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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	church_n	scripture_n	write_a	3,679	5	10.6506	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93645	Christs innocency pleaded: against the cry of the chief priests. Or, a brief and plain reply unto certain papers received from William Thomas (called) Minister of the Gospel at Ubley. By Thomas Speed, a servant of the Jesus Christ, who was at the request of the bloody crew of chief priests, and teachers, crucified at Jerusalem.	Speed, Thomas, b. 1622 or 3.	1656 (1656)	Wing S4904; Thomason E865_1; ESTC R207594	52,531	75

of Christ or is this to discerne the Lords body After this having spoken something touching the Lords Supper you tell me W. T. Your modesty is good in regard of the mystery but the full answering of your Queries requires more leisure then I have and more willingnesse to be informed then you have T. S. What a pittifull lame shift have you found to cover over your ignorance withall had you not better have ingenuously confessed you knew not what to say to the Queries then offer that for an Apology for your silence which will never gaine credit from any that doe examine the truth of things before they receive them will any sober minded man beleeve that you that had leisure to write me three large sheets of paper had not then or have not had since so much spare time as to answer six short Queries And as for your assigning my unwillingnesse to be informed as another cause of your not answering them this is as manifest a pretence as the former for if my unwillingnesse to be informed were a sufficient bar against your answering of my Queries why did you answer severall other of my Queries proposed to you before and after these since I have manifested as much unwillingnesse to be informed in those as in these and that 's just none at all You glance at one of my Queries and say W. T. All Saints witnesse Christ to come though not come T. S. Did not Paul and other Saints witnesse Jesus Christ come when as he lived in them and was in them their hope of glory their strength their-life and their peace From hence you proceed to speak to what I said in my last touching Ministers My declaration touching whom beginneth thus T. S. The Ministers of Jesus Christ who have received their Ministry from him as the holy men of God of old did I own c. W. T. It were some comfort if you would tell us who they be that you judge to be made Ministers according to the will of God in Scripture and that are so pretious to you T. S. By what I have said before touching Idoll Shepheards you might well understand whom I judge to be the true Shepheards But since it will be matter of comfort to you to know more of my mind in this particular I shall be plain in making a discovery thereof unto you I judge those Ministers of Christ who run not before they are sent of him and doe abide in the doctrine of Christ who have received that gift not by expence of money in a University but freely from the Lord by which they are made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the letter but of the Spirit who preach him in words and owne him by their works But I doe not judge those Ministers of Jesus Christ who abide not in his doctrine who instead of being found carefull Shepheards to guard the Sheep are themselves found Wolves persecuting and devouring the sheep who make gaine their godlinesse who covet other mens silver and gold catching those by the throats who put not into their mouths who maintaine themselves and families in pride by the sweat of other mens browes who sue those at the Law that refuse to pay them the tenth of all their labours who take Christs words and the Saints words to gaine a livelihood bypreaching to others what they themselves practise not who tell the people that a heap of stones is the Church and call those things the Ordinances and that the worship of Jesus Christ which never were of his institution These I say I judge and that according to the Scripture to be such as have not received their Ministry from Jesus Christ but are Ministers of Antichrist builders of Babylon but enemies to the glory of Zion and the new Jerusalem T. S. Where is it written that one was made a Minister by ordinary Call and another by an extraordinary W. T. The thing is written Gal. 1.1 Acts 14.23 T. S. Is there so much as mention made in either of those Scriptures of a Call ordinary or extraordinary and have you notwithstanding the confidence positively to assert that it is so written in those Scriptures Must your dreams and drowsie meanings passe for Scripture and then dare you falsly say that it is so written You told me ere while it would be some comfort if I would tell you who they were that I judged Ministers of Jesus Christ Truly not such as belye the Spirit of truth that spake forth the Scriptures by the mouths of the Saints wresting them any way to serve their owne ends and to patronize such practises as have not truth for their bottome Which thing if you did well weigh would be to you no great ground of comfort And whereas you bid me consult my own reason touching the tearms of ordinary and extraordinary Call I answer My reason is not the Scripture nor judge thereof and withall let me tell you that to fly from the Scripture which you would be thought zealously to assert when no foundation can therein be found for notions of mens creatings and instead thereof to advise me to consult with my own reason is plain shuffling Further you say that this distinction of ordinary and extraordinary Call doth not make two doores but two wayes of entring in by the same doore In answer to which I ask you Doth the Scripture know two wayes of entrance into the Sheep-fold Doth that testifie of any more then one way and that the same that is the way is also the doore even Jesus Christ the Righteous And although you passionately deny that distinction to be of your own creating but say that it hath ever been of use in the Churches of God I answer That forasmuch as the spirit of truth hath no where made mention thereof throughout the Scriptures it is but just that you should be charged as the creator of it And if to use your own language you knew and cared what you said you would not proceed in your wonted boldnesse to say that it hath ever been of use in the Churches of God when as it was never used among any of the Churches mentioned in the Scriptures Neither are the words so much as to be found through all the writings of Christ or the Apostles But it doth behoove those that dare not pretend to that Call which they had who were sent by Christ of old to tell the people they have yet another as authentick as that that so though they enter not in by the one true doore yet they may save themselves from the sentence of Thieves and Robbers by erecting a back-door which the Scripture never knew and then stile it with the name of another way through the same doore Hence you proceed on labouring by many words to prove your Call but all to little purpose for when you have said all the Tree will still be known by his fruits and they that are not found doing Christs will

