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	society_n	2,901	5	9.2764	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41456	A sermon preached at Bishops-Stratford, August 29, MDCLXXVII, before the Right Reverend Father in God, Henry, Lord Bishop of London, &c at his Lordships primary visitation / by Jo. Goodman ...	Goodman, John, 1625 or 6-1690.; Goodman, Godfrey, 1583-1656.	1678 (1678)	Wing G1124; ESTC R48	18,196	42

Censores morum up starts Erastus and provoked by this Extreme runs a risk and falls into another as bad for not content to disprove that new form of Discipline and especially to degrade that novel Office he proceeds to the denial of all Church-Censure and Ecclesiastical Government As if from such time as the Civil State became Christian the Rights of the Church were escheated to the Prince or State And thus as that Judicious person modestly expresses it the Truth was divided between the contending parties but overseen and outran by both But the last Instance I will now make use of comes more home to my present business When the Church of Rome arrogating to it self an Infallibility and asserting to the Pope an universal Pastorship had under these pretences notoriously usurped upon all Christendome there were not wanting those who seeing through this cheat and desirous to reform all bent things so far towards the other Extreme that they endangered the breaking of all in pieces For whereas the Roman Church had claimed and exercised an exorbitant power of making and imposing what Articles of Faith she pleased These were so far from that as that they would scarcely allow the Church authority to define matters of Order and Decorum Because the Governours in the Roman Communion were arrived at too great a height the Bishops becoming like the Ephori among the Spartans able to check and controll Sovereign Princes therefore to avoid this danger all shall be levelled to a Plebeian Parity Before the interest of the Church was so great as that it drew under one pretence or other almost all Causes from the Civil Tribunals to Ecclesiastical cognisance but now to prevent this for the future all Jurisdiction shall be taken from it In short the Church was thought to be too rich before Religio peperer at Divitias filia devoraverat matrem now therefore the onely way to revive the Primitive Purity is to reduce the Primitive Poverty And so upon the whole matter from an abhorrence of the Incroachments and Exorbitancies of the Roman Church there arose a danger whether there should be any Church at all Now considering with my self how to obviate these and several other mischiefs of like nature and to doe the best service I can to this Solemnity I have made choice of these words of our Saviour for my subject Thou art Peter and upon c. Wherein I observe these three things 1. A Resolution or Decree of our Saviour he will build him a Church 2. The Foundation of this Structure Upon this Rock will I c. 3. His Prediction of the Success and Duration of this Building The Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it I design to open these three things with the greatest plainness and perspicuity I can because of the importance and usefulness of the matter and yet with as much brevity as is possible for I consider I speak to wise men PART I. Touching the First to avoid all impertinence that which I conceive our Saviour means when he saith he will build him a Church is no more nor less than this that he will incorporate all those that profess his Name and Religion into a Society And that he will not content himself to have Disciples and Followers dividedly straggling after him how numerous soever they may be but he will have them united into a Body formed into a regular Society make up a Divine Polity having Unity Order and Government amongst themselves That as there are several forms of Civil Society of Humane Institution so our Saviour would by his Divine Authority institute a Religious Society by the name of a Church whereof He himself would be the Head and which should be ruled and governed by Laws and Officers peculiar to it self Or as in the Old Testament the whole Nation of the Jews though distinguished otherwise by their respective Tribes and Families made up one People and Church of Israel so should all Nations upon Earth and every individual person that was a Christian conspire and make up together one Christian Church For the more distinct and satisfactory apprehension whereof let us consider that every regular Society requires these four things namely 1. A Body 2. An Head 3. Union 4. Order and Government and all these conspicuously concurre to the making up the Church or such a Society as we have described 1. For the Body of the Christian Church that consists of all those who from time to time in all Ages and Countreys are inrolled in Albo Christianorum and have given up their names to Christ or are Christians by profession So the Apostle 1 Cor. 12. 27. Now are ye the Body of Christ and Members in particular that is the whole number of Christians Vid. Theophyl in loc makes up the mystical Body of Christ every individual person being a particular Member thereof And then he addes vers 28. God hath set some in the Church first Apostles secondly Prophets c. By which it is evident that he speaks of the whole Church as one for he supposes the Apostles to be Officers of the whole Christian Church which could not be if every little parcel of Christians convened together made up a Church in the notion the Apostle intends and consequently therefore the whole number of Christians as I said must make up the one Church or Body of Christ To this purpose those that are curious observers of the propriety of phrase in the Greek tongue do note that at Athens from whose Assemblies this name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was first taken when onely the Heads or chief Magistrates were assembled they called this distinctly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the Colluvies ex agris or whole Rabble of People was called together this they termed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was onely used when the whole Body of Citizens within the Pale or Liberties of the City were assembled 2. Christ Jesus is undoubtedly the Head and Supreme of this Body He is the Founder of this Order he gave command for the forming this Society prescribes Laws and affords protection to it Eph. 5. 23. He is the Head of the Church and the Saviour of the Body And herein that which Divines call the Mediatorian Kingdom of our Saviour properly consists namely that not onely in respect of his Divine Nature he hath a Sovereignty over the world but especially that as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or God incarnate he is Sovereign of the Church and hath power of Legislation authority to constitute Officers under him jus vitae necis hath all Judgment committed to him can sentence to life or to utter destruction Whether de facto he hath appointed any Lieutenant or Vicar-general under him over the whole Church as some pretend will not be necessary now to inquire and besides will be sufficiently clear in the Negative by what I shall say by and by 3. It is not sufficient to an orderly

