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
A92800	A wedding ring fit for the finger: or, The salve of divinity on the sore of humanity. Laid open in a sermon at a wedding in Edmonton, / by William Secker preacher of the Gospel.	Secker, William, d. 1681?	1658 (1658)	Wing S2254; Thomason E1648_4; ESTC R209103	12,466	54

enough to cover their unchastity turning the medicine of frailty into the mantle of filthinesse Certainly she is mad that cuts off her legge to get her a crutch or that venomes her face to weare a mask Saint Paul makes it one of the Characters of those that should cashiere the faith 1 Tim. 4. 3. Not to forbear marriage which may be lawful but to forbid it which is sinful One of the Popes of Rome sprinkles this unholy drop upon it carnis polutionem immunditiem It 's strange that that should be a pollution which was instituted before corruption or that impurity which was ordained in the state of innocency or that they should make that be to a sinne which they make to be a Sacrament But a Bastard may be laid at the door of chastity and a leaden crown set upon a golden head Bellarmine that mighty Atlas of the Papal power blowes his stinking breath upon it saying better were it for a Priest to defile himself with many Harlots than to be married to one wife These children of the purple-whore preferre their Monasteries before our Marriages a concubine before a companion They use too many for their lusts to choose any for their love Their tables are so largely spread that they can't feed upon one dish As for their exalting of a Virgin-state it 's like him that commended fasting when he had fill'd his belly Who knowes not that Virginity is a pearle of sparkling lustre But can't the one be set up without the other be thrown down will no oblation pacifie the former but the demolishing of the latter Though we find many enemies to the choice of marriage yet it 's rare to finde any enemies to the use of marriage They would pick the lock that want the key and pluck the fruit that do not plant the Tree The Hebrewes have a saying He is not a man that hath not a woman Though they clime too high a bough yet it 's to be feared that such flesh is full of imperfection that is not tending to propagation Though man alone may be good yet it is not good that the man should be alone whichleads me from the subject to the predicate It is not good c. Non bonum is not in this place as malum but bonum est honestum utile jucundum Now it is not good that man should be in a single condition upon a threefold consideration 1. In respect of sinne which would not else be prevented Marriage is like water to quench the sparkes of lusts fire 1 Cor. 7. 2. Neverthelesse to avoid fornication let every one have his own wife c. Man needed no such physick when he was in perfect health Temptations may break natures best fence and lay it's Paradise waste but a single life is a prison of unruly desires which is daily attempted to be broken open Some indeed force themselves to a single life meerely to avoid the charges of a married state they had rather fry in the grease of their own sensuality than extinguish those flames with an allowed remedy It 's better to marry than to burn to be lawfully coupled than to be lustfully scorched It 's best feeding these flames with ordinare fewel 2. 'T is not good in respect of mankinde which then would not be propagated The Roman Historian relating the ravishing of the Sabine women excused it thus Res exat unius aetatis populus virorum without them mankinde would fall from the earth and perish Marriages do turne mutability into the image of eternity it springs up new buds when the old are withered It 's a greater honour for a man to be the father of one sonne than to be the Master of many servants Without a wife children can't be had lawfully without a good wife children can't be had comfortably Man and woman as the stock and the scien being grafted in marriage are trees bearing fruit to the world Saint Augustine sayes this pair is primum par fundamentum omnium c. They are the first linck of humane society to which all the rest are joyned Mankinde had long ago decayed and been like a Taper fall'n into the socket if those breaches which are made by mortality were not repaired by Matrimony 3. 'T is not good in regard of the Church which could not then have been expatiated Where there is no generation there can be no regeneration Nature makes us Creatures before Grace makes us Christians If the loines of men had been lesse fruitfull the death of Christ would have been lesse successeful It was a witty question that one put to him that said marriages fills the earth but virginity fills the heavens How can the heavens be full if the earth be empty Had Adam lived in Innocency without Matrimony there would have been no servants for God in the Church Militant nor no Saint with God in the Church Triumphant But I will not sinke this Vessel by the over-burdening of it nor presse this truth to death by laying too great a load upon its shoulders There is one knot which I must unty before I make a farther progresse 1 Corinthians 7. 1. It is good for a man not to touch a woman Doth all the Scriptures proceed out of the same mouth and do they not all speak the same truth the God of unity will not indite discord and the God of verity cannot assert falsehood If good and evil be contraries how contrary then are these Scriptures Either Moses mistakes God or Paul mistakes Moses about the point of marriage To which I shall give a double answer 1. There is a publick and a private good In respect of one man it may be good not to touch a woman but in respect of all So it is not good that the man should be alone 2. Moses speaks of the state of man created Paul of the state of man corrupted now that which by institution was a mercy may by corruption become a misery as pure water is tainted by running through a miry channel or as the Sunne-beames recieves a tincture by shining through a coloured glasse There 's no print of evil in the world but sinne was the stamp that made it They which seek nothing but weal in its commission will finde nothing but woe in the conclusion Which leades me from the solitarinesse of the condition man alone to the sutablenesse of the provision I will make her an help meet for him In which you have two parts 1. The Agent I will make 2. The Object a help First The Agent I will make We can't build a house without tooles but the Trinity is at liberty Dic verbum tantum To Gods omniscience there 's nothing invisible and to Gods omnipotence there 's nothing impossible We work by hands without but he workes without hands He that made man meet for help makes a meet help for man Marriages are consented above but consummated below Prov. 18. 22. Though man wants supply yet man cannot