Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63641	Antiquitates christianæ, or, The history of the life and death of the holy Jesus as also the lives acts and martyrdoms of his Apostles : in two parts.	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.; Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667. Great exemplar of sanctity and holy life according to the christian institution.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Antiquitates apostolicae, or, The lives , acts and martyrdoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.; Cave, William, 1637-1713. Lives, acts and martydoms of the holy apostles of our Saviour.	1675 (1675)	Wing T287; ESTC R19304	1,245,097	752

the Opinions of Men about him were various and different that some took him for John the Baptist lately risen from the dead between whose Doctrine Discipline and way of life in the main there was so great a Correspondence That others thought he was Elias probably judging so from the gravity of his Person freedom of his Preaching the fame and reputation of his Miracles especially since the Scriptures assured them he was not dead but taken up into Heaven and had so expresly foretold that he should return back again That others look'd upon him as the Prophet Jeremiah alive again of whose return the Jewes had great expectations in so much that some of them thought the Soul of Jeremias was re-inspired into 〈◊〉 Or if not thus at least that he was one of the more eminent of the ancient Prophets or that the Souls of some of these Persons had been breathed into him The Doctrine of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transmigration of Souls first broached and propagated by Pythagoras being at this time current amongst the Jews and owned by the Pharisees as one of their prime Notions and Principles 2. THIS Account not 〈◊〉 our Lord comes closer and nearer to them tells them It was no wonder if the common People were divided into these wild thoughts concerning him but since they had been always with him had been hearers of his Sermons and Spectators of his Miracles he enquired what they themselves thought of him Peter ever forward to return an Answer and therefore by the Fathers frequently stiled The Mouth of the Apostles told him in the name of the rest That he was the Messiah The Son of the living God promised of old in the Law and the Prophets heartily desired and looked for by all good men anointed and set apart by God to be the King Priest and Prophet of his People To this excellent and comprehensive confession of Peter's Our Lord returns this great Eulogie and Commendation Blessed art thou Simon Bar Jonah Flesh and Blood hath not revealed it unto thee but my Father which is in Heaven That is this Faith which thou hast now confessed is not humane contrived by Man's wit or built upon his testimony but upon those Notions and Principles which I was sent by God to reveal to the World and those mighty and solemn attestations which he has given from Heaven to the truth both of my Person and my Doctrine And because thou hast so freely made this Confession therefore I also say unto thee that thou art Peter and upon this Rock I will build my Church and the gates of Hell shall not prevail against it That is that as thy Name signifies a Stone or Rock such shalt thou thy self be firm solid and immoveable in building of the Church which shall be so orderly erected by thy care and diligence and so firmly founded upon that faith which thou hast now confessed that all the assaults and attempts which the powers of Hell can make against it shall not be able to overturn it Moreover I will give unto thee the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven That is thou shalt have that spiritual authority and power within the Church whereby as with Keys thou shalt be able to shut and lock out obstinate and impenitent sinners and upon their repentance to unlock the door and take them in again And what thou shalt thus regularly do shall be own'd in the Court above and ratified by God in Heaven 3. UPON these several passages the Champions of the Church of Rome mainly build the unlimited Supremacy and Infallibility of the Bishops of that See with how much truth and how little reason it is not my present purpose to discuss It may suffice here to remark that though this place does very much tend to exalt the honour of Saint Peter yet is there nothing herein personal and peculiar to him alone as distinct from and preserred above the rest of the Apostles Does he here make confession of Christ's being the Son of God Yet besides that herein he spake but the sence of all the rest this was no more than what others had said as well as he yea besore he was so much as call'd to be a Disciple Thus Nathanael at his first coming to Christ expresly told him Rabbi thou art the Son of God Thou art the King of Israel Does our Lord here stile him a Rock All the Apostles are elsewhere equally called Foundations yea said to be the Twelve Foundations upon which the Wall of the new Jerusalem that is the Evangelical Church is 〈◊〉 and sometimes others of them besides Peter are called Pillars as they have relation to the Church already built Does Christ here promise the Keys to Peter that is Power of Governing and of exercising Church-censures and of absolving penitent sinners The very same is elsewhere promised to all the Apostles and almost in the very same termes and words If thine offending Brother prove obstinate tell it