Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	great_a	holy_a	see_v	3,964	5	3.2444	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67467	The life of Dr. Sanderson, late Bishop of Lincoln written by Izaak Walton ; to which is added, some short tracts or cases of conscience written by the said Bishop.	Walton, Izaak, 1593-1683.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment concerning submission to usurpers.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Pax ecclesiae.; Hooker, Richard, 1553 or 4-1600. Sermon of Richard Hooker, author of those learned books of Ecclesiastical politie.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment in one view for the settlement of the church.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judicium Universitatis Oxoniensis. English.	1678 (1678)	Wing W667; ESTC R8226	137,878	542

our warrant from some place or other of Scripture Before the Scriptures were writ ten it pleased God by visions and dreams and other like revelations immediately to make known his good pleasure to the Patriarchs and Prophets and by them unto the People which kind of revelations served them to all the same intents and purposes whereto the sacred Scriptures now do us viz. to instruct them what they should believe and do for his better service and the furtherance of their own salvations Now as it were unreasonable for any man to think that they either had or did expect an immediate revelation from God every time they eat or drank or bought or sold or did any other of the common actions of life for the warranting of each of those particular actions to their Consciences no less unreasonable it is to think that we should now expect the like warrant from the Scriptures for the doing of the like actions Without all doubt the law of nature and the light of reason was the rule whereby they were guided for the most part in such matters which the wisdome of God would never have left in them or us as a principal relick of his decayed image in us if he had not meant that we should make use of it for the direction of our lives and actions thereby Certainly God never infused any power into any creature whereof he intended not some use Else what shall we say of the Indies and other barbarous Nations to whom God never vouchsafed the lively Oracles of his written word Must we think that they were left a lawless people without any Rule at all whereby to order their actions How then come they to be guilty of transgression For where there is no law there can be no transgression Or how cometh it about that their consciences should at any time or in any case either accuse them or excuse them if they had no guide nor rule to walk by But if we must grant they had a Rule and there is no way you see but grant it we must then we must also of necessity grant that there is some other Rule for humane actions besides the written word for that we presupposed these Nations to have wanted Which Rule what other could it be than the Law of Nature and of right reason imprinted in their hearts Which is as truly the Law and Word of God as is that which is printed in our Bibles So long as our actions are warranted either by the one or the other we cannot be said to want the warrant of God's Word Nec differet Scriptura an ratione consistat saith Tertullian it mattereth not much from whether of both we have our direction so long as we have it from either You see then those men are in a great errour who make the holy Scriptures the sole rule of all humane actions whatsoever For the maintenance whereof there was never yet produced any piece of an argument either from reason or from authority of holy writ or from the testimony either of the ancient Fathers or of other classical Divines of later times which may not be clearly and abundantly answered to the satisfaction of any rational man not extremely fore-possessed with prejudice They who think to salve the matter by this mitigation that at leastwise our actions ought to be framed according to those general rules of the law of Nature which are here and there in the Scriptures dispersedly contained as viz. That we should do as we would be done to That all things be done decently and orderly and unto edification That nothing be done against conscience and the like speak somewhat indeed to the truth but little to the purpose For they consider not First that these general rules are but occasionally and incidentally mentioned in Scripture rather to manifest unto us a former than to lay upon us a new obligation Secondly that those rules had been of force for the ordering of mens actions though the Scripture had never expressed them and were of such force before those Scriptures were written wherein they are now expressed For they bind not originally qua scripta but qua justa becuase they are righteous not because they are written Thirdly that an action conformable to these general Rules might not be condemned as sinful although the doer thereof should look at those rules meerly as they are the dictates of the law of nature and should not be able to vouch his warrant for it from any place of Scripture neither should have at the time of the doing thereof any present thought or consideration of any such place The contrary whereunto I permit to any man's reasonable judgment if it be not desperately rash and uncharitable to affirm Lastly that if mens actions done agreeably to those Rules are said to be of faith precisely for this reason because those rules are contained in the word then it will follow that before those particular Scriptures were written wherein any of those Rules are first delivered every action done according to those rules had been done without faith there being as yet no Scripture for it and consequently had been a sin So that by this Doctrine it had been a sin before the witing of S. Matthew's Gospel for any man to have done to others as he would they should do to him and it had been a sin before the writing of the former Epistle to the Corinthians for any man to have done any thing decently and orderly supposing these two Rules to be in those two places first mentioned because this supposed there could then have been no warrant brought from the Scriptures for so doing Well then we see the former Opinion will by no means hold neither in the rigour of it nor yet in the mitigation We are therefore to beware of it and that so much the more heedfully because of the evil consequents and effects that issue from it to wit a world of superstitions uncharitable censures bitter contentions contempt of superiours perplexities of conscience First it filleth mens heads with many superstitious conceits making them to cast impurity upon sundry things which yet are lawful to as many as use them lawfully For the taking away of the indifferency of any thing that is indifferent is in truth superstition whether either of the two ways it be done either by requiring it as necessary or by forbidding it as unlawful He that condemneth a thing as utterly unlawful which yet indeed is indifferent and so lawful is guilty of superstition as well as he that enjoyneth a thing as absolutely necessary which yet indeed is but indifferent and so arbitrary They of the Church of Rome and some in our Church as they go upon quite contrary grounds yet both false so they run into quite contrary errours and both superstitious They decline too much on the left hand denying to holy Scripture that perfection which of right it ought to have of containing all appertaining to that

