Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	believe_v	faith_n	rule_n	12,199	5	7.5465	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A36898	The Dublin scuffle being a challenge sent by John Dunton, citizen of London, to Patrick Campbel, bookseller in Dublin : together with small skirmishes of bills and advertisements : to which is added the billet doux sent him by a citizens wife in Dublin, tempting him to lewdness, with his answers to her : also some account of his conversation in Ireland, intermixt with particular characters of the most eminent persons he convers'd with in that kingdom ... : in several letters to the spectators of this scuffle, with a poem on the whole encounter.	Dunton, John, 1659-1733.	1699 (1699)	Wing D2622; ESTC R171864	245,842	426

moved by the Holy Ghost and contain all things necessary to salvation and are the standing Sealed Rule of Faith and Life yet I believe that every one has some particular Mode of his own by which he steers the Course of his Devotions especially as to what he performs in his Closet But to proceed to my Diary And here I shall first acquaint you how I spend Saturday Saturday is usually a Day of Hurry and Business with the generality of Men and as the same winds up the Week so do People their Affairs But for my own part I confess I never affect multiplicity of Business on that Day but on the contrary have frequently shun'd it tho' I have observ'd it has often fallen to my share upon these Days to have a great deal for last Saturday I was so taken up with Adjusting some Controversies that did arise concerning the Affairs of my Auction that I had hardly leisure to take my Dinner however they were terminated so much the more to my satisfaction by how much all Parties were brought to acquiesce in my determination By this you see Madam I am no Sabbatarian but for those that are I am so far from having any hard Thoughts of them that I both pity and respect them for I can never believe 't is an Error of Wilfulness but of Ignorance only in them and whereas I do understand divers of them at least make a Conscience of keeping both Days because they would be sure to be right I think I have just reason to honour them for it and cannot choose but think much better of them than those who totally deny the Morality of the Sabbath day I confess Madam I do not remember to have read any thing material concerning the Controversie about the said Days and that I am as much at a loss to know certainly when our Christian Sabbath begins when there is such a variation in the Site of Places and Countries and that now we experimentally find where 't is Day in one place 't is Night in another And Madam as I know of no Person living with whom I can so well satisfie my Scruples and inform my Understanding than your self who are so well skill'd both in Polemical and Practical Divinity so I humbly request your Sentiments in this Case promising to make your Practice my own But Madam having told you how I spend Saturday I am next to inform you how I spend the Sabbath For in the Practice of Religion I look upon the Sanctifying of the Lord's Day to be a principal part Judge Hales recommends to his Children a very strict Observation of the Lord's Day and tells 'em That he had always found that his Worldly Affairs thriv'd either more or less the following Week as he had kept the Sabbath And therefore on Sunday I usually took leave of my Bed sooner than on other Days and strive to dismiss as much as I can all Worldly Affairs out of my Thoughts tho I have found 'em I acknowledge like the Flies that spoil the Apothecaries Ointment 〈◊〉 most unseasonably thrusting themselves in The Publick Worship of God being the principal Duty of this Day I made it my Practice to bow my Knees before my Maker in private before I went thither and there beg his Blessing on the Publick Ordinances and previous thereto have us'd to read some Portion of the Holy Scriptures being told therein that every thing is Sanctified by the Word of God and Prayer which is so much the Advantage of a Christian that I always thought never Prayer rightly made was made unheard or heard ungranted And I believe that Prayer is rightly made which is made to God in the Name of Christ in Faith and offer'd up with Humility When I come to the House of God I mean the place of his Worship whether it be a Church or a Meeting-House I always keep my self uncover'd whilst I continue there For as Holiness becomes his House so does a Behaviour mix'd with Reverence and Godly Fear in all that wait upon him And therefore during the Time of Prayer I either Kneel or Stand up believing the humblest Posture to be best when I am invocating the Majesty of Heaven and fixing my Eyes upwards I endeavour to apply every part of God's Worship to my own Conscience and the present State of my own Soul I love those Sermons best that check my Conscience for Sin and cheer it with applying Gods Mercy beginning with the Law and ending with the Gospel searching the Wound first and pouring in the Oyl of Consolation afterwards And those I reckon the worst Preachers that sooth M●n up in their Sins perswading Men they are good Christians when they don't know what 't is to be Born again Yet I don't love to be Pragmatical in censuring of Ministers I endeavour like the Industrious Bee to suck Honey from the Flowers of Devotion and not like the Spider to convert what was intended for Nourishment into Poyson If any thing drops from the Pulpit which I think not so pertinent I cover it with the Mantl● of Love and strive to remember that which is better For as the Divine Herbert observes If the P●rson be dull God Preaches to the Hearers a Lecture of Patience In the Singing of Psalms I labour more to have my Soul inflam'd with Love and Zeal than to have my Spirits cheer'd either by the Harmony of Voices or sound of the Organ and cou'd heartily wish that Sternhold and Hopkins's Psalms tho'well enough 150 Years ago were now remov'd and Mr. Tate's Translation put in their place As to the Receiving the Holy Sacrament it has ever been my Opinion that whoever participates of that Solemn Ordinance lest he Eats and Drinks Damnation shou●d retire himself from the World for a Day at least 〈◊〉 by a strict recollection of his Actions and serious examination of his own Life attended with Fasting and Prayer endeavour so to prepare himself that he may come as a Worthy Receiver to the Tab●e of the Lord that so by the Strength he receives by that Spiritual Viaticum he may be inabled to run with Pa●ience the Race that is set before him and therein through the Assistance of Divine Grace so to run as to obtain the Prize After the Publick Duties of the Day are over I return to my Chamber and enter into my Closet spending some time therein in Meditating on what I have heard and in reiterated Addresses to the Throne of Grace to follow it with his Blessing Well knowing that tho Paul may Plant and Apollo Water yet it is God that teaches me to profit And if in the Evening as sometimes there does a Friend comes to visit me I spend my time with him in discoursing on Divine things whereby our Hearts are warmed and our Affections stirred up to praise God for his Goodness and hereby find the Benefit of the Communion of Saints which is too much neglected tho' an Article of the Creed Sure I

