Selected quad for the lemma: tradition_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
tradition_n	faith_n	find_v	scripture_n	1,889	5	5.9425	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59579	Tanḥumim, or, Divine comforts antidoting inward perplexities of mind in a discourse upon Psal. XCIV, ver. 19 / by T. Sharp ... ; with some short remarks upon the author.	Sharp, Thomas, 1633-1693.	1700 (1700)	Wing S3007; ESTC R15146	256,568	440

know to be true and sound I can have no Evidence that God or any Covenant Mercy is mine For I can have no demonstration hereof but only by the Effects And if I be not sure that these are genuine the true Productions of God's Relation-Love the Legitimate issue of the Marriage Union betwixt Christ and my Soul I cheat my self under the disguise of a fallacious Peace into real Wretchedness and Woe The Assurance therefore of the Truth and Sincerity of my Grace is to me the very bottom Stone in the Foundation of my Comfort and an experimental sense of the vital Influence Presence and Power of that indwelling Grace is the basis of this Assurance This the Psalmist here does make the nearest ground of his assuming to himself Comfort in God ver 17 18. Vnless the Lord had been my help my Soul had almost or quickly dwelt in silence This was an Experience in a Temporal Case and plainly implies that in his extreme peril when there was no help or hope visible in and from the World yet God did interpose in a peculiar remarkable manner so that it could not but be apparent that his Deliverance was a special work of Providence So ver 18. When I said my Foot slippeth thy Mercy O Lord held me up I was in such eminent danger so near falling that I could not see any possibility of recovering my self but Betwixt the Stirrup and the Ground Mercy I crav'd and Mercy found A visible palpable observable special Intervention of Mercy sustain'd me when otherwise I was irrecoverably gone These were possibly some uncommon undertakings of Grace and Providence for him 1 Sam. 23.6 27. and chap. 25. like that in diverting Saul from the pursuit when he had hunted him to a view and the other in preventing his revenge upon Nabal or such as Hozekiah beg'd Isa 38.14 I know Experiences are things of late more derided than understood by some Admirers of a Rational Religion but whose pretended Reason is indeed too hard for their Religion overturning its Basis that Lowliness which would instruct them to think there are other Men and Christians beside that understand themselves though not understood by these and no more dote on an Animal Religion than their Accusers who are prejudic'd and prepossest against them by other things than either Religion or Reason or common Sence But these I refer to the after-thoughts of one of the great Propugnators of that way the Author of Anti-Sadducism Page 39 40 in 4º in one point of the highest Experience and sometimes most of all scoft at viz. Communion with God His Reason at length was reconciled to the Thing yet so will not his Charity to the Persons of those that alway own'd it they must be still Melancholists and any thing ill enough which a stout Reasoner ex Particulari can make them But possibly their Reason as in that so in other particulars that have undergone the same fate may in like manner approve it self when it has the happiness to be thus an Aborigin in the Rational World for 't is below the grandeur thereof to receive it from the poor despised Animal Well blessed be God that Heaven is an Experimental as well as Rational State although I doubt the Religion thereof will on that account proceed and commence animal in the Schools of Reasons Idolizers 'T is no matter I shall still commend three things as necessary Antecedents to Sincerity in the practice of true Religiousness 1st Reason the lowest the Handmaid which must submit and veil to the 2d Faith the Chamberlain of which is begotten the 3d. Experience the Treasurer the Heir of Faith which hath the honour to abide live and inherit when Faith ceases and dies yet it is not posthumous but brought up under it till it arrive at maturity in Paradise When I speak of Faith I am not so fond as to postpone a credence to Divine Revelations in the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments I build all Christian Faith upon that bottom solely and exclusively to all Unwritten Traditions or pretended Revelations which can never found a Divine Faith of which alone I discourse Neither am I so stark drunk as to think that those Scripture Revelations are not most highly rational in the matter of them as well as the motives to believe them nor yet so frantick as to advance any Experiences