Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	church_n	doctrine_n	err_v	4,912	5	9.7791	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23664	A doubt resolved, or, Satisfaction for the seekers wherein the case touching an administrator of gospel ordinances, in these times, is handled : wherein also some other questions are more briefly touched, viz. I. Whether water-baptism was to continue in force after the ministry of John the Baptist ceased, II. VVhether Gospel ordinances are things spirituall, or carnall, III. VVhether a power to preach by immediate revelation of the spirit, be necessary in every Gospel minister?, IIII. What is is to be baptized with the Spirit : well worthy the consideration of many who in these times are unsetled in their judgements touching these points / by William Allen.	Allen, William, d. 1686.	1655 (1655)	Wing A1063; ESTC R15502	29,149	40

themselves who keep off from Baptism upon the scruple of an administrator for they themselves preach the Gospel which is a greater thing then to baptize and therefore why should they scruple to baptize or at least to receive Baptism from one who is able to preach the Gospel for he that may do the greater may do the lesse also Now that it is a greater matter to preach the Gospel then to administer Baptism is most evident by that of the Apostle 1 Cor. 1.17 Christ sent me not to baptize but to preach the Gospel Meaning that to preach the Gospel was more apostolical then to administer Baptism the latter might better be done by inferiour hands then the former as I shewed before The true tendency therefore of this opinion that none may receive Baptism because there is none duly qualified to administer it is to eject and cast all preaching of the Gospel out of the world a● well as baptism for if there be none qualified to administer Baptism which is the lesse there is none qualified to minister the word which is the greater SECT. 33. But because some also are gone so far out of the way as to think that none may preach the Gospel except they were so indued with power from on high as were the Apostles and could speak by immediate revelation of the spirit as they did I shall here insert one word from the Scriptures to prove the contrary It doth sufficiently appear that even in the Apostles days whilest yet extraordinary gifts were abroad men might prophesie who yet could not speak by any such immediate and infallible revelation of the spirit as the Apostles did Therefore the Apostle cautions those that prophesied in the Church at Rome to prophesie according to the proportion of faith Rom. 12 6. that is either according to the rule of faith or according to that measure of faith and knowledge which they had attained in the Doctrine of the Gospel which caution were needlesse if they had prophesied according to the immediate dictates of the spirit as they did who speak as the spirit gave them utterance for then they could not be in danger of erring in their prophecying because prophesie in this kind came not at any time by or according to the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost as the Apostle Peter hath it 2 Pet. 1.21 Yea if any had the spirit of prophesie in this sence they could not though they had a desire to speak otherwise then the spirit moved them as appears in the case of Baalam who said if Balak would give me his house full of Silver and Gold I cannot go beyond the Commandement of the Lord to do either good or bad of mine own mind but what the Lord saith that will I speak Num. 24 13. And it is not unlike but that the extraordinary Prophets sometimes spake things by the guidance of the spirit which they themselves understood not I heard saith Daniel but I understood not Dan. 12.8 See 1 Pet. 1.10.11.12 But these who are directed to prophesie according to the proportion of faith are to keep within the bounds of their own knowledge and not undertake to teach others what they do not well understand themselves Besides the Apostle describing the subject matter of those prophecyings which were used in the Churches saith He that prophecieth speaketh unto men to edification and exhortation and comfort 1 Cor. 14.3 which to do were things not peculiar to extraordinary Prophets but common duties among Christians 1 Thes. 5.11 Wherefore comfort your selves together and edifie one another even as also ye do and exhort one another daily Heb. 3.13 and 10.25 As every man hath received the gift even so minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold Grace of God 1 Pet. 4.10 In which the Apostle gives this caution verse 11 if any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God that is according to and as becomes the words of God of which caution there had been no use as I said before if none had spoke in a way of prophecying that is to edification exhortation and comfort but onely such as spake by immediate revelation And whatever the gift was which Timothy received by the putting on of Paul's hands 2 Tim. 1.6 or which afterward he received by prophesie and the laying on of the hands of the Presbytery 1 Tim 4.14 I say what ever other gift it was it seems it was not a gift of preaching the Gospel by immediate revelation of the spirit because in order to his teaching he is exhorted to give attendance to reading 1 Tim. 4.13 and is admonished also to take heed unto his Doctrine verse 16. and directed to hold fast the form of sound words which he had heard of Paul 2 Tim. 1.13 for all which there had been no place if what he had taught had been onely by the immediate dictates of the spirit for he that speakes by immediate revelation and infallible guidance of the spirit needs not give attendanc● to reading in order thereunto nor is in danger unlesse he take heed of miscarrying in his Doctrine or of expressing himself in unsound words Nor doth the Apostle in his directions about the choice of Elders 1 Tim 3. where he insists at large on the qualifications requisite in such Officers speak one word of those extraordinary gifts And as the Apostle would not have the prophecying then used in the Church to be despised so he would not have ought delivered therein to be received without examination and tryal 1 Thes. 5.20.21 despise not prophecying prove all things c. which shews that those that did then prophesie might possibly deliver errour as well as truth which those who spake onely as the spirit gave them utterance could not do but of this onely by the way I shall now return to add a word more towards their satisfaction who lay so great a stress upon a baptized administrator of Baptism as for the supposed want whereof they are content that both Baptism and all those other Ordinances in Church communion which depend thereon should lie desolate and wast SECT. 34. 4. That therefore which I shall say in the last place to such is that the want of a baptized administratour can be no just plea for any among us to keep off from obeying Jesus Christ in submitting to the Ordinance of baptism because blessed be God there are many amongst us meet to administer that Ordinance who have been themselves baptized by such as were baptized also Neither is it necessary nor indeed reasonable for any man to suspend his submitting to Baptism till he be able to make out by clear proof not onely that he from whom he is about to receive baptism was baptized but also that that third person from whom the second received it and a fourth from whom the third received it and so on to John the Baptist or the

