Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	day_n	law_n	sabbath_n	2,914	5	9.8028	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23752	The lively oracles given to us, or, The Christians birth-right and duty, in the custody and use of the Holy Scripture by the author of The whole duty of man, &c.	Allestree, Richard, 1619-1681.; Sterne, Richard, 1596?-1683.; Pakington, Dorothy Coventry, Lady, d. 1679.; Boyle, Robert, 1627-1691.	1678 (1678)	Wing A1149; ESTC R170102	108,974	240

is against error and learn how little is got by that policy which controles the divine Wisdom 14 NOR can they take shelter in the example of the primitive Christians for they in the constant use of the holy Scriptures yielded not unto the Jews Whereas the Jews had the Scriptures read publicly to them every Sabbath day which Josephus against Appion thus expresses Moses propounded to the Jews the most excellent and necessary learning of the Law not by hearing it once or twice but every seventh day laying aside their works he commanded them to assemble for the hearing of the Law and throughly and exactly to learn it Parallel to this was the practice of the primitive Church perform'd by the Lector or Reader of which Justin Martyr in his 2. Apol. gives this account On the day call'd Sunday all that abide in towns or the countries about meet in one place and the writings of the Apostles and Prophets are read so far as there is place So Tertullian in his Apol describing the offices in the public Assemblies We feed our faith with the sacred Words we raise our hopes and establish our reliance 15. AND as the Jews thought it indecent for persons professing piety to let three daies pass without the offices thereof in the congregation and therefore met in their Synagogues upon every Tuesday and Thursday in the week and there perform'd the duties of fasting praier and hearing the holy Scriptures concerning which is the boast of the Pharisee Luk. 18. 12. in conformity hereto the Christians also their Sabbath being brought forward from the Saturday to the day following that the like number of daies might not pass them without performing the aforesaid duties in the congregation met together on the Wednesdaies and Fridaies which were the daies of Station so frequently mention'd in Tertullian and others the first writers of the Church Tertullian expresly saies that the Christians dedicated to the offices of Piety the fourth and sixth day of the week and Clemens Alex. saies of the Christians that they understood the secret reasons of their weekly fasts to wit those of the fourth day of the week and that of preparation before the Sabbath commonly call'd Wednesday and Friday Where by the way we may take notice what ground there is for the observation of the Wednesday and Friday in our Church and the Litanies then appointed so much neglected in this profligate Age. 16. BUT secondly as the Jews were diligent in the privat reading of the Scripture being taught it from their infancy which custom Saint Paul refers to 1 Tim. 3. 15. whereof Josephus against Appion saies That if a man ask any Jew concerning the Laws he will tell every thing readier then his name for learning them from the first time they have sense of any thing they retain them imprinted in their minds So were the first Christians equally industrious in improving their knowledg of divine Truth The whole life of a Christian saies Clem. Alex. Strom. l. 7. is a holy solemnity there his sacrifices are praiers and praises before every meal he has the readings of the holy Scriptures and Psalms and Hymns at the time of his meals Which Tertullian also describes in his Apol. and Saint Cyprian in the end of the Epist. to Donatus 17. AND this is farther evidenc'd by the early and numerous versions of the Scriptures into all vulgar Languages concerning which Theodoret speaks in his Book of the Cure of the Affections of the Greeks Serm. 5. We Christians sais he are enabled to shew the power of Apostolic and prophetic doctrins which h●ve fill'd all Countries under Heaven For that which was formerly utter'd in Hebrew is not only translated into the Language of the Grecians but also the Romans Egyptians Persians Indians Armenians Scythians Samaritans and in a word to all the Languages that are us'd by any Nation The same is said by Saint Chrysostom in his first Homily upon Saint Iohn 18. NOR was this don by the blind zeal of inconsiderable men but the most eminent Doctors of the Church were concern'd herein such as Origen who with infinit labor contriv'd the Hexapla Saint Chrysostom who translated the New Testament Psalms and som part of the Old Testament into the Armenian Tongue as witnesses Geor. Alex. in the life of Chrysost. So Vlphilas the first Bishop of the Goths translated the holy Scripture into the Gothic as Socrat. Eccl. Hist l. 4. cap. 33. and others testify Saint Jerom who translated them not only into Latin from the Hebrew the Old Italic version having bin from the Greek but also into his native vulgar Dalmatic which he saies himself in his Epistle to Sophronius 19. BUT the peoples having them for their