Selected quad for the lemma: body_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
body_n	head_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,566	5	10.6497	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61101	A Protestants account of his orthodox holding in matters of religion at this present in difference in the church, and for his own and others better confirmation or rectification in the points treated on : humbly submitted to the censure of the Church of England.	Spelman, Henry, Sir, 1564?-1641.; Spelman, John, Sir, 1594-1643.	1642 (1642)	Wing S4940; ESTC R12772	24,078	35

from the concurrent Judgement of all the Prophets of that Church to which they ought to submit their judgements so ought the concurrent Judgement of all the Prophets of every particular Church to be received of that Church untill it appear that it is contrary to the Judgement of the Church Universall But then as the Universall Church must be heard before the particular so must the Universality of the particular before any particulars of that particular Church for God saith Saint Paul is not the author of confusion And therefore he not onely obiects against the refractory particulars of Corinth We that is the Church of Corinth have no such Custome But lest they should alleadge errour also in that particular Church he justifies their practise by the practice of the Universall Neither saith he have the Churches of God By which it appears private men are tyed to submit to the judgement of their particular Church and that unto the judgement of the Universall But if any ask what is the Catholique Church when and how is her judgement to be had The Catholique Church properly so called is the whole number of Christians in all places Universally professing Christ And this since the Apostles times never was nor can be assembled into one to give sentence upon any thing But as in the Politique Body of Civill States the reall assembling of all the Members personally being unnecessary inconvenient and almost impossible some persons representative of the whole being by intimation of the superiours from all parts delegate to give the common suffrage of the whole do by the Laws of God and man give the binding sentence of the whole Body Universall So in the mysticall Body of the Church the Ecclesiasticks which are the onely authorized Members for discerning and judging matters that depend upon the Word of God because that to them and to them alone were the promises of the holy Ghosts assistance made they I say either all assembling themselves together or at least in their severall Diocesses chosing and delegating from among themselves trusty men to do the office of the Clergy in that point do truely and properly give the entire Vote of the whole Catholique Church And in this way we have many sentences and Decrees thereof remaining to us which being from age to age successively received do stand in force and speak unto this very present against which whosoever shall in practice or doctrine attempt any thing to the prejudice of what is so established shall apparantly declare himself an insolent and schismaticall exalter of himself and of his own private judgement against the judgement of the whole Catholique Church and in the same way that the Church Catholique speaketh in the same also if need be speaketh every particular Church This being the extraordinary way wherein the Church speaketh not but upon extraordinary occasions she hath also for ordinary occasions a continuall constant voyce in an ordinary way The Church considered in it self is not nor cannot be lesse than the whole Body of it but considered in the actions of it any part by which it duely worketh as to that work onely which it so intendeth is truely and properly enough called the Church If we speak of a man as of his being as that he lives is in health young lusty c. we mean by the man no lesse than the whole man with all his members but if we speak of the particular actions of the man as that he did hear see speak take c. we do not then intend that every distinct member of his body did actually hear see speak take c. but that the man performed those actions by the proper members respectively ordained for the doing of them and that neverthelesse the office of each member so ministring was the proper act of the whole man so that though the eyes of the man onely saw his ears heard his tongue spake and his hands handled yet is the whole man said truely to hear see speak and handle As then in the body naturall so in the Body mysticall the Church though the Church in her being comprehend all members as well Lay as Clergie yet in her work and actions she worketh not promiscuously by all but by her proper and ordained members for if every one were an eye to see a head to judge or a mouth to give sentence then were they all but one equipotent member and where then were the body saith S. Paul therefore though in the question of circumcising the believing Gentiles the letters of Ordinance went in the name of the Apostles Elders and Brethren yet plainly the Brethren had no vote in the decision of the question but as the Apostles and Elders are onely said to have come together to consider of the matter so the debate and decision there is onely theirs and the Decrees thereupon are in the 16 Chapter called onely the Decrees that were ordained of the Apostles and Elders and if we will have the Brethren to have been named in the Apostles Letters to shew that Lay-men have authority to vote in matters of Religion then must we also confesse that Lay-men aswell as the Man of God have authority to judge in matters of Doctrine also for they that writ the Letters say of the point of Doctrine We gave no such Commandment Therefore plainly the judgement of the Apostles and Elders was in that matter the judgement of the Brethren and of the whole Church there by their unanimous submission and agreement unto them And when all is done the voting of Apostles Elders and Brethren together is a thing farre differing from the voting of Lay-men onely and from Lay-mens choosing of the votes In the same manner the voyce of the ordayned Governours and Ministers in every particular Church in those things that are committed to their Care and Charge is the voice of the Church it self and the voyce of that particular Church not being repugnant to faith nor the declared judgement of the Catholique Church is as to the Members of that Church the voice of the whole Church Catholique so that he that refuseth to hear the voice of the Governours of his particular Church refuseth to hear his particular Church and not that Church onely but the whole Church Catholique Again as in the body the most usefull members thereof the eyes the ears the tongue the hands the feet would not onely be uselesse but make a confused deformity if they were every one annexed immediately to the grosse of the body and not joyned by the mediation of some noble limb the eyes the ears and tongue by the head the hands by the arms and the feet by the legs so would it be in the Church Catholique if every particular Member should hold it self immediately to depend on it and not on the noble and mediating limb of his particular Church that so by a usefull and decent subordination of the Members under the head The

