Selected quad for the lemma: earth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
earth_n	apostle_n	heaven_n	loose_v	2,492	5	10.3143	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46373	Jus divinum ministerii evangelici. Or The divine right of the Gospel-ministry: divided into two parts. The first part containing a justification of the Gospel-ministry in general. The necessity of ordination thereunto by imposition of hands. The unlawfulnesse of private mens assuming to themselves either the office or work of the ministry without a lawfull call and ordination. The second part containing a justification of the present ministers of England, both such as were ordained during the prevalency of episcopacy from the foul aspersion of anti-christianism: and those who have been ordained since its abolition, from the unjust imputation of novelty: proving that a bishop and presbyter are all one in Scripture; and that ordination by presbyters is most agreeable to the Scripture-patern. Together with an appendix, wherein the judgement and practice of antiquity about the whole matter of episcopacy, and especially about the ordination of ministers, is briefly discussed. Published by the Provincial Assembly of London.	London (England). Provincial Assembly.; Calamy, Edmund, 1600-1666.	1654 (1654)	Wing J1216A; ESTC R213934	266,099	375

all things I have kept my self from being burdensome to you and so will I keep my self and what I do in this kinde that I will do and the ground of this practise he declareth to avoid scandall that I may cut off occasion from them which desire occasion and that he might stop the boastings of those false Apostles dececeifull workers transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ that wherein they gloried they may be found even as we 3. When Paul was neeessitated to labour with his hands he numbers it in the Catalogue of his sorrows as part of his sufferings To this hour we both hunger and thirst and are naked and buffeted and have no certain ●welling-place and labour working with our own hands 4. Though Paul refused maintenance yet he still taught Beleevers that it was a Gospel-Ordinance to maintain their Ministers for Who goeth to warfare at his own charges Shall Souldiers have no pay because when they are lawfully called forth they offer themselves freely to serve the publike Who planteth a Vineyard and doth not eat thereof 5. When Paul in the cases and for the persons above-mentioned refused maintenance yet he telleth the Corinthians that he received much from others I robbed other Churchss taking wages of them to serve you for that which was lacking to me they which came from Macedonia supplied and he abundantly commendeth the Philippians who were careful for his outward subsistence And their supply sent unto him he calleth an Odour of sweet smell a Sacrifice acceptable well-pleasing to God and that hereby fruit did abound to their account The sixth Argument is drawn from the Promises If God hath made particular Promises to them that work in this Ministry then this Office is by Divine Institution For God did never promise to keep up that Office in the Church which he hath not set up but hath said the contrary that every Plant which our Heavenly Father hath not planted shall be plucked up But God hath made peculiar Promises to them that work in the Ministry 1. That his speciall presence shall be with them Lo I am with you in this work of Teaching and baptizing though many or most may be against you 2. His speciall assistance God alone is alsufficient to make them who are insufficient of themselves to think one good thought able Ministers of the New Testament not only of the Letter but of the Spirit God alone continues these abilities from the perpetuall supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ. From this speciall assistance it is that they which have this Ministry faint not under all affronts and discouragements totally and universally because they receive new supplies of Mercy from the Lord. 3. His speciall protection of them in all assaults He is present with all his Saints to protect and preserve them He is in the midst of the seven Golden Candlesticks and he walks in the midst of them These seven Golden Candlasticks are declared to be the seven Churches of Asia But God doth more then so to the Ministers of those Churches He is not only in them and walks in the midst of them but he holds the Stars in his right hand 4. Unto them he promiseth the power of the Keys and engageth himself that whatsoever they ministerially binde on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever they loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven And this promise first made to P●ter was not limited to Peters person alone for Christ after his Resurrection makes good the same promise to all the other Apostles Whose sins soever ye remit are remitted and whose sins soever ye retain are retained And that this promise was not liimted to the Apostles as Apostles but was given to the Apostles as Ministers of the Gospel is evident from Mat. 18.17 18. where the same power is given to the ordinary Church-Officers that was given to the Apostles and the same encouragement given to them to exercise that censure 5. Christ Jesus promiseth speciall sympathy with them whatsoever entertainment they meet withall in the discharge of this Office He that receiveth you receiveth me and he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me And when the Ministers are despised hated and contemned Christ tels us he takes it is to himself as if these contempts were done to himself in his own person He that hateth them in reference to the r work hateth me He that despiseth them despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent m● which great promises though eminently given to the Apostles yet are not limited to the Apostles as Apostles but extended to all the Ministers sent to preach the Gospel for so Christ himself expounds these Promises Verily Verily I say unto you He that receiveth whomsoever I shall send receiveth me Now if the promise be to all whomsoever Christ sends then not only to the Apostles for besides them Christ sent other Pastors who were not immediatly called and sent as the 12. and the 70. yet they were proved before to have been sent and set in the Church by Christ. 6. Christ is so tender of the good or bad usage of his Ministers that he hath undertaken to recompence all that good done to them He that receiveth a Prophet in the Name of a Prophet shall receive a Prophets reward And though this be true also of every righteous man and Disciple in his proportion yet our Lord doth evidently there distinguish betwixt the Prophet by Office and the righteous man or disciple as he doth also betwixt a Prophets reward and a righteous mans reward And so in all ages God hath taken it kindely when his faithfull Ministers have been protected and countenanced It stands upon record as a token of the sincerity of Obadiah that in that general persecution by Iezabel he had a hundred of the Lords Prophets and hid them fifty in a Cave and fed them with bread and water And of Hezekiah that good King who walked before the Lord with a perfect heart there is this testimony recorded that he spake comfortably unto all the Levites which taught the good knowledge of the Lord But those Kings and Rulers that abused the Ministers are noted as enemies to God himself Ahab and Amazia c. And contempt of Ordinances and Ministers sent from God is made the saddest fore-runner of ruine and desolation When they mocked the Messengers of God despised his Word and misused his Prophets Then the wrath of the Lord rose up against his people till there was no remedy The Lord was tender of the Ministry of the Law because glorious Now doth not the holy Ghost tell us that the Ministry of the Gospel doth exceed in Glory That among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater then Iohn Baptist Notwithstanding he that is least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater then he not

