Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A55565
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Quadriga salutis, or, The four general heads of Christian religion surveyed and explained ... with some few annotations annexed at the latter end.
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Powell, Thomas, 1608-1660.
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1657
(1657)
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Wing P3073; ESTC R13515
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58,465
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158
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and that I have a share and interest in them The Catholic Church here mentioned is not visible for it is an object of our faith not of our sight and faith is of things not seen Heb. 11.1 This Holy-Guild society Fraternity of the Rosie-Cross as I may not unfitly term it is invisible for it is Caetus praedestinatorum a company of men predestin'd to Salvation whose names are written in the book of life enroll'd in that sacred Register among the Candidates of eternity Now who those are and whose names are there registred we are not allowed to know that such there are we know and firmly believe but who they are we know not having no certain {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} or infallible indication to know them by for they do not carry the marks of their election in their foreheads God alone knoweth them that are his We have not the gift of knowing men and discerning spirits by inspection we may know their persons but for their eternal state and condition we may probably guess at but not make a sure and infallible judgement There is Indaeus in occulto Judaeus in propatulo we may know the one but do not know the other to know the reins and the heart is the prerogative of him that made and moulded both As this Church is not visible so it is not topical or confined to one place but is Catholic or universal both for times places and persons They robb Christ of his inheritance that confine his Kingdom or Church within one Nation Canton or Conventicle as Donatus did arrogantly affirm That God had no Church in the world but in that part of Africa where he and his party swayed none was within the Ark of Gods Church but who had entered into his Cock-boat God gave his Son the Heathen for his inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession of his Kingdom there is no end no limits of duration or extension They are therefore injurious to him that would retrench his inheritance and robb him of any part of his purchased possession by denying a Catholic Church Hear the expostulation of Optatus with the old Donatists upon this point Si sic pro voluntate vestrâ in angustam coarctatis Ecclesiam si universas subducitis gentes ubi erit illud quod silius dei meruit quod libenter largitus est ei pater dicens Dabo tibi gentes haereditatem tuam ut quid tale infringitis promissum ut a vobis mittatur quasi in carcerem latitudo regnorum APHOR. 6. Of the Nicen and Athanasian Creeds THe Nicen Creed which is extant in our Liturgy was fram'd by the Fathers of the first general Council that was held at Nice a City of Bythinia and was conven'd by the renowned Emperour Constantine in the year 325. where 318. Bishopâ— were assembled whence St. Hierom calls this Creed fidem 318. patrum the faith of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers or Bishops In this Council the Heresie of Arrius a Presbyter of Alexandria who denied the Divinity of Christ and thereby did much disturb the peace of the Church was arraign'd and condemn'd It is reported by Sozomen that the Arrians held another Council at Nice in Thrace in opposition to the former in the year 359. Here was Nice against Nice but the truth did at last {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} prevail and overcome and {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} canere trumph over Error and Heresie Athanasius was in those daies a stout opposer of the Arrians and stood up single in defence of the truth when all the world was almost turn'd Arrian as Hierom complains whereby he got a fame suitable to his name He was by their means four times banished and oft times brought into jeopardy of his life so violent was this storm in the Church so that Vincentius Lirinensis rightly terms the Arrian Heresie a Bellona and a Fury for the bitternss of i. During his banishment at Rome this good man composed the Creed that bears his name and presented it to Pope Iulius and afterwards to the Emperour Iovinian when he was elected Emperour and when he himself after all troubles was advanced to the Patriarchal dignity of Alexandria So that these Creeds were made not as supplements but explanations of the Apostolical Creed occasioned by the turbulency of some Spirits who out of some vain glory or discontented singularity raised those sad tragedies in the Church which continued long and sharp for we read of 120 Bishopt banished at one time into the I le of Sardinia by Thrasimundus an Arrian King of the Gothes The 3. Creeds the Nicen Athanasian and Apostolical Creeds ought throughly to believed and received because they may be proved by most certain warrants of holy Scripture so the 8th Article of the Church of England which is also received among the Articles of Ireland in terminis APHOR. 7. Gloria patri a little Creed AS the Apostles Creed was called Symbolum that is a badge or token or mark of difference quod fideles perfidos secerneret to distinguish believers from unbelievers or a certain watch-word as they have in the Wars to know a friend from a foe So this little Hymn of glory which is symbolum parvum a little Creed was brought in as a Shibboleth a privy mark or token to make discovery of dissembling professors and Covert Arrians who desir'd to live in the bosom of the Church though they were enemies to the faith and peace of it It was not as the great symbol to distinguish believers from unbelievers but true believers from mis-believers or such as believed amiss touching the article of the holy Trinity It was brought in use about the time of the Nicen Council or as some say before For long before this period we read that Polycarpus that blessed Martyr in the very place and at the hour of his martyrdom had a kind of Doxology very neer and much like to this who concluded his prayer and his lifâ—â—n these words Therefore in all things I praise thee I bless thee I glorifie thee O Father Almighty through the eternal Priest of our profession Jesus Christ thy beloved Son To whom with thee O Father and the Holy Ghost be all honour and glory now and for evermore Amen As we have received saith St. Basil so we baptize As we baptize so we believe and as we believe so we give glory His meaning is that as we believe in three persons and one God so we baptize into the names of these three And as we baptize into their names so we give glory unto them joyntly and severally So that in the most solemn Offices of the Church as Confessing Baptizing and giving Praise the holy individual Trinity is professed and acknowledged This was the use and purport
