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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	woman_n	word_n	world_n	127	4	4.2368	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70099	An exact enqviry after ancient truths, both in scripture and fathers touching the subsistence of the Church of God, digested into three parts : viz. I. True worship. II. Dominion, or divine jurisdiction. III. Discipline, reduced from our father Adams time, through all ages, to these present times ... / by W. Fenwick ...	Fenwick, William, 1616 or 17-ca. 1682.	1643 (1643)	Wing F724; ESTC R21240	51,760	74

but they are placed about their bodyes as it were for furtherance and assistance in their proper place and not to flye withall from place to place These wings therefore signifie Governours and assistants or helpers by whom the ministers are ayded in their function and doe more swiftly and readily afford succour to every part of the Church These wings are full of eyes within These signifie the inward gifts of knowledge which are not placed in so neere a measure to the Throne as the eyes in the body but they are of the same nature of knowledge in divine things to this end they stand as in a watch tower to behold and discerne every ones manners and conversation and to reprove and exhort privately and to helpe the ministers in Censure and Discipline of the Church therefore Paul saith obey your overseers and leaders and yeeld submission unto them for they watch for your soules as those that shall give account These gifts are limited within and under the wings as to meddle onely with that which is committed unto their power 1 Pet. 5. 2. they are not to be strikers or busie-bodies and they are to watch over Christian people onely for what have wee to doe to judge them that are without ● 1 Cor. 5. 12. 13. They that desire to behold the patterne of Gods Church as she is on earth in Christ consider well this vision and reade it seriously as it is more fully expressed by Master Brightmans Exposition upon the fourth chapter of the Revelation This patterne is the perfection of the Church militant as she is in Christ and in the judgement of God the Father who onely knoweth who are his The beauty and glory thereof is not seene with mortall eyes for she is not composed of mortall but immortall seed even begotten of the immortall seed of the word of God 1 Pet. 1. 23. for it is the ministration of God the holy Ghost communicating the knowledge of the Word unto the hearts of the elect which doth beget them anew or regenerate and unite them unto Christ and those are the supernaturall powers the word of God cōmunicated unto man and gathereth them into one head Christ and by a well compact union makes them one Church all communicating of one spirit one faith and in one Lord and Father of all who is above all and in all and through us all blessed for ever Amen How the Word is the divine power of God and the authority committed to the Church WHen wee speake of the word of God consider that the word in essence and property of being is God with God in eternity eternitie it selfe as it is described in the first of Iohns Gospell and though it cannot bee divided in it selfe yet it is to bee distinguished after the personall order of the Trinitie Therefore we may say the Word in the person of the Father is the unbegotten Word in the person of the Sonne it is the begotten Word and in the person of the holy Ghost it is the proceeding Word So that by the proceeding Word all things flow from the Father and the Sonne By the order of this proceeding power the world was made by the word of God As the Psalmist saith Psal. 33. 6. By the word of the Lord were the heavens made and all the hoast of them by the breath of his mouth By this proceeding power of the Word man was made a living soule as Gen. 2. 7. And God breathed in his face the breath of life and the man was a living soule and Ioh. 1. 4. in it was life and that life was the light of man not naturall reason but supernaturall light which inlightened nature By this proceeding word Adam was restored after his fall by promising to make the Word the seed of the Woman and to breake the Serpents head Gen. 3. 15. for God by the proceeding of the Word saying he will put enmity betwixt Satan whose nature is wicked and evill altogether and the humane generation or seed which Satan had made like himselfe he thereby promiseth that by his proceeding Word he would make his Word the feed of the Woman whereby it should be of a contrary nature to wickednesse of a heavenly pure and holy nature and condition powerfull against Satan Thus by the proceeding Word the word God is made the word of promise and the Promise is made life and thus it comes to passe that the Just shall live by faith By this proceeding word all the Elect of the Father are called are sanctified are washed are inspired and by inspiration are made sonnes of God Kings Priests and Prophets for by inspiration of the proceeding Word God the Word dwelleth in them for in the proceeding Word is both the begotten Word and the unbegotten Word the Father as Christ saith my Father and I are one and the proceeding Spirit is one with the Father and the Sonne so these three are one in themselves and beare record in heaven and they also agree in one by inspiration in the soules of the faithfull or the Church which makes three to beare record on earth as the water of Sanctification and the blood of justification and our spirit enlightned with the Spirit of God it beares witnesse with our spirits that we are the sonnes and servants of God For this cause the faithfull are called the Temple of the living God 2 Cor. 6. 