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	faith_n	justification_n	3,844	5	9.3520	5	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95352	None but Christ, or A sermon upon Acts 4. 12. Preached at St. Maries in Cambridge, on the commencement Sabbath, July 4. 1652. To which is annexed, an enquiry after what hope may be had of the salvation of [brace] 1. Heathens. 2. Those of the old world, the Jews and others before Christ. 3. Such as die infants, and idiots, &c. now under the Gospel. / By Anthony Tuckney, D.D. and Master of St. Johns Colledge in Cambridge.	Tuckney, Anthony, 1599-1670.	1654 (1654)	Wing T3217; Thomason E1523_3; ESTC R208588	57,811	146

I do not now particularly enquire into The Heathens I am sure came short of them in these advantages nor will the pity or piety of the Saints or their Tutelary Angels to which Collius hath recourse as to an Anchora sacra for De animabus Pagan lib. 2. ca. 14 their safety save them from a wrack which he thinks they may although they did not pray to them This difference between them and children of believing Christians is evident that these by virtue of the Covenant they are in may and ought to be baptized which no Heathen till he professe his faith can lay any claim to no more then till he believe he can to the Covenant And if God did not vouchsafe him sufficient means of salvation it is a misgiving sign and ground of fear that in his just Judgement he let him fall short of salvation which both by his original and actual guilt he had justly forfeited And whereas mention was made of an anticipating and preventing grace of God by which without faeith he might be saved I conceive and believe that it is abundant anticipating and preventing grace when either in Him or in any God beginneth and worketh faith to lay hold on Christ But such a preventing grace as to accept us for Christs sake without faith in Christ the Scripture mentioneth not is a new notion of a young Divine which without better proof must not command our belief or impose upon our credulity And the like I may say of imputing Christs righteousnesse and satisfaction to them without their receiving of it and him by faith For it is that which the Scripture owneth not It maketh account that it is indulgence enough to impute Christs merits to us in and upon our taking hold of him by faith which is therefore said to be imputed to us for righteousnesse Rom. 4 5. 22. And whereas it was said that God could do it if he would we do not dispute of his extraordinary or absolute power and what by it he can do but what in the dispensation of grace he doth and declareth in Scripture he will doe And as for that although he is able to doe more then we can think yet his will must not Eph. 3. 20 be measured by our thoughts nor may we pitch upon ways of salvation of our own devising for what rare contrivances here would self-love and a luxuriant phansie make But must hold to what he in his word hath revealed to be his own way which in the matters as of his worship so of his free grace he will have the liberty of making the choice and appointment of And therefore in the last place for that Pleonasme of love by which this way it was said they might be saved I with Paul thankfully acknowledge not only a Pleonasme but even an hyper-pleonasme of love as the Apostles word is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. 1. 14. but I pray read on and see what immediately followeth there in the very same sentence where it is added 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is in Christ Jesus with faith and love but to extend it to them especially in this way that were wholly strangers to Christ never knew him never believed in him or loved him savingly and above all whatever Collius weakly dispute's to the contrary is a Pleonasme indeed of a sparkling wit and pen according to Quintilians description of a Pleonasme Qui Lib. 1. cap. 15 16 17. fit quoties verbis supervacuis oneratur Oratio a neat expression and a piece of a strong line but no solid Divinity which in the Text telleth us that besides or without Christ we must look for no salvation Which therefore 1. As before should teach us with an holy and awful trembling and reverence to adore Gods holy counsels and righteous dispensations towards those Heathens which by what hath been said appear to be in a very doubtful and dangerous condition which though to us may seem severe yet take we heed of blaspheming them for being unjust lest God at the last clear his righteousness in our confusion His Justice is as infinite and incomprehensible as his Mercy and therefore we who easily grant that his mercy is more then we can comprehend shall then as plainly be made to see that his Justice is more then we can fathome which yet because we cannot now comprehend we too presumptuously take the boldness to implead and blaspheme to be sure God will be cleared Psal 51. 