Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	church_n	err_v	infallible_a	2,189	5	9.8254	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62634	Several discourses viz. Proving Jesus to be the Messias. The prejudices against Jesus and his religion consider'd. Jesus the Son of God, proved by his Resurrection. The danger of apostacy from Christianity. Christ the author: obedience the condition of salvation. The possibility and necessity of gospel obedience, and its consistence with free grace. The authority of Jesus Christ, with the commission and promise which he gave to his apostles. The difficulties of a Christian life consider'd. The parable of the rich man and Lazarus. Children of this world wiser than the children of light. By the most reverend Dr. John Tillotson, late Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury. Being the fifth volume; published from the originals, by Ralph Barker, D.D. chaplain to his Grace.	Tillotson, John, 1630-1694.; Barker, Ralph, 1648-1708,	1698 (1698)	Wing T1262A; ESTC R222204	187,258	485

6. 5. those miraculous Powers which accompanied the first preaching of the Gospel are call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Powers of the World to come that is of the Gospel Age. So that this last Age of the Gospel is that which the Scripture by way of Eminency calls the Age those that went before are constantly call'd 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Ages in the plural number So we find Eph. 3. 9. the Gospel is call'd the dispensation of the Mystery that was hid in God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from Ages and you have the same Phrase Col. 1. 26. Upon the same account the expiration of the Jewish State is in Scripture called the last times and the last days Heb. 1. 2. But in these last days God hath spoken to us by his Son 1 Cor. 10. 11. These things are written for our Admonition upon whom 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the ends of the Ages are come In the same Sense the Apostle Heb. 9. 26. speaking of Christ says that he appeared 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at the end of the Ages to take away Sin that is at the Conclusion of the Ages which had gone before in the last Age. So that if we will be governed in the Interpretation of this Text by the constant use of this Phrase in Scripture the Letter of this Promise will extend to the end of the World 2. But however this be it is certain that the Reason of this Promise does extend to all those that should succeed the Apostles in their Ministry to the end of the World I will suppose now to give our Adversaries their utmost scope that which we have no reason to grant that the Letter of this Promise reacheth only to the Apostles and their Age and that our Saviour's meaning was no more but this that he would send down the holy Ghost upon them in miraculous Gifts to qualifie and inable them for the speedy planting and propagating of the Gospel in the World and that he would be with them 'till this Work was done Now supposing there were nothing more than this intended in the letter of it this ought not much to trouble us so long as it is certain that the Reason of it does extend to the Successors of the Apostles in all Ages of the World I do not mean that the Reason of this Promise does give us sufficient Assurance that God will assist the Teachers and Governours of his Church in all Ages in the same extraordinary manner as he did the Apostles because there is not the like reason and necessity for it but that we have sufficient Assurance from the Reason of this Promise that God will not be wanting to us in such fitting and necessary Assistance as the state of Religion and the welfare of it in every Age shall require For can we imagine that God would use such extraordinary means to plant a Religion in the World and take no care of it afterwards That he who had begun so good a Work so great and glorious a Design would let it fall to the ground for want of any thing that was necessary to the Support of it This is reasonable in it self but we are not also without good ground for thus extending the general reason of particular Promises beyond the Letter of them The Apostle hath gone before us in this for Heb. 13. 5 6. he there extends two particular Promises of the Old Testament to all Christians Let your Conversation says he be without Cove tousness and be content with such things as ye have For he hath said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee And again The Lord is my helper I will not fear what Man can do unto me These Promises were made to particulur Persons the first of them to Joshua and the other to David but yet the Apostle applies them to all Christians and to good Men in all Ages because the general Ground and Reason of them extended so far He who gave Joshua and David this encouragement to their Duty will certainly be as good to us if we do ours And thus I have done with the first Controver●ie about the Sense of these Words which concerns the Circumstance of time mentioned in this Promise always to the end of the World and have plainly shewn that both the Letter and the Reason of this Promise does extend further than the Persons of the Apostles and the continuance of that Age even to all that should succeed them in their Ministry to the end of the World I come now to consider Secondly The Substance of the Promise it self namely what is meant by our Saviour's being with them And here our Adversaries of the Church of Rome