Selected quad for the lemma: father_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
father_n	holy_a	send_v	spirit_n	14,001	5	5.8081	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38830	An epistle to the several congregations of the non-conformists by Cap. Robert Everard, now by Gods Grace a member of the Holy Catholick Church of Christ, shewing the reasons of his conversion and submission to the said Catholick Church.	Everard, Robert, fl. 1664.	1664 (1664)	Wing E3538; ESTC R12403	34,789	46

Many more promises might be collected out of the Old Testament but I come to shew Fourthly that Christ by his own mouth and by the mouthes of his Apostles hath promised to us likewise such a Church Mat. 16. 19. Upon this Rock I will build my Church which he had foretold by his Prophets should be of so vast extent And the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it Mat. 18. 17. He that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen or a Publican but if Christ by his spirit doth not preserve this Church from all possibility of teaching me error instead of a truth I may from this Church which Christ obligeth me to hear and unto which obligeth me to submit receive such errors as may damn me Mat. 28. 20. And Loe I am with you alwaies even unto the end of the World this must be meant of the visible Church which was to be in every Age for the Apostles were not to live and to Baptise and teach alway unto the end of the world And therefore if the same assistance and presence of Christ was promised to the Church after the Apostles I think we shall not doubt but that it is the same that is infallible But that it may clearely appear that the Assistance promised by Christ to his Church extended to an infallible security from all errors consider Iohn 14. 16. I will pray the Father and he shall give you another Comforter that he may abide with you for ever even the spirit of Truth whom the world cannot receive and v. 26. The Comforter which is the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my Name he shall teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I shall say unto you and ch 16. 12. I have many things yet to say unto you but you cannot hear them now howbeit when the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth But all Truth excludeth all Errors and this for ever which was longer then the Apostles were to live If we therefore enquire by what means this teaching shall be by whom the people shall be taught all Truths and how preserved from all errors St. Paul will tell us Eph. 4. 11. He gave some Apostles succeeding in full Apostolical Authority some Prophets expounders of the Prophets some Evangelists Preachers of the Gospel some Pastors and Teachers to what end For the perfecting of the Saints for the work of the Ministry for the edifying of the body of Christ For what time Till we all come in the Union of the faith But will these secure us the next verse will tell you That we henceforth be no more children tossed to and fro and carryed about with every wind of Doctrine by the sleight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in waite to deceive Gods intent then was to provide such means for mankinde as might secure them in their beleif in every Age that they might not be deceived by the cunning craft of false Teachers such as now think themselves able by pretending inward Lights Private Spirits and evidence of Scripture by themselves Interpreted to teach us a doctrine contrary to all those who for almost fifteen Ages before them have been and none others teaching a contrary Faith can be named who have been the Apostles Prophets Evangelists Pastours and Teachers in the Visible Church of Christ In the last place I shall urge that Text of St. Paul to Timothy 1. Tim. 3. 15. The Church of the Living God the Pillar and ground of Truth And may we not securely rely upon that Pillar which God hath erected for us and found our Faith upon that Ground of truth which the God of all truth hath given us for that end To elude their plain and evident Texts I know you are wont to say in the first place that they may have other Interpretations and therefore this is not the truth But will not the same reason hold the Apostles cited many Texts of Scriptures and interpreted them so as to prove Christ the Messias and his Doctrines to be true whereas those Texts might have had other interpretations therefore the Interpretation put on them by the Apostles were not true Who sees not the weakness of this Argument Can you shew with any assurance that these Texts are not capable of these interpretations If not then according to your own principles these interpretations may be true for you who say the contrary are not infallible but may be mistaken Another answer which you use to give is that you are willing to agree that so long as the Church of Christ teacheth conformable to Scripture she is infallible and so long as she doth her Duty she may and ought to be beleived But this is as weak as the former for who sees not that it gives the Church no more priviledge nor allowes it to have any more benefit from these promises then the Divel hath for so long as he teacheth conformable to Scripture he may be beleived A straw may be a Pillar until it bends and Quick-sands sure ground until they yield What assurance can we have that the Holy Apostles did their duty in writing what the Holy Ghost did dictate unto them For if they did not their writings are not to be beleived consequently we are not nor can we be infallibly secure that the Scriptures which we have were dictated by and are by Inspiration from God If you can answer this so as to be secure that the Apostles did their duty the same will be our answer that the present Visible Catholick Church of Christ at all times doth her Duty The fift Argument is that the Church of God was this Rule and Judge this only means to convey Faith and this infallible Guide and Authority when our Blessed Saviour was alive and before the New Testament was written and also in the Apostles times both before and after the whole New Testament was written If not I obliege you to shew some evident Text which proves certainly that after the New Testament was written the Church in the Apostles time was deprived of this priveledge and Authority and that it had been no sinne then to oppose or not submit to the guidance direction government and authority of the Apostles But if notwithstanding this you shall without giving any other Reason insist that the Apostles were this infallible Rule and Judge in their times only until the Canon of Scriptures was finished and then lost their Authority when they had compleated the Canon I pray consider what will be the consequence in case it stands proved that the Canon of Scripture which they finished is now uncompleated by the loss of those Epistles and parcels of the Apostles writings which I have proved to be lost Will it not follow that for the same Reason that an infallible living rule and Judge was necessary before the Canon was compleat the same is now necessary some part

