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
A42582	Eirēnikon, or, A treatise of peace between the two visible divided parties ... by Irenæus Philadelphus Philanthropus ...	Philanthropus, Irenaus Philadelphus.; Gell, Robert, 1595-1665.	1660 (1660)	Wing G469; ESTC R21302	66,598	92

but a name Their Office we learn out of the express Scripture Acts 6. where we read of the first institution of it and the reason of it that they might take off part of the Apostles burden the daily ministring unto the poor that the Apostles might be wholly vacant attend the ministery of the word and prayer Yet were not the Deacons so wholly imployed in serving tables but that also they preached the Word as appears in the examples of Stephen Acts 6. and Philip Acts 8. who were two of those seven first chosen to that Office But whereas some will not allow them any other imployment then ministring to the poor the after practise of the Church best interprets their Office And whose Authority can we sooner follow than St. Ignatius Bishop of Antioch and Martyr one who immediately succeeded the Apostles He on the way to his Martyrdom wrote unto Here his Deacon to take care of the poor widows and fatherless also that he should know the Laws himself and explain them unto others He mentions also in the same Epistle a third part of the Deacons Office That he should do nothing without the Bishops For they saith he are the Priests and thou art the Minister unto the Priests as at Jerusalem St. Stephen ministred to James and the Elders c. So that the care of the whole Church belongs to the Bishops and Priests To whose help the Deacons were given by Divine Ordination and we finde their patern in the Jewish Church as we often read of the Nethinims given as Anxiliaries to the Priests and Levites Whence it appears that the Deacons Office was sacred and thought worthy to be administred by the Apostles themselves and when they would impart it unto others see what manner of men they require men of honest report full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom Acts 6.3 By all which a great defect is discovered among us especially in these last times We have known how to make numberless numbers of poor widows and orphans but how to make choice of widows indeed such as St. Paul describes 1 Tim. 5. if such be to be found I fear we know not or regard not And that high Office heretofore Apostolical and Ecclesiastical is now become Laical and administred by persons of very mean quality yea in divers places they are intrusted with taking care of the poor who are very poor men themselves and need others to take care of them It is an Office now become so poor so contemptible that no Episcopal man nor Presbyterian will strive for it I have described as briefly as I could these three Degrees of Ministers in the Christian Church which answer to their patern prefigured in the Church of the Jews wherein we finde three like Orders of Ecclesiastical persons High Priests Priests and Levites which typified in the Christian Church Bishops Presbyters and Deacons And that these degrees may not be sleighted or thought arbitrary or of mans device and invention the Ministery of the Jewish Church had their Idea and Example in heaven which Moses was commanded to copy out See thou do all things saith the Lord according to the patern which was shewn thee in the mount And that patern the Apostle discovers when he tells us that the Angels are all ministring spirits Accordingly Dionysius observes three Hierarchies of Angels and disposes three sorts of Angels in every Hierarchy and in the highest Seraphim Cherubim and Thrones In the next Dominions Vertues and Powers In the third and lowest Principalities Archangels and Angels which distribution is followed by some of the Fathers and School-men who from hence have taken their three Hierarchies of Angels Lucifer was an Hierarch and had his Regiment in the place of this world if he would have kept it whereof Jud v. 6. saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Angels that kept not their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hierarchy or Principality Yea he hath yet a Regiment in the evil world ruling in the sons of disobedience until he be cast out by a stronger then he and hence did his envy against our first Father Adam principally spring because he saw man was created to be an Hierarch in his place and stead But this is evidently enough to be proved out of the holy Scriptures that some among the Holy Angels are Superior some Inferior So much the very names of Angels and Archangels import which yet is strengthned by the exercise of their Functions See Zach. 2.2 3 4. where one Angel meets another and sends him with a message to the Prophet commanding him not onely to go but also to make haste and run St. Gregory from hence learnedly and judiciously collects thus much When one Angel saith to another run there is no doubt but they who send are the greater they who are sent are the less Which collection is far more rational then that of a certain Gentleman who because all the Angels are ministring spirits from thence concludes that all the Angels are equal Without doubt the man who so reasoned was out of his element Should one thus argue All the creatures are serviceable unto man therefore they are all equal among themselves who would not deny that consequence out of common sense and observation And shall we think that the onely wise God who hath created so various and different degrees of creatures in due subordination in this inferior world He hath not also ordained and constituted the services of all Angels in a wonderful order in the inferior world Is the God of order more pleased with order in the earth then he is with order in heaven Or shall we rather more truly affirm that they who have endeavored to drive all order out of the Church and to bring in an Ecclesiastical policy like that of the Cyclops on earth the same Titans are become 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 fighters against God and endeavour to rout and disorder the host of heaven Christian religion requires not a parity neither among the people nor among their Governors They are not equal for it cannot be that any Common-weal or society of men should long continue as the Christian church must do if it consists of an Arithmetical equality But as by the contrary qualities of the elements and the opposite motions of the Sun Moon and Stars those Ordinances of heaven the world is disposed and temper'd for eternity Jer. 31.35 6 7. so of necessity must the world of men consist of diverse degrees ranks and orders like the strings of an Instrument if they make melody they must be tun'd in due Symmetry and proportion some higher some lower so among men some must be high others low some in authority others under authority they must not be equal not all in unison He is but a ridiculous Minstrel Chordâ qui semper oberrat eâdem that 's always harping upon one string What they alledge That he who is greatest among you Matth. 23.11 shall be your servant proves a

