Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	able_a	salvation_n	wise_a	5,460	5	6.2694	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59111	The devout communicant, assisted with rules for the worthy receiving of the blessed Eucharist together with meditations, prayers and anthems, for every day of the Holy Week : in two parts / by Ab. Seller ...	Seller, Abednego, 1646?-1705.	1686 (1686)	Wing S2450; ESTC R10920	183,621	482

And these were the Subjects of all the Sermons of those days And there was nothing expresly required from the person who came to the Font but a solemn profession of the Articles of the Creed And upon this profession the Catechumen was baptized and after his Baptism immediately admitted to the Lord's Supper When therefore I know and understand that our blessed Saviour by his precious Death sealed a Covenant with God in the behalf of Mankind and that I have solemnly in my Baptism ratified my part of that agreement resolving no further to depend on his Merits than I obey his Laws When I understand that I must be truly penitent for my former Offences and ought to live better for the future when I believe all Gods promises of Mercy and Salvation made to me in Christ Jesus and am convinc'd that I ought to be thankful for that Mercy to God and charitable to all Mankind then I suppose I have knowledg enough to intitle me to this Ordinance For if my search after knowledg should engage me in the Labyrinths of the Schools and I must not receive till I am able to demonstrate how Christ were present there and to comprehend all the Arguments that are brought for and against Transubstantiation I might perhaps be always seeking but I should never come to the knowledg of the truth And if I happen'd to understand what I enquired after should probably be never the better For what advance hath that man made in Christianity that hath spent his days in the little questions of the School men how one body can be hid under the accidents of another body * Suarez to 3. disp 51. how the whole body can be so present as that what was cut off in his circumcision should not be wanting Or whether a Rat when he nibbles a Consecrated Host doth communicate and truly eat the substantial Body and Blood of Christ with many other such Impertinencies to give them the softest Name Whereas one day spent in the due consideration how I shall receive worthily and how I shall live more piously gives me more useful knowledg than an Age of controversal studies That God is present in the Sacrament I have infallible Authority to assure me Thy Word O my Saviour is sufficient to command my belief but the mystery is enough to stifle my curiosity And to seek to know more than thou art willing to reveal were to derogate from the Reverence due to thy Oracles and Authority For how can I pretend to describe so transcendent an Institution which the Angels themselves stoop to look into This Sacrament was ordain'd for better purposes than to puzzle and confound It was design'd to strengthen and confirm to bind us to remember God and our selves to remember his love and our Returns of gratitude For the deepest speculations seldom make a man more wise or more holy but the knowledg of Jesus Christ and him crucified I am sure is the true method to endear me to God The business of a good man is not to amuse but to prepare himself to communicate with his Saviour The understanding of a Religious soul is vastly different from that of a great Scholar and the Wisdom that comes down from above consists not in Word but in Power I am resolved therefore not to meddle with the quarrels of the different parties of Christendom While they dispute I will pray while they sacrifice their Charity to the maintenance of their Faith I will pursue after peace and holiness And by that means I doubt not but I shall be fit to communicate here and to see God in Heaven The Collect. TO thee the only wise God from whom comes every good and perfect gift does my soul in her Necessities address her self beseeching thee who givest liberally and without grudging to enlighten my understanding with the beams of truth and to lead me to the Palace of Wisdom Give me less of that Knowledg that swells and makes vain and more of that Charity that edifies Enable me in all my Engagements to contend for Truth and not for Victory in all my Reading to be more in love with the Piety of the discourse than the Eloquence that all my Reasonings may be subdued and every thought brought in captivity to the obedience of Christ And since my proficiency in thy School O my best of Masters is not to be judg'd of by my being honour'd with Visions or enabled to unriddle Mysteries not by the Eminency of Learning or Station but by a transcendent Piety an Angelical Conversation and a profound Humility give me to this end thy Grace and let thy Holy Spirit govern me because without those Assistances all Learning is but Neise all Wisdom Craft and all my Natural Powers Impotence my Virtues but Formality and my Devotions but Pretence so shall my Knowledg no longer consist in empty Notion but shall exert it self into practise And I shall so follow thee my dearest Saviour here as I may live with thee for ever Amen CHAP. VIII Of the Study of the Holy Scriptures IF the most useful wisdom be that which is practical instead of busying my self with Books of Controversie I will be a diligent Reader of the Holy Scriptures For they are the Oracles of God able to make me wise to salvation and perfect unto every good work In those Oracles there is nothing trifling and impertinent nothing doubtful or obscure of the things which belong to my eternal welfare * Dionys Areop Eccl. hierar c. 3. For the whole Book of Holy Scriptures saith the Eloquent Father doth set before us either the creation and disposal of all things by the divine Power or the Polity and Government both of Church and State under the Law or the distribution and possession of the inheritance which God had given to his peculiar people or an account of the wisdom of their sacred Judges their holy Kings and devout Priests or the undaunted courage and bravery of their Patriarchs under all sorts of Affliction or excellent holy Precepts how to govern our Actions or the Songs of heavenly Love and the Idea's of Divinity imprinted on the Mind or the prophecies of future things or the Atchievements of the Son of God in our Humane Nature or the Acts and holy Discourses of the Apostles deliver'd to them from God and done in imitation of him or the mystical and abstruse Visions of his beloved and inspired Disciple In these shall be my delight and in these will I spend my time These Oracles alone can charm my Passions and allay my Griefs And what a dishonour is it to us * Olearii I●iner that the Turks in their Schools should teach their children nothing but to read and write and remember the sentences of the Alcoran which is their Scripture and that the poor * Abudac c. 22. p. 29. Coptite Christians tho under severe and cruel bondage to their Mahometan enemies should take care to instruct their Youth in

