Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bishop_n	call_v	deacon_n	4,219	5	10.3011	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26928	Faithful souls shall be with Christ the certainty proved and their Christianity described, and exemplified in the truely Christian life and death of that excellent saint, Henry Ashhurst, Esq ... : briefly and truly published for the conviction of hypocrites and the malignant, the strengthning of believers, and the imitation of all, especially the masters of families in London / by Richard Baxter.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1681 (1681)	Wing B1265; ESTC R4853	35,484	74

that made the world or our own or others Souls and it is not our right to determine of their time and events It is one prime Agent Supreme Ruler and Ultimate End One that is Infinite in Power Wisdom and Goodness who is Omnipresent Immutable and every way perfect that must actuate order and bless a world of such imperfect and differing individuals and not such ignorant understandings such partial and ill guided wills and such impotent powers as ours are He that maketh the Watch determineth how many hours it shall go The giver of Life and Time must give us the measures of it It is our part to spend it well It is because the Creator having left us to some liberty and trust about our selves we are the misusers of it that there are so many disorders and consequently calamities in the world and on our selves and ours as there are and if the God of Love did not keep the over ruling determination in his hand and bring good out of all our evil and harmony out of our discords and confusions what a Chaos or Hell would the World become Let us therefore humbly and willingly leave Gods own work to himself he will do all well and at last we shall understand it and let us mind our own He hath taken up our Brothers soul from earth it is our part to think how to improve this our own are following Our hour is at hand Our oyl is wasting apace Our glass is almost run every pulse every breath every word leaveth us one less of the number appointed us It is our great concern to look inwards and look upwards and with our utmost diligence to study how to spend the short time that remaineth that we may die in safety peace and hope and follow the departed Saints to Glory To instruct my self and you herein I have chosen this Text as giving us both sure directions and such great and comfortable promises as in life and at death we may boldy trust They are spoken by no doubtful Messenger but by the Mouth of Christ himself and that to men who were under our temptations and earnestly desired to see Christ glorified on earth and to partake of outward greatness here to see that famous man who had wrought so many miracles and lately raised the Dead But he tells them that both he and they must die before they can be glorified and that they must overcome the inordinate love of this life if ever they would attain a life of Blessedness vers 23 24 25. And that they might not by uncertainty of the end or way say as Philip We know not whither thou goest and how shall we know the way he Summarily tells them both The way is to Serve him and follow him The end that 's promised is To be where he is and to be honoured of his Father As if he should say I know that your weakness and remaining Carnality is such that you would fain see me Reign as an universal King on Earth that you might be advanced by me in the flesh and it is a hard Lesson to you to learn to lay down this life which is so dear to you and to pass into a World which you never saw and know so little of But have I not by my Doctrine Life and frequent Miracles and newly by raising Lazarus from the dead convinced you that I am the true Messiah sent of God to whom you may boldly trust the conduct and disposal of your Lives and Souls If so then see that you absolutely trust me Learn of me Serve me and follow me and let this satisfie you living and dying that you shall speed as I my self do and be with me where I am though the place and state be yet unseen to you and there you shall by my Father be advanced to far greater dignity and honour than in this sinful life and world you are capable of And of all this I give here my promise which you must believe and trust if you will be saved by me This is the plain Exposition of the Text But let us more distinctly inquire I. What is here meant by Serving Christ II. What it is to Follow him And afterwards III. What it is to be where he is IV. And what to be Honoured by his Father I. Some that by false and narrow notions have received a wrong opinion of Saving Faith may be puzzled at this that Serving Christ and following him are made the necessary terms or conditions of being where he is And some say that Iustifying faith and ●●●ing Faith are two different things And some say that Christ himself did not clearly preach the doctrine of Justification by Faith but left it for Saint Paul But the plain truth is that in the Gospel it is all one To be a Believer a Christian and a Disciple of Christ in Covenant with him as the true Messiah And in those times the Disciples of any great and famous Teachers were taken into their Families and were their Servants Not in a Worldly common work but in order to the ends of their Office and Instructions It is the same word which we often translate Deacons And as it was then usual with Iews and Heathens at their great feasts for the Servitours to give every Guest his part by the appointment of the ruler of the Feast so the Spirit by the Apostles did institute Church Deacons to be servants to distribute the provisions made at their love Feasts and the proportions allowed for each ones relief to look to the poor and to execute such Church Orders as the present Bishop or Elders did appoint By which you may see how big the Bishops Church then was And so Christ calleth all Christians his Deacons Ministers or Servants and some above others peculiarly in office as those that were to serve him as the Saviour of the World for their own and other mens salvation As his Relation to us partaketh by Analogie of many so is our service to him It is as the service of a Scholar in obedient and diligent humble learning As the obedience of a Patient to his Physician As the obedience of a Beggar in asking and thankfully accepting As the obedience of a Malefactor who thankfully taketh a pardon and if a Rebel promiseth to lay down Armes and live in true subjection to his Prince As the service of a Child that liveth dependently in dutiful gratitude and love It is not to give Christ any thing that he needeth but to be readier to Hear him than to offer him the sacrifice of fools who by thinking to oblige him by their gifts do but offend him The matter of our required service is 1. To confess with grief our sin our misery and our need of him his grace and mercy 2. To learn understand and believe his Word 3. There by to know God from whom we were revolted and to return to him in the hand of our Mediator by absolute resignation devotion