16. as God hath said I will dwell among them and walke there and I will bee their God and they shall bee my people Also know yee not that your body is the temple of the holy Ghost which is in you which yee have from God Ye are not your owne for ye are bought with a price therefore glorifie God in body and in Spirit for they are Gods As the proceeding Word hath proceeded by inspiration to dwell in man which is his internall ministration so he proceedeth by externall ministration to divulge and write the same proceeding Word by the instrumentall pen and voyce of man for mans instruction at first written by his Prophet Moyses and after by the rest of Prophets and Apostles and Evangelists to feed and preserve their holy faith worship of God among the faithfull As Paul witnesseth 2 Tim. 3. 15. 16. Thou hast knowne the holy Scriptures of a child which are able to make thee wise unto salvation through the faith which is in Christ Jesus For the whole Scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable to teach to convince to correct to instruct in righteousnesse Thus the proceeding Word doth proportion it selfe to mans capacity first it becomes the word of promise in the seed of the woman then the inspirated word to dwell in the mind and also it is the ministeriall Word declared written taught and preached for mans instruction and all is one Word for this cause the Apostle Peter saith we have a most sure word of the Prophets to which yee doe well that yee take

theoricke is also a part of Discipline in the practicke therefore though I have shewed that election and ordination are necessary relatives in the Church that as proper to the Congregation this other to the Pastours and how they were practised by the Apostles yet it is needfull to reforme the Judgements and opinions of men to shew how it is most proper for Congregations to choose their Pastours and Elders and Deacons and also their consent and counsell in their ordination To satisfie any indifferent judgement it is best to make it a perpetuall rule and patterne to follow the example of the Apostles but it is an enforcing reason that is necessary that the people whose summum bonum doth instrumentally consist in their Pastor should be well acquainted and sufficiently experimented in his life and conversation as also in his doctrine which they ought to taste by their care for the earth tasteth words as the palate doth meat before they make choyce of him though it may bee they cannot nor is it required at their hands to trie his schollarship but their capacities if it be a Congregation that hath lived and been nourished under a wholsome and structifying ministery may well judge and taste the sweetnesse of the divine gift of Preaching by the care and so trie his doctrine as the men of Berea did the doctrine of Paul and it may so happen in some Congregations that are well edified in the Word of God that they may have among themselves some of their Deacons able and sufficient to succeed their deceased Pastor and withall I doe not thinke it fit to exclude the choyce and presentation of the Universities nor to debarre their Letters of commendation nor for one Congregation to supply the want of another for all Congregations are members one of another and every Christian University is a Congregation and they all make but one Church to God But what shall I say of Patrons presentations I know not unlesse I should say they are too frequently the seed of Simony For except the Nobles and Peeres of this Kingdome doe freely bestow their presentations I feare there are not many that doe the like and to speake truly of their first donation it was not done purely For the Donors in reserving a presentation to them and their heires they kept backe a part of the possession they had dedicated to God as did Ananias and Saphira And so if they bee righty considered they are are as unnecessary evills in the Church as Deanes and Prebends which no man can tell to what use they serve in the Church But if Patrons cannot be admitted by our law let them present three or foure at the least that the Church may have her choyce and as much as may be avoyd that horrid crime of Simony And as for ordination though the power thereof rest in the Pastors and * Bishops yet it is great arrogancie and presumption to forsake the Apostolike and Primitive practise and usurpe a singularity and predominancie to themselves as if they would disdaine the humility of the Apostles and condemne the wisedome of the holy Ghost But that which doth foster and nourish men in a good opinion of this errour to attribute such absolute power to the Bishops and Clergie is that mysticall doctrine of Antichrist which in that smoakie darknesse thrust upon the world for an undeniable truth that the Church in her essence is to bee conceived to bee the Bishops and Clergie and that they onely have the unerrable Spirit of God and that thereby they have power to doe all things as much and as absolutely as Christ himselfe when he was on earth as once a Romish Priest averred to me that the Priests or Clergie were the soule of the Church The nourishing and maintaining of this opinion is the cause why the world hath so long and so madly