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	particular_a	universal_a	4,571	5	9.4486	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B10269	Anti-Goliah: or An epistle to Mr. Brevint, containing some reflections upon his Saul, and Samuel, at Endor. / Written by E.W.	Warner, John, 1628-1692.; E. W. (Edward Worsley), 1605-1676.	1678 (1678)	Wing W904B; ESTC R186274	27,206	62

or thing demonstrated The Scripture is the same when cleerly and when obscurely understood and Faith is the same when it is more and more explicated provided it change not its object It may be said to alter its state when its object is altered in quality but it remains the same in substance as long as its material and formal object subsists Thus the same person when Minor is undera Tutor from whose power he is exempted when Major Now the Law was our Tutor Gal. 3. under which we were kept till by the coming of Christ Faith was revealed id est explicated more cleerly To the second difficulty S. Austin answers ep 49. Dispertita divinis eloquiis sacrificia ..... By the Divine Spirit sacrifices were appointed proportionable to the times that some should be offered before the New Testament was revealed ... and same other now since its revelation ...... For as one and the same man offering to God one thing in the morning and another in the evening cannot for that be said to change God or his Religion so in several Ages although some things were offered anciently others at present yet we have neither changed God nor our Religion Thus S. Austin Which Doctrine well applied will cleer all you say in this Chapter Page 8. You say The first Title the faithful had after the Ascension was to be called Christians The thing was long before even from the beginning I wish you had proved that name to be the first Title after the Ascension for I think it certain they had another name before that The name Christian was first known at Antioch Act. 11.26 which was many years after the Ascension as is gathered out of the first Chapter to the Galatians for it was after the Conversion of S. Paul his retreat into Arabia his return to Damascus his Journey to Ierusalem three years after that and then at his excursion into Syria and preaching at Antioch that name was taken up Is it credible that a Congregation of men should be so long together and have no name to be known by This might suffice though no name had been left on record as there is one Act. 6.1.2.7 where the faithful are three several times called Disciples Page 9 No Philosophers were ever able with all their wit to extend their opinions beyond their Schools nor the greatest Kings settle their Laws beyond their Dominions say you very falsly for Aristotle and Cartesius divide all the Philosophers of our Nation in which neither ever had a School And Iustinian's Laws are settled in Spain in America and for some Cases in England where his name was scarce know during his life See Sir how dangerous it is to follow your fancy But let us admit what you say and we shall find you Goliah-like armed with a sword to cut off your own head not to hurt your enemy What say you Hereticks cannot spread their errors much beyond their own abode God alone can create a new light which shall spread a bright day over the world Where you condemn your own Reformation which is scarce known out of the British Iles and make a Panegyrick of Rome and Popery which is spread over the world and fills the East and West Indies with the light of the Gospel which as you say God alone can do Truth extorts this testimony from your pen. God grant you grace to profess with sincerity of heart what you unwittingly said with your mouth Page 11. Many wise men take Roman Catholick for a Bull. The Planets have their Ecclipses the Sun it self his spots and the wisest men their follies Such is childish quibbling upon words in serious grave matters But why is it a Bull Because forsooth Catholick signifies Vniversal and Roman imports something particular Do those wise men think it a Bull to call the Catholick Church Apostolick from the Apostles who were singular men or Christian from Christ who was but one man Aud if we may call the Catholick Church Christian and Apostolick without being censured for incongruity of speech though those names be taken from single persons why not Roman Catholick although that name be taken from one place Such a Church hath more of universality than any single person God forbid I should make comparisons betwixt Christ and the Roman Church which adores him as her God I intend no more here than to shew by this undeniable instance that a denomination taken from à particular body thing or person may be given to a universal Congregation So those wise men are much out in this censure But why is the Church denominated from Rome rather than from any other place Answ Because as the Poliglott acknowledges Prolog 10. It was alwayes held to be the Principal Church and most constantly adhered to ancient Traditions Because it presides over the rest as the Head over the Body says the second General Council to Damasus Because in it S. Peter presided who received the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven was the Rock on which the Church is built is the foundation of Jurisdiction and the Center of Ecclesiastical Unity Page 22. If the Pope be the Roman Church's Head Masse is its Body Very witty Here is a new way to unchurch all Papists who can be no part of the Roman Church which contains the Pope as Head and Mass as Body and we are neither Pope nor Mass I am perswaded wise men will pity your labours so ill spent in studies seeing after all you cannot distinguish betwixt a Church and her Religious Service or Lyturgy Ibidem Enquire of all the Fathers when and where they the Apostles sung Mass publickly A search worhy of your self to seek whether they sung Mass in Market-places when their Meetings were Antelucanis horis says Pliny Whē the Christians to save their Lives were forced to wander in deserts and mountains and dens and caves of the earth Heb. 11.38 Pag. 24. Purgatory that Subterranean Rome Rome sends down Masses to that that helps Rome with wealth honours and riches The Primitive Christians had Mass for the Dead as well as Rome as you may see in S. Austin l. de cura pro mortuis c. 1. Enchir. c. 110. in this later place he says Neque negandum est It ought not to be denied that the deceased souls are eased by the piety of their surviving friends when the sacrifice of the Mediator is offered for them or Alms given in the Church That these things ease those souls who during the course of this life lived so as to merit it For there is a manner of life neither soo good as not to need those helps nor so bad as to receive no benefit by them And there is another so good as not to need them and a third so bad as to be incapable of ease even by them Thus S. Austin You see in these words 1. Mass Sacrificium Mediatoris The sacrifice of our Mediator You see 2. Mass for the Dead Pro illis offertur

