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
A57346	The cursed family; or, A short tract, shewing the pernicious influence of wicked prayer-less houses, upon this church and kingdom Humbly tender'd by way of subserviency to His Majesties Royal Proclamations, and Acts of Parliament, for preventing and punishing immorality and prophaness. By THomas Risley Master of Arts, and sometime fellow of Pembrook-Colledge in Oxford. With a prefatory epistle by the reverend Mr. John Howe.	Risley, Thomas, 1630-1716.; Howe, John, 1630-1705.	1700 (1700)	Wing R1539; ESTC R218001	38,264	98

the Air and Fish of the Sea some obscure Resemblances of Government greater and lesser Societies Kingdoms Cities and Families the great Searchers into Philosophy have discovered By God's Ordination at first they keep their Places observe their Times do their Work Build Furnish make Dens Caves Burrows Nests set up House break up House breed up their Young help and dispose of them abroad for Common Good True it is these Patterns are but imperfectly drawn in these Creatures yet they point at Excellent Education Laws and Virtues and Teach the Wisest Sobriety Fidelity Chastity Amity Gratitude Vigilancy Diligence and unwearied care of themselves and those belonging to their Charge After the Almighty had finisht his Work The foundation of Families God's Institution created Adam and Placed him in Paradise he was pleased to say It is not good that Man should be alone I will make him an help Meet for him Although the Word Family strictly How the Word Family is taken here taken signifieth that Order of Mankind which is United in Marriage signifying the Terms of Husband and Wife Parents Children Master Servant yet here it doth include Housholds made of kind Friends living together for their mutual Benefit as Men and Christians And also it doth Include the Superior Societies of Academical Discipline and the Inferior of Countrey Schooles Both which as they be of great use for Magistracy and Ministry so they ought to be of Special Influence to Maintain Religion and Christian Government in Church and State That Famous Orator whose Name is The Formal and final causes of Families turned into a Sir-Name of Eloquence as Quintilian hath it speaking of the Union of Families hath Written that there is a more Noble Principle of Human Societies then Sense to wit the Attractive Power of Reason which by Counsels Precepts Converse Decisions and Judgments Cements and Strengtheneth Societies But God's Word speaking hereof strikes an higher Note no less a Union for Marriage then In the Lord with the exclusive Particle Tantum in Domino Only in the Lord. If this Union were observed How much more Happy would Families Relations Parishes Magistrates Ministers Kingdoms and Churches be It is a most Dangerous Design to think of Multiplying Vice and Impiety by gathering into Societies as if the Lesser Sins of Single Life Married into Company might take Liberty to swel into a Flood Gen. 6. 25. We may not think that Families and Societies were Constituted for Natural and Secular Ends but for Political and Ecclesiastical Ends the Good of Countrey and the Church of God Therefore that was an Excellent Plut. Conv. Answer made to one admiring a Fair House to wit Thou lookest upon the Glorious Outside of the Building and callest that an House not looking within how well Children are Governed and Educated Marriage Honoured the Family and all belonging to it prudently managed He saith the Author that hath such an House liveth in a Palace though in a Pismires Hill From what hath been said it is evident how much good or hurt may proceed from Families For although this Capacity must not Danger of great States from Wicked Families contend with greater Societies for Precedency of Honour yet for Priority of Nature and Eldership of Time it carrieth it from all Societies on Earth It being without Dispute that of Families Towns and Cities great States are Embodied Therefore as in Natural Bodies if the first Concoction be Imperfect it is hardly Corrected in the latter So in Civil Bodies if Families and Villages through want of Good Government abound in Vitious Manners the Malignancy presently infects Kingdoms and Churches to which they do belong It may be at the first that the Narrowness of Private Walls and Housholds send Evil Manners into the World with some kind of Pusillanimous Dulness which coming into Places of Publick Concourse grow Impudent and refuse to be ashamed Hence it is that Swearing Swilling Debauchery and Immorality Contempt of Religion and Sobriety become in a while Popular and all in Fashion If Parents give not Check to Family Sins in their Children at Home when they go forth they meet