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	scripture_n	tradition_n	15,184	5	9.5685	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A78034	Vindiciæ veritatis: truth vindicated against calumny. In a briefe answer to Dr. Bastwicks two late books, entituled, Independency not Gods ordinance, with the second part, styled the postscript, &c. / By Henry Burton, one of his quondam-fellow-sufferers.	Burton, Henry, 1578-1648.	1645 (1645)	Wing B6177; Thomason E302_13; ESTC R200279	28,751	40

and so many armies of prayers in the Spirit daily sent up to heaven to bring down that Spirit of truth upon them But can a few at least some Nathaniels among so many carry the matters by vote if they be many that contra-vote You know things go sometimes in Councels rather by number then weight rather by tale then truth I doubt whether if the true Nathaniels and zealous Stephens should bear the sway it would not well please at least our brother Bastwicks palate who altogether condemneth Gamaliel and his counsell whereby hee perswaded and swayed the whole Synedrion to refrain from Peter and John for peaching Christ saving only that they escaped not a scourging For further answer to my dear brother I shall forbeare till a fitter season In the mean time I shall conclude with the words of my brother Bastwick which hee delivers as the confession of the faith of the Church of England concerning Christs kingly office and so consequently of his own faith That Jesus Christ is the only and sole King and Governour of the whole universe to whom all power in heaven and earth is given Matth. 28. but more especially of his Church who by God himselfe was set King over his holy mountain Psal. 2. 6. And that hee is King of righteousnesse Hebr. 7. The King eternall Isai. 9. The King of kings and Lord of lords Apoc. 17. and that he doth by his mighty power and wisdome uphold and govern all things but with a more peculiar care and a more speciall manner preserve and defend his Church 1 Tim. 4. 10. as that which hee hath purchased with his precious blood and by his power redeemed out of the captivity and slavery of Satan and that he is the head of his Church which is the body who infuseth life into it righteousnesse peace joy happinesse and all the graces of wisdome and knowledge of God with certainty and assurance of his love and that his Kingdome and Empire is a spirituall and heavenly Kingdome no terrene and fading Monarchy Joh. 18. 38. Luke 1. 33. and is upheld and governed ONLY by the Scepter of his Spirit and Word and not by the authority vertue or wisdome of any humane power Thus Dr. Bastwick and that after all his bitter reproaches cast upon his Independents who hang all that which he calls Independency upon this sole hinge namely That Christs Kingdome and Empire is a spirituall and heavenly Kingdome no terrene and fading Monarchy and is upheld and governed ONLY by the Scepter of his Spirit and Word and not by the authority vertue or wisdome of any humane power Now if Dr. Bastwick will hold to his words and writing he must needs confesse that Christ is no titular or Pageant Prince as before but reall and indeed And therefore his Kingdome is not to be governed according to the various and variable laws and customes of earthly Kingdomes Common-wealths Countries but by the Only Scepter of his Spirit and Word Otherwise the spirituall Kingdome and the temporall must be confounded together and become one kingdome and then must either the spirituall become terrene and transitory or else the temporall become eternall and so make up one Babylan Roma aetern● confusion and blasphemy And for a close to satisfie my brother Prynnes Question What I mean by so much asserting Christs Kingly office as sole Head Governour Law-giver of his Churches I mean hee is the sole immediate King And the proofs are from solid Scripture the sole rule of faith As Isai. 8. 20. and 29. 13. Hos. 5. 11. Matth. 15. 6 7 8 9. Mar. 7. 7. And our brother confesseth these Scriptures but in part by joyning thereto the laws and customes of Kingdoms and Common-weals as a partiall rule if not rather paramount to the sacred Canon as Rome acknowledgeth the Scripture to be the rule of faith but partiall joyning thereto her own traditions and so ● thereby as the Pharisees of old make the Word of God of no effect through humane Traditions Lawes Decrees Customes Manners of men Prince and People Protestants and Papists as well under Queen Mary and her Parliament as under Queen Elizabeth and hers and so Regis ad exemplum as the Prince and Pope or State is affected well or ill Christs Kingdome must Chameleon-like change both complexion and constitution And if this satisfie not my brother let him be pleased to reade over my Vindication once again wherein he may cleerly see how the Scripture all along sets up Christ as the only Governour and Law-giver of his Church excluding all humane Wisdome and Power from intermeddling in the regulating of his Kingdome by mans Lesbian Rule FINIS 2 Sam. 20. 