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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	holy_a	read_v	scripture_n	8,342	5	5.9261	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56698	A sermon preached on Saint Mark's Day MDCLXXXVI in the parish church of St. Paul's Covent Garden by Symon Patrick ...	Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.	1686 (1686)	Wing P844; ESTC R7041	18,815	51

is it not as good a Judge of any thing as of their Authority What reason can be given for using our Reason in this single affair and relinquishing it ever after Is it not the same Reason still Was it not given us for our constant Safe-Conduct By what reason then do we trust others to chuse our Religion for us without examining whether what they say be true or no but taking it barely upon their word How do they know that to be true which they propound to us May not we know it by the same means and rely not merely upon their Authority but upon the same reason that they do For they say what they deliver to us either with reason or without If with reason we ought to judge whether it be a good reason or no for why should not we judge as well as they since God hath intrusted us with a faculty whereby to judge If without reason we ought not to follow an Authority which presses things to be believed upon no ground but to look upon those as the most sincere and faithful Directors who would have us to examine and prove consider and ponder all things well before we receive them and who offer to us their assistance therein that we may see with our own eyes what God himself hath delivered to us in his holy Word Which brings me to the next thing Secondly In this proof which we make of every thing propounded to us the Scriptures ought to be the Rule whereby we judge We have no other I have formerly shewn you and they are abundantly sufficient for us and so authentick that our Blessed Lord himself and his Apostles after him constantly appealed to them for the proof of their Doctrine And as they referred all men to the old Scriptures saying no other thing but what the Prophets and Moses did say should come xxvi Act. 22. so we can send them no whither else for their information but to the same Scriptures and to the New Testament according to which if any men do not speak they are not to be received Nay St. Austine ventured to imitate St. Paul and to say * L. III. contra liter Petiliani cap. 6. Let him be accursed whosoever he be I will not say we who are not worthy to be compared with him that said THOUGH WE but though he be an Angel from Heaven who declares to you any thing of Christ or of his Church or of any other matter that belongs to our Faith and Life besides that which ye have received in the Legal and Evangelical Scriptures Unto which the same St. Paul sends Timothy himself for his instruction in both his Epistles to him Where he commands him to give attendance to reading viz. of the holy Scriptures which he had known from a Child and which were able he tells him to make him wise to salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus They being given by inspiration of God that even a man of God like the antient Prophets might be perfected and thoroughly furnished unto all good works for every part of his employment 2 Tim. iii. 15 16. Which place I have explained not long ago and now mention it again because the Apostle directs him to these holy Writings as a means to preserve him in the true Christian belief ver 14. But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been assured of knowing of whom thou hast learned them and that from a Child thou hast known the holy Scriptures c. What we have learned out of the holy Scriptures we have an assurance of we know from whom they come and are certain we are taught by God when we read these holy Books but cannot be assured of any other Tradition which is not contained here and therefore ought to continue stedfast in our adherence to the Scriptures and both to suspect those who would draw us from this hold and stick to those Guides who bid us stick to this and prove all things by it For it is evident they have no mind to deceive us but do in effect bid us believe God and follow his directions and rely upon his Authority who cannot mislead us and will not suffer us to be mis-led if we continue in the things which we have learnt out of the holy Scriptures For taking them to be our Rule we shall neither admit any thing which is contrary to that Rule nor shall we take any thing to be an essential part of the Christian Faith which is not there delivered unto us For it is not consistent with the notions we have of God's infinite Goodness and Wisdom to believe He would give us a Rule which is defective in necessary things No He hath abundantly provided here for our Instruction in all such matters and as we ought to refuse that which contradicts any part of these holy Books so we ought not to think it necessary that we should entertain any thing which they do not teach us And teach us plainly and evidently for in all necessary things they are very clear and perspicuous Else they could not be a Rule unto us but we must seek for some other The Apostle's Creed for instance which the Ancients called the immoveable Rule of Faith a short Summary of Christian Belief beyond which as they speak we ought not to seek for Faith together with the Nice Creed and Athanasius's which expound the Apostles ought thoroughly to be received and believed for that they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture But 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 the Doctrine of our Church in its sixth and eighth Articles unto which let us strictly keep if we would not be carried to and fro uncertainly with the blasts of vain Doctrines which have no certain Warrants in the holy Scriptures and therefore are not to be received or are contrary to them and therefore are to be rejected Here we must fix and believe that here we are safe For the Scriptures want nothing to compleat us in Christian wisdom which they do not wrap up in obscurity but as far as is needful give us a clear understanding of the Doctrines of Faith And make us understand withal if we please to consider them that having laid our foundation well in a firm belief of those great and necessary things which out of the Scriptures are summed up in the Creeds before named we need not trouble our selves about other matters which are not so evident but make it our whole business in this world to raise the solid Superstructure of a holy Life upon the Foundation of Faith in Christ This is the Second thing the holy Scriptures are the Rule whereby we must prove all things from which if we do not depart we cannot be led into any

