Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	communion_n	member_n	separation_n	3,098	5	9.7439	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A34575	The great necessity of preparation for death and judgment a sermon preached in the parochial chappel of Macclesfield, in the county palatine of Chester, at the funeral of Mr. John Corker, als Cor Cor, of Hurdesfield, on the eleventh day of November, 1693, and since revised and enlarg'd at the request of the relations of the deceased / by Samuel Corker, als Cor Cor ...	Corker, Samuel, 1645 or 6-1713.	1695 (1695)	Wing C6307; ESTC R9062	80,354	95

ever In the following verses v. 8.9 he reflects their Argument and shews that a thousand years which by a Synecdoche may be put for the longest revolution of time is with an infinite and eternal God but as one day who tho he protracts his promise hath not changed his purpose but will fulfill it and his forbearing to do it is out of abundance of patience and long-suffering to Sinners as also for the tender love he bears to his Spouse the Church which is a Body made up of collective parts and by degrees in fluxu corpore temporum as Tertul. saith in every Age and Generation there being more or less to be gathered into Christ's Sheepfold which shall obtain Salvation and tho there are strifes and contentions divisions and schisms within the Church's Bosom which break her peace and unity by a voluntary recession of some of her members from her Communion upon the account of stricter Purity Vid. The Bishop of Worcester's unreasonableness of Separation which was the Plea of Parmenian and Petilian in the last Conference at Carthage of Felicissimus and his Brethren for their separation from St. Cyprian and of the Meletians Luciferians and Donatists in general Tho there be heretical Opinions and erroneous Doctrines which externally oppose the sound fundamental Principles of Christian Religion and undermine the Faith of Christ in some one or more essential Branches of it yet these things must be 1 Cor. 11.19 that they which are approved may be made manifest and that others who are now in being or yet unborn may in succession of time be added to the Church and by Faith and Repentance obtain Salvation for this reason that the seed of Christians that the numbers of Believers may be compleated the conflagration of the world is protracted and the great Judge delays his coming but for this he will most certainly perform his word We have the highest testimony that can be given to confirm us in the belief of this Article of our Faith viz. of good men who spake by the Inspiration of the Holy Ghost of blessed and glorious Angels of God and Christ himself who at his Ascension into Heaven gave his disconsolate Apostles an assured promise that he would come again We have the testimony of good men who spake as they were inspired God was pleased in former times to reveal his mind unto his Prophets by sundry degrees and parcels and in divers forms and manners of Revelation To the Prophet Daniel he communicated this great truth in a vision by night to whom this great Assize was represented after the manner of the great Synedrion or Consistory of Israel V. Mr. Mede's Answer to Dr. Meddus Wherein the Pater Judicii had his Assessors as afterwards Constantine the Great had in the Synod of Nice sitting semi-circle wise before him from his right hand to his left Dan. 7.10 13 14. He beheld till the Thrones were pitched down for the Senators to sit upon and the Ancient of Days Pater Consistorii who is the King and Judge of all so called because of his eternal Deity which is without beginning of time or end of days did sit whose Garment was white as Snow and the hair of his Head like pure Wooll his Throne was like the fiery Flames a fiery stream issued and came forth from before him Words denoting his Majesty and Righteousness in Judgment and his Justice in giving Sentence thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him and the Books viz. of Conscience and of God's eternal Decree were opened and behold one like the Son of man came with the Clouds of Heaven c. a very lively description of Christ's Advent for it well agrees with what the Apostles and Evangelists have said of it in the New Testament To this may be added Job's evidence concerning it he was a good man and had his hopes fixed above the felicity of this world his Faith mounted aloft in the serious meditation of a Redeemer and in the premeditation of his coming to Judgment Job 19.25 26. I know that my Redeemer liveth and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the Earth It was an Article of this holy Patriarch's Faith that at the end of the World the day of the general Resurrection and Judgment Jesus Christ should appear in person on Earth and raise up his people and vindicate them from all the injuries and reproaches which are now cast upon them and bring them to glory and that the Judge should be visible he affirms in the following words In my flesh shall I see God In this numerical body which is now full of sores and ulcers in this putrid rotten flesh which is now in a great measure wasted and consumed and shall certainly become a prey to worms and put on rottenness and corruption in this same body which shall be raised from the Grave by the mighty power of God and be re-united to my soul with these same eyes which I now have shall I see my Redeemer whom I shall see for my self and not by a deputy or proxy but in my own person for my own comfort and benefit and to my own infinite happiness and satisfaction Mine eyes shall behold him and not another With these organs of light shall I see the Judge in his own proper person and not in any representative of him This was an early Doctrin in the Church of God and ought for the great antiquity thereof to be believed and reverenced for it is as old as Enoch the seventh Patriarch in a descent of the Churches line from Adam a very good man who was the great Instance of Piety and Vertue in a corrupt Age and for his extraordinary obedience received an unusual reward viz. a bodily change from a mortal and corruptible to an immortal and incorruptible state without any separation of his soul from his body Being translated Heb. 11.5 that he should not see death This righteous person hath given in his suffrage to this Doctrin saying Behold Jude v. 14.15 the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgment upon all But forasmuch as guilty Criminals endeavour to banish the thoughts of the Judges coming out of their minds this great Article of the Christian Religion had need of all the strength of evidence that can be given it Therefore we have in the second place 2. The infallible testimony of pure and spotless Angels that are confirmed in holiness and goodness Two of those blessed Spirits who descended from Heaven to attend upon our Saviour's glorious and triumphant Ascension into Heaven told his Disciples who waited on their Lord to the top of Mount Olivet and there saw him taken up and received out of their sight by a Cloud that his going away from them was not a final departure but only for a time and with a full purpose of returning again While they stedfastly looked