Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	bishop_n	church_n	time_n	3,887	5	3.7949	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86325	The glory and beauty of Gods portion: set forth in a sermon preached before the honourable House of Commons at the publique fast, Iune 26. 1644. / By Gaspar Hickes, Pastour of Lanracke in Cornwall, a member of the Assembly of Divines.	Hickes, Gaspar, 1605-1677.	1644 (1644)	Wing H1838; Thomason E2_10; ESTC R2493	29,927	47

free and eternall purpose Mal. 3.17 makes up for his jewels by actuall and effectuall calling hypocrites and formalists may partake of generall and externall priviledges the men of the world have large shares of common mercies Psa 17.14 even their bellies full of Gods hid treasures but all saving favours yea all favours in a saving manner are conferred only on the remnant A man may be hospitable and beneficent to his eighbours gentle to his servants mercifull to his enemies but his affection and usage of another straine which he beares and expresses to his towardly children his faithfull spouse 't is not for a stranger to intermeddle here Let gracelesse men prattle of I know not what figment of universall grace let the bond-slaves of Satan pride themselves in the imaginary faculty of their free-will Our God is infinitely bountifull but not so lavish as some would make him to cast away his high honours his deare delights promiscuously these are the propriety of the elect the portion of sons and daughters these are peculiarized to Gods residue Quest. But who are this residue Resp I cannot stay upon a discovery of them Briefly take notice of them thus 1. Negative by their distinction They are not men of the multitude nor of the world nor of the times they dare not sinne of the fashion not goe to hell for company their care is to be at a reall and wide difference from all ungodly and unsound ones to be saved from the untoward generation Act. 2. ●0 2. Positive by their qualification Jer. 2.3 They are holinesse to the Lord the first fruits of his increase prime parcels intirely dedicated and vowed to his service consecrated vessels of the best mettall and making new framed by Gods blessed workmanship in the most delicate artifice of grace Eph. 2.10 created in Christ Iosus cast into his mould and so prepared for honourable designes 2 Tim. 2. ●1 made meet for the masters use Their holinesse is hearty their maine drift the honour and service of their God 3. Collectivè by their consociation They all live by the same Spirit walk by the same rule mind the same Heaven and therefore they are of one heart and of one soule Act. 4.32 Pearles are accounted more pretious and fitter for ornament when they are of equall bignesse or sorted into Vnions 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato Gold and Diamonds said the Naturalist are nothing in price or luster to the consent of good minds And although there may be some petty difference between them in judgement some small and temporary distance or interruption in affection yet they accord in the maine they are shaken together in times of triall and separation and as Christs cause and their owne greatest good requires they strengthen their union by all warrantable and worthy wayes of mutuall ingagement and helpfulnesse Vse 1. This may shew us then that when the Lord doth great works and conferreth great blessings he distinguisheth and selecteth both instruments and objects Times of the Churches exaltation are times of widest and most thorough distinction Multitudes would presse in for a share of her priviledges when she is rising that must be shaken off as burdens and blemishes before she can recover her honour When favourable edicts were published for the Jewes their adversaries claime acquaintance with them and offer them assistance they would needs have a finger in the temple-work but their help is refused and their officiousnesse suspected as more dangerous then their professed opposition Ezra 4.1 2 3. If there be a Iudas among the twelve he must be uncased before Christ have finished his work and what have devils to doe to fit in the assembly of the Gods devils in treachery in malice in impuritie The mixed multitude the mungrell crew that came up with the Israelites out of Egypt were touched with a stupid admiration of the wonders which God wrought for his people and promised themselves much happinesse in their company but when they met with streights and wants and found not things answerable to their sensuall humour then they fell a murmuring and a lusting and the Lord swept them away in his displeasure so that none of them reached Canaan Numb 11.4 One great cause of the streights and miseries that have befallen us in our passage from Egypt to Canaan hath been the discovery and distinction of those loose rotten adherents to Gods cause and people And oh that they were all shaken off while they are unsound at heart we may take more comfort in their falling away then in their accesse If yet a sword pierce deeper into Christs soule if heavier things befall his members it is that the thoughts of many more hearts may be revealed Luk. 2.35 that a clearer and more thorough difference may be put betweene the pretious and the vile 2. Hath the Lord a speciall pretious portion such as we have heard decyphered upon which he heapes such honour fastens such favour impresses such beauty Fearfull it is then that it should be the butt of mens opposition Act. 28.22 the sect-every where spoken against in common account the vile refuse rather then the glorious residue Histor of France The Marshall Biron of France was a man impudently and insatiably ambitious yet above all his titles of honour he affected to be stiled the scourge of the Huguenots And how have men of power and policy thought no foundation sure enough for their security their glory their contentment but that which is laid on the ruines of the estates or consciences of Gods pretious ones Oh the deepe and cursed machinations or contrivances that have been plotted and urged to cast them downe from their excellency Psal 62.4 to root them out from having a name under Heaven to embitter their beings to them to make them crouch under unreasonable and impious burdens When the Arrian Bishops swayed in the Church under Valens an Emperour of their heresie Liberty was given to Iewes heathens hereticall Christians of all sorts to exercise their Idolatry false worship mad festivals what not only the Orthodox were expelled their Churches and in one place being assembled for holy performances at the foot of a mountaine under the injury of all weathers they were thence driven by force of souldiers Theod. lib. 4. ca. 24. Is it not lamentable that in the repute of many amongst us Papists Atheists Monopolists sensualists drunkards any the basest society or sort of men should be held more tolerable then the holy brotherhood the members of Christ the Saints of the most High who alone are deare to God and linked together in the only gracious and blessed Communion How many for conscience and quietnesse sake in the raigne of our Prelates did leave their deare countrey their rightfull possessions yet there are not wanting some that maligne a wildernesse to them 'T is a common wish Oh that we were ridde of them all and why are you greedy of

