Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	earth_n	heaven_n	militant_a	4,766	5	11.7120	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A38583	The reasonableness of our Christian service (as it is contained in the Book of Common-Prayer) evidenced and made clear from the authority of Scriptures and practice of the primitive Christians, or, A short rationale upon our morning and evening service as it is now established in the Church of England wherein every sentence therein contained is manifestly proved out of the Holy Bible, or plainly demonstrated to be consonant thereto / composed and written by Thomas Elborow, vicar of Cheswick ; and since his death made publick by the care and industry of Jo. Francklyn ...	Elborow, Thomas.	1678 (1678)	Wing E324; ESTC R31410	96,665	240

Confession Contrition works of Mercy and all kind of Reformation of our lives to labour for Absolution and in all these humbly to beg of God his special grace that it may go along with all these outward ordinances and diligently to watch observe and receive it in the use of them and to lay it up in honest hearts that we may bring forth fruits with patience neither resisting nor repelling nor grieving nor quenching this Holy Spirit of God whereby we are sealed if we do not betray our selves unto the day of complete Redemption Ephes 4.30 The holy Catholick Church the Communion of Saints As the first part of the Creed was chiefly concerning God so the latter part of it is principally relating to the Church of God as we begin with God in our Confession of Faith so we end with the Church for unless we are of the Church we shall lose our interest in God Now by Church in this place we are to understand a society of Believers ruled and continued according to all the ordinances before-mentioned of the Holy Ghost's settling and establishing which Church is described by these three properties Holy Catholick a Communion of Saints 1. The Church is remarkably said to be Holy in respect of the holy Powers and Offices which are settled in it and upon it in respect of the Holy Ghost the author and founder of them in respect of Christ the Head of it who is most holy in respect of the Faith of the Church which is in it self holy and makes us holy in respect of that sanctity and holiness of life which ought to be in all the Members of it in respect of the great design in the first constitution of it which was to beget and to increase holiness 2. The Church is remarkably said to be Catholick which word signifies 1. Orthodoxal as having Truth in it and so it is distinguished from the Societies of Hereticks and Schismaticks wherein is errour and falshood 2. Universal dispersed and extended all the world over and so it is distinguished from the Church of the Jews which was an inclosure divided from all the world beside It is Universal also in respect of the same Faith which it teaches to all men in all places and at all times and in respect of the same Laws and Constitutions according to which all Reformations ought to be made otherwise they will appear to be rather Innovations then Reformations an introducing of new things rather then a restoring of the old Lastly the Church is remarkably said to be a Communion of Saints in respect of the Communion of Faith and Laws in respect of the Communion of Sanctity and Holiness which ought to be in all the Members of it and in respect of the communications of Charity First Corporal charity to all the Fellow-members of Christ that are in need Secondly Spiritual charity expressed to mens souls by advice counsel reprehension spiritual conference and in any kind of effusion of Grace from God to us in praying with and for one another in praising God with and for one another which last is a duty continued mutually betwixt us and the glorified Saints in Heaven so far as is most commodious to the condition of each As the Saints in rest and joy and advanced towards the Throne of Glory in Heaven pray for their younger brethren on Earth so the Saints who are yet in the Camp and Militant on Earth praise God for those revelations of his Grace and Glory which he hath bestowed upon their elder brethren in Heaven As the Saints and Members of the Church hold communion with Christ the Head have interest in all his benefits go sharers in the common Salvation so do they hold communion one with another As in the body natural so in Christ's mystical body the Church there is a perpetual sympathy between the parts if one Member suffer all suffer with it if one be had in honour all rejoyce with it 1 Cor. 12.26 Neither doth death it self dissolve this communion for the knot of fellowship holds between the Saints departed this world and those who still remain in it The departed Saints pray to God for our good in general and we praise God for their good in particular we praise God for giving them such eminent graces on Earth and such unspeakable glories in Heaven in affections and hearts we converse with them we love their memories use all innocent means to have their exemplary lives propounded to us for our imitation we desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ and them and we judge it the greatest honour that we can do them to imitate their pious and holy lives and that we may do this in our annual day of commemoration for All-Saints we pray That as God hath knit together his Elect in one communion and fellowship in the mystical body of his Son Christ our Lord so he would grant us grace so to follow his blessed Saints in all vertuous and godly living that we may come to those unspeakable joys which he hath prepared for them who unfeignedly love him through Jesus Christ our Lord. The forgiveness of sins That is I believe that by the death and sufferings of Christ there is pardon and remission to be had in the Church for all true penitent sinners which pardon all true penitens upon exact examination of themselves may be able to pronounce unto themselves but the Minister whose office it is upon a clear view of conscience so far as is fairly possible may pronounce it more authoritatively yet neither of them can do it infallibly so that as to their pronouncing Remission of sins is not properly a matter of Faith neither can it well be But the matter of Faith which is contained in this Article is this To believe that the forfeiting of our perfect unsinning innocence in Paradise shall not be able to exclude us from Gods favour and grace here nor from Heaven hereafter if we sincerely turn from sin and return to God for God is pleased to accept of Christ's sufferings as a meet and meritorious satisfaction for all true penitent sinners We are born in sin and we grow from sin to sin from bad to worse naturally and it is by the grace of God that our sins are remitted which remission is conveyed to us whilst we are in the Church and continue Church-Members by Prayer the Word and the Sacraments This Remission is not to be imputed to our merit but to Gods mercy who beholds all true penitent Christians in Christ and upon their unfeigned repentance and amendment reputes their sins as no sins But that we may have our sins pardoned and forgiven it concerns us to set our selves sincerely and industriously to the performance of those conditions upon which remission of sins is to be had to repent of them to reform from them to amend our lives to fly sin and to follow sanctity to continue in a full assurance of hope towards God that