9 10. * See the Postscript pag. 44. Prov. 20. 29. 16. 31. * Jude 5. Rev. 12. 1. Pag. 16. Pag. 18. Cicer. Orat. pro L. Murena Act. 24. 25 26 Joh. 18. 28. Mat. 10. 17 18 Pag. 8. 1 Cor. 14. 33 Platina in vita Bonifacii 3. * 1. Cor. 12. Page 98. To the second Question Page 14. Psal. 18. Acts 3. 22 Acts 2. Esa. 56. 3. Turpius ejicitur quàm non admittitur bospes Page 100 1 Cor. 1. 2. Page 105. Acts 10. Page 115. Homily second Sermon for Whitsunday Page 118. * 1 Cor. 5. 4. 1 Sam. 19. Acts 19. 2. * Act. 5. 28. Ibid. * Page 139. * Page 144. * Page 149. Page 149. * Isa. 58. 2. Postsc Page 68. Ibid. pag. 68. Ibid. Ibid. Psal. 57. 4. Jer. 18. 18. Gal. 4. * Relation of a Conference Epist. Dedic. Ibid. Defence pag 4. * Postsc 41. * Postsc 12. 32. 34. 36. 38. Page 54. Ibid. 58. Defence p. 30 Postsc 61. Pag. 66. 69. Pag. 43 44 45. Page 21. Page ibid. Postscript pag. 43 44. Rev. 12. 10. Eusebius Eccles. Hist. Bon face 8. Acts 15. D. B. In his Independency not Gods Ordinance p. 149. Acts 5. 38 39 40 31.

Ordinance where they must be made companions with such kinde of Saints as Job would not set with the dogs of his flocke And if any whose conscience is not so strong to digest such hard bits as others of the common multitude are who either see no difference at all between the precious and the vile but account all alike Saints at least when but at the Sacrament or have such Sepulchre-wide throats as they can swallow a Camell when a tender and more narrow conscience is apt to be choaked with every Gnat What shall this poore soule doe Doth he rather withdraw from the Ordinance then he can endure to see it so prophaned and so partake with the prophaners then he heares A Schismaticke Now if you have not a good Presbytery where shall he goe to complaine He may goe and appeale higher you will say And what if the higher the worse Good Brother either provide the people of the Land an honest godly Presbytery that may be as so many Angels to gather out of Christs Kingdome every thing that offends or else let there be a tender care of tender consciences and some provision made for them that they may not be scandalized by being forced to be the companions of the scandalous And therefore Brother you that professe so much solicitous care to poore bodies let some drops of your charity fall upon their soules And at the least and last extremity call in that Postscript of yours and suppresse it in the Presse that it may never see the Sunne as wherein you proscribe all those that are not of your Dependent Presbytery for you tell us it is to come forth a fortnight hence in the which it will be proved that it is the duty of all christian Magistrates Parents Masters of families and all such as truly feare God to yeeld their hand for the suppressing of heresies and all novelties in Religion if they really desire the glory of God c. And what you meane by your heresies and novelties in Religion is obvious to all by this your Booke already come forth Independency is heresie and novelty in Religion and what not that nought is Now did ever proceed out of the mouth of a quondam-Martyr and one newly brought out of a balefull prison such a fiery breath as this Oh Brother remember thy selfe and repent and let the world know that thou hast made a better use of afflictions then so fiercely to run on in such a course as to wreck the malignity of a prison upon thy best friends the seed of whose love so liberally sowne upon thee and thine expected another-gates harvest then nettles bryars and thornes But you bring the Scripture for you Come on Brother let you and me try it out by the dint of this sword And truly I shall by the helpe of my God make no long worke of it You spend above eleven sheets wherein you have woven sundry long threaden Arguments to measure out your Dependent Presbytery as holding parallell with the line of Scripture Now you must pardon me if I shall assay according to an old Proverbe with one stroake of Phocions hatchet to cut in two the long thread of your Alcibiadian fluent and luxuriant Rhetorications For answer First let me aske you a Question Whether those many Congregations you so call you doe not understand to be so many distinct and particular intire Church-bodies or Churches respectively If they be tell us if each of these Churches be 〈◊〉 its prime and proper notion an intire Church without or before it be united in such a Presbyterian Combination and Government as you speake of And if so whether it be de esse or de bene esse of the being or onely well-being of each particular Church so to be united and combined into a Church-collective of many Churches into one If you say it is of the being of a Church to be yoaked with other Churches as into one then what being had that Church in Abrahams family seeing there were then no other Churches in