Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	rule_n	tradition_n	unwritten_a	2,845	5	12.5918	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66408	The perfection of the evangelical revelation a sermon preached at St. Martins in the Fields, Jan. 6, 1695/6, being the first of the lecture for this present year, founded by the Honourable Robert Boyle, Esquire / by John Williams ...	Williams, John, 1636?-1709.	1696 (1696)	Wing W2717; ESTC R38655	14,734	36

From which Case by a parity of Reason we may argue That whatever alters the Terms and Conditions of the Gospel and makes that necessary to Salvation which the Gospel has not made necessary or that unnecessary which the Gospel has made necessary is such a perverting it as makes it another Gospel For that is to set up that as a Divine Revelation which hath not the Divine Authority to confirm it For it is God alone that can appoint the Terms of Salvation and so what no man or Society of men has any Authority in to frame alter or revoke The necessary Articles of Faith and Instances of our Duty must have a Divine Establishment and so what we must learn either from the invariable Principles and Dictates of Human Nature or pure Revelation 2. That is another Gospel which pretends to a Revelation from God for its Authority when it is of Human invention or imagination And that whether for the matter of it it be true or false It may for the matter of it be true and yet not be a Revelation but proceed only from men and then to place that to the account of Revelation though it be for the matter of it true is a notorious falshood and Imposture But if for the matter of it it be false it 's a double Falshood as it pretends to a Revelation which is not Revelation and also calls in the Veracity of God to give testimony to a falsehood Supposing then that the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary Transubstantiation and Purgatory are true yet to plead a Revelation for them as it is pleaded in the Church of Rome if there were no such Revelation doth fix such an indelible blot upon the pretended Infallible Church as all the Water of Tiber cannot cleanse But if it should prove false as those things certainly are then it is to add a sort of Blasphemy to the Imposture as it makes the God of Truth to justify a Falshood 3. That is another Gospel which doth establish another Rule or adds to or detracts from that which is established Rev. 22. 18. Now the Scripture is the Rule of Faith and Practice and then to alter the Rule by adding to it or taking from it is to alter the Gospel which that contains the Revelation of as they do in the Church of Rome who not only add the Apocrypha to the Canon but as the Pharisees of old give the same Authority to Unwritten Tradition as to the Scripture and require it to be received with the like pious regard according to the Council of Trent Lastly To alter to add to or diminish from the Fundamental Articles or Principles of it is to make it another Gospel as it is to deny Christ to be a Mediator or to appoint other Mediators than him such as Angels and Saints By so doing the Gospel is rendred as imperfect and the Scripture as an imperfect Revelation of it But this there is no occasion for as I shall now shew by proving That 3. The Gospel or Revelation made known to the World by Jesus Christ is always to continue th e same and no new or other Revelation is to be expected This was the Sum of the last Lecture and is to be the remaining Subject of this There have been such in several Ages of the Church both anciently and of late that have pretended to new Revelations and that there was a more perfect Dispensation to ensue than what was contained in the Gospel Of this Opinion were the Montanists of old and of this mind seems to have been Abbas Joachim who flourished about the Year 1200. And what was also expresly maintained in the Evangelium Aeternum or Everlasting Gospel chiefly taken out of the Works of Joachim and published by the Mendicant Fryars about 1254. Wherein it was affirmed That the Doctrine of that Abbot excelled that of Christ * That the Gospel of Christ was to give way to another Gospel called the Everlasting Gospel or Gospel of the Holy Ghost And this was a Doctrine spread far and near among the Beguardi in Germany the Alumbrados in Spain and the Fratricelli in Italy c. The Spawn of which continued for a long season in several parts and in some till Ann. Dom. 1560 who all agreed that their Doctrine came from God by as immediate Inspiration as ever the Gospel of Christ did I deny not but that there may be some particular Revelation or Inspiration with respect to some especial Case But as it may arise for ought we know from imagination so if it be not attended with great caution and circumspection may end in the Whims and Frenzies of a Brigit a Catharina or a Mother Juliana and what not Nay it may proceed to the disannulling the Gospel it self and to the preferring their own Inspirations as they will have it above it But supposing it to be true that there may be now some particular Inspirations from God in such special cases yet it is to be supposed that they are agreeable to the Gospel Revelation but if once they contradict it it can be no more a true Revelation than the Gospel can be false and yet such must be a Revelation that will make the Gospel to cease in its obligation and to be of no more Authority to Mankind than the Law of Moses When the obligation arises not from the nature of the thing but from positive Institution it is in the power of the Lawgiver to bind or loose to establish or evacuate a Law as he thinks fit And thus it was in the Law of Moses which consisted of things typical that had a special reference to that people and the place of their Habitation c. Such were the distribution of the Tribes the preservation of their Genealogies their three great Festivals their Sabbatical Year and Year of Jubile c. Of this temporary nature also were the Ceremonies of the Law which either had a relation to the Customs of the Nations conterminous to them or to a more perfect State that was in process of time to succeed it The Laws relating to which could not be supposed to be of any force when They were excluded that Land and the Tribes were lost and confounded no more than the Laws relating to the Wilderness and the Tabernable could oblige them when they were setled in Canaan and that they had a Temple erected there And therefore the phrase for ever when annexed to the Constitution must have a laxer interpretation accordingly allowed which was That it should continue to oblige as it follows often where that Phrase is used throughout their generations that is whilst they were that People so embodied and so situated And had the Gospel consisted of such things that were thus mutable in themselves or thus peculiar to any People Time or Place there might be reason to admit it to be temporary and to be evacuated when time should serve as the Law was But