Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	faith_n	unity_n	2,037	5	9.1432	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29073	A discourse about Christ and antichrist, or, A demonstration that Jesus is the Christ from the truth of his predictions, especially, the coming and the seduction of antichrist : to which is added a treatise about the resurrection / by Edward Bagshaw ...	Bagshaw, Edward, 1629-1671.	1661 (1661)	Wing B408; ESTC R37055	55,746	68

recompence of reward it is false and dangerous It is false because it contradicts the Command and the Example of Christ who for the joy that was set before him despised the Cross Heb 12.2 Thus Moses thus Paul did both eye the Reward themselves and enjoyn it as a duty upon others 2. It is dangerous first because it begets infinite scruples especially in young Converts whose first inducement must either be from their hopes or their Feares and which way soever they begin they have our Saviour sometime using Threats otherwhiles mingling Promises to justifie their being wrought upon by either 2. It makes the greatest and most comfortable part of the Word useless and that is the Promises and if men may live above the Promises it will quickly follow that they may live above the Precepts too and what the end of such Doctrine may be is too apparent I say therefore to the yet Doubting Christian fetch new strength vigour from the Promises for if thy Belief be Reasonable I am sure thy Obedience though it brings suffering is highly so for no momentany pressure 2 Cor. 4.17 how grievous soever can countervaile that full and everlasting weight of happiness which is laid up for Believers and Obeyers of the Gospel And that is a Theme so obvious that I need not insist upon it So much for the first Use Use 2 The second Use is to confirm and strengthen Believers He that standeth 1 Cor. 10.12 saith the Apostle and Faith only is the cause of a Christians standing let him take heed lest he fall And take heed saith he to the believing Hebrews Heb. 3.12 lest there be in any of you an evill heart of unbelief to Apostatize from the living God Nothing doth undo the greatest part of Christians but their Confidence whereby presuming upon their present stock of Faith they lay in no fresh recruits and so fall if not finally for that no elect Person can do yet foully as Peter did whose security betrayed him into that which cost him many bitter Tears This kind of Bread is to be begged and received new every day from Heaven or else we have no certainty that it will continue with us one moment And therefore whatever we do let us take care that our Faith fail not a breach there is like a wound in the head for the most part mortall and if at any time there have been Ruptures and Intercisions made in that Grace repair them presently by quickning and feeding your Faith with new Arguments New if not for Subject and Matter yet for Light and for Discovery Now this often reflecting upon our Saviours Prediction is the best expedient you can provide For that was it which confirmed the Apostles who were of as slow incredulous and uneasie a temper to believe as any of us can be when our Saviour had told the Jews Joh. 2.22 that in three daies he would destroy the Temple and raise it up again meaning the Temple of his Body The Evangelist John observes That when he was raised from the dead his Disciples remembred that he had said this unto them and he adds they believed the Scripture which foretold this of the Messiah and the word which Jesus had said who foretold it of himself where he makes our Saviours foretelling his own Resurrection to be a medium by which the Disciples did strengthen their Faith even after they had seen him risen And when they ran to the Sepulchre in the midst of their Despairs and Fears as now imagining that their Master was utterly gone and all their Faith ungrounded the Angels tell them Remember say they how he spake unto you while he was yet in Galilee saying Luk. 24.8 the Son of man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and be raised again the third day And saies the Evangelist they remembred his words i.e. Reflecting upon them which their present sorrow and impatience made them to forget they did a little moderate and appease their sorrow By the example then of those Apostles often mind your selves of our Saviours Predictions and they will be of great advantage and comfort to you in these three Cases 1. In case of Heresies which are already come II. In case of Persecution which may come III. In case of Future Glory which though it be now delayed yet we have a promise that it will come 1. The reflecting upon our Saviours Predictions will be of great use to comfort Believers in respect of the Heresies which already are come I know it is a sad and troublesome thing unto a true Christian to see the Divisions and Contentions of Brethren to have the Peace of the Church disturbed by Schisme and the Unity of Faith divided by Errour but as our Saviour said to his Disciples concerning the Destruction of Jerusalem Luk. 21.9 When you see Wars and Tumults be not troubled for all these things must come to pass So say I when you see Heresie and Errour spreading it self and Parties and sidings under pretence of advancing Truth miscalling Faction by the name of Religion be not amazed for we know who hath told us That there must be Heresies 2 Cor. 11.29 that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those whose Faith is approved or tried may be made manifest As mists and vapours serve to set out the Sun so do Errours in some make the Truth that is owned by others more conspicuous and apparent I know the common cry of Ignorant or self-designing men is Put down Preaching keep the People from reading the Scriptures c. which is all one as if they should say Pull down the Sun that we may prevent the rising of Clouds and Mereors The Scripture is like the Sun and where it shines vigorously the dull Earth i.e. Natural Ignorance in men which conceives and apprehends it not must needs send forth mists and vapours But God forbid that the Children should be deprived of their Bread because the Dogs are ready to snatch it from them and abuse it To Imprison the Scripture in a dark and unknown Language is indeed the ready way to prevent Heresies for what people cannot know they will be sure not to contend about So to extinguish the Sun is the ready way to hinder Clouds but then we shall be encompassed with the Horrour of Eternal Night And to put out the Candle that so all colours may agree in the dark is a device as Politick as the devil himself that invented it whose kingdom cannot subsist unless the World do lull themselves asleep into a dull stupid irremediable Ignorance When the Light of the Scripture is gone I am afraid the Light of the Spirit will go with it And I am sure the Light of Reason leads us to nothing but to Atheism or to worse to sottish and impertinent superstition i.e. it makes us either so cunning as to deceive others or so foolish as to be willing to be deceived our selves

