Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	article_n	holy_a	salvation_n	2,633	5	7.5054	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30388	The life of William Bedell D.D., Lord Bishop of Killmore in Ireland written by Gilbert Burnet. To which are subjoyned certain letters which passed betwixt Spain and England in matter of religion, concerning the general motives to the Roman obedience, between Mr. James Waddesworth ... and the said William Bedell ...	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.; Bedell, William, 1571-1642. Copies of certain letters which have passed between Spain & England in matter of religion.; Wadsworth, James, 1604-1656?	1692 (1692)	Wing B5831; ESTC R27239	225,602	545

of Grace where he reduceth the whole practice of Christianity unto three Heads of living Soberly justly and Godly This last directing our carriage towards God the midle most towards our Neighbour and the foremost towards our Selves Now since this is a direction for our whole Life it seems to me that we have no more to do at any time but to conn this Lesson more perfectly with some particular application of such parts of it as are most suitable to the present occasions And as to Sobriety first under which the Vertues of Humility Modesty Temperance Chastity and Contentedness are contained since this is a time wherein as the Prophet saith The Lord of Hosts calleth to weeping and mourning and pulling off the Hair and girding with Sack-cloth you shall by my advice conform your self to those that by the Hand of God suffer such things Let your apparel and Dress be mournful as I doubt not but that your Mind is your Dyet sparing and course rather than full and liberal frame your self to the indifferency whereof the Apostle speaketh In whatsoever state you shall be therewith to be content to be full and to be hungry to abound and to want Remember now that which is the Lot of others you know not how soon it may be your own Learn to despise and defie the vain and falsly called wealth of this World whereof you now see we have so casual and uncertain a possession This for Sobriety the first part of the Lesson pertaining to your self Now for Iustice which respects others and containeth the Vertues of Honour to Superiors discreet and equal government of Inferiors peaceableness to all Meekness Mercy just dealing in matters of getting and spending Gratitude Liberality just Speech and desires God's Judgments being in the Earth the Inhabitants of the World should learn Righteousness as the Prophet speaketh Call to mind therefore and bethink you if in any of these you have failed and turn your Feet to God's Testimonies certainly these times are such wherein you may be afflicted and say with the Psalmist Horrour hath taken hold of me and Rivers of Tears run down mine Eyes because they keep not thy Laws Rebelling against Superiors Misleading not only by Example but by Compulsion Inferiors laying their Hand to them that were at peace with them unjustly spoiling and unthankfully requiting those that had shewed them kindness no Faith nor Truth in their Promises Judge by the way of the School that teacheth Christ thus are these his doings as for those that suffer I am well assured I shall not need to inform you or stir you up to mercy and compassion That which is done in this kind is done to Christ himself and shall be put upon account in your reckoning and rewarded accordingly at his glorious appearance The last and principal part of our Lesson remains which teacheth how to behave our selves Godly or religiously to this belong First the Duties of Gods inward Worship as Fear Love and Faith in God then outward as Invocation the holy use of his Word and Sacraments Name and Sabbaths The Apostle makes it the whole End and Work for which we were set in this World to seek the Lord yet in publick affliction we are specially invited thereto as it is written of Iehoshaphat when a great multitude came to invade him He set his Face to seek the Lord and called the people to a solemn fast So the Church professeth in the Prophet Isaiah In the way of thy Iudgments Lord we have waited for thee the desire of our Soul is to thy Name and to the remembrance of thee With my Soul have I desired thee in the Night yea with my Spirit within me will I seek thee early In this publick Calamity therefore it is our duty to turn to him that smiteth us and to humble our selves under his mighty Hand to conceive a reverend and Religious fear towards him that only by turning away his countenance can thus trouble us against that of Man which can do no more but kill the Body Again to renew our love to our heavenly Father that now offereth himself to us as to Children and to give a proof of that Love that we bear to our Saviour in the keeping of his Sayings hating in comparison of him and competition with him Father Mother Children Goods and Life it self which is the condition and proof of his Disciples and above all to receive and to re-inforce our Faith and Affiance which is now brought unto the tryal of the fiery Furnace and of the Lions Den O that it might be found to our honour praise and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ. In the mean space even now let us be partakers of Christ's Sufferings and hear him from Heaven encouraging us Be thou faithful unto Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Touching Prayer we have this gracious invitation Call upon me in the day of trouble and I will hear thee the example of all Gods Saints and of our Saviour in his agony to this belong the humble confession of our Sins with earnest request of Pardon the complaint of our Misery and danger with request of succour and protection we have besides the intercession of our Advocate with the Father the cry of the innocent Blood that hath been cruelly shed and the Lords own interesting himself in the cause so as we may say with the Psalmist Arise O God plead thine own cause remember how the foolish Man yea the Man of Sin reproacheth thee daily Forget not the voice of thine Enemies the tumult of those that rise against thee encreaseth continually That Psalm and many others as the 6 13 35 43 71 74 79 80 88 92 94 102 115 123 130 140 142. do give Precedents of Prayers in such times as these and the Prayer of Daniel and Ezra 9. of Asa and Iehoshaphat 2 Chron. 14. and 26.12 The Stories of David's flight before Absolom and Iehoshaphat's behaviour when the Enemies came against him of Hezekiah's in Sennacherib's Invasion Isa. 37. and the whole book of Esther are fit Scriptures now to be read that through the patience and comfort of them we might have hope Now because we know not how soon we may be called to sanctifie God's name by making profession thereof you may perhaps desire to know what to say in that day You may openly profess your not doubting of any Article of the Catholick Faith shortly laid down in the Creed or more largely laid down in the Holy Scriptures but that you consent not to certain Opinions which are no points of Faith which have been brought into common belief without warrant of Scriptures or pure Antiquity as Namely That it is of necessity to Salvation to be under the Pope That the Scriptures ought not to be read of the common people That the Doctrine of Holy Scripture is not sufficient to Salvation That the Service of God ought to be in a Language not understood of the people That

