Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	faith_n	scripture_n	5,365	5	5.6751	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29208	A sermon preached at Dublin upon the 23 of Aprill, 1661 being the day appointed for His Majesties coronation : with two speeches made in the House of Peers the 11th of May, 1661, when the House of Commons presented their speaker / by John Lord Archbishop of Armagh, Primate and Metropolitan of all Ireland.	Bramhall, John, 1594-1663.	1661 (1661)	Wing B4235; ESTC R25292	22,740	52

A SERMON Preached at DUBLIN upon the 23. of Aprill 1661 being the day appointed for his Majesties CORONATION With two SPEECHES made in the House of Peers the 12th of May 1661 when the House of Commons presented their SPEAKER By the most Reverend Father in God JOHN Lord Archbishop of Armagh Primate and Metropolitan of all IRELAND DVBLIN Printed by William Bladen Anno Domini 1661. PSALME 126. V. He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth good seed shall doubtless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him IN the saddest afflictions and blackest storms that can befall a man in this world give me leave to make this thankful acknowledgment there is no companion or comforter like the Psalmes of David He that speaketh experimentally is the best Physician both for soul and body Being to speak unto this auditory upon his Majesties happy restitution I fitted and fixed my thoughts to the first Verse of this Psalm when the Lord turned again the captivity of Sion then were we like to them that dream When the Lord not the Lord Cyrus in relation to the Jews though the edict for their restitution came out from him but the Lord of Cyrus nor the Lords of Parliament in relation to us though they helped to lay the foundation of our present happiness but the Lord Paramount of Heaven and Earth VVhen the Lord turned In God there is no shadow of turning by change But vvith us there is nothing but turning and returning we are all turning shadows upon the old exchange of this world VVhen the Lord turned again the captivity that is the Babilonish Captives by an ordinary hebraism So it is said of Christ he led captivity captive that is those who were captives to Sin and Satan he reconquered them and made them to become his own servants And what were we better then Babilonish captives while we sojourned in idolatrous and superstitious Countries There are two sorts of captivity corporal and spiritual both are bad but the latter ten times worse In a corporal captivity the Tyrants are external but in spiritual captivity they are internal in our bosomes and bowels There the stings are sharp but nothing so sharp as the stings of a guilty conscience corporeal Tyrants may dispossess us of our wealth our life our liberty but spiritual deprive us of our Souls of Gods image of eternal blessedness There one or two members do sinful and slavish offices but here all our members are weapons of unrighteousness Corporeal captives have but one Master but spiritual captives have many Masters Pride commands to spend and covetuousness to spare Nay the same vice distracts them with contrary commands as vain-glory forceth them at the same time to soar aloft in the air and yet to creep beneath upon the earth to swell inwardly with pride to crouch to the meanest persons to obtain popular applause Corporal s●…aves have hope to escape by flight but in spiritual captivity no flight can help us unless we could flie away from our selves Lastly corporal captivity doth end with life Death is a perfect cure of all humane miseries But in spiritual captivity death is but a beginning of slavery and a shutting of the door of liberty with the key of eternity But can Mountains be led away captives otherwise what signifieth captivity of Sion I ansvver that as vve say there is more of Mon Martyr at Paris then there is of Mon Martyr at Mon Martyr So it might be truly said there vvas more of Sion carried to Babylon than vvas left at Sion First the Temple vvhich vvas the glory of Sion vvas demolished then the Ceremonies and Sacrifices and Ordinances of Sion vvere abolished Thirdly the holy vessels and garments and other utensiles and sacred ornaments vvere exported Lastly the P●…iests and Levites and people of God vvere all carried avvay captive These vvere the living Sion vvithout these Sion vvas but a dead carkass of it self Justly therefore is the captivity of the people of God called the captivity of Sion Then were we that is by vvay of Historical narration or then we shall be by vvay of prophetical prediction Either sense may be admitted Like them that dream that is like those vvho are betvveen sleeping and vvaking the events vvere so strange so unexpected so incredible that we doubted whether they vvere real events or vain fancies and drowsie imaginations Others translate it like those that are comforted or like those that are recovered from some languishing sickness and restored to their former strength and vigour But vvhilest I vvas making a paralel betvveen the Jevvish captivity and our English captivity and of our deliverance and restitution vvith theirs I see the flovver vvhich I had designed for the subject of my discourse cropt avvay before my face this necessitated me to alter my meditations from the first Verse to the last Verse of this Psalme The former vvas more emphatical for the Jevvish captivity But the later suites altogether as vvell vvith our present condition He that now goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth good seed shall doubtless come again with joy and bring his sheaves with him It is not my manner to amuse my hearers much vvith various lections or translations Every language hath its proper idiotis●…nes or peculiar forms of expression vvhich differ more in sound than in sense The vvorst reading or translation is commonly not so ill as those clashings and uncharitable altercations vvhich are about them Various lections may sometimes bring some light to the understanding but they shake that Christian faith which is radicated in the heart Break ice in one place and it vvill crack in more Suffer the truth of sacred vvrit to be questioned in a vvord or a syllable and you vveaken the authority and lessen the venerable estimation of the vvhole text That vvhich satisfyeth me and may satisfy any good christian is this that God who hath given the holy Scriptures to his Church to be the key of his revealed counsels the anchor of their hope the evidence of their blessedness will not suffer those Scriptures to be so far corrupted in any thing that is fundamental and necessary that it can hinder the salvation of his servants Take this Text for an instance that there is no such danger in various lections or translations if they be expounded according to the analogy of faith and that sence of the Scriptures which the Holy-Ghost did give to the Church together with the Scriptures He that going goeth saith the original He that goeth on his way saith our translation or he that goeth forth that is forth of his house to sow or forth of his Countrey into exile weeping or pensive or sorrowing And beareth forth good seed vvhether we read beareth or draweth good seed or precious seed or the sowing seed or the hopper or seed-basket is not material Shall doubtless come again with joy The original is in coming shall come that is shall come vvithout