with Temptations and Patrons which turn their Youthful Exorbitances into Immoveable Habit. It is easy to observe that the want of Family-Religion is the Cause of the Visible Decay of the Wellfare of Church and State CHAP. II. Concerning the Church of God THE word Church is vulgarly taken The Significations of the word Church And how it is taken here for the Material place where the People Assemble to Worship God sometimes for the Juridical Power of Church-Officers and sometimes for the Church-Revenues But here it is taken for The Visible Church of Christ Militant upon the Earth as it Comprehends Believers of All Places and Times from first to last And as it is made up of Particular Churches or Societies of Believers And these made up of Believing Families A Christian Family should be the Epitome and Nursery of the Church But alas it is far otherwise at this day A Minister may go into divers Families in the Parish and Chappelry and not a Word of Scripture Read nor a Prayer made in the Family all the Week long as if Religion were An Enemy not A Friend to their House or That Religion were a Duty Onely on the Sabbath-Day and not on the Week day The Church of God at the first was Domestical not National till the Holy Line grew Strong and Populous from Good Families As from Adam Seth Enoch Noah Shem who lived till Isaac was 50 years old Abraham the Father of the Faithful by Promise c. And so it came to pass in After-times that as Posterity in Families Degenerated so the Church Degenerated as in Cain Ham Ishmael Esau. The Cause of the Churches Decay in our days Thus it is in our Days Ungodly Families are the Decay of God's Church they make Thin Congregations they bring a VVast upon the Solemn Assemblies What an Odious Thing is it to Loiter away the Lord's Day What an Absurdity to Indulge the Flesh upon the Lord's Day and give the Flesh no Rest upon the Week Day What a piece of Wickedness is it to go forth all the Week to Serve the World and Refuse to go forth on the Lord's Day to Serve him Who would think that Sabbath-Profanation were so shameless in Families called Christian Why should a poor excuse hinder Men and Women from the Church which must not from the Market How many Halts do some Make when they should Goe to the Church to Sanctify the Lord's-Day in their Conscionable Attendance upon God's Ordinances What an Unseemly Thing is it to Skulk at Home or at a Neighbours House to Chatt and Talk away to Feast away Sleep away Surfeit away Bibb and Fiddle Smoak and Pipe for Carnal Pleasure to Visit away and for Profit to Travel away the Lord's-Day when they should be waiting at the Gates of VVisdom O what pitty is it that obscure

Tippling-houses should pick and pilfer any one Member of a Congregation from the House of God These profane Families do break Covenant which they made in Baptism whereby they were Solemnly Admitted into the Church of God Engaging to Renounce the Works of the Devil the World and the Flesh and to continue in the Communion of Saints to love fear and worship that God who made them for that end and into whose Name they were Baptized Father Son and Holy Ghost Are not these the notorious Enemies to Christianity whose Life is a Flat Contradiction to their Baptism Are they not Enemies to the Church as well as to themselves who willfully and wickedly Uniformity of Religion in Publick requireth Family Cnformity in Divine Worship and Service in Private Excommunicate themselves from God's Ordinances All Ungodly Families do contract the guilt of that Foul Sin of Separation by their Sabbath-breaking For if they be for Real Membership with the Church of Christ why do they not hold fast their Christian Profession in Publick Why do they not Keep their Baptismal Covenant to holy and constant Fellowship with Christ and his Church in their Families Why do they not set up Religion and Christianity in their Houses that they might partake of Heavenly Promises and Blessings of the Spirit of Christ by Prayers and Praises Reading the Scriptures and Catechizing All which Duties stand Obliging them as they be the genuine and proper fruits and Evidences of that Mystical Union and Holy Communion which is between Christ and all sound Christians and Church-Members For He is not a good Church-man that is not a good Christian at Home He is not a Jew which is one outwardly neither is that Circumcision which is outward in the Flesh But he is a Jew which is one inwardly and Circumcision is that of the Heart in the Spirit and not in the Letter whose Praise is not of Men but of God Rom. 2. two last Verses What profit will there be at the Day of Judgment of Names of Christians and live like Insidels and Heathens What Shall God's Grace abound