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	word_n	write_a	3,648	5	10.7659	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63155	The Trial and condemnation of the two false witnesses unto the late Midnight-cry published by Mr. Mason, the author of that great present assembly in Buckinghamshire who are met together under a deluding expectation of Christ's coming to judgment on Whitsunday approaching : shewing of what dangerous consequence this may prove to the present government ...		1694 (1694)	Wing T2156; ESTC R37897	23,791	34

Heresie and to condemn their horrid Impiety and Blasphemy who pass their wicked Sentence of Irrevocable Damnation on whom they please so opposite to the End of Gods Severest Threatnings against the greatest Enemies of his Church throughout the Scripture making the Silly and Ignorant think They only are Heavens Secretaries of State and the Registers of Gods Vnalterable Decrees These Considerations I hope through Gods Blessing may Strengthen Comfort and Establish many poor Self-condemning Christians who under Hellish Suggestions and Temptations do entertain very unworthy apprehensions of the Eternal Infinite Goodness Mercy Justice Wisdom Truth and Love for God is Love 1 John 4. 8. And that we may rightly understand how his Irrevocable Decree for the Damnation of some can consist with Vnlimited Goodness and Love we are to consider that it is Grounded upon his Eternal Fore-knowledge of the wilful and final unbelief of all those from whom the most Just and Righteous Judge of all the Earth as Gen. 19. is pleased for most wise reasons never to be understood by us in this World to deny and withold Special Sanctifying Grace whose Sovereign Will and Pleasure herein is not the Real or Physical Cause of their final Impenitency or Damnation but only the Antecedent to that Infallible Consequent as the withdrawment of the Sun is the Antecedent of Darkness Jer. 2. 17. Hast thou not procured this unto thy self v. 19. Thy own Iniquity shall Correct thee Hos 13. 9. O Israel thy Destruction is of thy self but in me is thy help Yet lest we mistake on the other hand we are to know that Gods most Absolute and Sovereign Will to deny Sanctifying Grace to some which he gives to others is the Causa sine qua non for without this Will they had not perished but not the Physical or Natural Cause of their own Damnation because it doth not Actually Compel or Influence no not that Debile part of Man's Free-will that yet remains since the Fall unto any Sin And this is that VVill of God to save some and pass by others whom he pleaseth of which the Apostle speaks in Rom. 9. 19 c. which no Man ever did or ever can resist CONSIDERATION II. They to whom God was pleased to reveal most of his Secret Council throughout the Scripture have been Men of extraordinary Holiness and Exemplary Piety such who were to do or suffer beyond all or most others for the Testimony of the Word or for the Name and Glory of God THIS is so clear that it needs no words to confirm that wherein all Men are agreed And perhaps our Two Witnesses might consider that the Vnbelieving Age we live in would Question their Eminency for Sanctity coming only from their own Testimony of themselves and therefore may have endeavoured to persuade the World that they have set themselves apart for Martyrs speaking positively of their readiness to Sacrifice their Lives in the maintenance of this Article of their Christian Faith CONSIDERATION III. As to the way and manner of Gods Discovery of Judgments or Mercies we find it various in Scripture viz. by Apparitions Voices Angels Dreams Visions c. But it is the Vnanimous Opinion of Divines and other Solid and Vnderstanding Christians that every of those ways are long since Ceased 1. WHatever the Holy Prophets and Penmen of the Word speak in a way of Prediction as it had immediate relation unto Judgments yet what they foretold was always most Congruous unto the Tenour of Gods Covenant And here we might enlarge But to be brief we find throughout Sacred Writ that the Conditions of the Covenant are these 1st Severe Chastisement in case of a long continuance and growth in Sin and Obstinate Rebellion 2d Gods greater readiness to return to be Gracious even in the greatest height and aggravations of their Sins and under the seeming most Forlorn Circumstances than we can be to Repent and turn to him that so we all may be assur'd no State on this side Hell with respect unto Gods severe Indignation threatned is remediless and wholly desperate Now if our Two new Prophets are to be tryed by this Touchstone we may easily perceive what Spirit moves them unto such Presumption as to assure the World that our Nation though God knows a