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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	bishop_n	people_n	presbyter_n	5,436	5	9.9023	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31454	A preparation for martyrdom a discourse about the cause, the temper, the assistances and rewards of a martyr of Jesus Christ : in a dialogue betwixt a minister, and a gentlemanhis [sic] parishioner.	Cawdrey, Zachary, 1616-1684.	1681 (1681)	Wing C1648; ESTC R8822	35,036	47

ingagement he never devoted himself unto Sixthly A Martyr must have right apprehensions of the Wisdom Goodness Justice and mercy of God in suffering the rod of the wicked to light upon the Lot of the Righteous there being some Chaff to be winnowed away some miscarriages even amongst the Professors of the Truth that stand in need of reforming And therefore judgment begins at the House of God 1 Pet. 4. 17. He that would be a couragious sufferer must be throughly perswaded that God doth all things wisely and graciously that therefore there is some scandalous sin or some divisions which is to be pruged out Thus when the Sheep are apt to run into low and miry places or to straggle at a distance from one another or to push and smite one another the Shepherd sends in the Dog and rectifies all presently So when Christians stray into ways of sensuality or causelesly separate from one another or persecute and vex one another for little differences it is both Justice and Mercy in God to let in a common Enemy upon them to teach them to live better and love one another and when this purifying is accomplished by Gods refining fire the Martyr is confident that God will give their cause the Righteous cause of Truth to have dominion in the morning He therefore who questions either the wisdom or Justice or goodness of God in permitting persecution or that can think that God remits of his care of the Church so as to let the gates of Hell prevail against it will not be a couragious Martyr Thus the excellent Bishop Jewel said in Queen Mary's days It is but a storm it may wet our Coats through but it will wash them also and will soon be over King Edward the sixth's Reformation of the Doctrine and Worship of the Church of England is just matter of praise and Thanks giving to God even to this day But still the Primitive Church Discipline under the management of the Diocesan Bishops with their Assistant Colledges of Presbyters in the presence of the Christian People the Brethren to remove scandals out of the Church was not restored as our Church complains in the preface to the Commination So that God did not mistake the state of his Church in sending Queen Mary's persecutions to refine the Spirit of the English Protestants And that the same may stand yet in need of further winnowing by Gods fan will hardly be denied by any pious and considerate Person though still I hope God will not let us fall into the hands of the Men of his indignation but stir up the Spirit of our Governours to take effectual course for the Reformation of our Lives and Manners Seventhly A Martyr must be one enabled to prefer the glory of God and the cause of his Truth before all Concernment for Friends and Relations Many a Man can more easily die to himself than to his dear Wife and Children and Friends Our Saviour therefore protests Matth. 10. 37. He that loveth Father and Mother more then me is not worthy of me Nay he asserts Luke 14. 26. that if he do not hate Father and Mother c. he cannot be his Disciple Not that Religion makes us unnatural but as the Sun puts out the shining of the Stars by its overpowering light so the fervent love of God in 〈◊〉 Christian prevails so intirely over natural affections that the same seem in comparison to be quite extinguished Thus that resolute Christian of old expressed himself If my Father said he who begot me and my Mother who bare me lay prosrate on the threshold of the Prison to beseeeh me to deny Christ rather than leave them in their old Age to an unkind and churlish World I would tread on the Loins that begot 〈◊〉 and the Womb that bare me and go out unto Christ bearing his reproach Heb. 13. 13. The Devil and wicked Men know that natural affection is a tender part and they will pinch us there and if our hearts be not fortified with the Breast-plate of Faith and Love they will prevail against us But when we can trust God with our Friends and love God above them then we are fitted to be Christs Souldiers An Heroick example of this we have in the Mother and seven Brothers suffering under Antiochus 2 Mac 7. 29. What a couragious expression is that of the Mother to her youngest Son Fear not the Tormentors but being worthy of thy Brethren take thy death that I may receive thee again in mercy with thy Brethren Eighthly A Martyr must be one who hath not himself been a Persecutor of any of the servants of God or if he have so been he must be a serious Penitent and profess his Repentance for it before the Church and the World Now a M●●● may be a Persecutor of the Saints out of ignorance and mistaken zeal thinking therein to do God good service reckoning the Religion of the Persecuted to be Heresy and thus did St. Paul and this I Charitably believe do some ignorant and zealous Papists But then observe such Persecutor are very regular in other regards and can profess as St. Paul did Acts 23. 1. I have lived in all good Conscience before God until this day And such Persecutors have found mercy and been converted and owned their Repentance for that furio● zeal so contrary to the Spirit of Christ who came to save not to destroy Mens lives yea some of them have been honoured by God to be called to suffer for the Truth which once they persecuted But all Persecutors are not acted by that principle some directly out of a spirit of prophaness have persecuted goo● Men And such Persecutors are all Vitious Dehauched Drunken Dammee's who seldom pretend to any thing of ze●● for God for he is not in all their thoughts nor in the mouths further than their Oaths and Curses come to but zeal for the Law of the Land or the Constitutions of the Church forsooth when really they regard no Law of th● Land or Constitution of the Church but only pretend th● same in order to the Vailing the bitterness and Malignity 〈◊〉 their spirits against all serious Piety Others there are who persecute goodmen out of a worldly and covetous humour that they may gain by Informations Plunder c. Now I dare not limit the Essicacy of the grace of God but I have not to my rememberance either heard or read of any such Persecutors of a prophane or Worldly Temper who have been converted and honoured with the Crown of Martyrdome But as I said before if ever you have persecuted good Men though out of a mistaken zeal for God be sure you repent and own your Repentance or expect not an assistance in your own day of Tryal The story is remarkable about the Controversy in King Edward the sixths days about Bishops and Priests garments Holy Bishop Hooper and Holy Mr. Rogers scrupled conformity therein the secret Popish Bishops inflame the Contest

