Selected quad for the lemma: world_n
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A56691
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Search the Scriptures a treatise shewing that all Christians ought to read the Holy Books : with directions to them therein : in three parts.
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Patrick, Simon, 1626-1707.
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1685
(1685)
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Wing P835; ESTC R23033
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72,298
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205
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eyes that if we do not wilfully shut them we cannot but read it to our infinite satisfaction For so God loved the world saith our Lord Himself that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved III. John 16 17. And so St. Paul writes But God who is rich in mercy for his great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickened us together with Christ Jesus by Grace ye are saved And hath raised us up together and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus That in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his Grace in his kindness towards us through Christ Jesus II. Ephes 4 5 6 7. Who can doubt at all of the favour of God his exceeding great and rich favour towards us who doth but cast his eyes on such words as these and believes the Truth of the Gospel of Christ Which were written for this very end that in all future Ages of the World after the Apostles were gone men might discern how abundant the Grace of God is in his kindness manifested towards us in our Blessed Lord. And therefore we in this Age of the World as well as all that were before us may conclude without any scruple that God is Love as St. John speaks and that he will be good to us for Christ's sake though we have greatly offended his Majesty Sixthly For that is the next thing the kindness of God towards sinful men and his readiness to pardon them and receive them into his favour and love again is here also so perspicuously revealed that there need be no question made of it In this was manifested the love of God towards us because that God sent his only begotten Son into the world that we might live through him Herein is love not that we loved God but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the propitiation for our sins 1 John IV. 9 10. And in the same manner writes St. Paul After the kindness and love or pity of God our Saviour towards man appeared not by works of righteousness that we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost That being justified by his Grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of Eternal life III. Tit. 4 5. Nay for this very end he saith God shewed mercy to him though a very great Sinner a Blasphemer of Christ a Persecutor of his Disciples that men might be incouraged to hope in God if they would repent and turn to Him as he did 1 Tim. I. 14 15 16 c. Read the place and you will see that all the wit of man cannot devise plainer and clearer words to express the exceeding Grace of God towards all men which is declared so fully as well as familiarly that his words need no Commentary to explain them and make them more easie to be understood Seventhly With the same Evidence the Gospel speaks of the way and means whereby this Forgiveness was procured for us and that is by the Death and by the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Who was delivered saith the Apostle for our offences and rose again for our justification IV. Rom. ult In whom we have redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins according to the riches of his Grace I. Ephes 7. It is God that justifies who is he that condemneth It is Christ that died yea rather that is risen again who is even at the right hand of God who also maketh intercession for us who shall separate us from the love of Christ c. VIII Rom. 34 35 c. It would be endless to recite all that the Scriptures speak on this subject in terms as plain and clear as these So that we cannot reasonably doubt if we believe these Books that by one offering of Himself he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified as the Author to the Hebrews speaks X. 12 13 14. This man after he had offered one Sacrifice for sins for ever sate down at the right hand of God from henceforth expecting till his enemies be made his footstool For by one offering he hath perfected for ever c. They that would make any other Satisfaction necessary by the Merits of Saints or any other Oblation of Christ necessary but that one which he Himself offered directly contradict the express words of this Book which are as easie to be understood as any that the most studied invention of men can indite Eighthly And so is the way and means whereby these Blessings thus purchased are communicated to us viz. the Mediation and Intercession of Christ Jesus on our behalf whereby he can save us to the utmost seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for us VII Heb. 25. Nor is there any other that can perform this Office for us but he for as there is one God so one Mediator between God and man the man Christ Jesus as St. Paul teaches in so many words 1 Tim. II. 4. Whereby we cannot but in reason think he means there is no more than One Mediator as it is certain there is no more than one God who communicates his Mind to us by this alone Mediator as we must address our selves to Him by no other Which St. Paul declares more fully in 1 Cor. VIII 5 6. Where he saith though there be many that are called Gods as there are gods many and lords many yet to us Christians there is but one God the Father of whom are all things and we in or for or to him and one Lord Jesus Christ by whom are all things and we by him That is As there is but one sole Fountain of all good unto whom we are to direct our Prayers and all we do for the first Cause must be our last End so He derives all unto us by his Son Jesus Christ alone by whom therefore and by Him alone we are to go to God the Father for what we are desirous to receive from Him None else in Heaven or Earth is capable of this Honour but this great Lord alone whom the Father loveth and hath given all things into his hands III. John 35. as any one that reads this place seriously may easily discern And therefore they who betake themselves unto any other Patron to recommend them to the Heavenly Grace are concerned to hide this Book from the Peoples Eyes and to discourage them from reading it by telling them it is obscure and hard to be understood For they who do read it see this truth so fully and expresly asserted there that if their minds be not prejudiced they cannot think it safe to implore the assistance of any other in the Heavenly Court which apparently derogates from the Honour of our
