Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	church_n	doctrine_n	scripture_n	6,830	5	6.3395	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86417	Philosophicall rudiments concerning government and society. Or, A dissertation concerning man in his severall habitudes and respects, as the member of a society, first secular, and then sacred. Containing the elements of civill politie in the agreement which it hath both with naturall and divine lawes. In which is demonstrated, both what the origine of justice is, and wherein the essence of Christian religion doth consist. Together with the nature, limits, and qualifications both of regiment and subjection. / By Tho: Hobbes.; De cive. English	Hobbes, Thomas, 1588-1679.; Vaughan, Robert, engraver.	1651 (1651)	Wing H2253; Thomason E1262_1; ESTC R202404	220,568	406

in each City have obtained the Soveraignty the supreme authority of judging determineing al manner of cōtroversies about temporal matters we must see henceforth to whom he hath left the same authority in matters spirituall Which because it cannot bee known except it be out of the word of God and the Tradition of the Church we must enquire in the next place what the word of God is what to interpret it what a Church is and what the will and command of the Church To omit that the word of God is in Scripture taken sometimes for the Sonne of God it is used three manner of wayes First most properly for that which God hath spoken Thus whatsoever God spake unto Abraham the Patriar●hs Moses and the Prophets our Saviour to his Disciples or any others is the word of God Secondly whatsoever hath been uttered by men on the motion or by Command of the Holy Ghost in which sense we acknowledge the Scriptures to be the word of God Thirdly in the New Testament indeed the word of God most frequently signifies the Doctrine of the Gospell or the word concerning God or the word of the Kingdome of God by CHRIST as where it is said that CHRIST preach't the Gospell of the Kingdome Mat. 4. vers 23. Where the Apostles are said to preach the word of God Acts 13. vers 46. Where the word of God is called the word of life Acts 5. vers 20. The word of the Gospell Acts 15. vers 7. The word of faith Rom. 10. vers 8. The word of truth that is to say adding an interpretation The Gospel of salvation Eph. 1. 13. And where it is called the word of the Apostles For Saint Paul sayes If any man obey not our word c. 2. Thess 3. vers 14. which places cannot be otherwise meant then of the doctrine Evang●licall In like manner where the word of God is said to be sowen to encrease and to be multiplied Acts 12. vers 24. and Chap. 13. vers 49. it is very hard to ceive this to be spoken of the voye● of God or of his Apostles but of their doctrine easie And in this third acception is all that doctrine of the Christian faith which at this day is preacht in Pulpi●s and contained in the hooks of divines the word of God XVI Now the sacred Seripture is intirely the word of God in this second acception as being that which we acknowledge to be inspired from God and innumerable places of it in the first and seeing the greatest part of it is conversant either in the prediction of the Kingdome of Heaven or in prefigurations before the incarnation of CHRIST or in Evangelization and explication after The sacred Scripture is also the word of God and therefore the Canon and Rule of all Evangelicall Doctrine in this third signification where the word of God is taken for the word concerning God that is to say for the Gospel But because in the same Scriptures we read many things Politicall Historicall Morall Physicall and others which nothing at all concern the Myste●ies of our faith those places although they contain true doctrine and are the Canon of such kind of doctrines yet can they not be the Canon of the Mysteries of Christian Religion XVII And truly it is not the dead voyce or letter of the word of God which is the Canon of Christian doctrine but a true and genui●e determination For the minde is not governed by Scriptures unlesse they be understood There is need therefore of an Interpreter to make the Scriptures Canon and hence followes one of these two things that either the word of the Interpreter is the word of God or that the Canon of Christian doctrin is not the word of God The last of these must necessarily be false for the rule of that doctrine which cannot be knowne by any humane reason but by divine revelation only cannot be lesse then divine for whom we acknowledge not to be able to discern whether some doctrin be true or not its impossible to account his opinion for a rule in the same doctrine The first therefore is true That the word of an Interpreter of Scriptures is the word of God XVIII Now that Interpreter whose determination hath the honour to be held for the word of God is not every one that translates the Scriptures out of the Hebrew and Greek tongue to his Latine Auditors in Latine to his French in French and to other Nations in their mother tongue for this is not to interpret For such is the nature of speech in generall that although it deserve the chiefe place among those signes whereby we declare our conceptions to others yet cannot it perform that office alone without the help of many circumstances For the living voice hath its interpreters present to wit time place countenance gesture the Counsell of the Speaker and himselfe unfolding his own meaning in other words as oft as need is To recall these aids of interpretation so much desired in the writings of old time is neither the part of an ordinary wit nor yet of the quaintest without great learning and very much skill in antiquity It sufficeth not therefore for interpretation of Scriptures that a man understand the language wherein they speak Neither is every one an authentique Interpreter of Scriptures who writes Comments upon them For men may erre they may also either bend them to serve their own ambition or even resisting draw them into bondage by their forestallings whence it will follow that an erroneous sentence must be held for the word of God But although this could not happen yet as soon as these Commentators are departed their Commentaries will need explications and in processe of time those explications expositions those expositions new Commentaries without any end so as there cannot in any written Interpretation whatsoeve be a Canon o● Rule of Christian doctrine whereby the Controversies of Religion may be determined It remains that there must bee some Canonicall Interpreter whose legitimate Office it is to end Controversies begun by explaining the word of God in the judgements themselves and whose authority therefore must be no lesse obeyed then theirs who first recommended the Scripture it selfe to us for a Canon of faith and that one and the same Person be an Interpreter of Scripture and a supreme Judge of all manner of doctrines XIX What concerns the word Ecclesia or Church originally it signifies the same thing that Concio or a congregation does in Latin even as Ecclesiastes or Church-man the same that concionator or Preacher that is to say He who speaks to the Congregation In which sense wee read in the Acts of the Apostles of a Church confused and of a Lawfull Church Acts 19. vers 32 39. That taken for a Concourse of people meeting in way of tumult this for a convocated Assembly But in holy writ by a Church of Christians is sometimes understood the Assembly and sometimes

