Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	apostle_n	church_n	tradition_n	9,173	5	9.2350	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A04986	Ten sermons upon several occasions, preached at Saint Pauls Crosse, and elsewhere. By the Right Reverend Father in God Arthur Lake late Lord Bishop of Bath and Wells	Lake, Arthur, 1569-1626.	1640 (1640)	STC 15135; ESTC S108204	119,344	184

the fabricke of Moses his Tabernacle and of Solomons Temple which did but figure corporally what is to bee understood spiritually even those vertues that are requisite for the building up of us and those vertues are expressed in my Text Faith Charity and Hope Saint Jude hath so distinguished and digested them We must begin at faith Domus Dei credendo fundatur saith Saint Austin The first stone that must be laid in this pile is faith Heb. 11.6 Saint Pauls rule is peremptory Oporter credere Hee that will make his first approach to God Rom. 8.7 must believe and without faith it is impossible to please God We are by nature refractary The wisdome of the flesh is enmity against God It is not subject to the law nay it cannot be subject untill saith come whose propertie it is to cast downe our imaginations 2 Cor. 10.5 and every proud thought that is exalted against the knowledge of God and to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ Hereupon is that saying grounded Ante fidem nulla praecedunt dona ex eâ omnia procedunt Faith is the first grace of adoption that we receive from God which makes us capable of all other graces peculiar to the children of God Our lesson is we can never begin so much as to affect Heaven much lesse resolutely forsake the world to gaine Heaven except our soules bee enlightned and established by true faith But it is not every faith will serve the turne it must be a most holy faith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 say the Etymologists Holy is as much as Not earthly and that is most holy which is least earthly To discerne by this rule a most holy faith wee must further observe that a divine faith comprehendeth two things The Word of God and our beliefe therein which you may easily perceive by the description of Saint Paul Heb. 11.1 Faith is the ground of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seene Where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 note our beliefe and the strength thereof like as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 are the conditions of the Word of GOD which is the matter and measure of our beliefe Now our Faith is said to be most holy in respect of both these of Gods Word and of our beliefe First of Gods word and that whether we respect the matter which is the word or the author which is God 1. The matter is most holy nothing earthly for it comprehends such things as neither a 1 Cor. 2.9 eye hath seene nor eare hath heard nor could enter by these senses into the heart of man b Ioh. 6.63 The flesh saith our Saviour profiteth nothing because the words that God speaketh are spirit and life They are celestiall and heavenly words they are c Mat. 13.11 the mysteries of the kingdome of heaven yea the d Matt. 13.31 Kingdome of heaven it selfe And to speake to the phrase of building e Exod. 25.40 See saith God to Moses that thou make all things according to the patterne shewed thee in the Mount There was no plot to bee found below for the Tabernacle no nor of the Temple the fashion whereof King David received from Heaven which by the way may make us doubt Quest whether that costly description thereof which out of Vitruvius and other Architects Mathematicall principles Villalpandus and Dradus have lately made be as true as it is learned as judicious as it is painefull But to the purpose The ignorance of this absolute holinesse of the matter of GODS word made the Iewes to conceive carnally of the worship of God and of the kingdome of Christ dreaming that the first had no more in it then the ceremonie and that the second consisted in worldly pompe and glory And the now Church of Rome hath slipt into both these errours Their superfluous and superstitious rites have at least in practise not only darkned but even abolished many in heavenly truth and insteed of an ecclesiasticall hierarchie provided for the quiet and decent ordering of the Church they have forged a terrestriall monarchie to the bane of both Church and Common-wealth Our lesson therefore must be that howsoever the things of God are expressed in phrases fitting the capacity of men yet wee give them no earthly tincture for so they will cease to be fit matter of the most holy faith of a Christian man 2. As the matter is most holy so is the Author too for hee is God and not man Betweene God and man there is this difference Rom. 34. that God is truth and every man a lyar Every man if but a meere man may deceive or be deceived but neither of these are incident to God neque actu neque potentiâ God doth not he cannot lye God is not he cannot be deceived Therefore the highest commendation of a good man is that hee speakes in veritate mentis without simulation or dissimulation without equivocation or mentall reservation the praise due to God is that he speakes in certitudine veritatis his word must stand Psal 12.7 it is tried to the uttermost it is as silver tried seven times in the fire There is no terrestreitie in him we may securely trust him Vpon this ground it is agreed betweene us and the Church of Rome First That that whereon our faith must finally resolve is Gods Word Secondly That what this word is we must receive from the Church Thirdly That the Church hath no power introductory but declaratory Fourthly That in this declaratory power the Church proceeds not by immediate revelation but by ratiocination if it expound verbum scriptum and for verbum non scriptum which they obtrude to be a successive tradition even from the Apostles it is a forgery of their owne braine Fifthly That in the ratiocination wee must proceed by two meanes Analogy and Antiquity Sixthly That Analogie is either of the faith comprehended in the ancient Catechisme ever taught in the Church and gathered out of evident places of Scripture and it comprehends the first and undeniable principles of faith or of the Text by the coherence of antecedentia and consequentia by the proprietie of the phrase and Seventhly That antiquity is the decision of counsels or commentaries of Fathers agreeing betweene themselves and delivering the doctrine of the Church in their times Eightly That in the using of these meanes the Church hath a promise that Gods spirit will direct it not simply but if it bee assembled in the feare of God without prejudice or partiality of faction Mat. 18.20 Where two or three be gathered together in my Name saith Christ I am in the midst of them so that they cannot erre damnably or misleade the people This we say and yet they say we build on private spirits We denie not private spirits discretion but these are the grounds of our definition And here we

