Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	christian_a	church_n	particular_a	4,194	5	7.0271	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46626	Ad clerum a visitation sermon preached at Beckonsfield in the county of Bucks, April the 9th, 1678 / by John James ...	James, John, b. 1649.	1678 (1678)	Wing J427; ESTC R35427	26,308	47

Persons spoken of whom St. Paul did directly and immediately respect are those mentioned Chap. 3. vers 22. Paul Apollos and Cephas who were separated by the Lord for the work of the Ministry and appointed as subservient to the Faith and Salvation of the Corinthians but that this particular direction to the Church of Corinth may be of larger use and service to the Church of Christ in general 't is most rational and consentaneous to the whole scope and tenure of the Gospel to affirm that all those who according to the Canons of Christ and the Apostles are consecrated to the same imployment are invested with the same Authority and Office implicitely included in the expression of the Apostle and therefore as justly styled Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Gospel as Paul or Apollos or Cephas were And if particular Commission be necessary to constitute the Offices of the holy Order the Negative holds as infallibly true as the Affirmative that no person may presume to administer any Office appropriate to this sacred Function but those who are Legally called to and Canonically invested with it for the Gospel almost as oft as occasion is offered to make mention of the Ministers and dispensers of it plainly intimates that the Master of our Religion designs a separation of persons from secular employments to officiate in the Ministry and Preaching of the Gospel as in 1 Cor. 12. The Apostle resembles the Church to a Body which is constituted of several Members and every one designed to serve in its proper place for the benefit and advantage of the whole that the foot cannot usurp the Office of the Head nor the Arm exercise the Authority of the Brain but every one discharge its proper Function that there be no Schism nor Division in the body in proportion to which similitude the state of Christ's mystical body is to be understood in which every the meanest Christian is a Member in particular but every Member cannot dispose and regulate the affairs of the whole For are all Apostles are all Prophets are all Teachers do all speak with Tongues do all Interpret Vers 29.30 Shall the foot say Unless I am head I will not be of the Body Or the ear say Because I am not the eye I am not sufficiently honored If the whole Body were an eye where were the hearing And if every Member were the Head where were the Body But God hath set the Members every one in the Body as it hath pleased him Vers 16 17 18. First Apostles Secondarily Prophets Thirdly Teachers Vers 28. And that this distinction should remain in the Church to the end of the World is confidently conffirmed by the Apostle Ephes 4.11 12 13. Wherein he declares that the Officers of the Church therein mentioned to be given for the perfecting of the Saints for the edifying of the Body of Christ c. Which Phrases must of necessity denote their continuance in the Church till the number of Gods Elect are accomplished and the state of Christs mystical Body perfectly compleated and for this reason St. Paul justifies his special designation to the Apostleship 1 Tim. 2.7 And St. Peter exhorts his Presbyters to continual diligence in their imployment as their proper and necessary duty 1 Pet. 5.1 2. And inded if we search into the ancient Records of the World or consider the account which Modern Historians have privately collected and publickly presented to us the most learned and faithfull among them do confidently assure us that never any Nation in the World made a publick profession of Religion but the Governours thereof solemnly appointed a separation of Persons whose constant employment it should be to Solemnize and Celebrate the Mysteries thereof and Moses in transcribing the History of the Church of God both before and after the Floud and under the admistration of the Law hath recorded the observation of the same custom in those several forms of Church-government thus Enoch and Noah were Preachers of Righteousness to the old World Abraham and the succeeding Patriarchs were Kings and Priests in their respective Families and duly administred the affairs of Religion to their several charges And when God erected his Theocratical Government over the Jews whom he had chosen for his own People he commanded Aaron and his Sons to be set apart for the Priests Office that they might wait at the Altar of the Lord and Minister to the People in Holy things which was appointed a Statute unto him and to his Seed after him for evermore Exod. 28.1 43. And if the Christian Religion must be denyed this honour and no such Custom observed in the Church of Christ this strange innovation must be grounded upon one or both of these reasons either that it contains matters of less value and concernment to Christians than the Religion of other Nations to the Proselytes of it Or else that they are so plain easie in all and every particular Doctrine that the meanest understanding can comprehend their most intimous sence and meaning and 't is impossible for the most illiterate to be deceived in his judgment concerning them These are the fairest pretences that can be alledged against the necessary distinction of the Ministerial Office yet their weakness is apparent at the first view and their absurdity so gross that it may palpably be felt For the Gospel of Christ is so far from deserving this reproach and contempt that it contains matters of the greatest moment and importance for Man to know such as are the excellency of the Divine Nature the state and condition of mans Soul and that incomparable Method contrived by the Divine Wisdom for mans eternal happiness comprehends matters of the most universal Satisfaction to the minds of men and propounds the duties of a Practical Religion which are most agreeable to the Divine Nature to require and most reasonable for Mankind to observe in all which respects it infinitely transcends all the Platforms of Religion entertain'd in the World and even the worship of the Jews themselves and though those Practical points which are essentially necessary to mans Salvation are extremely suitable to the dictates of right reason and delivered with the greatest perspicuity and clearness imaginable yet it discourseth concerning points of Faith of the greatest depth and mysteriousness which are altogether inconceiveable and incomprehensible and do exceed the apprehensions of any created Being such are the Eternal purposes and decrees of God the Doctrine of the Trinity the Incarnation of the Son of God with other Doctrines of like affinity scattered up and down the Gospel for so St. Peter tell us That in the Epistles of St. Paul are some things hard to be understood which they that are unlearned and unstable so wrest as they do also the other Scriptures to their own destruction 2 Pet. 3.16 What can be spoken of such infinite importance What can be delivered of so tremendous consequence as the Christian Religion And shall not the