that cloud of bloud which fell in our Marian dayes had besmeared our land when whosoever would keep conscience and get Heaven at last must looke to be transported thither in a fiery convoy Why then run thorough all ages inquire of the former and latter dayes and you will find that in the saddest and most sinfull times the Lord provides most certainly and gloriously for the security and honour of his people And indeed what fitter opportunities can be found out Reas or thought upon wherein the Lord should magnifie himselfe in doing great things for his servants For when is his hand so visible and his helpe so glorious as in extremities It is time for thee Lord to work saith David for they have made voide thy law Psal 119.126 when men have violated all bonds both sacred and civill cut in two the sinewes of the lawes authoritie and let themselves loose to all exorbitancies high time then for the Lord to take the matter into his owne hand to stirre up himselfe for the vindication of his honour A remedie applyed rebus confuses perditis Calvin in loc when things seeme desperate and past cure how wonderfull and welcome must it needs be Then doth the glory of a deliverance appeare when the Almighty hand hath broken those knots and difficulties laid open those streights which otherwise were altogether inextricable and then doth the beauty of a Church shine most conspicuously when she hath recovered her purity and escaped pestilentiall contagion in bad times when she is quitted from those blemishes that threatned to over-spread her by a seasonable and thorough Reformation But I have promised brevity in this point Let us see a little only how the truth will sute with our times That perillous dayes were upon us before the flames of publique wrath and misery brake forth none will deny except such as are stupid under any mischiefes or are actours or abettours of ours I will not so much as mention in what case our Lawes and Liberties Lives and Liberties stood I desire to limit my selfe within mine own verge and I beleeve men are sensible and querulous enough of the evils that touch their skins James 2.19 Devils tremble at the sense of misery Christians should search out the cause and take that to heart And if the sins of men corrupt the times and make them dangerous and troublesome think sadly then upon what a generation we are fallen oh that I might say what dismall dayes we have escaped For Religion which is the main how hath the power of it been denied and cryed down in a despightfull and furious way of opposition the purity sophisticated and defaced by base mixtures rotten formalities Oh 't was enough to cause any tender and truly affected soul to feel pangs of spirit to hold his loynes to fall into travell and bring forth an Ichabod an issue of consternation or doubtfull astonishment to see those uncircumcised Philistines Popery and prophaneness irreligion and will-worship seizing on the Arke and driving away the glory of the Lord. For truth how hath it been silenced perverted mangled the day would faile me almost to reckon up the exploded monstrous licentious errours that have been raked up out of hell published and patronized among us For manners I thinke the Sunne never looked upon a people nor measured an age more conspurcate or corrupt then ours 't were easier and fitter to bewaile with teares then expresse in words the excessive height of our pride and oppression injustice and bloud luxury and sensuality And as sinne hold possession so did judgement lie at the doore which hath since fallen upon us as a devouring beast how could it be but that so much filth must send up vapours to darken the face of Heaven with indignation against us Oh the dreadfull cloud that still hangs over us showring downe an horrible tempest of wrath a viall is poured out that turnes all into bloud Now if at this point the Lord be pleased to turne againe the captivitie of our Zion to cleare up all and shine upon us with favour what will this be lesse then a Resurrection from death how will our glory and beauty as that rare bird revive from the very ashes of a ruinous decay But if as yet we are not brought low enough for such an exaltation if the times are not yet at the worst if sharper seasons must be expected if our present hopes should be strangled in the birth or nipped in the bud which the Lord avert here 's the comfort that in such a day when the wickednesse of the enemies is fully ripe and Christs Spouse hath sate long enough in the dust when things are brought to such a passe that the Lord may be most magnified in the confusion of insolent adversaries and the advancement of his dejected depressed people even then will he certainly be for a crown of glory and for a diademe of beauty unto them which is the second particular the high and honourable advantages here promised to the Church Glory is the lustre or splendour that results from dignity and a crown is the highest ensigne of honour the principall token of Majesty Beauty is the impression of sweetnesse or lovelinesse and a diademe is the most stately ornament to set forth beauty and make it more amiable And a composure of glory and beauty makes up a piece of most absolute and exact symmetry consisting of all the parts and lineaments of perfection To such compleat excellencie doth the Lord raise his covenant people In the verses preceding my Text we find mention of a crown but 't is the crowne of pride of glorious beauty but 't is fading like a flower by which the Prophet expresses the usurped domineering of the wicked which shall be troden in the dirt or as some think he alludes to their festivall garlands the impudent badges of luxurie and lasciviousnesse to which he threatens a terrible blast a shamefull withering And continuing the Allegorie by the same termes used in a different sense he sets forth the true honour and excellencie of the Godly The Lord of hosts himselfe undertakes to be their glory by interessing them in all sublime and saving Priviledges He is their beauty by impressing on them the sweet and comely Properties of grace and in both crownes and diadems are gifts well befitting the bounty of the highest Majestie to his beloved Ones Indeed The presence or the favour of God is the only glorious advancement and ornament of a people or person Doct. What is it else that makes the Church an eternall excellencie Isai 60 15-19 a joy of generations Isai 60.15 then doth she sucke the milke of nations and the brests of Kings when found and eminent members are added to her her brasse becomes gold her iron silver when she is stored with pretious graces edified with pure ordinances her wals are salvation and her gates praise when she is guarded externally by good Government internally by the