Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	prove_v	scripture_n	true_a	7,056	5	5.8469	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42450	An examination of the case of the Quakers concerning oaths propounded by them, A.D. 1673, to the consideration of the King, and both Houses of Parliament : with a vindication of the power of the magistrate to impose oaths, and the liberty and duty of all Christians to swear by God reverently : humbly submitted to the judgment of His Most Sacred Majesty, and the two Houses of Parliament / by Charles Gataker ...	Gataker, Charles, 1614 or 15-1680.	1675 (1675)	Wing G305; ESTC R40267	35,338	42

that our Saviour said plainly and severely that except your Righteousness exceed beyond that of the Scribes and Pharisees Math. 5.20 ye shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven that is ye cannot be Subjects of the Kingdom of the Messiah which now ye long to see Mark that Christ spake then to the Jews who were carried away with a reverence and esteem of the Scribes and Pharisees who partly enervated partly made void the Law of Moses by their new Traditions and false Interpretations Christ recovers the Law of Moses as it was expounded by the Prophets who preferred a Spiritual Obedience and sincere Righteousness and charitable Mercy before Sacrifices from noval corruptions and recommends it explain'd by himself to them who delighted to be counted the Disciples of Moses He propounds no superabundant Righteousness beyond the Law which cannot be exceeded in a tittle For there is nothing imaginable in the way of Righteousness as it imports a conformity of Man's Will unto God's Will beyond the loving of God with all the Heart Soul Vnderstanding Matt. 22.37.40 and Strength and the loving of our Neighbor as our self on which two Commandments all the Law and the Prophets do depend These Christ came neither to make void nor to improve by any new Precept of Righteousness The Righteousness of God by Faith which is now fully and clearly revealed in the Gospel Rom. 1.17 3.21 22. is another thing far different from the inherent and active Righteousness which Christ in his Sermon so earnestly recommends to his new-come Auditors The conceit that Christ made up the defects of the Law and laid a yoke of more exact Righteousness upon Christians than Moses laid upon the Jews yet Papists say we may take up or refuse at pleasure because all these pretended additions which we may find as easily in the Old Testament as in the New are not Commandments but Counsels hath bred many pernicious errors and practises in the Church The Popish way of taking Christs additional Ordinances as they conceive for Counsels leading to a state of Perfection above common Christians hath begot the Doctrine of Works of Supererogation of Merit of Monkery and all the Superstitions and Frauds depending upon them The Phanatick way of false expounding Christs interpretations of the Old Law for New Precepts obliging all Christians hath put Anabaptists and others upon the conceit that the use of the Sword in the Magistrates hand and in the Soldiers and also Swearing is altogether inconsistent with Christianity But let it be considered whether it is likely that Christ would engage his raw Disciples to break the Law of Moses and in a refractory manner to disobey their Magistrates by refusal of Oaths which might be exacted of them almost every day Certainly if his Doctrine had been such and any number of his Disciples had been obedient to his new Law his adversaries who took much pain to little purpose in suborning witnesses against Christ might with ease have found ground enough of accusation and plenty of Witnesses who heard and practised his Doctrine or in their Courts saw it observed if Christs words had been taken at that time in the same sense as the Quakers do now to have overwhelmed our Saviour with the charge of abrogating Moses's Law Lastly is it imaginable that Christ our Blessed Lord and Master would so prevaricate as not to observe and practise what he taught and preached to his Disciples But our Blessed Saviour whom these Seducers affirm to have forbidden Swearing in a Court at the Command of a Magistrate and to have made this abstinence from Oaths a degree of Perfection above the Righteousness of the Law did himself at the great Council at Hierusalem after long and strange silence give an answer to the High Priest being required to speak upon his Oath and he submitted to the High Priest's adjuration by confessing himself to be Christ The High Priest as if he would use a Spiritual Rack to extort a confession from his silent Prisoner said I adjure thee by the living God Mat. 24 63. that thou tell us whether thou be the Christ the Son of God The form of the Oath is pronounced by the Judge himself with the Matter inquired for Our Saviour's answer of assent is a taking of the Oath Thus Christ did and that he taught the contrary is contrary to Reason and to the sense of our Saviours Sermons who therein secures the Law of Moses to a Tittle and excludes from Heaven Matt. 5 17 18 19 any one that teaches the breach of the least Commandment in the Law Surely if his Auditors had then understood their new Master to have abrogated all the Precepts of Moses concerning Oaths in Judicature especially they would have accused him of contradicting himself and of disparaging Moses and of vilifying the Law of God and in that humor would have deserted him But it is evident that our Saviours Doctrine had a powerful Influence upon them another way Matt. 7 28 29. to raise their Wonder and Reverence of his Authority above that of the Scribes and Pharisees But the knotty question is not yet untied For it is said by many If our Saviour did not fill up as they expound 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Defects or the Shortness of the Law in points of Righteousness why doth he oppose his sayings to what was said of old in the Law and settle a new Rule of Righteousness Here lies the difficulty which I pray God direct me to clear First I say that the common exposition of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by fulfilling as the Evangelist uses it Matt. 3.15 when he relates our Blessed Saviours Speech wherewith he satisfied John the Baptist concerning Baptizing his Master Thus it becometh us to fulfil all Righteousness is very pertinent and apposite to the former member of the Sentence as much as 't is agreeable to the Truth For Christ that came to destroy the works of the Devil 1 Joh. 3.8.6.5 and to take away sin which is the breach of the Law by his Holy Life and Doctrine and by his expiatory Sacrifice might truly and fitly say he came not to destroy the Law and the Prophets but to fulfil them And to reject this Sense of Christs words without manifesting the incongruity of it is an injurious dealing with Scripture On the other side the expounding of it Filling up or Supplying is supposed to be true before it is proved whereas it is not so agreeable to the opposition set between 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Certainly Filling up by Addition is not so directly opposite to the destruction of the Law and Prophets as Fulfilling them is which strengthens their Authority and Credit But let these Men who are so earnest for Christs improvement of the Law by addition of more excellent Precepts of exact Purity and heroick Patience shew how he hath supplied the defects of the Prophets