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
A89135	Antichrist in man the Quakers Idol. Or a faithfull discovery of their ways and opinions by an eye and ear-witness thereof. Together with an answer and confutation of some dangerous and damnable doctrines justified, in a paper sent by them unto me: as also one of them taken with a lie in his mouth before the magistrates. / By Joshuah Miller, a servant of Christ in the work of the Gospel.	Miller, Joshua, 17th cent.	1655 (1655)	Wing M2061; Thomason E868_1; ESTC R207650	27,464	39

them forth which I deny for the spirit is given to every Beleever to profit withall 1 Cor. 12.7 though we have not the same measure of the spirit the Apostles had yet the Lord hath left us sufficient to understand the Scriptures by Hath the Lord left in the Church to that end Pastors and Teachers and have not they Gods spirit Eph. 4.8.11 Gal. 4.6 1 Cor. 12.3 but the truth is they would have no opening the Scripture at al as by their writing Pamphlets doth appear Whereas did not Ezra wade and give that sence of the Law Nehem. 8.7 8. did not Christ expound Isaiah 61.1 Luke 4.17.22 for all wondred at the gracious words that came from him which intimates he Preached from that Scripture So read Luke 24.27 after his resurrection he opened the Scriptures concerning himself Did not Philip Acts 8.32.35 expound Isaiah 55.7 to the Eunuch read also how many Scriptures Paul expounded and opened Acts 13.33 he opened the 2d Psalm as also Isaiah 55.3 so he gave the sence of Psal 16.10 Acts 13.36 when Paul was brought Prisoner to Rome he expounded both the Law and the Prophets Acts 28.23 So that what the Minister doth now in taking a Text and opening thereof is warranted by the former practises In that the Quakers say the Epistles was written to such a people in that they say true but what would they infer hence therefore they are not for us to use or Preach upon they may say the like of all the rest of the Scriptures but if they would have no interpretation of Scriptures what will they say of 2 Peter 3.6 who saith that in Pauls Epistles are many things hard to be understood which the unlearned and unstable wrest as they do other Scriptures to their own destruction whereby I gather that even in Pauls Epistles many things are mystical and must be opened in the spirit of wisedome Alas if no expounding Scriptures then wil they take these in the Letter John 3.4 How can a man be born again shall he enter again into his Mothers Womb Cut off thy right hand pull out thy right eye I have read of some that understood this in the letter did pul out their eye but if they had let it alone the Scripture had not been broken What misery fel upon the Jews because they did not better expound Christs words Destroy this Temple and I will raise it in three days I might call a Cloud of witnesses in this case Therefore let them say what they will God hath owned the way of expounding and opening Scriptures to the conversion of thousands as Seals to the Ministry And herein I blesse God I am not without witnesse in the hearts of some at this day yea some of them now turned enemies to truth have openly owned me as the instrument in Gods hand for their good I speak it with grief and to their shame to the intent if God will give them grace to repent of their errours and hypocrisie 2 Tim 2.25 Now I come to the fifth which you shall see whether they own or not 5. That which thou callest errour that we are not justified by faith upon Christs death and resurrection in what Christ hath purchased for us but by what Christ doth in us Answ To this they answer seemingly fair yet as the Pox Herod did to Christ so do they with the truth The Saints say they were justified by faith and its Christ that justifies and he that hath the faith of Christ lives in him But the faith and justification which stands in the comprehension and conceiving of Christ without will stand thee in no stead And thou that puts the Scriptures for the word art not justified at all but art under the condemnation and had not thou been a reprobate thou wouldst have known Christ in thee Confut. I confesse in this answer of theirs they contradict themselves often one while affirming and denying I know this before them that Christ is in the Beleever and that its that Christ justifies but not by his being in us for so they would have it by telling us that the faith which stands in the conceiving Christ without will stand us in no stead I wonder first how all the Patriarchs and Prophets was justified before Christ came but in conceiving Christ without And where did the Apostles teach such Chymical Doctrine as this so that to me this opinion of theirs totally rejects justification upon Christs death without us which is directly contrary to the following Scriptures Who was delivered for our offences and raised again for our justification Rom. 4.25 Being now justified by his blood we shall be saved from wrath through him Rom. 5.9 But now once in the end of the World hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself its needlesse to heap Scriptures to prove this which is as clear as the Sun What a riddle is that in Divinity for them to say we are justified by faith and that upon Christ within is this faith or sight what I have in poffession I need not beleeve I have it for I know it this is sence and not faith therefore they speak non-sence The Prophet tels us by his stripes we are healed but they make all Christ did but a Pattern and example which is an old heresie newly revived it seems all the faith of the Apostles will stand them in no stead by this Doctrine for they never did Preach justification by what 's done in us but by Christ without us read Rom. 5.10 Heb. 9.14.15 Alas what need Christ to have taken upon him our nature and suffer such mighty persecutions as he did if he hereby did not perfect Salvation for us or as if such a faith as lies upon his merits were invalid as the Quakers would make it I must tell you plainly that I had rather live amongst Heathens that never heard of Christ nor the Scripture then with such people who after they have had all their knowledge of God and Christ through the Scriptures and the preaching thereof should now vilifie them and blaspheme them Yea some pretend that they should have known as much if they had never read the Scriptures O detestable Doctrine and ungratefull men thus to despise the outward means of Salvation how many Saints of old and in Queen Maries dayes sacrificed their lives for this very truth now opposed What difference betwixt Popery and this opinion for that which he calls justification by works or inherent grace that they call Christ I make no question but the Pope will give them his blessing for this yea and Canonize them as Saints also Now Antichrist works 〈…〉 and is within men indeed I am sure if he be 〈◊〉 they are Mystical Antichrist John tels us that Antichrist was in the world in his time which was before the Pope or Pap●●● had a being many years 1 John 2.18 this of justification by a righteousnesse within us is mans grand Idol and