4. when he is judged therefore we had need take heed that we be not condemned when God shall at last come to judge us as for other matters so for those hard speeches which some Jude v. 15 have spoken against him and those horrid imputations which they not more frequently then boldly load his decrees and proceedings in this kinde with which although they blaspheme as none of his yet should they at last prove indeed to be so as many as gracious and able as themselves judge they are such a question as you read 2 Kings 19. 22. will not be then to be answered or not without confusion when God shall ask Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed and against whom hast thou exalted thy voice and lifted up thine eyes on high if with him thy conscience shall then be enforced to make that answer there following even against the holy One of Israel Such I say therefore had need be more wary and forbear such horrid expressions and imputations lest their present confidence do not happily or rather most unhappily end in confusion 2. This should rather teach us with all humble thankfulness to admire Gods distinguishing mercy to us under the Gospel who by the revelation of it hath removed those difficulties which made their estate at the best so extreamly doubtful Hath so ordered that we should be born and live neither in the midnight of Heathenisme where no light of salvation by Christ shined nor in the twy-light of the Law under whose veils this saving light appeared so obscurely Hath not suffered us to die Infants but hath let us live till we could put forth acts of Reason that so also we might act faith in a revealed Saviour Hath not bereaved us of the use of of our Beason as in those distracted ones instanced in or of our Senses as those who are born deaf and blind c. but that we may read the Scriptures hear the Gospel preached and know the mysteries of our salvation 3. Which therefore should be our serious care and endeavour so to improve these blessed helps and advantages in laying hold on Christ by faith thus revealed and in working out our salvation by him purchased that as we are the children of the light so we Ephes 5. 8 Matth. 11. 20. to 25. Heb. 2. 3. may walk as such lest our condition prove far worse then the Heathen● whilest we so manifestly neglect so great salvation concealed from them but openly manifested to us for which with the Psalmist let us humbly Psal 147. 12. and heartily bless the Lord and so let the last word of his Psal● be the last of this Discourse Halelujah Ps 147. 20 Halelujah Salvation glory and honour and Rev. 19. 1. 2. Ver. 3 4. power unto the Lord our God for true and righteous are his judgements Halelujah Amen Halelujah FINIS

man Christ Jesus And therefore 1 Tim. 2. 5 let us have a Saviour of Gods chusing and making and not of our own framing and fansying for how miserable should I be if whilst I have been looking out for other wayes to save me God who hath appointed this way which I have neglected or missed of should damne me It is my security if when I can say I have a manifest token of salvation I can adde Phil. 1. 28. with the Apostle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and this of God because in and by Act 5. 31. Christ whom he hath appointed and exalted to be Prince and Saviour Reas 2 To this adde in the second place that salvation is dispensed to us by way of Covenant and had it been by the first Covenant of which the first Adam was head his name might have been written on it but seeing it is by the second of which Christ the second Adam is the only Head as the Apostle sheweth in that divine parallel between the two Adams Rom. 5 as he is made our Covenant so also our salvation Isa 49. 6 8. guilty we were and condemned by the first Adam and therefore justified and saved we Concil Trident de justific Cap. 3. must be by the second 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 This opportet in the Text is now not only of conveniency but also of necessity Nemo ad mortem nisi per illum nemo ad vitam nisi per istum Reas 3 To this purpose consider further that Christ is so the head of this saving Covenant that Gods glory in this exaltation is the chiefe end intended in it In which Christ is not brought in per accidens or in an inferior subordination as a subservient means to us and our salvation as the end though even so there would be no salvation without him as no attaining the end without the means if there be but one only means to the end it is as necessary as the end But Christs and Gods glory in him is the prime design of it Ephes 1. 6. That our salvation wrought by him should be as a subordinate means to his glory as the chief end And therefore as on the one side we should not so much look at Christ for our salvation as at our salvation for Christ and his glory so on the other side if whilst we take in salvation we leave out Christ we cut off the stream from the fountain from which it floweth and so our salvation would be an empty dry pit prove vain and fall short of its end and we of the comfort of it if whilst we are saved some other way he should not have the honour of being as he most certainly is the Authour of Heb. 5. 