Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	love_n	receive_v	unrighteousness_n	1,627	5	10.8118	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61596	Scripture and tradition compared in a sermon preached at Guild-Hall Chapel, Novemb. 27, 1687 / by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1688 (1688)	Wing S5632; ESTC R14282	19,664	34

the Church might be furnished with a full Relation of all that was necessary to compleat and establish the Faith of Christians 2. As to the Epistles The first Epistle we read of in the Christian Church and in probability the first writing in the New Testament was the Decretal Epistle of the Council of Ierusalem What should make the Apostles put these Decrees into Writing They were very short and concerned the practices of Men and withal were sent by Barnabas and Paul and Iudas and Silas Were not these sufficient to deliver the Apostles sense to the Churches without Letters from them What a pitiful thing did they take Oral Tradition to be if they thought such Men could not by it give full satisfaction to the Churches of Syria and Cilicia unless they sent it under their hands The Epistle to the Romans was written by St. Paul on purpose to clear some main points of the Christian Doctrine which were then warmly disputed between the Jews and the Christians and between the Judaizing Christians and others as about Iustification Rejection of the Iews the difference of Meats c. And St. Paul took very needless pains in writing that excellent Epistle if he knew of Christs appointing a Iudge of Controversies there or if he thought Writing were not a certain way to make a Rule of Faith whereby they were to judge in those matters The first Epistle to the Corinthians was written not meerly to reprove their Factions and Disorders but to direct them and to establish and prove the Faith of the Resurrection which was then contested among them The Epistle was sent by Stephanus and Fortunatus who could have carried the Apostles sense without his Writing but there are many weighty things besides the particular occasions which are of lasting concernment to the Church in all Ages as there are likewise in his second Epistle to them The Epistle to the Galatians was written on occasion of one of the greatest points of controversy at that time viz. the Use and Obligation of the Law of Moses And St. Paul sound by sad experience among them that it was very possible for those who had the best Instructions either to forget them or to grow out of Love with them and to be fond of a change else he would never have said O foolish Galatians who hath bewitched you that ye should not obey the Truth And I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into the Grace of Christ into another Gospel How was it indeed possible for them to be removed and to be soon removed who had received the Faith by the Delivery of St. Paul himself Then for all that I can see human Nature taken with all its Advantages and Motives and Evidences is a very sallible thing and if then it might be deceived and that so easily and grosly then much more in any following Age of the Church unless human Nature be mightily changed for the better since the Apostles times or any Teachers since be more effectual than the Apostles and especially than St. Paul who laboured more abundantly than they all The Epistle to the Ephesians though written upon a general Argument yet doth suppose that they were in continual danger of being deceived and tossed up and down and carried about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of Men and cunning craftiness whereby they lie in wait to deceive And therefore he advises them to be upon their guard and to have their Armour about them and one choice part of it is the Sword of the Spirit which is the Word of God. The Philippians were assaulted by a rude violent head-strong Faction of Judaizers which the Apostle bids them to beware of and writes his Epistle to them for that purpose and he exhorts them to stand fast in one Spirit with one mind striving together for the Faith of the Gospel In the second Epistle to the Thessalonians and in both Epistles to Timothy he gives notice of a great Defection from the Christian Faith he describes the manner of it that it shall be with signs and lying words and with all deceiveableness of unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth that they shall speak lies in hypocrisie and forbid to marry and command to abstain from meats being evil men having a form of godliness and denying the power of it I meddle not now with the time when this Apostacy began but from hence it is evident that St. Paul supposed that those who at first received the Christian Faith by Tradition from the Apostles themselves might notwithstanding through their own weakness and folly and the Artifices of Deceivers be drawn from it and that to prevent such mischievous consequences he knew no better means than a Written Rule which he tells Timothy was able to make him wise to Salvation and to make the Man of God perfect throughly furnished to every good Work. And to name no more the Colossians were set upon by some who thought to refine Christianity or at least to make it more passable in the World and therefore would have introduced into it some Rites of the Jews some Austerities of the Gentiles some ways of Worship which would recommend them to their Adversaries and upon this occasion he writes this Epistle to them to convince them that Christianity alone was far beyond any mixtures of the Fancies or Traditions of men and therefore he could give them no better Advice than as they had first received the Doctrine of Christ to continue in it or in the words of the Text As they had received Christ Iesus the Lord so to walk in him The design of what I have said is that although the Gospels and Epistles were written upon particular occasions yet those occasions were so great and considerable and the Assistance of the Holy Ghost did so direct the Hands and Pens of the Evangelists and Apostles in writing them that what they have therein delivered contains a compleat Rule of the true and genuine Faith as it was at first delivered to the Church But against this it is objected that St. Paul himself charged the Thessalonians to stand fast and hold the Traditions which they have been taught either by word or by his Epistles From whence it appears that there were other Traditions to be held that were not written The force of all this will be taken away if we consider when that Epistle was written viz. one of the first which St. Paul wrote and soon after the former Epistle to the Thessalonians which was some time before St. Lukes Gospel which was first received in the Churches of Greece planted by St. Paul. Therefore all the proper Doctrine of Christ himself and all that relates to his Life and Actions were then but Traditions among them and therefore St. Paul had great Reason then to require them to stand