Body from thence as the Apostle speaks by joynts and bands having nourishment and knit together may encrease with the encrease of God These same things doth our Saviour teach when giving a Rule for governing ones self in private offences betwixt his brother and him he bids him Tell it to the Church Our Saviour meant not that upon every such occasion the Church Catholique should or could be convoked but onely that the offended should complain to the Governours of the Church he lived in the doing whereof is properly to complain to the whole Church yea to the whole Church Catholique as appears by our Saviours adding that if the offender refused to hear the Church he should be as an Heathen man as much as to say That if by refusing to hear his particular Church he refused to hear the whole Chuch Catholique he should then be as an Heathen man cut off from the Communion of the whole Church for it were no just sentence to cut off one from the whole Church for disobeying the particular unlesse that disobedience to the particular were disobeying of the whole Church Every particular Church then hath so farre the authority of the Church Universall that as to her own Members her voyce is the voyce of the Catholique Church and tyes them all in conscience to submit their judgements to hers and to yeeld observance to all her Ordinances that are not against the expresse Word of God nor judgement of the Catholique Church And even in her Ordinances that minister question whether they be Orthodox and agreeable to the Word of God or no her authority is so farre binding as that even those Ordinances● are not to be rejected nor condemned upon the judgement of any of her private Members onely but either by her own review and censure by some more generall Nationall Assembly or if the consequence require it by a full and true Generall Assembly of the Church whose sentence when once it shall be obtained shall be received as the most sacred and most authentique judgement that may be had in that matter and neerest approaching to the judgement of the holy Ghost but shall not be received as infallible as if pronounced by a Judge infallible for what assistance soever God hath promised to his Church it is onely such as agrees with the condition of a Church Militant therefore he hath neither promised it to the single Ministers in every of their Preachings neither yet so to the Church it self as that in every of her Consultations and Decrees she should infallibly produce the sentence of the holy Ghost for then were the Scripture needlesse seeing the Church should be able to pronounce infallibly with authority equall to the very Text and the Church as to errour in knowledge and understanding should not be Militant but Triumphant but every judgement of every Church shall have such a potiority of credit and authority in respect of the judgement of any part or Member thereof as that it must not be rejected nor over-ruled by any other judgement than either her own revisall and censure Assembly of her proper Judges a more generall Nationall Assembly or a full generall Assembly of the Church To conclude then when for avoyding confusion in the Church God hath subjected the spirits of the particular Preachers to the concurrent judgement of all the Preachers for men under pretence of preaching Gods Word to preach their own private judgements in detraction from the authority of their Church and without submitting their opinions to the judgement of their Church this is so farre from honouring God by magnifying of his Word as that contrarily it destroyes the authority of the Scripture by confused and wrong arrogated judgement in interpreting of it it by sects and schismes subverts the peace of the Church and contrary to the Admonition that God hath given in that behalf makes God the author of confusion The assurance of our Orthodox profession depending upon the consideration of these things cannot but occasion a little further examination of them Religion a religando ex vi termini is that which whatsoever it be ought to binde the Professor but of all other Godlinesse which onely is the true Religion must not have that binding power of hers denyed and therefore will-worship as repugnant to Religion is to be rejected Ye shall not saith Moses to the people when they were to enter into the Land and be a setled Church Ye shall not saith he do as we do this day every one that which is good in his own eyes It is impossible for the Professor which followeth his own judgement or conscience onely to avoid disobedience and will-worship for private judgement and conscience are neither sure nor constant observers of Gods Law nor can a man alwayes tell whether his iudgement or his affection leads his conscience but as obedience is that which our Saviour himself learning sheweth that we all must learn so the power of Godlinesse is to constrain obedience And if there be a question what we shall obey the Scripture tells us the Priests lips should preserve knowledge and we should seek the Law at his mouth And our Saviour tells his disciples He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and bids that he that will not hear the Church be as an Heathen man And St Paul tells us The Church is the pillar and ground of the truth and against private singularities and indecencies in the service of God he obiects that their Church had no such custome neither the Churches of God We are also commanded to submit to all manner of Ordinance of man for the Lords sake And that every soul be subject to the higher power that he that resisteth the power resisteth the Ordinance of God and receiveth to himself damnation The Scripture is abundant to this purpose and among many other places Gen. 27. 6. is remarkable When Jacob or Israel was afraid in the apparell of his elder brother to seek his fathers supreme blessing lest by seeking it in a undue manner he should instead of a blessing get a curse his mother requires his obedience to her voye Israel obeyed her and by it obtained the blessing If this Allegory so much concern us as that we be the Israel the younger brother that want and seek the blessing our Saviour our elder brother in whose clothing we seek it and God our father that gives it who is our directing mother by oheying whose voyce we obtain the blessing but she that is the wife of our father the Church of God By these then and many other Scriptures it appears That in all matters of Religion wheresoever there is a doubt and consesequently use of judgement the iudgement of the Church is to be preferred So Gods Word which must be observed directs so the exigence of things requires the particular man cannot otherwise avoyd will-worship and singularity nor the