Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	believe_v	scripture_n	write_v	2,819	5	5.7819	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42880	Panta dokimazete a sermon treating of the tryall of all things by the Holy Scriptures, the confest rule of faith and practice : shewing the deplorable abuse of that rule, with an attempt touching the examen of ceremonies / delivered in St. Paul's Cathedral November 8, being the xxi Sunday after Trinity, by J.G.	Goad, J. (John), 1616-1689.	1664 (1664)	Wing G902; ESTC R535	23,350	40

he that bids us not believe every Spirit but try the Spirits whether they are of God or no 1 John iv 1 Now how must that be done even by the Articles of our Creed by the Rules of the Catholick Faith say the Contents of that Chapter You shall hear him Hereby know ye the Spirit of God That 's good How Every Spirit that confesseth that Iesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God vers 2. and every Spirit that confesseth not is not of God He gives his Criterium from an Article of the Creed against the Hereticks of that Time which oppugned it for so the words following import This is that Spirit of Antichrist vers 3. that even now already is in the World He doth not 't is true give One Catholick Rule to try all Heresies by for how many Hereticks were there that were so cunning afterward as to confess the Incarnation as Saint Austin observes on that place but he giveth one pro tempore sufficient at that time and from the Creed he fetcheth it But the holy Apostle Peter speaks of all the Creed For when he had seasonably admonish'd us that some do abuse and wrest the holy Scriptures he gives us an account who they are viz. the unlearned and the unstable which can be none else but those that have not sufficiently learned and are not strongly confirmed in the fundamental Lessons of Christianity 2 Pet. iii. 16 The Scripture then is the un-erring Rule of Faith but so that its interpretation must have regard to the Rule and symbole of our Faith the reasons are the same as before because they sweetly agree the one is contai'nd in the other the one is suppos'd by the other as we said of the Law of Nature They are mutual helps one to the other The Scriptures were given that our Faith might not be interlop'd and the Creed was given that the Scripture might not be wrested Neither can be spared by the faithful So here 's no clashing the Decalogue is the Rule but not to shut out the Pentateuch The five Books of Moses are the Rule but not to exclude the Ten Commandments Nothing must exclude its own Quintessence And is not this necessary No question God saw it very necessary and the advantages are undeniably these First The Creed is one compact abridgement of fundamentals which in the Scripture lie as in the Myne here and there respersed Secondly It is plain and easie but the Scriptures have many things hard to be understood So said Saint Peter when yet the Book of the Revelation was not written Hence the old Hereticks few or none denied the Scriptures but the Creed many disowned After all this are we not nearer to Vnity now Yes For if this Rule were believed to be a Rule and Form preserved to us from the beginning we should none of us dream of new Lights and stand amazed at every puffe of doctrine from this or that or the other illuminate We should not reckon salvation by any Name but Jesus nor by that neither unless rightly understood We should not divide Christ into Parishes piece-meal making so many Catechisms as Congregations and Christianities as Pulpits We should none of us dare to scruple the very Godhead of our Blessed Lord and the Worlds 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 founded in it we should not out-face the Church of God in her main mysterie whereby she is distinguished from the Jewish Synagogue or the Turkish Mosque We should not dare to contract this great salvation and deny the universality of Christs merits We shall not abuse the grace of God either to presume on a profane or to be secure in an indifferent life We should regard and respect the known wayes of Christ Baptism c. not dreaming of an invisible Spirit to twitch us to Heaven by the hair of the head There is none of us would make it an Article much less place all our saving Faith in an infallible absolute assurance of our well-doing We should rather tremble at the brightness of Him that is to come judge Quick and Dead and tremble again at our sacrilegious breaches of our Vow in Baptism and our indevout repentances therefore We should not imagine no necessity of holiness toward eternal remission of sins we should not be afraid of good Works Thing nor Name We should talk less of the Spirit and live more by it We should look upon Christianity as a kind of pure Angelical life the exertion of the Spirit of God received in Baptism We should believe a Church be such men in understanding as to know our Mother and so natural as to reverence her We should not make such a vast Hiatns in Church-History as to reckon none from the Apostles to our dayes for if we reckon any we could not place Reformation in a wilful departure from it in every thing where humour prompts us to do that easie thing of wresting Scripture And to see that I would be impartial neither should we out of a pretended esteem of this Apostolick Form content our selves with a scanty measure of the knowledge of Christ Seeing there is Duty and Knowledge and to believe in Christ rightly understood is a World of both And thus much for proving of matters of Faith Now for Ceremony and Order the endless Dispute in this Island How shall we prove this what Rule have we for these Here as no where else do I look that my authority should be acoepted How can it when the Churches is denied a very demonstration from so private a person shall not pass Yet I deem these things cannot be banished out of the Church My reason is all Beauty lies in Order all Decency in Ceremony With Order there is Beauty even in the Furrowes of the Field and without it there is none in the Beds of a Garden Irrational is the despoiling of Order hence such care taken least the Swine break into the Garden God by the very Creation is a God of Order Gen. i. And behold all was very good altogether as well as each particular Besides his Title of Lord of Hosts shews as much Every one that knows what belongs to an Army knows without Order 't is nothing Yea and Nature her self is not without her Ceremonies the Leaves of the Trees and the Flowers of the Field Solomon in all his Ceremony could not out-strip them and so decent are these that without them the Trees look bald and the Earth withers into desert So in Animals the House-Cock hath his Spur and Crest the Ensigns of Chivalry the rest of the Birds have their Habits and Liveries the Turkies neck is fac'd with Scarlet and the Lapwing hath his Cap of Maintenance Yet nearer The hair of our Face and Beard is but a Ceremony viz. a mark of distinction and decency and these instances that I have given are so much to the purpose that 't is known they have the Fate of Ceremonies to wit to be thought superfluous as the