Selected quad for the lemma: church_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A96034
|
A glasse and salve for professors held to them. By William Voile minister of the Gospel.
|
Voile, William.
|
1668
(1668)
|
Wing V749A; ESTC R186085
|
101,652
|
114
|
sins and to do your duty or else suffer whâ—t ye are unwilling to suffer But the love of Christ in dying for poor miserable sinners when they were without strength to help themselves and unworthy to be pitied and helped constraineth those who live by and through him not to live to themselves but to him who died for them and rose again 2 Cor. 5. 14 15. 2. Brethren ye ought to reform your conversings universally and unreservedly compleatly 1. That your sins may be blotted out c. Act. 3. 19. 2. That ye may attain that great salvation Prov. 28. 13. 2 Cor. 7. 10. 3. That ye may be vesseâ—s unto honour meet for the Masters use 2 Tim. 2. 21 22. 4. That ye may be blameless and harmless the children of God without rebuke in the midst of the Nation among whom ye live Phil. 2. 15. 5. That ye may be able to pray as the Psalmist prayes Psal 119. 28 41 58 76. 107 116 154 169 176. 6. That your prayers may be the more effectual and of the greater force towards the near-approaching destruction of Babylon and the hastening of Christ's reign on earth if he shall reign here otherwise than now he doth either in person or by the Saints and the coming down of the holy City the new Jerusalem from God out of Heaven when the glory and and prosperity of the Church militant on earth shall be next to that of the Church triumphant in Heaven against which time we ought to be prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband Eph. 5. 27. Rev. 21. 1 2. Do not these things require an exact and plenary Reformation even the cleansing of our selves from all filthiness both of the flâ—sh and spirit 2 Cor 7. 1. and the keeping of our selves unspotted from the world Jam. 1. 27. I think they do 3. But let me shew you wherefore I think that of the Professors in England many be meer Formalâ—sts and many born again who are one or more degrees too short of that exact and even walking which is called for Eph. 5. 15. Heb. 12. 12 13. First Solomon Prov. 16. 7. saith When a mans wayes please the LORD he maketh his enemies to be at peace with him If this Scripture be of no great force now to make us fear that the waies of many Professors do not please the Lord I pray God we may not be as it were enforced to fear it hereafter by the encrease of our afflictions Secondly it is something to my purpose which we read of the weakness and failings of the twelve Apostles in the Histories of the Gospel and of Paul or Barnabas Act. 15. 16. c. and of Peter and Barnabas Gal. 2. 11. c. and in the Scriptures of the failings of others whereof I have named many Marg. 32 33 34. The Scriptures do witness that God's Covenant-servants yea his holy servants have missed it in a considerable measure before the Law and under the Law and under the Gospel 2. The devils are as malicious as cruel as strong as cunning as industrious and watchful as they have at any time hitherto been and if they have not gotten some skill by experience as some think they have yet if this be part of the time prophecied of Rev. 12. 12. the devil is very wroth against the Church of Christ more wroth than he hath ordinarily used to be And for the flesh in us that is by nature in respect of Temptations the same in all men and there is some quantity of it in the best men Gal. 5. 17. And the world that also is as to the tempting of men with its baits and allurements speaking in a general manner the very same which it hath been from the beginning only it is much fuller of such traps and snares than formerly So that an understanding and impartial stranger may think we have been and be as likely to trespass against our God as his servants of old have been 3. Is not this part of the time concerning which the faithful and true witness foretold Mat. 24. 12. that iniquity should abound and the love of many wax cold I believe it is and part of those perillous times which Paul prophecied of 2 Tim. 3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. and that the Formalists there spoken of be many of them such as have a spacious and specious form of godliness yea that many of them be men and women of this Nation because it hath so huge a multitude of Professors For the fuller any Countrey is of such the more probable it is that there be among them many meer Formalists But 4. my own experience and observation in near 50 years the unfit words which I have heard with my ears and the actions which I have seen with my eyes and that which I have heard of credible persons and my rational conjectures these do tell me that it may be very truly said of many Professors which Moses spake of the Israelites Deut. 29. 4. that they have not a heart to perceive and eyes to see and ears to hear unto this day For many Professors do so behave and carry themselves as if the forsaking of some gross sins entring into an excellent way of the Protestant Religion a partial form at home and going to Meetings were the four integral parts of godliness Insomuch that when there was a report that the Act of the Ministers removal five miles was rerejected there came to my mind according to that which I feared would come to pass the word of the LORD Jer. 37. 10. Though yeâ— had smitten the whole Army of the Caldeans that fight against you and there remained but wounded men among them yet should they rise up and bâ—rn this City with fire 4. But let me speak somewhat more of the Holiness and prosperity of the Church of Christ before and after the fall of Babylon I cannot but expect a greater Reformation than I yet see of the conversings of Pâ—ofessors before the ruine of Babylon that their transgressions may not hinder their prayers for the destruction of it and as for the superlative tranquillity and happiness of the true Church on earth which shall be next to that of Heaven I believe the foregoer of it will be a very through and full Reformation and a more sinless and heaven-like life of the true Christians than that of any generation before it since the dayes of the holy Apostles Which degree of perfection if thou who readest or hearest read any part of this Book shalt not covet and endeavour diligently to attain it thou mayest fare as the nameless Lord 2 King 7. did who saw with the eyes of his body fine flour and barley sold in the gate of Samaria at easie prices but through unbelief did not eat thereof So thou possibly mayest foresee darkly with the eyes of thy mind what excellent things very many of the members of the Church shall be partakers of hereafter and thy self not partake
