Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	believe_v	faith_n	fundamental_a	3,198	5	10.0998	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49413	Christian liberty not to be abused, or, Antient and primitive truth correcting some modern, or new abuses, of that which is so much pleaded for, and so little understood, viz. Christian liberty in a sermon preached in the church of Bridport within the county of Dorset, on Sunday the forenoon, being November 3. 1672 ... / by Rich. Luce ...	Luce, Richard, Presbyter of the Church of England.	1673 (1673)	Wing L3423A; ESTC R5778	16,643	38

calling of Christianity For that we are a Chosen Generation a Royal Priesthood an Holy Nation c. by reason of our Redemption purchased by Christ Jesus our Lord. To this end compare the 9th verse of this Chapter out of which my Text is selected with the first Chapter throughout especially with the 18th and 19th verses c. of that same Chapter Now lest that these priviledges should make us grow Proud and Insolent and forgetful of our duty towards men under pretence of our near Relation unto God The blessed Apostle St. Peter after he had pressed the Exercise of our Sanctification both in abstaining from and utter Renuntiation and Detestation of all fleshly Lusts and Infernal Powers which War against the Soul as also in leading of an honest and upright Life and Conversation amongst the very Gentiles to the glory of God and the vindication of the Doctrine of the Gospel of Christ from the virulent Tongues of all malitious Detractors and pernicious Calumniators ver 11 12. He proceeds in especial manner to give us direction so well as command concerning submission or subjection and obedience to all lawful Authority whether it be to the King as Supream or unto Governours as sent by him for the punishment of Evil doers and for the praise of them that do well verse 13 14. and to this purpose he adds his Reason verse 15. For so is the Will of God that with well doing ye should put to silence the Ignorance of Foolish men and not without need seeing that no sooner was the Christian Religion planted in the World but on a sudden the Prince of Darkness the Devil and Satan finding his Dominion broken and routed endeavoured by all means possible to disturb the free and happy passage of the Gospel both by procuring open Persecutions to be raised against the Church and true Professors of our most holy Christian Religion as also by raising and stirring up divers false Brethren from at home and within the very bowels of the Church who spake and vented divers perverse things both contrary to the Dectrine and Fundamental grounds of the holy Christian Faith so well as to the Peace and tranquillity of the Communion of Saints Neither had he any device more apt for his purpose then a pretence that Christianity was destructive to Magistracy whereby he incensed all that were in Authority with a very severe jealousy against the Truth of Christ though yet our Lord himself had declared openly that his Kingdom was not of this World John 18.36 But of all the Impostors that ever I meet with in this kind I find none more notorious and dangerous then Simon Magus who as the Learned and Pious Dr. Hammond notes in his Proenical dissertation concerning Anti-Christ Chapter the ninth was the ring-leader of the Sect of the Gnosticks This is he who in the Acts of the holy Apostles Chap. 8 10. was held in high esteem amongst the People who blasphemously called him the great power of God By him they had been long and long deceived and bewitched with Sorceries and Magical Enchantments And now he finding his Trade of Imposturage or Cousenage to decay by the propagation of Christianity this very Simon enrolls himself under the Banner of our Lord Jesus Christ by Baptism Act. 8.11 Simon himself saith that Scripture believed also and when he was baptized he continued with Phillip c. This he did as appears by the Sequel of that Chapter not so much out of any true zeal or love which he did bear towards Christianity as in hopes to have made a gainful Trade of it For when he saw that his expectation was frustrated this way he with his Followers forsook the way of Christ and first of all they relinquisht all the Orthodox and pure Professors of the Christian faith and by this Schism they break the Union of the Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 They went out from us saith St. John in his first Epistle Second Chapter ninteenth Verse Neither would they remain any longer in the bosome of the holy Christian Catholick and Apostolick Church And thence having broken the Churches Unity they did forthwith cast off all Charity towards their Brethren and Fellow