privat and constant use appears farther by the Heathens making the extorting of them a part of their persecution and when diverse did faint in that trial and basely surrender'd them we find the Church level'd her severity only against the offending persons did not according to the Romish equity punish the innocent by depriving them of that sacred Book because the others had so unworthily prostituted it tho the prevention of such a profanation for the future had bin as fair a plea for it as the Romanists do now make but on the contrary the primitive Fathers are frequent nay indeed importunat in their exhortations to the privat study of holy Scripture which they recommend to Christians of all Ranks Ages and Sexes 20. AS an instance hereof let us hear Clemens of Alex. in his Exhort The Word saies he is not hid from any it is a common light that shineth to all men there is no obscurity in it hear it you that be far off and hear it you that are nigh 21. To this purpose St. Jerom speaks in his Epistle to Leta whom he directs in the education of her young daughter and advises th●t instead of gems and silk she be enamour'd with the holy Scripture wherein not gold or skins or Babylonian embroideries but a correct and beautiful variety producing faith will recommend its self Let her first learn the Psalter and be entertain'd with those songs then be instructed unto life by the Proverbs of Solomon let her learn from Ecclesiastes to despise worldly things transcribe from Job the practice of patience and vertue let her pass then to the Gospels and never let them be out of her bands and then imbibe with all the faculties of the mind the Acts of the Apostles and Epistles When she has enrich'd the store-house of her breast with these tresures let her learn the Prophets the Heptateuch or books of Moses Joshua and Judges the books of Kings and Chronicles the volumes of Ezra and Esther and lastly the Canticles And indeed this Father is so concern'd to have the unletter'd semale sex skilful in the Scriptures that tho he sharply rebukes their pride and over-wening he not only frequently resolves their doubts concerning difficult places in the said Scriptures but

they came up they might shew their children the same Which Scripture by a perpetual succession was to be handed down unto the Christian Church the Apostles on all occasions appealing unto them as being read in the Synagogues every Sabbath day Act. 13. 27. and also privatly in their hands so that they might at plesure search into them Jo. 5. 39. Act. 17. 11. Hereupon the Jews are by Saint Austin call'd the Capsarii or servants that carried the Christians Books And Athanasius in this Tract of the Incarnation saies The Law was not for the Jews only nor were the Prophets sent for them alone but that Nation was the Divinity-Schole of the whole world from whence they were to fetch the knowledg of God and the way of spiritual living which amounts to what the Apostle saies Galat. 3. 24. That the Law was a Schole-master to bring us unto Christ. 3. AND 't is observable that the very same word Rom. 3. 2. in the Text even now recited which expresses the committing of the Oracles of God to the Jews is made use of constantly by Saint Paul when he declares the trust and duty incumbent on him in the preaching of the Gospel of which see 1 Cor. 9. 17. Gal. 2. 7. 1 Thes. 2. 4. 1 Tim. 1. 11. Tit. 1. 3. And therefore as he saies 1 Cor. 9. Tho I preach the Gospel I have nothing to glory of for necessity is laid upon me yea wo is unto me if I preach not the Gospel for if I do this thing willingly I have a reward but if against my will a dispensation of the Gospel is committed unto me So may all Christians say if we our selves keep and transmit to our posterities the holy Scriptures we have nothing to glory of for a necessity is laid upon us and wo be unto us if we do not our selves keep and transmit to our posterity the holy Scriptures If we do this thing willingly we have a reward but if against our will the custody of the Gospel and at least that dispensation of it is committed to us But if we are Traditors and give up our Bibles or take them away from others let us consider how black an apostacy and sacrilege we shall incur 4. THE Mosaic Law was a temporary constitution and only a shadow of good things to come Heb. 10. 1. but the Gospel being in its duration as well as its intendment everlasting Rev. 14. 6. and to remain when time shall be no more Rev. 10. 6. it is an infinitly more precious depositum and so with greater care and solemner attestation to be preserv'd Not only the Clergy or the people of one particular Church nor the Clergy of the universal are intrusted with this care but 't is the charge the privilege and duty of every Christian man that either is or was or shall be in the world even that collective Church which above all competition is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. against which the assaults of men and devils and even the gates of hell shall not prevail Mat. 16. 18. 