Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	catholic_n	particular_a	schism_n	3,119	5	10.0940	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25771	A sermon preached at the visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God, John Lord Bishop of Chester, at Chester by James Arderne ...	Arderne, James, 1636-1691.; Pearson, John, 1613-1686.	1677 (1677)	Wing A3625; ESTC R20728	9,763	22

Timothy had from a Child which at this day many who profess themselves great Divines do scarce at all regard So the History of the Council of Trent tells us of the Italian Prelates that they were good School-Divines but understood little of Scripture We should as the Rarraei among the Iews cleave only to the Doctrines of Scripture and exercise our selves herein continually over and over again So the Iews to intimate so much upon the eight day of the Feast of Tabernacles read at the same time the last Section of the Law and with it the beginning of the first We should be unwearied in this frequent reading as it is reported of one who when he had read a Book of Aristotle forty times over wrote upon it I will read it again by doing thus we shall daily grow in knowledg For such is the excellency of every Word of God and such is the narrowness of our understandings at that end where we receive knowledg that though our Souls are made capable of much knowledg yet we cannot receive much at once What has been said of improving in Scripture-knowledg concerns all men as well as Ministers seeing the reasons given in Scripture why it should be search'd reaches all but there is a modesty to be us'd as sensible they are more likely to be mistaken now and then about its meaning than those whose whole study and business it is to make it be understood But all have an undoubted right to the use of Scripture Clemens Alexandrinus * Stromat l. 7. advises all Christians to grow old in reading these Books and adds that as under the Law those Beasts which chew'd the cud and had parted hoofs were acceptable to God so is the Christian who ruminates upon the Oracles of God day and night whence in his going by Faith to the Father and the Son he receives that steadiness of gate which proceeds from parted hoofs thus far he Many more passages of the like nature are met with among the Fathers which we must now forbear But as for those who are separated to the work of the Ministry more is required than reading Scripture and Divinity in English the knowledg of Tongues and of the true state of the primitive Church this must be had from an entire reading of the ancient Records of the Church that we may not be deceived with false representations under that perswading title and human Learning must be retain'd into the service of Christian knowledg many parts of it are of necessary use and almost all give a good advantage to our discourses these secular disciplines were recommended by several but most fully by Clemens Alexandrinus * Stromat 6. his Scholar in Origen * 3 Tom. in Genes and are to good purpose used by most of them These accomplishments are helpful in the two great works of our Ministry to wit instructing the ignorant and convincing gain-sayers which comes under the next advice of St. Paul which is Thirdly A Diligence in Ministerial duties Our duty has three main parts Teaching Praying and Watching over the People These being undoubtedly necessary we need not enquire which is of the greatest dignity As to Teaching St. Paul requires one apt to teach 2 Tim. 2. 24. and that he be instant in preaching the word 2 Tim. 4. 2. he must instruct with much plainness and not make the Gospel to return to the likeness of the Law with a veil and thick darkness about it he must exhort with all heartiness by the fittest true arguments of perswasion he must both boldly and meekly reprove sin not sparing the fault but still manifesting he has no quarrel with the person In short in all the instances of teaching there must appear what St. Paul requires from Titus ch 2. 7. uncorruptness gravity sincerity 2. The second part of duty is Prayer Thus the Ministers of the Lord are to cry Spare thy people O Lord. This work at this time when Knowledg is more plentifully found than Living well is of the more general usefulness and as the profession of the same Articles of Faith in the very same express terms is a mark of Communion among the distinct Assemblies of the Church so praying unto God in the same words in our several Congregations shews that we are not independent but members one of another Such were the primitive Prayers Iustin Martyr speaks of 2. Apolog. their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their Common Prayer and Origen of their 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 their appointed Prayers and we have greater examples of Iohn the Baptist and of our Saviour teaching the Disciples to pray in set words As the publick prayers of the first Christians had appointed words so likewise they had Times and Places appointed Of both these St. Clemens the fellow-labourer of St. Paul speaks * 1 Ep. Corinth telling us that our Lord would not have holy Offices performed rashly nor disorderly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hist. l. 10. c. 3. but in determinate places and hours where and by whom he would have these done he hath appointed by his Sovereign will Several others of them speak to the same purpose and Eusebius acquaints us that these Houses of Prayer were consecrated Which I the rather mention to remedy the mistake of those who count it Popish when-as indeed it was done in the purest Ages of Christianity So much for the place as for the Hours they were thrice a day and the day of the most publick Assembly was that which we rightly call the Lords day of this St. Barnabas the Companion of St. Paul speaks * Ep. Catholic we keep saith he with gladness of mind that day on which Iesus both rose from the dead and appeared and ascended into Heaven What has been said of Prayers why they should be the same holds as strongly for the administration of Sacraments in the same words and manner for these besides the benefits by them received from God are tokens of an agreement among our selves for as right Baptism at large is a fixing the person in the Catholick Church so in order to his being joined more immediately to a branch of the Catholick Church the same form of Baptism which this particular one uses is required The like is to be said of the Lords Supper it is not only a sign of our Communion with Christ but of our Communion with the whole true Church upon Earth where the necessaries of administration are observ'd and when we practise in this the same allowable differences we manifest as by the necessaries that we are of the universal so by these allowable differences that we are more immediately of this or that particular Church and that in the phrase of St. Paul we being many are one The third instance of diligence is a subordinate watching over the People I call it a subordinate watching because watching implies a care joyn'd with authority and neither of them originally in the Presbyter but the care

