Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	add_v	life_n	word_n	2,724	5	4.5602	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A39265	The Protestant resolved, or, A discourse shewing the unreasonableness of his turning Roman Catholick for salvation	Ellis, Clement, 1630-1700.; Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1688 (1688)	Wing E569; ESTC R6293	60,365	84

her Who I wonder shall now be thought fit to decide this Dispute She will be tried and judg'd by no other but her self for She is resolv'd to be Sole and Infallible Iudg in all Controversies of Religion That is in plain terms She will accuse us and she will leave us no room for our own Defence She will condemn us and she will not permit us to question the Iustice of her Sentence She tells us we are bound to believe her and obey her or else we must die eternally for it We desire some reason may be brought to convince us of this Duty and she tells us again she is our Supreme and Infallible Mistress and Mother and Iudg and so the Conclusion is We must believe she hath this Supreme Authority and Infallibility because she is Supreme and Infallible which we can yet see no reason to believe and therefore cannot believe and because we cannot believe it we are declared to be Hereticks and in a State of Damnation Seeing then that the Church of Rome will by no means recede from her Claim to this Supremacy and Infallibility it seems plain to me that there is no possibility of satisfying her any way whatsoever but by yielding my self up intirely to her without any farther dispute But because I cannot do this without violence to my Conscience and incurring that very Damnation which she would persuade me thereby to prevent I must of necessity leave her a while to satisfy her self about the Truth and Charity of this Doctrine as she can whilst I for my own private Satisfaction take into a very serious Consideration these two things I. Whether I can discern any solid ground to hope that I may be saved as I am now a Protestant of the Church of England II. What more hopeful way to Salvation the Church of Rome can me put into should I enter into her Communion If the result of this double Enquiry shall be that I really think my self in a fair way to Salvation where I am already and cannot discern any more hopeful way to it in the Church of Rome I must needs accout my self bound in Conscience and under the Penalty of Damnation to steer my course according to the best Light I shall be able by such a diligent and impartial Inquiry to attain unto and content my self with that Religion which seems best and safest to me till some better and safer can be found SECT I. The first thing I am to inquire into is What good ground of hope I can discern that I may be saved as I am a Protestant And here the first thing I am to consider is what I mean by the Name of Protestant as it is own'd by the Members of the Church of England and as I can heartily answer to it By a Protestant I understand no other but a Christian adhering firmly both in Faith and Practice to the written Word of God and protesting against both the Faith and Practice of the Papists and all others whatsoever so far only as they are either repugnant to the Holy Scripture in any thing or ungrounded on the same in things pretended by them necessary to Salvation Such Protestants do we of the Church of England profess our selves to be as is apparent unto all from the 6 th of our XXXIX Articles affirming That the Scriptures contain all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not read therein nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any Man that it should be believed as an Article of Faith or be thought requisite or necessary to Salvation This is our very first Principle as we are called Protestants and such an one I do heartily profess my self neither see I yet the least cause to doubt of my Salvation whilst by the Grace of God I live answerably to this Profession For that the Protestant Religion built upon this Principle is a safe Religion is I think altogether as plain as that Christianity it self pure and unmix'd is the Way to Salvation because 't is plain that this Religion we profess holding to this Principle can be nothing else but pure and unmix'd Christianity being that and no other which is contained in the Holy Scripture Is then the holy Scripture the Word of God or not Was it given unto us of God to be the Rule of our Religion that is of our Faith Worship and holy Conversation or was it not If Bellarmine may be credited this is the Declaration of the Catholick Church both in the third Council of Carthage and also in that of Trent The Books of the Prophets and Apostles are the true Word of God and the sure and stable Rule of Life And as he shortly after adds The most sure and safest Rule Now whether it be the compleat perfect and adequate Rule as we constantly affirm or only a partial Rule or but some part of it as the Papists contend it self when diligently consulted will be best able to inform us For it is on all hands granted to be the Word of God which cannot lie and therefore unquestionably true in all things what soever it teacheth us and of those many excellent things which it very plainly teacheth its one Perfection and Sufficiency is one and for my present Satisfaction very considerable I find in the first place that God himself writ the Ten Commandments the compleat Rule of Piety and Iustice with his own Finger Exod. 31. 1 18. Deut. 9. 10. 10. 2 4. That he commanded them to be written on the Posts and Gates Deut. 6. 9. 11. 20. That Moses wrote all the Words of the Lord Exod. 24. 4. and deliver'd the Writing to the Priests to be read unto the People Deut. 31. 9. And that the King was to have by him a Copy of it for his Direction Deut. 17. 18. I find many Curses denounced against the Breakers of it Deut. 28. 58. and Blessings promised to them that keep it Deut. 30. 10. I find it was expresly forbidden to add unto it or to aiminish from it Deut. 4. 2 12 32. To turn from it to the right-hand or to the left Josh. 1. 7. And that the good Kings were careful to order all things according to it and to reform what had been amiss by it 1 Chron. 16. 40. 2 Kings 22. 13. And therefore I do not wonder to hear the Psalmist saying The Law of the Lord is perfect converting the Soul Psal. 19. 7. nor to find Isaiah sending Men to the Law and to the Testimony saying If any speak not according to this Word it is because there is no Light in them Isa. 8. 20. Again I find our Blessed Saviour himself and his Apostles after him very frequently appealing and referring their Hearers to that which had been written in the Books of Moses in the Psalms and in the Prophets They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them saith Abraham in the Parable Luk. 16. 29. Search the Scriptures saith Christ