shall find rest for your soules but they said We will not walke therein Also I set Watchmen over you which said Take heed to the sound of the Trumpet but they said We will not take heed At another time being recalled they answered desperately Jer. 18.12 Surely we will walke after our owne imaginations and doe every man after the stubbornnesse of his wicked heart The Word that thou hast spoken to us in the Name of the Lord Jer. 44.16 we will not heare it of thee but we will doe whatsoever thing goeth out of our owne mouthes The Prophets every where challenge them for choosing their owne way following their owne counsell and fulfilling their owne lusts Such workes were their owne And if we will make their case ours we may easily judge which of our workes God will reckon for our owne even all those in doing whereof we wittingly and willingly withdraw our obedience from Gods Word and Spirit But before I leave this point the Texts opportunitie and some mens importunitie occasioning me I must more fully open the difference betwixt Gods workes and ours and remove that false imputation of humane invention that is layd upon many a publike one of ours We must then further observe that of our two Guides the Word and the Spirit the Spirit is not severed from the Word it is received by the Word and being received it inlightens us to understand and inables us to obey Gods Word That the Spirit is received by the Word the Apostle teacheth 2 Cor. 3● calling the preaching of the Gospel the ministration of the Spirit and to the Galathians he writes that by the preaching of the Gospel Gal. 3.2 they received the Spirit Againe that being received it inlightens us to understand and inables us to obey the Word our Saviour Christ teacheth us who speaking of the comming of the Spirit saith Joh. 14.26 He shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance which I have told you And againe He shall lead you into all Truth Ioh. 16.13 Ioh. 17.17 which Truth is Gods Word as he elsewhere expounds it In this sense must be understood the Spirits Vnction it anointeth us to understand the Word the Spirits obsignation it sealeth unto us an assurance of the Word the Spirits sanctification it purifieth us to obey the Word Saint Chrysostomes rule is true Siquis eorum qui dicuntur habere Spiritum Sanctum dicit aliquid de seipso non ex Euangeliis non creditur siquis dicta Christi sequitur Spiritum Sanctum habet c. This must be observed against old and new Enthusiasts who thinke they can see into the secrets of Heaven without the Looking-Glasse of Heaven That they can sound the Mind of Christ without hearing the Voice of Christ That they can conferre with the Spirit without the Language of the Spirit But we must resolve That no man is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 except he be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no man is taught of God but by the Word of God I hope this place hath not any nor this Land many that have as yet received that evill Seed if it be rooted in any their case is to be pittied and those that are too forward by their fall must timely be admonished Our second Guide is Gods Word wherein many things are necessarily concluded which are not therein literally expressed In matters of Faith and Manners we are not tyed to the strictnesse of the Letter but the fullnesse of the Sense Our Saviour Christ is our Master in this course He proveth the Resurrection of the Dead Mat. 22.32 being an Article of our Faith against the Sadduces and the use of the Sabbath being a rule of life Mat. 12.7 against the Pharises by an inference made upon the Scripture not by any evidence of the Letter of the Scripture Christ is herein followed by the Apostles by Councels and Fathers Nazianzene hath comprehended the Doctrine in this rule Quaedam in Scripturis sunt dicuntur quaedam insunt etiamsi non dicantur and he addeth That the sticking to the Letter is oftentimes but a pretext of impietie And indeed this pretext is used by the Church of Rome who excludes that from the Scripture which is apparantly concluded within the sense of the Scripture in the Doctrine of the Trinitie the Sacraments and some other points of moment and having raysed this mist closely conveyes Articles of Faith and Rules of Life into the Doctrine of the Church not onely besides but contrary to the Scripture and yet in their late many and wordie Pamphlets would perswade men that our Doctrine is our owne and not Gods that theirs is not their owne but Gods Let the true Christian conferre the proofes and for his owne eternall comfort judge whether they deserve not the censure of Christ Math. 15.9 In vaine doe they worship me teaching the Doctrines of Men. Another worke there is which must bee examined because the World is therewith much perplexed I meane the Ceremonies and Discipline it must be inquired Whether the observance of them be a worke of Gods or ours And heere these three Rules are of all hands acknowledged First No Discipline or Ceremony must be contrary to the Word of God Secondly None must be equalled thereto Thirdly Both must edifie us therin These three Rules being observed I say First whatsoever thing is in its owne nature indifferent may by lawfull power be limited Secondly Being lawfully so enjoyned it must be obediently used Thirdly No Man with a good Conscience may forgoe his Vocation for this cause onely because he cannot be released from the use of such a thing The reason of all is plaine for the deniall of the first takes away the Magistrates lawfull power the deniall of the second argueth ignorance of Christian obedience and the third proveth that such mens credit is the measure of their care and they are more wedded to their fancy then truly zealous of Gods glory These poynts have beene largely amplified and Fatherly recommended but as yet the world will not be satisfied the Church cannot intreate so much of her Children as to be dutifully obeyed It is thought by too many a meete deliberation who should yeeld whether the Fathers which stand for that which is well grounded and lawfully authorized or the Children which stand against the Fathers of their Country and Fathers of the Church It were meete the foundations were razed before the buildings be ruined and the Reasons answered before the Church be altered But they have found at least a Simile to make good their cause The Church is like mans body Our Soveraignes new entrie may bee compared to the Spring Saint Pauls comparison is acknowledged and for our Spring the Lord be blessed But what then As mans body so the Church this Spring time must be purged An old Simile new furbished For indeed our Church evidences doe tell us of two such