Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	earl_n	lord_n	nottingham_n	3,121	5	13.6957	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93282	The true church of Christ exposed to the view of all sober Christians, from the Word of God, sound reason, and the ancient fathers / by James Salgado, a Spaniard, a converted priest.	Salgado, James, fl. 1680.	1681 (1681)	Wing S384; ESTC R42935	23,389	69

THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST EXPOSED To the View of all SOBER CHRISTIANS from the Word of GOD Sound Reason AND THE Ancient FATHERS By JAMES SALGADO a Spaniard a Converted Priest London Printed by T. B. for the Author 1681. To the Right Honourable HENEAGE Earl of Nottingham Lord Chancellour of England THis most Important Affair which concerns the Conversion of a Man to God cannot better be offered to any Person than to one that manages the greatest Affairs of a Mighty Monarch to the Glory of his God to the Credit and Interest of his Prince to the Honour and Repute of the Nation to the gladding of the hearts of all good Subjects therein and the Terrour of Offenders to his own Immortal praise here and Immortal Felicity hereafter with universal steady unshaken Loyalty Justice and Integrity It is to speak in short most agreeable for one that is the Quintessence of all Excellencies both Divine and Humane The boldness which I have to present this Book to your Honour doth not only bid me hope for Excuse but also promise my self that your Honour will receive it according to your wonted Noble and Generous Condescention being your Poor Offerer tenders it with the Profoundest Reverence and Respects imaginable I humbly pray your Lordship to take both my Self and Book to your Honours Protection and it shall be my daily Prayers to Almighty God to take under his Especial Charge your Honours Person and under his Especial Conduct all your Honours Actions so that both may be acceptable to his Divine Majesty and his Majesty of Great Britain and to all true English Spirits being My Lord Your Honours most obedient Servant JAMES SALGADO THE TRUE CHURCH OF CHRIST c. IT was not without Reason that the Fathers compared the Church to the Ark of Noah because that as none that were out of the Ark could escape destruction by the Flood so none that are without the Bosom of the Church can escape Everlasting Damnation for those that are no Members of the Church cannot partake of her peculiar Priviledges such as Vocation Justification Sanctification c. without which it 's impossible to attain Eternal Life And as any Member cut off from the Body is thereby deprived of Life Sense and Motion because it is no more united to nor influenced from the Head even so those that are cut off from the Church are thereby deprived of Eternal Life because they are not united unto Christ who is the Head of the Church and therefore want that influence of his Spirit which is the Author of all Spiritual Life For this reason David affirms that the Heathen knew not the Laws of God even because they were not in the Communion of Israel to which the Church was confined under the Old Testament Psa 147.19 20. The Apostle Paul writing to the Ephesians doth yet further confirm this Assertion At that time you were without Christ being Aliens from the Commonwealth of Israel and Strangers from the Covenant of Promise having no hope and without God in the world Eph. 2.12 Namely because they were not in the Bosom of the Church they were therefore excluded from the Communion of Christ who is the faithful Husband of the Church his only Spouse as he himself affirms Cant. 6.1 My Dove my Vndefiled is but one But when the Fathers used this similitude they meant the Universal Church whose beginning Augustine deriveth from Abel and deduceth the continuation thereof even to the end of the World Therefore it is not this or that Church in this or that part of the World that can be called Catholick in this sense but that Church which was which is and which is to come and comprehends the Triumphant as well as the Militant And if that be properly Catholick which hath been always and every where believed by all Vincent Lirinensis contra profanas novitates then that is the Catholick Church which hath and will be always found in all Nations for the thing ruled cannot be narrower than the Rule and Faith cannot be found but in believers I don't deny that there are many particular Assemblies and many Provincial or National Churches and some of these purer than others but none of these Assemblies or Churches can be called Catholick taking the word strictly because they are only parts or members constituting one general body and therefore cannot be called universal without a plain contradiction unless you would give to the Hand or Foot the name of the whole body Hence it follows that the Roman Church being but a particular Church supposing that it were Orthodox which yet we utterly deny cannot claim unto it self alone exclusively to other Churches that profess Christ the Title of Catholick I confess I am not so rigid as to exclude the Roman Church and her Followers from the Latitude of the Universal Church because besides that men living in that Communion but in the simplicity of their heart professing God and his Christ and sincerely endeavouring to work out their Salvation although in many points they neither understand the thing it self nor the manner of the thing because of an invincible ignorance may attain unto eternal life for God is no respecter of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Act. 10.34 35. I say besides this the Popish Church may be called a Church in a Physical though not in a Moral sense even rs an Adulterous Wife doth not lose the name of a Wife although she lose the name of an honest Wife But because the Court of Rome will have their Church to consist in the Pope or Council or both I shall evince their Church so taken to be fallible erroneous and false And although the Church in this sense be but representative yet seeing all the rest do depend upon her as infallible and have nothing left them but a blind obedience taking the denomination of the whole from the principal part I rightly affirm that the Roman Church is false uncatholick yea and no Church at all The Papists not contented to pronounce all Churches without their Communion Hereticks and Schismaticks and therefore without any hope of Salvation have moreover asserted that their own Church is infallible and void of all Errour A great Assertion indeed and which is not only false in it self but also is one great reason why other Churches dissenting from her cannot joyn into one Body nor hold Communion with her For besides that no particular Church such as the Roman is can be called infallible it necessitates them after the manner of the Athenians to worship they know not what and erect an Altar to the unknown God It is in vain to dispute concerning the property or priviledge of any thing while they that attribute these priviledges to it have no certain knowledge of the thing it self Therefore in vain do they assert that their Church is infallible while they cannot determine when or where this Church is