unto the Church but if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen and a Publican Verily I say unto you whatsoever ye shall bind on Earth shall be bound in Heaven and whatsoever ye shall loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven And elsewhere when ready to leave the World he tells them As my Father hath sent me even so send I you whose soever sins ye remit they are remitted unto them and whose soever sins ye retain they are retained By all which it is evident that our Lord did not here give any personal prerogative to S. Peter as Universal Pastor and Head of the Christian Church much less to those who were to be his Successors in the See of Rome But that as he made this Confession in the name of the rest of the Apostles so what was here promised unto him was equally intended unto all Nor did the more considering and judicious part of the Fathers however giving a mighty reverence to S. Peter ever understand it in any other sence Sure I am that Origen tells us that every true Christian that makes this confession with the same Spirit and Integrity which S. Peter did shall have the same blessing and commendation from Christ conferr'd upon him 4. THE Holy Jesus knowing the time of his Passion to draw on began to prepare the minds of his Apostles against that fatal Hour telling them what hard and bitter things he should suffer at Jerusalem what affronts and indignities he must undergo and be at last put to death with all the arts of torture and disgrace by the Decree of the Jewish Sanhedrim Peter whom our Lord had infinitely incouraged and indeared to him by the great things which he had lately said concerning him so that his spirits were now afloat and his

alive by forging and fathering a fabulous Gospel upon his name which together with others of like stamp Gelasius Bishop of Rome justly branded as Apocryphal altogether unworthy the name and patronage of an Apostle The End of S. Bartholomew's Life THE LIFE OF S. MATTHEW S. MATHEW S. Mathew the Apostle and Euangelist preached the Gospel in AEthiopia and was there slayn with an Holbert Bed el Baron Sept. 21 St Mathew his Martyrdom 1 Pet. 3. 14. If ye suffer for righteousnesse sake happy are ye be not afraid of their terrour neither be ye troubled His Birth-place and Kindred His Trade the Office of a Publican The great dignity of this Office among the Romans The honours done to Vespasian's Father for the faithful discharge of it This Office infamous among the Greeks but especially the Jewes What things concurr'd to render it odious and grievous to them Their bitter abhorrency of this sort of men S. Matthew's imployment wherein it particularly consisted The Publican's Ticket what S. Matthew's call and his ready obedience His inviting our Lord to Dinner The Pharisees cavil and our Saviour's answer His Preaching in Judaea His travails into Parthia AEthiopia c. to propagate Christianity The success of his Ministry His Death His singular contempt of the World Gensured herein by Julian and Porphyry His exemplary temperance and sobriety His humility and modesty Unreasonable to reproach Penitents with the vices of their former Life His Gospel when and why written Composed by him in Hebrew The general consent of Antiquity herein It s translation into Greek when and by whom The Hebrew Copy by whom owned and interpolated Those now extant not the same with those mentioned in Antiquity 1. SAINT Matthew called also Levi was though a Roman Officer an Hebrew of the Hebrews both his Names speaking him purely of Jewish extract and Original and probably a Galilean and whom I should have concluded born at or near Capernaum but that the Arabick Writer of his life tells us he was born at Nazareth a City in the Tribe of Zebulun famous for the habitation of Joseph and Mary but especially the education and residence of our Blessed saviour who though born at Bethlehem was both conceiv'd and bred up here where he lived the whole time of his private life whence he derived the Title of Jesus of Nazareth S. Matthew was the Son of Alpheus and Mary Sister or Kinswoman to the Blessed Virgin in the same Arabick Author his Father is called 〈◊〉 and his Mother Karutias both originally descended of the Tribe of Issachar nothing being more common among the Jews than for the same Person to have several names these latter probably express'd in Arabick according to their Jewtsh signification His Trade or way of life was that of a Publican or Toll-gatherer to the 〈◊〉 which probably had been his Father's Trade his Name denoting a Broker or Mony-changer an Office of bad report amongst the Jews Indeed among the Romans it was accounted a place of power and credit and honourable reputation not ordinarily conferred upon any but Roman Knights insomuch that T. Fl. Sabinus Father to the Emperor Vespasian was the Publican of the Asian Provinces an Office which he discharged so much to the content and satisfaction of the People that they erected Statues to him with this Inscription 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 To him that has well managed the Publican-Office These Officers being sent into the Provinces to gather the Tributes were wont to imploy the Natives under them as Persons best skilled in the affairs and customes of their own Country Two things especially concurred to render this Office odious to the Jews First that the Persons that managed it were usually covetous and great Exactors for having themselves farmed the Customes of the Romans