Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	catholic_n	church_n	visible_a	4,689	5	9.3932	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48445	Some genuine remains of the late pious and learned John Lightfoot, D.D. consisting of three tracts ... : together with a large preface concerning the author, his learned debates in the assembly of divines, his peculiar opinions, his Christian piety, and the faithful discharge of his ministry.	Lightfoot, John, 1602-1675.	1700 (1700)	Wing L2070; ESTC R12231	207,677	406

the undoing of the Nation to this Day Against these our Saviour so declaimeth Mat. xv 3 Why do you transgress the Commandment of God by your Tradition And in other Places And the Apostle 1 Pet. i. 18 where he speaks of their vain Conversation received by Tradition from their Fathers Now these Traditions in the two greatest Points of Religion viz. Concerning Christ and the Way of Salvation had introduced Doctrines as contrary to the Prophets and Truth as might be They made the Way to Salvation so easie that it was no strait Gate nor narrow Way that led thither but a few Ceremonious Works Washings Purifications Sacrifices would do the Business By these they thought they could be justified And how easie was it to perform these As for Christ our Messias they thought he should be a Temporal Deliverer and would live always and converse among them and enstate and keep them in all Earthly Pomp and Prosperity To this it is the Apostle speaks here God will send Jesus Christ among you but not as your Traditions teach to be always bodily present with you for he is now in Heaven and Heaven must contain him and there he must be till the restoring or accomplishing of all things But not of all things that are spoken by your Masters of Traditions but which God hath spoken by the Mouth of his holy Prophets According to the Sense of the Prophets not your Traditions AN EXPOSITION OF Two Select Articles OF THE Apostles Creed VIZ. I. The Holy Catholick Church II. The Communion of Saints AN EXPOSITION OF Two Select Articles OF THE Apostles Creed I. I believe the Holy Catholick Church AFTER the Creed hath done with what is to be believed concerning God it comes to speak of what is to be believed concerning other Matters of Faith It teacheth the Trinity and that we are to believe in Father Son and Holy Ghost and most largely what to believe concerning the Son His Incarnation and Acting for Man's Redemption After mention of Faith in the Trinity I believe in God the Father In his Son Jesus Christ and I believe in the Holy Ghost it first comes to teach what to believe concerning the Church and that in this Article I believe the Holy Catholick Church A Papist's Faith upon this Article comes to this Credo in Ecclesiam Sanctam Romanam Catholicam i. e. I believe in the Holy Roman Catholick Church In which they speak Impiety to believe in Men Falshood to call the Roman Church Holy and Nonsense to call that particular Church the Church Catholick or Universal I shall not insist to confute their Belief in this Point the first Part whereof is so plainly confuted by Scripture that bids not to trust in Man the second by Experience and History that tells of the abominable Unholiness of the Roman Church and the third by all Reason and common Language that tells it Nonsense to call a particular Church the Church Universal I shall first unfold to you the Article and then speak to what is observable upon the Meaning and Intent of it The Church you see is made the Object of Faith in it But of what Faith and in what Sense the Articles following shew Viz. To believe that there is a Holy Catholick Church as that there is a Communion of Saints that there is Forgiveness of Sins c. In the Article are three Things to be believed I. That there is a Church of God II. That it is Catholick III. That it is Holy The hardest thing is What is meant by Catholick and it is not easie to say How there is a Holy Church when there is so much Wickedness and Abomination in the World It is said by the Psalmist Psal. xiv 2 3. The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek after God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth Good no not one And where then can you find a Holy Church The Apostle Paul saith Phil. ii 21 All seek their own not the things which are Jesus Christ's And John saith 1 Ep. v. 19 The whole World lyeth in Wickedness And where can you then find a Holy Church Diogenes searched the City throughout with a Candle at Noon day and said Hominem quaero I seek for a Man So search Jerusalem with a Candle and how rarely can we find one that is Holy And where then is the Holy Catholick Church First As to the Word Catholick it signifies Universal It is rendred General in the Titles of the Epistles of James Peter and John And those are call'd General Epistles because not written to particular Persons Cities or Countries as those to Timothy the Romans the Galatians c. but generally to all in many or all Countries As S. Peter to the Strangers in Pontus Galatia Cappadocia Asia and Bithynia S. James to the twelve Tribes wheresoever scattered So the Catholick Church is first meant in Opposition to the particular Church of the Jews and secondly as meaning the Church of the Gentiles of all Nations that truly profess Christ throughout the World The Jews under the Law cry'd The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord are these So since the Gospel even hitherto they cry The Church of God are we But the Scripture tells us they are a Synagogue of Satan And Scripture teacheth us to acknowledge a Catholick Church the Church of God abroad in the World among all Nations at one time or other We shall take up the Words particularly and single And first of the Word Church And the Article doth teach and call upon us to believe That God hath ever a Church in the World I shall not insist upon the Signification of the Word in Greek and Latin nor of the Deduction of it into our English Tongue Some think our English is derived from the Greek Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies Belonging to the Lord. As 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord's Supper 1 Cor. xi 20 And 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Lord's Day Rev. i. 10 So 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Church to mean the Lord's Portion as Israel is called by that Title very oft There is none of you I suppose but know what is meant by the Church of God viz. Those or that Company that worship and serve God throughout the World About the Definition or Description of the Church of God is now and hath been almost ever under the Gospel the greatest Controversie one of them in Religion As at present whether the Roman Church be a true Church Which many Protestants deny And whether the Protestant Church be a true Church Which the Romanists deny Whether the Church of England be a true Church Which Separatists deny Whether Separatists be of the true Church Which the Church of England denies The like Scruple is made of the Greek Russian Jacobin Abyssin and other Churches Into which Controversie I