5. THE Gospels were not written by their holy Pen-men to instruct the Apostles but to the Christian Church that they might believe Jesus was the Christ the son of God and that believing they might have life thro his name Jo. 20. 31. The Epistles were not addrest peculiarly to the Bishops and Deacons but all the holy brethren to the Churches of God that are sanctified in Jesus Christ and to all those that call upon the name of the Lord Jesus Christ Rom. 1 7. 1 Cor. 1. 2. 2 Cor. 1. 1. Galat. 1. 2. Eph. 1. 1. Col. 4. 16. 1 Thes. 5. 27. Phil. 1. 1. Jam. 1. 1. 1 Pet. 1. 1. 2 Pet. 1. 1. Revel 1. 4. Or if by chance som one or two of the Epistles were addrest to an Ecclesiastic person as those to Timothy and Titus their purport plainly refers to the community of Christians and the depositum committed to their trust Tim. 6. 20. And Saint John on the other side directs his Epistles to those who were plainly secular to fathers young men and little children and a Lady and her children Epist. 1. chap. 2. 12. 13 14. and Epist. 2. 1. 1. 6. BUT besides the interest which every Christian has in the custody of the Scripture upon the account of its being a depositum intrusted to him he has also another no less forcible that 't is the Testament of his Savior by which he becomes a Son of God no more a Servant but a Son and if he be a Son it is the Apostles inference that he is then an heir an heir of God thro Christ Gal. 4. 7. Now as he who is heir to an estate is also to the deeds and conveiances thereof which without injury cannot be detain'd or if they be there is a remedy at Law for the recovery of them So it fares in our Christian inheritance every believer by the privilege of faith is made a son of Abraham and an heir of the promises made unto the fathers whereby he has an hereditary interest in the Old Testament and also by the privilege of the same Faith he has a firm right to the purchast possession Eph. 1. 14. and the charter thereof the New Therefore the detention of the Scriptures which are made up of these two parts is a manifest injustice and sacrilegious invasion of right which the person wrong'd is impower'd nay is strictly oblig'd by all lawful means to vindicate 7. WHICH invasion of right will appear more flagrant when the nature and importance of it is consider'd which relating to mens spiritual interest renders the violation infinitly more injurious then it could be in any secular I might mention several detriments consequent to this detention of Scripture even as many as there are benefits appendant to the free use of it but there is one of so fundamental and comprehensive a nature that I need name no more and that is that it delivers men up to any delusion their teachers shall impose upon them by depriving them of means of detecting them Where there is no standard or mesures 't is easy for men to falsify both and no less easy is it to adulterate doctrins where no recourse can be had to the primary rule Now that there is a possibility that false teachers may arise we have all assurance nay we have the word of Christ and his Apostles that it should be so and all Ecclesiastic Story to attest it has bin so And if in the first and purest times those Ages of more immediat illumination the God of this world found instruments whereby to blind mens minds 2 Cor. 4. 4. it cannot be suppos'd impossible or improbable he should do so now 8. BUT to leave generals and to speak to the case of that Church which magisterially prohibits Scripture to the vulgar she manifestly stands liable to that charge of our Savior Luk. 11. 52. Ye have taken away

dedicates several of his Commentaries to them 22. THE same is to be said of Saint Austin who in his Epistles to unletter'd Laics encourages their enquiries concerning the Scripture assuring Volusianus Ep. 3. that it speaks those things that are plain to the heart of the learned and unlearned as a familiar friend in the mysterious mounts not up into high phrases which might deter a slow and unlearned mind as the poor are in their addresses to the rich but invites all with lowly speech feeding with manifest truth and exercising with secret And Ep. 1. 21. tells the devout Proba that in this world where we are absent from the Lord and walk by faith and not by sight the soul is to think it self desolate and never cease from praier and the words of divine and holy Scripture c. 23. SAINT Chrysostom in his third Homily of Lazarus thus addresses himself to married persons house-holders and people enga'd in trades and secular professions telling them that the reading of the Scripture is a great defensative against siu and on the other side the ignorance thereof is a deep and head-long precipice that not to know the Law of God is the utter loss of salvation that this has caus'd heresies and corruption of life and has confounded the order of things for it cannot be by any means that his labor should be fruitless who emploies himself in a daily and attentive reading of the Scripture 24. I am not saies the same St. Chry. Hom. 9. on Colos. 