more plainly than to be humble and modest and that as we ought to fear God so likewise to honour the King and his Ministers and to obey those that watch over our Souls nay to esteem them very highly in love for their work sake Which will dispose us most certainly if we be not carried away with pride or any other vicious affection to be ruled by them in dubious things and as it there follows in the Apostle 1 Thess V. 13. to be at peace among our selves I must beseech therefore every Member of this Church both for the honour of our Religion and for the safety of their own Souls to be as careful in this matter as I would have them to be in reading the Holy Scriptures Take your Guides along with you do not think your selves safe without their conduct be not only willing but desirous to learn of them reverence their Instructions do not easily dissent from them be afraid to oppose them especially when you have reason to think them to be serious studious knowing and conscientious men who take care to inform themselves aright that they may not misinform you For such men look upon themselves to be bound as hath been shown in the Treatise of Tradition pag. 24. to guide themselves in their Direction of others by what the Catholick Fathers and ancient Bishops have taught out of the Doctrine of the Old and New Testament and thereby preserve their Flocks in the Truth of God's holy Word And having a great regard also to the sense of that Church wherein they live which by their Subscriptions they owne to have Authority in Controversies of Faith they will no less preserve them in Unity and in Peace To conclude it is impossible but every body must reap great fruit by the reading of the Scriptures if they read them for no other end but that they may go away better from the reading of them than they came to it and that they may not accommodate them to their own affections but correct all their affections and desires and the whole course of their life by this exact Rule of Righteousness According to which if we square our selves we shall presently learn in difficult things to be wise unto sobriety and in plain things to be wise unto Salvation that is so wise as to do what we certainly know to be our Duty which is the only Wisdom that the Scriptures magnifie Which will be the surest way both to know more and to know it better that is to feel the comfort of what we know in a blessed and assured hope of everlasting life which God who cannot lye hath promised to us in Christ Jesus our Lord. The End of the First Part. PART II. HAving shewn in the foregoing Discourse that those words of St Peter 2. III. 16. which are wont to be alledged against the reading of Holy Scriptures do plainly suppose that the people did then read them I proceed now in the next place to shew that the Apostle doth not deter men from reading them by representing the difficulties that are in them and the danger of wresting them For he doth not affirm that all things are hard to be understood and consequently liable to be wrested but only that some things are of that nature In treating of which three things offer themselves to be considered I. First that most things in the Holy Scriptures are so far from being hard to be understood that they are easy Nay all things absolutely necessary for us are very easy II. Secondly That those things which are not so easy may be understood though there be some difficulty in it That is they will require some pains to understand them which should not deter us from reading but only make us laborious to find out the sense of what we read III. Thirdly When we do thoroughly understand and heartily believe the things that are easie it will abate much of that difficulty and make other things more easie I. I begin with the first of these the Apostle only saith some things are hard to be understood which supposes that most are not but rather easie as all those things especially are which are absolutely necessary to be known and believed and done for the obtaining Salvation That which makes things easie to be understood is the plain and perspicuous delivery of them in the words wherein they are written or spoken Now nothing an be plainer or clearer than the words wherein all the great Christian Truths are revealed and delivered to us which are so far from being obscure that it is not easier to see the light than it is to apprehend and understand the true meaning of them I will instance in some particulars and have an Eye all the way upon St. Paul's Epistles to which S. Peter is commonly thought to have respect wherein though some things be difficult yet these are most clearly discovered First That there is but one God the Father of whom are all things as he expresly writes 1 Cor. VIII 6. Secondly That He alone is to be worshipped as our Blessed Saviour remembers us out of Moses IV. Matt. 10. was the great thing pressed in his very entrance into any place where he preach'd 1 Thess l. 9 10. XVII Acts 23 24. Thirdly As our Lord teaches us that we are ingaged by our Baptism to worship one God in three Persons XXVIII Matth. 19. So S. Paul affirms the same plainly enough in that Solemn Prayer for the Corinthians 2. XIII ult The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and the Love of God and the Communion of the Holy Ghost be with you all Especially if it be compared with those places wherein he affirms our Saviour to be over all God blessed for ever IX Rom. 5. and the Spirit to search even the deep things of God that is to know his Mind exactly for so it follows 1 Cor. II. 10 11. that as none can know the things of a man save the spirit of man which is in him so the things of God knoweth no man but the Spirit of God Which plainly tells us if we mind it that the Spirit of God is in God as the spirit of man is in man that is the Spirit is God himself and therefore fully acquainted with him in all things There is some little labour indeed in making this deduction but it is very easie if we consider all these places together Fourthly And the Nature of God none can possibly be ignorant of who doth but look into the Holy Books Where he will immediately see Him represented to be Almighty most Wise most Gracious Faithful to his Word and the living God who endures for ever Which are Truths written there in such great Letters that every one who runs as the Prophet speaks and doth but cast a transient eye upon them may easily read them Fifthly Particularly his infinite love and kindness towards us the children of men lies before us so fairly and shines so brightly in our