assures that as the Summe and Code of our Religion as on the other hand the Holy Scripture rules to us the particular Doctrines and Laws thereof To which sence both S. Austin and S. Ierom agree when they affirm that as the Jewish Church was Columna Nubis the Pillar of a Cloud or was incorporated by God to hold up that Ceremonial form of Religion in the Old Testament so the Society of the Christian Church is Columna Lucis or was instituted to hold up that Truth whereof the former was a shadow namely the Doctrine of the Gospel in the times of the New Testament And Saint Austin more particularly expresses himself in his 42. Epistle Radix Christianae Societatis per Sedes Apostolorum Successiones Episcoporum certâ per orbem propagatione diffunditur i. e. Christian Religion is preserved and propagated by the advantage of established Order and successive Government of the Church 2. Christ Jesus would have a Church and his Disciples imbodied and formed into a Society that by means of such conjunction and relation they might be more usefull to one another by instruction admonition counsel reproof and example and so not onely hold up the Doctrine joyntly but hold one another mutually to the practice of Christianity as having a common care and concern for the good of each other for the sake of the whole To which purpose it is observed by the generaliy of Learned men that Gen. 4. 26. and 6. 1. in the Infancy of the World there was a distinction between the Sons of God and the Sons of men by the latter of which they understand that profane part of mankind that cast off all care of God and Religion but by the former such as retained a sense of God and care of his Worship and that these formed themselves into a Body and became a distinct Society for the better practice and prosecution of that great affair of Religion But the influence which this Provision hath upon the practice of Religion is so notoriously evident that the Apostle Heb. 10. 23 c. discourses after this manner to those Jewish Christians that seemed to stagger in their Devotion Let us hold fast the profession of our Faith without wavering Let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works Not forsaking the assembling of our selves together as the manner of some is For saith he if we sin wilfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth c. The plain sence of which remarkable passage is this that keeping Church-Society is the way to keep upright in our Profession and warm in our practice and the forsaking of that the ready way to Apostasie and no other tolerable sence can be made of the Discourse of the Apostle but this To which I think it not amiss to adde a worthy Observation of that Learned man Mr. H. Thorndyke He Thorndyke Service of God in Religious Assemblies inquires What should be the reason that the People of the Jews before their Captivity were upon all occasions prone to lapse into Idolatry whenas after their Return from that Captivity they never seemed inclinable that way and yet notwithstanding before the Captivity they were never destitute of the extraordinary Admonitions of Prophets sent from God on purpose to warn them of that sin and danger and after the Captivity they were deprived of this singular advantage And at last gives this ingenious and probable account viz. Before the Captivity though they had the frequent Admonitions of the Prophets as aforesaid yet they had few or no Synagogues insomuch as we never hear of any Synagogue-worship during all that time but after the Captivity Synagogues were very numerous and by means of the frequency of those Assemblies he thinks it might come to pass that they were kept from an evil they were so prone to that Prophecy it self could not cure them of it 3. Church-Order was appointed to fit and train men up for the Kingdom of Heaven to teach and inure men to live in Love and Peace and Order here in a Church Militant that so they might be fit for eternal Society in the Church Triumphant It seems to be one reason amongst many others why those that are designed for the Service of the Church are usually bred up in Colleges and Universities namely that Collegiate life accustoming them to Order and Obedience disposes them to be subject to the Government of the Church And as a College is an Embleme of the Church so is the Church below of that above and the Education in the one makes men fit Candidates of the other For it is not to be imagined that any mere Ornaments of Knowledge and Eloquence or any other Gift or Grace how eximious soever can qualifie a man for the celestial Mansions and make him fit to live in eternal Love and Peace and Concord with holy Spirits that could not be brought to be peaceable humble and obedient and submit to the Culture and Discipline of the Church There were therefore upon the whole matter great Considerations why our Saviour should build a Church And so much for the First part of my Text. PART II. I proceed now to the Second the Foundation of this Fabrick Upon this Rock will I build my Church I am sure it can be no new thing to Learned men to note what triumphs they of the Church of Rome make upon this passage Tu es Petrus is urged upon all occasions as if not onely S. Peter but the whole Succession of Popes were hereby made infallible Oracles of Truth and universal Pastors over the whole Church of Christ If we object that Petrus and Petra are two things they will answer that our Saviour spake in the Syriack tongue and that there Cepha answers to both But if we enquire why Rock must needs signifie Head of the Church or why to be built upon as a Rock must signifie to govern especially if we inquire why S. Peter might not have a Priviledge conferred upon him that such a man as Hildebrand Boniface Innocent or some other either ignorant lewd or enormous Bishops of Rome were not fit for we should receive but slender satisfaction from them However I will not insist upon those Subtilties but deliver my self plainly for the unfolding this part of my Text in these two Points 1. It is notoriously evident to any man that consults the Scriptures impartially that the whole number of Apostles have that said of them which is tantamount to this in the Text I mean the Church is said to be built upon them as well as upon S. Peter For example Eph. 2. 20. the Church is said to be built upon the foundation of the Apostles Christ himself being the chief Corner-stone that is Christ Jesus first set on foot the Doctrine of the Gospel and gave them his Apostles both commission and abilities to preach it and gather Disciples and form them into the Society of a Church and they