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	militant_a	triumphant_a	4,249	5	10.5933	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45277	A Christian vindication of truth against errour concerning these controversies, 1. Of sinners prayers, 2. Of priests marriage, 3. Of purgatory, 4. Of the second commandment and images, 5. Of praying to saints and angels, 6. Of justification by faith, 7. Of Christs new testament or covenant / by Edw. Hide ...	Hyde, Edward, 1607-1659.	1659 (1659)	Wing H3864; ESTC R37927	226,933	558

are there joyned in one but also to the third Commandement and we think it very unjust that a few Italian Bishops and Priests should endeavour to lay those sins upon the Catholick Church which they ought to lay to and upon their own consciences because they have not only suffered but also maintained them in their own Churches For it is not crying out Templum Domini Templum Domini the Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord that can acquit us from any act of sin against the Lord 'T is not the noise of Gods Church in our ears can expell the knowledge or fear of Gods Commandements out of our hearts God hath entrusted his Church with the Keeping not with the Making of Religion she is the Guide to it and in it not the Author of it That Power and Trust he communicated only to his Son and to his Holy Spirit because indeed it was incommunicable to any other For who can know the mind of God but God who can declare the council of his heart ●…ut only he that came out of his b●…m Shall not God have that privile●…e over his servants which men have ov●…r theirs to prescribe the way and 〈◊〉 of his own service or ●…all we al●…ow that disorder in Gods Family which we will not admit into our own There was no King in Israel when every man did that which was right in his own eyes Jud. 17. 6. If the Church may do what she pleaseth in matters of Religion 't is either because there is no King in Gods Israel or because Truth and Righteousness are not the establishment of his Kingdom For Truth and Righteousness come not from man but from God and therefore none can be the author of Religion but only God since that is nothing else but Truth and Righteousness Truth in Articles of Faith Righteousness in duties of life Truth in what we are bound to believe Righteousness in what we are bound to practise Therefore 't is vain to set up the Church which is only the Judge against the Law which is the Rule of Righteousness For we can go to the Church only for the Practice but we 〈◊〉 go to the Law for the Purity of Religion The question is here concerning the Purity of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Saints be not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Law of God but the 〈◊〉 is made only concerning the Practice 〈◊〉 Religion for they tell us it was alwayes used in the Catholick Church We look upon this answer as faulty for its impertinency because the question is matter of Right but the answer is matter of Fact and much more faulty for its Calumny because the Romanists thereby so labour to excuse their own as to accuse the Catholick Church For 't is plain that Christ and his Apostles never used it and we must look upon him as the Head upon them as the chief members of the Catholick Church since we can have no Catholick Church without them that is which doth not persist in their doctrine nor continue in their Communion And 't is as plain that no particular Church since them can justify the using it and consequently t is unjust as well as untrue to ascribe the use of it to the Catholick Church although it hath of late years been used in some particular Churches For even Nicephorus himself saith expresly Hest. Eccl. lib. 15. cap. 28. ad finem That Petrus Crapheus who lived neer 500 years after Christ was the first that brought the Invocation of the blessed Virgin into the prayers of the Church and doubtless she was invocated before the other Saints who is now and hath been for some ages so much invocated above them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ut in precatione omni Dei genitrix nominaretur divinum ejus nomen invocaretur That this Invocation was not till then in any Church is a clear proof it was not of the Apostolick and therefore though it hath been since in some Churches cannot be a proof that it is of the Catholick Church For the Apostolick the Catholick are not two Churches But let us suppose which we may not grant that the Catholick Church as far as 't is visible hath of late years used it yet that is not a sufficient ground for us still to continue the use of it For we are to serve God not out of Custome but out of Conscience and therefore in vain do any pretend Custome in Gods service against Conscience in vain do any alledge the Churches usage which calls for Custome against Gods Law which calls for Conscience If an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel then what ye have received let him be accursed saith St. Paul Gal. 1. 8. The same reason is for the Law received in the Old as for the Gospel received in the New Testament Gods truth and righteousness are above the Church Triumphant in heaven much more above the Church militant on Earth not that either Church hath opposed or will oppose them for the Church of the living God is the pillar and ground of the Truth 1 Tim. 3. 15. but that they are above the Churches opposition For no creature can be to it ●…eli the rule of working no more then the cause of being and therefore its work of righteousness cannot depend upon its own but upon its makers will And Religion being the principal work of Righteousness cannot depend upon the will of the Church but upon the will of God This sublime truth is admirably delivered by the master of subtilties and sublimites Scotus in 1. lib. sent dist 44. in these words In omni liberè agente quod potest agere secundum praeter vel contra dictamen legis rectae est distinguere potentiam ordinatam absolutam Ordinata quidem conformiter agendo legi rectae absoluta verò agendo praeter illam legem vel contra eam sic dicunt Juristae aliquis potest facere de facto hoc est de poten tiâ suàtabsolutâ vel de jure hoc est de potenia ordinatâ secundum jura Quando autem lex ista secundum quam recte agendum est non est in potestate agentis tunc agendo secundum potentiam absolutam inordina●…è agit non rectè Q●…ùm enim subsit tali legi tenetur agere 〈◊〉 legem sed quando in pote●…ate age●…s est lex rectitudo legis po●…est tale agens ordinatè rectè agere aliter quàm lex illa dictat quia non subest illi legi sic ejus po●…entia absoluta non est inordinata In every free agent which can act according besides or against the dictate of law and righteousness we must distinguish betwixt his orderly and his absolute power his orderly power is shewed in acting conformably to the Law his absolute power inacting either besides it or against it so the Civilians tell us a man may do a thing as a matter of fact that is by his absolute power according to his will or as

