Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	believe_v	church_n	revelation_n	2,546	5	9.7999	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66816	Eremicus theologus, or, A sequestred divine his aphorisms, or, breviats of speculations, in two centuries / by Theophilus Wodenote ...	Wodenote, Theophilus, d. 1662.	1654 (1654)	Wing W3241; ESTC R39130	60,438	192

shewed any other than Christ himself think not when Saint Paul said that he was made all things to all men [l] 1 Cor. p. 22. that therefore he did at his pleasure that which God had directly forbidden to be done that therefore he did make himself a libertine or establish libertinism or purchase a protection for every man to do what seemeth good in his own eyes but that in matters free and indifferent and undetermined which were not iepugnant to the Word which were neither forbidden nor commanded by God such as may indifferently be either used or not used with a good conscience according as the rules of godly discretion circumstances duely considered shall direct he without hurting the faith or offending the righteous changed himself into all fashions and applyed himself to the conditions of all that by all means hee might save some 9. FRom particular privileges in Scripture appointed by Almighty God for some singular choice purposes as from the Israelites spoiling the AEgyptians of their Jewels [m] Exod. 12.36 or Samsons pulling down the house upon himself and others [n] Judg. 16.30 as from Elias his calling of fire from heaven [o] 2 Kings 1.10 or Elisha his cursing the children [p] 2 Kings 2.24 or the like collect not generall precepts or perpetuall directions for the Church extraordinary facts are no ordinary rules every example is not a Law to bind every man to equall practice thy argument taken from example is naught unless thy warrant be alike good 10. SUch allegories as thou findest expounded in the holy Scriptures imbrace as rules of Gods worship matters of faith and parts of religion necessary to salvation but such as mens severall devices frame out of them and commend to the world as hidden senses newly found out neither believe them nor desire to know them but leave them to such as love a hidden divinity and a secret religion devised in their own conceits which will not abide the triall of the light such pleasing various fancies without sacred evidence of Gods certaine approbation are but plausible allusions and no probative allegations can never work in the heart a full Theologicall perswasion Conceive not with some passionate Papists in the heat of their disputations that Gods Word is a potentiall onely no active rule that the Scriptures are not authenticall without the authority of the Church that the authority of the Scriptures dependeth upon the authority of the Church necessarily Not go for advice to the Church necessarily but to the Law and to the testimony saith the Prophet Isaiah [q] Isaiah 8.20 at that least examin and try the truth Not what saith the Church but what is written in the Law how readest thou saith our Saviour [r] Luke 10.26 Not the Church but the Scripture is the sole and supreme Judge of all questions and Controversies of religion The Church cannot give thee faith whereby thou believest in Christ and layest hold of eternall life It is the Scripture that worketh it by the inspiration of the holy Spirit Thou mayest set the diall by the Sun Thou canst not set the Sun by the diall Thou mayest appeal from the judgment of the Church to the Scriptures Not from the Scriptures to the Church 12. AS the wisemen stretched not their course beyond the direction of the star [Å¿] Matth. 2.9 10 11. so wander not thou in thy discourse beyond the direction of the word so much knowledge of divine mysteries as God hath revealed in his sacred volumes content thy self with and offer not thy self to prie any further into them Be sure thou make a resting place where God hath placed a full point resigne thy self up to his wisedom adore his Counsels and be not overcurious in any of his doings Neither suffer any within thy walk and power to make any superfluous questions about them If any do out of infidelity or too much curiosity Answer him briefly with that holy and judicious Father Saint Austin than whom few could better resolve doubts Do thou dispute it I will believe it Do thou reason it I will admire it [t] Tu disputa ego credam tu ratiocinare ago mirabar and rather seriously adore the worker than curiously inquire the manner 13. GIve free eares of body and full regard of mind to whatsoever God speaketh in a plain form and frame of words but give an excellent heedfulnes to the Lord where he useth a singular manner of speaking There conceive some speciall thing is to be marked there think thou art called to that speciall parenthesis of our Saviour who so readeth let him understand [u] Matth. 