Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	article_n	catholic_n	creed_n	3,489	5	9.9234	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54483	Sermons and devotions old and new revived and publisht as an oblation of gratitude to all such of the nobility, gentry and clergy as retain the noble conscience of having ministred to the weak condition of the author, now aged 73 : the sermons at Court were before the war brake forth betwixt King and Parliament : also a discourse of duels, being a collection and translation of other mens opinions, with some addition of his own : and this in special dedicated for their use ... / by Thomas Pestel ...	Pestell, Thomas, 1584?-1659?	1659 (1659)	Wing P1675; ESTC R39086	197,074	355

with those three Children of Light then walk on to fire unquenchable and utter darkness Then know O King that though our God will not deliver us yet will not we transgress the bounds of his Law to worship the Image that thou hast set up But then in this case we must look to our evidence that it be clear and sull Light nor streightned nor enlarged by our own or other mens false expositions For allow him but the ordinary gloss and every sinner will excuse his grossest crimes Is not the prohibition plain enough Thou shalt not commit Aultery Fornication Let it not be once naned yet all this with a Roman wash of venial sin or their rule of Caute si non caste will easily perswade some of their Novices or she Prosylite that there may be a kind of witty fornication tolerable or moderate Adultery So that Command Thou shall not steal Let the High-way thief or Highland Plunderer interpret he will tell you It s true unless you be under an invincible necessity or else promise to restore or accompt one day though you intend the day of Doom and such glosses men allow themselves in the main Articles of the Creed I believe the Catholick Church Ask the Anabaptist what it is It is a company whereof he is a prime man illumined needing no Scripture-rule but the Law of love and liberty Ask the Papist And he saith 't is nothing but a fine man at Rome with a triple Crown and a number of Fellows in red hats like Minstrels attending on him while with his foot he kicks off the Crowns of Kings and treading on the necks of Emperors cries super Aspidem Basiliscum c. Or briefer thus The Catholick Church in our Creed is Ecclesia Catholica Romana which though it be a Bull and infold a contradiction yet it serves for a Charm and the poor seduced Papist on whose brest it is hung is therewith stupified and dare not stir out of that Circle if he do the Devill will take him for God hath no deer out of that Pale that 's the Ark and out of the Popes Parish there is Salvation So then it must be no false or new-devised but old and full Light from Scripture that shall guide us And it can never become any Child of Light to cast his conscience into cloudy and raw and scrupulous fetters and startle and flie out of a Christian course or from a Christian Church upon conceited or imaginary Tropicks much less when the world or Devil would draw us to disorder our ways by their Cancer and Capricorn the griping claws of earthly Profit or the goatish Delights of sensual and carnal Pleasure Secondly And above all our Saviours Light is our best Direction And observe that Sun of Righteousness ere he rose a clear Light comes forth of Promises and Prophesies then a Day-star then in fulness of time he breaks the East discloses and he shines on in Wisdom at twelve years old grows in stature in Grace and Favour with God and man After his Baptism and taking on him the Ministry He goes about Preaching Healing doing good and suffering evil till he die rises ascends sends the Holy Ghost intercedes in Heaven for us and on earth is with us by his Spirit and Word to the end and in the end his final Re●olution and Revisitation to bring us to those joyes ●hat have no end This was and is his course Vade tu fae similiter Go thou and do like him How can we Why Be followers of God The Child may follow though non passibus aequis In his action he said I have given you an example and of his Passion the Scriptures saith He suffered leaving us an example Children learn to write and sew by Copies and Samplers so must we and so shall we if once our hearts be toucht with an Adamant if once tramed on by the Epiphany of such a star Then like those Eastern Magi we shall rejoyce to follow it yea content to take up our Cross and follow him content to be down and dark and despairing so we may rise to Light and stradiation and enabling Grace pursuing him through Ignorance Error and Death who is the Way the Truth and the Life And never giving over our Revolution and Resolution till we come to set where we rose born back with endless and impatient desires to enjoy Jesus the Author and Finisher of our saith and the end of our faith the salvation of our souls I have done with the explication of my Text There remains a word of Application to our selves first so had we best or it will be done to out hands with Medice cura te ipsum May I have leave then