Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	faith_n	heart_n	purify_v	2,568	5	11.6551	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92845	A sermon, preached at St. Marie's in the University of Cambridge May 1st, 1653. Or, An essay to the discovery of the spirit of enthusiasme and pretended inspiration, that disturbs and strikes at the universities: by Joseph Sedgwick, Mr. of Arts, and Fellow of Christs Coll: in the University of Cambridge. Together with an appendix, wherein Mr. Del's Stumblingstone is briefly repli'd unto: and a fuller discourse of the use of universities and learning upon an ecclesiasticall account, submitted by the same authour to the judgement of every impartial and rational Christian.	Sedgwick, Joseph, 1628-1702.	1653 (1653)	Wing S2362; Thomason E699_2; Thomason E699_3; ESTC R510	26,942	31

in the service of God that and this partaking in the general notion of a religious Assembly their Ministery of a Ministery and their Worship of the Worship of God And observing the difference of their and our dispensations we may very lawfully make use of their institutions to direct us to discover many things which belong to religious Congregations Officers and Worship in generall That onely being abrogated of Moses which was typical and founded in God's Covenant with Israelites as Israelites i. e. as instated in the land of Canaan not as men and related to God by creation and the covenant of nature IV. Which follows from and may adde strength to what hath been already said Collections from Scripture though not to every eye exprest in Scripture and arguments drawn according to the different circumstances of the Primitive and Later conditions of the Church are proofs very admittable by any sober Christian This is no more then what reason readily grants as founded in the very nature of the things no more then what is commonly allowed as sufficient proof in collecting from any History ancient Custome and usage or old Law which is in force with respect to the alteration of times It is that which in other more uncontroverted cases is used in alledging of Scripture it self V. Custome and practice of the Church in succeeding ages and Ecclesiasticall History especially neare the Apostles times universal and in conformity to the former presumptions is an argument in it self as considerable as intolerable to Enthusiastick Spirits or men that affect novelty their own humours Now to our question The Christian Schooles in former ages are notorious and the high price then set upon Learning is cleare by their diligence in instructing their children in Arts and Sciences and by the sense they had of Julian's injurious forbidding them the Heathenish Learning and denying them the liberty of the then Schooles of literature What joy for their deliverance from this oppression by his death What industry in supplying the want of publick education It is evident Nazianzen had other thoughts of humane Learning then those that prefer Julian for a pattern of reformation But this way of arguing were I skill'd in it would be put off with the Antiquity of the Mystery of Iniquity which if we believe some had almost in every thing overspred the Church of Christ straight after the decease of the Apostles Indeed it would be ineffectuall because beyond the possibility of our Opponents Examination who have exprest their Christian justice in vilifying and condemning the Ancients whom they are not at all acquainted with Yet it needs no great reading to know that those which we acknowledge to be the times of greatest Apostacy in the Church were the freest from secular Learning and had as much darkness in that respect as our Adversaries can hope to bring England to if the Universities were utterly abolish'd The Reformation of Religion and the reviving of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in plaine English the Gentile Learning were contemporary and happily promoted by the same Instruments And it were strange if the Reformation begun in knowledge could no otherwise be carried on then by returning to the Ignorance of darker and more degenerate ages What can an adversary to the reformation in reason think else but that they have convinced us of the insufficiency of our Cause and that now we are sensible Learning was onely an argument for us when our Opponents had not attained to enough to discover our fallacies impostures learned juglings What greater triumph can the Jesuites desire then to see us beat out of our confidence of Learning and put to a poore and irrational shift of private infallible Inspiration One inclining to Atheisme will be perfectly possessed that the defences of Christian Religion were only proud triumphs over the too unexercised disputers against it in Heathenisme or that the power of the Christian Emperours was the strongest argument for the truth of Christianity Experience having as he may justly surmise if all Christians were of these mens minds discovered to our selves the weakness of our Religion unable to withstand the clearer light of natural and refined reason We come now to our former Conclusions Conclusion I. A Ministery was not to cease with the primitive times and Apostolical administration and gifts Which will be proved if in particular we evidence the truth of the Church of England and the lawfulness of its Ministery which may be done thus 1. There is a visible Church of God in England or the Church of England is a true Church of Christ in an Apostolical sense By a Church I mean according to the notion of a Church in the Apostolical writings to which I refer any attentive reader for proof of the notion I meane I say by a Church a Collection or Society of men united in the Worship of God in his Son Jesus Christ whom they professe to believe to be sent by the Father for the remission of sinnes and according to whose precepts they engage themselves to lead their lives in hopes of everlasting life through the same Lord Jesus Though as yet they are no otherwise renewed then by this more generall belief of the Gospel and Salvation promised by Christ i. e. but potentially and in gradu remoto sanctified their lives being unanswerable to their profession and promise And this is the case of the English communion whose members having been baptized in their infancy and having at yeares of discretion acknowledged their assent to the then-dedication of them to God and acknowledging their Baptisme into repentance for remission of sins are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints by call called unto holiness and true members of the Church till duly and justly put out of communion This is in Apostolical phrase a Church of God and a Congregation of Believers in the Scripture expression And that is soberer language then carnal and worldly Church though there is a more invisible Church more spiritually and intimately united to Christ to which neither hypocrites nor unrighteous professours do belong the bounds of it being narrower and salvation attainable to none that are without it But the Church we speak of is such as those St Paul wrote to visible and externall the conditions of whose communion was in the Apostles time but a believing Christ to be the Messiah and submitting to Baptisme to the remission of sinnes and repentance from dead works This Church is not to be rested in neither are the members of it to be vilified and slighted as out of the Church as unbelievers or to be debarr'd communion who have the faith of Christ in them and whose hearts God hath purified by a belief wrought in them of the truth of the Gospel though their faith be dead as yet unprofitable and that which unless it be brought into act and work by Love will not save Yet there is that faith wrought in them by the Spirit of God in