the Christians themselves although not actually assembled if they be permitted to enter into the Congregation and to communicate with them For example Tell it to the Church Mat. 18. vers 17. is meant of a Church assembled for otherwise it is impossible to tell any thing to the Church But Hee laid waste the Church Acts 8. vers 3. is understood of a Church not assembled Sometimes a Church is taken for those who are baptized or for the professors of the Christian ●aith whether they be Christians inwardly or feignedly as when we reade of somewhat said or writ●…n to the Church or said or decreed or done by the Church sometimes for the Elect onely as when it is called holy and without blemish Ephes 5. vers 27. But the Elect as they are militant are not properly called a Church for they know not how to assemble but they are a future Church namely in that day when sever'd from the reprobate they shall bee triumphant Againe a Church may bee ●ometimes taken for all Christians collectively as when Christ is called the head of his Church and the head of his body the Church Eph. 5. vers 23. Colos 1. vers 18. sometimes for its parts as the Church of Ephesus The Church which is in his house the seven Churches c. Lastly a Church as it is taken for a Company actually assembled according to the divers ends of their meeting signifies sometimes those who are met together to deliberate and judge in which sense it is also called a Councell a Synod sometimes those who meet together in the house of prayer to worship God in which signification it is taken in the 1 Cor. 14. vers 4 5. 23. 28. c. XX. Now a Church which hath personall Rights and proper actions attributed to it and of which that same must necessarily be understood Tell it to the church and he that obeys not the church and all such like ●ormes of speech is to be defin'd so as by that word may be understood A Multitude of men who have made a new Covenant with God in Christ that is to say a multitude of them who have taken upon them the Sacrament of Baptisme which multitude may both lawfully be call'd together by some one into one place and he so calling them are bound to be present either in Person or by others For a multitude of men if they cannot meet in assembly when need requires is not to be call'd a Person For a Church can neither speak nor discerne nor heare but as it is a congregation Whatsoever is spoken by particular men to wit as many opinions almost as heads that 's the speech of one man not of the Church farthermore if an assembly be made and it be unlawfull it shall be considered as ●●ll Not any one of these therefore who are present in a tumult shall be tyed to the decree of the rest but specially if he dissent and therefore neither can such a Church make any decree for then a multitude is sayd to decree somewhat when every man is oblig'd by the decree of the major part We must therefore grant to the definition of a Church to whith we attribute things belonging to a Person not onely a possibility of assembling but also of doing it lawfully Besides although there be some one who may lawfully call the rest together yet if they who are called may lawfully not appeare which may happen among men who are not subject one to another that same Church is not one Person For by what Right they who being call'd to a certaine time and place doe meet together are one Church by the same others flocking to another place appointed by them are another Church And every number of men of one opinion is a Church and by Consequence there will be as many Churches as there are divers opinions that is to say the same multitude of men will at once prove to be one and many Churches Wherefore a Church is not one except there be a certaine and known that is to say a lawfull power by meanes whereof every man may be oblig'd to be present in the Congregation either himselfe in person or by Proxie and that becomes One and is capable of personall functions by the union of a lawfull power of convocating Synods and assemblies of Christians not by uniformity of Doctrine and otherwise it is a multitude and Persons in the plurall howsoever agreeing in opinions XXI It followes what hath beene already said by necessary connexion that a City of Christian men and a Church is altogether the same thing of the same men term'd by two names for two causes For the matter of a City a Church is one to wit the same Christian men And the forme which consists in a Lawfull power of assembling them is the same too for 't is manifest that every Subject is oblig'd to come thither whither he is summon'd by his City Now that which is call'd a City as it is made up of men the same as it consists of Christians is styled a Church XXII This too is very cohaerent with the same points If there he many Christian Cities they are not altogether personally one church they may indeed by mutuall consent become one Church but no otherwise then as they must also become one City For they cannot assemble but at some certaine time and to some place appointed But Persons places and times belong to civill Right neither can any Subject or stranger lawfully set his foot on any place but by the permission of the City which is Lord of the place But the things which cannot lawfully be done but by the permission of the City those if they be lawfully done are done by the Cities authority The Universall church is indeed one mysticall body whereof CHRIST is the head but in the same manner that all men together acknowledging God for the Ruler of the world are one Kingdome and one C●ty which notwithstanding is neither one Person nor hath it one common action or determination Farthermore where it is said that CHRIST is the head of his body the Church it manifestly appeares that that was spoken by the Apostle of the Elect who as long as they are in this world are a Church onely in potentiâ but shall not actually be so before they be separated from the reprobate and gather'd together among themselves in the day of Judgement The Church of Rome of old was very great but she went not beyond the bounds of her Empire and therefore neither was she Universall unlesse it were in that sense wherein it was also said of the City of Rome Orbem jam totum victor Romanus habebat when as yet he had not the twentieth part of it But after that the civill Empire was divided into parts the single Cities thence arising were so many Churches and that power which the Church of Rome had over them might perhaps wholy depend on the authority of