they must gripe and scrape by all methods of Extortion that they might be able both to pay their Rent and to raise gain and advantage to themselves which doubtless 〈◊〉 the Chief of these Farmers was sensible of when after his Conversion he offered four-fold restitution to any Man from whom he had taken any thing by fraud and evil arts And upon this account they became insamous even among the Gentiles themselves who commonly speak of them as Cheats and Thieves and publick Robbers and worse members of a community more voracious and destructive in a City than wild Beasts in the Forest. The other thing that made the Jews so much detest them was that this Tribute was not only a grievance to their Purses but an affront to the liberty and freedom of their Nation for they looked upon themselves as a Free-born People and that they had been immediately invested in this priviledge by God himself and accordingly beheld this as a daily and standing instance of their slavery which of all other things they could least endure and which therefore betrayed them into so many unfortunate Rebellions against the Romans Add to this that these Publicans were not only obliged by the necessity of their Trade to have frequent dealing and converse with the Gentiles which the Jews held unlawful and abominable but that being Jews themselves they rigorously exacted these things of their Brethren and thereby seemed to conspire with the Romans to entail perpetual slavery upon their own Nation For though Tertullian thought that none but Gentiles were imployed in this sordid office yet the contrary is too evident to need any argument to prove it 2. BY these means Publicans became so universally abhorred by the Jewish Nation that it was accounted unlawful to do them any office of common kindness and courtesie nay they held it no sin to couzen and over-reach a Publican and that with the solemnity of an Oath they might not eat or drink walk or travel with them they were looked upon as common Thieves and Robbers and Money received of them might not be put to the rest of a Man's Estate it being presumed to have been gained by rapine and violence they were not admitted as Persons fit to give testimony and evidence in any cause so infamous were they as not only to be banished all communion in the matters of Divine Worship but to be shunned in all affairs of civil society and commerce as the Pests of their Country Persons of an infectious converse of as vile a Classe as Heathens themselves Hence the common Proverb among them Take not a Wife out of that Family wherein there is a Publican for they are all Publicans that is Thieves Robbers and wicked sinners To this Proverbial usage our Lord alludes when speaking of a contumacious sinner whom neither private reproofs nor the publick censures and admonitions of the Church can prevail upon Let him be unto 〈◊〉 says he as an Heathen and a Publican as elsewhere Publicans and sinners are yoked together as Persons of equal esteem and reputation Of this Trade and Office was our S. Matthew and it seems more particularly

no more provoke him to discourse lest he should take occasion to interweave something of that unpleasant argument with it For sad and disconsolate persons use to create comsorts to themselves by fiction of fancy and use arts of avocation to remove displeasure from them and stratagems to remove it from their presence by removing it from their apprehensions thinking the incommodity of it is then taken away when they have lost the sense 13. When Jesus was now come to Capernaum the exactors of rates came to Simon Peter asking him if his Master paid the accustomed imposition viz. a sicle or didrachm the fourth part of an ounce of silver which was the tribute which the Lord imposed upon all the sons of Israel from twenty years old and above to pay for redemption and propitiation and for the use of the Tabernacle When Peter came into the house Jesus knowing the message that he was big with prevented him by asking him Of whom do the Kings of the Nations take tribute of their own children or of strangers Peter answered Of strangers Then said Jesus then are the children free meaning that since the Gentile Kings do not exact tribute of their sons neither will God of his And therefore this Pension to be paid for the use of the Tabernacle for the service of God for the redemption of their Souls was not to be paid by him who was the Son of God but by strangers Yet to avoid offence he sent Peter a-fishing and provided a fish with two didrachms of silver in it which he commanded Peter to pay for them two 14. But when the Disciples were together with Jesus in the house he asked them what they discoursed of upon the way for they had fallen upon an ambitious and mistaken quarrel which of them should be greatest in their Master's Kingdom which they still did dream should be an external and secular Royalty full of fancy and honour But the Master was diligent to check their forwardness establishing a rule for Clerical deportment He that will be greatest among you let him be your Minister so supposing a greater and a lesser a Minister and a person to be ministred unto but dividing the grandeur of the Person from the greatness of Office that the higher the imployment is the more humble should be the man because in Spiritual prelation it is not as in Secular pomps where the Dominion is despotick the Coercion bloudy the Dictates 〈◊〉 the Laws externally compulsory and the Titles arrogant and vain