new ones whiles they that are in the wrong out of obstinacy will not and they that stand for the truth out of Conscience dare not may not yield and so still the war goeth on And as to the publick peace of the Church so is there also thirdly by this means great prejudice done to the peace and tranquillity of private mens Consciences when by the peremptory Doctrines of some strict and rigid masters the Souls of many a well-meaning man are miserably disquieted with a thousand unnecessary scruples and driven sometimes into very woful perplexities Surely it can be no light matter thus to lay heavy burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast a snare upon their Consciences by making the narrow way to Heaven narrower than ever God meant it Fourthly Hereby Christian Governours come to be robbed of a great part of that honour that is due unto them from their people both in their affections and subjection For when they shall see cause to exercise over us that power that God hath left them in indifferent things by commanding such or such thing to be done as namely wearing of a Surplice kneeling at the Communion and the like if now we in our own thoughts have already prejudged any of the things so commanded to be unlawful it cannot be Quest. If these things be so how comes it to pass that so many godly men should incline so much to this way Answ. But you will say if these things were so how should it then come to pass that so many men pretending to godliness and thousands of them doubtless such as they pretend for it were an uncharitable thing to charge them all with hypocrisie should so often and so grievously offend this way To omit those two more universal causes Almighty God's permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gracious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and scandals And then the wiliness of Satan who cunningly observeth whether way our hearts incline most to loosness or to strictness and then frameth his temptations thereafter So he can but put us out of the way it is no great matter to him on whether hand it be he hath his end howsoever Nor to insist upon sundry more particular causes as namely a natural proneness in all men to superstition in many an affectation of singularity to go beyond the ordinary sort of people in something or other the difficulty of shunning one without running into the contrary extreme the great force of education and custome besides manifold abuses offences and provocations arising from the carriage of others and the rest I shall note but these two only as the two great fountains of Errour to which also most of the other may be reduced Ignorance and Partiality from neither of which God 's dearest Servants and Children are in this life wholly exempted Ignorance first is a fruitful Mother of Errours Ye err not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much gross ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they err they err for company they judge not at all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgment They only run on with the herd and follow as they are led be it right or wrong and never trouble themselves farther But by Ignorance I mean weakness of judgment which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withal very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh that he knoweth much but hath not the judgment to sever truth from falshood nor to discern between a sound argument and a captious fallacy And so for want of ability to examine the soundness and strength of those principles from whence he fetcheth his conclusions he is easily carried away as our Apostle elsewhere speaketh with vain words and empty arguments As St. Augustine said of Donatus Rationes arripuit he catcheth hold of some reasons as wranglers will catch at a small thing rather than yield from their opinions quas considerantes verisimiles esse potius quam veras invenimus which saith he we found to have more shew of probability at the first appearance than substance of truth after they were well considered of And I dare say whosoever shall peruse with a judicious and unpartial eye most of those Pamphlets that in this daring Age have been thrust into the world against the Ceremonies of the Church against Episcopal Government to pass by things of lesser regard and usefulness and more open to exception and abuse yet so far as I can understand unjustly condemned as things utterly unlawful such as are lusorious lots dancing Stage-plays and some other things of like nature when he shall have drained out the bitter invectives unmannerly jeers petulant girding at those that are in authority impertinent digressions but above all those most bold and perverse wrestings of holy Scripture wherewith such Books are infinitely stuffed he shall find that little poor remainder that is left behind to contain nothing but vain words and empty arguments For when these great Undertakers have snatch'd up the Bucklers as if they would make it good against all comers that such and such things are utterly unlawful and therefore ought in all reason and conscience to bring such proofs as will come up to that conclusion Quid dignum tanto very seldome shall you hear from them any other Arguments than such as will conclude but an inexpediency at the most As that they are apt to give scandal that they carry with them an appearance of evil that they are often occasions of sin that they are not commanded in the Word and such like Which Objections even where they are just are not of force no not taken altogether much less any of them singly to prove a thing to be utterly unlawful And yet are they glad many times rather than sit out to play very small Game and to make use of Arguments yet weaker than these and such as will not reach so far as to prove a bare inexpediency As that they were invented by Heathens that they have been abused in Popery and other such like which to my understanding is a very strong presumption that they have taken a very weak cause in hand and such as is wholly destitute of sound proof Quest. Whether what the King and Parliament have determined may be altered to satisfie private men Answ. While things are in agitation private men may if any thing seem to them inexpedient modestly tender their thoughts together with the reason thereof to the consideration of those that are in authority to whose care and wisdom it belongeth in prescribing any thing concerning indifferent things to proceed with all just advisedness and moderation that so the Subject may be encouraged to perform that obedience with chearfulness which of necessity he must perform howsoever It concerneth Superiours therefore to look well to the expediency and

