Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	tradition_n	word_n	write_a	2,864	5	10.7679	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62635	Several discourses by the Most Reverend Dr. John Tillotson ... , being the fifth volume published from the originals by Ralph Barker ...	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708.	1700 (1700)	Wing T1263; ESTC R31970	188,402	488

their Universal Expectation Thirdly As to his Miracles Fourthly His Conversation Fifthly The Prejudice that lay against him from the Opposition that was made by Persons of greatest Knowledge and Authority among them And Lastly That the Religion which he endeavour'd to introduce did abolish and supersede their ancient Religion as of no longer Use and Continuance though it was plain it was at first instituted by God First The Exceptions which they took at his Extraction and Original In relation to this they were offended at three Things 1. That his Original was known among them This you find urged against him John 7.27 We know this Man whence he is but when the Messias comes no Man knows whence he is This to be sure was no just Exception in reason against him For what if his Extraction were known might he not be from God for all that They owned Moses for the greatest Prophet that ever was and yet it was very well known from whence he was But they seem to refer to some Prophecy of the Old Testament which did seem to assert so much If they meant that his Extraction should be altogether unknown they knew very well and believed the contrary that he was to be of the Line of David and to come out of Bethlehem If they referr'd to that Prophecy that a Virgin should conceive and bear a Son and so understood that he should be without Father this was really true tho' they thought that he was the Son of Joseph And if he affirmed that he had no Father he did sufficiently justify it by his Miracles that being as easy to be believed possible by a Divine Power as the Miracles which he wrought which yet they could not deny because they saw them 2. Another Prejudice against his Extraction was the Meanness of his Parents and Breeding This you find mentioned Matth. 13.54 55. Whence hath this Man this Wisdom and these mighty Works Is not this the Carpenter's Son is not his Mother called Mary and his Brethren James and J●ses and Simon and Judas And his Sisters are they not all with us Whence then hath this Man these things And they were offended in him And so likewise John 7.15 How knoweth this Man Letters having never learned A strange Prejudice and most unreasonable They could not believe him to be an extraordinary Person because his Parents and Relations his Birth and Breeding were so mean He had been brought up to a Trade and not brought up to Learning whereas in Reason this ought to have been an Argument just the other way that he was an extraordinary Person and divinely assisted who all on the sudden without the help and assistance of Education gave such Evidence of his great Wisdom and Knowledge and did such mighty Works This could not be imputed to his Breeding for that was mean therefore there must be something Extraordinary and Divine in it Thus another Man who had been free from Prejudice would have reasoned 3. The most unreasonable Prejudice of all in respect of his Extraction was grounded upon a spiteful and malicious Proverb concerning the Country where our Saviour was brought up and they supposed him to be born and that was Galilee John 1.46 Can any good thing come out of Nazareth And John 7.41 Shall the Messias come out of Galilee And v. 52. Search and look for out of Galilee ariseth no Prophet But it seems Nathanael who was a good Man was easily taken off from this common Prejudice when Philip said to him come and see He bids him come and see the Works he did and then refers it to him whether he would believe his own Eyes or an old Proverb However it seems the Jews laid great weight upon it as if this alone were enough to confute all his Miracles and after they had shot this Bolt at him the Business were concluded clearly against him But prudent and considerate Men do not use to give much Credit to ill-natur'd Proverbs the good or bad Characters which are given of Countreys are not understood to be universally true and without Exception There is no place but hath brought forth some brave Spirits and excellent Persons whatever the general Temper and Disposition of the Inhabitants may be Among the Grecians the Beotians were esteemed a dull People even to a Proverb and yet Pindar one of their chief Poets was one of them The Scythians were a barbarous Nation and one would have thought no good could have come from thence and yet that Country yielded Anacharsis an eminent Philosopher The Idumeans were Aliens and Strangers to the Covenant and yet Job one of the best Men that ever was came from thence God can raise up eminent Persons from any place Abraham from Vr of the Chaldees and an Idolatrous People Nay as our Saviour tells us he can out of Stones raise up Children unto Abraham The wise God in the Government of the World does not tie himself to our foolish Proverbs It is not necessary to make a Man a Prophet that he should be bred in a good Air. If God sends a Man it matters not from what Place he comes Secondly Another Head of Exception against our Saviour was the meanness of his outward Condition so contrary to the Universal Expectation of the Jews The Jews from the Tradition of their Fathers to which they as the Church of Rome does at this Day paid a greater Reverence than to the written word of God were possest with a strong Perswasion that the Messias whom they expected was to be a great Prince and Conqueror and to subdue all Nations to them so that nothing could be a greater defeat to their Expectations than the mean and low Condition in which our Saviour appeared so that upon this Account they were almost universally offended at him But this Prejudice was very unreasonable For neither did their Prophets foretel any such thing as the Temporal Greatness of the Messias But on the contrary most expresly that he should be despised and rejected of Men that he should be a Man of Sorrows and Sufferings and at last be put to death which was directly contrary to what they expected from their ill-grounded Tradition Thirdly Against his Miracles they made these two Exceptions 1. That he wrought them by Magical Skill and by the Power of the Devil Which was so exorbitantly unreasonable and malicious that our Saviour pronounceth it to be an unpardonable Sin and for Answer to it appeals to every Man's Reason whether it was likely that the Devil should conspire against himself and assist any Man to overthrow his own Kingdom For it was plain our Saviour's Doctrine was directly contrary to the Devil's Design and therefore to assist him to work Miracles for the Confirmation of it must have been apparently against his own Interest and to the Ruin of his own Kingdom 2. They pretended that though he did many great Works yet he gave them no Sign from Heaven Matt. 16.1 it is said They desired