as fight against the soul they are the sensual and brutish self And the same Grace of God arms the believer with weapons might●y hrough God for the casting down imaginations or reasonings and every high thing that exal●eth it self against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought unto the obedience of Christ 2 Cor. 10.4 5. That 's the denyal of the diabolical self What store of matter doth this juncture of time afford for self-denyal Such as the Apostle feared he should finde among his factious Corinthians such we may be sure is to be found among us 2 Cor. 12.20 Debates envyings wrathes strifes backbitings whis●erings swellings tumules This is the ●econd step which who●oever ascends he must expect assaults from the beast and the devil which he hath denyed and renounced And therefore it will be necessary that he ascend also the third 3. The Cross which he must take up dayly But what is the Cross Or rather what is it not He who undertook to write a Clavis Scripturae a key wherewith to open the Scripture saith the Cross is Omnis generis Calamitates piorum presertim veritatis causa toleratas Calamities of every kind of the godly born especially for the truths sake But if affliction or persecution or calamity such as he understands were the Cross then must we take them up and bare them as we are commanded to take up the cross But we are warranted to flee persecutions Math. 10.23 when they persecute you in one City flee to another but verse 38 of that chapter he tells them that he who taketh not up his cross and followeth him is not worthy of him Besides its possible that the Christian Church may for some time be without persecution For Acts 9.31 then had the Churches rest throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria and were edified and walking in the fear of God and comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied But shall we think that the Christians then laid aside the cross which our Lord commands those who will be his disciples to take up daily and follow him Adde hereunto that if afflictions were the cross which must be taken up then should onely poor and miserable men who could not avoid afflictions they should bear the cross but our Lord enjoyns this duty unto all who will be his Disciples Luke 9.23 Nor do I doubt but the reason why men encline rather to this Gloss that affliction is the cross because all manner of afflictions and tribulations may be born and yet sin may remain and live which generally men love better than their estates their honors yea their lives I have written of the Cross more largely because the bearing of it is a duty most necessary yet almost generally mistaken What then is it to bear the Cross The bearing of the Cross is the Christian patience Revel 1.9 It consists in bearing and suffering all assaults and temptations unto sin from all sorts of causes inward and outward without our yielding thereunto And because this of all other Christian duties is most contrary to the garb and fashion of the world which lies 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the evilone exposed to the obedience of his lusts and is most opposed and spoken against hence it is that the bearing of the Cross consists also in suffering ignominy shame reproach cursing and evil speaking So that we see wherein consists our conformity unto Christ crucified viz. in bearing all assaults and temptations unto sin with out yielding our consent thereunto as also in bearing shame and reproach ignominy which follows thereupon from the evil world Of the former the Apostle● eaks Gal. 2. ●0 I am crucified with Christ c. 5. They who are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts Of the latter Heb. 12.1 2 3. Let us run with patience the race that is set before us looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despising the shame c. consider him who endured such contradiction of sinners against himself Where we have Christs example and our imitation of it expressed in those words Let us run with patience that race which is set before us and Hebr. 13.12 Jesus that he might sanctifie the people with his own blood suffered without the gate There 's Christs example our imitation followes verse 13. Let us go forth therefore unto him without the camp bearing his reproach When our old man is now crucified with Christ that the body of sin is destroyed that henceforth we may not serve sin then all the heavenly minded ones all the quick-sighted Eagles meet at the dead Body And Christ being lifted up will draw all men unto him Then and not till then appears Equity so that whatsoever we would that men should do to us even so we should do to them For while our iniquittes separate between us and our God while our hands are defiled with blood and our fingers with iniquity while our lips speak lies and our tongue mutters perverseness c. while our feet run to evil and make haste to shed innocent blood while our thoughts are thoughts of iniquity while wasting and destruction are in our pathes we cannot know the way of Peace nor is there any judgement in our goings For having made ourselves crooked pathes whosoever goeth therein shall not finde peace Whence followes a spiruual blindness of minde desperation guilty conscience apostasie and revolting from God And therefore terras Astrea reliquit Judgement is turned away backward and ustice standeth a far off for truth is fallen in the street and trodden under foot because we depart not from iniquity Dan. 9.13 By reason of these obstructions in the way of righteousness and Peace it comes to pass that equity cannot enter Esay 59. But when as by Humility Self-denyal and taking up the Cross these impediments are removed and they who are Christs have crucified the flesh with the affections and lusts they meet in the way of righteousness judgement and equity Prov. 2.9 Then the way of Peace is opened and made known For whereas the universal righteousness consists in privative and positive duties departing from evil and doing good as the Prophets advice i● cease to do evil learn to do well putting off the old man and putting on the new mortifying sin and living unto God the effect of both is Peace depart from evil and do good seek peace and persue it Psalm 34.14 And the work of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness is quietness and assurance for ever Which is a demonstration of peace quietness and assurance from the cause of them which is righteousness and to confirm it to us as most certain the Prophet repeats the cause righteousness Esay 32.17 The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ratio causandi or causality will appear from hence Peace is the compendium and abridgement of all temporal and eternal happiness And