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	reason_n	scripture_n	2,267	5	6.0519	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54151	The guide mistaken, and temporizing rebuked, or, A brief reply to Jonathan Clapham's book intituled, A guide to the true religion in which his religion is confuted, his hypocrisie is detected, his aspersions are reprehended, his contradictions are compared / by W.P., a friend to the true religion.	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1668 (1668)	Wing P1301; ESTC R15309	49,937	66

not because the Seed of God abideth in him As is the begetter so is the begotten It may be further observ'd that into the Kingdom of which they are called Children or Inhabitants other places will not allow an entrance for any thing that is unclean or makes a lye nor is it congruous with Scripture and common sense the same Temple should hold God and Mamon Christ and Belial or that any can witness a being dead and crucified with Christ whilst living in that which has no share in him And though he would imply a Salvo or Defence for the admission of all sorts to Sacraments so call'd under the notion of the Field's being the Church yet if he well observes it is call'd the World out of which the Church of Christ both as to Doctrine and Conversation was alwayes gathered otherwise those Heathens Turks Jews c whom he would exclude must be members of his Church and whilst he would intrude Tares or the whole rabble of unrighteous persons as members of Christs Church he has forgot the Testimony born by the Apostles concerning that spotless blamless and perfect Body of which Christ Jesus was the Head And if he would from Christs words of letting them alone cover his practice of admitting all as being ignorant who is a Believer since none knows but in plucking up the Tares he may pluck up the Wheat also for this Guide's a Latitudinarian what need his whole discourse for a particular constitution he might I am sure a let that alone as knowing it would be of little force yet may he better understand the passage if he please of Persecution for they were known to be Tares else how could the servant say Sir didst not thou sow good Seed in thy Field from whence then hath it Tares if he had not rightly discerned their nature and that the Wheat was to hold no communication in any religious sort with them nor were they to express severity or force but leaving them in supernatural cases to the determination and punishment of the great Judge live a self-denying example to the world In this sense Imperfection is granted I mean to the carnal and unregenerate but to the Redeemed of God and Children of the Kingdom Perfection I am now come to the examination of the essentials of his so much recommended Choice Sect. 12. His first Article is concerning the nature of God and what of him is to be believed by those that would be happy his words are these That there is one God of an infinit perfect and spiritual nature subsisting in three most glorious persons the Father Son and Holy-Ghost who is the Maker Preserver and Governour of all things and intends his own Glory in all his Works That the greatest concernment of reasonable creatures is to know and acknowledge this God fear love adore and glorifie him and their chiefest felicity stands in his love and favour in fullest conformity to his Image and in no earthly good separate from him Taking the former part of his Definition for granted to wit the perfection infinity and spirituality of his Nature how very unsuitable herewith is the Religion and practice of this Guide first in denying that Revelation by which only a knowledge of this glorious and invisible Deity can be obtained which was the Testimony Christ bore concerning him that no man knew the Father but the Son and him to whom the Son revealed him so that if such Revelation as gives to behold the Father see his shape and contemplate the excellency of his Nature be wholly rejected by this Guide methinks it is either arrogancy to intrude into things he doth not know or folly to tell a tale received from other people for infallible truth without a demonstration in himself Next If there be no other way to have communion with this invisible God that thereby the Conformity he talks of may be known for being a Spirit it 's preposterous to imagine a knowledge of him obtainable by other mediums than what are aedequate to his Divine Nature but by this Revelation of Himself through his Son Christ in us except we are Reprobates it will necessarily follow that he must either deny Christ's Doctrine or else confess himself ignorant of what he writes and since the God he would advise all to know fear and love is that perfect Spirit I fain would know what Worship can be termed suitable thereunto but the internal and spiritual one which is altogether void of those Ceremonies Formalities Will-performances and perishing Observations once used as condescending signs to the weakness of some seasons which at this day fills up the Sacrifices and in which stands the Religion of those called Christians through the World whose ignorance of God's once dispensing with beggarly elements for their sakes whose understandings were vailed and too weak-sighted to behold at first the glorious Light has put many upon the imitation of past generations though void of their spirit and not answering the end for which they were then practised vainly conceiting them an offering acceptable to the eternal Spirit when it were as well-pleasing to present a dogg's neck as anciently was said What shall I hence conclude but as the Almighty God is a Spirit so cannot he otherwise be known or served and since he has required homage from his creatures and yet 's so purely just as to but expect what he has impow'red them to do how absolutely necessary is it that all Worship Godward should stand in the ability given of him thereunto and reasonable to believe that the occasion of all the Apostacy Darkness Inventions and whole variety of Forms and Constitutions of Religion has been from the neglect of that pure spiritual capacity once given of God to act and order them in all things that did concern their duty both to God and man As for his strange distinction of the Deity which he inforces on the faith of all that value their eternal welfare I cannot find one Scripture that will bear him out and if they had been of so much credit with this Guide as to have been by them led into their undeniable form of sound words he would not have intruded Tradition for Scripture to the creed of any but rather have inserted the Text or phrase it self whose Authority might have commanded an assent And it had more become him to give the world a Reason for his requiring a submission to and credence of his Doctrine rather than barely to draw up so many Articles and thus impiously to call on all for a subscription as they would be saved especially since he cannot but know how strongly these very points have been debated in ancient Councils and not less controverted by modern persons of Reputation and Learning Some owning one Eternal God void of all personal relations as Arrius with many Prelates and some Emperors in former Centuries F. Socinus L. Socinus Crellius Slictingius c. of later dayes

