Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	militant_a	saint_n	triumphant_a	2,884	5	10.8885	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B21645	Second sermon preach'd before the King and Queen and Queen Dowager in Their Majesties chappel at St. James's upon All-Saints Day, November 1, 1685 by ... Ph. Ellis, monk of the holy order of S. Benedict and of the English Congr.	Ellis, Philip, 1652-1726.	1686 (1686)	Wing E597	12,230	36

Second SERMON Preach'd before the King and Queen AND QUEEN DOWAGER In Their MAJESTIES Chappel at St. James's upon All-Saints Day November 1. 1685. By the Reverend Father Dom. PH. ELLIS Monk of the Holy Order of S. Benedict and of the English Congr Published by His Majesties Command LONDON Printed by Henry Hills Printer to the King 's most Excellent Majesty for his Houshold and Chappel 1686. SECOND SERMON Preach'd before the KING and QUEEN AND QVEEN DOWAGER On all-All-Saints Day Nov. 1. 1685. Gaudete exultate quia merces vestra copiosa est in coelis Matth. 5.12 Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven Matth. 5.12 IT is more then Eight hundred Years most Sacred Majesty since the Church Militant the Parent as well as Sister of the Church Triumphant condescending to pious Instances of her Children tending to Perfection appointed this Solemnity for our encouragement and in memory of the just made perfect And tho' a Feast of this Denomination be not so much recommended for its Antiquity as for the Piety which is always seasonable and the fitness of its Institution Psal 150.1 yet it is no new thing to praise God in his Saints as the Royal Prophet exhorts Hebr. 6.10 nor to minister to them while living as the Apostle advises nor after their departure to erect Altars to Almighty God under their Invocation crown'd with Garlands and ecchoing with Hymns of Joy on the Anniversary Days of their Deposition as was the Practice of the first Ages For since they possess what St. Paul with so much earnestness and assiduity of Prayer wish'd the Ephesians Ephes 1.17 The spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of God the eyes of their understanding being enlightned to discern what is the hope to which the Father of Glory calls them and how great are the riches of the glory of his inheritance in his saints We who are Candidates of that Wisdom who are cleansing and preparing our Eyes for that Revelation can do no less then congratulate their Felicity then celebrate their Victories then attend their Triumphs And since we all fight under the same Standard where they conquer'd observe the same Order and Discipline which render'd them victorious joyn in the same Faith or at least in a preparation of mind to it and in the same Practices of a holy Life or in a tendency to them which produc'd their Reward in Heaven So is it fitting that Once a year we draw all our Devotions together which were dispers'd thro' the revolution of their separate Festivals and that the Church Militant joyn in Body with the Triumphant to contemplate that Glory which we hope one day will be our own nay which is already ours by Anticipation because it is that of our Fellow-Members and Brethren For besides the blessed hope that we shall arrive to the fellowship of the saints a hope that do's not only intitle us to a Possession but even gives while it promises since They were in a mortal Condition whom he calls not strangers and forreiners Ephes 2.19 but citizens of the saints and the houshold of God Besides this I say there is not any one in this most Honorable and Religious Assembly that has not a peculiar interest in the Honor of this Day There is not any one of us that do's not piously confide that he has a Parent or a Child or a Relation or a Friend and what is an accumulative joy to a Christian Heart an Enemy and Persecutor enroll'd in this blessed Society And how joyful a Reflection is it to your Sacred Majesties that so many of your Royal Ancestors and mighty Predecessors 1 Pet. 5.4 inherit a never-fading crown of glory and possess a Kingdom which they do not transmit but willingly share with their Posterity without lessening their Greatness a Kingdom where the Enjoyment is eternal where Peace is essential where the Lion and the Lamb lie down together the red and white Roses are twisted in the same Garland the Edwards and the Henrys embrace and the fierce Britain rejoyces that the Royal Blood of Scotland runs in English Veins This blessed Expectation bore up their Spirits under the weight of Cares and Solicitudes which are inseparable from an earthly Crown it kept a rein upon the effervescence of Nature amidst the Temptations that hover about a Court it made them postpone the Magnificence of their State to the adorning their Souls and while they desir'd what they did not see made them contemn what they saw Phil. 3.8 and count all as dross that they might gain Christ Now they see what they believ'd they possess what they hop'd they obtain what they desir'd and thus shall the man be blessed that fears our Lord especially your Sacred Majesties who inherit their Vertues no less then their Crowns making it the principal Subject of your Joy That your reward will be great in heaven I beg also it may be the Subject of your Attention after I have implor'd the assistance of Him that is the crown of all the Saints and which I hope to obtain by her Intercession who is so dignifi'd a Member of that blessed Assembly that if the other Saints are the Friends and Domesticks she alone is the Mother of God becoming so when the Angel Saluted her Ave Maria. Rejoyce and be exceeding glad for great is your reward in heaven THere never was a Question started so early in the World nor so warmly discuss'd and what was most unhappy to Mankind so late resolv'd as that of the Rational Soul existing in another World and of a well-spent Life being attended with a Reward in Heaven The sober and sound Men of every Age singled it out as the chiefest Object of their profoundest Speculation and the Libertine made it the Subject of his Mirth and Raillery with this only difference between other Times and these we live in That the most Witty and best Parted Men of the Gentiles were the most serious Enquirers after this Verity arriv'd to a glimpse of it by the light of Nature and wrought out an imperfect Idea of it by the force of Reason But in our Days in the Noon of Christianity and the clearest Proposal of our End it is become the Character of a Wit either wholly to neglect this greatest Concern or to study the Resolution meerly to revive the Question and while the Heathen submits to the Doctrine of Christ the Christian endeavours to subject it once more to Dispute verifying the Paradox of the Philosopher That no one can be happy against his will nor wou'd the ill Man be so by his good will Indeed no Man can be so miserable as not to desire to be happy and self-love which is the occasion of his misery is the root of this desire But Men frame to themselves so childish so mean or so sensual a Beatitude that themselves blush to own but while they are not asham'd to pursue it