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	pastor_n	1,389	5	9.1051	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A92845	A sermon, preached at St. Marie's in the University of Cambridge May 1st, 1653. Or, An essay to the discovery of the spirit of enthusiasme and pretended inspiration, that disturbs and strikes at the universities: by Joseph Sedgwick, Mr. of Arts, and Fellow of Christs Coll: in the University of Cambridge. Together with an appendix, wherein Mr. Del's Stumblingstone is briefly repli'd unto: and a fuller discourse of the use of universities and learning upon an ecclesiasticall account, submitted by the same authour to the judgement of every impartial and rational Christian.	Sedgwick, Joseph, 1628-1702.	1653 (1653)	Wing S2362; Thomason E699_2; Thomason E699_3; ESTC R510	26,942	31

Assemblies All were taught of God and had the unction of the Spirit in the Apostles times asmuch certainly as in ours yet see 1 Cor. 14. 3 4 22. and Eph. 4. 11 12 13. Hath not the Church need of edification now Is exhortation consolation stirring up and quickning to duty now altogether needlesse If the Churches planted by the Apostles and in presence of whom the power of God had appeared so miraculously stood in need of Overseers and Instructours I leave it to any rationall man to judge what is requisite in these remoter ages We acknowledge will our Adversaries answer our wants but we must not be guilty of will-worship and our own inventions in the worship of God We expect say they this Ministery only say we it hath for the present ceased and we dare not intermeddle of our selves in the things of God In reply to this I must premise that I speak of the Ministery of the English Church chiefly let those defend themselves that have withdrawn from its communion and erected Churches of other models Then 1. The Church of England hath not created a new Ministery but continued it successively from the Apostolicall Age. Onely its Pastours being for Conscience excluded the Roman communion have as duty to God and their Saviour bound them assembled together for the service of God and instituted still fresh Pastours in the Church 2. The notion of Will-worship is very probably vindicated from misapprehension by Doctour Hammond 3. To provide by Christian prudence in imitation of Apostolical wisedome for the Churches good is not Will-worship It is a strange state for Christians under the Gospel and worse then under the Law if they are plac'd in such a condition as that they must almost inevitably be guilty either of neglecting the commands of God or instituting something of their owne heads To me under pardon this seems to be the Gospel frame as to Church affairs that it is delivered from that punctuall legality of the former dispensation and proceeds onely according to the naturall rules of Divine Worship and Christian prudence It is too very improbable that the Providence of God hath left all these Ages of the Church since the Apostles without any means of a Gospel-ministery 4. Our publick Ministery can shew their warrant in the hearts of many of their hearers from that Spirit which gives no attestation to Antichristian intruders 5 It is my private opinion and therefore proposed to a serious consideration It may be the duty of a Minister is no other then what may be performed without miraculous gifts and is indeed the duty of every Christian if he had proportionable abilities and as farr as may consist with order and decency in the Church Our Ministers pretend not infallibly to deliver the will of God any further then it is delivered in Scripture in undoubted plainnesse much lesse do they bring a new Gospel or a new Revelation into the World There is the difference between them and the Apostles as the Jewish Lawgiver and the Expounders of the Law Moses as the Apostles was infallibly guided not so the Expounders of the Law The office of a Minister is wisely to govern the Church to search into the will of God revealed already declare explain and presse the Truths already divulged by the Apostles The separation of their calling is besides that disorder must be avoided and it is very necessary that the gifts of those be approved to the Church who take upon them the charge of instructing others it is I say because all are not gifted for the Ministery it will if conscienciously performed take up the greatest part of their time and by the necessary means at present of enabling themselves for this imployment they are taken off from a capacity of providing for themselves in a secular way being trained up quite contrary to the waies of trade and worldly trafficking Conclusion II. Acquired gifts are no hinderance to the Kingdome of God Not to the embracing of the Gospel and apprehending the Mysteries thereof nor to a Gospel Minister S. Paul was well vers'd in Jewish and Graecian literature and mixeth pieces of Poetry with his sacred conceptions The Apostle saith indeed Not many wise But Knowledge puffing up with pride and so punish'd with spirituall blindnesse speaks nothing to the disadvantage of Knowledge Not many rich and noble is as much Scripture I wish there be not as visible characters of pride in the self-esteem and censoriousnesse and the spirit of turbulency of our Adversaries I am confident Learning is no enemy to any honest interest of Truth or true Christian piety If they mean by the Kingdome of God any thing beside