9. it Reas 4 And as our salvation would so be empty and vain so also our Saviour also should have suffered and died in vain It is Austins inference gratis enim Contra Jelianum Lib. 4. Cap. 3. Christus mortuus est si homines ulli absque Christo ad fidem veram virtutem veram c. quacunque re alia quacunque freti ratione perveniant and Paul's before him Gal. 2. 21. if righteousnesse come by the Law and so it must if not by Christ then Christ is dead in vain If any without him may now come to life then ad quid perditio Lib. 3. Cap. 47. haec to what purpose was all that wast was he so prodigal of his blood that when according to this opinion we might have been saved and that as Bradwardine sheweth by an easier and readier way without it A damnable error and fully confuted By the deare experience of every humbled sinner which fully convinceth him of an absolute necessity of having Christ and of his most certain inevitable perishing without him As on the contrary it is observable that they who are most for the other opinion and so can lick themselves and others whole are least acquainted with what a wounded conscience meaneth and the work of Gospel-humiliation Who did they more know themselves would thereby come more to know the necessity of Jesus Christ and that such a Demoniack Mat. 17. 17 cannot be cured without being brought to him As the Scripture all over proclaimeth that it was this our good Samaritan only that pittied when all else pass●d by and undertook the cure when all else had given it over as d●sperate even when there was none to help then at such a dead lift and case of such extream necessity his arm only brought salvation Isa 63. 3 5. And yet rather then a Philosopher should not be dubbd a Saint and his moral vertues prov saving graces and we have nothing inherent in our selves to stick to Imputed righteousnesse not only by Papists must be derided But be too much sleighted and undervalued by too many amongst our selves the great mystery of godlinesse and the whole counsel of God in Christ must all at once be dasht and all the links of that golden Chain snapt asunder piè scilicet And a fair requital it is that we so make of Christs kindnesse when in effect we tell him he might have kept it to himself and we have fared never the worse seeing so many have been and all might have bin 1 Cor. 15. 17. saved without him I say Christ should so have died in vain Reas 5 And then also our faith must needs be in vain if Christ were not necessary our faith would be needlesse Strom. l. 1. which yet Clemens Alexandrinus much forgetting what elsewhere he saith of the Gentile being justified by Philosophy calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am sure the Scripture requireth it as the necessary Instrument of justification Rom. 5. 1. and inlet to salvation Ephes 2. 8. and that not onely necessitate praecepti but Medii as Valentia Tom. 3. dist 1. qu. 2. p. 317. concludes and as the Apostle plainly sheweth in that divine connexion Rom. 10. 13 14. whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved but how shall they call on him on whom they have not beleeved and how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard and accordingly we read Acts 11. 17 18. that upon their beleeving by Peters preaching the Disciples inferred that Then and not till then God had also to the Gentiles granted repentance unto life as also chap. 15. 9. Then it was that he put no difference between Jew and Gentile when once he had purified their hearts by faith Thus we see that faith is necessary and that the word of faith Rom. 10. 8. is the word of life Phil. 2. 16. But what need of either becoming Proselytes under the Law or of sending out Apostles for the Ministry of the Gospel to them who had enough at home to instruct them in the wayes of eternal life What necessity of reading the Scriptures if the same lesson may be taken out of the Book of the Creature Or

which more hereafter it was only in and by our alone Saviour for my Text will abide for ever most true and certain that besides him there is no Saviour or Salvation So Austin In sub lege Coutra Julian l. 4. c. 3 naturali viventes salutem nonnulli sunt adepti non tamen ex vi naturalis legis and even Zuinglius himself who as we shewed thinks some of them were saved yet maintain's it to have been by Jesus Christ per De peccat Orig. pag. 118 119. In Apologia Christum enim accedere oportet quicunque ad Deum veniunt unde Socerum Mosis c. And so Gualther testifieth of him Quoscunque è Gentilium numero Sanctorum numero adjudicandos esse censuit non aliâ ratione quam Dei gratiâ per Christum praestita salutem consecutos fuisse sensit Not as In Orthodox Explicat Andradius roundly and boldly sine lege Mosis Evangelicâ nobis per Jesum Christum datâ solâ lege naturae permultos fuisse Dei gratiâ justificatos salvos But what ever He may yet the Scripture acknowledgeth no saving grace out of our Saviour Epiphanius speaking of those saith that God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saved men by many ways but yet meant not this in opposition but in subordination to Christ but as he well saith Margarita in mari nascitur