A GLASSE AND SALVE FOR PROFESSORS Held to them By William Voile Minister of the Gospel James 1. 23 24. If any be a hearer of the VVord and not a doer he is like unto a man beholding his natural face in a glass For he beholdeth himself and goeth his way and straight way forgetteth what manner of man he was Revel 3. 18. Anoint thine Eyes with Eye-salve that thou mayest see London Printed for the Author 1668. WILLIAM VOILE A Servant of Jesus Christ in the Ministry of his Gospel To all those of His Majesties Subjects that are called Professors because they do profess or practice the Protestant Religion in a way more or less differing from the most common way Greeting BEloved it is now above forty nine years since I was first a Preacher since which time I have had so much and such communion with the Professors of England and Wales that I have attained much knowledge of Professors of most wayes in the Protestant Religion and committed very many of my Observations to writing especially the faults of them I have preached to Professors and heard others preach to them and considered my own preaching and theirs what and how we have preached and the success of our preaching I have hearkened and heard and seen and considered who have preached aright or made such use as ought to be made of that which hath been preached and who hath repented and reformed Jer. 8. 6. The resu't whereof was this I looked on the sins of Professors as the procuring cause of their Troubles and Afflictions and the greatest let of their Prayers 〈◊〉 the liberty and Peace of Professors and judged it a work fit for Preachers to exhort Professors not only to humble themselves for their sins and failings but also to strive and give diligence to cease from them and to reform their wayes according to the word of God universally without any exception or reservation Which Truths I did also publish about two years since in an Eminent City and have now by this honest Treatise endeavoured to make them known to others and to shew you the ends and meaning of our heavenly Father in chastising you and me to the end that ye may hear his Rods with understanding and him who hath appointed them Mic. 6. 9. and so as to submit your selves to him unreservedly Jam. 4 7. to do and to leave undone altogether according to the Message which he hath sent you And I beseech you all by the mercies of God let me obtain these requests of you 1. Let me not be accounted an enemy to any of you because I judge rightly of the greatest and most perillous of your enemies your sins and because I tell you of them for I do this to warn you of your danger that you may judge your selves and abstain from your sins that ye may not be condemned with the World Gal. 4. 16. 1 Cor. 11. 32. 2. Strive in your prayers unto God for me as one of your faithful friends that whilst I live on earth I may be throughly willing and well able to do Jesus Christ and his Church service 3. For the honour of the most high God and the credit of his Gospel and your own good and the good of your Posterity Deut. 5. 29. and of all Christs people use the most effectual means ye can to perswade and induce every one himself and all those to whom I haâ—â— directed this Epistle to peruse this Treatise all over and that seriously and in the fear of God and in much Humility consulting with God and one with another about it and praying fervently unto God to give them a right understanding and a sound judgment and resolving with a strong resolution by Gods assistance to do the will of God unreservedly For this is the way to know of the Doctrine whether it be of God or not John 7. 17. Beloved I shall hope that this work of mine will in some measure help to open the eyes of the blind and to cause the lame to walk and the dumb to speak and that by my means among other good works very worthy men that are dead shall speak unto you words very good to the use of edifying which no man else will help them to speak unto you The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you all Amen A GLASSE and SALVE FOR PROFESSORS BEloved Brethren and Sisters rich and poor hearken Although the great God in whose hands the times of all the Creatures are Psal 31. 15. changeth not Mal. 3. 6. but is the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13. 8. and albeit the darkness and the light be both alike to him Ps 139. 12. yet the Creatures are changeable and actually changed and their times are not all of one and the same sort To the posterity of Adâ—m there is a time to get and a time to lose a time to laugh and a time to mourn times of health and times of sickness a time to live and a time to die Eccl. 3. 1. c. Men and Women have good dayes 1 Pet. 3. 10. and evil dayes Eph. 5. 16. and perillous times 2 Tim. 3. 1. c. and in Solomons language Eccl. 7. 13 14. dayes of Prosperity and dayes of Adversity Where he counselleth us ver 14. To consider the work of God D. We ought to consider the works of God of all sorts and v. 13. In the day of Prosperity to be joyful D. Times of Prosperity do in a special manner call for joy and in the day of adversity to consider D. meaning that As we ought to consider in times of all sorts so especially in times of Adversity And such is this time to this Nation especially to them who are called Phanaticks and among them to us who have been Ministers of the Gospel Quest And what ought we to consider in this time of Adversity Answ These nine things 1. The severals whereof our Adversity consisteth Marg. 3. 2. That no part of it came upon us without God Mat. 10. 29 30 31. but every part of it according to his providence and the counsel of his will Eph. 1. 11. Marg. 11. 3. That our heavenly Father in giving way to men c. hath not dealt unjustly with us nor done us any wrong Marg. 16. 4. That in afflicting us he hath done wisely and therefore afflicted us for fit ends Marg. 18. 5. We must consider Why and for what ends he hath afflicted us Marg. 18. These five things we ought to consider that we may not despise his chastening Prov. 2. 11 12. nor harbour hard thoughts of him and that we may discern what course to take for the bettering of our Estate 6. We ought to consider what means we have used to better it or to prevail with God to better it Marg. 90. 7. We must consider the success and issue of those means how far we have prevailed by using them and how far not Marg. 92. 8. If our