what S. Paul means or then that righteousnesse peace and joy in the Holy Ghost which he speaks of if they please to explain themselves it may be it is a commendation to Learning that it proves an enemy to some phantasticall whimzy or base designe Conclusion III. Gifts of Learning are necessary to an accomplish'd dispenser of the Word of God Our Adversaries make much use of the Epithets Secular Humane and Naturall And then how popular a conviction is it to descant upon God 's not standing in need of man's help upon the Kingdome of God its being spirituall divine and supernaturall Now all is done only they might confirm the antiquity of their Monkish spirit out of Erasmus his Antibarbarus But are not a good voice and good lungs naturall God stands not in need of Ministers or their Learning yet may be pleased to make use of both and may require it in his ordinary dispensation with the Church Learning though fetch'd from an Heathen may be from the authour of Truth and in a Christian subservient to the work of the Gospell Is onely secular Learning taught in the Universities Doth not the search into Divine Revelation take up a great part of University-studies To speak more clearly to this main assertion I shall take notice of these propositions 1. Smattering in Learning is altogether uselesse and good for nothing but to fill up the period with a frivolous sentence in Latine that is too simple to be spoke in plain English None ever said that the conning by heart a few Logicall terms and Philosophicall distinctions without any conception correspondent in the minde was any benefit to sacred study And here some of our Adversaries may see the mistake in their own experiment Their Learning and unconcocted Philosophick crudities stand them in no stead in expounding the Bible opening difficulties in Divinity Nor can they I suppose defend themselves with a sword unlesse they have it fully in their hand and yet a sword is a very needfull weapon He must have fast hold of Learning and have it perfectly at command that intends to make any use of it in Divinity or Humanity Do these men conclude a Medicine ineffectuall because they have without successe applied it before it was prepared When we say a knife is usefull in

of Scripture's perfection I must confesse I am as much out of hope of convincing him as free from any feare that he should multiply proselytes where any thing of sober-mindedness remaines I 'le speak in a word my thoughts as to the forementioned Doctrine of the fulness of Divine Writ with submission to the better judgements of our Reverend Doctors of the Church and to the candid examination of any judiciously ingenuous lover of truth I understand that we reject Traditions as false when they contradict written Revelation as dangerous when the probability of abuse and ill consequence overweighs the benefit received by retaining them but thirdly the rest only as uncertaine because we want much of that evidence which we have of the Scripture's authority Yet these last may be retained according to their probability of truth and usefulness to the Congregations of Believers I see no ground to conclude all under falshood and humane invention which is not found in the Scripture though I may rationally question the certainty of such Traditions any further then I can discover their rationalness or then the authority of their discoverer and proposer gives them a credibility Methinks I see these Querers acted I know not how to a more dangerous consequence then they themselves imagine What use is there of their ridiculous Quere's unless to weaken the truth of the Scripture's sufficiency a sober and undoubted Truth if well understood i. e. as I conceive as to matters of salvation and necessary entertainment though indeed it doth containe all Truths that are certainly of Divine originall I am afraid this will be the effect among common people that can seldome keep from one of the extremes if once they be as they cannot but be in time sensible of this wild way of disputing from Scripture and by fond and frivolous interrogatories many of which though applauded by men as madly conceited as the Enquirers yet to a sober indifferent mind evidence but the Authors follies and unmask that spirit of scurrility and immorality by which the Contrivers are frequently acted To this purpose we shall premise these Conclusions of some moment in this and other disputes 1. Matters of common prudence needed not to be revealed nor are they revealed in Scripture nor is therefore common humane prudence unlawfully used in things Ecclesiasticall I suppose it will be easily conceived that God never intended that the Church should be a collection of indiscretion and folly and hence it is that there are so few hints of those things which mere Reason may instruct us in Even in the Jewish dispensation where the outward forme was exactly prescribed some things were left to common prudence and the determination of the Consistory as indeed it must be when Laws are framed in the greatest perfection imaginable I know no other use of that which the Apostle calls Government 1 Cor. 12. i. an extraordinary gift as I apprehend of prudence for the ordering and managing the rule of the Church and for a particular application of that general direction given by St Paul that all things should be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14. 