Christians From whence the Apostle and beloved Disciple of our Lord concludes 1 John 4.8 compared with the second Chapter of that Epistle Ver. 9. That however they did pretend to greater light and knowledg in Heavenly Misteries c. then others yet that they were a Company of self-conceited blind sottish and prodigious ignorants Hence saith Saint John He that loveth not knoweth not God for God is love And he that saith he is in the light and hateth his Brother is in darkness even until now And indeed against these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 kites rather then Gnosticks Ignorants rather then Persons of Knowledg we find both Saint Paul and Saint Peter Saint John and Saint Jude directing their discourses throughout their several Epistles Amongst many others take that in 1 Tim. 6.3 c. If any man teach otherwise and consent not unto the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness He is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh Envy Strife Railings Evil-surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that Gain is Godliness from such withdraw thy self Such men these were who turned the grace of God into lasciviousness Jude the fourth verse Insomuch that they denyed the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ These were the Monsters in the saith of whom Saint Peter fore-warns the Christian flock 2 Pet. 2.1 c. when he saith There shall be false Teachers amongst you who shall privily bring in damnable Heresies even denying the Lord. that bought them and bring upon themselves swift destruction And many shall follow their pernicious wayes by reason of whom the way of truth shall be evil spoken of And through Covetuousness shall they with feigned words make Merchandise of you whose judgement now of a long time lingreth not and their damnation slumbereth not These were the ●avening ●or devouring Wolves of whom our Saviour speaks Matih 7.15 And the false Christs that should come and deceive many Matth. 24.24 Those are the Dogs Saint Paul bids us beware of This Ignatius was as is said that Child which our Lord took up in his own Armes Mar. 10 13. Euseb lib. 1. Eccles Hist in Philip. 3.2 And Ignatius in his Epistle to the Ephesians calls them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ravening Doggs These are the Concision because whiles they feigned themselves to be Jews i. e. Circumcised and Zealots for the Mosaical Circumcision yet did they not keep the Law but only under this pretence tear in pieces the Church of Christ And therefore it is most plain what St. Peter drives at both in my Text and in 1 Pet. 4.17 when he saith The time is come that Judgment mast

write unto you of the Common Salvation it was needful for me to write unto you and exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints Ver. 3. It was ever held for a good Rule whereby to understand the legality of any practice or to try the truth of any Doctrine which Vincentius Lerinensis gives Id tenendum quod semper quod ubique quod ab omnibus Creditum est Id tandem facimus si sequamur Antiquitatem Universalitatem Consensum That is to be held which hath been believed alwayes every where and of all And that we do if we follow Antiquity Universality and Consent When Simon Magus Ebion Cerinthus Menander Carpocrates with the Gnosticks other hereticks forsook the communion of the holy Catholick Church Justin Martyr and St. Irenaeus tells us what became of them Justin Martyr Secunda Apologia per Christianis how they ran into those excesses that the followers of Simon Magus worshipped him as the Son of God that appeared unto the Jews in Samaria And Irenaeus after Justin Martyr Irenaeus lib. 1 cap. 20. saith that Simon Magus is said to be honoured of Claudius Caesar of many he was glorified as God he Taught that himself was he who as the Son appeared amongst the Jews that in Samaria he descended as the Father and amongst other Nations he came as the Holy Ghost That himself also was the highest Power i. e. him who above and over all things is the Father 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 so exalting himself above all that is called God he also suffered himself to be called whatsoever men called him Who is the Father Eternal Moreover that his Trull Helena whom he called his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or prime conceit or principle did with him generate Angels and Powers of whom he also said that this world was made that according to his Grace men were saved that the God of the Jews was one of the Angels Created by him the said Simon and the said Holy Father St. Irenaeus in his 22 Chapter of his first book against Heresies chargeth the aforesaid