Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	article_n	believe_v	creed_n	2,820	5	10.5298	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47309	The practical believer, or, The articles of the Apostles Creed drawn out to form a true Christian's heart and practice in two parts.	Kettlewell, John, 1653-1695.	1688 (1688)	Wing K380_VARIANT; ESTC R36226	263,804	566

Foundation What mean you by the Foundation of Faith Answ. Such points of it as are the very Bottom and Ground-work of the Christian Covenant whereinto we are all Baptized and whereon the Church is Erected They are such Articles as are the Root of all that Worship and Obedience we are to pay to God of all that Submission Trust and Adoration we are to shew towards Jesus Christ and of all that Labour and Success we are call'd to here in the Prosecution of an Holy Life All the Points of our Christian Faith are a-like True but all Truths are not a-like useful nor all useful Truths a-like necessary 'T is necessary for us to believe all when we are sufficiently shew'd that Christ has taught them But 't is moreover necessary for us all to see he has taught some which are not only to be Believed because they were Revealed but were therefore Revealed because necessary to be Learned and Believed of all that retain to him And these Points which are not only Profitable but necessary to the Worship and Service of God by Jesus Christ and to the maintenance of the Christian Covenant and of the Church which is Built upon it are called Fundamentals Quest. Can you shew me what points are such Answ. One is the common foundation of all true Religion Mosaical and Natural as well as Christian and that is the Belief of the one True God not only of his Being but also of his Providence and Care to Reward those that seek him Thus St. Paul sets down Faith towards God as one Article to be first laid Heb. 6 1. For he that comes to God in any way saith he must believe that he is and that he is a Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Heb. 11. 6. This Faith in the one true God is overthrown not only when Men overlook or deny him but also when they joyn any Gentile Gods who were Apostate Spirits in Copartnership with him For every true Church must have Repentance from Idols towards God as well as Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Act 20. 20 21. And this is Life eternal says our Saviour to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent Joh. 17. 3. And he is Antichrist saith St. John that denies the Father and the Son 1 Joh. 2. 22. If she cast off the Belief of the one true God the common Principle of all true Religion she is the Congregation of some Faln Spirits which set up for false Gods and not the Church of the Great God of Heaven As well as if she have not Faith in Christ she is no longer Christian. Quest. But when a Church professes Faith in the one true God the common Ground-work of all true Religion What is the Particular Foundation of the Christian Religion Answ. Belief of Jesus being the Son of God and the Christ and of Salvation by his Merits and Mediation When Peter confessed Jesus to be the Christ the Son of the living God our Saviour said upon this Rock will I build my Church Mat. 16. 16 18. And St. Paul says the Foundation which he had laid and other than which no Man can lay is Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 3. 11. And the compass of saving Knowledge marked out by our Lord himself as I noted is together with the Knowledge of the one true God to know Jesus Christ whom he has sent Whilst any Church retains this Faith in Christ it is Christian and has Right to Baptism as St. Philip declar'd to the Eunuch who was Baptized upon his making this Confession Act. 8. 37 38. But if it denys this Authority of Christ and its dependance upon him for salvation it is thereby unchurched and becomes unchristian like Jewish Mahometane or Heathen Churches and is put out of the ordinary way of Salvation there being no Name under Heaven given among Men whereby we may be saved but his alone Act. 4. 12. Quest. But doth not this Grand Article of Jesus being the Christ and Saviour imply in it sundry other Articles Answ. Yes if we Believe Jesus to be the Christ we must believe all the Holy Scriptures as his Word and they contain all Articles But it more especially implies his Incarnation Passion Resurrection and other great Articles of the Creed which must be expresly owned by every one that rightly understands it And accordingly in the various Repetitions of this Grand Article and Representations of the saving Faith one or other of these is oft-times added and given as the instance of it Believing Jesus to be the Christ the Son of God you may have Life through his Name saith St. John shewing the necessity of this main Foundation Joh. 20. 31. But St. Paul speaking of this Grand Doctrine says I determined to know nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him Crucified setting out the knowledge of Christ in the knowledge of his Passion 1 Cor. 2. 2. And if thou confess the Lord Jesus and believe God raised him from the Dead thou shalt be saved exemplifying the saving knowledge of Jesus in the Belief of his Resurrection Rom. 10. 9. And when he commanded us to preach him saith St. Peter he commanded us to preach and testifie that it is he who is ordained of God to be the Judge both of quick and dead illustrating the Preaching Christ by preaching the Judgment to come Act. 10. 42. Every Spirit that confesseth Jesus Christ is come in the Flesh is of God And every Spirit that confesses it not is Antichrist and not of God saith St. John explaining the Confession of Jesus Christ by the Confession of his Incarnation 1 Joh. 4. 2 3. And speaking of the Record or Witness God had given to the Christian Doctrine he thus declares the matter attested by him This is the Record God hath given us Eternal Life and this Life is in his Son. He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not Life Setting off the Christian Religion and the Saving Faith by the Belief of the Life everlasting 1 Joh. 5. 10 11 12. And as for the Belief of the Holy Ghost the necessity of that and of our Dependance on him to make any man a Christian our Saviour has sufficiently expressed by ordering our very Baptism which initiates us into Christianity to be into his Name Mat. 28. 19. All these Points are the very Ground and Foundation of our Subjection to the Father Son and Holy Ghost the Parties we contract withal in the Christian Covenant of all our Adoration Trust and Submission to the Blessed Jesus of our worshipping and serving God by him and of all that Holiness of Life which must gain us the Divine Acceptance on all which Accounts they are necessary and Ground-work Articles of Christian Faith and properly call'd Fundamentals Quest. By this it may seem as if the Believing Jesus to be the Christ were in more explicit words to believe the Apostles Creed since that sets