if we perform our parts God in Christ will never fail in his To pray to God in Christ daily for his mercy to continue in the most melting state of humility and meekness always remembring that all the good we do or can attain to in this life or the next is not to be imputed to us or to any thing in us but is wholly to be acknowledged the purchase of Christ who hath by his passion and sufferings alone delivered us from the punishment of our sins which punishment is the deprivation of Gods grace here and of the vision of God hereafter For all the strength which any Christian hath to resist any sin is but a consequent of Gods being reconciled to us in Christ and for his sake not imputing to us our trespasses The Resurrection of the body That is I believe that this flesh of ours which by the curse of God inflicted on sin goes down to the Grave shall most certainly be raised again out of the Grave though it be the punishment of all mankind by reason of Adam's fall to be mortal and to dye yet this punishment is removed and allayed by Christ in respect of all his faithful Servants the bitter and noxious part of death is taken away so far as concerns them the sting of death is plucked out and the Grave is turned into a place of repose and rest where their bodies shall sleep until they are awakened unto bliss That power which raised up Jesus will raise up us also God who fetched all out of nothing by his word can by the last Trump call all of us out of the dust and restore our bodies again to us however they may be changed or transmuted Christ is risen as the First-fruits the heap will follow Christ is risen as the Head the body will follow and if it should not be so our bodies which are both the instruments and co-partners of all sin and of all righteous actions and sufferings would be left unpunished and unrewarded Now the belief of the Resurrection of the body should teach us to keep our bodies in a rising condition not by uncleanness drunkeness worldly-mindedness or floth to nail our hearts and to fasten our affections to the Earth but by purity sobriety heavenly-mindedness and an holy industry to fit our bodies for that Heavenly and Divine condition to which after the Grave we hope to be advanced And to pray to God for this perfection and bliss not only for our selves but for all others who are already entred into Gods rest that souls and bodies joyned may dwell together in the heavenly and endless life of bliss and glory And the life everlasting This is the chief good and last end which we gain by being in the Church and true Members of it Life everlasting all men on earth have life but it is not everlasting life the damned in Hell shall have that which is everlasting but it shall be death rather then life for they shall be tyed perpetually unto torments only the true Members of the Church shall attain to life everlasting an inheritance purchased for them by Christ and yet is it also notwithstanding that purchase Gods free donation if we begin with God and continue Members of his Church this will be our end Everlasting life The life we lead here is finite short and feeble but the life which shall follow the Resurrection of the body will be infinite everlasting an endless state in endless bliss to every true penitent believer and of endless woe to all contumacious provokers How should this teach us seriously to weigh and soberly to consider these two distant states and to be careful not to forfeit our interest in the one nor for a little transitory joy honour and gain or ease for a few minutes here to incur the danger of the other How should this teach us so to use and improve that moment of life which we have here that it may be made a foundation of Eternity God hath set before us life and death and seems to have left either of them too to our own option and choice And if it be so then if we will not accept of the terms and conditions upon which life is offered us we must of necessity for our despising life fall into death Certainly men as men were neither created nor decreed absolutely to Heaven or Hell for Heaven is our crown not our fate our reward not our destiny so neither is Hell our fate or destiny but our punishment God who made us rational men provided also for us rational rewards and rational punishments so that if we miss of Heaven happiness and bliss and Hell become our portion it will be for our own default it must be our own wretched contempt which deprives us of the one and brings us to the other There is an Eternity of joy to be had upon a very rational and easie obedience and an Eternity of misery belongs only to those who fall in love with those things which will inevitably make them miserable God made not death for man but he created Paradise for him the everlasting fire was prepared first for the Devil and his Angels and ungodly men by their own words and works made it to become their portion they did as it were commit a Riot upon Hell and invade Lucifer's peculiar And it is a sad thing to consider how foolish men will strive more vehemently for a sad portion in the burning Lake and endure more for Hell then for Heaven take more pains for Eternal death then for Everlasting life Now although all is true which is expresly contained in the Creed and we may say Amen give our free and full assent to the truth and certainty of it and that there is an Everlasting life is as true as any Article in the Creed beside yet it is to be presumed that there are two sorts of wicked men who shall never come to this life everlasting 1. Wicked Infidels who believe contrary to the Faith of Christ 2. Wicked Believers who live contrary to it They who would have life everlasting must have it upon those terms and conditions upon which it is offered that is not only upon the condition of a sound Faith but also of a sincere obedience as it is written If thou wilt enter into life keep the commandments Mat. 19.17 RUBRICK And after that these Prayers following all devoutly kneeling the Minister first pronouncing with a loud voice The Lord be with you Ruth 2.4 Answer And with thy Spirit 2 Tim. 4.22 Minister Let us pray Psal 95.6 Lord have mercy upon us Christ have mercy upon us Lord have mercy upon us Luk. 18.13 Mat. 15.22 Mark 10.47 48. Psal 123.3 EXPLANATION The forementioned Prayers delivered in the very Scripture phrase are Christian Salutations very well becoming the people of God and passing reciprocally betwixt Priest and People The like in ordinary use among us are God save you God speed you God bless you