once more to look upon the Light and apply it first to the Learning and then to the Life 's of clergie men Wherein if I shall seem to teach any of these my Reverend Fathers or of my Learned Brethren it is with this protestation of primo meipsum 1. Our Learning first must be Lux in Demino we are Seers eyes to the Mystick body of Christ Jesus Dark Ignorance then to us should be a thing most horrible as t is to that sense in nature A foule and fearfull sight if those holes in our faces were empty and those bals of living fire pluckt from our fronts What is it when me want filling for so large a Sphere as our profession is A wofull Spectacle to see a blinking Glow-worm where a star of Magnitude should shine We are Gods Lawyers and Physitians with truth of Direction and severity of observance in our cures And is it not scandalous and dangerous an Ignoramus an Emperick or Montebank in our Calling unless as Circe and AEsculapius were both accounted Apollo's off-spring so Mediocrity and Excellency make no difference in Profit or Repute which makes so many take up with Atalanta Declinat cursus aurumy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But God would have us workmen able Ministers dividing the Word of Truth arighe And is noe Learning a mighty wedge and wrest in that Affair Aristole handles the affections in his Rhetoricks and sure I am that all our Rhetorick hath edge little enough to pierce into the wooden and stony affections of our common hearers Orpheus it had need to be in Sylvis to draw Beasts and Blocks And what shall we do in learned Audience They will soon perceive upon whose wheels our motions are such as can taft every vein of water and tell which savours Sulphur Vitriol or Steel but worst of all in convincing the Adversary What will become of our empty Frigats grapling with a man of war or a Jehu Jesuit tha● charges furiously when he finds a wak Adversary We must walk then to the Heaven of Scripture and stars of Interpreters no casting off those Beam without a self-illuminating and to get us work mens tools for sharp and flat peirce not alike though there be the like percussion We are Gods Smiths and

heart of my Text and will they not fall down and worship before this Lords of Lords and King of Kings For before him all Dominion and all distinction is lost the grearest Monarch in his presence must drop his Lilly and his Lion be couchant As for Bishops and Arch-bishops St. Peter tels us of Dominus here erecting an Arch over all their heads 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when that chief shepherd shall appear 1 Pet. 5.4 and cals him Bishop of all Souls for a difference for properly the cure of souls is his Men can but order our cloaths and hahits and regulate and article and qualifie our outward man But here is a Visitor whose Courts and proceedings are purely spiritual surveighs the rational within the brest sees down into the reins and views how close and clean the wedding garment sits upon one souls and what we are not in the Church or Pulpit or Closet but in the hid man of the heart And for extent of Diocess thit is the grand Primate of all Christendom over both his Churches Militant and Triumphant to whom all Patriarcks justling for Place and Title must submit whose Sea is from sea to sea from the river to the worlds end his Chair advanced far above all heavens all Gold Purple and Copes and Crosiers Keys Miters Coronets Crowns triple Diadems thrown at his feet to whom we may safely ascribe all Bellarmines fifteen great names De Pontif. lib. 2. cap. 31. and all too little and if we may justly cry for blessings to be dewed and multiplied on the heads of earthly gracious Soveraigns and all such Peers as really and cheerfully assist the deliverance of our Christian Brethren from spoil and rapine and Turkish slavery and raising means for Redemption of the Renown of this once renowned Nation then blessed be this Lord of Israel who hath redeemed us all a Mercy past into Act in his own person and at the expence of his most precious blood from all our enemies and the hands of them that hate us from the wrath to come and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us Salvation is of the Jews and we are Gentiles But my Text is St. Pauls Manifest to them too This Light revealed to the Gentiles and may be stil'd the Gentiles Jubiles Rejoyce ye poor Ephesians the day-spring from on high hath visited you Ephesians but still what 's that to us if it extend no further Yes Set these words upon their wings and we shall see them soar as high as heaven passing through the Sphears whisper to the Stars and Sun You were once in Darkness and shall once more lose your LIGHT And to the Light 〈◊〉 self you went once darkness and to those Elect Angels of Light There is a Prince and Legions of your fellows reserved to chains of darkness and that you stand here is long of his preserving and perpetuating Grace that keeps you still to be Lux in Domino Then down the Text stoops and walks round the Theatre and Amphitheatre of Churches East and West Tels the East that