A DISCOURSE ABOUT CHRIST AND ANTICHRIST OR A DEMONSTRATION THAT Jesus is the Christ From The Truth of His PREDICTIONS Especially The Coming and the Seduction of ANTICHRIST To which is added A TREATISE about the RESURRECTION BY Edward Bagshaw Stu. of Ch. Ch. in Oxon. LONDON Printed for Simon Miller at the Star in St. Pauls Church-Yard 1661 INSIGNISSIMIS ET Fidaei Christianae Studiosissimis Viris HUMPHREDO WYNCH Equiti Baronetto ET JOHANNI BROWNE Armigero Opellam hanc De JESU RESURRECTIONE Religionis nostrae Fundamenta confirmantem ET Piis uti sperat omnibus non inutilem futuram AUTHOR Sui amoris ac observantiae ergo D. D. C. Q. Edwards Bagshawe The Preface to the Christian and Candid Reader ALthough the Disputes and Controversies in Religion have multiplied themselves into many large and tedious Volumes yet I believe Christian Reader thou wilt easily agree with me that were but one Question rightly stated and throughly believed most other might safely be neglected by us as Useless and Impertinent And the Question is this Whether the Scriptures be the Word of God or to use an Expression which will give no Party offence A full and perfect declaration of Gods Will. Were this but once really assented to who doth not see that all Additionals are either Impious or else at the best but needless and unnecessary Appendixes much like rotten and painted Posts affixed unto a stately Edifice which do not only deface the Beauty of the Building but likewise make the strength of it to be suspected Since Scripture if it indeed it did come from God doth best alone without the least mixture of Humane Inventions to underprop it This therefore is that great thing which in this following Treatise I have undertaken to demonstrate in a Method if my Reading and Observation fail me not which none have attempted before me For whereas there are two waies by which men ordinarily do come to be ascertained of the Truth of Scripture The one by an Inward Experimental Assurance the other by an Argumentative and Rational Evidence The first of these I have altogether waved because though Experience be an Infallible Argument to him that hath it yet it is not a Demonstration that can be improved to the Conviction of another And therefore I have applied my self wholly unto the second way of Proof wherein dealing with men as men and enlarging upon those common and known Principles of Reason that all acknowledge the Unbeliever must find some stronger Arguments than any I have yet met with to justifie himself by or else with me be won over to the Obedience of the Faith of Christ I do not speak this as if I thought it possible for any Endeavour or Art of Man to perswade another to believe but because this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Poize to which the mind is brought by a sober and calm debating the matter on both sides is that way by which the Spirit of God in Inquisitive men doth usually prepare an Entrance for Faith for the strong man must first be cast out and every Objection singled out and disarmed before a stronger than he can enter in And this Christian Reader is the very utmost design of this small Treatise which I had never published but that I thought it my duty to impart unto others that satisfaction which I my self have received If there be any that make another Interpretation and from what I have spoken concerning Antichrist wherein I have used the very Language and so far as I understand it the sense of Scripture will infer that I am either for or against any of the Parties who now contend about their several Forms of Worship They will wrong me very much but themselves more since the misjudging of others is an Uncharitable Presumption which is incompatible with a Christian Temper What my Judgement is concerning Episcopacy and how sutable to right Reason and Scripture that Order is I have already asserted And I think none are greater Enemies to Bishops than those who seek to establish them by pleading a Necessity of Ceremonies which whether they may at all be used is a Question but that they may very sasely be disused is no Question at all It is therefore liberty in small things alone that I have formerly and do yet plead for and that upon this single Argument because I think Christ came to set his Church free from all unnecessary Yokes and therefore it doth not lye in the power of any man to bring them into bondage again And let but any sober disinteressed person convince me once that the Church i.e. where the State is Christian the civil Magistrate hath power to impose in Religious Worship and I shall then so far alter my Judgment as instead of being troubled that we are gone thus far be very sorry that we go no farther in our conformity But till then it is my constant Prayer That if our Rulers will stretch their Power to make some Harmony between the Christian and the Civill State all men may quietly suffer for what they cannot chearfully submit to without making any more noise in the World than what a calm and dispassionate debate of Truth may amount to Had this Course at first been taken we should not have had some cry down Dagon and set up Baal-Berith i. e superstitiously if not worse displace superstition and exercise a greater Tyranny than that which they complained of But I leave this sad Argument and entreat thee Christian Reader to look upon me as one that by the goodness of God can call himself a Christian in the most large and comprehensive Notion of the Word according to our Saviours explication Whoever is not against Christ is for him and where-ever I see the least appearance of sincerity and uprightness though in Persons differing from my self in Judgement I can preserve my own opinion without the least prejudice to that Charity I ow Mankind in general or that endearedness of Affection which is particularly due to all sorts of Zealous though mistaken Christians With this Confession I close my Preface and dismiss thee to the Book it self which I desire may be read as it was writ with a single and unprejudiced mind And if thou findest anything of satisfaction by it give God the glory who hath made use of a very unlikely Instrument to do thee good by But if in any place thou findest my Resoning doth not seem Close and Pertinent let me know my Errour and I shall think my self more obliged to thee for thy serious reproof than for thy partial and unweighed Commendation Farwell EDW. BAGSHAWE Christ Church in Oxon. May 21. 1661. A Demonstration that JESUS is the CHRIST JOH 13.19 Now I tell you of it before it come to pass that when it doth come to pass you may know that I am THese are the words of our Saviour spoken by way of Inference or Use from the Prediction he had made concerning the Treachery