Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	article_n	believe_v	creed_n	8,511	5	10.3267	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61806	The lay-Christian's obligation to read the Holy Scriptures	Stratford, Nicholas, 1633-1707.	1687 (1687)	Wing S5934; ESTC R20560	25,603	42

the more solemn seasons even in their worldly businesses and Recreations should intermix some serious thoughts of it to season them withal At least That they should be often in this sort of exercise and never suffer any long space of time to pass wholly without it And to shew how highly God valu'd this Commandment he promised the greatest Reward to the diligent Observers of it Of all the Promises of the Jewish Law that of long life was the most desirable and therefore length of days Prov. 3. 16. is placed by Solomon in the right hand of Wisdom as having the preeminence of Riches and Honour And this God promised the Jews both for themselves and their Children after them to quicken their obedience to this Commandment Ye shall lay up these my words in your heart and Deut. 11. 18 19 20 21. in your Soul and bind them for a sign upon your hand c. That your days may be multiplied and the days of your Children in the land which the Lord sware unto your Fathers to give them as the days of Heaven upon the Earth In succeeding times the same Duty is inforc'd by David Psal 1. 3. Psal 19. 7 8 9 10 11. Prov. 6. 22 23. Prov. 8. 2 3. and Solomon with great variety of powerful motives taken from the excellency of the Laws themselves and the inestimable benefits that do accrue to Men by the study and practice of them And as God enjoyn'd this to the Jews so in obedience to his Command we find That in the days of our blessed Saviour the reading of the Scriptures was the common practice of that People That question he frequently put to them have ye not read plainly implies that they had read the Scriptures Yea That Women were then so learned in the Scriptures as to be able to instruct their Children therein for S. Paul tells us That Timothy had known the Holy Scriptures from a Child which because he could 2 Tim. 3. 16. not learn from his Father who was a Heathen his so early instruction in the knowledge of them was owing to his Grand-mother Lois and his Mother Eunice whose faith 2 Tim. 1. 5. we find before commended For the Scriptures of the new Testament 1. As it is certain That at the first writing of them they were read by the People For S. Paul speaking to such says We write 2 Corinth 1. 13. none other things to you than what you read And again When ye read saith he to the Ephesians Ye may understand Ephes 3. 4. my knowledge in the mystery of Christ And 2. As it is certain That the directing them to Laymen was a virtual command to them to read them So 3. No injunction can be more full to this purpose than that in the words of my Text. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all Wisdom Think it not enough to give it entertainment now and then as you do to a stranger but let it dwell in you and that not sparingly but so plentifully that you may thereby abound in all Spiritual Wisdom III. That the People are obliged to acquaint themselves with the Holy Scriptures will further appear if we consider the subject matter of them That being such as concerns the People as well as the Priests Should the King put forth a Declaration of his Will and Pleasure which concern'd all States and orders of Men within his Dominions would it not be the Duty of his Lay-Subjects no less than of his Clergy to enquire into it the case is not unlike in the matter now before us Whether we consider the Doctrines the Precepts the Promises or the Threatnings contained in the Holy Scripture we shall find that all Men People and Priests learned and unlearned have a common concern in them 1. For the Doctrines Every Man that is baptized hath obliged himself by Vow to believe all the Articles of the Christian Faith And every Man doubtless is concern'd in all those Doctrines which he hath so solemnly Vowed to believe Yea had he never made any such Vow yet all those Doctrines the belief of which is necessary to Salvation he is as much concern'd to believe as he is to be saved and by necessary consequence to acquaint himself with them for can a Man believe that which he doth not know Some Men I know tell us that a Man may That though he know not one Article of the Creed yet if he believes all that the Church believes he may be said to believe them all because the Church believes them But if this be so then a meer Heathen who never so much as heard of Christ may be a right Catholick Believer for since he believes in the gross whatsoever God hath revealed he may by the same way of believing be said to believe That Jesus is the only Son of God that he was conceived by the Holy Ghost c. because these are such Articles as God hath clearly revealed 2. For the Commandments of God Lay-men are concern'd to know them because they are concern'd to do them they being no less the rule of their practice than they are of Clergymens Let it be shew'd that any one Command of the Moral Law given by Moses did not extend to every Jew Or that any one Command of the Christian Law deliver'd by our Saviour in his Sermon upon the Mount does not oblige every Christian and we shall then grant that those persons who are not bound to obey them are no way oblig'd to make enquiry after them The Clergy of the Church of Rome in their Catechisms for the use of the vulgar have indeed commonly left out the Second Commandment but the reason is not because they think the People are not concern'd to know it but because it highly concerns themselves to keep the People in ignorance of it because they have taught them to practise so plainly contrary to it 3. The Promises can no less concern Lay-men because they were made on purpose to invite and encourage Men to yield obedience to the Commands unless it may be supposed that the Laity are so forward of their own accord to do their duty that they need no incitement but the Clergy so backward and averse that they will not be brought to it without such powerful Inducements 4. For the threatnings of Divine vengeance in case of Disobedience it must be also granted that the Laity are as much concern'd to know them as the Clergy if it be granted that the Laity are as prone to break the Commandments of God and as hardly restrain'd from sin as the Clergy are which I suppose will not be denied by those persons we now argue against It is needless to proceed to other matters since by what hath been already deliver'd it is manifest enough That the things contain'd in Holy Scripture are not appropriated to Church-men but of such universal concernment that every person of what rank or quality soever