Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	answer_v	spirit_n	word_n	2,516	5	4.3057	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60942	Interest deposed, and truth restored, or, A word in season, delivered in two sermons the first at St. Maryes in Oxford, on the 24th of July, 1659, being the time of the assizes : as also of the fears and groans of the nation in the threatned, and expected ruin of the lawes, ministry, and universityes : the other preached lately before the honourable Societie of Lincolns-Inn / by Robert South ...	South, Robert, 1634-1716.; South, Robert, 1634-1716. Ecclesiasticall policy the best policy.	1660 (1660)	Wing S4733; ESTC R4025	42,795	62

difference The onely Exposition that J shall give of them will be to compare them to other Parallel Scriptures and peculiarly that in the 8 Mark 38. Whosoever therefore shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinfull generation of him also shall the Son of man be ashamed when he cometh in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels These words are a Comment upon my Text. 1. What is here in the Text called a denying of Christ is there termed a being ashamed of him that is in those words the Cause is expressed and here the Effect for therefore we deny a thing because we are shamed of it First Peter is ashamed of Christ then he denyes him 2. What is here termed a denying of Christ is there called a being ashamed of Christ and his Words Christs truths are his second Self And he that offers contempt to a Kings letters or edicts virtually affronts the King it strikes his words but it rebounds upon his Person 3. What is here said before men is there phrased in this adulterous and sinfull generation These words import the hindrances of the duty enioyned which therefore is here purposely enforced with a non obstante to all opposition The Terme Adulterous I conceive may cheifly relate to the Jewes who being nationally espoused to God by Covenant every sinne of theirs was in a peculiar manner spirituall Adultery 4. What is here said I will deny him before my Father is there expressed I will be ashamed of him before my Father and his holy Angels that is when he shall come to Judgment when Revenging Justice shall come in pomp attended with the glorious Retinue of all the Host of Heaven In short the sentence pronounced declares the Judgment the solemnity of it the Terror From the words we may deduce these Observations 1. We shall find strong motives and temptations from men to draw us to a deniall of Christ. 2. No Terrors or Solicitations from men though never so great can Warrant or Excuse such a deniall 3. To deny Christs Words is to deny Christ. But since these Observ●tions are rather implyed then expressed in the words I shall wave them and instead of deducing a Doctrine distinct from the words prosecute the words them selves under this Doctrinall Paraphrase Whosoever shall deny dis-owne or be ashamed of either the Person or truths of Iesus Christ for any fear or favour of man shall with shame be disowned and Eternally rejected by him at the dreadfull judgment of the great day The discussion of this shall lye in these things 1. To shew how many wayes Christ and his truths may be denyed and what is the deniall here cheifly intended 2. To shew what are the causes that induce men to a deniall of Christ and his truths 3. To shew how farre a man may consult his safety in time of persecution without denying Christ. 4. To shew what is imported in Christs denying us before his Father in Heaven 5. To apply all to the present Occasion But before I enter upon these I must breifly premise this that though the Text and the Doctrine run peremptory and absolute Whosoever denyes Christ shall assuredly be denyed by him yet still there is a tacit condition in the words supposed unless repentance intervene For this and many other Scriptures though as to their formall termes they are Absolute yet as to their sence they are Conditionall God in mercy has so framed and temper'd his word that we have for the most part a Reserve of mercy wrap'd up in a Curse And the very first judgment that was pronounced upon fallen man it was with the allay of a promise Wheresoever we find a Curse to the Guilty Expressed in the same words mercy to the Penitent is still Understood This premised I come now to discusse the first thing viz. How many wayes Christ and his truths may be denyed c. Here first in generall I assert that we may deny him in all those acts that are capable of being morally good or evill those are the proper Scene in which we act our Confessions or denialls of him Accordingly therefore all wayes of denying Christ I shall comprise under these three 1. We may deny him and his truths by an Erroneous Hereticall judgment I know it is doubted whether a bare Error in judgment can condemne but since truths absolutely necessary to Salvation are so clearly revealed that we cannot erre in them unless we be notoriously wanting to our selves herein the fault of the judgment is resolved into a precedent default in the will and so the case is put out of doubt But here it may be replyed are not truths of absolute and fundamentall necessity very disputable as the Deity of Christ the Trinity of Persons if they are not in themselves disputable why are they so much disputed Indeed I believe if we trace these disputes to their originall cause we shall find that they never sprung from a reluctancy in Reason to embrace them For this reason it self dictates as most rationall to assent to any thing though seemingly contrary to Reason if it is revealed by God and we are certaine of the Revelation These two supposed these disputes must needs arise only from curiosity and singularity and these are the faults of a diseased will But some will further demand in behalf of these men whether such as assent to every word in Scripture for so will those that deny the naturall deity of Christ and the Spirit can be yet said in Doctrinalls to deny Christ To this I answere since words abstracted from their proper sense signification loose the nature of words are only equivocally so called inasmuch as the persons we speak of take them thus derive the Letter from Christ but the signification from themselves they cannot be said properly to assent so much as to the words of the Scripture And so their case also is clear But yet more fully to state the matter how farre a deniall of Christ in beleife and judgment is damnable We will propose the question Whether those that hold the fundamentalls of faith may deny Christ damnably in respect of those superstructures and consequences that arise from them I answer in breif by fundamentall truths are understood 1. Either such without the beleif of which we cannot be saved or 2. such the beleif of which is sufficient to save If the question be proposed of fundamentalls in this latter sence it containes its own answer for he that beleives those truths the beleif of which is sufficient to save the disbeleif or deniall of their consequences cannot damne But what and how many these fundamentalls are it will then be agreed upon when all Sects Opinions and Perswasions doe unite and consent 2ly If we speake of fundamentalls in the former sence as they are only truths without which we cannot be saved it is manifest that we may believe them and yet be damned for denying their consequences