most wicked ●nd Rebellious People are past all Recovery or that it is Impossible God can or will give Repentance to us for so we are to conclude 〈◊〉 Judgment is Immediately and Irresistibly to overtake us By what ●pirit these Men are Acted let all Judge 2. The great End why God discovered himself by these Ways in his ●acred Predictions is now Ceased and therefore all such ways of ●iscovery since that time are Ceased with respect to any matter of ●ublick Prophecy relating to a City or Kingdom Now the great ●nd of Sacred Visions in the days of Old were 1st To beget a Holy ●we and Reverence in the Church towards those Persons whom God Selected out from many in and by whom to make an immedi●te discovery of his Mind and Will not thereby to lift them up who were more humble and more afflicted and less in their own and others Eyes than most good Men beside 2. That the Sacred Oracles of his VVord might be Sealed up thereby both to that present Age and to ●ll future even to the End of the World But we are not to expect ●●nce the Evangelists and Apostles any other Writings of the Immedi●te Inditement of the Holy Ghost as all theirs were And therefore to ●●tertain any Men as Prophets raised up by his Immediate Inspiration to ●ublish any Predictions unto a City or Nation of as Infallible Certainty as 〈◊〉 written VVord and how much more then when the Matter ●●ey foretel is contrary to the Tenour of all Scripture Threatnings ●hich never excludes a Possibility of avoiding the Judgment by Repen●●●ce is to offer high Indignity to God himself and to his written ●ord and to all the Holy Prophets and Penmen thereof 3. This written VVord St. Peter makes to be a more sure and safe 〈◊〉 for the Church to walk by than that Voice of the Father which was ●●●rd by him and Two more of Christs Disciples and Favourites James 〈◊〉 John at our Saviours Transfiguration on the Mount although it 〈◊〉 from the most excellent Glory and confirmed the Truth which was Testified throughout the whole Scripture and is one of the most importa●● Articles of our Faith viz. that Christ was the Father's beloved Son a●●sent among us that we should Hear him preaching to us 2 Pet. 1. 1 〈◊〉 18 19. But we have a more sure VVord of Prophecy c. A famo● Text to assure us how eminently God hath honoured his written wor●●● Which confutes the pretended Authority of Rome's Tradition and al● of any who would impose their Impulses and Impressions on the Worl● as if they were to be reverenced like the holy Scripture 4. All that before hath been said doth not gainsay but that

Dreams or Visions have mad● on that poor deluded Multitude who will find their expectation frustrated in few days to their real shame and confusion of ●●ce For how can They who proceed so directly opposite unto the whol● Sense and Tenour of Scripture Threatnings in all the most severe and positive Comminations against the greatest Sinners which always intend a Condition or purpose of Revocation upon Repentance and are denounced for that great End and not to drive Men or Nations as Ward and Evans have done into the Gulph of Desperation c. I say how is it likely these Ignorant and Presumptuous false Prophets can be sent of God And whether these Brain-sick Impostors who have thus strangely Transformed the Infinite Patience and Goodness of God into false Notions Dreams or Impulses of their own head and which Three Years experience have abundantly demonstrated to be false and also dangerous even to the present Governmeut by strengthning the hands of our common Enemy who watcheth for all such Occasions ●nd weakning the minds of many who otherwise would strenuously ●nd unanimously oppose that Inundation threatning all our ruine whether these Men are likely to be the Two Silver Trumpets for Proclaiming the Great Jubilee or the Second Coming of our Blessed Saviour unto Judgment beginning his Glorious Kingdom here on Earth 〈◊〉 St. Paul had the right apprehensions of that Time 2 Tim. 4. 1. And believe it the great Midnight-Cry Mat. 24. will be of another Nature and Effect both on the True Church of Christ and the Apostate State of Christianity those Wise and Foolish Virgins who both awoke arose and Trimm'd their Lamps at this Alarm Having given this necessary Precaution to undeceive the deluded Multitude who are met together in a great Assembly in Buckingham-shire expecting The Appearance of Christ to Judgment on Witsunday now immediately approaching according to Mr. Masons limited Time in his Dream or Vision which being to expire so speedily as a Week or a Fortnights time will be soon confuted and therefore needs no other Arguments thereunto but the short Event We shall therefore leave that Fraternity to their honest meaning