would fain perswade us that this Promise is made to the Church of Rome and that the meaning of it is that that Church should always be infallible and never err in the Faith But as there is no mention of the Church of Rome in this Promise nor any where else in Scripture upon the like Occasion whereby we might be directed to understand this Promise to be made to that Church so to any unprejudiced Person the plain and obvious Sense of this Promise can be no other than this that our Saviour having commissionated the Apostles to go and preach the Christian Religion in the World he promises to assist them in this work and those that should succeed them in it to the end of the World But how any Man can construe this Promise so as to make it signifie the perpetual Infallibility of the Roman Church I cannot for my life devise and yet this is one of the main Texts upon which they build that old and tottering Fabrick of their Infallibility Here is a general Promise of Assistance to the Pastors and Governours of the Church in all Ages to the end of the World but that this Assistance shall always be to the degree of Infallibility as it was to the Apostles can neither be concluded from the letter of this Promise nor from the Reason of it much less can it be from hence concluded that the Assistance here promised if it were to the degree of Infallibility is to be limited and confined to the supream Pastor and Governor of the Roman Church That the Assistance here promised shall always be to the degree of Infallibility can by no means be concluded from the Letter of this Promise Indeed there is no Pretence or Colour for it he must have a very peculiar Sagacity that can find out in these words I am with you always a promise of infallible Assistance Is not the Promise which God made to Joshua and which the Apostle to the Hebrews applies to all Christians and to all Good Men in all Ages I will never leave thee nor forsake thee the very same in sense with this I will be with you always and yet surely no Man did ever imagine that by virtue of this Promise every Christian and every

shall be revealed in us The consideration whereof was that which made the Primitive Christians to triumph in their Sufferings and in the midst of all their Tribulations to rejoyce in the hopes of the Glory of God because their Sufferings did really prepare and make way for their Glory So the same Apostle tells us 2 Cor. 4. 17. 18. Our light Afflictions which are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory whilst we look not at the things which are seen for the things which are seen are Temporal but the things which are not seen are Eternal 3dly and lastly The assurance of our future Reward is a mighty Encouragement to Obedience and a Holy Life What greater Encouragement can we have than this that all the good which we do in this World will accompany us into the other That when we rest from our labours our works will follow us That when we shall be stript of other things and parted from them these will still remain with us and bear us company Our Riches and Honours our sensual Pleasures and Enjoyments will all take their leave of us when we leave this World nay many times they do not accompany us so far as the Grave but take occasion to forsake us when we have the greatest need and use of them but Piety and Virtue are that better part which cannot be taken from us All the good actions which we do in this World will go along with us into the other and through the Merits of our Redeemer procure for us at the hands of a Gracious and Merciful God a Glorious and Eternal Reward not according to the meanness of our Services but according to the Bounty of his Mind and the vastness of his Treasures and Estate Now what an encouragement is this to Holiness and Obedience to consider that it will all be our own another day to be assured that whoever serves God faithfully and does suffer for him patiently does lay up so much Treasure for himself in another World and provides lasting Comforts for himself and faithful and constant Companions that will never leave him nor forsake him Let us then do all the good we can while we have opportunity and serve God with all our might knowing that no good action that we do shall be lost and fall to the ground that every Grace and Virtue that we exercise in this life and every degree of them shall receive their full recompence at the Resurrection of the Just How should this inspire us with Resolution and Zeal and Industry in the Service of God to have such a Reward continually in our Eye how should it tempt us to our Duty to have a Crown and a Kingdom offered to us Joys unspeakable and full of Glory such things as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor have entered into the heart of man And such are the things which God hath laid up for them who love him heartily and serve him faithfully in this World SERMON V. The danger of Apostacy from Christianity HEB. VI. 4 5 6. For it is impossible for those who were once enlightned and have tasted of the heavenly gift and were made partakers of the holy-Ghost and have tasted the good word of God and the powers of the world to come If they shall fall away to renew them again unto repentance seeing they crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh and put him to an open shame THESE words are full of difficulties and the misunderstanding of them hath not only been an occasion of a great deal of trouble and even despair to particular persons but one of the chief Reasons why the