doated after Episcopacie But if we thinke it fit to cast away the pride and ambition of man abhorre this opinion and let the worke bee of God and not of man Of Excommunication Now touching Excommunication which is that supreme Discipline and divine power which purgeth and segregateth the drosse from the pure gold in the temple of God This part of Discipline is of so high and holy a nature and qualitie as that of a Christian it ought to bee had in a most reverend estimation above all the powers of earth for it is thunderbolt and lightning of God that upon whom it falleth and pierceth it doth consume with a terrible flame and grind him to powder with a direfull fall This power is committed unto the Church not to Bishops alone nor to the Pastors or Clergie onely neither have the Elders this power appropriate unto them but the Church As Mat. 18 17. If he will not heare then tell it unto the Church Now the Church is not properly to bee conceived to consist in any one person who is but a member of the whole nor can she be said to be any one proper function in the Church but the whole Church consisting of one head Christ and many members indued with divers and many administrations and gifts of one and the same spirit and in this sence every particular publicke Congregation is an entire Church and a member of the universall Church throughout the world because a Congregation containes in it selfe the whole Church of God as she hath one and the same head Christ one and the same Spirit and one and the same ministration of the same Word and Sacrament and one and the same God and Father of all above all in all and through all and one And thus having the same Word and Doctrine the same functions of Pastors Teachers Deacons and Elders the same Sacraments Administration Discipline and Government so that hereby they are united one into another and one in all and all in all The private exercise of this part of Discipline I have spoken of which by degrees in private admonition if it bring not forth the fruits of repentance and amendment proceeds to the first degree of publicke correction Tell the Church This information is made by the Elders who have used the private discipline of exhortation with much wisedome and patience upon some particular persons who with hardnesse of heart have resisted the power of God through ungodlinesse They declare the offence to the Pastor and the Pastor in the publicke assembly acquainteth the people with the offence and if the delinquent be present hee is caused to stand upbefore the Pastor who reproves him with the sharpe Judgements of God against his sinne by the Word seeking to enlighten his mind and mollifie his heart Which if it prevaile with him hee falleth upon his knees and desireth the Congregation to pray for him which done the Pastor pronounceth unto him the remission of sinnes if the Church judge him penitent if they find him still obstinate and of an unrelenting heart then they pronounce

on earth by this ministeriall power Christ bindes in heaven by his absolute power By this there is no power of coaction given to the Church over the body nor purse nor life but onely over the soule and conscience and to rule by instruction admonition and correction That makes men civill and sociable and restraineth vice for feare of punishment this other makes men spirituall and divine meeke and lowly and full of loving kindnesse and rooteth out sinne in the heart making men refraine and shun sinne and wickednesse for the love of God and goodnesse it selfe Herein the kingdome of Providence and Grace doe both agree to make man happy and blessed in this life and in the life to come For this cause it was said to Abraham In thy seed all nations shall bee blessed And David saith Blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord For no Kingdome nor Common-wealth can be blessed which doth not entertaine the true Church of God in her bosome or in which the Church is not involved For this cause God doth make good Kings a blessing to his people and commands his Saints to pray for Kings Princes and Governours that they may lead a peaceable and happy life under them and that there his Gospell may have a free passage And so Kings and Princes become nursing fathers and nursing mothers And in this combination betwixt Church and Common-wealth righteousnesse and peace doe kisse each other But if they be wicked Princes then they are sent for a punishment and scourge of God to the the people and when God hath whipped his people then he burnes his roddes with judgements Therefore bee wise yee Kings be learned ye Judges of the earth serve the Lord in feare and rejoyce in trembling kisse the Son lest he be angry and ye perish in the way when his wrath shall suddenly burne blessed are all they that trust in him The glasse of Kings The glasse wherein Kings are to see themselves by reflexion and the pattern whereby they are to distribute judgement justice and equity is the Divine nature and holy Trinity of God himselfe For as the nature of God is strong and mighty full of pitty and compassion slow to anger and abundant in goodnesse and truth whose purity of nature expelleth and consumeth every impure and imperfect thing even so doth God require his King should be like unto him on earth as he is in heaven for he hath set none above him on earth Therefore as God is in purity of essence a law unto himselfe and a consuming fire of evill so ought a King