from darkness it was once Lux in Domino and leaves a Caveat for us in the West Take heed and never was this Caveat more needfull left as those Eastern Churches the Glory once of the Son of God are now under the Moon of Mahomet so our sins our divisions and disorders cause this Dominus to take away our Light Lastly Home it strikes at every bosom here and speaks to us that are or ought to be Lights in the Church you that are or should be Lights in the State to him who is the breath of our Nosthrils the Light of all our eyes it cries to every man Mement Homo es ‐ eras Tenebrae thus the Text would be usefull serve our turns whole as it lies And sure we should never divide it but that God hath done it to our hands He divided the Light from the Darkness For the first part of our Text in the shell and cover is Darkness The Kernel the meaning is the Lapse The second is Glorious without in the Metaphor Light and more glorious within The work-man-ship of God in Christ Jesus The Restauration The third and last part which makes up the Allegory in the word is Walking in the sense is Gratitude or mans duty the third part of the Catechism The first is Darkness and that 's past I shall desire to pass it briefly The second is Light on that I would insist for Explanation Dilatation The third is Walking in Light elsewhere called walking honestly as in the day I shall endeavour to walk on respectively through all these parts briefly plainly honestly EXPLICATION OUR first part is Darkness of which who can know the bounds or understand the paths of the house thereof Job 38.20 Only the meaning here is Ignorance these Ephesians and all Gentiles else under a manifold Ignorance First Original which lay on all mankind man had a Light but blew it out with overblowing and so all left in darkness Mox ut Praeceptum transgress● sunt intrinsecus gratia deserente nudati sunt as St. Austin saith De. Correp Gra. c. 10. Secondly Darkness of Restraint wanting those Assistances which the Jews had for Recovery 1. Divine Revelation in lively Oracles and renewing the prime Promise by Light whereof Euoch and Noah found Grace to walk with God 2. The Light enlarged in the Covenant with Abraham a Seal for security and the Promise affixt and pitcht upon his race In semine tuo 3. Then the Law a Sun of Light yet had they Prophets too to cast the beam by Interpretation God dealt not so with any Nation But there is a third a wilfull and obstinate Ignorance sitting down in darkness without Care or Endeavour to rise up from that bondage not improving the rational Light which was left stil as the Candle of the Soul For though we find extracts of admirable Light in the Gentiles Laws Inventions Moral Conversation too yet In conversione ad Deum so they were Prodigals and mispent their portion which St. Paul objects to the Athenians Act. 17.26 and proves in Rom. 1.28 that by the links and connexion of causes and light of reason climbing up to God yet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they liked it not they listed not to retain God in their knowledge but wantonly and proudly abused the Glory of an incorruptible God by turning it into an Image made like Beasts and creeping things for which sluttish dealing God gave them up to uncleanness and vile affections and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a mind devoid of Judgement utterly dark And whereas wanting the Jewish Law they had yet the first draught and original wtitten in their hearts they smothered this light also with-held the truth of God in unrighteousness And by this darkning of themselves were left saith the Apostle without excuse So then here is no Light in this Darkness but Abyssus

Judge is joyn'd in Commission with the Holy Ghost to lead us into all Truth and to bring all such that is all needful truth to our remembrance The Spirit of God bears witness but it is with our spirit and so enables us to pronounce sentence of self-clearing or self-condemnation When therefore I dare knock at that privy Chamber door at that closet and dare ask that question Am I a Divine Royalist a true Deilift a godly Christian One of Gods peculiar where then is my fear my thinking on his Name Do I serve the Lord with fear and rejoyce before him with reverence Do I indeed as one of his Royal Priesthood present my body and soul and all their children all their off-spring the actions of my hands and the Imaginations of my heart and projects of my brain as a lively sacrifice unto my God Does my justice and honesty my chastity and sobriety for even these may rise from corrupt springs flow from this only consideration Is the bottom of my conceited happiness any better then a sick mans dream or mad mans boiling fancy Do I indeed feel my confidence grounded on a modest a tender and reverential fear Doe the Larum the remembrance of this strike louder and faster in my brest then all Satans temptations with meminto Philippe Henrics Garole not that thou art but a man but that thou art no mans man nor no womans man nor no devils man taken captive to do his Will This I must thus