A51839:618
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing…
XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostasy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...XVIII sermons on the second chapter of the 2d Epistle to the Thessalonians containing the description, rise, growth, and fall of Antichrist : with divers cautions and arguments to establish Christians against the apostacy of the Church of Rome : very necessary for these times / by that late reverend and learned divine, Thomas Manton ...
London: printed by J.D. for J. Robinson, 1679
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
4. This Truth being written, it is both a safe and a full Rule for us to walk by: It is a safe Rule, because it is written by the Apostles and Evangelist, holy Men moved by the Holy Ghost. The Apostles did not lose their Infallibility, when they committed what they preached to writing: the same Spirit that assisted them in delivering the Doctrine by word of mouth, assisted them also when they delivered it by writing. And it is a full and sufficient Rule, because it containeth all things which are necessary for Men to believe and do, in order to Eternal Life. Let them name what is necessary, beyond what is recommended there, or may be delivered from thence. Yea, it doth contain, not only all the Essential, but also the Integral parts of the Christian Religion; and therefore nothing can be any part of our Religion which is not there. The Direction of old was, Isa. 8.20. To the Law, and to the Testimony; if they speak not according to this Word, it is because there is no Light in them. Every thing was then tried by Moses and the Prophets; every thing must be now tried by the Prophets and Apostles, which is our Foundation of Faith, Worship, and Obedience, Ephes. 2.20.
5. That which we blame in the Papists, is, ⟨p. 340⟩That they cry up a private, unproved, unwritten Tradition of their own, as of equal authority with this safe and full Rule, which is contained in this written Word of God. Their Crime and Fault may be considered, partly with respect to the Object and Matter; that these Traditions are not indifferent Customs, but essential Points necessary to Faith and Christian practice: And so though a Christian be never so thorough and sound in his obedience to the Word of God, and true to the Baptismal Covenant, yet if he submitteth not to these unwritten Traditions, he wants some Point necessary to Faith and Practice, and so to Life eternal: which is contrary to