appeal to the intelligent Reader if this blind Guide is not faln into the ditch that ascribes to such the title of Dissenters whom he at the same time characters for absolute sons of the Church for do the highest Conformists to the Church of England acknowledge more than that she 's pure in Fundamentals and things of a secondary nature and yet that such who confess her to be this should by this silly Guide be stil'd Dissenters away with this apparent Nonsense since none can properly be so esteem'd that differs not in one or both And how inconsistant aswell as saucy his expression is that will not allow Dissenters to be sober and intelligent when none are such in his account that allows not the Church of England what they can never do and properly be counted for Dissenters sufficiently appears in his admitting these very Dissenters to be Christian Churches and Children of the same Father though now he seems to represent them void of both understanding and sobriety Where his were when these rash and unadvised words were writ I leave for the Reader to determine Sect. 3. He speaks largely of the publick Worship loudly extolling the Constitution of the Church of England professing a separation there from to be unwarrantable and that corruption in manners both of Ministers and People should be no reason for disserting their Assemblies c. Contrary to the whole currant of Scripture-record and the best accounts that have been transmitted through Ages of the Primitive Christians who ever have withdrawn themselves from such as held the truth in unrighteousness and let the world judge if Paul was not thus perswaded when he strictly enjoyn'd separation from not only Schismaticks Hereticks and Apostates but such as held the form of Godliness which consisted in profession and external performances without the everlasting Power which alone could bring into true Obedience and give the possession of that eternal Life which rightly denominates people Christians or a Christian Church But as two strong Pillars to maintain and underprop his Assertion he tells us otherwise God would have no Publick Worship As if an Assembly in a House Field or Barn was not as capable to worship God in spirit as those who frequent the Parish Steeple-houses if not 't is fit this Guide should pay his acknowledgements to the Roman Society he calls Antichrist for his publick Worship But be it known to him and all the world that as God's Spirit is not tied to places so all Worship standing therein is truly Catholick and Publick Worship in Field or House whether three or three thousand convenient places being circumstantial not essential to God's Worship Sect. 4. His second Pillar is the example of Zecharias who sayes he disserted not his station in the Jewish Worship notwithstanding those many Corruptions that were innovated by which he would excuse his continuance in his Priestly Office in Wramplingam Parish But if this Guide will be inform'd he soon may see his error in this particular as upon occasion formerly was exprest to him the Jews were selected from all other Nations and impriviledged as God's peculiar People by an external Law and Ordinances all which were typical over whom he ordained Magistrates and a Priesthood which had no relation to any other Constitution that was contemporary or should succeed but were to continue till the times of Reformation and then to be abrogated yet inasmuch as Antitypes are represented by their Types it must be granted that many Legal Institutions did signifie and shadow-forth what afterwards should follow since therefore it must needs be granted that the Jewish State relates no further to us than typically it will not be unnecessary to examine how far this Guide can secure himself and justifie his many turnings from the confest constancy of faithfull Zicharias Consider 1. that the Jews were a People separated from among the Nations as his visible Church to whom he gave that intituling sign of Circumcision 2. That their Temple Worship and Laws moral judicial and ceremoninal were indisputably of Divine Institution 3. That as those who were their Priests were by the high Priest anointed thereunto so being once dedicated were to officiate with integrity and constancy at the Altar 4. That no addition was to be admitted to what God had so punctually ordered in any Circumstance Now unless this Guide can prove the Church of Englānd the Antitype 1. In being the Circumcision in Spirit by which she is rightly intituled to the Priviledges of the Spiritual Jewish Church 2. Can as infallibly and unquestionably prove the Divine Institution of her Faith Worship and Discipline 3. That her Ministry is the spiritually Anointed of God by that one High-Priest after the Order of Melchizedek and by him commissionated to preach the everlasting Gospel 4. And that in Faith Worship and Discipline she remains as clear and single from all Inventions Traditions and Ceremonies those only allowed as have their footing in the Divine Appointment and Order of God unless I say this be made good 't will declare great weakness in any to allow this Guide to argue from Zecharias's case to his own I grant that whosoever is annointed by Jesus Christ to preach his everlasting Salvation ought to do it incessantly not mattering the opposition or revolution of Powers and that NO defect in the generality can or ought to unminister him but rather that he faithfully should decry those Impieties and keep his station on God's behalf which righteous Zecharias did whose bold withstanding their Inventions and honest desire of preserving that Law pure of which he was instituted Priest procured no less than his Martyrdom from the Cruelty of those vain Superstitionists But what 's this to Clapham's case Zecharias was anointed by the High-Priest whence was Clapham's Ordination Zecharias was murder'd for opposing their unrighteousness and wicked Traditions where did Clapham do so but has he not preach'd for and against what he at times has own'd to keep his Parish Zecharias would not dispense with their Additions to God's Institutions has Clapham done so too how comes he then to call the Church of England Pure in secondary matters to wit her forms of Prayer Anthems Responses Litanies Baby-Baptisme Crosses Altars Steeple-houses East and West Bowings Organs Quiresters Surplices Caps Rochets Hoods with much more such like trash than my memory will serve at present to insert which fills up the English Worship and are known by persons moderately read in Story to have been brought forth by the womb of dark Popery that sink of Antichristianism But as there ought to be one Temple Worship and Priesthood to make Clapham's case resemble Zecharias's so that his may approach this Guide's let us suppose amongst the Jews three several Temples Worships and Priesthoods call'd Presbyterian Independent Episcopal If Zecharias had first been of the Presbyterian-Priesthood and as that should decline in esteem imbrace the Independents till by revolution of Government both