securely upon either ear When the Preacher hath but fallen upon the Martyrdom of our late Soveraign or those instructions vvhich he left behind him hovv have I seen his Majesty dissolve into tears that brought to my mind that of S. Austin proruperant stumina oculorum meorum acceptabile tuum sacrificium The f●…oods of mine eyes did break forth an acceptable sacrifice unto thee O God This is the first qualification He that goeth on his way weeping The second follows and bringeth forth good seed It is a Metaphore taken from sowers What a man sowes that he may certainly expect to reap But what is the good seed which our Soveraign did bear forth with him I answer first a good title Dieu son droit God and his right There is a 〈◊〉 error lately crept into the world and almost thrust out again That Dominion is founded in grace not in nature That the wicked have no interest in their possessions or estates but are like moths which make their houses in other mens garments That all things belong properly to the elect Paul Apollo Cephas things present things to come all are theirs if they be Christs Ex his praemissis necessariò sequitur collusio Admit this once and then they vvho take themselves to be true Israelites may with a good conscience rob plunder the profane Egyptians of this world Nothing is more hidden than true grace We know it not in another hardly in our selves Therefore if grace should give an interest to possessions no mans title should be certain from whence of necessity must follow an incredible confusion But our God is a God of order Religion neither alters nor takes avvay any mans right Ananias vvas no Saint yet S. Peter told him that he had a good interest in his estate was it not thine own The truth is Dominion is founded in nature not in grace It vvas said to our first parents immediately upon the creation Replenish the earth and have Dominion c. Every son of Adam may challenge an interest in his ovvn estate by virtue of this concession All is yours saith the Scripture that is not every individual creature but every species or kind of creatures All is yours that is not by vvay of civil possession but by divine ordination All things by Gods disposition serve for the good of the Church and help forvvard the salvation of Gods servants Or All is yours and you are Christs that is you onely vvho are Christs have the sanctified use of the creatures This is far enough from a civil possession far enough from a just title Such as King CHA●…LES had not grounded upon a Fana ick exposition of a text of holy Scripture nor upon the fickle humors of a giddy multitude nor upon the traiterous dictates of a seditious oratour but upon the evident Lavvs of God of Nature of Nations and the municipal Lavvs of these ●…ingdoms upon a radicated succession from royal progenitors He himself being the hundred and tenth person of one family vvho hath svveyed the Scepter I do not yet knovv any Prince in Europe or in these parts of the vvorld that can say the same A title so clear as if it vvere vvritten vvith a beam of the Sun vvhich no true English man in his right vvitts did ever yet oppose but one or tvvo forreign pensioners maintained on purpose abroad to kindle scath fires at home vvho gained nothing by the question but to render themselves ridiculous This vvas the good seed vvhich King CHARLES did bear forth vvith him A good title vvhich though it seemed for a time to perish under the clods yet vve see it sprouts up again A tempest brings Achilles his arms to Ajax's tombe to reverse an unjust sentence And Aaron's rod devou●…ed the rods of the enchanters to the comfort of all loyal Subjects and the confusion of all Egyptian Juglers for ever This is the first good seed vvhich King CHARLES did bear forth vvith him A good title A second sort of good seed vvhich King Charles did bear forth vvith him vvas the testimony of a good conscience void of offence towards God and towards man A good conscience is a better proof of innocence then a thousand vvitnesses and vvill make it self a garland of the lying reports of Sycophants When King CHARLES was first chased out of England his age was not capable of much guilt and his onely crime was that which in truth was his chiefest glory he was the Son of such a Father Those accursed jealousies and fears which the first devisers and spreaders of them did know assuredly to be damnable lies are now vanished Truth the daughter of time hath discovered them to all the world to have been counterfeit shews They feared an apostasy to Popery yet King CHARLES the Father dyed a glorious Martyr and King CHARLES the Son lives a Noble Confessour of the true faith professed in the Church of England having shewed evidently by a thousand proofs that he is no such reed shaken with the wind They complained of tyranny against him whose onely defect was overmuch goodness and lenity Let their high Courts of Injustice speak let their black roll of Sequestrators and committee men speak let all the great Towns in England which they made shambles of good Christians and loyal Subjects speak let Tredah speak and that torrent of loyal blood which vvas poured out there barbarously upon cold and deliberate thoughts like water upon the face of the earth who vvere the Tyrants Cajus the Emperour out of a ridiculous affectation to make himself like the Gods did assume Mercurie's rod Apollo's bow and arrows Mars his sword and shield But King CHARLES hath ever better ensignes of the Deity Justice Mercy Piety and Temperance These make up the image of God where these abound the bird in the breast sings sweetly He who hath these may with comfort expect an happy deliverance from all his troubles He that goeth on his way weeping and beareth forth this seed with him shall doubtless come again with joy The third sort of good seed which King Charles did bear forth with him was a good Religion A Religion not reformed tumultuously according to the brain sick fancies of an half witted multitude dancing after the pipe of some seducing charmer but soberly according to the rule of Gods word as it hath been evermore and every where interpreted by the Catholick Church and according to the purest pattern of the primitive times A Religion against which the greatest adversaries thereof have no exception but that it preferreth grace before nature the written vvord before uncertain traditions and the allsufficient blood of Jesus Christ before the stained works of mortal men A Religion which is neither garish with superfluous Ceremonies nor yet sluttish and void of all order decency and Majesty in the service of God A Religion which is as careful to retein old Articles of faith as it is averse from new Articles The essences