you For whosoever doth ask shall receive whosoever doth seek shall find the door unto every one which knocks shall be opened In which words we are first commanded to ask seek and knock secondly promised grace answerable unto every of these endeavours asking we shall have seeking we shall find knocking it shall be opened unto us thirdly this grace is particularly warranted because it is generally here averred That no man asking seeking and knocking shall fail of that whereunto his serious desire tendeth 1. Of asking or praying I shall not need to tell you either at whose hands we must seek our aid or to put you in mind that our hearts are those golden Censers from which the Fume of this Sacred Incense must ascend For concerning the one you know who it is which hath said Call upon me and of the other we may very well think that if any where surely first and most of all in our Prayers God doth make his continual Claim Fili da mihi cor tuum Son let me never fail in this duty to have thy heart Against invocation of any other than God alone if all Arguments else should fail the number whereof is both great and forcible yet this very barr and single challenge might suffice That whereas God hath in Scripture delivered us so many patterns for imitation when we pray yea framed ready to our hands in a manner all for suits and supplications which our condition of life on earth may at any time need there is not one no not one to be found directed unto Angels Saints or any saving God alone So that if in such cases as this we hold it safest to be led by the best Examples that have gone before when we see what Noah what Abraham what Moses what David what Daniel and the rest did what form of Prayer Christ himself likewise taught his Church and what his blessed Apostles did practice who can doubt but the way for us to pray so as we may undoubtedly be accepted is by conforming our Prayers to theirs whose Supplications we know were acceptable Whoso cometh unto God with a gift must bring with him a chearful heart because he loveth hilarem datorem a liberal and frank affection in giving Devotion and fervency addeth unto prayers the same that alacrity doth unto gifts it putteth vigour and life in them Prayer proceedeth from want which being seriously laid to heart maketh Suppliants always importunate which importunity our Saviour Christ did not only tolerate in the woman of Canaan Matth. 15. but also invite and exhort thereunto as the Parable of the wicked Judge sheweth Luke 13. Our fervency sheweth us sincerely affected towards that we crave but that which must make us capable thereof is an humble spirit for God doth load with his grace the lowly when the proud he sendeth empty away and therefore to the end that all generations of the world might know how much it standeth them upon to beware of all lofty and vain conceits when we offer up our Supplications before him he hath in the Gospel both delivered this Caveat and left it by a special chosen parable exemplified The Pharisee and Publican having presented themselves in one and the same place the Temple of God for performance of one and the same duty the duty of Prayer did notwithstanding in that respect only so far differ the one from the other that our Lords own verdict of them remaineth as you know on record They departed home the sinful Publican through humility of prayer just the just Pharisee through pride sinful So much better doth he accept of a contrite peccavi than of an arrogant Deo gratias Asking is very easie if that were all God did require but because there were means which his Providence hath appointed for our attainment unto that which we have from him and those means now and then intricated such as require deliberation study and intention of wit therefore he which imboldeneth to ask doth after invocation exact inquisition a work of difficulty The baits of sin every where open ready always to offer themselves whereas that which is precious being hid is not had but by being sought Praemia non ad magna praevenitur nisi per magnos labores Bernard straitness and roughness are qualities incident unto every good and perfect way What booteth it to others that we wish them well and do nothing for them As little our selves it must needs avail if we pray and seek not To trust to labour without prayer it argueth impiety and prophaneness it maketh light of the Providence of God and although it be not the intent of a religious mind yet it is the fault of those men whose Religion wanteth light of mature Judgment to direct it when we joyn with our prayer slothfulness neglect of convenient labour He which hath said If any man lack wisdom let him ask hath in like sort commanded also to seek wisdom to search for understanding as for treasure To them which did only crave a seat in the Kingdom of Christ his answer as you know in the Gospel was this To sit at my right hand and left hand in the Seat of Glory is not a matter of common gratuity but of Divine assignment from God He liked better of him which enquired Lord what shall I do that I may be saved and therefore him he directeth the right and ready way Keep the Commandments I noted before unto you certain special qualities belonging unto you that ask In them that seek there are the like which we may observe it is with many as with them of whom the Apostle speaketh 2 Tim. 3.7 They are alway learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth Ex amore non quaerunt saith Bernard they seek because they are curious to know and not as men desirous to obey It was distress and perplexity of mind which made them inquisitive of whom St. Luke in the Acts reporteth that sought counsel and advice with urgent solicitation Men and Brethren sith God hath blessed you with the spirit of Understanding above others hide not from miserable persons that which may do them good give your counsel to them that need and crave it at your hands unless we be utterly forlorn shew us teach us what we may do and live That which our Saviour doth say of Prayer in the open streets of causing Trumpets to be blown before us when we give our Alms and of making our Service of God a means to purchase the praise of men must here be applied to you who never seek what they ought but only when they may be sure to have store of lookers on On my bed saith the Canticles there did I seek whom my soul doth love When therefore thou resolvest they self to seek go not out of thy chamber into the streets but shun that frequency which distracteth single thy self from thy self if such sequestration may be attained When though seekest let