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
A70206	A sermon on Acts xxviii, 22 shewing, that the Christian religion is not a sect, and yet that it is every where spoken against / by Matthew Henry ...	Henry, Matthew, 1662-1714.	1699 (1699)	Wing H1476; ESTC R19814	33,478	57

dare not speak out that there is no God Psal 14.1 And he that saith there is no God wisheth there were none and if he could help it there should be none Others Blaspheme the Attributes of God that charge the All-seeing Eye with Blindness saying The Lord shall not see Psal 94.7 that charge the Eternal Mind with Forgetfulness saying God hath forgotten Psal 10.11 that charge the Almighty Arm with Impotency saying Can God furnish a Table in the Wilderness which is there call'd speaking against God Psal 78.19 20. Those speak against God that promise themselves Impunity in Sin saying They shall not surely die and God will not require it And those that boldly allow their Impiety and Irreligion saying unto the Almighty Depart from us Job 21.14 15. Some speak meanly of God tho' He is infinitely Great and Glorious others speak hardly of Him tho' he is infinitely Just and Good The Name of God is spoken against by the profane using of it so it is construed Psal 139.20 They speak against thee wickedly thine Enemies take thy Name in vain Can there be a greater slight put upon the Eternal God than for Men to use his Sacred and Blessed Name as a By-word with which they give vent to their exorbitant Passions or fill up the vacancies of their other Idle-words The Name of God is thus abus'd not only by those that belch out bloody Oaths and Curses which make the Ears of every good Man to tingle but by those that mention the Name of God slightly and irreverently in their common Conversation in whose mouths he is near when he is far from their reins To use those forms of speech which properly signify an Acknowledgment and Adoration of God's Being as O God or O Lord or an Appeal to his Omniscience as God knows or an Invocation of his Favour as God bless me or God be merciful to me I say to use these or the like expressions impertinently and intending thereby to express only our wonder our surprize or our passionate resentments or any thing than that which is their proper and awful signification is an evidence of a vain mind that wants a due regard to that glorious and fearful Name The Lord our God I see not that the Profanation of the Ordinance of Praying is any better than the Profanation of the Ordinance of Swearing The serious consideration of this I hope might prevent much of that Dishonour which is done to God and to his Holy Name by some that run not with others to an excess of Riot The Providence of God is likewise every where spoken against by Murmurers and Complainers that quarrel with it and find fault with the disposals of it and when they are hardly bestead curse their King and their God Thus is the mouth of the ungodly set against the Heavens and their Tongue walketh through the Earth 3. The Word of God the great Rule of our Religion is every where spoken against so it was when it was first preached wherever the Apostles went preaching the Doctrine of Christ they met with those that spake against it contradicting and blaspheming Acts 13.45 So it is now it is written Atheists speak against the Scriptures as not of Authority Papists speak against it as dark and uncertain further than it is expounded and supported by the Authority of their Church which receives unwritten Traditions pari pietatis affectu ac reverentiâ with the same pious affection and reverence that they receive the Scripture nay and if we may judge by their practice with much more Thus is the Word of God blasphemed by them who call themselves the Temple of the Lord. But if we take away Revelation as the Deists do all Religion will soon be lost and if we derogate from the Scriptures as the Papists do all Revelation is much endangered Those also speak against the Scriptures who profanely Jest with them and that they may the more securely Rebel against Scripture Laws make themselves and their idle Companions merry with the Scripture Language The Word of the Lord is unto them a reproach as the Prophet complains Jer. 6.10 And another Prophet found it so whose serious word of the necessity of Precept upon Precept was turned into an idle Song as Grotius understands it Isa 28.13 The word of the Lord was unto them Precept upon Precept Very likely it was done by the Drunkards of Ephraim spoken of v. 1. and it gave occasion to that Caution v. 22. Be ye not mockers lest your Bands be made strong Profligate and Debauched Minds relish no wit like that which ridicules the Sacred Text and exposeth that to Contempt As of old the insulting Babilonians must be humour'd with the Songs of Sion and no Cups can please Belshazzar in his drunken Frollick but the Sacred Vessels of the Temple Thus industrious are the Powers of Darkness to Vilify the Scriptures and to make them contemptible but he that sits in Heaven shall laugh at them for in spite of all the little efforts of their impotent Malice He will magnifie the Law and make it honourable according to the word which he hath spoken Isa 42.21 4. The People of God the Professors of this Religion are every where spoken against Not only those of some particular Perswasion or Denomination but without regard to that such as have been zealous in fearing God and working Righteousness have been in many places very much spoken against Our Blessed Saviour hath told his Disciples what Treatment of this kind they must expect that they should be revil'd and have all manner of evil said against them falsly Mat. 5.11 12. that they and their Names should be cast out as evil Luke 6.22 And if they called our Master Belzebub no nick-names fastned upon his Followers can seem strange Mat. 5.25 Mocking was an old way of persecuting the Covenant-Seed for thus He that was after the Flesh betimes persecuted them that were after the Spirit Compare Gen. 21.9 with Gal. 4.29 God's Heritage hath always been as a speckled Bird that all the Birds are against Jer. 12.9 And his Children for signs and for wonders in Israel that every one hath a saying to Isa 8.18 Even Wisdoms Children have been call'd and counted Fools and their life Madness The Quiet in the Land represented as Enemies to the Publick Peace And those who are the greatest Blessings of the Age branded as the Troublers of Israel The Primitive Christians were painted out to the World under the blackest and most odious Characters that could be as Men of the most profligate Lives and Consciences and that even placed their Religion in the grossest Impieties and Immoralities imaginable Their Enemies found it necessary for the support of the Kingdom of the Devil the Father of Lies and Slanders fortiter Calumniari to Characterize them as the worst of Men to whom they were resolv'd to give the worst and most barbarous Treatment It had

