Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	doctrine_n	rome_n	transubstantiation_n	3,441	5	11.1236	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A12165	A verie godlie and necessary sermon preached before the yong countesse of Cumberland in the North, the 14 of Nouember, 1577. By Christopher Shutt.	Shutte, Christopher, d. 1626.	1578 (1578)	STC 22470; ESTC S103003	33,188	104

those that lie in darkenes and shadow of death vntill they haue accesse into the Church of the faythfull For so lōg as we be without the church and number of the faythfull we are aliants strangers pilgrims and men without God in this worlde yea wee bee enemies to God vntil we be reconciled to the father by Christ We are without mercy and polluted in our bloud vntil by him we obtaine grace be washed from our sinnes We are dead in trespasses and sinnes till we be raised vp with the righteousnes of Christ We be drunkē with the poisoned dregges of superstition vntil we haue the soueraigne triacle of Gods promises in the worde of the truth for our preseruation How thē ought we think you to make haste into this arke your owne cōsciences herein shal be my iudges Surely we can not be partakers of the heauenly graces except we be within the church of Christ for onely vpon the same they are bestowed Where can our soules be fed with the worde of God but among the faythfull who are the sheepe of Christ heare his voice Where shall we shew our thankfulnesse and confirme our faith with the sacraments but in that Church where thei be sincerely ministred Where can we haue forgiuenesse of our sinnes the grace of God the holy ghost the righteousnesse of Christ and other his benefits vnlesse we be within the Church for whom he wrought the same If therefore we hope for happines looke assuredly for saluation thē must we keepe within the arke then we shall be safe and sounde And that we be not deceyued with the title of the Church which the aduersaries always haue in their mouthes the Lord hath left vs his true and sincere worde the right administratiō of his sacraments and ecclesiasticall discipline to be the perfect marks of this his spirituall arke whereto whilest we do cleaue stick we cannot be deceyued or perish with the wicked What then sayth the papist shall we thinke of all those which liued in the time of ignorāce and were without the Church which now we haue which was so lately found shall we iudge them to be damned which thing we must needes do except wee make the Church of Rome the arke and Church of Christ Concerning the Church of Rome this is to be obserued that this Church of Rome which nowe is is not the same but only in place with that which was in the primitiue time For then they followed the doctrine of the Apostles nowe they haue reuolted from the same and Antichrist sitteth in the Temple of God. And though the auncient fathers speake much in the commendation of the Church of Rome yet speake they only of the church before that superstition crept into the same And now before I answere to this question I must propounde the like to them Before the time of Boniface the third then Pope of Rome when superstition and corruptiō crept into the Church and the light of the trueth began to be darkned were all damned which neuer before or after yeelded to the sea religion of Rome Were all vndone which neuer beleeued transubstantiation concluded by Innocētius the third or those which neuer worshipped their breaden god which thing Honorius did decree What need I speake of other vanities Were all the Prophetes and holy men of God was Christ and his Apostles and the auncient fathers of the primitiue Church beside the way and out of the arke which had the spirite of God to lead thē into all truth who taught the sacred verities and all things necessarie to saluation and yet did neuer retaine such vanities as these men holde And if they did foretell any thing thereof it was but to bid the Church beware of such vngodlinesse And as for the arke or Church wherein we bee it was before theirs was euer deuised not newly and of late yeeres as many iudge begunne but renued and reformed of late according to the worde of God and is in substāce and doctrine all one with the Church of God from the beginning directed by his spirit and by the scepter of his worde And albeit it was long hid through the tyrannie of the deuill who draue the woman into the wildernes yet ceased there not infinite numbers to withstande and gainsay the pollutions of Idolatrie whom God preserued by his grace though they could not bee seene by the eyes of men For like as faith is chiefly knowē to God and cannot be discerned by outwarde senses otherwise then by the declarations thereof so the Lorde knewe onely who were his whose fayth was knowne by their resistance to the beast When Iohn foretold the corruptions of the later times and of the man of sinne he shewed that there was of all tribes many sealed with the spirit of God and marked with the blood of the Lambe receyued by fayth who perished not in the lake of Antichristes pollutions He tolde that the two witnesses of Christ whereby he meant the smal number of the true Church should be murthered by the beast who should make warre with the saints of God and torment them to death who should be drunken with the blood of saints and holy martyrs which could neuer haue beene if there had bene none to haue gainsaid his wicked ways I neede not speake of the churches of Grecia who still withstood the popish vanities yea there neuer ceased some to withstande hir erronious religion Neither must we thinke that all was lost that liued thē For why the Lord hath wayes meanes vnknowen to man to saue his people as hee saued the thiefe euen in the last houre vpon the crosse And as he hath chosen in his secret purpose vnknowne to man who shall bee saued so will he not lose one of them but call them in due time As for this argument which they vse herein it hath bene a stūbling blocke to the wicked of all ages The Iewes were mooued with nothing so much to gainsay the doctrine of the Prophets calling them from their Idolatrie but that their fathers had liued as they did at that present and yet they ought not to haue folowed their fathers further then their fathers folowed the worde of trueth The woman of Samaria reasoned thus against our Sauiour Christ Our fathers saith shee worshipped in this mountaine but hee made hir an answere that they worshipped they knewe not what for saluation came of the Iewes But it is not the part of a good cōscience whē the trueth is opened to leape from the same into the seat of iudgement and define who were saued who were not but rather referring al to the mercy and good pleasure of God both concerning our forefathers all others to labour our wittes to do his will. For now this thing is condemnation that light is come into the world