Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	doctrine_n	scripture_n	sound_a	1,900	5	10.3484	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A82555	The Quakers confuted, being an answer unto nineteen queries; propounded by them, and sent to the elders of the church of Duckenfield in Cheshire; wherein is held forth much of the doctrine and practise concerning revelations, and immediate voices, and against the holy Scriptures, Christs ministry, churches and ordinances &c. Together with an answer to a letter which was written and sent by one of them to a family of note and quality in the said county, which pleaded for perfection in this life, and for quaking. By Samuel Eaton, teacher of the Church of Christ heretofore meeting at Duckenfield, now in Stockport in Cheshire.	Eaton, Samuel, 1596?-1665.; Waller, Richard, d. 1657.	1654 (1654)	Wing E125; Thomason E719_8; ESTC R9865	69,620	98

to those in whom he is in light in power and grace as he will Therefore neither we nor any others have infallible judgments in all things at all times but we are subject to Errour and in many things we do not apprehend and speak aright of God of Christ of the Spirit of the Saints of our selves of the mysteries of the Gospel which are some of those things which are eternal As God said to Iobs Friends Ye have not spoken of me the things that are right as my Servant Job hath and Iob himself did darken Counsel by words without knowledge when he spake of God Notwithstanding that fallible mind and judgement that is in all men in some things and at some times yet because the Rule that is left men to judge by is an infallible sure and certain Rule which cannot deceive men and because it is a plain Rule in many things and easily understood Prov. 1. 4. and because the principles of Religion and fundamentals of Salvation are so clearly revealed in the Scripture that Babes in Christ may come to the knowledge of them therefore both we and all the Saints may in some things have an infallible judgement and may judge of things eternal with a judgement of Certainty both respecting God Christ Faith Repentance Resurrection of the dead eternal judgment and many other things How else could there be any preaching if persons could not know infallibly that in some things they hold forth they speak the Truth And how could any thing be assuredly believed if the word of Faith in the true sense of it could not infallibly be held forth and judged of And how could any Person be at a certainty concerning his own Salvation And how could any Christian seal the Truth of Christ with his blood if some things could not be judged of with an infallible judgement But whether any person having not the Spirit can have an infallible judgement to judge of things eternal by the knowledge they may get from the Scripture is the drift and scope of the question if I be able to make a judgement of it They think that none can infallibly judge of things of an eternal nature but such who have the Spirit and that we are persons that have not the Spirit and therefore cannot judge of them nor of their way and that they themselves have the Spirit and that judgement belongs to them only both of persons and of things we are but in our first birth and are carnal and know not things of an eternal Nature they are in the second birth and are spiritual and can judge all things and all men for hitherto tends a great part of a large Letter sent unto us from them by which I come to prove them in this question In answer therefore unto this I must distinguish of infallible judgement There is an infallible Judgment which may be made from the Scripture without the Spirit and there 's an infallible judgment which cannot be made from the Scripture without the spirit The Judgment that may be made from the Scripture without the Spirit infallibly respects the Doctrine which the Scripture contains to be received believed by men that they may be saved what they be and what manner of life it is that Persons ought to live that would come to Life eternal these things are clearly and plainly laid down and may easily be taken up by unprejudiced Persons who have unballanced spirits though they have not the spirit Upon this account it is that the Apostle John would not have every Spirit believed but would have the spirits tryed whether they be of God but how must they be tried unless by the Scriptures for every one will pretend the Spirit and there are many false Prophets who have the spirit of delusion and are gone forth into the world 1 Joh. 4. 1. For if the Scripture were not the judge of the Spirit in this case so far as concerns Doctrines and Manners which men have Received and learned whether they be of God or no or whether the spirit of the Devil hath not inspiried them therewith all men living would be put upon desperate uncertainties which is the Spirit that gives our the Truth and which is the spirit of Errour And they would be confounded through the multiplicity of spirits each spirit pretending to Truth and crying down the contrary as Errour Therefore the Scripture alone being of the Spirits inspiring is a light sufficient to shew the Doctrine what it is and the commandment precept what it is to one that will attend unto it without any further inspiration of the Spirit else in vain were the Scriptures at the first inspired But then again there is an infallible Judgement which cannot be made without the Spirit that is whether those Doctrines and Rules of Life which are clearly contained in the Scripture be Doctrines which proceeded from God whether God spake with Moses sent Christ to declare what he hath declared inspired the Apostles in speaking and writing what they have spoken or written or whether all these spake of themselves It is the Spirit of God alone that can give assured satisfaction concerning this The Jews and their Rulers though they saw the Miracles yet they know not Christ to be the Messiah for had they known him they would never have crucified the Lord of glory These are among those invisible things which are revealed unto us by the Spirit as the Apostle tels us 1 Cor. 2. 8 9 10. It is easie for any man that hath his reason and hath not the Spirit by reading the Scripture to conclude that Scripture makes Jesus the Son of Mary to be the Son of God and the Christ But for any man to beleeve it and build upon it as a sure truth of God this is from the Spirit flesh and blood hath not revealed this but the Father which is in Heaven Christ told Peter so Mat. 16 16. The conclusion is That the Scripture is the foundation of an insallible judgement concerning things contained in them and not the Spirit but both Scripture and Spirit must concur to give in the certainty of those things that are there contained that they may become a sure rock to be built upon for no one can say assuredly and by a spirit of Faith that Jesus is the Lord but by the holy Ghost 1 Cor. 12. 3. Quere 5. Whether you be above the Apostle and able to Concerning perfection what may be granted and what not judge his condition because you say he was not perfect who said he spake wisedom among them that were perfect Answ This Question relates to a passage in our Answer to a Letter of theirs which pleaded for perfection which we had the sight of which fell into their hands and hath occasioned this Question The words of our Answer are these He might have discerned that Paul expressly denies perfection in reference to himself Phil. 3. 12. His Question hence is Are you