24.15 where the Lord speaketh strictly and artificially be sure to add to thy accustomed diligence a strict and artificiall diligence set thy attention where he setteth his words 14. WHatsoever scriptures thou readest or hearest attend them carefully and apply them usefully some way or other unto thy self for whatsoever was written afore time was written not at all adventures or as histories to heare or read for pleasure but for our learning that we thorough patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope [w] Rom. 15.4 What shall a salve do be it never so soveraigne if it be not layd to the sore or what can the medicine availe if it be not applyed to the disease We do not find it written of David in particular that he should do the will of God and yet in the volume of the book it is written of me saith he that I should do thy will O God I am content to do it [x] Psal 40.7 and yet he applies it in particular to himself as if it had been spoken to him by name 15. BE not like those bare-tonguy Christians in these dayes whose mouths are full of religion but their hearts altogether empty who shew their faith by words not by works who think to be perfectly trusted for their pure talking Ty not Gods Word to thy tongue but bind it to thy fingers not onely profess it with thy lips but express it also yea chiefly in thy life write it not in a scroul as the Romanists do Saint John's Gospell tying it about their necks for externall preservation or as the Pharisees did the Decalogue between their browes for externall signe of holiness but write it in the table of thine heart that thou mayest the better remember to put it in practise 16. TO Countenance sin allege not examples hope not to stand upon the fall of others conclude not thy self safe if thou canst produce some holy men that have gon before thee in the same sins we may not imitate the vices but the vertues of good men sanctity goes not by presidents but by precepts we are not to live by examples but by the Word whereby our actions must be guided as by a rule and by no example without it Examples in Scripture are not all written for our imitation that we may learne what

Eremicus theologus OR A Sequestred Divine HIS APHORISMS OR BREVIATS of Speculations IN TWO CENTURIES By Theophilus Wodenote B. D. sometimes fellow of Kings College in Cambridge Cantic chap. 4. ver 16. Awake O Northwinde and come thou South blow upon my garden that the spices thereof may flow out LONDON Printed by T. W. for Andrew Crook at the Green Dragon in S. Paul's Churchyard 1654. TO THE HIGHLY BORN HONORABLY MINDED AND WORTHY OF HONORABLE AND HIGH RESPECT MATTHEW HALSE of Efford in the County of Devon Esquire THEOPHILUS WODENOTE one of his obliged Oratours dedicates these his Aphorisms or Breviats of Speculations And daily beseecheth God for him that both he and all his issue so specious already by affinitie with so many Noble Progenies and still growing more and more eminent by their own sincere and abundant piety and charity may by divine mercy be preserved thorough faith unto salvation APHORISMS OR BREVIATS of Speculations The first Centurie 1. BEfore and after and in all businesses and at all times remember Prayer how canst thou hope to speed in any thing thou do'st if thou do'st it not in Gods fear and with his favour which is the very soule of thy soule and life of thy life so profitable so necessary that by it thy souls salvation and life it self liveth Let not thy unworthiness deterr thee though thou art subject to many passions and canst not pray as thou oughtest Elias was subject to the like and yet prayed and was heard (a) James 5.17 18. Upon a crie made the thief seeks to flie and neighbours come to help upon a prayer made the Devill shifts away and God comes to succour 2. IN petitioning Almighty God Ask and it shall be given you seek yee shall find knock and it shall be opened unto you (b) Matth. 7.17 Not alone ask and it shall be given you ther 's not a full point but seek and knock as well as ask our Saviour useth a threefold phrase and urgeth the duty from one degree to another with interposition of proportionable promises to signifie that we must pray often be earnest and zealous for cold suters proove cold speeders Cold and superficial requests can never pierce the clouds nor find any manner of access to the Throne of Grace The prayer of the righteous availeth much but with this condition if it be fervent (c) James 5.16 but put not ferventness in copiousness of syllables but of sense not in lip-labour but in heart-labour God esteemeth not the loudness or the length but the strength of prayer nor weighes he the ready words but the radicall devotion of him that praeth Thou mayest pray and cry and outcrie others even without crying out Moses prayer could not be heard on earth (d) Exod. 14.15 and yet the cry of it came up to heaven when the tongue cannot speak to God if with heart we can sigh to him he understandeth that language and we shall be sure of help A sigh sometimes will serve if truly from the soul 3. TRust not with the Papists to scale the high fort of Heaven by the broken and rotten ladder of the merits of Saints or thy own works or worthyness but place all thy