unconform to Scripture Let the Antinomians and Papists see to the first the promoters of Reason in contradistinction not to say contradiction to Scripture look to the second and Enthusiasts to the last Experience with me is nothing but a sensible yet rational feeling of the performance of Promises to a Man's self in particular When my inward sense assures me that the spiritual Covenant Mercies are really bestow'd upon me and my outward Circumstances demonstrate that God owns me with the Temporal I do not place these in Opposition but Conjunction for without the inward Experiments the outward signifie nothing They may be and are Providential but not Federal Both are call'd Tasts of God's Goodness and Graciousness or of his Word Psal 34.8 1 Pet. 2.3 Psal 119.103 c. Now when an Experience of the performance of any Promise superadds as it were a Seal to that Faith which receiv'd it as true it gives a more full confirmation to a Man's title to the Covenant and all the Blessings and Comforts of it and a further ground of quieting the Heart and therefore is completive of Comfort as Faith is inchoative For if I do but weakly and doubtingly apprehend and apply the Comforts that are in God yet when he bestows upon me some special token of his Favour 't is an emboldning encouraging pledge of his willingness to grant more and a testimony of his owning my right to all As in case of litigious Titles when all stands upon the same bottom if the Occupant freely yield up part to the Claimer 't is a vertual acknowledgement of his right to all and therefore exceedingly animates him in his future proceedings for its recovery Oh Divine Experience the blessed earnest of everlasting Consolation how sweet how satisfying art thou When a disconsolate Heart is sick of its own wants and woes weary of it self and the World as insufficient to yield the least drachm of solid Contentation 't is necessitated at last to send out Faith as a Harbinger to seek for Peace and Rest which it can no where find but in God and no way deduce from God but through those free Engagements which his boundless Goodness has exhibited in the Covenant of Grace These Blessings are as a Honey-comb in the promise but Heaven in the performance Indeed Heaven is no more nor less than the full and universal accomplishment of Promises and that partial incompleat fulfilling them in this Life wherein consists the happiness of Experience is no other than an Antepast or foretast of those eternal Felicities which constitute that immortal state And now am I

Railings Revilings Censures Uncharitableness Cursings Excommunicatings Fines Imprisonments Murderings Massacrings for things extrinsecal and foreign to their holy Profession recommended in the Mosaical Prophetical Evangelical and Apostolical Writings As if God had not delivered Precepts enough to guide Men to Heaven ever Party must have new of its own to torture Mens Consciences doubting that there are not Sins enough to damn Men unless we by our whimsies make large additions to the sum discovering thereby how much we are affraid that those who otherwise would securely tread in the Paths of Life and gain the Crown of Glory should not stumble and fall upon our new created Blocks and thereby precipitate themselves into Hell For what else is the meaning of our unwritten Traditions unwritten Canons unwritten Offices unwritten Orders and an hundred more by the by 's Tricks and Snares and Trains and Traps made to help the Devil more certainly to catch enough Is not the Holy Word of God the Scripture in its Rules and Laws too oft too much too foully-transgress'd but the Mouth of Hell must be gagg'd and rack'd wider with new devices that it may be capacious enough to receive the numberless numbers that we resolve to send thither by man-made Sins as if it were in despite of God And least our self-devised Engins should fail of effecting this and a poor quivering trembling Conscience that looks asquint at them should chance to preserve its Innocence and Allegiance to God and its present Light and Sentiments by sliping out of or breaking through the Snare and refusing to wound it self to eternal Death with the Ponyard we put into its hands we must jog and thrust home and drive on its slow and cautious pendulous Arm by the violence of such severe indispensible Sanctions so strictly look'd after so rigorously executed and all under a bold pretence of Divine Warrant that if Men have any thing of Nature Sense and Commiseration to their own Flesh their dearest Yoke-fellows their pretty tender innocent Babes they must be cruelly enforc'd to determine to be damn'd for them or kill their Hearts by dying before their Eyes under as many Agonies as ingenious Malice can invent and this perhaps a thousand times over beside the bequeathing them to the same or more miserable Fortune and all this is doing God good Service As if the Lord that bought Mens Souls to ease them Matth. 