Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	bishop_n	timothy_n	4,167	5	10.7647	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48846	A sermon preach'd at the funeral of the Right Reverend Father in God, John late Lord Bishop of Chester At the Guildhall Chappel, London, on Thursday the 12th of December, 1672. By William Lloyd, D.D. Dean of Bangor, and one of his Majesty's chaplains in ordinary.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1698 (1698)	Wing L2707; ESTC R213713	15,403	64

Polycarpus We cannot say they worship any other than Christ We love the Martyrs as being followers of Christ We celebrate the days of their passions with Joy We do it both in remembrance of those Champions of God and to train up and prepare others for the like conflicts Besides this which was peculiar to the Martyrs the had a lower degree of remembrance for Bishops and Confessors and all other eminent persons departed this life Whom they not only praised in Orations at their Funerals but writ their names in their Diptychs or two-leav'd Records which contain in one page all the names of the Living in the other the Dead that were of note in the Church All these were recited in the Communion-Service Where as the Living for themselves so for the Dead came their Friends and gave Oblations and Alms. Which before they were distributed among the poor were first offered up to God in a prayer like that which we use for the Church Militant here on Earth These Doles were their only Sacrifices for the dead Only Alms to the poor with which sacrifices God is well-pleased And their prayers were not for any deliverance from pains unless the Patriarchs and Prophets and the Apostles and Virgin-Mother of Christ were in the same pains too and needeth the same Deliverance For they were all mentioned alike and together as it is to be seen in the ancientest Liturgies Among all these Innocent Offices and Rites of the Primitive Christians was there any thing of prayer for Souls in Purgatory Was there any thing of prayer to Saints departed this life Was there any foundations for those Superstitious Observances of adoring their Relicks of Prostration to their Images of Pilgrimage to their Shrines of making Vows of saying Masses of Offering to them and the like The Papists say there was they plead the practice of the Church for it they wrest places of Scripture to their purpose Nay the Rhemists and others alledge this very Text without which I should not have mentioned them at this time But as the Learnedest men among themselves have been so just not to charge this upon my Text and some of them confess they have no ground for these things in any one Text of Canonical Scripture So they would do us but right to acknowledge That none of these things were practis'd for some hundreds of years after Christianity came into the world In those Primitive times all their Offices for the Dead were either to give Testimony of that Faith in which they died and that death had not dissolv'd their Communion with the Living Or they were to bless God for their holy Life and happy death Or to pray to him not for their deliverance from Purgatory of which there was no Faith in those times but for the Increase of that Good which they believ'd them to be possest of already or for the Attainment of that farther good which they thought they were sure of namely for their speedy and happy Resurrection for their perfect discharge at the day of Judgment for the Consummation of their bliss with their own in the Kingdom of Glory Not to say how the Fathers differ among themselves in these particulars or how many of these particulars are omitted in the Roman Church as well as ours it is enough that here is nothing makes for them but much against those their Errors and Corruptions All that is agreed on all hands or that we find in the Practice of the first Ages being sufficiently contain'd in those Offices of our Church in the Prayer for the Church-Militant in the Collect on all All-Saints day and in the Office for the Burial of the Dead where we pray That it would please God of his gracious goodness shortly to accomplish the number of his Elect and to hasten his Kingdom that we with all those that are departed in the true faith of his holy Name may have our perfect consummation and bliss both in body and soul in his everlasting glory Lastly Remembrance in Action is the other duty enjoin'd in my Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Imitate their Faith that is their Christian profession and practice their whole Life and Conversation according to their own belief of that word which they have spoken The Reason of this duty is plain For it is our business in this world to recover the Image of God in which he created us to be like him here in Righteousness and Holiness that we may be like him hereafter in Glory and Happiness To this End God has given us those Lineaments of himself which are written sufficiently in our Nature but more fully and distinctly in Scripture In which Scripture he so oft and so vehemently requires us Be ye Holy as I am Holy be ye Just as I am Just be ye Merciful as I am Merciful be ye Pure as I am Pure be ye Perfect as your heavenly Father is Perfect This good Word of God which was given by the Prophets and Apostles is still inculcated on us by them that speak to us the Word of God Which Office being primarily of Bishops as appears in my Text They are first and above all others to conform themselves to it to shew others how possible and how practicable it is Our Apostle supposed this in those Primitive Bishops in my Text. God requires it of all that succeed them in the Church So of Timothy though he were young in Age yet being in that Place Be thou an Example to believers in word in conversation in spirit in faith in truth 1 Tim. 4.12 and in the last Verse Take heed to thy Self and to thy Doctrine Do this constantly and continually and so thou shalt save both thy self and them that hear thee Whether they do this or no they are our Teachers and Rulers therefore in the 17th Verse of this Chapter while they live we must obey their Word and submit to their Government When they are dead both for what they are and were we may do well to say no ill of them and since we can say no good e'en forget them and leave them to God But if they are such as they ought which the Apostle supposes in my Text if they live as men that believe themselves what they say 'T is our duty not only to submit and obey them while they live but also to Remember them when they are dead Remember them in our thoughts with that honour they deserve In our Affections with a due sense of our loss and their gain Remember them in words with the just praise of their actions and lives In our prayers to God with due thankfulness for their graces and gifts in this life and for the glory they receive after death Lastly Remember to follow them in that holy way which leads to so happy an end In our Apostle's words follow their Faith considering the event the blessed end of their good conversation What my Text says in general of Bishops deceased 't is most easy

