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
B08260	Advice to those who never received the sacrament, or, The true penitent instructed before, at, and after the receiving the Lord's Supper with meditations suited to the several parts of that solemn ordinance, particularly with respect to Easter, Whitsuntide and Christmas, the whole written in a different method from any thing published on this subject / By a person of honour.		1697 (1697)	Wing A665A; ESTC R172108	102,688	248

Glory can intend by puzelling themselves and every Body else with their pretentions to more Reason than God has given them I can't imagine unless under the disguise of Charity to our Reason they would subvert our Religion and by pretending to bring the sublime Truths of God's Word to our understanding they would Ridicule the hidden things of God and so open a way for Atheism and Insidellity by denying first that there is any thing which our reason can't comprehend and then that there is nothing in the Scripture but what can easily be understood This is to make our Reason not the Scripture a rule of Salvation and when once our sense is to judge of these Divine Truths all of them that we can give a Mathematical Account of must be rejected And yet that there are such truths of which they can have no Idea is certain and after all they must own that either they are not to be understood and yet believed or else that they are Non-sence and contradiction which is an impudence they dare not publickly own and what would be fatal to their designs for the Socinian needs only appear in his proper Colour to make him abhor'd and rejected by all and lookt upon as an Enemy to God Religion and the common sence of Mankind But there is yet another sort who pretend an Obedience to the Gospel of Christ and yet make that easie rule of Salvation so confused and perplex'd that either they dare not or cannot give an account of their Faith Their principles if they have any are as unaccountable to themselves as to the World and they agree in nothing so much as to oppose the plain sense of the Scripture that Baptism and the Lord's Supper are positive Institutions the one to be perform'd by Water in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost and the other by Bread and Wine in remembrance of our Saviour's Death and Sufferings are as plainly and positively commanded as any one thing in the Scripture That the Apostles and primitive Christians made it their Practise is capable of the same proof as the Scriptures themselves they went about Preaching the Lord Jesus and Baptising all that believed in his Name and the condition of Salvation in those days was Faith Repentance and Baptism that to strengthen People in their Faith they meet on the first day in the Week to break Bread and St. Paul is very careful to instruct our Behaviour that we might receive the Bread of the Lord worthily Yet notwithstanding this as if an aukerd Gravity and sullenness of Behaviour were to pass for Authority they pretend by a New Light to another understanding of the Scripture and impudently prevert that Sense which the Christian Church for 1600 Years and more submitted too So unwilling are they to go to Heaven in the steps of their Fathers that they prefer every wild Enthusiastick Notion to the written Word of God and so fearful of following the Examples of Tradition that each Man sets up for a Rule to himself they have no Priests as well as no Sacraments no settled constitution of a Church and are so little observers of St. Paul's Command to do all things with Decency and Order as if he did not speak it by the Spirit but to gratifie his own Superstition they live as if the Gospel was all Privilege and no Duty are Enemies to a form in Divine Worship and in spight of the Scripture which commands Women to be in silence will needs have them for Speakers among them thus do they play at cross purposes with the Word of God and by their Obstinancy and Fantasticalness make it of none effect But there is an Argument against them which they never thought fit to answer and till they can must be thought Enemies to the Gospel of Christ An Ordinance once enjoyn'd and never repeal'd is still in force but Baptism by Water was once enjoyn'd but never repeal'd Ergo and so of the Lord's Supper and what ever else is accounted an Ordinance in the Church of God and all that lies upon us to prove is That what we assert is an Ordinance and was enjoyn'd by lawful Authority and this is what the Scriptures prove themselves and what has been strengthen'd by the Arguments and Practise of the Church down to this day So that if there is any such thing as Unbelievers false Teachers and denyers of the Doctrine of Christ and his Apostles we may find them in this wretched Sect of pretenders to Christianity But now among these who have no knowledge of the Truth or hold it in Unrighteousness or put Godliness into a Form to draw the ridicule and scorn of the World it s no wonder to meet with them Debauch'd or fill'd with Pride Conceit and Devillishness or Deceitful trusting in themselves Hypocrites turning the truth of God into a lie But that we who are Born in a Nation where the true Religion is Established by Law and have all the Advantages which God can give us to make us Happy Our Church teaching us the form of sound Words once deliver'd to the Saints and makes the Word of God her Rule of Faith the Example of the Apostles and Primitive Fathers her Guide and her constitution such as Decency directs that we in the midst of such assistances should fail of the end of Creation and in the spight of God's Grace and Mercy deprive our selves of everlasting Happiness by living in Disobedience to this Church in contradiction to the word of God and in defiance of what our reason tells us is both our interest and duty Whence is this hardness of heart that Men forget they were Baptised and live as if they never heard of Religion Let us all put the Question to our selves and see whether one Reason of this Stupidity and Wickedness is not from our Neglect in the Education of those committed to our Charge We are dedicated to God and Religion as soon as Born according to the command of our Saviour but since most of us are borought to the Church when through our tender Years we are not capable to judge nor perform what is required of us The Church according to an Ancient Prescription has appointed Sureties in our behalf they solemnly Engage for us till we come to an Age that we are able to take care of our selves Whence is it then that notwithstanding this Prudent care of the Church so few are bred up to those Pious Rules prescribed in our Baptism and how many less when they come to Age think themselves bound to perform what was vow'd in their Names Do they who are God-fathers perform their part Do they endeavor early to instruct their Children and inform them to what advantages they are Born that they promised by them who are their Sureties to perform their duty to God and their Neighbour that now they are able they are to be accountable for their own Actions and take upon them that Solemn Engagement to