ours and S. Augustines in so many words And this is all the Headship of the Church we give to Kings Whereof a Queen is as well capable as a King since it is an act of Authority not Ecclesiastical Ministery proceeding from eminency of power not of knowledge or holiness Wherein not only a learned King as ours is but a good old Woman as Queen Elizabeth besides her Princely dignity was may excel as your selves confess your infallible Judge himself But in power he saith he is above all which not to examine for the present in this Power Princes are above all their Subjects I trow and S. Augustine saith plainly to command and forbid even in the Religion of God still according to Gods Word which is the touchstone of Good and Evil. Neither was King Henry the Eight the first Prince that exercised this power witness David and Solomon and the rest of the Kings of Iudah before Christ. And since that Kings were Christians The affairs of the Church have depended upon them and the greatest Synods have been by their Decree as Socrates expresly saith Nor did King Henry claim any new thing in this Land but restored to the Crown the ancient right thereof which sundry his Predecessors had exercised as our Historians and Lawyers with one consent affirm The rest of your induction of Archbishops Bishops and whole Clergy in their Convocation-House and a Council of all Lutherans Calvinists Protestants c. is but a needless pomp of words striving to win by a form of discourse that which gladly shall be yielded at the first demand They might all err if they were as many as the Sand on the Sea Shoar if they did not rightly apply the Rule of Holy Scriptures by which as you acknowledge the external Iudge which you seek must proceed As to your demand therefore how you should be sure when and wherein they did and did not err where you should have fixed your foot to forbear to skirmish with your confirmation That though à posse ad esse non valet semper consequentia yet aliquando valet frustra dicitur potentia quae nunquam ducitur in actum To the former whereof I might tell you that without question nunquam valet And to the second that I can very well allow that errandi potentia among Protestants be ever frustra This I say freely That if you come with this resolution to learn nothing by discourse or evidence of Scripture but only by the meer pronouncing of a humane external Judge's Mouth to whom you would yield your understanding in all his determinations If as the Jesuites teach their Scholars you will wholly deny your own judgment and resolve that if this Iudge shall say that is black which appears to your Eyes white you will say it is black too you have posed all the Protestants they cannot tell how to teach you infallibly Withal I must tell you thus much that this preparation of mind in a Scholar as you are in a Minister yea in a Christian that had but learned his Creed much more that had from a Child known the Holy Scriptures that are able to make us wise to salvation through the Faith that is in Christ Iesus were too great weakness and to use the Apostles Phrase childishness of understanding But at length you heard a sound of Harmony and Consent that in the Catholick Church as in Noah 's Ark was infallibility and possibility of salvation which occasioned you to seek out and to enter into this Ark of Noah The sound of Consent and Infallibility is most pleasing and harmonious and undoubtedly ever and only to be found in the Catholick Church to wit in the Rule of Faith and in the Holy Scriptures and such necessary Doctrine as perfectly concordeth with the same But as in Song many discords do pass in smaller Notes without offence of the Ears so should they in smaller matters of Opinion in the Church without the offence of judicious and charitable minds Which yet I speak not to justifie them nay I am verily of the mind That this is the thing that hath marred the Church Musick in both kinds that too much liberty is taken in descant to depart from the Ground and as one saith notae nimium denigrantur The fault of the Italians though they think themselves the only Songsters in the World But to return to you tell me I beseech you good Mr. Waddesworth was this the Harmony that transported you The Pope himself saith I cannot err and to me thou oughtest to have recourse for decision of doubts in matters of Faith And whereas this is not only denyed by Protestants but hath been ever by the French and anciently I am sure by the Spanish lately by some Italian Divines also unless he use due means to find the truth yea whereas it is the issue of all the Controversies of this age in this snare you fastened your Foot This was the Center that settled your Conscience this the solid and firm foundation of your Faith What and did it not move you that some limit this infallibility of the Pope thus If he enter Canonically if he proceed advisedly and maturely using that diligence that is fit to find out the Truth that is as you said before proceeding by the Rule the Scriptures Albeit to the Fathers of the African Council it seemed incredible as they write in their Synodal Epistle to P. Coelestine standing for Appeals to himself that God can inspire the right in tryal to one denying it to many Bishops in a Council Tell us then who made you secure of these things or did you in truth never so much as make question of them but hearing this harmonious sound The Pope is the Infallible Iudge you trusted the new Masters of that side Gregory de Valentia and Bellarmine that whether the Pope in defining do use diligence or no if he do define he shall define infallibly Alas Sir if this were the rest you found for the soale of your Foot instead of moveable Water you fell upon mire and puddle Or rather like to another Dove mentioned in Scripture columba seducta non habens Cor by the most chaffy shrap that ever was set before the Eyes of winged Fowl were brought to the door-fal Excuse my grief mixed I confess with some indignation but more love to you though I thus write Many things there be in Popery inconvenient and to my conceit weakly and ungroundedly affirmed to say no more but this is so absurd and palpable a flattery as to omit to speak of you for my part I cannot be perswaded that Paulus the Fifth believes it himself For consider I pray what needed anciently the Christian Emperours and sometimes at the request of the Bishops of Rome themselves to have gathered together so many Bishops from so divers parts of the World to celebrate Councils if it had been known and believed then that one Mans Sentence