the manner of it its effects which followed it The perpetual succession of lawful Pastors from the Apostles till our days The Testimony of Martyrs by their Blood and of God by his Works which are Miracles The consent of Nations the Fulfilling of the Prophesies c. Infine the very name of Catholick which maugre all pretences of Hereticks and Schismaticks This Church only retains as St. Austin writes it did in his time and we see it doth in ours These are the Motives alleadged to invite Men to enter into the Communion of that Church in which they are found and of which they are verified But I never heard any discourse thus Be of the Communion of the Roman Church because it adores two Christs as you say c. 1. giveth the scapular of S. Simon Stock as c. 13. says the beads of S. Dominick c. 14. uses consecrated Images c. 16. If you know any who use such inducements name them If you can name none acknowledge that your Book in its fore-head bears a great Calumny an unexcusable untruth This is an Omen of what sincerity we are to expect in your whole Treatise In your Preface Not to be my own witness say you I make the case of Papists such as I find it in their own Authors It is harde measure when every slip of a private pen is charged on the whole Church which often dislikes and sometimes condemns it yet had you kept to this Rule you had been less blame worthy I shall have occasion more than once to mind you of it CHAP. II. Your General Account of New Ways PAge 1. What the Church of Christ hath single that of Rome hath double the eternal God and à mortal woman two sorts of Christs two sacrifices two Mediators two different wayes to obtain pardon of sins two Ladders to get up to Heaven two sorts of spiritual kindred two Heads of the Church and two different and sometimes contrary words of God When you writ this sure you had been in good company and thence geminis surgebat mensa lucernis All things seemed double It was well for us that at that time Hell Heaven Purgatory Pope the soul of Man the Person of Christ and the Nature of God did not occur to you otherwise you would have enlarged our Accusation and said we believe two Popes two souls of men two Hells two Heavens two Purgatories two Persons of Christ two Divine Natures Here is an accusation of as heinous a nature as any can be On What is it grounded Whose Testimony is produced to prove it See the Text see the Margine not one single man named Have you so soon forgotten your promise Not to be your own witness but to cite our Authors We will use the right of Defendants and to a groundless false accusation return a flat denial oft its Truth And when you please we will shew you That we believe onely One God one Christ one way to obtain Pardon of Sins the Mercy of God one Way to Heaven the Cross of Christ c. CHAP. III. How the Church can be Roman and Catholick PAge 8. Papists say you are well pleased with calling themselves Catholicks We are so and so were Catholicks in S. Austin's time as we see l. cont Epist Fund c. 4. That being one of the greatest Motives of retaining him S. Austin in the Church Hereticks both then and now would arrogate to their Congregations that Title yet could never compass it No great wonder we should glory in that Name seeing as you say Catholick Doctrine and Service is the most essential Iewel and the Soul of True Churches You cannot give so great Praises to Catholick Doctrine which is Faith taken of it self but it will deserve greater Yet if compared with Charity it must yield place as you see 1. Cor. 13. But because the matter is of consequence and not rigthly understood by you I will enlarge a little upon it It is an error as great as it is common to think that Faith in Christ which is Christian Doctrine began with the preaching of the Apostles or of Christ himself that Faith being as ancient almost as the world For no sooner had Adam by breaking the Commandment contracted the guilt of temporal and eternal Death to himself and all his posterity but God the Father decreed to send his only begotten Son to blot out the hand-writing of the Decree which was against us Col. 2.14 and to reconcile us again by that blood which was to be shed for us And revealing that Decree to man raised him to hope for pardon by the merits of the Messias a Mediator who was then promis'd in whom he was commanded to believe and from whom he was to expect his Redemption From that moment we may date the beginning of Faith in Christ although the Name he was to bear was not then known nor the time when he should come nor the place where nor the Family of which he was to be born And all those persons who lived well and were saved either during the Law of Nature or under the written Law Abraham Iob Isaac Iacob Moyses David Hieremy c. as well as we received of his fulness and were cleansed in the blood of the Lamb who for that reason Apoc. 15.8 is said to be slain from the beginning of the world S. Austin ep 157. Eadem Fides est nostra illorum ......... Our Faith is the same with that of the Saints before Christ for they believed that to come which we believe past And he proves it out of S. Paul 2. Cor. 4.13 where having spoken of the faith of the Israelitical Ministers he adds We having the same spirit of faith that is believing the same things And Tract 45. in Joan. Temporavariata sunt non sides ........ Times are altered not Faith the sound of words is changed He is to come and He is come but the same faith united both those who believed him to come and those who believe that he is come Epiph. l. 1. contra Haereses The same faith which now is preserved in the Holy Catholick Church was before Christ in vigor Hence Iustinus M. Apol 2. Eusebius l. 1. Hist c. 4. l. 1. de Demons Evang. c. 5. 6. say there were Christians long before Christ Thus all faithful believers both before and after Christ make up one Mystical Body whereof Christ is the Head Two difficulties against this Doctrine occur whose Explication will clear the mist which Mr. B. casts before his Readers Eyes The first Ephes 3.5 S. Paul says The mystery of Christ was not made known in other ages to the sons of men as it is now revealed unto his Holy Apostles The second We have another Priesthood another Altar another Sacrifice other Rites c. Ergo another Religion I answer to the first The different manner of announcing Christ makes no change in Christ himself as the different manner of explicating a Mathematical Demonstration alters not the Demonstration