the sins of the World and this he declared as soon as Man had sin'd and continued to inculeate this Goodness in the minds of Men by his Prophets who continually declare the mercy of God which should appear to bring Salvation this is what Abraham believed and 't was imputed unto him for Righteousness for he saw the Day and was Glad This was it that was typifyed by the Ceremonies of the Law that every time they Sacrificed and Worshipped in the Temple they might have something to put them in mind of their Messia whom they expected and who was called the Wonderful Counsel or the mighty God the everlasting Father the Prince of Peace that his Office was to visit and redeem his People Thus did God prepare the way for his Son that we might reverence him and though his Dignity was thus great yet he was to be rejected and dispised by Men smitten of God that the Chastisement of our Peace might be upon him and by his Stripes we might be Healed This indeed was wonderfull and what proved a stumbling block to the Jews and foolishness to the Gentiles and what they who in this Age continue to deny the Lord who bought them think very Ridiculous But however merry these Gentlemen of that Perswasion are with the price of their Salvation I believe it would startle them to have it seriously put to them whether they renounce the merits of that Cross which they dispise or the Name into which they were Baptized we are certain it can be no jesting matter if the Scriptures don't err concerning Him for they tell us he died for our sins and rose again for our justification and that without him we have no life in us that he is our Advocate and was made a propitiation for our Sins and yet that he was from Eternity for he came down from Heaven and was in the Beginning and was with God and was God and yet became Flesh and dwelt among us that even in this State he was worthy of Divine Honour by virtue of that Union in him of the Divine and Humane Nature that he was Alpha and Omega that in the beginning he laid the Foundations of the Earth and all the Sons of God shouted for joy therefore let us take heed to the things which we have heard least at any time we let them slip and then How shall we escape if we neglect so great Salvation And who then can deny that this Jesus as the Scriptures explain it is God manifest in the Flesh to whom be Glory for ever And yet there are a sort of Men who set up themselves in contradiction to this Mystery of Godliness and fancy by searching they can find out the Almighty to perfection who pride themselves in Reason and think it a disparagement for any thing to be above their Knowledge They are so refin'd in their Notions that they can see no difference between a thing being above their reason and being contrary to it They are so great Masters that not to understand a thing or its being repugnant in its self are the same thing for with them all is Non-scence and contradiction which they don't comprehend when at the same time they can't give an account of themselves and yet would be thought to understand every thing else The Scripture more perticularly is their Talent and if we can believe them there is nothing like a Mystery in it but they can easily comprehend all or as easily deny That our Saviour was conceived by the Holy Ghost and Born of a Virgin is possitive in the Scriptures but what they never yet made easie to our conceptions but in such a manner as gives the lie to the Prediction and wretchedly perverts the Sense of the Scripture by leaving it more perplex'd and above our reach than 't is of it self That he was the express Image of the Father and therefore to him every Knee should bow that all Power in Heaven and Earth was given unto him and therefore if we do not believe in him shall be Damn'd That he came out from God and that he and the Father are one and therefore is able to hear our Prayers and has promised if we ask of him he will give us and yet that took upon him the form of a Servant is what God has Testified and what he thought was not too much for our sake though in himself he thought it not Robery to be equal with God and of this there are three that bear Record in Heaven the Father the Word and the Holy Ghost and that these three are one and into this truth are we commanded to be Baptized for 't was his will that all Nations should be Taught and Baptised in the Name of the Father Son and Holy Ghost these are all infallible Truths whether they understand them or not if they cannot then there are Mysteries and what they must believe without knowing any more than that God with whom all things are possible has said it and if we would be saved must believe that we have all sin'd and stand in need of a Saviour is what our Reason and Scripture informs us the Person and Dignity of this Saviour the Scripture possitively asserts and if that be true he could not be less than God that undertook our Redemption and that had those peculiar attributes belonging to him but how he the God-head and Man-hood was united in him is not what his Wisdom has thought fit to reveal and what our finite understanding is not capable of and what is not necessary to our Salvation that we should know but believe So that the Controversie seems to be this whether God can oblige us to believe what we can't comprehend And whether he has not obliged us already to a Faith which must be obedient to his word till they can prove to our reason that either of these are untrue or impossible Let it suffice us to h ld fast the Faith in which we are bred up and only believe as much as God has been pleased to reveal and have regard to what the Scripture say concerning him through whom are are to have everlasting Life Thus much is certain and what I think to be an unanswerable Argument and a just account of the Christian Belief which a Great Divine of our Church has lately offer'd That the Foundation of the Doctrine of the Trinity is this First That there can be but one God Secondly That there is nothing in God but what is God Thirdly That there can be no composition in the Deity with any such positive real Being distinct from the Deity it self But the Church finding in Scripture mention of three to whom distinctly the God-head belongs expressed these three by the Name of Persons and stated their Personallity upon three distinct Modes of subsistance allotted to one and the same God-head and these also distinguished from one another by three distinct Relations And now what designs these Traducers of the Lord of