not been possible to have baited them if they had not first dress'd them up in the skins of wild Beasts And as then so ever since more or less in all Ages of the Church Reproach hath been entail'd upon the most serious and zealous Professors of Religion and Godliness 5. The Ministers of Christ the Preachers of this Religion are with a distinguishing Enmity every where spoken against Under the Old Testament God's Messengers and his Prophets were generally mocked and misused and it was Jerusalem's measure-filling Sin 2 Chron. 36.16 'T was one of the Devices they devis'd against Jeremiah to smite him with the tongue because they would not and they desired tha● others might not give heed to any of his words Jer. 18.18 Those to whom the Prophet Ezekiel was a very lovely Song and with their mouths showed much love to him yet were still talking against him by the Walls and in the Doors of their Houses and God lets him know it Ezek. 33.30 31 32. And then it is not strange if the Ministers of the New Testament in which Truth shines with a stronger Light be with no less Enmity spoken against by those that love Darkness rather than Light The Apostles those prime Ministers of State in Christ's Kingdom were so loaded with Reproach that they were made a spectacle to the World a spectacle of Pity to those that have either Grace or good Nature but a spectacle of scorn to those that had neither They were trampled upon as the Filth of the World and whereas the Off-scouring of any thing is bad enough they were look'd upon as the off-scouring of all things even unto this day after they had in so many instances approv'd themselves well and could not but be made manifest in the Consciences of their worst Enemies 1 Cor. 4.9 13. And it hath all along been the Policy of the Churches Enemies by all marks possible to bring the Ministry into contempt and to represent the Churches Nazarites even those that were purer than Snow whiter than Milk and more ruddy than Rubies with a visage blacker than a Coal so that they have not been known in the streets I allude to that complaint Lam. 4.7 8. Marvel not if the Standard-bearers be most struck at 6. The Christian Religion it self hath been and still is every where spoken against The Truths of it contradicted as false and groundless the great Doctrines of the Mediation of Christ and the Resurrection of the Dead were ridicul'd by the Athenian Philosophers Acts 19.18 32. The Laws of it faulted as grievous and unreasonable as hard sayings which could not be born by those who bid open defiance to the Obligation of them and say Let us break their bands asunder and cast away their Cords from us Ps 2.3 The Ordinances of it despis'd as mean and having no form nor comeliness Sabbaths mock'd at as of old Lam. 1.7 and the sanctification of them represented as only a Cloak for Idleness Sacraments reproach'd and the Sacred Memorial of Christ's Death and Sufferings by the Persecutors of the Primitive Christians represented to the World as the bloody and inhumane Killing and Eating of a Child and their Love Feasts and Holy Kiss which were then in use as only introductions to the most abominable uncleanness Primitive Christianity was industriously put into an ill-name it was call'd emphatically The Atheism because it overthrew Idolatry and undermin'd the false Gods and worships that had so long obtain'd This was the Out-cry at Ephesus that if Paul's Doctrine took place the Temple of the great Goddess would be despis'd Acts 19.26 27. It was also branded as a Novelty and an up-start Doctrine because it took people off from that vain Conversation which they had received by Tradition from their Fathers It was call'd at Athens a New Doctrine and industriously represented in all places as a Mushrome Sect that was but of yesterday It was look'd upon as nearly allied to Judaism because it was so much supported by the Scriptures of the Old Testament and nothing was more despicable among the Romans than the Jews and their Religion The Professors of Christianity were look'd upon as unlearned and ignorant Men Acts 4.12 the very Dregs and Refuse of the People Julian forbad the calling of them Christians and would have them called nothing but Galileans thereby to expose them to the contempt of those who are as indeed most people are govern'd more by a sound of Words than by the reason of Things Thus when the Devil was silenced in his Oracles as it is well known he was upon the setting up of Christianity in the World his mouth was opened in Lies and Slanders and being forced to quit his pretentions to a Deity he appears bare-faced as a Devil 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a False Accuser The Reformed Religion in these latter ages hath been in like manner spoken against Though it maintains all that and only that Doctrine which Christ and his Apostles preach'd and was before Luther there where Popery as such never was before or since that is in the Holy Scriptures yet the Professors and Preachers of it have been call'd and counted Hereticks and Schismaticks and by all possible Artifices expos'd to the odium of the People that none might Buy or Sell i. e. have the benefit and comfort of civil Society and Commerce that had not the Mark or the Name of the Beast or the Number of his Name Nay even among some that profess the Christian and Reformed Religion yet the Practice of serious Godliness is very much spoken against The Power of Religion is not only disliked and deny'd but contradicted and condemned by those that rest in the Form They that call the Evil Good will call the Good Evil and it is not strange if they who abandon themselves to work all uncleanness with greediness speak ill of such as run not with them to the same excess of Riot where the Wicked walk on every side he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey The old Enmity between the Seed of the Woman and the Seed of the Serpent is still working and the old Game every day plaid over again The Truth as it is in Jesus and the Truth which is according to Godliness will be contradicted by those that lye in wait to deceive Bigots on all sides will have something to say against Catholick Charity and Moderation They that are fervent in spirit serving the Lord and forward to every good Work must expect to be evil spoken of by such as affect a Lukewarmness and Indifferency in Religion Nor can those who walk circumspectly not as Fools but as Wise escape the lash of their Tongues who live at large and walk loosly and at all adventures as the Fools in Israel I come now in the Second Place to enquire what 's the Reason that so Holy and Excellent a Religion as Christianity is meets with such hard usage