in his politique capacity to be a law unto himselfe by conforming himselfe in a spirituall assimilation to the nature of God in purity of justice punishing the evill and cherishing the good Also as the person of the Father in its essence is the fountain of his eternall law which he hath begotten and ordained with himselfe for himselfe to doe all things by so is the King in his politique capacity the fountaine of politique lawes which hee hath as it were begotten in his body politique to rule and governe his people by And as the eternall law of God is the begotten Counsell of the Trinity in the Deity so are the lawes politique the begoten Counsell of a politique Trinity which is the Soveraign the Nobles and Magistrates and the Councell of Commons resembling the Divine Trinity in Unity the indivisible subsistence of a Kingdome So that Kings are by this pattern and rule bound to keepe the lawes of their Kingdomes inviolate and to doe all things by their lawes as God doth all things by his word And this is the greatest prerogative of a King that he keepe his owne lawes freely without compulsion like God himselfe And likewise as the holy Ghost is the universall Minister and Divine Dispensator of all divine powers gifts and graces of God proceeding from the Father and the Sonne even so are the Peeres Princes Judges Magistrates and Ministers of Justice in a Common-wealth proceeding from the King and his lawes The universall Ministers of the Royall powers and lawes of the Kingdome For though they be many as members in diversity of Dispensation of Justice Judgement and equity of the lawes yet are they all but as one spirit of the body politique as the spirit of God being one is by reason of the diversity of Administrations properly called the seaven spirits before the throne of God Revel. 1. And as the individuall unity of this distinct Trinitie is the subsistence of the God-head Even so is the unity of the King with his Lawes and his Princes and Magistrates the subsistence of a body politique or Common-wealth Therefore Solomon saith Judgement and Justice is the establishment of the Throne For this similitudes sake Kings Princes and Magistrates are called Gods I have said saith the Lord yee are Gods but yee shall die like men for they are in all things to bee in their Common-wealth as God himselfe Therefore wee are taught to pray Thy will O God be done on earth as it is in heaven that Kings may rule by thee and Princes decree Justice on earth as thou dost in heaven This is that orbe wherein Kings are to walke as the Sunne in his spheare but if Kings make their owne will and lust their law and rule of Justice Judgement and equitie then they are exorbitant and then God in whose hands are the hearts of Kings causeth their Counsellers to goe as spoyled and makes their Judges as fooles and he looseth the collar of Kings and girdeth their loynes as with a girdle and leadeth away Princes as a prey and overthroweth the mighty or Pwreth contempt upon Princes and maketh the strength of the mighty weake Job 12. 17 18 19 20 21. How divine and supernaturall power is derived unto man from the Father by the Word through the Spirit A civill ministeriall power of Justice is derived of Kings Princes and Magistrates from Christ as he is the Son of God and first begotten of every creature and therefore most worthy to have preheminence above all in whom all things consist for the temporall blisse and happinesse of man on earth So is divine and supernaturall power derived from Christ not onely as he is the first begotten Son of God but also as he is the light and life of man without whom man cannot be a living soule and as he is the eternall Mediatour betwixt God and man that promised seed the Redeemer of the Elect of God the predestinated Lambe slaine from before the foundation of the world for the remission of sinnes their ordained King Priest and Prophet of God the Father in a spirituall and more peculiar manner and measure of mysticall union and communion then either can be or ever was or ever shall be in all the ordinances of God in nature For this cause that all men might know that he was and is the spirituall King of Glory and that

he came not into the world to deprive Kings and Princes of their subordinate power and prerogative therefore he told them plainly that his kingdome was not of this world and he told his Apostles that among them there should bee no such government or dominion in his Church as the Princes have on earth among men but the chiefest among them should be he that tooke the most paines to serve the rest with food of life The Church is called a kingdome because as in earthly kingdomes Kings and Princes have power by their politique lawes over the bodies goods and lives of men for their wealefull being on earth to the glory of God so in this kingdome Christ onely and absolutely from the Father through the Spirit hath power by the divine Word and law of God over the soules of men for their eternall happinesse and salvation of his elect and to the just judgement and condemnation of the reprobate to shew forth the abundant riches of his grace in that and in this to shew forth his wrath and power suffering with long patience the vessels of wrath prepared for destruction and in both the exceeding excellencie of his glory doth appeare and is effected Also it is called the kingdome of God because God the Father is the immediate fountaine from whence it