them prattle what they wil this testimony is unanswerable What word did Paul and Barnab is teach in the Synagogue but the Prophets Acts 13.5 2 Cor. 4 2. I doubt Atheism wil creep in by such unwholsom words So came in Popery yet to give them their due the Quakers was not the first that broached this opinion for Swenckfeldius that lived in the 16. Century denied the Scriptures to be the Word of God so that this is no new light but old errour raked up from his writings And let sober men judge whether this is not the next step to make doubt of the truth of the Scriptures and then we shall bee Heathens indeed 2. Take notice how they set Christ and the Scriptures at variance in saying the Scripture is one thing and the Word of God another thing do not they divide whereas Christ saith they testifie of him and as he and God are one so is Christ and the Scriptures one for they cannot be broken John 10.35 3. They compare all our knowledge of God by Scriptures to no better then that of the Heathens Inscription of the Altar So that by this monstrous opinion of theirs we first worship an unknown God while we do worship by the Scriptures Secondly it follows that its Idolatry to worship him by the Scriptures which saying to me is manifest blasphemy Yea thirdly we are all strangers to God that thus know him and we with all the Saints before us that knew God in and by the Scriptures are but Heathens and so in a damnable condition for these are their word And thou that knowest nothing of God but by the Scriptures thou art a stranger to God and his Word What need Paul exhort Timothy to give himself to reading if no knowledge of God was to be had thereby 1 Tim. 4.13 A Gentlewoman of repute whom I judge to be faithfull to Christ told me that one of them sought to dehort her from reading the Scriptures which it seems this opinion allows O how sad are these things that the Lord hath cast us in such an age wherein our ears shall hear one thus indeavour to pervert another had not the Quakers themselves all the knowledge they now abuse by the Scriptures O ungratefull men yet some will pretend they have all the Bible in them and they never read it which I dare boldly say is a lie with a witnesse And this leads me to the third opinion That spirits are not to be tried by Scriptures Answ And thou that sayest its an errour to say that spirits are not to be tried by Scriptures thou art in the error and doest manifest thy self that thou wouldest try the living by the dead Confut. The reason they give for this namely that God is called the searcher and trier of hearts this will stand them in no stead at all For I shall prove that the Scripture is the rule and touch of Doctrines by this-Argument Argum. If we are to receive no other Doctrine but what is a greeable to Scripture then the Scriptures are the trial of Doctrines But the Scriptures commands us to beleeve no spirit or Doctrine but according to them Ergo. The proof of the major resolves all and the Fabrick of this errour falls Isaiah 8.20 To the Law and to the Testimony if they speak not according to this word it s because there is no light in them What 's the Law and Testimony but Moses and the Prophets which was to be the rule of judging Doctrines And mark though men might pretend that they had a light in them and therefore would not bee tried by the Scriptures The Prophet plainly tels us The Church of Rome holds this opinion that spirits must not be tried by the Scriptures that it s no light at all it s rather a ground of darknesse in them And Luke did ill in those Quakers account to commend the Bereans for being so noble as to search the Scriptures to know and try Pauls Doctrine whether it was agreeable thereunto Acts 17.11 are we not bid to try the spirits and how must that be By a light in us O strange unheard of Doctrine yet why say I unheard of the old Enthusiast hold thus and thence came in visions and immediate revelations with him as doth begin now Some saying they have the Scripture by immediate Revelation Or we have a more sure word of the Prophets See Ursin chat p. 35. Let us view that word of 2 Peter 1.19 We have also a more sure word of Prophecy whereunto ye do wel to take heed as unto a light shining in a dark place untill the day dawn and day star arise in your hearts What 's this sure word of Prophecy Peter would have the Jews that were beleeving take heed to or keep but the Prophets which was more certain then any voices or revelations and therefore be carefull ye receive no other Doctrine but agreeable to the Scriptures How long must we take heed to them untill the dawn or day star arise that is untill Christ rise in and raise up your hearts to perfect glory for the day star and day dawning are the Ushers in of perfect day So to me the Scriptures is our rule till Christ bring us to the day of perfect glory where shall be no more night untill then keep to the Scriptures as the more sure word then all Visions or the like And this is safest for every man to suspect his own spirit and opinion that it s not from God if it concurs not with the Scriptures And this dark place is our hearts Verily I much fear that the next step such people will take wil be that they may write as Authentick Letters as the Apostle Paul and as good Scripture of this opinion was the old Cataphrygians from Montanus their Leader in the year of Christ 145. who held that he had a greater measure of the spirit then the Apostles had therefore might make new Scripture For the Scriptures being a dead Letter as they say we know how to understand better then they having been many years in Christ before most of them knew any thing of God For the Letter killeth not of it self but by an accident as Rom. 7.12 13 14. The fourth Errour they seem to own is that there ought to be no sence meaning nor expounding the Scripture to the people As to this as all the rest they begin as Conjurers do with many good words but in the middle lies the poyson when they say Answ And whilest thou puts meanings and sences to that which was given forth by the Holy Ghost doest not thou discover that thou hast not the same spirit that gave them forth for the Epistles and Writings of the Apostles was given to be read in such a place to such a people and not to make a Trade of them as thou doest Confut. In this they deny any interpretation of Scripture because say they we have not the same spirit that gave