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A54721 The vvay to heaven most clearly discovered and the manner how to walk in this way exactly described. With a brief vindication of the Church of England against all her enemies. By Nicholas Philips, late chaplain to his Majesty's garrison in the Isles of Silly. Phillips, Nicholas. 1681 (1681) Wing P2038; ESTC R213941 16,756 24

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having respect unto the Apostolical Canon 1 Cor. 14. ult she ordered all things in the publick worship of God to be done decently and in order The Ceremonies used in our Church are not many and burdensom but few and significant such as tend to Edification and instruction are not Popish and Superstitious but Pious and Primitive have their grounds in the Scripture the Approbation and Practice of Antiquity and the Church of Christ in all Ages Come come be not more nice than wise my over precise and scrupulous Bretheren but become ye now at length wise unto Salvation There is a better way sure to fly from one extream than to run into the other even to embrace the golden means that lye between What the Church of Rome as Popish hath innovated and is in her Erroneous and Superstitious reject with us and forsake But what the Church of Rome as it was Christian and a Depository of the Sacred Truth hath received from the Sacred Scriptures and Reverend Antiquity and is in her Pious and Primitive embrace with us and practise And let us become one joyn hearts and hands as well in practising the Vertues we find in the Church of Rome as in opposing the vices and errours which we find in it Surely they who for such things as are of an indifferent nature and which every particular Church hath power to alter and change to impose or abrogate separate from our National Church of England which I have proved to be a true Member of the Holy Catholick Church expose their Salvation to a great hazard for out of the Church as saith my second position there is no salvation to be obtained the Lord adding unto the Church daily such as shall be saved That the Church is Via Regia the King of Kings High-Way to Heaven and that there is no way for any one to obtain Salvation but by being added to it is most plainly demonstrated unto us by that which St. Peter 1 Ep. 3.20 calls the Type and Figure of it Noah's Ark For as all the People that inhabited the Old World excepting only those Eight Persons that entered into the Ark perished in the Flood of Waters which God brought on the Earth So all the people of the New World who enter not into the true Ark the Church shall be consumed in that dreadful fire wherewith God will one day burn up both the Heaven and the Earth And therefore Baptism which is the Sacrament of initiation the door whereby we enter into the Church is by St. Peter Ib. v. 21. said to save us as the Ark did those of the Old World that entered into it Illustrated also is this Truth unto us in Scripture by divers apt Similitudes and Comparisons Called is the Church Col. 1.18 A Body of which Christ is the Head and every true Believer a Member in particular Now as the Head doth not impart his influences and perform the Office of a Head to any Member that is separated and divided from it So Christ will not impart the Divine Influences of his Saving Grace and perform the Office of a Saviour unto any one but only unto such as are united and added to his Body the Church Compared is the Church to a Houshold and called Eph. 2.19 The Houshold of God now as the Pater Familias and Master of a Houshold though he may out of charity sometimes give unto others yet makes provision only for those of his own Family so though God out of his immense bounty and gracious goodness imparts his general Mercies unto all creatures preserveth both Man and Beasts causeth his Sun to shine and his Rain to fall on good and bad just and unjust yet his special favours and singular graces he reserves only for those of his own Family the Church He is good to Israel but chiefly unto those in Israel who are of a pure heart saith the Prophet Psalm 73.1 He is the Saviour of all men but especially of those that believe saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 4.10 Likened is the Church to a City and called Heb. 12.22 The City of the Living God Now as a man cannot be protected by the strength of a City and partake of the priviledges and immunities thereof unless he put himself within the Walls and become a Citizen So a Man cannot be protected by that strong City which hath Salvation appointed for its Walls and Bulwarks but only such a one as is admitted into the New Jerusalem and become a Fellow Citizen with the Saints Compared is the Church to a Mother and called Gal. 4.26 The Mother of all True Believers Now as no one can live a natural life without a Mother to conceive bring forth suckle and nourish him so no man can live a spiritual life the life of grace here and of glory hereafter who is not begotten of the immortal seed of the Word of his Mother the Church regenerated and new-born who is not fed and nourished up in sound Doctrine by the sincere Milk which issueth forth of her two Breasts the Books of the Old and New Testament And in this sence it is a trite and common saying among the Ancient Fathers That he shall not have God for his Father who hath not the Church for his Mother Likened is the Church by our Saviour John 15.1 to a Vine of which as he there tells us he is the heart his Elect the Branches now as that Branch cannot bear fruit except it abide in the Vine no more can ye saith he to his Disciples there v. 4. except ye abide in me intimating thereby most plainly that unless we be ingrasted into Christ the true Vine and added to his Church we can have no true hopes of obtaining Life and Salvation through him Since it is confirmed then unto us by such a cloud of Witnesses that out of the Church there is no Salvation to be obtained 1. Gross and absur'd is the opinion of those Libertines who think a man may be saved in any Religion So he live an outward moral civil Life The Jew in his Judiasm The Turk in his Mahometism The Heathen in his Paganism They may as well say that a man might be saved in the Flood out of the Ark by climbing up to the top of some House or Tree or Mountain That a man being separated from the body may live a branch Cut off from a Tree bear fruit 2. Fearful and dangerous is the estate of those Athiests and sensual worldlings who neither regard any Church nor think on any religion at all but live like beasts always grazing in the earth and never so much as lift up their hearts or eyes to heaven Ravenous Ravens may I grant find pleasure and present relief out of the Ark. And profane Esauites may think themselves happy enough in having plenty of belly chear and temporal blessings But the innocent spotless Dove when out of the Ark can find no place any where to set the sole of her feet