you even Moses in whom ye trust saith Christ to the Jews in that the Doctrine of Moses which they had in writing did accuse them Moses himself is said to accuse them Again ver. 46 47. For had ye beleeved Moses ye would have beleeved me for he wrote of me but if ye beleeve not his writings how shall ye beleeve my words Where we see 1. That to beleeve Moses and to beleeve the Doctrine of Moses in his writings is the same thing And 2. That Christ held it altogether unlikely that those that would not beleeve and obey those matters of Doctrine whilst commended to them in the writings of Moses should ever beleeve and obey Christ himself teaching the same things And by rule of proportion it holds well that if those that would not beleeve Moses writings could not beleeve Christs words he speaking and Moses writing the same thing neither would they beleeve and obey the Apostles themselves or men of like qualifications if they should come again amongst us who now will not obey those Doctrines rules and precepts which they have left us in writing And hereto agrees that also Luke 16.31 If they heare not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Again John 7.19.22 did not Moses give you the Laws and yet none of you keepeth the Law ver. 22. Moses therefore gave unto you circumcision c. How did Moses give them the Law and circumcision when as he was dead many hundreds of years before they were born Why in that they had the writings of Moses and were as well concerned in what they imported as those were to whom Moses first delivered the Law in that respect Moses was said to give them the law as well as to their fore-fathers Acts 21.21 They are informed of thee that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses saying that they ought not to circumcise their children and to walk after the customes Where likewise we see that to forsake the Doctrine of Moses is to forsake Moses and Luke 16.13 They are said to have Moses and the Prophets when yet they had but their writings so that to forsake Moses and to forsake his Doctrine and to have Moses and the Prophets and to have their Doctrine in writing is in Scripture language and account the same thing in effect and substance And there is altogether the same reason why to have the Ministry of the Apostles and to have their Doctrine in writing to forsake the one and to forsake the other should be substantially the same thing And let every man be sure of this that if Christ Jesus at his first comming did interpret mens neglect of Moses in his writings to be an neglect of Moses in his Ministry that he likewise at his second comming will account mens neglect to observe his Ordinances and wayes delivered us in the writings of his Apostles to be an neglect of the Apostles ministry yea of Christ himself whose Embassadours they are to the world and to the Saints as well by writing as speaking as I shall shew further by and by SECT. 21. 2. The same thing is true also of the Doctrines and writings of the Prophets for they by their writings are as wel Ministers to those under the New Testament as they were to those to whom they in their life time preached under the old so far as their Doctrine concerns men now 1 Pet. 1.10 11 12. Of which salvation the Prophets have inquired searched diligently who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you ver. 12. unto whom it was revealed that not unto themselve - but unto us they did minister the things which are now reported to you by them that have preached the Gospel unto you Where note 1. That the Prophets are said to minister to us who now live under the New Testament the things of the Gospel the same things which those have reported who preached the Gospel and to minister to us and to be ministers to us of the Grace of the Gospel is in effect the same thing But then 2. How or by what means are the Prophets ministers to us of this Grace but by their writings and if they by their writings are ministers unto us then much more are the Apostles Ministers to us upon the like account Again Eph. 2.20 and are built upon the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles c. If then the Doctrine of the Prophets transmitted in writing was as wel the Basis and foundation upon which the Churches in the Apostles times were built as the Doctrine of the Apostles themselves as by this text it clearly appears that it was then by the same rule the Doctrinal writings both of the Prophets and Apostles are a sufficient foundation whereon to build Churches now in these times And therefore the Apostle saith Rom. 16.25.26 that by the Scriptures of the Prophets as well as by the preaching of the Apostles Christ Jesus is made known to all nations for the obedience of Faith If then the Scriptures of the Prophets be a sufficient ground for men in all Nations in faith to act upon for so much of the Gospel as is revealed in them as you see by our Apostle they are then without doubt the Scriptures of the Apostles also are a sufficient ground for men in all Nations in faith to act upon as touching all those Doctrines Ordinances Rules and Precepts of the Gospel contained in them John 20.31 But these are WRITTEN that ye might BELEEVE that Jesus is the Christ the son of God and that beleeving ye might have life through his name SECT. 22. 3. I shall yet further strengthen my principal assertion touching the presence of an Apostolical power now amongst us directing and authorizing men in the gathering of Churches and administration of Ordinances I say I shall further confirm this by several considerations taken from the nature manner and extant of the apostolical ministration SECT. 23. 1. The Apostles were and are Apostles to men as well by their writings being absent from them as by their preachings when present with them For this consider first Rom. 15.15.16 Neverthelesse Brethren I have written the more boldly to you in some sort as putting you in mind because of the Grace that is given me of God that I should be the Minister of Jesus Christ unto the Gentiles ministering the Gospel of God Two things would be noted here touching our businesse in hand 1. The act of Paul he wrote and wrote boldly unto these Romans 2. The reason or ground why he did so write and that was because by the Grace of God he was made the minister of Christ to the Gentiles such as they were to minister to them the Gospel of God By which we gather that in that he wrote this Epistle to them it was in direct pursuance of his Office as being the minister or Apostle of the Gentiles and that