enquire and this when I thus know then I must resolve with Joshua Let others do what they will I and my house at the least I and my heart and all that is within me will serve the Lord. Shall such a man as I that profess Christ and his Gospel shall I flie saith one Can I do this wickedness and sin against God Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an harlot saith another of Gods fearfull and faithfull servants God forbid Do I profess to serve that Lord of Hosts who keeps a book of Remembrance whose eye is ever zenith and so pure that no iniquity can tarry in his sight and shall I not pass the time of my dwelling here in fear of his most blessed name And do we can we think then nay do they or can they say what they will can they indeed think in good earnest can they believe themselves to be Gods peculiar people and such a Priest-hood and chosen People as Christ shed his precious blood to purchase who though they dare not but fear men and tremble at the sound of some great name on earth yet have no true fear of God before their eyes such as dare curse swear pollute and blaspheme that very name in which both we and they profess to look for both Protection and Salvation Thirdly Our third and last particular in this observation about the Ground-work of all our comforts bottom'd on our fear of God is the joy and blessing the Grace and Mercy tender indulgence of God unto us in this Appropriation that God vouchsafes to tie this cordial joy fast to each single-hearted Christian so admits him under this signet to be of his cabinet Council in the inward Testimony of his Spirit assuring him his spirit that he is the ●ords own that so the Joy of his faithfull servants may as himself hath spoken it be full and that not by rejoycing in another but by finding and feeling the Ground and Principles of true Joy and Confidence in themselves For I am not therefore honest or valiant because some credulous brethren or some brethren of the Sword repute me so and would so give it under their hands No I pass not for yours or any mans Judgement saith St. Paul a silly fame is that into which a man is voted or for which he hath a Testimonial or Certificat I know saith he in whom I have believed and so every just and justified man lives by his own faith as well as he lives by that very bread which himself eats It is no trusting to Salvation implicite if I pin my soul to that great name of the Catholique Church and know no meaning of it but only him that calls himself the Head of it when he can be scarce or but at most a corrupt member or if I make a Pope of that poor private Priest that creeps in at my window If I freely resign my soul to him and say I must confide in you for so millions profess and boast themselves to do Can I tell whether this Romist will cary it to Heaven or Hell or neither in haste but make it stay in purgatory as some souls they tell me must do till the day of Judgement I cannot relish that dependance on any mans infallibility for if I could be certain of their high Priests election that all things therein had been rightly and canonically performed which is very difficult if not impossible yet for his low Priest whom he sends to me and who for his own food and maintenance brings me the Sacraments of Penance and the wafer-god to be assured of his intention on which they teach the very essence of all Popish devotion depends they must acquaint me how I shall be a Searcher of hearts which God hath reserved only to himself and therefore assuredly as some Papists have openly jeared the pretended infallibil●y of their Father so no doubt but his white sons the Jesuits like the Latine Augurs do laugh when they meet in secret at the open gullage of the world willing to mistake their infamous mother for the very Catholique Church in the Apostles Creed and yet our own Ladies in stead of Preserves from St. Austins boxes of Prascriptum Legis Pradicta Prophetarum which are soundly mingled with this holy sear in the Text are content to swallow their conserves of implicite faith and blind obedience and comfort their hearts with the cold consideration of an Indulgence when yet the blessed and the blasting the cordial and yet confounding Truth of God in this ponit hath wrung after a thousand wranglings that plain consession from a learned but a bitter and violent Papist that the Church by her Ministerie and Magisterie received of God doth cause us to believe yet for all that the very Reason wherefore we believe is not the Church but God speaking in us This is Stapleton in his third book of the Authority of the Scripture cap. 12. And indeed when all is said and done nothing but the Testimony of Gods own Holy Spirit is ever able to minister true consolation in believing The God of peace it is that fils us with all peace and joy in believing if we belive St. Paul ' to the Romans cap. 15. verse 13. But this is not meant of any private whisper or Enthusiasus which is deceitfull but of the spirits Testimony joyned to his Holy Word in the clear evidence thereof assuring our spirit that God is become our