Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	scripture_n	teach_v	word_n	2,493	5	4.3169	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23715	The divine aut[h]ority and usefulness of the Holy Scripture asserted in a sermon on the 2 Timothy 3, 15 by R. Allestree ...	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.	1673 (1673)	Wing A1112; ESTC R3384	26,983	56

does assert this on the very ground we mention'd for they are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inspir'd by God they come from him All which must be made out in the next place That those Holy Scriptures which St. Paul first mentions those of the Old Testament were so and did contain sufficient revelation both of God and of the way of worship of the Jews that Nation did so perfectly believe that neither Sufferings nor Miracles could perswade the contrary neither the Roman persecuters that destroy'd their worship nor the Son of God that chang'd it could yet take them off from Moses and his Scriptures Now that this Moses led that Nation out of Egypt with an high hand and made himself their Prince and Law-giver multitudes of forreign Histories of the first times and the best account assure us whose relations we cannot question as deriv'd from themselves because they hated Jews beyond all possibility of such compliance But the Scriptures also tell us how in Egypt by strange wonders such as their Magicians could not imitate nor bear who tho they had permission to do some it was that so they might appear to be outdon the more miraculously themselves confessing Gods hand in those prodigies Moses wrought on the Egyptians to give leave the people should depart and how when yet notwithstanding that leave given they were pursu'd he made way for them through the Sea by Miracles which was a rampart and defence to them a ruine to their enemies How they were fed for forty years with Manna raining down from Heaven in the wilderness and that they might depend on Providence for their daily provision when he forbad them to take care or gather for the morrow whatsoe're their greediness or want of faith provided strait bred worms and stank except that on the Sabbath eve to keep off such cares from the day of their Religion they gather'd double which corrupted not How when they mutined for flesh would have variety Paradise in the desert such great plenty of Quailes flew to them as fed the whole Nation till their very lust was surfetted and they had no more will then hunger to them How Moses Rod did strike a living stream a River that suffic'd that people and their cattle out of a Rock How in the midst of lightning and thunder God himself promulgated his Law to the whole Nation audibly at once How his glorious presence shew'd it self in all necessities upon the Ark in which the Tables of the Law were laid up How the waters of the river Iordan fled from that Ark both waies flow'd upwards to give passage to the people into Canaan How the walls of Ierichó without any other battery any other force but that the Ark was there fell down before it But to name no more If these be true that power by which these were wrought was great enough to give that Law require obedience to it and reward it and to punish all transgression according to the tenor of these Scriptures that is it was God and he that wrote those Scriptures must have had communication with and bin inspir'd from God to write them But 2. Whether they were true or no according as they are recorded in those Scriptures that whole people from the greatest almost to the least must know because they are recorded as all don not only in the presence of them all but as the objects and the entertainments of their senses every one so that if they were forg'd not one of the whole Nation could be ignorant of it And then 3. If they knew them forg'd all that 600000 men besides their wives and families should endure this Moses having brought them forth only into a wilderness there to lay such a heavy Law and so severe a yoke upon them with such penalties annext to every least transgression and adjure them to observe it on the account of all those prodigies that had bin wrought among them and upbraid them with stiffneckedness rebellion and appeal to their own senses for the truth of all this and record all to posterity in this Scripture cause all to be read before them and that they should bear all this from him they knew so impudent a deceiver and conveigh that Scripture and the faith of it to their posterity ground their so strict so chargeable Religion on that book which they were certain had no word of truth in it this sure transcends belief and possibility 'T is certain therefore since the Jews of that age did perform the services requir'd and in performing them according as that book directs did teach their children the great works that God had don in their sight therefore they believ'd those Miracles and Scriptures And since it was impossible that they should be deceiv'd if they believ'd them they were true and their posterity receiv'd from them the faith of this and so deriv'd it on that neither Gods dread judgments nor mans cruelty can yet shake it Now had they not bin don and on that account conveigh'd when ever they were broacht and that book first appear'd the men of that age must needs know their Fathers never had perform'd such services had such a book read to them constantly nor told them of such Miracles that had bin wrought and therefore 't was impossible that they could have believ'd it had bin so from Moses if it had bin true that it had first begun to be taught in their own time or in theirs with whom they liv'd And this discourse must be of force concerning every age if we ascend until we come to that of Moses wherein all was effected Yet besides this they had also that perpetual Miracle in the High Priest's Pectoral the Oracle of Vrim and Thummim that did keep alive their faith and strengthen it and they had Prophets constantly foretelling as from God things that were somtimes suddenly to come to pass and somtimes not till many ages after the event of which depended often on the will of those that would not of some hundred years be born others on Gods own immediat will and hand and therefore none but God could look into foretel and bring to pass all those events Now such were Ieremies predictions of the taking of Ierusalem and the captivity of the people and the express number of years it would continue Esays naming Cyrus who was to release it near two hundred years e're he was born All Daniels prophecies particularly that most eminent one of the Messiah this Christ Iesus of whose Scriptures we are next to speak That that Iesus whom Cornelius Tacitus the heathen historian in the fifteenth book of his Annals calls Christiani dogmatis autorem the Author of the Christian Doctrine did work Miracles and prophesy both Jews and learned Heathens do confess But these Books tell us when he first began to preach he publicly cast out a Devil in the Synagogue on