Matth. 13. 34. God will put his Name upon them and they shall be Pillars in his Temple and go out no more Rev. 2. 3. Yea they shall be equal with the Angels Luke 20. 36. Thus shall it be done to them whom God delighteth to honour even to all in their several degrees who faithfully serve and follow Christ. And yet Christians are we afraid of dying I even hate my own Heart for the remnant of its unbelief which no more rejoiceth and no more longeth to be with Christ while I read and speak of all this to you I know that clear and full apprehensions are proper to possessors and therefore not to be here expected But Lord give us such a Light of Faith as may let in some such tastes of Glory as are needful to us in our hoping State How can we chearfully labour and suffer and overcome without them How shall we go through a tempting and troubling World And entertain with joy the sentence of Death and lay down the Body in the dust without the Joy of the Lord which is our strength Had our Hearts this one promise deeply written in them we should live in Holiness and die in Joy I Have spoken of my Text to my self and you I have now a Copy of it to describe Let none think that the praise of the Dead is a needless or inconvenient work Christ himself praiseth them and will praise them whom he justifieth them before all the World Well done good and faithful Servant c. Matth. 25. He will be admired and glorified in them 2 Thes. 1. 2. The 11th of the Hebrews is the praise of many of them of whom the World was not worthy this wicked world which know neither how to value them or to use them Christ will have the tears and costly love of a poor penitent Woman who anointed him to be spoken of wherever the Gospel is read The Orations of excellent Gregory Nazianzen Greater than Gregory the Great with many such shew us that the Ancients thought this a needful work Many live in times and places where few such men are known And they have need to know from others that there are and have been such Had not I known such I had wanted one of the greatest arguments for my Faith I should the hardlier have believed that Christ is a Saviour if I had not known such as he hath begun to save nor that there is a Heaven for Souls if I had not known some disposed and prepared for it by a holy mind and life I thank God I have known Many Many Many such of several ranks some High more Low O how many such though not all of the same degree of holiness have I lived with who are gone before me Holy Gentlemen Holy Ministers of Christ and holy poor men I love Heaven much the better when I think that they are there And while I am so near them and daily wait for my remove though I here yet breath and speak in flesh why may I not think that I am nearlier related to that Congregation than to this The saying is A friend is half our Soul If so sure the greater half of mine is gone thither long ago It is but a little of me that is yet in painful weary flesh And now one part of me more is gone the Holy and Excellent Henry Ashhurst And God will have me to live so long after him as to tell you what he was to his Fathers and Redeemers praise and to provoke you to imitation God saith The memory of the Iust shall be blessed while the Wickeds name shall rot Methinks even the natural pride of Princes who would not be the scorn of future ages but the praise should accidentally incline them to do good and seem good at the least while the Common experience of all the world tells us that God doth wonderfully shew himself the Governour of the world by ruling fame to the perpetual honour of good and the shame and scorn of evil Even among Heathens what a name is left of Titus Trajan Adrian and above all the Roman Emperours of Antonine the Philosopher and Alexander Severus And who nameth a Nero Domitian Commodus Heliogabalus c. without reproach Yea I have observed that though Malefactors hate the Prince that punisheth them and ungodly men hate piety and the persons that condemn and trouble them in their sins yet such a testimony for goodness is left in common nature that even the generality of the prophane and vicious world speak well of a Wise Just Godly Prince even living and much more when he is dead And so they do of other publick persons Magistrates and Ministers of the Gospel and they will praise goodness in others that will not practise it especially that which brings sensible good to mens bodies or to the Comon wealth And therefore Great men should hate that Counsel which cryeth down Popularity as a trick to make them contemn the sense of those below them For usually it is the best Rulers that are most praised by the Vulgar by reason of the self glorifying Light by which true goodness shineth in the world and by reason of the experience of mankind that good men will do good to others How commonly will even drunkards whoremongers and unjust men reproach a Magistrate or Teacher that is a Drunkard Whoremonger or Unjust and praise the contrary Much more will the Wise and Good do it who indeed are as the Soul of Kingdoms and other Societies and the chief in propagating fame It s true that the bellua multorum capitum is liable to disorders and unfit for secrets or uniting Government and its hypocrisie to affect Popular applause as our folicity or reward or to be moved by it against God and duty But many men see more and hear more than one and single men are apter to be perverted and Judge falsly by personal interests and prejudice than the multitude are Vox populi is oft times Vox Dei I have Read Dr. Heylin villifying A Bishop Abbot and saying the Church hath no greater a plague than a Popular Prelate or to that sense And I have heard some reproach the late Judge Hale as a Popular man But as my intimacy with the last assured me that he set very little by the opinion of high or low in comparison of Justice and Conscience so while God keeps up a testimony for goodness in Humane nature men will not think ill of a man because his goodness hath constrained even the most to praise him Nor will it prove the way to please God or profit themselves or others to make themselves odious by cruelty or wickedness and then to despise their judgments that dispraise them and to cry down Popularity Wo to you when all men speak well of you meaneth when either you do the evil that the wicked praise or forsake truth and duty lest they dispraise you or as hypocrites make mens praise your end