the Doctrine of the Book of God obliging them to learn the Psalter and the Epistles of St. Paul without book while we think that study unworthy of our selves or our posterity We plead it 's true as St. Caesarius of Arles says the difficulty of learning the Rules of Faith and Holy Life without book especially if we cannot read But if the most ignorant and unlearned can find out a way to remember a prophane or lewd Song or Story will their ignorance excuse them if they have not learnt the Precepts of the Gospel Men have wit and memory enough to attain without reading to that which the Devil teaches them for their destruction But when they are to receive from the mouth of their blessed Saviour the Laws that will make them eternally happy then they plead ignorance But whatever others do or my self have heretofore practis'd I profess for the future that I will love thy Law And do thou think upon me O Lord according to thy word wherein thou hast caused me to put my trust Thou hast given me thy Holy Scriptures that through them I might have hope in all capacities and in all distresses of mind body or estate For tho I read there that Lucifer sinn'd himself beyond the hopes of Redemption and that there is a sin against the Holy Ghost that cannot be pardon'd and a sin unto death that is not to be pray'd for yet the state of sinful men is declared to be different from that of the fallen Angels And what these particular Transgressions are and wherein they consist is not plainly revealed in those Oracles that no man might despair of mercy but withal that every man might beware of the smallest sin as if it were of the greatest magnitude the deepest dye and most dismal consequences From this Book also I learn That at what time soever a sinner repents and doth that which is lawful and right he shall save his soul alive For who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect since it is God who justifies and who is he that condemns since Christ hath died and is risen again and sitteth at the right hand of God to make intercession for us Lord be merciful to my former sin for my neglect hath been great and keep me stedfast to my duty for the remainder of my life that tho I cannot see my God yet I may every day hear him and converse with him in his word and being inlightned thereby may learn to depart from evil The Collect. For the 2d Sunday in Advent BLessed Lord who hast caused all Holy Scriptures to be written for our learning grant that I may in such wise hear them read mark learn and inwardly digest them that by patience and comfort of thy Holy Word I may embrace and ever hold fast the blessed Hope of Everlasting Life which thou hast given us in our Saviour Jesus Christ Amen CHAP. IX Of Christian Love WHen I have thus adorn'd my soul with saving knowledg my next employment is strictly to examine my practise and what degrees of divine love I have attained to now I better feel what that love is in my heart than I can describe it with my tongue For when I am in the Palace of divine Love I am in St Paul's Third Heaven where tho the Apostle without doubt saw ravishing sights and such as were worth dying for and heard admirable discourses such as the King of Glory entertains his favorite Angels with yet he assures us he heard and saw * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 Cor. 12.4 what could not be uttered or described But as it is said of Heaven tho it does not appear what we shall be yet we have a glorious character of that City given us in Holy Writ so it may be said of Christian Love Great things are spoken of it and such as render it venerable in the eyes of all wise and discerning persons For 1. It is a complication * Aug. de C. D. l. 15. c. 22. Nihil aliud virtus est quàm or do amoris Id. de C. D. l. 14. c. 7. Amor inhians habere quod amatur cupiditas est idem habens eóque fruens laetitia est c. of all Vertues When it longs for what it affects it is desire and when it enjoys it it is gladness when it flies what it abominates it is fear and when it falls into the hands of its enemies it is sadness says St. Austin and * 1 Cor. 13. a greater than St. Austin hath told me That Love is the most comprehensive Vertue For Charity suffers long and then it is meekness it is kind and then it is courtesie it envies not and so it is peaceableness it vaunteth not it self and so it is modesty it is not puft up and so it is humility it doth not behave it self unseemly and then it is called decency seeketh not her own and then it is publick-spiritedness is not easily provok'd and then it is patience thinketh no evil and so it is simplicity and innocence rejoiceth in the truth and so it is verity and spiritual gladness beareth all things and so it is Christian fortitude believeth all things and so it is faith hopeth all things and so it is assurance endureth all things and then it is magnanimity and it never fails and so it is perseverance it purifies more than the flames of Martyrdom and is a better Alms than the world dispos'd of to charitable uses it enlightens more than all reading and all contemplation and it makes a man a Christian while Knowledg and Miracles only make him a Prodigy In a word it is all Philosophy and all Religion and he alone truly knows how to live who knows how to love Nay it is Heaven upon Earth says the devout Poet For We know not what they do above But that they sing and that they love Nay it is God himself * 1 John 4.8 For he that loves not knows not God for God is Love ' Who is able to describe the beauties of Holy Love says St. Clement * Ep ad Corinth p. 63 64. The height to which it carries us is unsearchable it unites us to God and it covers a multitude of sins it is the bond of Union and the bane of Schism and Divisions and without it nothing can please God It was nothing but Love that brought down Jesus from Heaven to shed his Blood for us and nothing but Love that can carry us thither whence he came down on Earth 2. Love is the only Original of all our satisfactions in this Life it sweetens all sufferings and makes difficulties easie for it subdues whatever opposes it True Love is a flame enkindled in the mind by our holy Saviour which preys upon and destroys all secular and carnal affections its eye is fixt on Heaven and its wings spread toward that bright Palace and thither it endeavours with unwearied speed to fly because that is