with all deceivablenesse of unrighteousnesse therefore we must Watch and Pray for the spirit of discerning that we may distinguish between things that differ 3. Consider as the Lord had his truths so he had his Church in Babylon during the rise and growth and reign and continuance of Antichrist The Apostacy though generall over all tongues and kindreds and Nations yet it was not so universall in all individuall persons but that there were a remnant according to the Election of grace As in the Baalitish Apostacy the Lord reserved seven thousand who had not bowed their knees to Baal So in this Antichristian defection the Lamb upon Mount Sion had 1● times 12. thousand that adhered to the doctrine of the 12. Apostles and these 144000 had their Fathers name written in their Forehead redeemed from among men b●ing the first-fruits unto God and to the Lamb and in their mouth was found no guile and they were not defiled with those Antichristian whoredomes For they are Virgins they were the true seed of the woman which keep the Commandments of God and have the testimony of Iesus Christ against whom the Dragon raged And therefore when the Romanists ask where was the Church before Luthers time We answer it was in and among them though it was not of them The Waldenses Albingenses Berengarians Pauperes de Lugduno or Lionists Lollards in severall places having many other severall names and these in the severall ages of the Reign of Antichrist held the truth of Jesus and opposed the errours of the man of sin which severall Popes endeavoured to destroy but could never effect All the Kings and Potentates of the earth were stirred up against them and a Decree made that if any temporall Lord did neglect to expell them out of his Dominions that he should be excommunicated his subjects absolved from allegiance and all their Lands confiscate and given to others Hence some of the Princes of the earth made it Treason for any of their Subjects either to hear or harbour them or any waies to releeve them And the armies raised against the Saracens and Mahometans were converted against these poor Christians and plenary indulgence pardon of all sin promised to all that would fight against them And if in France alone as it s reported in the History of that War there were slain ten hundred thousand what shall we think the number of them to be who were slain in all other Nations Yet under all these pressures and persecutions though they were often dispersed yet they could not be extinguished but these afflicted people of the Lord being scattered fled into Provence and the Alpes some into Calabria Bohemia Polonia and into Britain as Thuanus in his Preface And though many Opinions were imputed to them to make them odious yet their accusers do wofully and wonderfully contradict themselves as some of our Learned men do prove and some of them ingenuously confesse yet their main tenents were that they renounced the Church of Rome as the mysticall Babylon contemned the Pope as the man of sin and rejected their severall Popish opinions as Antichristian They held the same truths for substance that the Protestants now professe Insomuch as some of the adversaries confesse that they who are now Calvinists were anciently called Berengarians and the New Protestants are the Old Waldenses This Sect some of the Papists complain to be of all most pernicious to the Church of Rome 1. Because it is most ancient and durable having continued from the time of Pope Sylvester Others say from the time of the Apostles 2. Because most generall no part of the earth scarce free from it 3. Because it hath the greatest appearance of godlinesse for they live justly towards men and believe all things well concerning God only they blaspheme and hate the Church of Rome As the Lord had his Saints during all the Reign of Antichrist so he raised up his Ministers who in their severall successive ages in severall places testified against the spirituall whoredomes idolatrous worships and deceiving frauds of Antichrist it 's true as the generality of the people so the generality of the Priests in those times did worship the Beast even all that dwelt upon earth whose names were not written in the Lambs Book of Life and some observe that it was the righteous judgement of the Lord upon the Church at that time that such an Apostate people should have such apostaticall Priests and the holy Ghost maketh this one expresse ground because men did not receive the love of the truth that they might be saved therefore God shall send them strong delusions that they should beleeve a lie that they all might be damned who beleeved not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousnesse But in this generall defection both of people and of their Teachers The Lamb had a remnant with him who were called and chosen and faithfull even an afflicted poor remnant of Pastors as well as of people reserved in the midst of Babyltn who did trust in the Name of the Lord and those godly pious Priests were both obedient unto and bold in the faith of Jesus Now if there were such Ministers during the reign of Antichrist that followed the Lamb did not defile their garments but preached and prayed and lived and died in their constant and consciencious oppositions of the man of sinne then surely the Ministry was not totally lost under the reign of Antichrist But that there were such appears both by Holy Scripture-prophesie which foretels it and unquestionable History of the Church that confirms it In the one men may learn what God spoke with his mouth In the other what the Lord fullfilled with his own hand The holy Ghost expresseth that there should be some to prophesie in Sackcloth one thousand two hundred and sixty daies Now not to dispute but taking that for granted which the best Interpreters assert and by Arguments out of the Revelations prove 1. That those One thousand two hundred and sixty daies are not naturall daies but propheticall every day taken for a Year as Ezek. 4.6 Num. 14.14 2. That those two Witnesses prophesying were not two individuall persons as Enoch and Elias as Bellarmine and other Papists affirm but a succession of Holy men stirred up all that time to testifie the truth of Christ against Antichrist as our learned men prove 3. That the Reign of the Beast continuing for 42 moneths which moneths taken prophetically as before every day for a year and reckoning for every mon●th 30 daies now multiply the 42 by the 30. and the reign of the Beast is 1260 years and though there be great difficulty when to begin the rise and reign and most Expositors herein much vary yet in the continuance there is a generall accord and none can rationally make any question about it 4. That these Sackcloth-prophecies though but very few comparatively to the Locusts out of