that a man be found faithful both which are a compleat and necessary Application to our present discourse and require our most serious consideration First concerning the men to whom these Persons are employed as Ministers and Stewards the Apostle delivers this exhortation Let a man so account of Us which words will easily admit of a double Exposition and thereby present the Laity with a Twofold duty concerning their respect and carriage to the Clergy First That they set no greater value upon them Secondly That they account so worthily of them as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Gospel First That men set no greater value upon the Ministers of the Gospel than what their Office and employment requires They are the Ministers of Christ not Ministers of their Peoples Consciences They are the Stewards of God not Lords over any mens Faith 't is therefore unreasonable for men to terminate their glory in the worth and excellency of those that dispense the Mysteries of Salvation and a pride not much inferior to that of Herod for these to take such honour to themselves It was this Ostentation in the People and this Ambition among some of the Clergy that occasioned those Schisms and Divisions in the Church of Corinth when the Christian Converts in the Regions of Achaia adhered so implicitely to the Authority of those Ministers from whom they received the Faith that they slighted and disregarded the Preaching of others whilst they magnified the Dictates of their own Apostles as men should adore the Oracles of God For this reason I conceive the Apostle so sharply reproves their erroneous conceit 1 Cor. 1. 13 14. Was Paul crucified for you Or were you Baptized in the name of Paul I thank God I Baptized none of you that men might not glory in my name Or else because of those gifts and excellencies which they apprehended more eminent in one Apostle than in another every one as his Fancy directed admiring either Paul or Apollos or Cephas One extolling the powerfull plainness of Paul whose discourse was sharp as a two-edged Sword and his arguments nervous and weighty the weapons of whose warfare were not carnal but mighty to the pulling down of strong holds Another applauding the fulness of Apollos as one that could entertain their minds with an ample variety of Heavenly Rhetorick could expatiate upon the glory of Heaven as if he saw the Gates of that Jerusalem open and Christ Jesus sitting at the right hand of God and inlarge upon the torments of Hell as if he heard the languishing cryes and saw the insupportable miseries of the Damned A third admiring the solidity and perspicuity of Cephas who could explain the Oracles of God and unriddle the Mysteries of Salvation to the life the depth of Divinity he was able to fathom and to render the most difficult points plain and intelligible so much had the Spirit of Antichrist possest the Spirit of the Corinthians that they forgat the Lord their Redeemer and refused not to glory in men whilst they neglected to render unto God the honour of their gifts and graces and attributed it to the industry and endeavour of his Servants and his Stewards and Vassals as if those who were at best but the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of God had been the sole Authors of their faith and could infallibly finish their Salvation But the Apostle so extremely disliked the weakness and vanity of those Persons that notwithstanding their splendid profession of the Christian faith and glorious ostentation in their respective Ministers he confidently tells them they were so far from being Spiritually eminent in the Church that they were but carnal men and nothing Superior to the most imperfect Christians 1 Cor. 3.1 2 3 4. After which reprehension he subjoyns a most seasonable Admonition to instruct the Corinthians and all Christian professors with that just measure of honour and respect which the Ministers of Christ should be entertained withall that they are Servants of God and Ministers attending in the Church for mens Salvation but their abilities are neither the endowments of Nature nor the meer advantages of Education and industry but all their sufficiency is of God who distributes to every man according to the pleasure of his own will and therefore the glory of mens Conversion to the Faith of their Edification in it and Salvation by reason of it should be attributed to God as the Principal efficient cause who both preventeth his Ministers in all their undertakings and blesseth their labours with good success which is the substance of the Apostles argument Vers 5 6 7. And is excellently illustrated by the Paraphrase of the Learned Doctor Hammond and the Marginal Annotations of Junius and Tremelius Yet as if the Writing of the Apostles concerned not us and the Church of Christ were in no great danger by the fond dotages and vain-glorious Ostentation of Schismatical and Carnal Spirits with what confidence and vigour have the Divisions of the Corinthians been frequently renewed and reinforc'd upon the Christian World as if they were entailed to the Epistles of St. Paul and were inseparable Companions to the Gospel of Christ For alas most wofull experience too plainly manifests that those who call upon the Name of Christ and lay the greatest claim to an interest in him most wickedly arrogate that glory which is due to His Majesty to those instruments who are men of like passions and infirmities with themselves For how common is it for Christians to separate and stand at a more than ordinary distance from their fellow-Christians and when they have adopted themselves into this or that Party to cry up their Faction as the only true Religion to confine the Spirit of God within the Walls they Assemble and to look with reproach contempt and scorn upon those that will not be as Schismatical in the Church and disobedient to Governours as themselves So wretchedly do men abuse their own Consciences with the Vizor of an Hypocrital Zeal and under the pretence of a singular Piety dishonour the Christian Religion when they adhere to their Teachers more than Christ adoring their Persons though never so Ignorant and unlearned as if an Angel from Heaven were dropt down among them like the Image of Diana among the Ephesians and implicitely assenting to whatever they deliver though never so ridiculous and absurd as if the gods were come down to them in the likeness of men or at least they spake the very Oracles of God of these men the Apostles long since Prophesied 2 Tim. 4.3 4. After their own lusts shall men heap to themselves Teachers having itching Ears who shall turn away their Ears from the Truth and be turned unto Fables But my Brethren these things ought not so to be there is one only Lawgiver Jesus Christ the Righteous and who art thou that constitutest another 'T is an excellent saying of Nazianzen and extremely pertinent to our present judgment Orat. 30. I