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
A43652	A discourse to prove that the strongest temptations are conquerable by Christians, or, A sober defence of nature and grace against the cavils and excuses of loose inconsiderate men in a sermon preach'd before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor of London, and court of aldermen, the 14th of January, 1676/7 / by George Hickes ...	Hickes, George, 1642-1715.	1677 (1677)	Wing H1846; ESTC R34459	17,275	42

assisting Grace concur to the aid and relief of all those that need and sincerely desire it and like the good and faithful Servant in the Gospel improve it as fast as it is bestowed To all which let me add the Precepts of Mortification Patience and Self-denial the Exhortations to keep our selves Pure Temperate Sober Chast to be stedfast and unmoveable to be stedfast to the end to resist the Devil to resist him unto Blood Of all which and the like Exhortations if we consider God as the Original Author it must needs follow that Men in Covenant with him have ordinarily power to resist the World the Flesh and the Devil nay to resist them all to Martyrdom and to Blood And therefore none but Fools and Atheists can be so absurd and impious as to imagin that God with Reverence be it spoken can so transgress the Rules of common sense as to advise his Creatures to the practice of those Duties which he knew bofore were impossible to be done Nay this damnable assertion of the Libertines of this Age who like that filthy Goat Nero think all the World as lascivious as themselves robs God of his Goodness by imagining he can delude his reasonable Creatures so far as to put them upon the Practice of those Duties which he knew were impracticable and above their Power to do But God that is better acquainted with our Nature than we our selves can put us upon nothing but what he knows is either absolutely in our power or at least as to conquer Temptations is within the power of our Nature assisted by Grace to perform For this very reason it is that God and the Church bind every Christian at his first admission into Covenant by such a solemn Oath to resist Temptations as I mention'd in the beginning of this Discourse the substance of which solemn obligation amounts to thus much I do here in the presence of God my Saviour and all the Heavenly Host devote my self to the service of God I call Heaven and Earth the Church Militant and Triumphant to bear witness that I renounce the World the Flesh and the Devil and that I 'le resist their Temptations to my last breath This I avow to be my resolution and upon this condition and this alone I now desire to enter into Covenant with my God and be admitted into his Church and I call my Conscience to Record this day that I will never repent of this Promise nor revoke it but continue Christs faithful Souldier to the end of my Life So help me O my God 'T is impossible for the Conscience of Man or Angel to be bound by a stronger Obligation than this but unless the Matter of it be practicable 't is a solemn piece of Nonsense and Delusion and God and his Church for above 1600 Years have mock'd and abus'd the World The second Reason by which I undertake to prove my Assertion shall be taken from the consideration of the nature of Repentance which consists in an unfeigned sorrow for our Sins past and a sincere Resolution by Gods assistance to lead an Holy Life for the time to come But if Men be conscious to themselves that the Sins they committed they could by no means resist why should they sorrow and repent for what is past or so contradict themselves and mock God as to promise amendment for the time to come Why instead of confessing their Sins to him do they not rather expostulate with him and say 'T is true O Lord I have done many things which Men that pretend to be thy Ministers and trouble the World by thy Authority declare to be grievous Sins but if they be I protest I could not help it Thou knowest I could not resist them and if Thou wouldst have me do better for the time to come thou must give me more Grace than hitherto I have had Which horrible Expostulation shews how inconsistent this damnable Doctrin I oppose is to the Duty of Repentance how ridiculous it renders Confession and Contrition for Sin nay how it makes the greatest Sins we are tempted to commit no Sins at all And many more such dreadful consequences flow from it as may justly make the Blades or licentious Wits that talk it about the Town if they have any Sense or Conscience left to abhor it and recant My third Reason is taken from the consideration of the Nature of Laws which commonly besides the things they command or forbid contain either general or special Threatnings and Promises as most proper and suitable motives to engage us to perform the Duties we ought to do and abstain from the Sins we ought not to commit But if the free and rational Nature of Man neither simply in it self nor with the assistance of God if Reason with no more than without Grace have power to overcome Temptations to wilful Sin it would be transcendent Folly and Cruelty for Princes and States to make Temporal Laws for their Subjects and much more for God to make Spiritual Laws for his Church He might with as much Wisdom and Justice have charged Men not to be Hungry or Sick not to be Hot or Cold as not to commit Adultery not to Steal not to Murther not to bear False Witness c. unless by some means or other it be in their power to resist the strongest Temptations that the Wit of Men or Devils can invent to induce them to commit the foresaid Sins My fourth Reason I ground on the 10th of St. Matthew v. 33. where our Saviour declares that Whosoever shall deny him before Men that him will he deny before his Father whith is in Heaven But were any Suffering so intolerably sharp were any persecutions so dismal and grievous that it were impossible for supported Humane Nature to bear them were all the Torments of a Roman Inquisition and all the Artifices of Cruelty which Wit and Malice could invent above the Courage and Resolution of a Christian and insuperable by Reason strengthened with Grace The Blessed Jesus who took our Infirmities upon him and knew by experience what Humane Nature was He I say that was made like unto his Brethren that he might be a Merciful and Faithful High-Priest would never deny any Man a share in his Atonement for doing that which extremity of Torment must force him to commit To conclude with such another Reason You may remember that our Saviour in the Description he gives of Hell in the 9th of St. Mark hath this ingenious Hebrew Phrase Where their Worm dyeth not which Worm according to the sense both of the Jewish and Christian Church signifies nothing here and in the 66th of Isaiah but that Stinging remorse of Conscience or continual Fret or Vexation of Soul in Damned Spirits caused by the remembrance and consideration of the wilfull Treachery and Baseness of their own Hearts in committing those Sins and yielding to those Temptations which they knew they had power sufficient to resist But were the