hopes and moove all thy sutes in the Name of Jesus Christ without whom neither thou nor any of the Saints have any thing to do with God but pray God for thy right in Jesus Christ not to enter into judgment with thee but claime all thy right to blessedness by thy right in Jesus Christ without whom no man hath right in any thing saving in Gods indignation and his own destruction 4. PRay that thy faith may be scientious and unfeigned that thy lise may be conscientious and unspotted Mans life and religion are for the most part like A sound faith a sweet behaviour A false faith a debauched demeanour The fountaine being fowle and noysome can the water be faire and wholesome Can a bad tree bring forth good fruit Do men gather grapes of thornes or figs of thistles [e] Matth. 7.16 Neither can their outward conversation be pure whose inward perswasion is not perfect 5. WHat books soever other men admire and make their Jewels Let the Scriptures be dearer unto thee than all other books together Let them be a lampe to thy feet and a light unto thy paths [f] Psal 119.105 Set and settle thy continuall considerations upon them Wherein nothing is superfluous nor any thing wanting wherein whatsoever is taught is truth whatsoever is commanded is goodness whatsoever is promised is perfect happiness yea which not onely for pure and perfect matter but for high and heavenly expressions so farr excell that they are not to be mentioned with any other writings by way of comparison 6. HOw ragged are mens expressions How poor the pithiness of their discourses In sight of the sacred Scriptures their most accomplished Treatises are not so much as the light of a candle to the glorious brightness of the Sun in his chiefest splendour In Gods book every particle hath his poize every tittle is usefull every syllable is sententious every word is wonderfull He that once truly knows it cannot chuse but love it He that truly loves it cannot chuse but with all the veines of his heart commend it to others 7. TAke not upon thee to justify whatsoever any the most learned men without speciall inspiration hath published but whatsoever any pen-man of Scripture to whom the Holy Ghost did dictate hath set down defend to thy death and with thy death Men may erre not knowing the Scriptures [g] Matth. 22.29 not attaining to the perfect sense of them Apollo's a learned Doctour fervent in the Spirit and mighty in the Scriptures yet was he ignorant in divers things and received instruction from Aquila and Priscilla [h] Acts 18.26 We know in part and we prophesy in part said S. Paul [i] 1 Cor. 13.9 after long study and many wonderfull revelations after God had exalted him to the third heaven and there shewed him more than a man might conceive In sundry things as men we are many times much mistaken but not a word in all the sacred volumes that can be either false or faulty the Scriptures of God cannot erre 8. TAke not advantages but advertisements by Scripture read it not to feed a faction but to find a truth look both forward and backward and diligently ponder the circumstances that thou mayest the more clearely perceive the substance catch not at the words or phrases but consider what the will of the Lord is Think not when Christ saith that all that ever came before him were thieves robbers [k] John 10.8 that therefore Moses Elias Elisha Isaiah Jeremiah and the rest of the Prophets were no better than thieves and robbers because they went before Christ in time but that such only were thieves as professed themselves to be the door of the sheep or received or

to do but a great number of them for our admonition that we may know what to shun 17. WHom thou now truly believest to be invisible and immortall and incomprehensible Think not at any time that God is in earnest like one of us or that God hath a body because the Scriptures sometimes give him our parts because we read of the heart of God eyes ears arms hands feet and such like for the holy pen-men by now and then the things of God by the phrases of men for mens better apprehension and readyer understanding because we cannot understanding because we cannot understand how one should see without eyes or heare without eares or shew strength without armes I speak after the manner of men saith Saint Paul because of the infirmity of your flesh [y] Rom. 6.19 I speak as men commonly use in regard of your weak capacities and carnall imaginations taking the best way to be understood to instruct your souls and affect your hearts Come not to the hearing or reading of such speeches as the Corinthians came together not for the better but for the worse [z] 1 Cor. 11.17 gather not the more errour from them but the more knowledge Hear them or read them to that end for which they were written even for thy clearer conception and easier perswasion 18. IN all places and amongst all persons let thy maine care alwaye be to set forward Gods cause to defend his truth to maintaine his Name and estimation whensoever it is any way questioned or evill spoken of Have a