for the Ministery Or if some of them were Apostles qualifications which were to go into all the world to preach the Gospel and did therefore stand in need of tongues yet they were not Pastors and Teachers qualifications which are fixed to certain places and people Such gifts as were then given were testimonials that Christ was received to the Glory of the Father and did sit at his right hand and that all power was given him to Heaven and Earth according as he spake when he was upon the Earth Secondly There might be as forcible an argument fetch against all Christianity if words be taken up in the Letter in which they run as against Ministery Mark 16 17. Those signs shall follow them that believe in my name they shall cast out Devils they shall speak with new tongues and many other things it is said they should do and they did so in the Primitive times very many of them and perhaps all had one extraordinary gift or another as 1 Cor. 12. 7. The man ifestation of the Spirit is given to every man to profit withall to one in one kind and to another in another kind And therefore when Paul met with Disciples at Ephesus the first Question that he asked them was whetherthey had received the holy Ghost since they believed As if suchgifts of the holy Ghost had been so connexed to Faith that they could not be separated the one from the other shall we therefore reason from hence that because these signs are not now accompanying those that profels Faith that there are no Believers to be found in these latter Ages We may as rationally and with as much and more colour of Scripture reason after such manner as these persons do against Ministery Besides the Apostle speaks of Ministery which some persons have received Rom. 12. 7. and requires a waiting upon it and he that teacheth must wait upon his teaching and he that exhorteth must wait upon his exhortation Here is not only an outward teaching allowed which the persons who shaped these questions oppose but an outward teaching by office is enjoyned which some others that are no Quakers are ready enough to withstand For if it should be meerly by a gift which some will grant though they deny Office How comes it that the Injunction is to wait upon it For though it be not expresly in the Original yet it is necessarily implyed that there may be sense made of it and how comes an injunction of maintenance Gal. 6. 6. from him that is taught to him that teacheth if teaching be not by Office be not waited upon and made the special work of some persons And how comes the Apostle to raise a living to some persons from their preaching when he saith that they who preach the Gospel should live of the Gospel and saith also that so the Lord hath ordained it 1 Cor. 9. 14. and if persons make it not their office and wait upon it as upon their office if only they preach by vertue of a gift that they have or think that they have and exercise it at their pleasure will the Apostle have such men live upon the Gospel that so preach it Or why doth the Apostle fetch an argument from them that served at the Altar whohad their livelihood thence to prove a living upon the Gospel Preached if such who were to Preach the Gospel were not Ministerially and by office to do it For those who lived upon the things of the Temple and upon the Altar were Priests and Levites and Ministers of the Old-Testament Were all these Directions and Instructions which respect Office Temporary and Transitory Then may the whole Gospel in all the Injunctions and Commandments of it be made a Temporary and a Transitory Gospel Or can any rational person conceive how Preaching is like to be kept up and to be on foot any long time if some persons be not appointed to wait upon it and if it be not laid upon some persons as their work Or what certainty can the people be at concerning supply that way if none be engaged to it And how weakly is Preaching likely to be carried when none attend upon it nor give themselves over unto it The Apostles who had incomparable endowments beyond any who live now did yet give themselves to prayer and to the Ministry of the Word And shall not those who fall greatly below them be much rather wholly devoted to that service when as the work is so weighty if it be carried as it ought to be that it requires the whole of man But I believe these dayes wherein there is such arguing against Ministry and such pleading for the Preaching of gifted men were Prophesied of by Paul 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. where 2 Tim. 4. 3 4. which respects the heaping up of Teachers opened he saith that the time shall come when they will not endure sound Doctrine But after their own lusts they shall heap to themselves Teachers having itching ears and they shall turn away their ears from the Truth and they shall be turned unto fables It is observed that the Greek word that is translated heaping doth import three things 1. An ardent study to acquire many Teachers 2. A rash and heady gathering together of many Teachers without any solid judgement exercised 3. A confused multitude of such as are gathered together imployed And it may be further observed what manner of persons they be that shall heap together Teachers after this manner and what grounds they go upon First They are such who will not endure sound Doctrine Secondly they are such who please their own lusts and fancies in the Teachers whom they heap together to themselves Thirdly They are such who have itching ears who affect to hear many and no one nor a few will serve their turn they hear one and another without being satisfied after the manner of those who have an itch upon them Fourthly They turn away their ears from the Truth and are turned to Fables that is any thing that is new though it be a very fable and have no truth in it is thirsted after by them old truths will not please so well they leave them and turn after these It is also worthy to be considered how Teachers come to be multiplyed that there is such an heap of them why the wantonness loosness and vanity of the spirit of the People which will not endure the strictness of the care and vigilancy of Pastors and Teachers and have also itching ears shall multiply them and pile them up one upon another like an heap the lusts of the people make many Preachers more then any thing else And these persons that are so wanton that they must have many are yet such who will not have some viz such who are solid and preach the Truth For this Text saith they turn away their ears from the Truth where it is solidly held forth and are turned after fables Nothwistanding that there is a