within is what we call the Dictates of Conscience and if we could but get 'em to Baptism and the Lord's Supper we should begin to call 'em Brethren And thus you see by my going one Sunday to one Perswasion and a second to another that I can go to Heaven with any Wind and with any Name and shall think it an happiness to go into Canaan tho it were through a Red Sea Madam 'T is true I was born to travel and am now pursuing my Destiny but if I wander the Length of the Map and never see you here yet I hope we shall meet in Heaven at last What tho we di●fer in our Way thither I hope we pardon one another Men go to China both by the Streights and by the Cape The Good Men of Ireland such as Bishop King and Mr. Boyse perhaps contend about words when they heartily think the same thing But whatever the Opinions of others are in Polemical Matters yet as to my self I dare boldly say I am or should be an Honest Man for Vertue is my Business my Writing is my Recreation which made Iris say she 'd bury me with a Pen in my Hand God is my Father the Church my Mother I need not say this or that Church if I am sound in the 〈◊〉 Points the Saints my Brethren and all that need 〈◊〉 my Friends and I am likewise too a Friend to my self for shall I have it and want Necessaries Wh● though I am now in a far Country yet I have in my self as Randolph says an Houshold-government and where e're I go do intend to live Lord of my self accountable to none But to my Conscience and my God alone Now Madam give me leave to say however Romantick some may think this to be That I have found notwithstanding my many Infirmities more Peace and Satisfaction in the discharge of a good Conscience than in all the Pleasures this World can give In the next place Madam I shall give you a short Diary of my Practice in Ireland with respect to Religion but I will first give you a Relation of a Rencounter I had with a sort of Atheist I met in Dublin I need not tell ye Madam That Atheism and Irreligion abounds every where for your last Letter suggested as much and the cause is apparent for when Men have given themselves up so long to the Conduct of their own Lusts that they have Reason to fear the Justice of God due to 'em for their Sins they would fain hope to secure themselves by denying his Being I can't say this Lewd Fellow I met in Dublin absolutely deny'd the Being of a God and I much question whether there be a profest Atheist in the World yet I may say his Discourses as well as his manner of living had so much of Atheism in 'em as they made me tremble I won't insert his Atheistical Discourses for they are better forgot than publish'd but I 'll send you some of the Arguments I us'd to refute his Atheistical Notions Whether they satisfy'd him or not I can't say for he made little reply I am sure my design was good but whether I argued as I ought I leave you Madam to judge what I advanc'd was to this Effect viz. There are two ways for us to attain to the Knowledge of God or a First Principle by whom the World was made the one is Natural the other Supernatural That which I call Supernatural I what God has revealed in his Word wherein he has given us the clearest Idea of himself as he by whom all things were made But because they who deny the Being of a God do generally make a scoff as his Word I will only insist upon that which is Natural Nature informs us that there was a Sovereign Being the Author and Preserver of all things This Truth I can see with my Eyes when I either behold the Earth view the Heavens or reflect upon my self When I see such things as are not made but by a Superior Cause I am obliged to acknowledge and adore a Being which cannot be made and which made all things else When I consider my self I am sure that I could not be without a beginning therefore it follows That a Person like me could not give me to be and by consequence this puts me upon seeking out a First Being who having had no Beginning must be the Original of all other things When my Reason conducts me to this First Principle I conclud● evidently that this Being cannot be limited because Limits suppose a Necessity of Production and Dependance And if unlimited it must be a Sovereign and Incomprehensible Being And this prevents all curious Enquirers from comprehending what God is For who can define that which is Vnlimited or comprehend that which is Incomprehensible One must be blind indeed to be ignorant of a First Principle but one must be infinite like him to be able to speak exactly of him For the most that can be said by us though it may perhaps content the Curious yet it can never satisfie the Rational Soul This Madam was the Substance of what I spake on that Occasion which as I said before I leave to your Censure And to be yet more free with you I have those awful Thoughts of the Divine Being that I would never think of him but with the most profound Veneration and therefore always choose to think of him rather in the Abstract than the Concrete for if I think him Good my finit● thought is ready to terminate that Good in a conceived Subject and if I conceive him Great my bounded Con●●●t is apt to ●ast him into a comprehensible Figure I would therefore conceive him a diffused Goodness without Quality and represent him an ●ncomprehensible Greatness without Quantity And therefore I choos● as Mr. Ellis advises to sh●● all gross Representations of God or ●ikening him so much 〈◊〉 in my Thought to any Creature I am not to Worship him after my own Conceit or Fancy but according to the Rules he hath giv●n in his Word And to speak my Thoughts of Religion in a few Words I look upon that to be the best Religion which is pure and peaceable and tak●s no pleasure in the Expence of Blood whose Principles are consonant to the Word of God and which takes most from the Creature and gives most to the Creator This is that Religion which I assure my self is the Right which I will endeavour to practise while I Live and rely on when I Die And this brings me to what I promisd an Account of my Practice in Dublin which I will give you in the Form of a Diary I freely acknowledge Madam That the Sacred Oracles of the Old and New Testaments do sufficiently instruct us in the Performance of all those Duties which God requires of us But tho the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments are the very Word of God which holy Men of God spake and wrote as they were