greater care of Gods glory than of any others or of thine own and let it go neerer unto thee to hear Gods Name dishonoured than to have thine own destroyed yea rather than thou O Lord shouldst lose any part of thy glory which is most proper and precious unto thee glory be for ever taken away from us and our honour with all contempt and disgrace layd in the dust loss of credit and reputation be to all our doings and sayings losse to our goods and good name and whatsoever in this world is most dear unto us 19. BE slow to wrath in the greatest in juries inferred upon thy selfe but in the least affront offered to God put on all the indignation and rigour thou hast Be mild and forbearing suffering and soft in causer of thy own but in the quarrell of God be magnanimous and fervent sharp and severe according to thy power and place Moses in his own quarrell in matter concerning himself was a man most meek and had not an equall unto him in his time for peaceable and gentle behaviour [a] Numb 12.2 3. he quietly bare wonderfull wrongs and was easily perswaded to depart from his right But when he was to deal for God he took upon him an holy obstinanacy He would not consent unto Pharao that so much as an hoofe should remain behind them [b] Exod. 10.26 but when he spyed a Calf in the campe when he perceived idolatry committed and Gods glory comming into question He proclamed a bloody massacre and pronounced the execution to be a consecration yea he with his partakers speedily sacrifised to God the blood of three thousand malefactours [c] Exod. 32.27 28 29. S. Paul was not mooved with thought of his own troubles or danger of death but when he saw the City of Athens wholy given to idolatry his spirit was stirred in him and though he did not as Moses because he had not the like authority yet he disputed in the Synagogue with the Jewes and with the devout persons and in the Market daily with them that met with him [d] Acts 17.16 17. 20. MAke O make no long yea no little tarrying to turne unto the Lord put not off from day to day from youth to old age when Summer is turned into Winter when the raine descendeth and the flouds come and the winds blow [e] Matth. 7.27 when men are beset with troubles and sickness with paine and grief and torment when their wits and senses are taken up to devise remedyes against their diseases to prevent or to sustain the pangs of death but remember thy Creatour and remember a convenient time for thy Creatour remember thy Creatour in the dayes of thy youth in thy young years in thy flourishing dayes in thy time of prosperity whilst thy sences are sharpe thy memory quick thy wit ripe thy capacity ready thy understanding deep Remember his might that thou mayest believe his mercy that thou mayest hope his justice that thou mayest be fearfull his goodnes that thou mayest be thankfull [g] Augustinus 21. LOve all Gods children for his sake and obey all superiours whom he hath appointed The debt of love is generall we all owe it and we owe it unto all but trust in God and depend upon him onely joyne not any creature with him He is contented and hath commanded that we should perform all other duties to all others to whom they belong Render therefore to all their dues tribute to whom tribute is due custom to whom custom fear to whom fear honour to whom honour appertaineth [h] Rom. 13.7 provided alwayes that we yeeld them all to him chiefly to him ever and to none so much as him But the worship of confidence he hath reserved wholy to himselfe neither may we communicate it to any other upon any conditions without extreme disloyalty to him what is it less than idolatry for the meanest upon earth to tender it and as much as it as sacrilege for the mightiest up●arth to take it 22. OPen thy mouth and thy mind for thy brethren when they are molested and maligned and laden with scandals and reproaches but much more then for his cause and for his glory that made thy mouth and thy mind Be not ashamed of his righteousnes or of his Gospell lest he be ashamed of thee confess his Name before the sons of men and thou shalt be sure to be confessed before the sons of God Acknowledge Christs truth and he will acknowledge thee before the Angels and before his Father 23. IT hath been the custome alwayes of the best sort to offer in the best manner the best they had unto the best that is to the Lord himself Offer thou likewise the best to God whensoever thou hast cause to offer if ever thou desire to be in the number of the best otherwise the worst sort shall rise up in judgment and condemn thee the very idolaters that worshipped the works of their own hands and turned the truth of God into a lie shall go before thee into the Kingdom of heaven They in their oblations thought not the worst they had or what came first to hand as good enough but brought the best they had would have brought better if they could and thought nothing too much for their newly devised God they were content to spoil themselves that they might adorn their idols (i) Exod. 32.2 3. 24. STand upon