the world but that And if that were extraordinary as perhaps you will say then say I when Churches are multiplied and combined into one whether is this Church collective Dependent or Independent If Dependent then not an entire Church but subordinate unto or depending upon some greater Assembly But come we to the highest of all a generall Counsell of all the Churches in the world is this now a Church Dependent or Independent If Independent then there may be a Church Independent in the world and so the first particular Church in the world was no lesse an Independent Church in reference to other Churches And if all Churches in one Oecumenicall Councell as one Church be Dependent then whereupon Dependent Or is it a Dependent on it selfe That were blasphemy to say it Whereon then Surely on the Scripture or nothing All Churches then are Dependent upon the Scripture necessarily not so necessarily one Church upon another whether particular or generall Ergo all particular Churches being not necessarily dependent one upon another nor one upon many but absolutely dependent upon the Scripture for their ultimate or finall resolutions are no lesse Independent upon other Churches because all the Churches in the world put together cannot of themselves give forth an infallible Oracle as to say this wee command to be beleeved and observed This is Antichrists voyce Volumus jubenius The Church or Churches may shew their reasons from Scripture and labour to perswade but cannot binde them upon faith or conscience this the Holy Ghost and Scripture can onely doe But I come briefly to your Arguments whereby you would prove your Classicall Presbyterian Government and so upward The patterne hereof you take from the Christian Church at Jerusalem Hereof many arguments or rather words and tantologies you multiply and toyle your selfe and vex your Reader withall which you might have reduced to one It is in summe this In Jerusalem were many Christian Congregations and all these made but one Church and so were governed by one Presbytery But that Church at Jerusalem being the prime Apostolicke Church is a patterne for all succeeding Churches Ergo all Church-government ought to be regulated by that and consequently by a Presbytery over many Congregations For as for your indefinite enumeration of those multitudes baptized by John Baptist and by Christs Disciples we take no notice of them unlesse formed into a Church or Churches but following the expresse Scripture the first formed Church wee finde in Act. 2. which though consisting of five thousand yet it was one intire particular Church and not Churches and they continued daily {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} with one accord in one place together ver. 2. and in the Temple ver. 44. 46. growing from a hundred and twenty Act. 1. 15. to three thousand more Chap. 2. 41. and then in all five thousand Chap. 4. 4. and all these but one Church which assembled together

in other Tracts is a summary collection of what they have gone before you in whose thread hath led you all the way through this maze but when you come as in your Postscript to minister your own Dosis and to show your self in your own element there wee finde the main ingredient to be the very gall of bitternesse which yet your first book is not altogether free of Pag. 101. you say The Apostles and other Ministers of the Gospell were to receive all such as believed and were baptized and that upon the profession of their faith and repentance without any further testimony of others unlesse they had been formerly known to be open enemies and then they were justly to be suspected till they had given publique evidence by witnesse to the Apostles and Ministers of their true conversion as concerning Paul Acts 9. 26 27. Now here I observe 1. A notable contradiction to what you say pag. 115. As Gods command to all Ministers was that they should admit all such into the Church as believed and were baptized upon their desiring it without any confession either private or publique Here I leave you to reconcile your own contradiction Vpon their profession and without any confession 2. I answer that in these dayes of professed and covenanted-for Reformation there is required the profession or confession of one speciall point of faith which in words none dare but in practice most do deny touching Christs Kingly office formerly suppressed by Antichristian tyrannie but now breaking forth from under the cloud in its native light concerning his absolute sole soveraignty over our consciences and Churches without dependence upon humane Ordinances or Nationall Lawes to prescribe such forms of Church-government as are most serviceable to the politicall ●nd● of severall States which point of faith is though not alwayes explicitly yet implicitly confessed by all those which ●ender themselves to be admitted into such Churches as are of a constitution