to us in this Age of his Church by breaking down the Middle-Wall of Partition between Jew and Gentile to make his Church Catholick And shall we set up a Partition-Wall between God's House and our own and not permit Religion to dwell there O let not any Professor confine Religion within Church-walls seeing That the Congregation of the Faithful is made up of Believing Families and seeing That a Right Belief in the Church-Assembly will bring forth the Fruits of Holiness in thy Family And all Parents and Masters of Families now under the Gospel ought to be more Useful for the Spiritual concerns of all under their Care then those Parents under the Law And that because of clearer discoveries and more plentiful Effusions of Grace I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh and your Sons and your daughters shall Prophecy your old men shall dream dreams your young men shall see Visions also upon the servants and the handmaids I will pour out my spirit Joel 2. 28 29. To rule and keep House as Christians presupposeth 1. The Natural Ruling of Houses i. e. to do that which Nature dictates namely to Feed Cloath Harbour and defend those under their Charge 2 Cor. 8. 21. 2. It presupposeth the Ruling of Houses in a Moral sense as Reason commands i. e. to Govern in a deliberate way by imparting ingenuous and vertuous Education that Children be taught to Read to be Just Dutiful Modest Diligent Temperate that Servants partake of Free not Servile Government as Reasonables not as Animals which labour in another kind to pay Wages not onely truly but equally in a fit proportion to their particular Employ For Nature teacheth Rewards in General but Reason enjoyneth an equal distribution of Rewards Therefore 3. To Govern Families in a Christian manner is most Excellent even as Reason is above Sense and Faith above Both. Christian Family-Discipline must Instruct Discipline of Christian Families Correct and Govern like it self namely to attain unto promote and persevere in all Christian Duties towards God and Man wholly devoting themselves to Instituere Corrigere Regere Christ to be his Faithful Servants for ever And this will cast out two great Enemies to all Order as well as Domestick i. e. Anarchy and Tyranny O that it might be consider'd that God will reckon with all Governours of Families both for not Using and Abusing their Talents of Authority Then the Blind Heads of Families who put out their own Eyes willfully refusing to know their Duty both in Single and Married Life then the Prodigal Sensualist and Covetous Mammonist who have wanted no knowledge of their Duty must come to Account for taking no Care for the Souls of their Children O that Parents would consider whether there be any thing in this World which deserves their Care and Diligence more then their own Salvation and their setled and constant Prayers to God for the Salvation of their Childrens Souls O ye Parents Would you be Blessings or Curses to your Families Would you have your Children prosper in this World and for ever perish in the next Would you dispose well of them here upon Earth and not be afraid least they miss of Heaven through your Carelessness The Lord in Mercy awaken you to set up Religion and Christianity in your Houses to Instruct Correct and Rule your selves first and then your Families as becometh Christians least God's Curse denounc'd against Wicked Mens Houses pursue you here and Rest upon you for ever hereafter The NATURE of which CURSE is handled in the next CHAPTER CHAP. III. Of the CURSE of the Lord on Wicked Houses TO Curse according to the General What it is to Curse and what is Cursing Sense of the Hebrew and Greek imports to Abandon Renounce Abdicate and Abhor as a Detestable Thing to Excommunicate and Cast out of God's Church from his Ordinances as a vile Prophane Person Cursing and Execration doth not onely signifie a Substraction of God's Blessing but an Infusion of his Curse upon Wicked Persons and Families as they have deserved for their sin both in this Life and in the Life to come To Bless is with God to make Blessed and to Curse is to make Cursed To Say Cursing and Blessing only from the Lord. and to Doe is all one with God to Speak a Curse and Inflict it a Blessing and Confer it And as it is God's peculiar to Bless so to Curse How shall I Curse whom God hath not Cursed or how shall I Defie whom the Lord hath not Defied Numb 23. 8. No Heathen Gods nor Evil Spirits nor the Devil himself whom they Invocate as Chief can send Curses upon any one without Commission from the Allmighty For Wicked Houses to be under the What it is for Wicked Houses to be under the Curse of God Curse of God! Is to be without his Gracious Keeping and Fatherly