liv'd till near that time who rose up with him at his resurrection when these books writ by the will of God to be the pillar and foundation of mens faith in after ages as saith Irenaeus in that age were also read in the assemblies weekly when not only those that did assemble were by Hadrian martyr'd but they put men to their oaths to find out whether they were Christians that they might massacre them And in the 3 d it was the like when Miracles they say were not yet ceast yet sure the greatest was the constancy of Christians in adhering to this book patience in suffering for it For they report the sands on the sea shore almost as easy to be numbred as the Martyrs of that age what by Valerian Decius Maximinus and Severus but especially by Dioclesian who put so many men to death for not delivering up their Bibles to be burnt and refusing to Sacrifice to his Gods as if he meant to have depopulated the whole earth And this is as notorious as that men do now profess that they are Christians and that these are holy Scriptures Therefore I shall need to go no further Now among so many myriads who on the account of all these Miracles whate're they were suffer'd themselves to be converted to the faith of Christ and then as if they car'd for nothing but Religion and their Bibles for them bore the loss of goods and life it self and engag'd their posterity to do so also that not one of these should know whether indeed any such miracles were wrought if any were restor'd to life or no for if they knew then they were true and that among so numberless a crow'd of teachers who by assuming to speak languages raise the dead work signs drew in those Myriads to Religion and the stake and went before them gave them an example both in faith and death that not one of all those should believe either the Miracles or himself that did them for if any one that did them did believe them since he knew who did them they must needs be certain but not one of them to know it sure is such a thing as neither could be don nor be imagin'd He therefore that requires strict evidence in things of faith which cannot bear it he that calls for Mathematical demonstration nor will believe on easier terms yet is so credulous and so unwary that he can believe so many things which by the nature and the disposition of mankind I have demonstrated not possible which yet must be true unless these scriptures be from God 't is plain he does not seek for certainty but for a pretence of not believing would fain have his Infidelity and Atheism look more excusable and is not fit to be disputed with but to be exploded But if these scriptures be from God then whatsoever they affirm with modesty I may conclude is true And therfore when St Luke Acts. 1. 1. declares his former treatise contain'd all that Iesus began both to do and teach until the day in which he was taken up since Christ before he did ascend taught every thing that was requir'd to be believ'd and don in order to salvation and more too therfore if his Gospel did contain all that he taught and did since it did not contain all absolutly it must needs mean it contained all that was necessary or it must mean nothing And since the same St Luke in the beginning of that Gospel does affirm he wrot it that Theophilus might know the certainty of those things wherein he had bin instructed T is plain he avers that the certain knowledg of all those things wherein the having bin instructed made Theophilus a Christian might be had out of that Gospel and when St Paul says here that the Holy Scriptures are able to make us wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ Iesus and St John in his 20 chap. v. 31. that tho he had not wrot all the things that Iesus did yet those that he had wrot were written that we might believe that Iesus was the Christ the son of God and that believing we might have life through his name T is evident the Scriptures say that what was written was sufficient to work that belief which was sufficient to life and salvation as far as the credend● do concur to it And when St Paul in that verse that succeeds my text in most express particular words sets down the usefullness of Scripture in each several duty of a man of God or preacher of the Gospel both for Doctrine of faith for reproof or correction of manners and instruction unto righteousness and tells you Gods express end in inspiring it and consequently its ability when so inspir'd was that the man of God might be made perfect throughly furnisht unto every good work that belongs to his whole office t is most certain that what is sufficient for that office to instruct reprove correct and teach in must needs be sufficient to believe and practise in for all men i. e. what my text affirms they are able to make us wise unto salvation I might call in Tradition universal to bear witness to this truth for holy Scriptures if having once demonstrated that they are Gods word when that does affirm it and bears witness to it there were need of any other And this I dare boldly say that if the Scripture did say as expresly that the Pope had a supremacy or soveragnity over the whole Church or that he or the Roman Church were infallible their definition or the living voice of their present Church a most sure rule of Faith as it does say Scripture is able to make us wise unto salvation those Articles would suffer no dispute it would be blasphemy or sacriledg to limit or explain them by distinctions when those sayings of the perfectness of Scriptures are forc't to bear many Then we should have no complaints of the obscurity of those books if those articles were either in the Greek or Hebrew they would never say the Bible were not fit to be a Rule of Faith because the Language were unknown to the unlearned and they could not be infallibly secure of the Translation were they there they would account them sure enough who think them plain enough already there and that we must believe them because Thou art Peter Feed my sheep and Tell the Church are there And for him that shall affirm all necessaries that must make us wise unto falvation are not in the Scripture 't is impossible to give a rational account how it should come to pass that some are there the rest are not It must be either on design or else by chance Now 1. That God should design when very many things that were not necessary were to be written that the main and fundamental ones should be omitted and when of the necessaries most he did design for Scripture then He should not suffer