Mr. Mason's Apprehensions which is like to prove no other than the Embraces of Juno in a Cloud c. and cast a more stedfast Eye on the aforesaid Ward and Evans those Two deceived Witnesses c. that so we may rightly inform our selves of what Complexion they are and of what deep and ●hastly Lineaments their Proteus-like Countenance is Composed who ●o speak the Truth in one Word do seem to cast something like a ●ontempt on the Articles of the Christian Faith and also on the Spirits ●●fallible Testimony and on the Sacred Symbols of Christianity or ●●ose Seals of the Covenant of Grace by making their Whimsical ●mpulses equal thereunto if not preferring them before the ●●me That which follows on this Subject is Written in a Letter to a Friend Proving That the most Tremendous and most Positiv● Judgments of God in Scripture denounced against Persons Cities 〈◊〉 Nations do not lay them under an absolute Necessity of continuin● Impenitent or of Perishing under the same Doom exceeding useful bot● for Sinners of the greatest Obduracy as well as for such who ar● Wounded under the sense of their Guilt and tempted to Despair● who may here clearly behold the Nature of Gods most Simple and I●●fallible Decree touching the Damnation of every Self-reprobating Sin●ner and how it becomes the Antecedent unto but not the Physic●● Cause of their Damnation which Destruction is therefore possible to 〈◊〉 Prevented taken in a Simple and Physical sense and consideration 〈◊〉 Man as a Rational and free Agent whose Will was never forced 〈◊〉 Prenecessitated to do Evil meerly from Gods Decree as the Effect tha● follows its Cause although this Decree grounded on his foresigh● of Mans Self-Reprobation as also his Decree for peculiar Election whic● is grounded on no Good in Man foreseen admits of no Frustration These weighty Matters with some other considerations of grea● Moment are on this occasion here briefly and clearly handled even to the apprehension of the meanest Capacities and the Judgme●● of all such whose Education-Light or Interest or Partial and blin● Respect of Persons hath not cast a Mist on their Understandings a●● the Arguments are Solid and Orthodox agreeable to the Doctrin 〈◊〉 the Church of England and the Consent of the Universality of D●●vines beyond the Seas and above all to the whole Ten●ur of 〈◊〉 Scripture throughout all its parts A LETTER to a FRIEND On the Occasion of Mr. MASONS's Midnight-Cry AND Those Two false Prophets who most boldly Presumed to Comment thereupon from their Whimsies and Impulses being the Forerunner of and Preparative unto the said Mr. Masons late Deluding Vision which hath gathered such a great Concourse of People in Buckingham-shire to the disturbance of the World Sir SEeing you have been pleased to ask my Opinion of that Book lately published by T. W. and V. E. who call themselves the Two Witnesses to the Midnight-Cry it 's one small part of the Duty and Honour I owe you to Comply with this Request though I ●ave at present something on my hands which hinders me from gi●ing such an ample Answer as otherwise I might I was in expectation to find some extraordinary thing in that Midnight-Cry not knowing at first sight but this might be that Cry ●retold in Matth. 25. 6. which all agree is to be the Prodromus of Christ's Second Coming immediately to ensue thereon upon which Alarum the Text expresly tells us 1st That the Wise and foolish Virgins who were both asleep Awoke 2d Both these Virgins Trimmed their Lamps 3d. The Foolish go to the Wise for Oyl to furnish their Extinguished Lamps 4th Being repulsed they go to buy Oyl where it was to be sold and while they went to buy The Bridegroom came When I see such a grand effect or something like it throughout the Christian World made up of Wise and Foolish Virgins and that it receives its Life and Influence from this late Midnight Cry I shall be Induced to consider if not to conclude that this Alarum is likely to be That of which our Saviour spoke in the Text before In the mean time the Author thereof doubtless had very Pious Ends in Publishing a Warning to us all so useful and seasonable at all times That the Sins of England and particularly of this City are very great beyond all others in the World besides if we consider the heinous Aggravations we lye under with respect of that clear Sun-shine of Gospel-Light which we enjoy and the many wonderful Mercies and Deliverances God hath wrought out for us beyond what he hath done for others and the many Warnings we have had by several great Judgments both of Plague Fire Earth-quakes War c. and our great Incorrigible Frame growing rather worse and worse under All and therefore that we may have great cause to fear and expect some