Church of Rome did for a long time reject the Authority of this Book which by the way I cannot but take notice of as a demonstrative Instance both of the fallible Judgment of that Church and of the fallibility of Oral Tradition for St. Jerome more than once expresly tells us that in his time which was about 400 years after Christ the Church of Rome did not receive this Epistle for Canonical But it is plain that since that time whether moved by the Evidence of the thing or which is more probable by the Consent and Authority of other Churches they have received it and do at this day acknowledge it for Canonical from whence one of these two things will necessarily follow either that they were in an error for 400 years together while they rejected it or that they have since erred for a longer time in receiving it One of these is unavoidable for if the Book be Canonical now it was so from the beginning for Bellarmine himself confesseth and if he had not confessed it it is nevertheless true and certain that the Church cannot make a Book Canonical which was not so before if it was not Canonical at first it cannot be made so afterward so that let them chuse which part they will it is evident beyond all denyal that the Church of Rome hath actually erred in her Judgment concerning the Authority of this Book and one error of this kind is enough to destroy her Infallibility there being no greater Evidence that a Church is not Infallible than if it plainly appear that she hath been deceived And this also is a convincing instance of the Fallibility of Oral Tradition For if that be Infallible in delivering down to us the Canonical Books of Scripture it necessarily follows that whatever Books were delivered down to us for Canonical in one Age must have been so in all Ages and whatever was rejected in any Age must always have been rejected but we plainly see the contrary from the instance of this Epistle concerning which the Church of Rome which pretends to be the great and faithful Preserver of Tradition hath in several Ages deliver'd several things This is a peremptory instance both of the Fallibility of the Roman Church and of her Oral Tradition Having observed this by the way which I could not well pass by upon so fair an occasion I shall betake my self to the explication of these words towards which it will be no small advantage to consider the particular Phrases and Expressions in the Text. It is impossible for those who were once enlightned that is were solemnly admitted into the Church by Baptism and embraced the profession of Christianity Nothing was more frequent among the Ancients than to call Baptism 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Illumination and those who were baptized were called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enlightned Persons because of that Divine Illumination which was convey'd to the minds of Men by the knowledge of Christianity the Doctrine whereof they made Profession of at their Baptism And therefore Justin Martyr tells us that by calling upon God the Father and the name of our Lord Jesus Christ and the name of the Holy Ghost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the enlightned Person is washed and again more expresly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Laver

Men is a Work not to be done without the assistance of God's Grace and there is little reason to expect that God will afford his Grace to those who reject and despise the Counsels of his Word The Doctrine of Salvation contained in the Holy Scriptures and the Promises and Threatnings of God's Word are the ordinary Means which God hath appointed for the Conversion of Men and to bring them to Repentance and if we sincerely use these means we may confidently expect the concurrence of God's grace to make them effectual but if we neglect and resist these means in confidence that God should attempt our Recovery by some extraordinary ways tho' he should gratifie our presumptuous and unreasonable Curiosity so far as to send one from the dead to testifie unto us yet we have no reason to expect the assistance of his Grace to make such a Conviction effectual to our Repentance when we have so long despised his Word and resisted his Spirit which are the power of God unto Salvation Without his Grace and Assistance the most probable means will prove ineffectual to alter and change our corrupt Natures by Grace we are saved and that not of our selves it is the Gift of God This Grace is revealed to us in the Gospel and the Assistances of it are conveyed to us by the Gospel and it is great presumption to promise to our selves the assistance of God's Grace in any other way than he hath been pleased to promise it to us And thus I have shewn you as briefly and plainly as I could how unlikely it is that those who obstinately reject a clear and publick Revelation of God should be effectually convinced and brought to Repentance by any Apparitions from the dead I shall only make two or three Inferences from this Discourse which I have made and so conclude 1st Since the Scriptures are the publick and standing Revelation of God's Will to Men and the ordinary Means of Salvation we may hence conclude That People ought to have them in such a Language as they can understand This our Saviour plainly supposeth in the Discourse which he represents between Abraham and the Rich Man desiring that Lazarus might be sent from the dead to his Brethren to testifie unto them to which Request Abraham would not have given this Answer and