kind or any other I am but little acquainted with of late times living remote from the Kiriath-Sephers the common Marts and Staples of such marchandises and being rendred both unable to buy and uncapable to employ them Yet my reason tells me and it is the common voice and vote of divers others as I hear that Catechising is a very necessary expedient for the preservation of Christian Religion among us and the most probable means if not to recover the Diseased from infection yet to preserve the Sound from being infected The principal way of fortifying against false Teachers is to be well-grounded in the principles of true teaching that is of the doctrine of Christ without which men are like chaff without any solid grain in them which are soon blown away from the floor of the Church and tossed to and fro with every wind of vain doctrine like a ship without ballast or anchor and like a building that having no basis or foundation is easily storm'd down and demolished And hence it is that the Master-builders of our Sion who have spent much pains in the Pulpit yet because they have spent so little in foundation-work have found that they did but aedificare in ruinam and that all their labour was but lost in building The smallest of Gods creatures do often read Lectures unto their Master man the Pismire reads a Lecture of providence and industry and the Bee reads a lesson of wit and sagacity For this wise little foul when she goes abroad a forraging and is perhaps surprised with windy-weather before she adventures back again she takes up some gravel in her fangs to balance her little body and then she hoises sail and steers her course home-wards more stedily Saepe lapillos Ut cymbae instabiles fluctu jactante saburram Tollunt his sese per inania nubila librant If men would learn the like providence before they adventure forth in windy-weather among the storms and counter-tydes of disputes and controversies in the world as to take in the ballast of Catholick principles which are here treated of they would certainly hold their road and course with more safety and less danger of making shipwrack of Faith and a good Conscience They would not fluctuate like those unstable souls that Optatus speaks of Inter licet nostrum et non licet vestrum nutant remigant populorum animae For let the winds blow and the waters flow and the Devil storm never so much a well-principled Christian knows how to steer his course and where to rest and cast anchor This is the benefit and advantage of Catechistical exercises and of building up a Christian Methodically from the foundation upward Such an Edifice being {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an harmonious building the super-structure being cemented to the foundation and the roof and covering being adapted to the super-structure and all parts being framed and compacted according to the Rule of Proportion is most like to last and bear up and to prove storm-proof Now the subject matter of Catechising as all know are the first principles of Christian Religion which St. Paul calls the Elements and the beginnings of the doctrine of Christ As there are principles in all Sciences upon which the whole Art depends and upon which it is built as upon a foundation So in this Architectonical Science and the Art of saving souls there are certain principles which are of such moment and consequence that he that hath not these hath nothing he graspeth a cloud his soul is empty like a hungry man that dreameth he is eating and loe when he awaketh he is empty And the principles of this Divine Art are these four the Creed the Commandments the Lord Prayer and the Sacraments These are the Catholick Principles of the Catechism saith reverend Perkins which have been agreed upon ever since the Apostles daies by all Churches of the World These are fundatoria Religionis the foundations of that City that came down from heaven which was four square these are the four Elements that do constitute the Christian Faith the Vials wherein the vital substance of Religion consisteth They are in brief the antient Land-Marks that have been settled since the foundation of Christendom and points that have been generally and universally received wheresoever Christ had a Church being Heyr-looms as it were and standing implements of the Church from the beginng and descending down from age to age indisputably to the Heirs of salvation Amidst all the garboils of the Church when it hath been most torn with Schiâ—ms and over-grovwn with the Tares of Heresie in those times when it required some wit to be a Christâ—â— and to continue so God reserved this seed unto his Church and people and preserved the vitals of Christianity un-invaded at least among most men and in most parts of the world True it is that Satans Pioners have been busie in all ages with these foundations and have turned up every stone in it yet that will not prejudice the universality of them no more than some hills and vallies do perjudice the roundness of the earthly Globe So that I may here fitly apply a piece of that Remonstrance which the renowned Athanasius Patriarch of Alexandria together with the Bishops under his Patriarchate presented to the Emperour Jovinian being newly advanced to the Empire to induce him to quit the Arrian party and to embrace the Orthodox Faith The Confession of Faith which we present unto your Highness most sacred Emperor is received by all the Churches of God every where as in Spain Britain France Italy Dalmatia Mysia Macedonia and all Greece By all the Churches of Africa Sardinia Cyprus Creet Pamphylia Lycia Isauria the Churches of Egypt Lybia Pontus Cappadocia and the neighbouring Regions of all the East excepting some few of the Arrian faction that do oppugn it Non tamen inde praejudicium fieri potest orbi universo They are but as the dust of the ballance and their paucity cannot prejudice the universal consent of the Christian World as bearing no proportion with it I may say the same of these Catholick Principles that are handled in the ensuing pages and therefore it is safe yea necessary to embrace Quod ab omnibus quod ubique quod semper c. For there is nothing of this nature that hath such an impress of Universality Antiquity and Consent upon it that is not Apostolical For as the Apostles in all points that they preached were unius labii of one lip and language though their bodies were far a sunder so were the Churches that were planted by them They had all the same Depositum the same Body of Theology form of Doctrine and System of saving and necessary truths entrusted to them which they also transmitted to the next generation as faithfull Trustees and Depositaries from whom they were handed over unto us