Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	christian_a	faith_n	tradition_n	2,586	5	9.0088	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31454	A preparation for martyrdom a discourse about the cause, the temper, the assistances and rewards of a martyr of Jesus Christ : in a dialogue betwixt a minister, and a gentlemanhis [sic] parishioner.	Cawdrey, Zachary, 1616-1684.	1681 (1681)	Wing C1648; ESTC R8822	35,036	47

write all that Tradition Doctrine common to all Mankind and also what was peculiar to Abreham's Posterity so that no part of the Traditional Doctrine necessary to Salvation was left unwritten And the Prophet afterwards having more particular Revelations about the time place and other circumstances of the Conception Birth Preaching Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension of the promised Seed penned them likewise So that the great Tradition that the Jewish Church was to derive down from Generation to Generation was the writings of Moses and the other divinely inspired Penmen as the intire Rule of their Faith in the Messiah to come So also what was necessary to be believed of what our Lord Jesus Christ come in the Flesh Taught and ordained did and suffered is intively collected in the Scriptures of the New Testament and no Doctrine of Christ necessary to be believed nor Institution of Christ necessary to be obeyed is left out of the said Holy Writings to be derived down by Oral Tradition and therefore it is an intollerable injury done to Christians to deny them the liberty of Reading the Scriptures in their own Tongue And an abominable Cheat is put upon the Christian world in pretending that Part of the Rule of Faith is left to be derived down by the Churches Tradition yea so that what Doctrine was not defined by the Church that is the Pope or Council or both to be de side and part of the Tradition to day may yet be so to morrow and so be made then necessary to Salvation which was not necessary before Parish I apprehend now the good warrant we have to stick to the Scriptures as the only and intire Rule of Faith and I hope by the grace of God I shall not forsake that sure Word But Sir still if we yield what the Romanists claim that there is appointed by God an Infallible Judge of the sense of the Scriptures to whose definitions all are bound to consent our Rule would be no Rule to us without the concurrent judgment of such an Authentick Interpreter Min. But it can never be proved that Christ hath appointed such an Authentick Interpreter of Scripture and infallible Judg of Controversies And besides the ridiculous perverting of Scripture by Popes to bolster up this and their other pretensions is sufficient evidence to any man that will use his eyes and his reason that the Pope is no such Judge And indeed if Gods Spirit cannot speak plain in his Word but he must need an Interpreter how can the Pope or Church speak so but they must also need an Interpreter and that Inpreter must need another Interpreter and so on in Insinitum Therefore we believe the infinitely Gracious God hath so made known his mind about Mans Salvation in his word that no man who prays to God earnestly and humbly for the assistance of his Spirit and useth serious attention and pondering of the Scripture comparing Scripture with Scripture and applies himself to the help of learned and pious Men and Ministers when he needs the same can dangerously err in necessary points of Faith and yet learned Men and Ministers convince him of the sence of Scripture who seeks their assistance not in the strength of their Authority and Infallibility but in strength of that Light in which they are inabled by God to represent the Truth But I must not inlarge upon this Head I refer you if you need farther satisfaction to what the Reverend and Learned Dr. Stillingsleet Dr. Tillotson or Mr. Poole in his Nullity of the Roman Faith Mr. Baxter and others have writ upon this Subject Parish I am well satisfied I pray you proceed Minist Next you are warranted to bear Testimony even unto Blood against the Popes Supremacy challenged over the whole Church nay in a manner over the whole World And that you may be satisfied that so you ought to do consider that the Pope claims no less than these Prerogatives following First That he as Saint Peters Successour and Christs Vicar is the Head of the Catholick Church on Earth and the first Subject of all Ecclesiastical power So that whatsoever Power of Order or Jurisdiction any Bishop Presbyter Lay-Chancellour or other Official doth exercise is derived say the Romanists from the Pope That he can dispence with Vows and Oaths grant Pardons and Indulgences yea if he decree Vertue to be Vice or contrarily none are to question it nor doth any Appeal lye from him Nor can any Prince or State or Church constitute any Order or reform any abuse in matters Ecclesiastical but by delegation from the Pope That he as Christs Vicar who is King of Kings may depose Kings for Heresy or for favouring Hereticks or for any Male-Administration or other pretended unfitness of the Person to Govern That he can absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and give to whom he will the Empires and Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them as the Divel Matth. 4. said he could do For thus Popes have practised in this part of the old world oft and in the new also Pope Alexander 6th Giving Peru and Mexico to the Kings of Spain and Portugal Parish If this be his claim then every one is warranted to oppose it unto death it being such an abominable usurpation of an Authority that Christ never gave and a most unsufferable inchroachment on both the Civil and Religious Rights both of Princes and private men both Christians and Heathen And he is a Traytor to Christ and a betrayer of his own and others Rights who yeilds to it and methinks there is nothing in Popery of more dangerous consequence to be yeilded and yet nothing more groundlesly challenged nor that can more prejudice unconverted Heathen Princes against Christianity than this Doctrine That they who before were Supreme must be Subordinate to the Pope when they turn Christians For first It can never be proved that Christ gave any such power to St. Peter or if he had it cannot be proved that St. Peter's personal priviledges are derivative to his Successours nor yet that the Pope of Roma is his Successour rather than the Bishop of Antioch or Jerusalem no nor yet can it be proved that the present Pope is the rightful Bishop of Rome by uninterrupted Success when from St. Peter as they claim there having been so many Heretical wicked Schismatical and Simonaical Persons who have possessed that Seat This and more I remember you told me was said against it by the very humble learned and pious Dr. Barrow late Master of Trinity Colledg in Cambridg in his absolute and incomparable discourse on this Subject But I pray you give me a reason why all the Kings of the Earth do not rise up against the Pope in defence of their own and their Subjects Right Minist The Scripture tells us Rev. 17. 2. They are made drunk with the Wine of the fornications of the great Whore and intoxicated with the pompousness of her superstitious Worship and