Advice they have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them had he supposed that the Scriptures then were or for the future ought to be lockt up from the People in an unknown Tongue for the Rich Man might very well have replied nay Father Abraham but they are not permitted to have Moses and the Prophets in such a Language as they can understand and therefore there is more need why one should be sent from the Dead to testifie unto them Nor would Abraham have said again if they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded For how should Men hear what they cannot understand so as to be perswaded by it It is evident then that our Saviour according to the Reasoning of this Parable takes it for granted that the Holy Scriptures are the standing and ordinary means of bringing Men to Faith and Repentance and that the People are to have the free use of them But since our Saviour's time the Church of Rome hath found a mighty inconvenience in this and therefore hath taken the Scriptures out of the Hands of the People They will not now let them have Moses and the Prophets the Gospel of our blessed Saviour and the Writings of his Apostles because they are really afraid they should hear them and by hearing of them be convinced and perswaded of the Errours and Corruptions of their Church but instead of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament they have put into their Hands a Legend of famous Apparitions of Men from the dead testifying unto them concerning Purgatory and Transubstantiation and the Worship of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints and the great benefit and refreshment which Souls in Purgatory have by the Indulgences of the Pope and the Prayers of the living put up to Saints and Angels on their behalf so that in the Church of Rome quite contrary to our Saviour's method Men are perswaded of their Religion of their New Articles of Faith and Ways of Worship not by Moses and the Prophets not by the Doctirne of the Holy Scriptures for they every where testifie against them but by absurd Romances and ill-contriv'd Fictions of Apparitions from the Dead I will dismiss this matter with this one Observation that however interested and confident Men may set a bold face upon any thing yet it cannot to considerate Men but seem a very hard case that there should be no Salvation to be had out of the Church of Rome and yet the ordinary and in our Saviour's Judgment the most effectual Means of Salvatioin are not to be had in it But I pass from this to that which does more immediately concern our Practice 2dly Let us hear and obey that publick Revelation of God's Will which in so much Mercy to Mankind he hath been pleased to afford to us This is an inestimable Privilege and Advantage which the World in many Ages was destitute of having no other Guide to conduct them to eternal Happiness but the Light of Nature and some particular Revelations which now and then God was pleased to make of his Will to Men But now God hath set up a great and standing Light in the World the Doctrine of the holy Scriptures and by the Gospel of his blessed Son hath given the knowledge of Salvation to all Men for the remission of their Sins through the tender Mercies of God whereby the day spring from on high hath visited us to give light to them that sat in darkness and in the shadow of death and to guide our feet into the way of peace to convince us of the Error of our ways and to direct us in our Duty We upon whom the ends of the world are come do enjoy all the Advantages of divine Revelation which the World ever had and as great as the World ever shall have God in these last days hath spoken unto us by his Son and if we will not hear him God will imploy no other extraordinary Prophet and Messenger to us If the wrath of God so clearly revealed from Heaven by the Gospel of our blesled Saviour against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of Men if the Terror of the great day and the fear of eternal Torment if the dreadful Sufferings of the Son of God for our Sins and the merciful offers of Pardon and Reconciliation in his Blood and the glorious hopes of eternal Life and Happiness will not prevail with us to leave our Sins and to amend our Lives we have no reason to expect that God should use any farther means to reclaim us that he should ever make any more Attempts for our Recovery And therefore 3dly and lastly Those who

Salvation of his Soul and the increase of his Glory and Happiness in another World as the Actions of a worldly Man and the whole Course of his Life do to the advancing of his worldly Interests The covetous or ambitious Man seldom do any thing to the best of their knowledge that is impertinent to their End much less contrary to it through every thing that they do one may plainly see the End they aim at and that they are always true to it Whereas the best Men do many things which are plainly cross and contrary to their End and a great many more which have no relatioin to it and when they mind it it is rather by fits and starts than in any even course and tenor of Actions And of this we have a famous instance in that worldly and secular Church which now for several hundreds of Years hath more steadily pursued the End of secular Greatness and Dominion than any other Church hath done the Ends of true Religion the Glory of God and the Salvation of the Souls of Men so that there is hardly any Doctrine or Practice peculiar to that Church and differing from our common Christianity but it hath a