3. a Monk I have wise and children and the cares of a family But 't is a destructive opinion that the reading of the Scripture pertains only to those who have addicted themselves to a monastic life when the reading of Scripture is much more necessary for secular persons for they who converse abroad and receive frequent wounds are in greatest need of remedies and preservatives So Hom. 2. on Mat. Hearken all you that are secular how you ought to order your wives and children and how you are particularly enjoin'd to read the Scriptures and that not perfunctorily or by chance but very diligently 25. LIKEWISE Hom. 3. on Laz. What saiest thou O man it is not thy business to turn over the Scripture being distracted by innumerable cares no thou hast therefore the greater obligation others do not so much stand in need of the aids of the Scripture as they who are conversant in much business Farther Hom. 8. on Heb. 5. I beseech you neglect not the reading of the Scriptures but whether we comprehend the meaning of what is spoken or not let us alwaies be conversant in them for daily meditation strengtheus the memory and it frequently happens that what you now cannot find out if you attemt it again you will the next day discover for God of his goodness will enlighten the mind It were endless to transcribe all the Exhortations of the ancient Doctors and Fathers of the Church they not only permitted but earnestly prest upon all Christians whatever their estate or condition were the constant reading of the holy Scripture Nor indeed was their restraint ever heard of till the Church of Rome had espous'd such doctrins as would not bear the test of Scripture and then as those who deal in false wares are us'd to do they found it necessary to proportion their lights accordingly 26. THIS Peter Sutor in his second Book cap. 22. of the Translation of the Scripture honestly confesses saying that whereas many things are enjoin'd which are not expresly in Scripture the unlearned observing this will be apt to murmur and complain that so heavy burthens are laid upon them and their Christian liberty infring'd They will easily be with-drawn from observing the Constitutions of the Church when they find that they are not contain'd in the Law of Christ. And that this was not a frivolous suggestion the desperat attemt of the Romanists above mention'd in leaving out the second Commandment in their Primers and Catechisms which they communicate to the people may pass for an irrefragable evidence For what Lay-man would not be shockt to find Almighty God command not to make any graven image nor the likeness of any thing that is in heaven above or in the earth beneath or in the water under the earth that no one should bow down to them nor worship them when he sees the contrary is practic'd and commanded by the Church 27. BUT would God none but the Romanist were impeachable of this detention of Scripture there are too many among us that are thus false and envious to themselves and what the former do upon policy and pretence of reverence those do upon mere oscitancy and avow'd profaness which are much worse inducements And for such as these to declaim against detention of the Scripture is like the Law-suits of those who contend only about such little punctilio's as themselves design no advantage from but only the worsting their adversaries and it would be much safer for them to lie under the interdict of others then thus to restrain themselves even as much as the errors of obedience are more excusable then those of contemt and profaness 28. AND here I would have it seriously consider'd that the Edict of Diocletian for the demolishing the Christian Churches and the burning their Bibles became the character and particular aggravation of his most bloudy persecution Now should Almighty God call us to the like trial should Antichristian violence whether heathen or other take from us our Churches and our Bibles what comfort could we have in that calamity if our contemt of those blessing drove them from us nay prevented perfecution and bereft us of them even whilst we had them in our power He who neglects to make his constant resort unto the Church which by Gods mercy now stands open or to read diligently the holy Scriptures which by the same divine Goodness are free for him to use in his own Diocletian and without the terrors of death or torments has renounc'd i● not the Faith the great instruments of its conveiance and pledg of God Almighties presence among the sons of men 29. BUT what if men either upon the one motive or the other will not read yet the Scriptures continue still most worthy to be read they retain still their propriety for all those excellent ends to which God design'd them and as the Prophet tells the Jews Ez. 2. 5. whether they will hear or whether they will forbear they shall know there has bin a Prophet among them so whether we will take the benefit or no we shall one day find that the holy Scriptures would have made us wise unto salvation If thro our fault alone they fail to do so they will one day assume a less grateful office and from guides and assistants become accusers and witnesses against us SECT V. The Scripture has great propriety and fitness toward the attainment of its excellent end WE are now in the next place to