Law or the Covenant of works did promise Salvation only upon perfect Obedience 14. And hence it is That St. Paul disputes so eagerly against the Law calling it our Gaoler to shut us up in prison Gal. 3. 23 Our Scholemaster to keep us under the Rod Gal. 3. 24. Our Accuser to work wrath Rom. 4. 15. nay our Executioner to minister death and condemnation 2 Cor. 3. 7 9. not speaking of the Law materially as it is in it self but Formally as it was then in its use For the Law in it self is the rule of Justice and Holinesse even an undefiled Law converting the Souls both of Jews and Christians and in that respect the very end and scope of the Gospel 1. And if we thus consider the Law t is all one to be Antinomian and to be Antichristian But the Law in its use to the Jew was a Covenant of life and Salvation requiring of him perfect Obedience if he would be saved and in that respect besides that it engaged to ritual observances the Law stood in opposition against the Gospel 2. And if we thus consider the Law we must be Antinomian that we may not be Antichristian wherefore the same Apostle St. Paul entring a comparison between the Ministers of the Law and of the Gospel proveth that the Ministery of the Gospel is so far more excellent then the Ministery of the Law as the Gospel of life and liberty is more glorious then the Law of death and condemnation 2 Cor. 3. For saith he the Law or the Old Testament was only external of the letter that killeth But the Gospel or the New Testament is internal of the Spirit that giveth life ver 6. 3. The Law was of the letter shewing us our duty and killing us for not doing it The Gospel is of the Spirit giving us grace to do our duty and life for doing it So excellent is the New Testament above the Old in its conditions Again The Law was obscure as it were vailed with Types and shadows with a kind of curtain before it that the Children of Israel could not stedfastly look to the end of it because their minds were blinded and even unto this day when Moses is read the vail is upon their heart v. 13 14 15. But the Gospel is clear and perspicuous making us with open face behold a●… in a glass the glory of the Lord v. 18. So excellent also is the New Testament above the Old in its Promises Therefore to confound the Gospel with the Law or the New with the Old Testament is to confound light with darknesse life with death liberty with bondage 15. This made St. Paul so vehemently expostulate with or rather exclaime against the Galathians saying Tell me ye that desire to be under the Law do you not heare the Law Gal. 4. 21. He justly upbraids them with desiring it saith St. Chrys. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For it was not a thing that had been of his Preaching but only of their own phansying not a thing that God required but that themselves desired not a matter of their Obligation but only of their Contention to be under the Law as it was a Covenant of Life and Salvation and accordingly he confutes this their desire even by the Law it self shewing that if they looked into the Allegory therein delivered by Moses they would find as great a difference betwixt the Old and the New Testament as was betwixt Abrahams two wives Agar and Sarah which represented the said two Testaments For as Abraham had two wives the one a bond woman the other a free woman so God had made two Covenants or Testaments with mankind the one under the Law which gendred unto bondage the other under the Gospel which hath free born children These are the two Covenants ver 24. And as Agar though accounted fruitful yet brought but a small progeny to Abraham by Ishmael whereas Sarah who was looked upon as barren brought a great progeny to him by Isaac So the Old Testament brought forth children to God only in the confines and precincts of Judea but the New Testament is fruitful over the face of the whole Earth Therefore it is said Rejoyc●… thou barren that bearest not for the desolate that is The Christian Church represented by Sarah hath many more children than she which hath an husband that is the Jewish Synagogue represented by Agar ver 27. And as Agar had children borne after the flesh or according to the course of nature But Sarah had children born after the Spirit or by vertue of Gods Promise So the Old Testament for what appeared in the letter had nothing but the ordinary strength of nature to bring forth children but the New Testament hath the extraordinary Grace of God Now we brethren as Isaac was are the children of Promise ver 28. Again as Ismael was of an unquiet and malicious disposition hating and persecuting his brother Isaac So those who look to be saved by the Old Testament trusting to themselves and the endowments of nature do scoffe and persecute those who look to be saved by t●…e New Testament trusting to their Saviour and the endowments of his Grace As then he that was borne after the flesh persecuted him that was borne after the spirit even so it is now ver 29. Lastly As Ismael was at length cast out of his Fathers house and Isaac was made his sole heire so those that rely upon Moses and look to be saved by the Old Testament will be excluded out of Gods family whereas those who rely upon Christ and look to be saved by the New Testament will without doubt be admitted to his heavenly iuheritance Cast out the bond-woman and her son for the son of the bond-woman shall not be heire with the son of the free-woman ver 30. 16. But why should I labour to add light to the Sun-beam the most glorious beam of the Sun of Righteousness for by the consent of all Christians the very ground upon which Christianity is justified against Judaisme is this That the Old Testament delivereth but the figure and the shadow of the New wherefore we can go to the Old Testament only for the figure and shadow we must come to the New Testament for the body substance both of our Religion and of our Salvation So vast a difference is there betwixt the Old and the New Testament both in Gods and in his Churches account yet you seem to confound these two Testaments by saying The New Testament is a conditional Covenant by which we are bound to do very many things our selves for the obtaining of the promised inheritance wherein if we fail we shall never obtain the same For this definition placeth the obtaining of our inheritance not in Believing but in Doing whereas perfect obedience was the condition of Salvation in the Old but Faith is the condition of Salvation in the New Testament There the primum Praedicatum the first thing Preached was Do this and live