Simon Magus to have said that he was the only Father who hath made Angels and Arch-Angels Virtues and Powers that his Picture or Figure was made according to the figure of Jupiter and of Selena or without doubt of Helena as Dr. Hammond notes after the figure of Minerva and these were to be worshipped Chap. 21. So Tertullian in his Tractate de Anima or of the Soul tells us How that Simon Magus was called of his followers The Highest or Soveraign Father Beloved I beseech you in the bowels of our Lord Jesus Christ to consider with your selves the dangerous and pernicious consequents of making Rents and Schismes in the body of Christ which is the Church It is a wonder if the Schismatick do find center till he become an obstinate Heretick or desperate Blasphemer witness that of Hacket who at his very Execution in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth died Blaspheming What should I speak of others in our own times know that out of Church there is no Salvation That the Church is known to be a true Spouse of Christ by that Faith and true Allegiance which she bears unto Christ This Faith is the Faith of Christ Crucified which she is not ashamed to confess with open mouth in the face of all the world Into this Faith she Baptized all them whom she listeth under the banner of our Lord Jesus Christ In the defence of this faith which our holy Mother the Church of England professeth at this time dyed all the holy Apostles and Martyrs viz. Saint Peter St. Paul Saint James Saint John and Saint Jude and all the rest of the Apostles This is that same faith which was born witness unto by the first four General Councils Namely Council of Nice consisting of 318. Bishops Anno Dom. 326. the first Council of Nice called under Constantine the great wherein Arius and his adherents who denyed the Divinity of the Son of God Of Constantinople 400. Bishops and upwards Anno Dom. 383. were condemned for Hereticks So the Council of Constantinople holden fourty years after that first Council of Nice under the Emperour Theodosius the Elder against Macedonius the Heretick who denyed the God-head of the Holy Ghost Of Ephesus 200 Bishops Anno. Dom. 451. And the first of Ephesus summoned by Theodosius the Younger against Nestorious who affirmed two Persons in Christ Lastly the Council of Calcedon At Calcedon 600 Bishops Anno Dom. 451. called and convened under Martian the Emperour against Eutyches who asserted that there was but one Nature in Christ made up of the Divine and Humane All these Councils held and determined the same most holy Faith which is received in the Church of England which we have in our Liturgy or Publick Service under the Names and Titles of the Apostles Nicene and Athanasian Creeds In the defence and maintenance hereof dyed the renowned Saint Athanasius Saint Cyprian Iereuaeus and other the Holy and Learned Fathers of the Primitive Church And to come nearer home to our own times Cranmer was Arch Bishop of Canterbury Ridley Bishop of London Latimer of Worcester Hooper of Glocester Farrar of St. Davids these Goly Learned Bishops Cranmer Ridley Latimer Hooper Farrar and those Godly Ministers also Saunders Taylor Bradford and many others under the Marian Persecution sealed this same holy Primitive Catholick and Apostolick Faith with their dearest heart-blood Not to trouble you with the instances of many faithful Confessours and Martyrs of a more Modern date whose blood cannot chuse but run fresh in most of our Memories All these I assure you dyed in the same faith which our Church hath taught us and doth still continue in teaching us to believe though hereunto too many I fear in our times who would be thought to be somewhat more wise then their Neighbours are too great Strangers This is that Faith upon which our Church is built and against which the Gates of Hell shall never be able to prevaile Though the Church be shaken by many confusions and disorders yet her Faith the best * Hae revelatio Patris est hoc Ecclesiae fundamentum est ●aec securitas aeternitatis est Hinc Regni coelorum habet clavem 2 hinc terrena ejus judicia coelestia sunt Hillac lib. 6. de Trinit security of Eternity is not shaken No! that remains still the same and so will do by the grace of God until the Angel in the Revelation shall proclaim that time shall be no more And now to conclude If any will forsake our Communion while we stand upon these terms I may justly say of them as Saint Ignatius said of the old Gnasticks and Disciples of Old Simon the Witch once and again before mentioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 If they had been true and genuine branches of God the Father they would never have been Enemies of