A SERMON Preach'd at the FUNERAL OF THE Right Reverend Father in God JOHN Late Lord Bishop of Chester At the Guildhall Chappel LONDON On Thursday the 12th of December 1672. By William Lloyd D. D. Dean of Bangor and one of His Majesty's Chaplains in Ordinary LONDON Printed for Charles Brome 1698. HEB. XIII 7. Remember them which have the Rule over you who have spoken to you the Word of God whose Faith follow considering the end of their conversation IN handling this Text of holy Scripture that we may mingle nothing of Human Affections that our Passions may give no Interruption to you in hearing or to me in speaking I should desire to suppress them quite if it were possible And possible it is where they are slightly raised as upon common and ordinary occasions But where they are grounded and strong where they dare argue and seem to have Reason on their side as there is too much in sight for ours there I think it is in vain to endeavour it The only way in this case is to give them some kind of Vent to discharge them in part and to govern what remains of the Affections You will I hope the rather bear with my Infirmity that I cannot contain from deploring the Loss the irreparable Loss that we suffer I think all suffer in the Death of this Eminent Person He was the Man in whom his Friends had experience of much good and had hopes of much more not so much for his greatness or power as abstracting from these for what they found in himself which was a great and manifold Blessing to all that lived within his conversation He was a Father a Counsellor a Comforter a Helper a sure Friend He was all they could wish in every Relation and by the course of Nature might have been for many years But for our sins though for his unspeakable advantage the great and wise God was not pleased to continue that Blessing He took him out of this World when for ought we could judge there was most need of such men to live in it and when we had much reason by expect more good than ever by his living in it Oh the Unsearchable ways and Counsels of God! Oh the Blindness of Human hopes and expectations While we please our selves with the good we have in hand while we reach out for more as if there would never be an end within a few days all withers all vanisheth to This We have nothing left but what it grieves us to see We have nothing remains but what we are willing to be rid of a poor shell of earth that we make haste to bury out of our sight Yes of wise and good men which is their Privilege above others there remains after Death a Memory an Example which they leave behind them as a sacred Depositum for us to keep and use until we see them again Are these things Nothing in our sight They are above all price in the sight of God who that they may be so to us both telleth us the worth and recommends them to our esteem and requires the fruit of them in many places of Scripture But in none with more Application our present Occasion than in my Text. I shall sufficiently Justify my choice of it if I can but make it be understood I shall shew the full Import of it in those duties which it contains I shall endeavour to stir you up to practise them with respect to this present Occasion First For the understanding of my Text we are to look for no help from what goes next before it or after it For the whole business of it is contained within it self It lies in the heap among other directions which without any certain connexion between them were given by the Writer of this Epistle to the Hebrews that is to those Jews who were converted to be Christians For the time when it was written we are certain of this that it was while Timothy lived for he is mentioned as living in the 24th Verse of this Chapter And he being there said to have suffer'd Imprisonment for the Gospel this brings us a little nearer to the knowledge of the time For then it must be after both St. Paul's Epistles to Timothy In the last of those Epistles which was some years after the other St. Paul speaks much of his own Imprisonment for the Gospel He warns Timothy oft that he must suffer for the Gospel He instructs him what to do when God shall call him to suffer Not a word of any thing that he had suffered already Nay he counsels him as a young man that had never been tried He invites him to Rome which was the great place of trial in which place as it appears in the close of this Chapter Timothy did suffer that Imprisonment for the Gospel from which he was delivered when this Epistle was written It appears that after the Epistle to Timothy how long after we know not he did go to Rome as Paul will'd him How long he staid there we know not e're he did suffer Imprisonment How long he was in Prison we know not e're he was set at liberty Only we know it was a considerable time we have reason to think it might be some years it might be many years that this Epistle was written after the second Epistle to Timothy And if so then it was written not only as Theodoret says long after the death of James the Brother of John But account it how you will this Epistle was written after the death of James the Brother of our Lord. Which James being the first Bishop of Jerusalem and the other James an Apostle that is a Bishop at large and both these being put to death at Jerusalem Not to search into Church-History for those others of their Order who died before this time in other places nor to guess how many others were dead that are not recorded in Church History If we think of no more but these two eminent servants of Christ we cannot be to seek of the understanding of this Text nor of the application to our particular purpose I say not but it may have a more general extent There is a memory due not only to the Apostles of Christ and to the Bishops their Successors but to all other good Ministers of Christ yea to all other exemplary Christians But if the Apostle had meant this only of Bishops I cannot guess that he would have it exprest otherwise than he hath done in my Text. To prove this I must have recourse to the Original and not wholly depend upon our English Translation For that he meant this of Bishops it appears not sufficiently and of them being dead not at all in our Translation And yet from the Original I see see no reason to doubt that our Apostle in this Text meant no other but Bishops and those departed this life For the Order of Bishops it is described by those act of Ruling and Teaching