40. Decently and in or according to order must be understood according to that becoming ordinateness and decorum observed in the assemblies of civile and wel-bred men without the rudeness of immoral and tumultuary meetings 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 some I remember have expounded by according to institution i. e. the rule which I gave you But I think good method convenient as it were ranking is the more usual signification and best stands in conjunction with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both order and decency being left to the judgement of the Church or its governours acting according to the rules of prudence Nor indeed could it be otherwise then left thus if we consider the severall states of the Church as under and neare to the Apostles times and as in succeeding ages The condition of the Church and Christianity is extreamely varied being then low persecuted discountenanced by the temporal power and in a state of poverty Then on the contrary guided by Apostolical infallibility and immediately furnisht from heaven with a large effusion of the Spirit in gifts and special endowments Now remember that the Acts of the Apostles is an History of the then Church and the Instructions given in the Apostolical Epistles referre to their then state are to be applied to us onely with consideration of circumstances or in the common reason and general duty contained in them When I heare some mens objections methinks it is sufficient answer to many arguments fetcht from primitive practice That the Apostolical Churche's purse and power would not carry them out as in building of Churches and the like We know they had not then the liberty of publike worship In other things the Apostles needed not such helps yet in times wherein they are needfull the Apostles practice is no prejudice to their use Where read we say some of the Apostles praying with all that would come to joine as the whole Congregation Neither say I do we read of a whole Nation professing Christianity which being now the universal profession of many countries alters the case of their and our times Upon this particular it is not unseasonable to wish that men would learne seriously to weigh the strength of their arguments and their extent more then in relation to their particular question and present concernment It would save them the trouble of being forced by others to answer their own arguments upon another question Which hath been very usual in this very principle which some have formerly upon other occasions made use of that all is will-worship which is instituted in the worship of God without particular warrant from Scripture and what the consequence hath been our times sufficiently evidence II. For further confirmation of what hath been said I observe that there are many things common to a society of Christians and Civil Societies Churches being humane Societies as to the matter of them i. partaking of this general nature of being a Collection of rational Creatures and then what ever is applicable to humane Society in general belongs to Churches as contained under that larger notion as for example the lawfull employment of honest wisdome and discretion for its preservation Provided onely that nothing be acted contrary to the principles and nature of Christianity If this caution be observed rational deductions from Civil Societies keeping the analogy of religion are improveable to the Church Much more what is deducible from the notion of a Christian Assembly III. Where the reason of the thing is common and unappropriate to the then-obtaining dispensation and when there is nothing implied to the contrary in the Gospel Doctrine or Institution there arguments drawn from the Jewish Church do hold good as to the Christian It is warranted by S. Paul's discourse about Gospel maintenance for the Ministery For the Church then was a Society joyning

in the service of God that and this partaking in the general notion of a religious Assembly their Ministery of a Ministery and their Worship of the Worship of God And observing the difference of their and our dispensations we may very lawfully make use of their institutions to direct us to discover many things which belong to religious Congregations Officers and Worship in generall That onely being abrogated of Moses which was typical and founded in God's Covenant with Israelites as Israelites i. e. as instated in the land of Canaan not as men and related to God by creation and the covenant of nature IV. Which follows from and may adde strength to what hath been already said Collections from Scripture though not to every eye exprest in Scripture and arguments drawn according to the different circumstances of the Primitive and Later conditions of the Church are proofs very admittable by any sober Christian This is no more then what reason readily grants as founded in the very nature of the things no more then what is commonly allowed as sufficient proof in collecting from any History ancient Custome and usage or old Law which is in force with respect to the alteration of times It is that which in other more uncontroverted cases is used in alledging of Scripture it self V. Custome and practice of the Church in succeeding ages and Ecclesiasticall History especially neare the Apostles times universal and in conformity to the former presumptions is an argument in it self as considerable as intolerable to