to rejoice in the hopes of the Glory of God because their Sufferings did really prepare and make way for their Glory So the same Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 4.17 18. Our light Afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 3 dly and lastly The assurance of our future Reward is a mighty Encouragement to Obedience and a Holy Life What greater Encouragement can we have than this That all the good which we do in this World will accompany us into the other That when we rest from our labours our works will follow us That when we shall be stript of other things and parted from them these will still remain with us and bear us company Our Riches and Honours our sensual Pleasures and Enjoyments will all take their leave of us when we leave this World nay many times they do not accompany us so far as the Grave but take occasion to forsake us when we have the greatest need and use of them but Piety and Virtue are that better part which cannot be taken from us All the good actions which we do in this world will go along with us into the other and through the Merits of our Redeemer procure for us at the hands of a Gracious and Merciful God a Glorious and Eternal Reward not according to the meanness of our Services but according to the Bounty of his Mind and the vastness of his Treasures and Estate Now what an encouragement is this to Holiness and Obedience to consider that it will all be our own another day to be assured that whoever serves God faithfully and does suffer for him patiently does lay up so much Treasure for himself in another World and provides lasting Comforts for himself and faithful and constant Companions that will never leave him nor forsake him Let us then do all the good we can while we have opportunity and serve God with all our might knowing that no good action that we do shall be lost and fall to the ground that every Grace and Virtue that we exercise in this life and every degree of them shall receive their full recompence at the Resurrection of the Just How should this inspire us with Resolution and Zeal and Industry in the Service of God to have such a Reward continually in our Eye how should it tempt us to our Duty to have a Crown and a Kingdom offered to us Joys unspeakable and full of Glory such things as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor have entred into the heart of man And such are the things which God hath laid up for them who love him heartily and serve him faithfully in this World SERMON V. The danger of Apostacy from Christianity HEB. VI. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucify to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame THESE words are full of difficulties and the misunderstanding of them hath not only been an occasion of a great deal of trouble and even despair to particular persons but one of the chief Reasons why the Church of Rome did for a long time reject the Authority of this Book Vol. V. which by the way I cannot but take notice of as a demonstrative Instance both of the fallible Judgment of that Church and of the fallibility of Oral Tradition for St. Jerom more than once expresly tells us that in his time which was about 400 years after Christ the Church of Rome did not receive this Epistle for Canonical But it is plain that since that time whether moved by the Evidence of the thing or which is more probable by the Consent and Authority of other Churches they have received it and do at this day acknowledge it for Canonical from whence one of these two things will necessarily follow either that they were in an error for 400 years together while they rejected it or that they have since erred for a longer time in receiving it One of these is unavoidable for if the Book be Canonical now it was so from the beginning for Bellarmine himself confesseth and if he had not confessed it it is nevertheless true and certain that the Church cannot make a Book Canonical which was not so before Ser. 5. if it was not Canonical at first it cannot be made so afterward so that let them chuse which part they will it is evident beyond all denial that the Church of Rome hath actually erred in her Judgment concerning the Authority of this Book and one error of this kind is enough to destroy her Infallibility there being no greater Evidence that a Church is not Infallible than if it plainly appear that she hath been deceived And this also is a convincing instance of the Fallibility of Oral Tradition For if that be Infallible in delivering down to us the Canonical Books of Scripture it necessarily follows that whatever Books were delivered down to us for Canonical in one Age must have been so in all Ages and whatever was rejected in any Age must always have been rejected but we plainly see the contrary from the instance of this Epistle concerning which the Church of Rome which pretends to be the great and faithful Preserver of Tradition hath in several Ages deliver'd several things This is a peremptory instance both of the Fallibility of the Roman Church and of her Oral Tradition Having observed this by the way which I could not well pass by upon so fair an occasion I shall betake my self to the explication of these words towards which it will be no small advantage to consider the particular Phrases and Expressions in the Text. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned that is were solemnly admitted into the Church by Baptism and embraced the profession of Christianity Nothing was more frequent among the Ancients than to call Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illumination and those who were baptized were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enlightned Persons because of that Divine Illumination which was convey'd to the minds of Men by the knowledge of Christianity the Doctrine whereof they made Profession of at their Baptism And therefore Justin Martyr tells us that by calling upon God the Father and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the name of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the enlightned Person is washed and again more expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Laver speaking of Baptism is called Illumination And St. Cyprian gives us the Reason because by virtue of Baptism in expiatum pectus ac