Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	case_n	christian_a	great_a	882	4	2.1333	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63830	Iehovah Iireh merito audiens, præco evangelicus An angell from heaven, or, An ambassadour for Christ, descending from God, ascending unto God, lawfully dignified, compleately qualified : heard (vvith religious devotion) reporting his ambassage to the honourable societies of the Inner and Middle Temples, on Sunday the eleventh day of December, 1642 ... / by Edw. Tuke.	Tuke, Edward.	1642 (1642)	Wing T3224; ESTC R10730	21,383	28

may he adde or diminish from Gods word he must not create unto himselfe a fools paradise and walke up and downe there set up a throne and judge there he must fish in Gods Sea and World not lanch into another of his owne making nor saile with pleasure in old wives fables or issues of his owne braines if he have an itch within him to long for that which neither the place nor season affords some unheard of unparalleld perfection in Utopia it must be carefully adverted unto and cured before it spread or the people smell it Gods true Ambassadour must content himselfe with the wonders of God discovered in the depth of his word and the height of his works for the blessed Spirit reveales nothing but that which is the will of the Father and Sonne John 16. 14. and Gods Angells we may imagine in old time spake neither more nor lesse then what they had declared unto them in heaven and an Ambassadour on earth must not dare to transgresse that celestiall proportion 3. The fanaticall Zelots of our times judge all learning but Scripture the language of the Beast and that there is no use of Latin except ordinary or as much as will keepe the necke from an halter and there can bee no pure preaching of the word with them except Universities downe and they come up not directed by the letter but Spirit they object the Apostles were illiterate men and yet by the Spirit they understood all mysteries and knowledge and I would have them without education to their tongues in Apostolicall manner speake to the Jewes and Indians and other like with us and it should be to me a probable inducement sooner to confide in their abilities to direct us in that truth in our owne tongue which they fondly pretend Academicks misse of and I dare safely question whether such by their presumptuous spirit can effect more without artificiall instructions then such as with the knowledge of Arts have the assistance of the true Spirit of God Thence I conclude though Gods sacred Word should especially have precedency in all learning and all Gods Ambassadours yet how shall this word be safely interpreted the sense truly rendred without knowledge in the Originalls Translations ancient Commentaries therefore to use humane learning as Hagar to attend Sarah and Arts and expositors assistance the monuments of learned men as Joshua the Gibeonites who upon the grounds and landmarkes of antiquity old bootes old shooes moulded bread were admitted to carry water for the Israel of God is lawfull and for ought I read not in any age before gainsayed in such vulgar impudencies and frequent insolencies as in this 4. But how ashamed is a learned and wise King of a foolish and ignorant Ambassadour and how God suffers in his glory when Ministers want knowledge to instruct the people Because thou hast rejected knowledge I will also reject thee thou shalt bee no Priest to mee saith the Lord by the Prophet Hosea these are the dumbe Dogs spoken of by another of his Prophets unto whom if the booke be tendred may be answered non legit ut clericus he dreams and sees visions bookes sealed and his profitablest document is the peoples nocument his best doctrine is the peoples scandall wherein he must acknowledge that he is no Prophet nor Prophets sonne he never saw the Schooles of the Prophets he is some husbandman herdman or at best a cobler hatter horserubber leatherseller or tailor and so skipping up to reforme the magnificat in the City or Country before he had his nunc dimittis in the University his doctrine is ignorance his use error the Pulpit the true seat of spirituall judgement and divine oratory is stuffed with old saddles empty pictures brainsicke and railing superfluities and hence it is that the hearers Camelion like live upon aire and winde But considering the weight of this spirituall Ambassage in all actions and circumstances thereto pertinent The Tables of the Law in the discussing whereof large Volumes will not containe the Cases of Conscience thence still emergent considering the Ambassadours skill required in Ethickes Oeconomiques Politiques Histories Chronology Geography Philosophy Tongues Rhetorique Logique holy Scripture mysteries of Prophesie Fathers Schoolemen Polemicall