Selected quad for the lemma: authority_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	believe_v	scripture_n	tradition_n	2,838	5	9.5550	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89503	A practical commentary, or An exposition with notes on the Epistle of Jude. Delivered (for the most part) in sundry weekly lectures at Stoke-Newington in Middlesex. By Thomas Manton, B.D. and minister of Covent-Garden.	Manton, Thomas, 1620-1677.	1657 (1657)	Wing M530; Thomason E930_1; ESTC R202855	471,190	600

so the delivery of it the doctrine they had from the Holy Ghost and also their commission and pasport You would stand wondring and think it a special benefit if in a time of drought the rain should fall on your field and none else if as Gideons fleece your heritage should be wet and all is day round about you or if the Sun should be shut up to others and shine only in your Horizon as it did in Goshen this is a better blessing and God hath a special hand in the progress of it it goeth from place to place as the Lord will Why should it come to us our Ancestors were of all Nations most barbarous and portentous for their Idolatries why to us No cause can be assigned but the free grace and gift of God 6. That it is given to us in our persons in particular in the power and efficacy of it 'T is offered to the Nation but bestow●d upon us John 14. 12. Why is it that thou wilt reveal thy self to us and not unto the world Others have only Truth presented to them obiter by the by for your sakes but you are called according to purpose Rom. 8. 28. Though in the general means they have a like favour with you yet you may observe the particular aim of God in continuing the Gospel to England for your sak●s Well then Acknowldg God in the truths that are delivered to you out of the Scriptures What ever means are used God is the Author of the doctrine and the Disposer of the message receive it as the Word of God and then it will profit you 1 Thes 2. 13. If you had an Oracle from Heaven speaking to you on this wise you would be more serious It is as certain yea 't is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a more sure Word 2 Pet. 1. 19. more sure then the Oracle spoken of in the Context Regard the promises and threatenings of it with more reverence as if God in person had delivered them to you If you receive it as the Word of God and not of men what will you venture upon the promises of it These are bills of exchange given you that you may draw your estate into another Country that you may lay up treasures in Heaven Neglect of the opportunity is a sign of unbelief If one should proffer you an hundred pound for the laying out of a peny and you go away and never heed it 't is a sign you do not beleeve the offer The recompenses of the Word do far exceed all temporal emolument if you do not heed them 't is a sign you do not beleeve them So what will you forbear upon the threatenings of the Word If there were a Law made that every time we deceive or slander one another we should hold one of our hands in scalding Lead for half an hour men would be afraid of the offence God hath told us that the wages of sin is death that we shall be plunged for evermore in the lake that burneth with fire and brimstone and yet it doth not deter us from sin and giving offence to God If a man were told that he were in danger of a cruel death every moment if he did not presently get a pardon he would not sleep till it were done Natural men are in danger of Hell every moment by the sentence of the Word and yet how backward are they to make their peace with God Secondly The word delivered implyeth a leaving things in anothers hand by way of trust and so doth not only note the mercy of God but the duty of the Church to whom the Oracles of God are committed to be kept Whence observe That God hath delivered the Doctrine and Rule of Faith to the Church as a publique Trustee that it may be kept and employed to the uses of the Truth Let us a little see what is the Churches duty towards the Truth I answer 1. To publish it to the present age 2. To keep it and preserve it for ages to come So that to the present age we are Witnesses to the future Trustees 1. To publish own and defend the Truth by Profession and Martyrdom and therefore the Church is called the pillar and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. namely in respect of men and as it holdeth it forth to the world and therefore we ought to harken to the Churches testimony till we have better evidence We do not ultimately resove our faith into the Churches Authority for the Churches Authority is not absolute but ministerial as a royal Edict doth not receive credit by the Officer and Cryer he only declareth it and publisheth it yet the Churches testimony is not to be neglected for faith cometh by hearing Rom. 10. 14. and this publication of the Church is a good preparative inducem ut John 4. 42. If we would know the truth of a thing till we have experience we go to those that have experience and ordinarily the judgment of others whom we respect and reverence causeth us to have a good opinion of a thing till we make tryal our selves in which respect Austin saith I had never believed the Scriptures unless I had been moved thereunto by the Authority of the Church as we should never have known Kings pleasure unless the messenger had brought us his Letters The Church hath not power to make and unmake Scripture at pleasure but onely to communicate and hold forth the Truth and till we have further assurance is so far to be heard We receive the faith of per Ecclesiam by the ministry of the Church though not propter Ecclesiam for the Authority of the Church 2. The next Office of the Church is to preserve the Truth and transmit it pure to the next age As the Law was kept in the Ark so was Truth delivered to the Church to be kept 1 Tim. 1. 11. The glorious Gospel committed to thy trust There is a trust lieth upon us upon the Apostles first to publish the whole Counsel of God and then upon Pastors and Teachers in all ages to keep it afoot and upon all Beleevers and Members of the Church to see that after ages be not defrauded of this priviledg We are to take care that nothing be added there is enough to make the man of God perfect nothing diminished none of the Jewels which Christ hath left with his Spouse must be embezzel'd that it be not corrupted and sophisticated for we are not only to transmit to the next age the Scriptures those faithful Records of Truth but also the publique Explications of the Church in Summaries and Confessions must be sound and orthodox lest we intail a prejudice upon those that are yet unborn Every one in his place is to see that these things be accomplished So much for the Tradition it self Now for the Manner Once delivered that is once for all as never to be altered and changed and when the Canon or Rule of

