X. 12 20. XIII 4. c. All which our Saviour Christ has taught us to interpret with such a restrictive term as excludes all others from a share in our Service Mat. IV. 10. It is Written Thou shalt Worship the Lord thy God and Him ONLY shalt thou serve I have already shewn that all Prayer made to a person that is absent with a Confidence that he is able both to know our wants and to hear our Prayers and to answer our desires is in its own nature a Religious Worship Now then from these places of Holy Scripture I thus argue It is repugnant to Gods Word to give any proper Acts of Religious Worship to any but God only but all such prayer as is made in your Church to the Saints departed are proper Acts of Religious Worship and therefore it must be contrary to Gods Word to pray to any but God only 112. Nor am I here at all concern'd in your distinctions of a Supreme and an Inferior Religious Honour seeing both you and I are agreed that all Honour properly Religious such as Prayer is comprised under these prohibitions If I were I would then tell you that the Devil here did not require of Christ such a Supreme Worship but on the contrary acknowledged himself to have a Superior from whom He derived his Power of disposing of all the Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glories of them All he desired was to have some Religious Honour paid to Him. And our Saviour by alledging this Sentence of the Law against it Evidently shews that it is not only such a supream Religious worship as some of you pretend but that all such Honour in general is the peculiar service of God alone But this if you stand to your own principles you cannot object and for others what I have now said may suffice to obviate their pretences 113. Secondly What I have now concluded from this general Principle of Holy Scripture I will in the next place more particularly inforce from these other passages where the worship of Creatures is expresly prohibited In the Xth. of the Acts when Cornelius fell down at St. Peters feet and would have worshipp'd him ' he took him up saying I my self also am a man. Acts X. 25. It is a poor shift here to say that Cornelius would have worshipp'd St. Peter with a supream divine worship he was not certainly so ignorant as to think that when the Angel bid him send to Joppa for Simon Peter who lodged with Simon a Tanner he meant he should send for the great God that had made Heaven and Earth Nor is it of any more moment which others amongst you suggest viz. That Cornelius did well to adore him but that St. Peter out of modesty refus'd it And the answer he gave ' I my self also am a man utterly overthrows all such insinuations being as much as if he had said that no Man whatsoever was to be worshipped 114. But this will more evidently appear in another instance viz. that of St. John Revel XIX 10. Rev. XIX 10. XXII 8. who when in his Ecstacy he fell down and would have worshipp'd the Angel that discoursed with him the blessed Spirit utterly forbad him See says he thou do it not for I am thy fellow servant WORSHIP GOD. In which words are plainly establish'd these two Conclusions against this service 1st That Angels and so likewise the Saints being our fellow Servants are not to be worshipp'd 2dly That God only is to be adored 115. But St. Paul is yet more plain He exhorts the Colossians in general and in them us Colos II. 18. Colos II. 18. Let no man beguile you of your reward in a voluntary humility and worshipping of Angels It is answered by some among you that this was said in Opposition to the Heresie of Simon Magus who would have Sacrifice offer'd to the Angels Or at least of some Others who thought that tho' Christ had abolish'd the Law yet was it still to be observed out of respect to the Angels by whom it had been deliver'd But besides that I do not find any such thing charged by any of the Ancients upon Simon Magus as is pretended had S. Paul designed only to forbid one particular Act of Religious Worship being paid to them would he in General have said that they were not to be Worshipped Or had he intended to signifie the abolishing of the Law would he not have said so here as well as in his other Epistles and not have given such an obscure insinuation of it as when he meant to forewarn them against observing the Law to bid them have a care of worshipping Angels But the truth is the meaning of the Text is too plain to be thus eluded And I shall give it to you in the words of an ancient Father who lived in those very times in which you yet pretend such a service was establish'd Theoderet in loc Those who maintain'd