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
A70046	Reason and judgement, or, Special remarques of the life of the renowned Dr. Sanderson, late Lord Bishop of Lincoln together with his Judgement for setling the church, in exact resolutions of sundry grand cases very seasonable at this time.	D. F.; Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663. Judgment in one view for the settlement of the church.	1663 (1663)	Wing F10; ESTC R224352	48,079	100

very doctrine or where they are commanded so to believe or teach One of their chiefest refuges is the Text we now have in hand but I shall anon drive them from this shelter The other places usually alleaged speak only either of divine and supernatural truths to be believed or else of workes of grace or worship to be performed as of necessity unto salvation which is not to the point in issue For it is freely confessed that in things of such nature the Holy Scripture is and so we are to account it a most absolute sufficient direction Upon which ground we heartily reject all humane traditions devised and intended as supplements to the doctrine of faith contained in the Bible and annexed as codicils to the holy Testament of Christ for to supply the defects thereof The question is wholly about things in their nature indifferent such as are the use of our food raiment and the like about which the common actions of life are chiefly conversant Whether in the choice and use of such things we may not be sometimes sufficiently guided by the light of reason and the common rules of discretion but that we must be able and are so bound to do or else we sinne for every thing we do in such matters or deduce our warrant from some place or other of Scripture Before the Scripture were written it pleased GOD by visions and dreams and other like revelations immediately to make known his good pleasure to the Patriarches 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 relique 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 transgession 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 then the Law of the Nation 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 Gods 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 extreamly fore-possessed with prejudice They who think to salve the matter by this mitigation that at least wise 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 because 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 mans reasonable judgement 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 writing of S. Matthews 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

was Improvement He left the University having compassed with his knowledge the whole Circle of the Arts being exact in propriety and elegancy of Languages having read ancient and modern Writers having studied Philosophy and made himself familiar with all politer Classick Authors being learned in School-Divinity and a Master in Church-Antiquity ready in the sense of Scripture Fathers Councils Ecclesiastical History Thus full of Scripture-strength of Councils weight of Fathers consent of Historick light of Scholastick acuteness he I say left the University freely making not the usual advantage of his place which was then prudence and good husbandry but looked upon by him as the worst Sacriledge in the world as which at once betrayed the Church to the unworthy and weak and the University to the undeserving and the Founders Charity to those persons they never designed them for to the shame of the present Age and the undoing of the future and betaking himself to his Charge at Boothby-Pagnel in Lincoln-shire where we have him Preaching solidly not allowing himself the easie liberty of doing the work of the Lord negligently Although he was furnished with that Classick and Authentick Learning which readily enabled him to speak upon any occasion and subject properly pertinently copiously and handsomely yet such was his reverence of that great work that he was very elaborate and exact in reading meditating and composing his Sermons to rational and just Discourses His method was to chuse his Text pertinently to weigh its occasion coherence and other circumstances duely to look out the truest reading of it industriously to open that Original by reading out of the choicest Authors and most proper learning in that kinde clearly to drop such pithy and pertinent Observations learned moral divine as he went on in Explication judiciously to pitch upon great Observations that were couched in the several parts usefully which he deduced from the Text evidently for he could not endure those that wrested the Scripture for a truth as men that were under a temptation of wresting them for an errour bottomed upon their proper Grounds and Reasons orderly pressing each truth with evidence raised from their several places in the body of Divinity illustrated and enlarged with general Learning and improved to the respective Duties of Christianity that he saw might rationally be inferred from them and indeed his general Learning afforded him plenty of Observations proper learned and useful upon each head His way like Dr. Hammond was after every Sermon to resolve upon the ensuing subject and to draw a Scheme of it and to take in the course of his study what fell in conducible unto the present purpose and he spoke from the heart to the heart As he provided strong meat for strong men so he provided sincere milk for babes spending an hour at evening in the Church-Catechism whereat the Parents and elder sort were wont to be present and from whence they reaped more benefit then from his Sermons the great Principles of Religion working more powerfully upon them then his Discourses and Enlargements Christianity was most successful he would say when proposed naked and in its own evidence as the truth was in Jesus By Catechising the Gospel prevailed over Judaism and Heathenism by Catechising Popery incroached and broke in upon the Gospel by Catechising the Gospel again recovered itself and got ground of Popery He opened the Church-Catechism distinctly grounded them in each point stedfastly and taught them their duties arising out of each part of Religion profitably making it appear as he went along how the grace of God bringing salvation by Jesus Christ hath appeared teaching men to deny all ungodliness and wordly lust and to live soberly justly and godly in the present world As he taught them so he and they lived up to a Religion pure and undefiled he and they joyning together in the holy Offices 1. Of Common-prayer in all the days appointed devoutly and reverently where he and his family was the great Rule and Pattern 2. Of the holy Sacrament carefully and preparedly not without previous instructions and directions publick and private 3. In an holy love and charity which taught them successfully being exemplary therein and being able by his great skill in all Laws to compose all Differences in his private address and conversation his Judgement being so esteemed that there were few that knew him but would stand to his prudent and honest Arbitration wherein the God of love and peace so blessed him that as he maintained love among others so he had the love of all there being not any of his function either more esteemed while alive or more lamented when dead Neither did he think it enough to perswade his people to an obligingness in Conversation unless he could work them to a charity and hospitality whereby they might endear themselves to each other and relieve the poor Among them he would be the most welcome for he understood very well how much the Applications of the Table enforced the Doctrines of the Pulpit and how subservient the endearing of his person was to the recommending of his instructions where his elegant apt and facetious way sweetned his more serious discourse and weighty conceptions so that he was heard at once with the highest pleasure and profit in the world As he urged their charity to the Poor earnestly so he directed it discreetly that the Idle partaked not of it and truely the Needy had a stock raised for them to employ and relieve them I say to employ and relieve them for he had no charity for the Idle and the Vagrant the very scabs filth and vermine of a Common-wealth I mean such as have health and strength and limbs and are in some measure able to work and take pains for their living yet rather chuse to wander abroad the Country and to spend their days in a most base and ungodly course of life and which is yet more lamentable by I know not what connivence contrary to all Conscience Equity and Law are suffered All Christian Common-wealths should be the Israels of God and in his Israel God as he promised there should be some always poor on whom to exercise charity so he ordained there should be no beggar to make a trade and profession of begging Plato than whom never any laid down a more exact Idea of an happy Commonwealth alloweth not any beggar therein alledging that where such were tolerated it was impossible but the State must abound with pilfering and whoring and all kinde of base villany The Civil Laws have flat Constitutions against them in the Titles de mendicantibus non invalidis But I think never kingdom had more wholesome laws in both kinds I mean both for the competent relief of the orderly poor and for sharp restraint of disorderly vagabonds then those provisions which in many of our own memories have been made in this land But Quid leges sine moribus Those Laws are now no Laws for want