dangerous errors Provided Thirdly that in the use and application of this Rule we take the direction of our Spiritual Guides and Governors In some things as I said there is difficulty and where there is none the cunning of deceivers may so perplex things and intangle our understandings that we may not know what to think In which case especially we ought to seek for the assistance of those that are better able to judge than our selves Which is the very means of stability and constancy which the Apostle here recommends in my Text. For having shown how God appointed several orders of men in the Church not only Apostles Prophets and Evangelists but also Pastors and Teachers for the perfecting of the Saints c. he lets them know that by these means God expected that they should not be henceforth children tossed to and fro and carried away with every wind of Doctrine For this purpose were Pastors and Teachers more particularly setled in the Church that they might be Instruments of setling others After the Apostles and Prophets and Evangelists had revealed the mind and will of God to men Pastors and Teachers were left in every Church to help them both to understand what the other great men had revealed and to detect the forgeries of false Apostles who went about to supplant the Christian Doctrine These Gifts as the Apostle here calls them were bestowed last of all being intended to remain after the other ceased And accordingly you are blessed with them in this Age as they were in the beginning and they are placed over you for the same end that they were at first that you may advise with them as persons whose business it is to study the holy Scriptures and to guide God's people by them in the way of truth For this they are better qualified than any other persons and therefore ought to be consulted by the people Who must not be so bold as to lean merely to their own understanding but listen also unto them not indeed as infallible but as men of the best understanding both by their Office and by their Study pains and experience whereby they are enabled to discover the frauds and sophistry of Deceivers and to open better than any else can do the true meaning of the holy Scriptures Their Guidance therefore the Apostle to the Hebrews also commends as a remedy against their instability in Religion xiii 7 8 9. Remember them that have the rule over you who have spoken to you the word of God whose faith follow c. Be not carried about with divers and strange Doctrines for it is a good thing that the heart be established with grace not with meats which have not profited them that have been occupied therein Where one mark is given them whereby to know what Guides to follow Such as established their hearts in true grace and goodness not those that troubled them with unprofitable Disputes about meats and drink and such like things which were pressed by Judaical Teachers but made those who observed them not one jot the better if they did not make them worse by taking off their hearts from more substantial Duties And truly there is the same mark of distinction at this day All men follow some Guides or other but they alone ought to be followed who lead men not by their own authority but by the direction of the holy Scriptures whose main study it is to understand the Scriptures themselves and then to make others understand them who do not hide those Books from the people but exhort them to look into them and read them seriously and to learn therein above all things to be godly and vertuous to mortifie all evil affections and passions to purifie themselves from all filthiness both of flesh and spirit and to perfect holiness in the fear of God Such Guides you are bound in Conscience to advise withal and not lightly to forsake their Conduct For if they of the contrary perswasion follow their Guides with an implicite Faith and a kind of blind obedience being scarce permitted to use their Reason how can our people answer it to God if they will not take heed to those who bid them open their eyes and see and examine and prove what they offer to them by the Rule of the holy Scriptures in the use of the most impartial and unbiassed Reason which God hath bestowed upon them and wherewith they can assist them It is not easie to apprehend how great a sin they are guilty of who neglect such guidance And I must take the freedom to tell you That to listen to other pretended Guides neglecting those of the Church of England under whom ye have been bred whose conversation you know by whom you have been long instructed and had sufficient proof of their abilities is an inexcusable sin and an unaccountable folly For in all reason you ought to have a greater reverence to the Priests of our Church than to those of any other Communion who cannot be presumed to know better than ours do nor to have more concern and care to guide you aright than ours have And therefore as none of you I hope will be carried away from the Faith of this Church by any wind of Doctrine whatsoever so you will not I trust so much as entertain a doubt of the truth here believed without consulting with the Pastors and Teachers of it who are able to preserve you from falling by Gods grace and blessing upon your and their honest endeavours You ought to make a great conscience of this if you chance to be staggered by any objection repair to those whom God hath appointed to settle your minds and preserve you upright Nay if there were nothing of Conscience in it yet it is but a due respect to them under whose ministry you have many years lived not to forsake them upon any suggestions whatsoever without hearing what they can answer to them nor to think them less able and willing to direct you than any other persons or less honest and careful in the directions they give that neither you nor they may do amiss Besides the weakness and levity nay the folly and wickedness it is a rude contempt of those whom you have the greatest reason to esteem and will be so judged at the dreadful day of our Lord to hearken to the voice of strangers and give a perfect credit to them without so much as consulting the judgment of those with whom you have been long acquainted Be not guilty I beseech you of such unmanly and unmannerly behaviour Do not so much as admit the beginning of a doubt about your Religion without acquainting some of them with it that they may resolve you and as St. Peter speaks 1 v. 12. exhort and testify to you that this is the true grace of God wherein ye stand And in which you will always stand if you observe one thing more which in truth is the greatest of all Fourthly Live in