faithfull and mercifull will leave a sincere soul in the dark upon such an occasion But this J shall adde that the Ministers of God are not to evade or take refuge in any of these two forementioned wayes They are publique persons and good Shepheards must then chiefly stand close to the Flock when the Wolf comes For them to be silent in the Cause of Christ is to renounce it and to fly is to desert it As for that place urged in favour of the contrary in 23. v. When they persecute you in this City flee into another it proves nothing for the Precept was particular and concerned onely the Apostles and that but for that time in which they were then sent to the Jews at which time Christ kept them as a reserve for the future For when after his death they were indifferently sent both to Jews and Gentiles wee find not this clause in their Commission but they were to signe the Truths they preached with their blood as we know they actually did And moreover when Christ bids them being persecuted in one City fly into another it was not as Grotius acutely observes that they might lye hid or bee secure in that City but that there they might Preach the Gospel So that their flight here was not to secure their Persons but to continue their Business I conclude therefore that faithfull Ministers are to stand and endure the brunt A common Souldier may dye when it is the duty of him that holds the Standard to dye upon the place And we have abundant of encouragements so to doe Christ has seconded and sweetned his command with his promise Yea the thing it self is not onely our duty but our glory And he that has done this work has in the very work partly received his wages And were it put to my choice J think I should chuse rather with spitting and scorn to be tumbled into the dust in blood bearing witness to any known Truth of our dear Lord now opposed by the Enthusiasts of the present Age than by a denyal of those Truths through Blood and Perjury wade to a Scepter and Lord it in a Throne And we need not doubt but Truth however oppressed will have some followers and at length prevaile A Christ though Crucified will arise And as it is in the 11 Revel 3. The Witnesses will Prophesie though it be in Sackcloth Having thus dispatched the third thing I proceed to the fourth which is to shew what it is for Christ to deny us before his Father in Heaven Hitherto we have treated of mens carriage to Christ in this world now we will describe his carriage to them in the other These words clearly relate to the last Judgement and they are a Summary description of his proceeding with men at that day And here we will consider 1. The Action it self He will deny them 2. The Circumstance of the Action Hee will deny them before his Father aad the holy Angels 1. Concerning the first Christs denying us is otherwise expressed in the 13 Luke 27. I know you not To Know in Scripture language is to Approve and so not to Know is to Reject and Condemne Now who knows how many Woes are crowded into this one sentence I will deny him It is to say no more a compendious expression of Hell an Eternity of Torments comprised in a word it is Condemnation it self and what is most of all it is Condemnation from the mouth of a Saviour O the inexpressible horrour that will seize upon a poor soul when he stands arraigned at the Barre of Divine Justice When he shall look about and see his Accuser his Judge the Witnesses all of them his remorsless Adversaries The Law impleading Mercy and the Gospel upbraiding him the Devill his grand Accuser drawing his Indictment numbring his sinnes with the greater exactness and aggravating them with the cruellest bitterness and Conscience like a thousand Witnesses attesting every Article flying in his face and rending his very heart And then after all Christ from whom only Mercy could be expected owning the Accusation It will be Hell enough to hear the Sentence the very Promulgation of the Punishment will be part of the Punishment and anticipate the Execution If Peter was so abashed when Christ gave him a look after his denyall if there was so much dread in his looks when he stood as Prisoner how much greater will it bee when he sits as a Judge If it was so fearfull when he looked his Denyer into Repentance what will it be when he shall look him into Destruction Believe it when we shall hear an Accusation from an Advocate our Eternall doome from our Intercessour it will convince us that a Denyall of Christ is something more than a few transitory words What trembling what out-cries what astonishment will there be upon the pronouncing this Sentence Every word will come upon the sinner like an Arrow striking through his reines like Thunder that is heard and consumes at the same instant Yea it will be a Denyal with scorn with taunting exprobrations and to be miserable without commiseration is the height of misery He that falls below Pitty can fall no lower Could I give you a lively representation of guilt and horrour on this hand and paint out eternall wrath decypher eternall vengeance on the other then might J shew you the condition of a sinner hearing himself denyed by Christ And for those whom Christ has denyed it will be in vaine to appeale to the Father unless wee can imagine that those whom Mercy has condemned Justice will absolve 2. For the Circumstance He will deny us before his Father and the holy Angels As much as God is more glorious than man so much is it more glorious to be confessed before him than before men And so much glory as there is in being confessed so much dishonour there is in being denyed If there could be any room for comfort after the sentence of Damnation it would be this to be executed in secret to perish Unobserved As it is some allay to the infamy of him that dyed ignominiously to be buried privately But when a mans folly must be spread open before Angels and all his baseness ript up before those pure Spirits this will be a double Hell to be thrust into utter Darkness onely to be punished by it without the benefit of being concealed When Christ shall compare himself who was denyed and the thing for which he was denyed together and parallel his merits with a lust and lay Eternity in the Ballance with a trisle then the folly of the sinners choice shall be the greatest sting of his destruction For a man shall not have the advantage of his Former Ignorance and Errour to approve his sinne Things that appeared amiable by the light of this world will appear of a different odious hue in the clear discoveries of the Next As that which appears to be of this colour by a dimn candle will be