loathsome Dungeons they may be sawn asunder torn Limb from Limb Roasted on Gridirons Tympanized forced to take in stinking water till their Belly and Skin is ready to burst and what other ways of Torment the Devil and his wicked Instruments can invent and nothing but Heaven can surmount such Sufferings and Death painful Death by them But Faith which is the substance and subsistance of things hoped for the Evidence of things not seen giving as full and firm assurance to the Soul of those Rich and Pretious Promises as Light doth to the Eye of the Colour or Figure of the things it seeth can overcome all the Terrors and Torments levelled against it for what would not a Christian suffer that hoped after a few hours of suffering to come to the vision and enjoyment of the Glorious God and our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ and to the Communion of the Church of the first born of God the Spirits of just men made perfect and to an innumerable Company of Angels and thereby to be above all sin and misery and fear of losing or loathing what they enjoy Indeed the sufferings of this life are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall he revealed 12. Lastly The Martyr must be abundant in Prayer he must have the Spirit of Prayer and Supplication poured out upon him Praying always with all Prayer and Supplication in the Spirit and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all Saints Ephes 6. 18. For Prayer is the Christiane Artillery-Yard wherein he exerciseth his Arms and puts all his Graces of godly sorrow resolutions for holiness devotedness to Gods Glory love to God and love to Men in practise till he is active and nimble in the use of them Parish Oh dear Sir My Ear hath been so chained to your Tongue that it tyed up my Mouth I could not interrupt you in the current of your Discourse about the qualifications of the Martyr For you have first presented your Martyr as a Man of Courage going forth in his great strength whose every Vein and Sinew and Artery is filled with the love of God and of his Church Yea of his very Enemies Next you have Armed him Cap-a-pe First with the Greaves and Boots of sorrow for Sin past and mortification of reigning Lusts which is the preparation of the Gospel of Peace in his own Soul and with his Loins Girt with the Girdle of Truth and full assurance that his Cause is the Cause of God and that Truth is great and will prevail by the Power of God giving it Victory over the Gates of Hell And then with the Brest-plate of Righteousness and Sincerity and Love aiming at the Glory of God his Saviour and preferring that before all concernments for his dearest Relations and singly designing to promote Gods Service in the confirmation of his Brethren and the conversion of his Enemies and holding before him the Sheild of Faith and full assurance that God will preserve him to his Heavenly Kingdom against all the Powers of Darkness by the sufficiency of his Grace and having on the Helmet of the Hope of everlasting Salvation and expert in the use of all his Arms by the Exercise of all his Graces in Prayer and Supplication And sure such such a Champion is a Spectacle worthy the sight of Men and Angels in his conflict I pray you therefore proceed to the performance of the third Part of your promise in informing me what assistances and comforts in my sufferings and what rewards after them I may warrantably expect Minist I shall do it to the best of my Ability and in this Method First I shall shew what assistances a Christian may expect to enable him to give a reason of the Faith and Hope that is in him Secondly I shall shew what sweet Comforts the very Graces that a Christian doth then Exercise will bring into his Soul Thirdly I shall shew what warrant a Christian hath to expect more immediate Illapses and Communications of the comforts of Gods Spirit and of joy in the Holy-Ghost in his sufferings then ever before Fourthly I shall shew what rewards a suffering Saint may expect hereafter The first expectation namely of Assistances to give a reason of his Faith and Hope I think is sufficiently warranted from Matt. 10. 19. When they deliver you up take no thought how or what you shall speak for it shall be given you in that same hour what you shall speak for it is not you that speak but the Spirit of your Father that speaketh in you First It is plain this promise hath no relation at all to the publick administrations in Worship to warrant inconsiderate effusions of words then where Men have not got an Oratorical habit of expressing themselves aptly so as to stir up and lead the affections of those to whom they Administer in Holy Worship which habit is got by studying and reading the Scriptures and frequent exercise of our gifts in Holy Worship in private or in fellowship with others all which endeavours God usually blesseth to those that are sincere for his Glory and the Service of his Church so that according to the foundation of natural parts on which they build they may attain a competent gift who will set themselves about it as every publick Minister of the Church certainly ought to do But though as to this gift for administration of publick Worship we warrantably expect the blessing of God upon our Meditation reading and stirring up the natural Abilities and Gifts that are in us so that we may attain to this habit of Sacred Oratory yet it is observable that there are differences of this habit in several pious Persons according to the difference of their natural quickness of Fancy and Invention and volubility of tongue and complexional heat and fervor wherein there may be at some times something like an Enthusiastical Energy but yet under the manage and conduct of Christian Prudence and withal he that most reads the Scriptures and meditates of them and exerciseth himself in Religious Worship Praying to God for his Blessing upon himself such a one shall grow more ready as to the languaging of what he is to speak before the people than another who wants the advantage of those natural endowments before mentioned or doth not use the means of reading meditation and exercise with humble dependance on God for his Blessing on them and hence it comes to pass that the greatest Schollars are not always the best Preachers nor the readiest in Prayer because their natural partslye not so right for this sacred Oratory but many times a natural coldness and bashfulness and hesitancy of tongue and ungratefulness of voice and accent and slowness of fancy hinders them And besides too many great Schollars neglect the stirring up of their gifts by exercise and so their Delphian Sword rusts in the Scabbard But I only speak this by the by to shew you that the promise to the Martyr