and all the advantages are so passed upon the Person that making that first to be splendid it passes from the Person to the subjects who in abstracted essences do not easily apprehend Regalities in veneration but as they are subjected in persons made excellent by such superstructures of Majesty But in Dignities Ecelesiastical the Dominion is paternal the 〈◊〉 perswasive and argumentative the Coercion by censures immaterial by cession and consent by denial of benefits by the interest of vertues and the efficacy of hopes and impresses upon the spirit the Laws are full of admonition and Sermon the Titles of honour monitors of duty and memorials of labour and offices and all the advantages which from the Office usually pass upon the Person are to be devested by the humility of the man and when they are of greatest veneration they are abstracted excellencies and immaterial not passing through the Person to the people and reslected to his lustre but transmitted by his labour and ministery and give him honour for his labour's sake which is his personal excellency not for his honour and title which is either a derivative from Christ or from the constitution of pious persons estimating and valuing the relatives of Religion 15. Then Jesus taketh a little child and setteth him in the midst propounding him by way of Emblem a pattern of Humility and Simplicity without the mixtures of Ambition or caitive distempers such infant candour and low liness of spirit being the necessary port through which we must pass if we will enter into the Courts of Heaven But as a current of wholsome waters breaking from its restraint runs out in a succession of waters and every preceding draught draws out the next so were the Discourses of Jesus excellent and opportune creating occasions for others that the whole doctrine of the Gospel and the entire will of the Father might be communicated upon design even the chances of words and actions being made regular and orderly by Divine Providence For from the instance of Humility in the symbol and Hieroglyphick of the child Jesus discourses of the care God takes of little children whether naturally or spiritually such the danger of doing them scandal and offences the care and power of their Angels guardian of the necessity in the event that Scandals should arise and of the great woe and infelicity of those persons who were the active ministers of such offences 16. But if in the traverses of our life discontents and injuries be done Jesus teaches how the injured person should demean himself First reprove the offending party privately if he repent forgive him for ever with a mercy as unwearied and as multiplied as his repentance For the servant to whom his Lord had forgiven 10000 talents because he refused to forgive his fellow-servant 100 pence was delivered to the tormentors till he should pay that debt which his Lord once forgave till the servant's impiety forced him to repent his donative and remission But if he refuses the charity of private correction let him be reproved before a few witnesses and in case he be still incorrigible let him be brought to the tribunal of the Church against whose advices if he shall kick let him feel her power and be cut off from the communion of Saints becoming a Pagan or a Publican And to make that the Church shall not have a dead and ineffectual hand in her animadversions Jesus promises to all the Apostles what before he promised to Peter a power of binding and loosing on earth and that it should be ratified in Heaven what they shall so dispose on earth with an unerring key 17. But John interrupted him telling him of a stranger that cast out Devils in the name of Jesus but because he was not of the family he had forbidden him To this Jesus replied that he should in no wise have forbidden him for in all reason he would do veneration to that person whose Name he saw to be energetical and triumphant over Devils and in whose name it is almost necessary that man should believe who used it as an instrument of ejection of impure spirits Then Jesus proceeded in his excellent Sermon and union of discourses adding holy Precepts concerning offences which a man might do to himself in which case he is to be severe though most gentle to others For in his own case he must shew no mercy but abscission for it it better to cut off the offending

Holy Jesus condemned in the Gentiles who in their Hymns would say a name over a hundred times But in this we have no rule to determine us in numbers and proportion but right Reason God loves not any words the more for being said often and those repetitions which are unreasonable in prudent estimation cannot in any account be esteemed pious But where a reasonable cause allows the repetition the same cause that makes it reasonable makes it also proper for Devotion He that speaks his needs and expresses nothing but his fervour and greatness of desire cannot be vain or long in his Prayers he that speaks impertinently that is unreasonably and without desires is long though he speak but two syllables he that thinks for speaking much to be heard the sooner thinks God is delighted in the labour of the lips but when Reason is the guide and Piety is the rule and Necessity is the measure and Desire gives the proportion let the Prayer be very long he that shall blame it for its length must proclaim his disrelish both of Reason and Religion his despite of Necessity and contempt of Zeal 20. As a part and instance of our importunity