Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	rule_n	scripture_n	tradition_n	12,255	5	9.8749	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62625	The spirit of popery tryed, whether it be of God a sermon preached before the King at Whitehall, upon the fifth of November, 1699 / by the Right Reverend Father in God William, Lord Bishop of Oxon.	Talbot, William, 1658 or 9-1730.	1699 (1699)	Wing T126; ESTC R33894	14,395	26

making the Predicate to refer to his Offices as the Messias and not to his Incarnation which is supposed in the Subject And this Interpretation is not only agreeable to the Original but to many parallel Places where St. John expresly makes the Predicate the Christ and to the general Sense of Commentators upon this Place Now it 's known that Christ signifies Anointed and that Jesus is so called with relation to his Offices The Ceremony of Anointing with material Oil has been anciently very usual in the designation of Persons to the Offices of Prophet Priest and King And our Lord Jesus being to take upon him those three great Offices For Moses foretold of him A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up Deut. 18.16 And the Psalmist Thou art a Priest for ever after the Order of Melchizedek Bsal 110.4 I have set my King upon my Holy Hill of Sion Psal 2.6 He being to execute those Offices was Anointed thereto with the Holy Ghost and with Power and for that reason is called The Christ Or The Anointed By virtue of his first his Prophetical Office he was to reveal to us and instruct us in the whole Will of his Father so Moses predicted of him in the forecited Place he shall be like unto me and him shall ye hear in all things And we read in Heb. 3.2 that he was faithful as Moses was faithful in all his House And he himself tells his Father Joh. 17. that he had finished the Work he gave him to do had manifested his Name to Men 4 and 6 and in the 8th Verse the Words which thou gavest me I have given them and they have received them By virtue of his second his Priestly Office he was to offer Sacrifice and intercede for us The former of which he did upon the Cross when as the Apostle in Heb. 9.14 says he offered himself through the Eternal Spirit without spot to God And that Offering he tells us was to be but once made in several places of that and the following Chapter and gives Reasons for it First because it could not be oftner made for then he must often have suffered Chap. 9.26 And secondly because it was needless to be repeated for he had by that one Offering perfected for ever them that were sanctified Chap. 10.14 As to the other part of his Priestly Office that of interceeding for us the same holy Pen-man tells us Chap. 7.25 that he ever lives to make Intercession for us And Rom. 8.24 Christ is at the right hand of God and maketh Intercession for us and there is but one Mediator between God and Man the Man Christ Jesus 1 Tim. 2.5 By virtue of his third his Kingly Office he was to rule and govern his Church as Head thereof to prescribe and give Laws to her So St. Paul Eph. 5.23 24. Christ is the Head of the Church and the Church is subject unto Christ And Col. 1.18 He is the head of the Body the Church that in all things he might have the pre-eminence And St. James tells us in his fourth Chapter that he is that one Law-giver who is able to save and to destroy We have now seen why Jesus is called the Christ or the Anointed and what he does in virtue of those Offices he was anointed to Let us than examine how the Doctrines and Practices imposed by the Church of Rome comport with this Account which the Scriptures give of Christ and his Offices And here it is obvious at the first View that his first his Prophetical Office by which he was to reveal to us the whole Will of God is struck at by those Doctrines of theirs which assert that the Holy Scriptures in which he has discovered that Will are not a perfect Rule of Faith that the Holy Scriptures in which he has discovered that Will are not a perfect Rule of Faith that the sense of them is not clear and perspicuous but dark and uncertain that they are like a Nose of Wax or leaden Rule liable to be turn'd and bent any way and therefore are to be pieced out with the addition of Traditions and not to be read or received without the Expositions of the Church for what kind of a Prophet or Teacher is that who hath neither reveal'd to us all that it was necessary for us to know nor clearly explain'd what he has reveal'd And as to his second his Priestly Office by which he was to sacrifice and interceed for us how is that affronted by their frequent Sacrifices of the Mass which they assert to be true proper propitiatory Sacrifices for the sins and wants of the Dead and of the Living and by those multitudes of Intercessors the Virgin Mary and other Saints whom they join with or as one would be tempted by their Practice to judge preferr before him Which must necessarily argue that he has neither fully satisfied nor does effectually intercede for us for if he had compleatly satisfied or did sufficiently intercede what need of other Sacrifices or other Intercessors to be added to him but if he has not fully satisfied nor does effectually intercede what sort of a Priest or Mediator will they make of him Touching his third his Kingly Office by which he was to rule his Church as Head thereof and to give Laws to her We know who he is that assumes to himself the Title of Head of his Church and who they are that have pretended to a Power of dispensing with his Laws their own Council of Constance will inform us which tho' it freely confesses that our Saviour and King instituted the Sacrament in both kinds has yet with a non obstante to the Institution declared it should be given to the Laity but in one And then since they have in all these Instances given too plain proof that they believe our Lord Jesus has not sufficiently discharged those Offices which belong to the Christ they must not blame me but St. John if I conclude that their Spirits their Religion is not of God for it is his Assertion that every Spirit that confesses not that Jesus is the Christ is not of God 2. The Religion taught and profess'd in the Church of Rome is in a great measure contrary to the Nature and Design of the Christian Religion As for the Nature of the Christian Religion it was manly spiritual plain not made up of those Rudiments and beggarly Elements by which as by a School-Master the Jew being but a Child was to be tutor'd and led to Christ not clothed with that multitude of outward Observances nor adorn'd with that gaudy Pageantry and Shew with which the Mosaical Dispensation was But now let any one look into the Church of Rome view 〈…〉 ●ultiplicity of Ceremonies and Shadows the variety of 〈…〉 their frequent Crosses Burnings Sprinklings c. 〈…〉 ●ord how their Religion is almost wholly made of onew and Pageantry and let him tell me whether the outward Circumstances have not eaten up the