of folly mixed with popular Rites and Customs There are many things necessary to Religion which the Angels themselves could not have known if they had not been revealed therefore their knowledg increaseth by observing Gods dispensations to the Church Ephes 3. 10. The way of Salvation by Christ is such a Mystery as could not have entred into the heart of any creature no not of an Angel If an Angel had been to set down which way man should be redeemed nay if all the Cherubim and Seraphim Thrones Dominions and Powers had met together in a Synod and Council and had taken in all the world to their assistance it would have posed them all to have found out such a Way as God hath appointed But not to speak of Mysteries There is in the Word some Moralities suitable to the Law of Nature which was once written upon mans heart but alas now there remains only some scattered fragments and obscure characters so defaced that they cannot be read and how blind are we in these things without the Word Witness the sottish Idolatry of those Nations that want it worshipping stocks or stones yea a piece of red cloth or what ever they saw first in the morning And witness those brutish Customs among other Nations whereby uncleanness and unnatural sins have been authorized by a Law Therefore 't is a great mercy that something is delivered and given out as a Rule of Faith and Manners 2. That this Tradition is written and put into a stated course in those Books which we call Scriptures If the Revelation of Gods Will had been left to the tradition of men of such a rank or order what a liberty might they take of coyning Oracles and obtruding their fancies upon the world 'T is a great mercy that our faith doth not depend upon uncertain suggestions but some main publique Records to which all may appeal and find satisfaction Heretofore the Lord revealed himself by Visions Oracles and Dreams to persons of ancient holiness and sanctity that they might instruct others which course was sure enough while the people of the world were but a few families and the persons intrusted with Gods message had authority and credit sufficient with the present age and lived long to continue the tradition with the more certainty to future ages But afterwards the Lord was pleased to speak to his Church both by Word and writing His Word was necessary for further revealing and clearing up the doctrine of Salvation and writing was necessary because when Precepts were multiplyed it was needful for mens memories that they should be written the long life of Gods Witnesses was lessened corruptions began to increase Satan giving out lying oracles and visions idolatrous Rites and customs crept into the best families the people of God were grown numerous enough to make a Comm●nwealth and Politick Body therefore to avoyd mans corruptions and Satans deceits the Lord thought fit that we should have a written Rule at hand as a publique Standard for the tryal of all Doctrines God himself wrote the first Scripture with his own Finger upon tables of stone and he commanded Moses and the Prophets to do the same Exod. 17. 14. and 34. 17. which dispensation of Word and Writing continued till Christs time who as the great Doctor of the Church perfected the Rule of Faith and by the Apostles as so many publique Notaries consigned it to the use of the Church in all Ages When the Canon began to be compleat the latter Apostles pressed the receiving of it and John as the last and as one who outlived all the rest closeth up his Prophecy thus Rev. 22. 18 19. If any man add c. and if any man take away c. which doth not only seal up the Book of the Revelations but the whole Canon and Rule of Faith which indeed was a great mercy to the world the Lord knew to what a liberty we inclined in divine things and therefore we needed to be tyed up to a Rule which here is given us 3. The mercy of God appeareth in preserving it that it may be delivered from one age to another No Doctrine so ancient as the Doctrine of the Scriptures it describeth the whole History of the World from the very Creation and the original of all things Where are there Records so ancient and yet they have been preserved even to our time We have some ancient writings of the Heathens though nothing so ancient as Scripture but these are not contrary to mens lusts and have been cherished by them and yet they have felt the tooth of time and are in a great measure mangled but the Word of God hath been maligned and opposed and yet it continueth and holdeth up its head in the world not only the main Doctrine of the Scriptures hath been continued but no part of the Word hath been falsified corrupted destroyed the world wanted not malice nor opportunity the powers of the world have been bent against it and corrupt persons in the Church have been always given to other gospelling but still the Scriptures have been wonderfully preserved as the three children in the furnace not an hair singed not a jot and tittle of Truth perished 4. That God doth continually stir up men in the Church and bestow gifts upon them for the opening and application of this faith and doctrine of Salvation Christ that hath given Prophets and Apostles to the Church to write Scripture hath also given Pastors and Teachers to open and apply Scripture that so still it might be delivered to the Saints and also to vindicate the doctrine of it when opposed Every age that hath yeilded the Poyson hath also yeilded the Antidote that the world might not be without a Witness if there hath been an Arrius there hath been an Athanasius if a Pelagius there is also an Austin the Church hath never wanted help in this kind Look as in War as the Arts of Battery and methods of destruction do increase so also doth skill in Fortification and in the Church God still bestoweth gifts for the further explication of Truth 5. That the Light cometh to us and shineth in this Land The Gospel is a great National Priviledg To you is this Word of Salvation sent Acts 13. 26. Pray mark 't is sent he doth not say we have brought it to you but 't is sent 't is a token sent from Heaven in love there is a mighty Providence accompanieth the Gospel the journeys of the Apostles as I said but now were ordered by the Spirit as well as their doctrine Acts 8. 26. The Angel of the Lord said to Philip Arise and go towards the South towards the way that goeth down to Jerusalem They went not as their own good affection carryed them but according to the Spirits direction So Acts 17. 7 8 9. The Spirit suffered them not c. as prophecy came not by the will of man 2 Pet. 1. 20. that is the doctrine it self