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
A61182	A sermon preach'd to the natives of the county of Dorset, residing in and about the cities of London and Westminster, at St. Mary Le Bowe, on Dec. 8, 1692, being the day of their anniversary feast by the Lord Bishop of Rochester.	Sprat, Thomas, 1635-1713.	1693 (1693)	Wing S5062; ESTC R13442	15,232	42

one accord to signifie the Harmonious Agreement of their Spiritual Society They continued daily with one accord in the Temple to testifie their Preference of Establish'd Consecrated Places and their Observance of Orderly Decency in their Devotions Nor did they only there continue in Prayer in Petitioning Heaven for Benefits to come but in Praising GOD for Mercies receiv'd Which is the Noblest the most Sublime the most Coelestial Part of Christian Worship as being indeed the chief Business of Heaven it self And if there be any Communion of Saints which we must believe or utterly renounce one Article of our Creed if any such thing as a Holy Catholick Church whereof surely the proud Boastings and false Pretences of Rome cannot wholly abolish the thing it self then there is no manner of Question but the largest Measures of Grace will be Communicated to our Souls in these Publick Offices of Prayer and Praise which at once as the whole Primitive Church did then so a considerable part of it now with united Tongues and Affections and Spirits more united presents to the Throne of Grace That is the First Part of my Text The Multitude of them that believed were all of one Heart and one Soul in this Sense and to this Degree and in the Uniform Performance of all these Spiritual Duties Now My Brethren upon this so intimate an Agreement of their Understandings Wills and Affections in Matters of Faith and Worship there presently succeeded a like Harmony of Good Works They all practis'd a general Distribution and Participation of each others Earthly Riches and Possessions Which is the last Effect here mention'd of their being all filled with the Holy Ghost None of them said that ought he possessed was his own but they had all things common They were really their own things as much as any other Mens Goods were theirs But their new Principle of Christian Charity had made them to alter their Thoughts so much about them as even to change and transfer the very Propriety of them It cannot indeed be denyed but of such an extraordinary more than Brotherly Love and strict Fellowship as this of the Apostles and Primitive Disciples there had before some Shadows and Footsteps appear'd in the Practise of some Men of other Religions both among the Jews and the Gentils Among the Jews such a Communication of all things was in great part used by that Sect which they call'd Essens towards Men of their own way of Discipline And a Generation of Men they were who of all others came nearest the Christian Institution So that as Grotius tells us our Lord had many of his first Disciples out of the Men of that Profession For which Reason probably as he observes they alone were seldom or never reprehended by our Saviour himself as all the other Sects were very frequently and sometimes exceeding sharply Such a Communication also was in some sort in use among the Pythagoreans and some other Fraternities of the Heathen Philosophers and some of their wisest Polities of Civil Society Whose chief Aim being the Advancement of Human Nature by all Natural Means and they believing they could not do that by any better way than by raising Frienship to the highest pitch which they justly esteem'd the most perfect Natural State of Mandkind in this World They therefore Cultivated especially that kind of Friendly Life which they called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that signifies the same with the Phrase in my Text of having all things common But notwithstanding all this it were easie to prove that of all the Communities of Goods which have been ever essay'd among Men this of the Apostles and first Christians was the most Excellent the most Innocent the most Spiritual and sincerely Charitable kind of it As for that Sect of the Jews though they did bountifully dispense their Estates in common to Men of their own Party and Form of Life yet we do not find but the same Men still retained something of the general Temper of the Jewish Nation which was to be kind only to themselves and their Proselytes but rigid and hard-hearted to all the World besides especially to all that differed from them in Religion So that in Truth the Divine Efficacy of the Christian Faith in its first beginnings was scarce ever more illustrated in any thing than in this that it first undertook to convince the Jews and could bring so many of them so speedily from the most stiff-necked Arrogance and narrow-handed Austerity to the greatest Humility and Generosity that ever Mankind was acquainted with For as for the Heathens also who profess'd to hold such a Community of all things they generally went so far in the abuse of it as to lay all things common not only lawful but unlawful things too even some of those things which by the Laws of GOD and of Nations had been made most proper and peculiar But in such things the greater the Community the greater the Wickedness Whereas this Evangelical Community here instituted in the Primitive Church had all the quite contrary Advantages and Perfections First It was most pure spotless and unblameable It was only a Communication of Lawful Things and of such Things as might Lawfully be used in common But all Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness all Imagination of partaking in unlawful things they universally condemned and their practise was accordingly They restrained themselves and taught us to abstain not only from the real Guilt but from the very appearance of Evil. They utterly abhorred the least suspicion of Licentiousness under a pretence of Christian Freedom They knew that although through Christ they were free indeed yet he had redeemed them only from the Burden of Legal Observances and not from the Obligation of Moral or Natural Laws Secondly As their Liberal Distribution of their Temporal Inheritances for the Relief of those among them that wanted did flow from the most Divine Principle of Christian Love and Tenderness towards all their Brethren of the same Faith and Communion so it was at the same time accompanied with an unconfined Good-will an open-hearted Kindness and enlarged Bowels of Compassion to all Mankind besides What St. Paul exhorted all Christians to do they perform'd in an Eminent Degree As they had Opportunity they did good to all Men though they did it chiefly to those of the Houshold of Faith And that indeed is the true Christian Charity It may have its Degrees but never admits of its Contraries So that all who are sincerely thus affected may express their Charity to some more than to others but must never be uncharitable much less unjust to any To all we are bound to practise a perpetual Communication of our good Will and good Offices and of our Goods too in the Works of Justice and Charity In the Works of Charity according to our Capacities in the Works of Justice always and without reserve For only the Able can be Charitable And it may not sometimes be a