Day which the Lord hath made we will rejoice and be glad in it How memorable ought is to be to us as I hope it will be to our latest Posterity on which God has twice appeared so wonderfully for us once in the timely and strange Discovery of the Powder Plot in King James the First 's Time and again in that great Deliverance from the no less dangerous Designs of the same Enemies in the Reign of King James the Second which I must date from this Day on which the happy Instrument of it Landed in this Kingdom of which Deliverance I would not desire to raise any one's grateful Sense higher than in proportion to those Apprehensions of our danger which however some are willing to forget now every thinking Man had then Adored be the Majesty of Heaven who has so often commanded Deliverance for us blasted the Designs and Attempts of our Enemies that had evil will to our Sion and not yet suffered them to devour Jacob or lay waste his dwelling place 3. How ready and willing should we be to comply with and pursue these Methods which will effectually secure us against their Attempts for the future There is a remarkable Prophecy in the Mss of a great Antiquary of our own That Popery should decay about the Year 1500 and be restored about 1700 and that most likely by means of our Divisions which threaten the Reformation c. What credit soever this Prediction may deserve as to the Thing it foretells the Restitution of Popery and the Time it prefixes for it yet the Methods by which it says it will most likely be brought about are so reasonable and probable That I think without pretending to the Spirit of Prophecy a Man may venture to say that if ever Popery humanly speaking comes in upon us it must be at those Breaches which we our selves make 'T is known who they are that first caused and are still somenting our unhappy Divisions and sure we have been long enough Tools in their Hands for the working their Ends and our own Ruin Whoever looks into Campanella●'s Treatise of the Spanish Monarchy the Scheme he has there drawn for the subjecting of this Nation and Church to the Power of Spain and Tyranny of Rome will find that the Method he proposes are the embroiling of Scotland the dividing of England and the instigating the Bishops and Calvinists as he calls them against one another and whoever compares this Project with the Practices of Rome in relation to us which our Chronicles or Memories may inform us of will be satisfied that the latter have been an exact Comment upon the former But this Maxim Divide Impera they might have learned from the old Romans would to God we could learn from them one Principle too which Nature taught them and Revelation has more forcibly recommended to us that of a publick Spirit and a hearty Concern for the publick Welfare which would beat down and triumph over all little private Interests and private Piques and dispose and engage us to that Peace and Union both Civil and Ecclesiastical which would be under God our securest Guard against all the Designs and Attacks of our Enemies As to the former would we lay aside our Passions for a while and suffer our cooler Reason to advise it would tell us That a Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation that every particular must suffer in the publick Destruction That in our Case 't is evident to a Domonstration That if ever our Enemies prevail over us there is no quarter to be expected by any that even those who shall have served them most faithfully by being unfaithful to their Country cannot look for better Treatment than what they will have highly deserved That it is the height of Phrensy and Madness for the gratifying an angry or serving a covetous Passion for the reaking our Spleen against any we dislike at the Helm or for the promoting a private mistaken Interest of our own to contribute to the sinking of that Vessel on which we our selves are embarqued and must with it go down to the Bottom And as to the other Union in Religious Affairs I would in the Spirit of Meekness desire such as scruple fixed and constant Communion with our Church for a time calmly to lay aside their Prejudices and to suppose that it is possible for them to have mistaken or been misled and therefore to resolve to examine Matters carefully themselves not to take Things upon trust or think it a sufficient Reason for their Separation from us that they have been educated another way Let them impartially consider Whether the established Church be not the only Communion in which there is any likelihood or indeed possibility for us generally to unite against the common Enemy Whether she did not appear to be the only Bulwark against Popery in the late times of Danger and Tryal Whether her Members did not bravely defend the Protestant Cause when some that that had reflected upon them as Popishly affected did not venture to appear publickly in vindication of it Whether they did not boldly oppose the Methods that were then used to introduce Popery while the others did too easily comply with them Let them consider Whether there be any Dangers they can run by joyning with this Church which can balance that apparent one which the whole Protestant Interest is in by their Division from her Let them examin her as nicely as they please let them bring her to the Test she refuses not she has no Reason to be afraid of it she can bear the Test of the Text Let them try whether she be of God or not Let them examine her by his Word and see if she wants any thing to make her a true Church or abounds with any Thing that may make her a corrupt one Let them try if she has not Bishops and Pastors duly commission'd for their respective Offices if the whole Doctrine of Christianity be not profess'd and taught in her if the Sacraments of Christ's Institution be not administred and received and if she have not a publick Worship for us to offer up our joint Homage and Prayers to God in Let them try whether she suffers those that Minister in Holy Things to be Masters of Mens Faith and Consciences or to exercise any Superiority more than the Holy Ghost who has made them Overseers has committed to them whether she allows them to deprive their Flocks of the sincere Milk of the Word and to feed them with lying Legends instead of it whether she does not require them to preach the Gospel to be instant in season and out of season and to do the work of Evangelists that they make full proof of their Ministry Let them try whether she corrupts her Faith by receiving humane Traditions into it or Articles destructive of true Piety whether she teaches any Doctrines that may encourage Men to sin in hopes of pardon upon easie Terms or