write all that Tradition Doctrine common to all Mankind and also what was peculiar to Abreham's Posterity so that no part of the Traditional Doctrine necessary to Salvation was left unwritten And the Prophet afterwards having more particular Revelations about the time place and other circumstances of the Conception Birth Preaching Miracles Death Resurrection and Ascension of the promised Seed penned them likewise So that the great Tradition that the Jewish Church was to derive down from Generation to Generation was the writings of Moses and the other divinely inspired Penmen as the intire Rule of their Faith in the Messiah to come So also what was necessary to be believed of what our Lord Jesus Christ come in the Flesh Taught and ordained did and suffered is intively collected in the Scriptures of the New Testament and no Doctrine of Christ necessary to be believed nor Institution of Christ necessary to be obeyed is left out of the said Holy Writings to be derived down by Oral Tradition and therefore it is an intollerable injury done to Christians to deny them the liberty of Reading the Scriptures in their own Tongue And an abominable Cheat is put upon the Christian world in pretending that Part of the Rule of Faith is left to be derived down by the Churches Tradition yea so that what Doctrine was not defined by the Church that is the Pope or Council or both to be de side and part of the Tradition to day may yet be so to morrow and so be made then necessary to Salvation which was not necessary before Parish I apprehend now the good warrant we have to stick to the Scriptures as the only and intire Rule of Faith and I hope by the grace of God I shall not forsake that sure Word But Sir still if we yield what the Romanists claim that there is appointed by God an Infallible Judge of the sense of the Scriptures to whose definitions all are bound to consent our Rule would be no Rule to us without the concurrent judgment of such an Authentick Interpreter Min. But it can never be proved that Christ hath appointed such an Authentick Interpreter of Scripture and infallible Judg of Controversies And besides the ridiculous perverting of Scripture by Popes to bolster up this and their other pretensions is sufficient evidence to any man that will use his eyes and his reason that the Pope is no such Judge And indeed if Gods Spirit cannot speak plain in his Word but he must need an Interpreter how can the Pope or Church speak so but they must also need an Interpreter and that Inpreter must need another Interpreter and so on in Insinitum Therefore we believe the infinitely Gracious God hath so made known his mind about Mans Salvation in his word that no man who prays to God earnestly and humbly for the assistance of his Spirit and useth serious attention and pondering of the Scripture comparing Scripture with Scripture and applies himself to the help of learned and pious Men and Ministers when he needs the same can dangerously err in necessary points of Faith and yet learned Men and Ministers convince him of the sence of Scripture who seeks their assistance not in the strength of their Authority and Infallibility but in strength of that Light in which they are inabled by God to represent the Truth But I must not inlarge upon this Head I refer you if you need farther satisfaction to what the Reverend and Learned Dr. Stillingsleet Dr. Tillotson or Mr. Poole in his Nullity of the Roman Faith Mr. Baxter and others have writ upon this Subject Parish I am well satisfied I pray you proceed Minist Next you are warranted to bear Testimony even unto Blood against the Popes Supremacy challenged over the whole Church nay in a manner over the whole World And that you may be satisfied that so you ought to do consider that the Pope claims no less than these Prerogatives following First That he as Saint Peters Successour and Christs Vicar is the Head of the Catholick Church on Earth and the first Subject of all Ecclesiastical power So that whatsoever Power of Order or Jurisdiction any Bishop Presbyter Lay-Chancellour or other Official doth exercise is derived say the Romanists from the Pope That he can dispence with Vows and Oaths grant Pardons and Indulgences yea if he decree Vertue to be Vice or contrarily none are to question it nor doth any Appeal lye from him Nor can any Prince or State or Church constitute any Order or reform any abuse in matters Ecclesiastical but by delegation from the Pope That he as Christs Vicar who is King of Kings may depose Kings for Heresy or for favouring Hereticks or for any Male-Administration or other pretended unfitness of the Person to Govern That he can absolve Subjects from their Oaths of Allegiance and give to whom he will the Empires and Kingdoms of the Earth and the Glory of them as the Divel Matth. 4. said he could do For thus Popes have practised in this part of the old world oft and in the new also Pope Alexander 6th Giving Peru and Mexico to the Kings of Spain and Portugal Parish If this be his claim then every one is warranted to oppose it unto death it being such an abominable usurpation of an Authority that Christ never gave and a most unsufferable inchroachment on both the Civil and Religious Rights both of Princes and private men both Christians and Heathen And he is a Traytor to Christ and a betrayer of his own and others Rights who yeilds to it and methinks there is nothing in Popery of more dangerous consequence to be yeilded and yet nothing more groundlesly challenged nor that can more prejudice unconverted Heathen Princes against Christianity than this Doctrine That they who before were Supreme must be Subordinate to the Pope when they turn Christians For first It can never be proved that Christ gave any such power to St. Peter or if he had it cannot be proved that St. Peter's personal priviledges are derivative to his Successours nor yet that the Pope of Roma is his Successour rather than the Bishop of Antioch or Jerusalem no nor yet can it be proved that the present Pope is the rightful Bishop of Rome by uninterrupted Success when from St. Peter as they claim there having been so many Heretical wicked Schismatical and Simonaical Persons who have possessed that Seat This and more I remember you told me was said against it by the very humble learned and pious Dr. Barrow late Master of Trinity Colledg in Cambridg in his absolute and incomparable discourse on this Subject But I pray you give me a reason why all the Kings of the Earth do not rise up against the Pope in defence of their own and their Subjects Right Minist The Scripture tells us Rev. 17. 2. They are made drunk with the Wine of the fornications of the great Whore and intoxicated with the pompousness of her superstitious Worship and