Enthusiastick Spirits or men that affect novelty their own humours Now to our question The Christian Schooles in former ages are notorious and the high price then set upon Learning is cleare by their diligence in instructing their children in Arts and Sciences and by the sense they had of Julian's injurious forbidding them the Heathenish Learning and denying them the liberty of the then Schooles of literature What joy for their deliverance from this oppression by his death What industry in supplying the want of publick education It is evident Nazianzen had other thoughts of humane Learning then those that prefer Julian for a pattern of reformation But this way of arguing were I skill'd in it would be put off with the Antiquity of the Mystery of Iniquity which if we believe some had almost in every thing overspred the Church of Christ straight after the decease of the Apostles Indeed it would be ineffectuall because beyond the possibility of our Opponents Examination who have exprest their Christian justice in vilifying and condemning the Ancients whom they are not at all acquainted with Yet it needs no great reading to know that those which we acknowledge to be the times of greatest Apostacy in the Church were the freest from secular Learning and had as much darkness in that respect as our Adversaries can hope to bring England to if the Universities were utterly abolish'd The Reformation of Religion and the reviving of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in plaine English the Gentile Learning were contemporary and happily promoted by the same Instruments And it were strange if the Reformation begun in knowledge could no otherwise be carried on then by returning to the Ignorance of darker and more degenerate ages What can an adversary to the reformation in reason think else but that they have convinced us of the insufficiency of our Cause and that now we are sensible Learning was onely an argument for us when our Opponents had not attained to enough to discover our fallacies impostures learned juglings What greater triumph can the Jesuites desire then to see us beat out of our confidence of Learning and put to a poore and irrational shift of private infallible Inspiration One inclining to Atheisme will be perfectly possessed that the defences of Christian Religion were only proud triumphs over the too unexercised disputers against it in Heathenisme or that the power of the Christian Emperours was the strongest argument for the truth of Christianity Experience having as he may justly surmise if all Christians were of these mens minds discovered to our selves the weakness of our Religion unable to withstand the clearer light of natural and refined reason We come now to our former Conclusions Conclusion I. A Ministery was not to cease with the primitive times and Apostolical administration and gifts Which will be proved if in particular we evidence the truth of the Church of England and the lawfulness of its Ministery which may be done thus 1. There is a visible Church of God in England or the Church of England is a true Church of Christ in an Apostolical sense By a Church I mean according to the notion of a Church in the Apostolical writings to which I refer any attentive reader for proof of the notion I meane I say by a Church a Collection or Society of men united in the Worship of God in his Son Jesus Christ whom they professe to believe to be sent by the Father for the remission of sinnes and according to whose precepts they engage themselves to lead their lives in hopes of everlasting life through the same Lord Jesus Though as yet they are no otherwise renewed then by this more generall belief of the Gospel and Salvation promised by Christ i. e. but potentially and in gradu remoto sanctified their lives being unanswerable to their profession and promise And this is the case of the English communion whose members having been baptized in their infancy and having at yeares of discretion acknowledged their assent to the then-dedication of them to God and acknowledging their Baptisme into repentance for remission of sins are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Saints by call called unto holiness and true members of the Church till duly and justly put out of communion This is in Apostolical phrase a Church of God and a Congregation of Believers in the Scripture expression And that is soberer language then carnal and worldly Church though there is a more invisible Church more spiritually and intimately united to Christ to which neither hypocrites nor unrighteous professours do belong the bounds of it being narrower and salvation attainable to none that are without it But the Church we speak of is such as those St Paul wrote to visible and externall the conditions of whose communion was in the Apostles time but a believing Christ to be the Messiah and submitting to Baptisme to the remission of sinnes and repentance from dead works This Church is not to be rested in neither are the members of it to be vilified and slighted as out of the Church as unbelievers or to be debarr'd communion who have the faith of Christ in them and whose hearts God hath purified by a belief wrought in them of the truth of the Gospel though their faith be dead as yet unprofitable and that which unless it be brought into act and work by Love will not save Yet there is that faith wrought in them by the Spirit of God in