Divinity and Controversie The Arguments of Papists Atheists Turkes and Sectaries to bee resolv'd and refell'd Misprisions in History Prophesie Tongues Cases of Conscience which arise to the great disturbance and unhinging of Christian truth to be confuted Many divine sentences and other passages without conference inexplicable Considering these and infinite more of this nature individuals to his function what use should the true Church make of arrogant ideots and peremptory illiterates whose zeale without knowledge like mettle in blinde horses destroy the riders stumbling upon they care not know not whom Why doe we put children to remove great timber blinde men to conduct us in unknowne paths Doth a mans curiosity restraine his wearing Apparrell from a Botcher and his distrust preserve his dying body from a Mountebank and shall not true zeale to his soules eternall life warrant his speciall care to what doctrine and whose spirituall oversight he submits himselfe If wee make no conscience of this we make conscience of nothing and conscience nothing And by this meanes the Ambassadours ignorance and the peoples prophanenesse sedition and heresie takes place of religion and piety and as well sound doctrine as ancient discipline is transformed into a fable and scoffe and the people having cast off all true obedience to Gods law benummed conscience and rejected right judgement and true holinesse make nothing true doctrine but what pleaseth them But if antiquity for doctrine and discipline shall beare no authority with them if they will not follow Moses advice inquire of the dayes before them even from one end of heaven to the other if they account not the Doctors and Histories of the Church unpartiall which lived before such ignorance in the one and licentiousnesse in the other were so open and impudent such blasphemies questions were moved as are now too frequent to the dishonour of God Jesus Christ and his Word and the offence of good men and if they will circumcise the Church to themselves onely and not to the rules of the ancient Scriptures Apostles and Teachers damning all but themselves I hope you cannot be offended if I deliberate whether I would be of such a Church whereof for ought I know never any were before themselves wee may gird on our swords of knowledge to help us in these perillous journies but the best accessory for protection and direction is Gods providence and wisdome to his servants which is timely and needful Having in the last use left lawlesse Ignorance in the Pulpit of godly knowledge what ungodly and improbable deductions wil thence be compelled is easie though dismall io conceive For doth not the Papist preach hence infallibility and with Campian cry Templum Templum the Church the Church and

of Gods Divinity then which higher he cannot goe for God is terminus ad quem the most exact indeavour of our conceits infinitely transcending all our ●ast and wisest aymes of mortall perfection every Embassadour apart may augment the Jdea or notion of his Glory according to the predicament of his own abillity But God is above all in Heaven and Earth and the perfect knowledge of him is Essentially Himselfe who being Actu infinitus nonreperitur in ●llo praedicamento as Arist To conclude this Embassador must know God so far as to do him justice by true and seasonable service answerable to his nature which is spiritu et veritate in spirit and truth And the people to whom this Embassadour comes must deale justly with God likewise by receaving his Embassage in purity of heart and spirit Deus est spiritus God is a spirit si Deus est animus sit tibi purâmente Colendus if God be a spirit ye must worship him in spirit yea the Father seeks for such worshippers these are only right Worshipfull a pure spirit is a sacrifice to God an harmelesle life a spotlesse soule optimus animus pulcherrimus Dei cultus a pure mind is the best service to God the most religious worshipping of God is to follow him Amore more ore re and the only true serving and honoring of God in Priest and people is not evill in summe let this Embassadours Justice and the peoples practise towards God meet both in this that it be perfecta pura perpetua perfect that both only love him pure that both wisely feare him perpetuall that both only and firmely beleive in him and rest in him And let the Ambassadour herein be just to himself that he punctually understand the will of his King and the weale of his people In the first wisely and orderly to informe himself In the second soberly and fully to instruct the people his honesty must play the skillfull Organist to touch well and truely according to Art nor may he at all times interweave a discourse of Justice Pharasaicall and legall to the people to whom he comes the Christian only must be