Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	believe_v	holy_a	5,671	5	4.8590	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70111	An excellent discourse proving the divine original and authority of the five books of Moses written originally in French by Monsieur Du Bois de la Cour, and approved by six doctors of the Sorbon ; to which is added a second part, or an examination of a considerable part of Pere Simon's critical history of the Old Testament ... by W.L.	Filleau de la Chaise, Jean, 1631-1688.; Lorimer, William, d. 1721.	1682 (1682)	Wing F904; ESTC R28418	86,453	212

Red Sea and the Raining of Quails and the forty years feeding them with Manna the Flaming Mount the terrible Sight and Voices the Glory of God and the Cloud before the Tabernacle the swallowing up of Thousands by the opened Earth with other such signs must needs convince the Nations of Gods Revelation And the Passeover and many other means were from the first appointed to be a practical Tradition of it uninterrupted But the Priests that were but to obey and teach this Law needed no new Miracles the Law being once so fully sealed 3. And so when Christ came with a new and more perfect Revelation to settle the Law of Grace in the last Edition he sealed it by multitudes of uncontrouled Miracles and his own Resurrection and the miraculous effusion of the Holy Ghost by which the Apostles who were infallibly to Record his Law and Promises sealed their Word with the like wonderful works that Christ had done But the Law and Promise being thus Sealed and Delivered the Bishops or Ministers who are but to keep and teach it need not new Miracles for their Work If as some Usurpers pretend Christ had made Bishops in Councils Universal Legislators to make new parts of Divine Religion for the World God would have given them also the seal of such undoubted Miracles Conclus XIV I have oft said four evidences concur infallibly to prove the Gospel true And all are called The Witness of the Spirit as one 1. The Antecedent Prophesies 2. The Miracles and Resurrection and Ascension of Christ and the numerous Miracles of the Apostles and first Churches 3. The propria Lux or inherent impressions of God on the Gospel and all the Scriptures which greatly differenceth it from all other Books and Doctrines 4. The sanctifying efficacy of the Gospel on all true Believers in all Nations and Ages of the Earth which maketh them a holy peculiar heavenly just and sober sort of Persons quite differing from all other men which is certainly the work of God by the Gospel and by this his Spirit is a continuing Witness that God doth own it Conclus XV. The Order of Believing as to the Matter is to believe the first sealed Gospel First even the Essence of Christianity as past doubt And if there be a doubt whether the Spirit and Miracles sealed every by-word style or order that must not make us doubt of the Gospel which is surely sealed Conclus XVI It is undeniable that there are multitudes of different Readings in the Old Testament and the New in the Copies in the Original Tongues It is uncertain to us of many which of them is the right It is certain that when there was no Printing but it was the Scriveners Trade to write out Books many slips and differences would be among them How far imperfection of memory or style might shew it self in the first writers in any by-words may be doubted without doubting of the Gospel or Word of God It is treachery to tell men that they can be no surer of the Gospel than of the various Readings or Skill of the Writers Printers or Translators But it is certain that no corruption hath altered any necessary point Conclus XVII The Order of believing as to the Evidence is first to see the proof of the Matters of Fact by Historical Evidence and in that to see the certainty of the Doctrine which also sheweth its own credibility And this is a short and sure proof of our Religion 1. We may be as sure that the main History is true as that any History in the World is true 2. And if the History be true the Doctrine must needs be true Conclus XVIII And this History hath more than a moral uncertain Evidence For the understanding of which it must be noted that mans Soul hath two sort of Acts some free and mutable and some necessary by nature and immutable All moral acts are free and changeable the Belief that is grounded on them hath but a moral certainty which is strictly no proper certainty All men are lyars All belief grounded on mans mere honesty though it were a general Council that pretends a judging Authority is uncertain Though some good mens words give us so great a probability as that one may venture his life on it But the Love of a mans self and of felicity and an unwillingness to be miserable c. are acts Naturally necessary Therefore the beleif which is well founded on these hath a Physical Infallible certainty Of this sort is our beleif that there is such a City as Rome Venice Paris that there were such men as K. H. 7. 8. K. James c. that the Statutes of the Land are not Counterfeits For 1. Men that love themselves of cross interests capable of knowing have all agreed of the Truth of these and so do to this day Argu. 1. Where the Cause is ofnatural necessity the Effect is of natural certainty But the cause that the willing and unwilling of contrary Interests have all knowingly agreed to the things forenamed must needs be of natural necessity Ergo the said Agreement is of natural certainty Argu. 2. There can be no effect without an adequat Cause But for all knowing Men of contrary Interests and Wills to agree that there is such a place as Rome c. that there was such a man as King James that the Statutes are not counterfeit c. if these were false is an effect that hath no Cause in Nature Ergo it is naturally impossible E. G. For our Statutes It was easily knowable in the Age that they were made in whether they were counterfeit For men hold their Lands and Lives by them and plead them daily at the Tribunals for cross Interests against each other Therefore natural necessary Causes would make some discover it were they false And if any had then discovered it the same Causes would propagate the Discovery That this is the Case about the History of the Scripture and that Jesus Christ Lived Taught wrought Miracles Dyed Rose Ascended sent down the Holy Spirit that the Apostles by untaught Languagues and Miracles planted the Gospel and Christ gave the same Spirit by the imposition of their hands on their ordinary hearers that believed that they appealed to their own working Miracles and their Childrens to their accusers Gal. 3. 1. 3. 5. Mat. 12 c. this I have largely proved elsewhere In all this you may see that to lay the Faith of Christians on a pretended judging Power of the Church Pope or Councils and then first to enquire which is the Church that hath this Power is a cheat of ambitious men to catch the Ignorant The most universal agrement including Hereticks and Enemies and men of contrary Wills and Interests is the best Historical Evidence of Fact And the certainty of the History with the quality of the Doctrine it self and its effects is a certain proof that the Doctrine is of God And the particular Books aud