in Prayer it is usually reckoned and advised that in cases of great sudden and violent need we corroborate our Prayers with a Vow of doing something holy and religious in an uncommanded instance something to which God had not formerly bound our duty though fairly invited our will or else if we chuse a Duty in which we were obliged then to vow the doing of it in a more excellent manner with a greater inclination of the Will with a more fervent repetition of the act with some more noble circumstance with a fuller assent of the Understanding or else adding a new Promise to our old Duty to make it become more necessary to us and to secure our duty In this case as it requires great prudence and caution in the susception lest what we piously intend obtain a present blessing and lay a lasting snare so if it be prudent in the manner holy in the matter useful in the consequence and safe in all the circumstances of the person it is an endearing us and our Prayer to God by the increase of duty and charity and therefore a more probable way of making our Prayers gracious and acceptable And the religion of Vows was not only hallowed by the example of Jacob at Bethel of Hannah praying for a child and God hearing her of David vowing a Temple to God and made regular and safe by the rules and cautions in Moses's Law but left by our Blessed Saviour in the same constitution he found it he having innovated nothing in the matter of Vows and it was practised accordingly in the instance of S. Paul at Cenchrea of Ananias and Sapphira who vowed their possessions to the use of the Church and of the Widows in the Apostolical age who therefore vowed to remain in the state of widowhood because concerning them who married after the entry into Religion S. Paul says they have broken their first faith and such were they of whom our Blessed Saviour affirms that some make themselves 〈◊〉 for the kingdom of Heaven that is such who promise to God a life of Chastity And concerning the success of Prayer so seconded with a prudent and religious Vow besides the instances of Scripture we have the perpetual experience and witness of all Christendom and in particular our Saxon Kings have been remarked for this part of importunity in their own Chronicles Oswy got a great victory with unlikely forces against Penda the 〈◊〉 after his earnest Prayer and an appendent Vow and Ceadwalla obtained of God power to recover the Isle of Wight from the hands of Infidels after he had prayed and promised to return the fourth part of it to be imployed in the proper services of God and of Religion This can have no objection or suspicion in it among wise and disabused persons for it can be nothing but an encreasing and a renewed act of Duty or Devotion or Zeal or Charity and the importunity of Prayer acted in a more vital and real expression 21. First All else that is to be considered concerning Prayer is extrinsecal and accidental to it Prayer is publick or private in the communion or society of Saints or in our Closets these Prayers have less temptation to vanity the other have more advantages of Charity example fervour and energy In publick offices we avoid singularity in the private we avoid hypocrisie those are of more 〈◊〉 these of greater retiredness and silence of spirit those serve the needs of all the world in the first intention and our own by consequence these serve our own needs first and the publick only by a secondary intention these have more pleasure they more duty these are the best instruments of Repentance where our Confessions may be more particular and our shame less scandalous the other are better for Eucharist and instruction for edification of the Church and glorification of God 22. Secondly The posture of our bodies in Prayer had as great variety as the Ceremonies and civilities of several Nations came to The Jews most commonly prayed standing so did the Pharisee and the Publican in the Temple So did the Primitive Christians in all their greater Festivals and intervals of Jubilee in their Penances they kneeled The Monks in 〈◊〉 sate when they sang the Psalter And in every Country whatsoever by the custom of the Nation was a symbol of reverence and humility of silence and attention of gravity and modesty that posture they translated to their Prayers But in all Nations bowing the head that is a laying down our glory at the feet of God was the manner of Worshippers and this was always the more humble and the lower as their Devotion was higher and was very often expressed by prostration or lying flat upon the ground and this all Nations did and all Religions Our deportment ought to be grave decent humble apt for adoration apt to edisie and when we address our selves to Prayer not instantly to leap into the office as the Judges of the Areopage into their sentence without preface or preparatory affections but considering in what presence we speak and to what purposes let us balance our servour with reverential fear and when we have done not rise from the ground as if we vaulted or were glad we had done but as we begin with desires of assistance so end with desires of pardon and acceptance concluding our longer offices with a shorter mental Prayer of more private reflexion and reverence designing to mend what we have done amiss or to give thanks and proceed if we did well and according to our powers 23. Thirdly In private Prayers it is permitted to every man to speak his Prayers or only to think them which is a speaking to God Vocal