floweth the person of the Sonne the head to which the whole body and every member really and in a mysticall manner is united and incorporated into him their head because God the Spirit is the immediate minister and dispensator of all divine gifts and spirituall blessings in heavenly things For this cause the Church in Scriptures is sometimes compared to a house or building compact together and built of living stones Christ being the corner stone or foundation and thus it is a spirituall house of Saints It is resembled to a naturall body composed of a head Christ and many members knit unto it and one unto another and sometimes it is described by the similitude of a throne set in heaven and he that sits thereon is assimilated to be one in Deitie but three in distinct subsistences like to three pretious Jewels The first appearing like a Jasper of a pleasant never fading flourishing greene the mother of all pearles The second a Sardine which is of a reddish flesh colour The third is in aspect as a Rain-bow that is of the Emerald colour as the eye can behold nothing more sweet or delightsome These colours represent the nature of the Trinitie of the God-head and round about the Throne were twenty foure Seats and upon the seats twenty foure Elders sitting cloathed in white rayment and on their heads crownes of gold This name of Elders is here given to all the members and congregation of Christ in his kingdome and their white rayment is to expresse the righteousnesse of Christ which is imputed and freely put upon them and making them Kings Priests and Prophets to God the Father Their Crownes are to declare their Royall dignitie which they have by Christ for it is to be noted that whatsoever Christ is in himselfe either personally naturally or officially all his members are partakers of the same in some measure according to the gift of Christ by union communion inspiration and through externall and instrumentall ministration of his Word This is the Church of God now those things which are individually belonging to the Church at first the protecting power of God which is alwayes ready to defend and revenge the cause of his Saints for God takes their cause into his owne hand saying Vengeance is mine and I will repay it And God hath said touch not mine annointed and doe my Prophets no harme For this cause in this signe of the Church there is said to proceed out of the Throne lightnings and thunders and voyces because God doth punish the wicked horribly for the Churches sake none can escape his hands that oppresse his Saints for the Lord will roare out of Sion and will put forth his voyce out of Jerusalem A second sort of gifts are inward graces of Sanctification expressed in this vision by seven Lampes of fire burning before the Throne which are the seven Spirits of God which is the internall sanctification of Gods Spirit filling every soule with gifts like oyle of grace and fire of zeale to burne with praises before the Throne Like to the lampes in the Temple Exod. 27 20. by seven signifying by a definite number manifold gifts indefinite Next are outward gifts which are allegorically called a sea of glasse before the Throne like Crystall which expresseth the spirituall pure and unspotted worship of God and the ministration of his Word as transparent to the eye of the inlightned mind as Crystall glasse is to the eye of the body through which the Saints may see the glory and majesty of God in the face of Christ Jesus As this worship is pure without any spot of mans invention and consists as in the first tract is said of prayer praise and thankes arising and alwayes nourished by the doctrine of the word of God which the sea doth signifie because it is an Ocean of living waters pure like Crystall This Sea therefore declares the whole worship of God And in respect that the Saints inlightned by the holy Ghost are called burning Lampes it is to them like a sea of oyle to enrich and encrease their lights Another outward gift is described to be foure Beasts And in the middest of the Throne and round about the Throne were foure beasts the first like a Lyon the second a Calfe the third a face like a man the fourth like a flying Eagle and their bodyes are full of eyes before and behind These are the ministers and servants of God who attend the ministration of the Word and Doctrine and are placed betwixt the Throne and the Elders as embassadours and messengers of God to his people their place is in a neerer station to the Throne then the Elders They are compared to beasts to expresse their qualities which is required for the conditions of the times and seasons as the strength and courage of a Lyon the patience of an Oxe the prudence and wisedome of a man the Eagle-like contempt of earthly things and sharper sight in spirituall and heavenly things The number is foure to double the number of the tribe of Levi under the law to answer the number of Elders which is double to the twelve Patriarkes Their bodyes are full of eyes behind and before which describes that sharpnesse of riches and understanding in divine things wherewith they are inducd by the gift of the Spirit to discerne things past things present and things to come These beasts each one of them hath sixe wings placed round about them and full of eyes within the wings these wings are not for that use that the wings are to the beasts in E●●●●●…el two to hide the face and two to flye and two to hide their feet