most agreeable to the law and rule of Christ And withall an implicit profession at least of their repentance is included as having formerly lived under an Antichristian government and inventions of will-worship all which is implicitly professed and repented of by their very entrance into Church-fellowship and so much the more is repentance herein needfull because many yea most of such Conformists if not all have had their hands lesse or more either by acting or assenting or by silence and connivence in the persecution of those godly Ministers and people which stood out against that Antichristian usurpation over their consciences refusing conformity to their Canons So as in this case you confesse that our people formerly Conformists and now for the greater part but newly crope out of the shell of their bondage being brought off from their old ceremoniall service and this more by humane authority in generall so ordering then of conscience ought not only to approve themselves by the profession of their faith and repentance but to have the testimony of others also as having been formerly known to be either prest and sworn vassals or voluntiers in the Prelaticall Militia which what is it else but a continuall war against the true Church and Kingdome of Jesus Christ But you adde pag. 102. that Commission was delivered to the Apostles and Ministers of the Gospel as whose place only it was by the Keyes to open and shut the doors of the Church and so to admit or refuse as they found men fitted or qualified to be made members and this you labour to prove by the practice of John Baptist Now as for John Baptist about whose gathering you have so bestirred your selfbefore and to as little purpose you may observe that those believers in Christ then to come according to the Papists Doctrine were not formed into a Christian Church or Churches as after Christs resurrection the believers were And when you come to visit those Christian Churches once constituted in their Gospel-form by the Apostles you shall finde that the power of admitting or rejecting or casting out of members was not in the Apostles or Ministers alone but in the Churches For this read 1 Cor. 5. where the whole Church of the Saints in Corinth to whom Paul wrote were to cast out the incestuous person as also afterward upon his repentance to re-admit him 2 Cor. 2. 6 7. This one instance is a sufficient president for all Churches But you alledge that of Cornelius sending to Joppa for Peter he sent not say you to the Church of Corinth true and what then Ergo none but the Minister of the Gospel hath power to admit members It is one thing to preach and instrumentally to convert souls which chiefly pertains to those that are called thereunto but in the case of Church-government of admitting or casting out it is otherwise And here let Peter himself whose words you alledge resolve us Who when the Holy Ghost so wonderfully fell on all them that heard the Word said Can any man forbid water that these men should not be baptized c. Which words imply that ifany exceptions could have ben made it was in those Jewes present to give forth their allegations why those believing Gentiles should not be admitted to become one Church with the believing Jewes So as your observations thereupon fall to the ground as that First Peter was sent to and not the Church and secondly Peter commanded them to be baptized Again this example was extraordinary in all the circumstances of it and when you have said all you can conclude nothing Your instance of the Eunuch Acts 8. 8. of Lydia Acts 16. as many other are meer extravagants We speak of Churches constituted not of single converts here and there one not yet joynted into a particular Church-body I passe by your impertinent declamatious against different opinions in the same house Do you reconcile them for Christ himself foretold of them as wee shall tell you when wee come to your Postscript which when I mention here doth not your minde misgive you But of this in due place And where you say all that believe and are baptized are by Gods command to be admitted desiring it without any confession or Covenant But what if they do not believe aright What if they not only not believe but deny and disclaime Christs Kingly Prerogative And so what if they stiffly maintain a most damnable and destructive herefie which overthroweth a main principall and fundamentall of faith If such a one as Dr. Bastwick with all his ●air flourishes of holinesse should desire to be admitted into Church-fellowship being known to be an adversary to Christs Kingly government over his Churches according to the Gospel might not the Doctors own words satisfie in case of refusall pag 102. as having been formerly known for an open enemy and persecutor of the Church and so justly to be suspected till publique evidence by witnesse given Although it cannot be imagined that the ba●e desiring