Montacut ver●●m ex rore coelesti a gemme may be generated in the Sea but of the dew of Heaven so if there were any such gemme found in them * Like that which they say is in some Toads head it was not from the Sea of this world but from Heavens influence not from the strength of nature or their Free-will as though they who were dead in sin could rise up out of the grave and walk and work o●t their salvation It was not Justin Martyrs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Of which as he saith all partaked not their right use of right Reason or their practise of their moral virtues that could bring them to Heaven which even a Christians graces as they are prescinded from Christ cannot do if either of them be saved it is because God in Christ forgave both I say it was by Christ which it may be none of those who are their greatest Advocates will much deny and therefore 7. I add in the seventh place as if this ever was it must be by Christ so by Christ in some measure and by some means or other revealed to them for as Christ so also faith in Christ is in the Scripture required as necessary to salvation Ephe. 2. 8. Heb. 10. 3. Acts 13. 48. This was a piece of Saint Austins Creed That none belonged to the spiritual Jerusalem nisi cui divinitùs revelatus fuerit Christus but such as to whom Christ was revealed And so Lombard after Lib. 3. dist 25. him dici potest nullum fuisse justum cui non facta esset Revelatio vel distincta vel velata vel in aperto vel in mysterio It was not as though a Captive should be redeemed by a price paid by one whom never before nor after he had any knowledge of So that God for Christs sake should save them and yet never by any means or in any measure should make that Christ known to them He must by some means or other be revealed to them who being grown up to the use of Reason were ever saved by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Orat. ad Graecos him which made Justin Martyr who had so good thoughts of their salvation to have this other concerning the means of it that in some part he was made known to them but how that was it will bee very hard as we shall see by and by to demonstrate Indeed for the measure and degree of this Revelation of Christ to them who are saved by him I easily grant that it is not necessary that it should be equall and alike to all but that to some it might be more obscure and indistinct according both to several mens estates and conditions as also to the times and places they lived in And so in the time of the Law under those Types and through those Vailes we may say Christ was revealed to the believing Jews velatâ revelatione by a vailed revelation without a contradiction in adje●to And yet I believe that revelation Aquin. 22. q. 2. a. 7. Clem. Alex which they had of Christ was necessary and withall more distinct and full then what some say was sufficient as though it were sufficient for them to believe God to be liberatorem secundum modos sibi placitos their deliverer by some means or other which he pleased but they knew nothing of And as for many of their far-fetched consequences and strange implications of their implicit Faith before mentioned I may boldly say they were so large as would wrap up in the bundle of life not only their Philos●phers and other more virtuous among them but also the whole bulk of the Heathen if not the worst of them whom yet they themselves would have excluded from this priviledge Mean while we must hold that if they can prove that any of them were saved I suppose we have proved that it was not only in and by Christ but also by him some way and in some measure revealed to them 8. But whether Christ was thus revealed to them and by what likely means it was this is the question to which they will very hardly give a probable at least a satisfactory answer For although I doubt not of the power of God which they plead but that he is able variis occultis modis fidem eorum ●cordibus instillare as they speak by various and to us unknown ways to instil faith into their hearts he being able as the Apostle saith to do above all that Ephes 〈◊〉 20. we can ask or think which place some produce to this purpose though I think not so fitly because it speaks of them who had already believed yet we are not here to consider what God absolutely and extraordinarily could and was able to do for them but what either certainly or probably he hath done and this according to his ordinary Power and Providence and in that way by which he hath ordained and revealed in Scripture to bring men to life and salvation And truly according to this they were as far out of the way of salvation as they were from the Church extra quam non est salus and unto which God useth to add those that are to be saved and so they Acts 2. 47. were much out of the way and sate in darknesse and the shadow of death Matth. 4. 15 16. And as for the ways and means which are propounded by divers by which Christ and Salvation should be revealed to them in my weak eye and it is not an evil one they seem no way promising as sufficient or likely to effect