11.29 30. had done it only to sell them again to the most bloody butchering Fiends to torment them And God who with so much severity prohibits Cruelty Murder Bloodshed by his Laws had laid in an exception and given Commission for this to as many as can so divest all sense and bowels of Humanity and Christianity as to judge none to be Men and Christians but themselves and invest so much of Wolf Tyger Dragon as to do the utmost to make all others Proselytes of the Gates of Heil like themselves when in the mean time Men with the greatest impunity may violate the noblest Ordinations of Heaven or upon Prosecuon buy off or commute the Penance for a little Trash and Dirt. Oh dear Lord Jesus how long how long shall such a Spirit Triumph and ride in Scarlet How long shall they tear in pieces thy People and Heritage under the Beasts Skins wherewith they have cloathed them Oh blessed Spouse of Christ How long must thou be affronted with the violence of such beastly Ruffians that under a disguise pretend to be thy-very self that they may the more securely ravish and destroy thee The Wolf in the Lambs skin unsuspectedly to devour it A Beast with Horns like a Lamb but a Voice like a Dragon Rev. 13.11 Well Christ's Servants are not Wolves Thorns and Thistles Matth. 7.15 16. Profitable to none hurtful to all publick Curses But Sheep Vines Fig-trees their Temper their Behaviour their Fruit altogether good meek gentle sweet refreshing reviving pleasing generally useful publick Blessings like their Master every way desirable grateful all being better for them none worse in Goods good Name Body or Soul their Designs their Principles their Temper and Spirit their Behaviour and Purpose and Practice being the general benefit of Mankind and the Church of God especially that wherein their Lines are fallen They think it they represent it they indeavour further to make and preserve it a goodly Heritage If it hold the Head if it uphold the main if its established Doctrine be truly Christian if its design be true goodness if its Worship in the substance be Divine They bless God for it they cover its Blemishes they bear with its Infirmities they further its Ends they endeavour to inlarge it to adorn it with real Beauties to vindicate it from Reproaches to promote its Unity Prosperity Peace Purity Felicity lament its Miseries Breaches Corruptions Defects Deformities but expose it but defame it they dare not they will not This is a truly Catholick Spirit proceeding in all its actings upon truly Catholick Principles This and this only when the risk of Partiality Censoriousness Self-idolizing Faction Fury Barbarousness Madness Devilism is run will stand upon a secure basis and yeild a Man the blessed Fruits of Comfort Joy Peace and Contentation But I must come out of the Clouds and be plain Therefore shall first direct what ought to be owned by a Publick Spirit next what Principles will enable a Man to own what he ought 1. Common Humanity engages to be well wishers to that general Nature which is diffused through all the Species and love that in any Man which I honour in my self All the Butcheries and Barbarities on Earth issue from Mens degeneracy from Humanity into a ferine or diabolical Nature But since I am a Man nothing humane shall be foreign to my Cognisance to my Compassion to my Ear to my Conscience When the Vices of Persons give a check to my Bowels the vertue of the Nature shall retrieve their yearning motions and when I can see nothing in Men to engage I will endeavour to imitate the best of Paterns in taking Arguments from my self I will not so much regard their Conditions as their Capacities and that in all their Possibilities If this Nature be personally joined to God why should not I be joined to it in Affection Shall I tread that Man in the dirt who may shine as a Star in the Firmament of Glory Shall a Companion of Angels and God himself be worse dealt with than a Devil May Heaven receive him and shall not my Heart Is God so unkind to me as to give me an Example of brutishness to my own Nature I must not be worse to him than I would have him to me were our circumstances changed the measures I meet to him shall I receive of God 2. Christianity next both renders a man more meet and lays upon me a further bond to desire endeavour and effect his good The honour of the Name the power of the Thing The famed Mr. Fox could never deny