informs us 6. It is necessary to know that the very Copies and Translations of the Scriptures which we have upon which we ground our selves are certainly true for if they are not we build upon uncertainties and consequently have no sure foundation for our Faith yet we cannot be assured nor have so much as any information as to this perticular from the Scriptures 7. It is necessary that the many manifest controversies about the true sence of Scripture should be decided because where two contrary sences are imposed or urged and both affirmed to be the meaning of God and his Revelation one only can be true and he who refuseth to beleive that which is true shall be damned yet these controversies cannot be decyded by Scripture 8. It is necessary to know what is purely and absolutely necessary to salvation to be beleived and what not that is as you say what is fundamental and what not fundamental and to be informed of this plainly lest we err and thereby be damned but in this the Scripture is silent 9. It is necessary to beleive that God the Father is not begotten ' that God the Son is not made but begotten by his Father only That God the Holy Ghost is neither made nor begotten but doth proceed and that from the Father and the Son That Christ is of one substance with the Father and that these three are One and that One Three I refer to consideration whether all these points be plainly and clearely to be found in Scripture if they were it had been almost impossible for so many divisions to have hapned about them as have done amongst persons on all sides admitting the Scriptures to be the word of God 10. It is necessary the Church of England saith that Infants should be Baptised that women should receive the Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist that Christians should observe the Lords day yet none of these points are clearly or perticularly proved by Scripture 11. It is a Sin and as the Generality of Christians agree an Heresy to Re-baptise any one who hath been Baptised by an Heretick where doth the Scripture say so That there are in the Scriptures several places which seem Contradictions and consequently some part of the Scriptures seem untrue is easily proved and I shall here give you some few plain Instances for example to which many more might be added 1. In the 2. Kings C. 8. v. 26. You read thus Two and twenty years old was Ahazia when he began to reigne and he reigned one year in Ierusalem and his mothers name was Athaliah the daughter of Omri But in 2 Chron. c. 22. v. 2. You will read thus Forty and two years old was Ahazia when he began to reign and he reigned one year in Ierusalem his mothers name was Athaliah the daughter of O●…ri Now against the infallibility of Scripture Reason convinceth her self to have this infallible demonstration viz. No one who speaketh two things the one contrary to the other can be said to be infallible in speaking but to affirm of the same person that he began to reign when he was two and twenty years old and that he was two and forty years old when he began to reigne is to speak two things the one contrary to the other therefore saith Reason the Scripture is not infallible in speaking 2. In St. Matthews Gospel Chap. 1. v. 17. you read thus All the generations from Abraham to David are fourteen generations and from David till the carrying away into Babylon are fourteen generations and from the carrying away into Babylon unto Christ are fourteen generations Now if you please to consider that three fourteens must make forty and two and then please to reckon up all the persons named you shall find them demonstrably to be but one and forty and no more which is but two fourteens and one thirteen Now Reason asketh whether this can be infallibly true 3. In St. Lukes Gospel Ch. 3. v. 35. 36. you shall read thus Salah which was the son of Cainan which Cainan was the son of Arphaxad if you read Ge. c. 11. 12. you shall not find that Cainan was the Son of Arphaxad as St. Luke saith but that Arphaxad lived five and thirty years begat Salah Now according to St. Luke this Salah was the son of Cainan not of Arphaxad ' If it be answered that Salah was Arphaxads son because Arphaxad was his Grandfather I pray observe that Arphaxad is said to have begotten him and that when he was five and thirty years old And if you remark that Chapter in Genesis no one is said to have had a son before he was thirty years old But the greatest difficulty will be here It is said Arphaxad lived five and thirty years and begat Cainan If then Arphaxad was Granfather to Salah because he begat Cainan when he was five thirty years old in which year of his age he begat Salah then Salah his Grandchild and Cainan his son must be both born in the same year which saith Reason is impossible Now if Scripture can determine all controversies I hope you will shew me how to solve these difficulties by the Scripture which how to do I profess most seriously I do not understand The seventh Reason which I found against this Opinion of sole Scripture was that if the Scriptures had been appointed by God for this end of being our sole Rule Guide and Judge in all our doubts and the sole means to bring faith unto our souls they would have been so in the Apostles times at least after all the books of the New Testament were written but that they were so we do not find for then the Authority of the Apostles must have ceased so soon as they had made an end of Writing which I beleive no one will say much less prove And then even in the times of the Apostles if a controversie had arisen touching the true sence of any Text no address should have been to the Apostles to decide the doubt but to the book which every one must have judged though in opposition to the then present interpretation of the Apostles if they had then taken upon them to explain their own writings which to say I think will appear sufficiently absurd to all men Nay if the Scriptures had been intended for this it must have followed in all probability that our Lord Christ would have left his own law and doctrines in writing under his own hand which he hath not done at least he would have obleiged all his Apostles to write which he did not that we know of It should also follow that to write had been the chief part of the Apostles Ministry consequently that most part of the Apostles neglected to perform the chiefest part of their Ministry were negligent to do that which above all things was their duty will any of you presume to affirm this yet if you speak consequently it will be hard to avoid it The last