assign'd and the authority permitted by the superior order The primitive Church call'd Presbyters which in our English abridgment of the word is Priests * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the sacred Officers of the second Throne These St. Ignatius tells us * Euseb. hist. l. 10. c. 5. might do nothing without the Bishop but on the other hand it needs not now move any doubt what St. Cyprian writes * Ignat. Ep. ad trall that he did nothing without his Presbyters No more do our Bishops when they only execute those Canons made by our Provincial Councils of which the Presbyters are a part The care over the people is exercised in private and personal reproving comforting instructing reconciling and the rest as they become necessary and since the ill times make it highly so in warning them to beware of separation from the Church of this the Apostles and their Successors took the greatest care that the people should not severally entertain opposite Teachers nor forget the assembling of themselves together and they reckon'd to them Schism equal to the most scandalous and destructive sins To this matter St. Barnabas speaks thus * Epist. Cathol ye ought not to draw your selves apart as if ye were justified for the Scripture saith quotiog Isa. 5. 22. wo unto them that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight The same disswasive is the main design of St. Clemens's Epistles and of almost all of St. Ignatius but most largely the empty pleas for separation are confuted by St. Cyprian * l. 3 Epist. 3. and the aggravation and future punishment thereof is display'd by St. Iraeneus * l. 4. c. 62. We must likewise warn an indifferent sort of people that come both to our publick Assemblies and to those set up through a dislike taken causlesly against our Church it is no light matter left at discretion to joyn either to one or other we never find that the right Christians went to the Assemblies of the Montanists though Tertullion who too well knew them vouches that they were orthodox in Doctrine * Non aliquam fidei aut spei regulum evertunt Tertul. advers Phychicos only differing in some points of Discipline We can no more belong both to the Church and adverse Meeting than we can serve two Masters to this purpose there is an old Canon * Canon Apostol 63. Concil that by the sixth General Council is reckon'd Apostolick * Constantinopels 4. Can. 2. that he that prays with them in the Conventicles set up against the Church shall be deprived of the Churches Communion The fourth and last advice of St. Paul is to have a conversation sutable to the Ministerial Office We must have a conversation which becomes the Gospel which we preach St. Paul requires that we follow after righteousness godliness faith love patience meekness 1 Tim. 6. 11. and the like advice 2 Ep. 2. 22. and to Titus 2. 7. that in all things he shew himself a pattern of good works when he says a pattern he means not any thing in our conversation wherein no one is bound to imitate us but in every Moral duty as belonging to all men a Minister is bound to be first and most remarkable As we are to be patterns to others so we must take those that have gone before for ours It was said by our Saviour of the Baptist that he was a burning and a shining light the common gloss should teach us he burn'd in his zeal and shin'd in his example it is not only he that Teaches but who likewise does that shall be call'd Great in the Kingdom of Heaven It is a commendation given of Origen that his doctrine and his manners did agree and of Nazianzen that he never gave in charge to his Scholars any thing which he had not first practis'd upon himself It is certain that all men are drawn more readily by examples than by fine sayings and are like Soldiers who more chearfully follow their Commander than his bare Commands A good life makes a Preacher not only better heard but to understand better if any man will do the will of God he shall know of his doctrine for the secrets of the Lord are with those that fear him and the Schechinah say the Iews was not afforded but to the best of men Real goodness gives a sense and tast upon our minds of what we recommend to others and the good counsel we give being wrought and pointed in our Hearts pierces further into our Hearers By our living soberly righteously and godlily men will be assured that when we perswade them to the same duties we are in good earnest and that we do not meerly preach these things as customary and expected or as pretty clean speculation but as our and their Duty as a practical truth and as such which is not only requir'd but possible by this means we shall gain both an esteem and success to our Ministry when our actions do not shame our speech when our Hearers cannot whisper why Does he not what he Says To conclude now with the exhortation of St. Peter applied to our purpose Let us have our conversation honest amongst men that when they speak against us as evil doers they may by our good works which they shall behold glorifie God To whom the Father Son and the Holy Ghost three Persons and one God be all Honour given for ever more The End ERRATA Page 10. line 24. r. 1 Ep. pag. 11. l. 7. r. Karraei pag. 12. l. 27. dele in A Catalogue of some Books and Sermons Printed for and sold by H. Brome since the dreadful Fire of London to 1678. COmber on the Common-Prayer in two Volumes octavo Dean W. Lloyd's Sermon before the King about Miracles His Sermon at the Funeral of John Lord Bishop of Chester 6 d. His Sermon before the King in Lent 1673. 6 d. The Seasonable Discourse against Popery in quarto 6 d. The Defence of it quart 6 d. The difference betwixt the Church and Court of Rome quarto 6 d. The Papists Apology to the Parliament answered 6 d. Mr. Naylors Commemoration Sermon for Colonel Cavendish 6 d. Mr. Sayer's Sermon at the Assizes at Reading 6 d. Papal Tyranny as it was exercised over England for some Ages with two Sermons on the fifth of No. by D. Du Moulin quar 1s 6 d. His Sermon at the Funeral of Dr. Turner Dean of Canterbury 6 d. Bishop Laney's last Sermon before the King The Reformed Monastery or Love of Iesus The History of the Charterhouse with the Life and last Will of Thomas Sutton Esq Mr. Pindar's Sermon before the Lord Mayor Considerations touching the true way to Suppress Popery in England with an Historical Account of the Reformation here in England