the Ministers of Jesus Christ preach't for Tithes or sprinkled Infants The next thing that I asked you in my last was this Where is it written that the Scriptures are the ground of Faith W. T. That the Scriptures are the ground of faith is necessarily deduced from the ensuing Scriptures John 3.33 34. T. S. If the Lord hath not given you up wholly to disingenuity and blindnesse I appeale to that of God in your conscience whether this be an Answer to the Question propounded and whether it be not manifest huxtering and falsifying the Scripture to offer your own deductions for Scripture What shifting and shuffling is here to support the vain imaginations of your own heart Either it is written that the Scriptures are the ground of faith or it is not if it be written why had you not quoted the particular Scripture in which it is written If it be not written why had you not given a plain Answer to my Question and have confessed that it is no where so written However taking your Answer as you have laid it you thereby grant that which I said Viz. That it is no where written that the Scriptures are the ground of faith Notwithstanding which you labour much with your dead deductions and dark reasonings and all to force the Scripture to speak that which it never spake in which paths of cloudy confusion and horrible absurdities I shall not spend time to follow you for the folly and ignorance of your lines will be sufficiently discovered to any enlightned eye by the bare reading of them I shall only point at some of your most monstrous abuses offred to the Scripture and horrible blasphemies against the Lord Jesus Christ by your setting up the letter of Scripture above him and the testimony of his Spirit How wretchedly doe you abuse that place 1 John 5.10 in saying that the record witness there spoken of is the Scripture when as the very Scripture it self giveth you the lye saying that the witness and record there spoken of is within the Saints which record the very next verse there expresseth to be eternall life which God hath given to the Saints And is paper and Ink within the Saints or are they eternall life To this you add W. T. I must first believe and ground my faith on that written word and I must first believe and rest upon that written word and I must believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God because the written word tells me so T. S. If your conscience be not seared with a hot iron can you read over these lines again and not see the blasphemy that is in them stare in your face Was there not faith and was not Jesus Christ before the written word and yet must that be first believed on and be the ground of faith Is rest only to be found in Jesus Christ the eternall Son of God and yet the written word must be rested on first Did not Abel Enoch Abraham and other holy men of God believe that Jesus Christ was the Son of God long before the written word was and could they then believe it because that told them so What starved soules have those Sheep whose Shepheard handeth to them no better food then this Doth not the witnesse of God in your conscience condemne you for horrible iniquity for receiving so much money yearly of your Parishioners and give them in exchange nought but such unsavoury husks as these From this you proceed to put another Scripture upon the Rack to make it confesse that which is neither expressed nor was ever intended in it Ephes 2.20 Yee are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone W. T. There it is said in terminis that the Scripture is a foundation T. S. Was the fear of the Lord before your eyes when you pen'd this Assertion so manifestly contradictory to the truth Is the Scripture so much as mentioned in that whole Chapter and yet is it in so many tearms called there a foundation Is not the foundation there spoken of that same Jesus which was both preach't and believed on by the Prophets and Apostles and had you the impudence to say that it 's the Scripture Could you so confidently give Paul the lye who saith expresly that other foundation then Jesus Christ none can lay and yet you would make Paul himself to lay another Doth not Calvin * Intelligit Jesum Christum cui Testimoniū tulêre Apostoli Prophetae Cal. in locum one of your Comentators with whom you trade for matter to sell to the people as manifestly conclude you to be a lyar who saith in terminis That the Apostle doth in that Scripture intend Jesus Christ to whom the Prophets and Apostles did bear witnesse Nay which is more see the heighth of your deceit doe not you your self say but a few lines after that the foundation on which the Prophets and Apostles built and we build is Christ You tell me in your last papers of my Out-cryes But let me say to you That I shall never cease to cry aloud against such horrible falshood and deceit as this Can you without a blushing conscience accuse others for denying the Scripture and yet you your self in the mean while thus trample it under foot by averring that it saith that in terms which it doth not once mention You proceed labouring in the dark seeking by a coyned distinction which the Scripture knoweth not to prove your own conceptions You say W. T. There 's a double foundation 1 Personall or reall that is Christ 2 Doctrinall or declarative that is the Scripture T. S. If the Scripture be no reall foundation is it then imaginary for that which is not reall is imaginary Is not the Scripture beholding to you for calling it a foundation and yet opposing it to that which is a reall foundation Is the Scripture acquainted with this distinction when you shew it me there I shall speak more to it W T. Now enquire again whether I have made the Scriptures assert that which they no where doe T. S. I am not now to make enquiry touching that a little enquiry will serve the turn to find you a notorious falsifyer of the Scripture in saying it is written so and so when as no such thing is written And I doe still say that were you not past blushing you would cover your face through shame when you reflect on your wresting of the Scripture endeavouring to produce it as a testimony to your false assertions You goe on to distinguish between Gods Testimony and Gods Truth T. S. Have you at once lost your honesty as well as your understanding that you should create an opposition betwixt Gods testimony and Gods truth Is not his testimony truth Thus you jumble things together to fill up your papers just as you multiply words to fill up your houre in the Pulpit whether you speak things true or false