their education which may by the assistance and supervenient grace of the Spirit be a foundation of reall closing with Christ and real Gospel-holiness In the meanetime God hath purified their hearts by this Faith which is in them though unconsidered unimproved and unactive in that sense as I think is agreeable with the context of Acts 15. 9. i. e. so that though they were impure as to legal purification uncleane and profane as to communion with the worshippers of the true God God hath now made them cleane as to Church-communion and being admitted into Brotherhood by the believing Jewes by bringing them to a belief that Jesus is the Christ 2. Further to warrant the communion of the Church of England observe that those that are united in the Faith of Christ ought to be united in Church-communion i. e. ought to assemble together for the publick Profession of their Faith in Christ and joint serving of God seeking him for each other and the cause of Christ in enlarging and protecting his Church and for mutual edification It is grounded upon that promise of our Saviour He that confesses me before men him will I confesse 'T is true there are other wayes of confessing Christ but the promise is to confession in the latitude and it is dangerous in any particular to be guilty of denying Christ Assembling together to the imploring of Divine grace and a thankfull remembrance of the Lord till he come is the duty of the members of Christian Churches the ends still remaining and being as necessary as in the Apostles times viz. to hold out the profession and faith of Christ to the World and to strengthen encourage and build up each other in our most precious faith and Christian love which is mightily confirmed by our union in the service of God and which is the ground of God's especial regard to united prayers which argue the unanimity and concord of his people The arguments against our assemblies that of mixt-congregations being answered in the precedent assertion are these two I. The perfection to which some men have attained so as to be past those beggarly rudiments externall and fleshly worships c. and now to live in immediate communion and a constant Sabbath If this glory and raisedness be reall in them more then fancy words I shall only say First humility and self-disesteeme is one maine piece of a Christian's perfection Secondly submission to Divine institution certainly would be no derogation from happiness yea that is the question And for proof of it we appeale to Apostolical practice those first times wherein this spirit was wholly unknown We desire not a warrant from Scripture to beare us out in our inconformity to this primitive practice though we might more reasonably then they require of us to shew by Scripture that the effusion of the Spirit in extraordinary gifts ceased with the first age of the Church The matter is quite other in man's duty and God's free dispensation Especially if we remember that a publick profession of our dependance upon God and communion in seeking and acknowledging of God are the dictates of natural light and indispensable Thirdly enquiry may be made whether they are incapable of growth and beyond all increase of grace if not whether the Scripture-way of edification be not most imitable Fourthly such glorious Saints in reality might assemble to the greater benefit of inferiour Christians and sure no perfection priviledges from serving God in building up the Church Fifthly to acknowledge God and Christ before men to blesse him for his mercies to glorify him in the Congregations of his Saints nay to celebrate the memoriall of his death in the Supper of our Lord are Duties agreeable with the most Saintlike eminency while conversant in the World The most glorious Saint or Angel if in a body and mixt with humane society would I believe thus be employed and count it no disparagement no superfluous or empty service Methinks the souls under the Altar and the Hallelujahs resounding from Heaven to the Apocalyptical Divine are good presumptions that there is some such thing in Heaven or that such service is not altogether indecorously attributed to the highest manifestation of God But I wish there be nothing of self-conceit impatience under God's wisely-and-justly-suspended communication of himself or formality converted to another extreme at the bottome of this high-towring confidence I desire in my self to be shrewdly suspicious of that Heaven which lessens my willingness to meet God and his Angels it is as probable an exposition of 1 Cor. 11. as any I have heard coassembled with believers upon earth An heart enlarged to communion with Saints to edification of our brethren to a constant praising of God and to an embracing of any opportunity of acknowledging thankfully before men and Angels the love of God in our Redemption an heart I say thus raised to be Praecentor in the Quire of the Saints blessing God the Father and our Lord Jesus is an heaven in almost every thing but in the spiritualness and Immortality of the Body II. The imperfection of our assemblies in comparison of the primitive times is to some an argument against our Worship of God Indeed it is a good argument to quicken our dulness to an imitation of their affectionate fervency Yet I appeal to the experience of devout souls whether God be wholly absent from our assemblies and the quickning presence of the Spirit absolutely withdrawn We retaine not empty and dead Ordinances and to call them but dead and ineffectuall shadowes is an expression injurious to the manifestations of God in many a faithful heart who can sensibly and with rejoycing beare witness to the appearance of God in our publick Service What wants of miraculous presence we may referre to the Divine Wisdome manifesting it self suteably to each Age of Christianity What wants of effectualness let us blame our negligence and approach more spiritually to service But what consequence is it We are already by much short of the primitive ardour and therefore must still more recede from their so glorious example While we believe the Gospel grace worth our thanks while we need his assistance and protection we must not deny God the service that is due unto him even by right of Creation but do it to our best ability Expect what glorious times you see ground for in Scripture I shall not quarrel though the largeness of your hopes may exceed any promise I can see in Divine Writ yet remember to presse toward it in eminency of piety and due attendance upon the Worship of God which I am sure can be no greater prejudice to the drawing nigh of any glory in the Church then Simeon's waiting in the temple was to his seeing of Christ 3. There must be set over the Church men that may watch to the Flock Pastors Teachers men able to instruct direct and order the Church of Christ and more especially in their religious