Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	scripture_n	sense_n	2,756	5	6.8104	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66404	Of the perspicuity of Scripture, and rules for interpretation of it a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Mar. 2, 1695/6, being the third of the lecture for this present year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2712; ESTC R38654	13,865	34

the Decalogue which may be understood by us in this Age as well as those that were at Mount Sinai at the first delivering of it 5. The Scriptures being to continue to the World's End and generally speaking being written for the use of all Men of all Ages and Nations they must consequently be Intelligible in the main and capable of being understood by all persons in all times or else they were written in vain For to what purpose should they be preserved or should they oblige Mankind to read them if they were not to be understood 6. I may say that in Fact the Scriptures are plain in all things that are intended for the use of all and that are necessary for all to know in point of Faith or Practice Such are 1. All the Principles of Natural Religion such as the Being of a God and his Creation of all things the Worship to be given to him the Government of the World by Providence the Immortality of the Soul and a State of Rewards and Punishments in another Life These every one may understand as he reads them in Scripture and which no man can read but he must find out and understand 2. Such is the History of Providence that is God's prospering the good and punishing wicked Nations his preserving a Church under all the Storms of the most violent Persecutions His carrying on the train of Prophecies through all interruptions and accomplishing them at the time and after the manner long before prefixed These are matters of Fact and what are obvious to all in the reading of them 3. Such is matter of pure Revelation and especially that which concerns the Redemption of Mankind by Jesus Christ. As to his Person that he was before the Worlds which were made by him That in the fulness of time according to the Ancient Predictions he became Man and was made Flesh That he wrought Miracles in Confirmation of his Mission from God and of the Doctrine he Taught and Professed to receive from the Father That he was Crucified and Died as a Sacrifice for the Sins of all Mankind That he rose again the Third Day from the Dead and ascended into Heaven That he sent down the Holy Spirit and continues at the Right Hand of God to be our Mediator and that we are with respect to that Mediation to offer up all our Prayers in his Name to the Father And that he is to come at the End of the World to Judgment and shall raise the Dead and Summon them all before his Tribunal 4. Of the like kind are all the Proofs and Confirmations of the Doctrine of our Saviour before spoken of under another Character such are Prophecies and Miracles Prophecies which though sometimes obscure in point of Phrase yet there are those that are without difficulty as that of Josiah and Cyrus by Name that of the place of our Saviour's Birth the Stock and Lineage the Tribe and Family he should proceed from the time he should sufferin c. And the other Attestation by Miracles is too evident to be insisted upon 5. Of this sort are the terms of Salvation among those things which are plainly set down in Scripture we may find whatever relates to Faith and Manners of Life And in these two are comprehended all that is necessary to Salvation So that whatever is not plainly set down in Scripture or evidently inferr'd from it is not necessary to Salvation Now I am apt to think that no person that comes unprejudiced I mean not prepossess'd with contrary Principles or corrupt Affections but must needs own the Scripture to be clear in the points before rehearsed if so be he reads it with an ordinary Diligence and Care But will it be said Are there not obscurities allowed to be in Scripture and difficulties which are not to be surmounted And what is a clearer proof of this than the different Expositions we meet with and the different Opinions Men espouse and therefore espouse them because they conceive them to be the dictates of Holy Writ 1. I Answer That is no Objection against it for then there can be nothing certain if the calling it in question will render it uncertain 2. This indeed has been an Argument set up to overthrow the Authority of Scripture and some have been so impertinent as to make use of the various Constructions and Significations of Words to serve this impious cause And so among other things one quotes that Saying of Quintilian There are innumerable kinds of words of ambiguous and various signification so that it seemed to some of the Philosophers that there was no word that doth not signify many things But if this be a reason why the Scripture is obscure and the sense not attainable then it is common with that to all Books whatsoever not excepting even that Book which the Author thought so well of as to publish for the Information of the World If this were of any force then it would be to no more purpose to speak than to write because the words we use are capable of different senses as well as what we write This is a way of arguing that proves too much and goes too far and serves no more than an argument that falls short and comes not up to the Case in hand This would make the Divine Oracles like those of the Devil to be no other than Aenigma's and Riddles as if in the New coined Phrase of the Members of the Romish Church they were but the Various figures of Ink upon a Book Or served to no other use than white Paper to Write what you will upon and make what sense out of it that a fruitful Brain can invent 3. Though there are obscurities in Scripture it falls upon such points as are not in themselves necessary and not necessary to all and notwithstanding which a person may be saved though he dye ignorant of them or of the sence of those Scriptures which contain them For there is no greater sign of their not being necessary than that they are not what we can understand or are not plainly to be found in Scripture 4. Though there are obscurities in Scripture yet they are nothing in comparison to the plain Texts of it and which no more hinder us from understanding the plain than the Spots in the Sun prevent us of the Light of it The Obscurities are like the various Readings of little consequence and importance as I have shewed and nothing comparable to what remains intire and perspicuous They are only some things that are hard to be understood But how many are the plain and intelligible and especially of things necessary to Salvation 5. When I say there are Obscurities in Scripture and that they fall upon less necessary points I grant that even those obscure parts are not without their use it being here as in the Heavens where the Cloudy Stars that scatter a faintish light through the Galaxy or Milky-way though not