Author and an Universal Historical Tradition assures us that such a Man was indeed the Author of it we are bound to believe it and cannot rationally disbelieve it without a demonstration to the contrary Thus we know the Books of Plato Aristotle and Cicero to have been written by those Authors and this is so clear and certain a truth Vt de istorum librorum Authoritatibus dubitare dementis sit utque ridendus sit non refellendus qui de iis questionem movet That none but a Madman will doubt of the Authors of those Books and he is to be laughed at and not confuted who moves a Question concerning them as holy August writes contra Fanstum Manich. lib. 32. cap. 21. And as he says That he knew the writeings of the New Testament to be the writings of the Apostles by the same means that the Manichees knew the writeings of Manes to be the writings of Manes so I say That by what means we here in England know the late Critical History of the Old Testament to be the writing of Pere Simon a Priest of the Oratory by the like means we know the Pentateuch to be the writing of Moses and we ought not to disbelieve it having the Universal Testimony of Jews Christians Mahumetans and many Heathens to ground our Faith upon unless it be first clearly demonstrated to us that it implies a contradiction that Moses should have written it which I know that neither Pere Simon nor any Man else can do And the reasonableness of what I have now said will yet further appear if it be considered that our Lord Christ himself gives Testimony unto the writings of Moses in general John 5. 46 47. Moses wrote of me But if ye beleive not his writeings how shall ye beleive my words and both he and his Apostles frequently appeal unto them and quote passages out of them This is the truth to be believed and this is actually believed by the Christian Church Yet it is no matter of Faith that there are no various Lections in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament nay it is a matter evident to Sense that there are various Lections it is no matter of Faith that through the length and injury of time and Negligence of Transcribers and Printers there are no mistakes at all in the Originals of Holy Scripture on the contrary we acknowledg that there may possibly be some mistakes even in the Pentateuch through the length and injury of time and the negligence of Transcribers and Printers but those mistakes we believe do not at all hinder the Holy Scriptures from being a perfect Rule of Faith and Life in all things necessary to the Glorifying of God and Saving of our Souls Nor lastly is it matter of Faith That Moses wrote every Word and Sentence Chapter and Verse of the Pentateuch with his own hand It is sufficient that we believe he wrote it himself or by other persons whose help he used in the writing of it and when it was written he revised it and approved it and in this he was assisted by the Holy Spirit inspiring guiding and directing him And if there be any thing in the Pentateuch besides the mistakes of Transcribers and Printers that was written after Moses's time it was added upon good Reasons by Joshua or Ezra and the great Assembly who were Men of a Prophetical Spirit and inspired by God in what they did of that nature Now in the Second place let us see what is the opinion of Pere Simon and wherein he agrees with or differs from the common Faith of the Church in this matter And First He agrees with us in these following particulars 1. That the whole Scripture of the Old Testament and consequently the Pentateuch was of Divine Inspiration and that God was the primary Author thereof this is demonstratively proved from his own express words in his Preface pag. 4. But besides that this Principle of a Divine of Paris That the whole Scripture is not equally Divine and Canonical is dangerous it is directly opposite to the Doctrine of the New Testament which acknowledges every thing throughout the whole Scripture for Prophetical and to have been inspired wherefore I thought I ought to lay down some Principles whereby we might ascribe every thing in the whole Scriptures to Prophets or Persons inspired by God even to the alterations themselves those only excepted which had happened through length of time or negligence of Transcribers And Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 3. I have divided this work into Three Books the First of which Treats at large of the Authors of the Bible which I have called Prophets with Josephus contra App. and most of the Fathers because they were in effect directed by the Spirit of God and that St. Peter calls the whole Scripture Prophecies During the Hebrew Common-wealth there were from time to time among them these sorts of Persons inspired by God were it to write Divine and Prophetick Books as the same Josephus has remarked or as Eusebius says to distinguish betwixt those that were truly Prophetick and others that were not And Pag. 4. They the publick Writers had the liberty in collecting the Acts which were in their Registeries to add diminish and change according as they thought fit and the Books as Eusebius says which were declared Sacred were reviewed by Persons inspired by God who Judged whether they were truly Prophetick or Divine And Pag. 21. I know it is expresly forbidden in Deuteronomy either to add or diminish any thing from the Word of God But we may Answer with the Author of the Book Intituled Cozri that this prohibition relates only to private Persons and not to those whom God had expresly commanded to interpret his Will God promised to the Prophets and to the Judges of the Sanhedrim who succeeded Moses the same Grace and the same Spirit of Prophecy as those had who lived in his time and therefore they have held the same Power not only of Interpreting the Law but also of making new Ordinances which were afterwards writ and placed in the Registeries of the Republick And Pag. 22. The Church has not the Right of making Books Canonical and Divine as the Prophets had in the Old Testament but only to declare them Canonical In fine Book 1. Chap. 1. Pag. 1. None can doubt but that the truths contained in the Holy Scripture are infallible and of Divine Authority since they proceed immediately from God who in this has only made use of the Ministery of Men to be his Interpreters So there is no Person either Jew or Christian who does not acknowledg that the Scripture being the pure Word of God is at the same time the first principle and foundation of Religion Here is clear and full proof from his own express words of his agreement with us in the first particular before mentioned Secondly He agrees with us in this That though Men having been the Depositories of these Sacred