Holy Catholick Church can we only think of that which is visible as to an outward Profession in which Millions perish and go to Hell for ever No we are to think of the Church invisible the number known to God of his Faithful ones And on the other Hand as a Man may be in the visible Church and yet not be saved So possibly a Man may be out of the visible Church and yet may be saved An Infant not yet Baptized is not yet admitted into the visible Church but it were hard to say all so dying were not saved David's Child not Circumcised died and yet who doubts of his Salvation Consider David's Demeanor upon his Death and compare it with the Demeanor of him upon the Death of Absalom 2 Sam. xviii 33 The King was much moved and went up to the Chamber over the Gate and wept and as he went thus he said Oh my Son Absalom my Son my Son Absalom would God I had died for thee Oh Absalom my Son my Son This for Absalom But for his Infant 2 Sam. xii 18 David 's Servants feared to tell him that the Child was dead For they said Behold while the Child was yet alive we spake unto him and he would not hearken unto our Voice how will he then vex himself if we tell him that the Child is dead But how well he took it see v. 23. Now he is dead wherefore should I fast Can I bring him back again I shall go to him but he shall not return to me He could not but doubt Absalom's Condition because he died in Rebellion But had he doubted so of the Child's Condition could he have been so well apaid upon his Death Had he been of Popish Faith to believe that Children are not saved that receive not the Sign of Admission into the Church could he have been so well satisfied And in another Case a good Man may possibly die excommunicate out of the visible Church It were hard to conclude such a Man's Damnation meerly upon that reason John ix 34 The Jews there cast out a Man for arguing that Christ must be a true Prophet because he cured him who had been born blind And ver 22. The Jews had agreed already that if any Man did confess that he was Christ he should be put out of the Synagogue And Christ told the Disciples that they should be cast out of the Synagogue If they died in that Excommunication out of that visible Church did that prove their Damnation How many Holy Men have died excommunicate out of the Church of Rome Which so little argues their Damnation that it rather argues the contrary Nay it may come to pass that a good Man may die excommunicate out of a true Protestant Church neither for Heresie nor Impiety and yet it were hard to doom such an one to Perdition I speak not this to animate any to separate or withdraw from the visible Church wherein we live For such Divisions of Reuben there are sad Thoughts of Heart But that by observing this needful Distinction you may the better observe the Intent of this Article Learn then this Distinction of Visible and Invisible As the Apostle hath it All are not Israel that are of Israel So all are not the Church of God that are of the Church visible As we may say every Minister is not a Minister every Soldier is not a Soldier And let this be thy Meditation upon this Article God hath a Holy Church that serve him truly whom the World cannot discern And I must get to be of that number or this my Profession will be greater Damnation This needful Distinction will help to answer that Cavil of Papists Where was your Church before Luther Answer God saw his own that profess'd his Truth in the midst of Popery As there was a Lot in Sodom and Seven Thousand that bowed not to Baal This also will afford an Answer to that reproachful Cavil Do you think your Ancestors were damned that lived in Popery And they think they have us in a Strait by this Argument But we may answer 'T is not for us to judge God hath His whom Men cannot discern I doubt not but that many were in the Popish Church that were not of it The Papists indeed brag of the Visibility of their Church They will have it a City on a Hill a Candle on a Candlestick c. Mat. v. 14 15. and make a puff at the Protestant Church because it was not visible Two Hundred Years ago and their Church hath been a Thousand Years They tell us we had had no Scriptures had not their Church preserved them No Ordination of Ministers had it not been conveyed all along in their Church And such things as these they vapour as if there could be no true Church but theirs which hath been visible in all Ages I remember a Story when one had proclaimed a King with a World of Titles the King of France made his Herauld proclaim him nothing but King of France King of France divers times over accounting more Dignity in that one Title than in all the others The Church of Rome proclaims her self pompously in her arrogated Titles that She She is the Mother Church the Holy Church the Catholick Church the Only Church and I know not what The Protestant Church need to say of her self no more than that she is the Church of God The other brags of Antiquity Universality Visibility Succession and other Bravado's whereas the Protestant Church hath but this to glory of and it is enough That she is built upon the Prophets and Apostles Ingenious was that Picture In one Scale you see all the Trinklements of Popery and the Pope and Friars hanging on in the other the Protestants put the Bible and it outweighs This is the Glory and sure Friend of a Church to be built upon the Holy Scriptures altho' there be no Visibility of that Church to the Eyes of Men at all But that we may take up the Consideration of this thing the better and that we may see how needful it is to take the Distinction proposed observe these things It is true the Church of Rome if a Church hath been visible a Thousand Years and more when no Protestant Church was to be seen So the World was visibly of one Religion Two Thousand Years viz. Irreligious Heathenism when but only in one spot of Ground one that served the true God was not to be found Abraham in Chaldea when he first hearkned to God how might this Romish Argument have been used against him What thou only of all the World not worship Gods of Gold and Silver Look thro' Europe Asia and Africa and thou wilt not find one of thy Mind Was Abraham's Religion ever the worse for being so lonely or the other the better for being so universal Michaiah and the false Prophets of Ahab he One they Hundreds Were their Words ever the truer for their Multitudes 'T is true that for