condemned that as unlawful which others practised as lawful they judged one another and disposed one another perpetually And I doubt not but any of us that is any-whit-like acquainted with the wretched deceitfulness of mans heart may easily conclude how hard a thing it is if at all possible not to think somewhat hardly of those men that take the liberty to do such things as we judge unlawful As for example If we shall judge all walking into the fields discoursing occasionally on the occursences of the times dressing of meat for dinner or supper or even moderate recreations on the Lords day to be grievous prophanations of the Sabbath how can we chuse but judge those men that use them to be grievous prophaners of Gods Sabbath And if such our judgment concering the things should after prove to be erroneous then can it not be avoided but that such our judment also concerning the persons must needs be uncharitable Secondly This mis-judging of things filleth the would with endless niceties and disputes to the great disturbance of the Churches peace which to every good man ought to be precious The multiplying of Books and writings pro and con and pursuing of arguments with heat and opposition doth rather lengthen then decide controversides and instead of destroying the old begetteth 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 yeild 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 heavey burdens upon other mens shoulders and to cast asnare upon their consciences by making the narrow way to Heaven narrower then 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 things 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 i● 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 Goliness 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 Gods permission first whose good pleasure it is for sundry wise and gratious ends to exercise his Church during her warfare here with heresies and scandals And then the williness of Satan who cunningly observeth whither 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 extream 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 erre not knowing the Scriptures Matth. 22. Yet not so much Gross Ignorance neither I mean not that For your meer Ignaro's what they erre they erre for company they judge not at all neither according to the appearance nor yet righteous judgement 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 judgement which consisteth in a disproportion between the affections and the understanding when a man is very earnest but withall very shallow readeth much and heareth much and thinketh that he knoweth much but hath not the judgement 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 elewhere speaketh with vain words and empty arguments As St. Augustine said of Donatus Ratioues arripuit he catcheth hold of some reasons as wranglers will catch at a smal thing rather then yeild from their opinions quae considerantes verisimiles esse potius quam veras invenimus which saith he we found to have more shew of probability at the first appearance then substance of truth after they were well considered of And I dare say whosoever shall peruse with a judictious and unpartial eye most of those Pamplets 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 acception 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 guirding at those that are in authority impertinent disgressions but above all those most bold and perverse wrestings of holy Scripture wherewith such books are infinitely stuffels 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 snatcht 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 then 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 command in the