hinder them from doing This also a ground of trust in God. And to keep us in any distress from flying to unlawful aids How God will use this Power 2. His Sovereignty and Power to command and order all things This includes 1. Empire as a Sovereign Ruler What things God may command The unalterableness of some commands 2. Dominion as a Sovereign Proprietor In what cases God allots good and ill out of his Power of Prerogative not according to Mens pre-dispositions Where he dispenses Arbitrarily he doth it always most Wisely and Reasonably Saving Grace he allots not in way of Arbitrary Prerogative but according to Covenant Rules And Heaven and Hell in way of Legal Trials A brief account of the Rectitude of God's Nature which limits his Sovereign Will from the Scriptures This Sovereign Lord and Proprietor an All-sufficient so no selfish Being Several good uses of God's Sovereign Dominion God's Majesty and Almightiness must beget fear and reverence Question THE Almighty Power of God is one thing particularly professed in the Creed and when God would give a Character of himself he told Abraham he was the Almighty God Gen. 17. 1. Is this Attribute of so great account that in so short a Summary it should be singled out and particularly mentioned Ans. Yes for since God has an Almighty Power over all all must fear and submit to him Since he is able to do all things his Friends and Servants have cause to trust in him and depend on him and in all their wants to seek and address to him for convenient supplies So that his Almighty Power is a main ground of all Religious Service of Fear and Faith or Trust in God and all Devotion Quest. What is meant by God's Almightiness Ans. Two things 1. That he has Might and Strength to effect and do And 2. That he has Sovereignty and Power to command and order all things Quest. Has God all Might and Strength to effect and do all things Ans. Yes all that are the object of any Power and all that are not repugnant to his own Nature He made all this World and can at his Will make more and nothing shall be impossible with God Luke 1. 37. Quest. Why do you say all that are the object of any Power Ans. Because contradictions are the object of no Power and though an Almighty Arm must be sufficient for one part of them as who by his bare Word can at his Will speak all things either out of or into nothing yet it is no way concerned to fulfil both at the same time Thus is it diminution to the Power of God that it cannot make twice two cease to be four or that which is past not to have been or one and the same Body to be at once in many and far distant places and yet under all this multiplicity to be but one because they all imply a contradiction that is that a thing should be somewhat and withal that it should not be it at the same time Quest. And why do you add All that are not Repugnant to his own Nature Ans. Because as God's power is infinite foe is every other Attribute and one must not destroy or weaken another but all must consist together Thus though as Christ said to God all things are possible Matth. 19. 26. yet as St. Paul saith it is impossible for God to lye Heb. 6. 18. He cannot be sick or weary or sleepy He cannot be unjust or cruel or unfaithful or delight in ill or be ignorant of any thing or change any of his excellencies or cease to be himself or make other Gods besides himself or be any other ways imperfect more than he can be weak and impotent The properties and perfections of the Divine Nature are unalterable by the Divine Power and it is no more a matter of God's Power to hinder himself from being Pure or Just or Good than it is in the power of the Sun to restrain it self from giving Light or of the Fire from giving heat or of any other thing from doing what is natural and necessary to it Whatsoever the Divine Pleasure can will that the Divine Power can execute but God's Will that controuls all things else doth never contradict his own Nature but is always suited to and ruled by it Quest. And when God exerts this Power in doing things doth it create him any labour and pains Ans. No he makes or unmakes every thing with a bare word of his mouth as he did at the Creation We indeed are imperfect Natures and activity spends our Powers and the things we go to alter and act upon are stubborn in sticking to their own Natures and make resistance on which accounts our actings cause trouble and weariness But all things obey every inclination and tendency of God with an intire submission and his Power is Absolute and Infinite so that if he doth but will any thing immediately it is done And therefore it is a vain fancy and ignorant complement of the Epicureans of old and of all the Enemies of Providence in later times who would exclude God from the Inspection Ordering and Government of the World in pretence thereby to secure his ease and self-enjoyment and to keep back trouble and toil from him Quest. Can God do whatsoever any things in the World can do Ans. Yes for he gave them all their Power of doing it And retaining still the same Power in himself which he communicated to them as he ordinarily doth things by them so when he pleases can he do the same without them Thus can he preserve Life without Meat as he did to Moses Elias and our Saviour Christ in their forty days fast and restore Health without the help of Physick and give Children to those who are past Child-bearing as he did to Sarah and make a Maid a Mother without the help of a Father as in the Generation of our Saviour and give us Bodies without all help of Parents as he did out of the dust of the earth at first to Adam and as he will do at last to all in the general Resurrection Quest. What must this teach us Ans. Not only to believe him in those Articles of Religion which seem hardest in Nature to be brought to pass as Christ ' being born of a virgin and the general resurrection but also to take heart and courage in all honest and prudent enterprizes and not suddenly to desist or despair of success through the number and greatness of discouragements All virtuous publick and generous undertakings are both acceptable and honourable to God and so more like to have a sure Friend of Providence And when God espouses any cause though there be little probability and preparation for it in Natural appearance yet will it surely come to pass since he has the Power and Probability of all his Creatures in himself Quest. Indeed Men so backed must needs speed designs where there are fewer visible preparations and find success