direct and visible tendency to the promoting of some worldly Interest or other For instance Why do they deny the People the Holy Scriptures and the Service of God in a language which they can understand but that by keeping them in Ignorance they may have them in more perfect Slavery and Subjection to them Why do they forbid their Priests to marry but that they may have no Interest distinct from that of their Church and leave all to it when they die To what end is Auricular Confession but to keep People in awe by the knowledge of their Secrets Why must the Laity only receive the Sacrament in one kind but to draw a greater Reverence to the Priest whose Priviledge it shall be to receive in both And why is the Intention of the Priest necessary to the efficacy of the Sacraments but to perswade the People that notwithstanding the gracious Intention of God toward Mankind they cannot be saved without the good will of the Priest The Doctrines of Purgatory and Indulgences are a plain device to make their Markets of the Sins and Souls of Men. I might instance in a hundred things more in that Church which are of the same tendency This St. John foretold should be the Character of the Spirit of Antichrist that it should be a worldly Spirit and the Doctrines of it should serve a Secular Interest and Design 1 John 4. 5. They are of the World and they speak from the World and the World hears them What Church is there in the World so true throughout to the interest of Religion as this worldly Church hath been to its own Secular Power and Greatness 2dly The Children of this world are wiser in the choice of Means in order to their End and this is a great part of Wisdom For some Means will bring about an End with less pains and difficulty and expence of Time than others And the Men of the World are very ingenious in discerning the fitness and force of Means to their several Ends. To what a certainty have Men reduced all the ways and arts of Gain and growing rich and of rising to Honour and Preferment What long Trains will Men lay to bring about their desired End What subtil methods have Men divised to insinuate themselves into Court and when they are there to plant themselves in the Eye of their Prince and in the Sunshine of his Favor and then they have as many ways of worming others out as of screwing themselves in But in the Concernments of our souls and the Affairs of another World how dull and injudicious are we and how awkardly and untowardly do we apply Means to Ends as if Men were only wise to do evil but to do good had no understanding as the Prophet complains By what incongruous and irregular Means do many who would seem to be and sometimes perhaps are very zealous in Religion endeavour as they think to promote God's Glory by pious Frauds and counterfeit Miracles and telling officious Lies for God What a compass do many Men fetch to go to Heaven by innumerable devices of will-Worship by voluntary Severities neither pleasing to God nor profitable to Men By tedious Pilgrimages and senseless Ceremonies and innumerable little external Observances of no Virtue and Efficacy in Religion and by wandring through a wilderness of Opinions and the bushes and brakes of unprofitable Questions and Controversies Whereas the way to Heaven lies plain and straight before us consisting in Simplicity of Belief and in Holiness and Innocency of Life Not but that there are great differences in the Church of Rome between the Secular Priests and and the Regular betwen the Jansenists and the Jesuits but they still unite in a common Interest and are subject to Antichrist their common Head They do not separate from one another and excommunicate one another and declare against one another that they are not of the true Church Satan never casts out Satan and tho' he love Divisions among Christians yet he always takes care that his own Kingdom be not divided against it self so as to endanger the Ruin of it And whenever they have any hopeful design for the extirpation of Protestants they can lay aside their Enmities and be reconciled in such a design Then the Pope and the Kings of the Earth take counsel together and like Herod and Pilate when Christ was to be crucified can be made Friends at a days warning Whereas the Divisions of the true Church are pernicious to it and as we see at this Day among our selves our senseless Differences and wild Heats on both sides do contribute to the setting up of Popery and the ruin of the Reformed Religion and yet no Perswasion no Experience can make us wiser 3dly The Children of this world are commonly more diligent in the Use of Means for the obtaining of their End they will sweat and toil and take any Pains rise up early and lie down late and eat the bread of Carefulness their thoughts are continually running upon their Business and they catch at every Oportunity of promoting it they will pinch Nature and harass it and rob themselves of their Rest and all the Comfort of their Lives to raise their Fortune and Estate What Drudges were Caesar and Alexander in the way of Fame and Ambition How did they tire themselves and others with long and tedious Marches To what Inconveniences and Dangers did they expose themselves and Thousands more What Havock and Destruction did they make in the World that they might gain to themselves the empty Title of Conquerors of it When the Men of the World engage in any Design how intent are they upon it and with what vigour do they prosecute it They do not counterfeit a Diligence and seen to be more serious and