his rule and then he is an Embassadour for Christ when he is thus honestly just to Christians I say honestly for herein what health is in the body the same is honestly in the soule Salus animae is honestas corporis And to summe up all the Prophets Basar and the Angells 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Good and new joyfull and seasonable Tidings of Christ promised of Christ exhibited must from his mouth dropp like Soveraign oyle of Gladnes to annoint the swelling heart of the miserable wounded man whom the Priest and Levite the Law could not stand to pity or look upon to remedy this oyle thus dropping upon the soule of a Sinner melted and dissolved by sence and sorrowes for sinne to bitter teares will in these liquids appeare uppermost and as the oint ment upon Aarons head will not only supple himself but runne down upon the skirts of his Clothing the meanest of his Auditours Oh the Excellency of such an Ambassadour the measure proportion and Comlinesse of his body is wisdome and spirituall beauty the riches of his spirit are the Gifts of the spirit and his sciences and his Justice to God and man is as that noble Aptnes which disposeth him to all vertues and holines and so much for this Justice from that I have spoken by necessary consequence you may deduce the prime strength of an Ambassadour to depend upon well grounded intelligence and practicall wisedome which Moses such a man of God intimates by his Urim and Thummim so much discipline an ordinary eare might take in from that golden Bell and Pomegranate which surrounded the hem of the Priests robe this is that onely delightfull sound and pleasant tast which through the application of the holy Ghost the voice of the Father the Son is effectuall to preserve the sin-spotted soul dumb sinner unto purity Hallelujahs everlasting I omit the significant illustrations unto this duty which the inseparable and particular ornaments of the Tabernacle might lead me and content my selfe with those rules which Saint Paul applied to Timothy and Titus Hold fast a forme of sound words giving attendance to reading and doctrine exhort and convince be apt and able to teach which doctrine clearly opposeth all unfit quarrelling with words frothy and scummy-jangling language and all peevish theevish treacherous and traiterous documents Thus like the noted Musician I have sate so long upon this Text that I feare I have not kept time I confesse my selfe unprepared for farther prosecution of any part coincident to and with this Text I beseech you suffer my jejune and dry oratory to expresse an application of what hath beene hitherto propounded which through Gods assistance and your patience I shall thus epitomize 1. It instructs the Ambassadour with all meet preparation considerately to undertake his Embassage for they are the savour of life to life or death to death to the people to whom they come and to that office must bee required more then ordinary circumspection the issues whereof are of such extraordinary concernment Hence Moses complaines of his want of utterance and eloquence and S. Paul Who is sufficient for these things 2 Cor. 2. 16. The treasures comprised in the rich Casket of sacred Scripture with which they are by God intrusted to communicate unto the people are for profundity so great and for extent so large that I may resume that of Saint Paul Who is sufficient c. it justly pursues the runners of these times which without mission or commission lay hands on consecrated things whom I lovingly advise to stay at Iericho till their beards be growne for if Deacons must first be tryed and then Minister if they be found faithfull much more should workmen of more eminent faculty not assume unto themselves a calling unlesse some Timothy or Titus duly authorised by a sacred symboll of manuall imposition give them externall appointment to that function Gods holy Spirit must give them primary and private motion their owne consciences evident and certaine justification the Church legall ordination and though at this time there is great question about the forme of ordination yet in all ages and in all well ordered places there have beene certaine constitutions and cannons for admitting of men upon triall into sacred orders and I finde not that ever the setled order of any Church for such purposes hath beene so calumniated and branded as at this time this of ours Hence I shall not feare to conclude that who ever shall prophesie or preach in this Church without examination approbation and faculty by present authority commeth of himselfe and as a false Prophet I take it our duty to beware of him 2. The name of an Ambassadour implies faithfulnesse in the declaration of his Embassage he comes not forth without instructions what he shall say and doe nor