Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
faith_n	church_n	true_a	visible_a	19,269	5	9.3685	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30997	A sermon preached before the King at Newmarket April 24, 1670 by Miles Barne ...	Barne, Miles, d. 1709?	1670 (1670)	Wing B860; ESTC R12579	11,761	37

the serenity of his Being so will the Solifidian be found to be the truest Infidel who allowing Faith to be necessary to salvation most perfidiously strips it of all those enlivening Properties which might fit and adorn it for so great an attainment Our Faith must be Uniform and Undivided For there is one Lord one Faith one Baptism and one onely name under Heaven given unto men whereby we must be saved even the name of the Lord Jesus So long as the Christians continued together and were of the same mind so long as they maintained simplicity and liberality being solicitous for nothing but an Holy life when all the gain they studied was Godliness when all the strife and emulation they had was to out-vie each other in the Practise of Piety when there were no Divisions but of Goods and Possessions to be parted among the Needy Then did the Church flourish and a daily Addition was made of them that should be saved But when instead of these lovely Qualities there arose Sects and Schisms when once that unhappy Distinction was made of Paul and Apollo of Christ and Cephas when men began to be lovers of themselves more then of God when the old strife was renewed which of them should be the greatest when the loss of a Preferment was cruelly revenged upon the Church by the setting up of an Heresie when the wits began to deride the simplicity of the Gospel and the learned were divided about points of Faith Then did the Church truly suffer and sustained more damage by these intestine broyles then by the hottest persecutions of the Heathen Emperours Of the truth whereof we have too sad an instance in the fourth Century when the tares of Arianism had almost quite choaked the wheat when the gates of Hell were so near prevailing against the Church that the Catholick Faith seemed to have but one Confessour the Church of Christ to be no where visible but in Athanasius his Temple if that common saying be true The whole world against Athanasius and Athanasius against the whole world So much it concerns us to keep the Unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace For as a Kingdom so a Church divided within it self cannot stand And since this cannot be effected by the sole Threats and Menaces of the Gospel though most severe against Schismaticks nor yet by the utmost power Christ hath committed to his Church the dreadful sentence of excommunication by Saint Paul defined to be the delivering up to Satan For what will they care for the Power of the Keys who account it their priviledge to be without the pale of the Church Therefore is it that God hath ordained Kings to be Nursing Fathers And from hence arises another way as ancient as Constantine the Great the first Christian Emperour of dealing with obstinate Dissenters the enacting and executing Penal Laws against them And may we not yet hope that they whom forbearance made dangerous and Toleration it self at length rendred intollerable may at last be reclaimed however the danger prevented by a late Renowned Act An Act worthy the Royal Fiat of him who justly weareth the glorious Title of Defender of the Faith and becoming the greatness of its establishers who could never have done God and their Country the Church and State better Service than by preventing and suppressing Schismatical and Seditious Conventicles 3. Our Faith must be stedfast and well grounded For if it be tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of Doctrine it must of necessity at last suffer Shipwrack They that have itching ears open to every Novel Teacher are in danger of forfeiting the Ancient Catholick Faith Thus if instead of relying upon the Authority of Primitive Fathers and Councils we admit of every upstart Writer will not this at length invalidate the commands of the Apostles If we receive our Religion from the Tribunal of the Civil Magistrates may not this at last bring us under the condemnation of the Pharisees of rendring the Word of God of none effect through their Traditions And as it must be stedfast so it must be well grounded That is we must be well assured of the truth of it our selves and able to convince the gain-sayers For our own assurance 't is enough that we have the same Faith which was once delivered to the Saints That they had the honour to converse with the Authour of it that they were Persons of the greatest Integrity and therefore would not deceive others that they were Persons very inquisitive and circumspect and therefore would not be deceived themselves that it was confirmed by miracles attested and sealed by their Bloud that it prevailed in spite of all opposition and hath been kept entire in all Ages of the Church According to Christs own Promise That the Gates of Hell should never prevail against it And now I might very well challenge our Modern Infidels to produce half such convincing Arguments for the certainty of any thing which they believe as these which the Christian hath to assure him of the truth of his Faith But the prosecution of this Topick though very pleasing would carry me beyond the limits of a Sermon The best way to convince gain-sayers is to hold fast the faithful word as it hath been taught or as the Greek renders it which is according to Doctrine not according to Fancy private Interpretation or the Pretensions to an extraordinary Light For the constancy of the Christian in his Profession hath always been found one of the best Arguments to confute Hereticks Faith thus qualified that hath good works for its Life-Guard that is at unity with its self that is built upon the Foundation of the Apostles and Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief Corner stone shall stand like an impregnable Fortress against all the Batteries of the World The last thing to be considered 3. That Faith thus Qualified is the best and surest way of overcoming the World What is here meant by the World let Saint John determine The Lusts of the flesh the Lusts of the eye and the Pride of Life to which we may add evil Examples Persecutions and in a word whatsoever Bait the great Adversary of Mankind throws in our way to seduce us from our Religion and consequently as he dispossessed our First Parents of a Terrestrial so to prevent our arrival at a Celestial Paradise And are these the strongest Forces which the World can muster up and bring into the Field against us Impar congressus The Flesh against the Spirit The members against the mind impotent Earth against the Powers of Heaven all of them in open Rebellion And may they receive a Doom answerable to their Crime 1. Then Faith bids you consider the baseness and weakness of your Enemies Lusts and Pride Things which the common consent of Mankind hath branded with a note of Infamy He that makes his Belly his God hates to be counted a Glutton

The covetous wretch though he detesteth the virtue courts the title of a liberal Person He that is most addicted to vain-glory would not be thought ambitious He that is seduced by every little temptation thinks he is disparaged when you count him one of an easie facil temper Can any thing then be more ignoble than to be led captive by such vices which proclaim their baseness by disowning their name was it not a strange oversight in Esau to sell his birth-right for a mess of pottage A prodigious piece of folly in Judas to betray his Master for a few pence In Lucifer to forfeit Heaven to gratifie his pride And yet of this rank are all those who surrender their Faith into the power of such mean adversaries 'T is highly against the points of Honour for a Person of Quality to enter the field and engage with a Peasant How much more dishonourable is it for an high and Heaven-born Soul to be overcome by the low and baese temptations of the World 2. Faith bids you consult your own strength and gives you power to exert it The Apostle could do all things through Christ which strengthned him and if we cannot do so too 't is not because Christ is wanting to us but we to our selves The flesh indeed may war against the Spirit The members may mutiny against the mind But 't is at their own peril if they do for the one is weak and unwieldy the other ready and active and if the members ever prevail it must be through the consent degeneracy or inadvertency of the mind We disparage our faculties and dishonour God who gave them when we think all the freedom left us consisteth in a liberty to sin It were better for us if we had no wills at all than that they should lye under such a fatal doom We may if we please exercise that dominion which is the undoubted right of our Supreme Powers A manifest proof whereof is that there are very few who are totally captivated by sin And they who are have taken more pains thus vilely to enslave themselves than they need have been at in asserting the glorious liberty of the Sons of God 'T is far more difficult to conquer the checks of Conscience than to keep it void of offence both towards God and towards man 3. Faith propounds to you the joys of Heaven and assures you that you shall be partaker of them if you continue faithful unto the end And shall the fading riches of this World be preferred to the immortal treasures of the other The transient dull nauseous delights of sense to those vigorous unallayed pleasures which are at Gods right hand for evermore Shall the ambition of being great here hinder us from being so hereafter Shall the unconstant blast of popular applause prevent us of the joyful acclamations of Angels Shall an earthly be more valuable than an Heavenly Crown Shall light afflictions which are but for a moment make us forfeit an eternal weight of Glory These are such Considerations as have hitherto prevailed in the World and they must do so still unless we can dethrone the King of Kings murther the immortality of the Soul cancel the immutable laws of Good and Evil banish the reward which belongs to the one and take away the punishment which is due to the other And therefore in the last place That you may neither be overcome by the temptations of the World nor think the joys of Heaven unattainable Faith propounds to your imitation a whole cloud of witnesses of Apostles and Prophets of Martyrs and Confessours who acquitting themselves valiantly received a Crown for their recompense And as Faith is the means of overcoming the world so is it the victory it self For after it hath fought the good fight here below and reigned till it hath put all its enemies under its feet then it begins to offer a kind of sacred violence to the Regions above seeth Heaven open and Christ standing at the right hand of God and so never ceaseth to be victorious until it be overcome in an abyss of Glory and swallowed up in the beatifical Vision To conclude Let not this Faith which heretofore subdued Kingdoms and wrought righteousness be it self overcome by the iniquity of Christian divisions This Faith which fought with beasts at Ephesus let it not be conquered by any brutish passion Let not this Faith which hath hitherto silenced the Disputer of this World be now drolled out of the Church by the Atheist This Faith which stopped the mouths of lions let it not be devoured by the Leviathan of our age In a word Keep this Faith which renowneth Kings and maketh Princes famous which enobleth Nobility and keepeth the people in due subjection which causeth a nation to flourish which will render our lives happy here and crown us with bliss hereafter FINIS Page 12. lin 3. for hundred read thousand Acts 28.22 * Orig. cont Cel. l. 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. * Vide Socin de Aut. script Mal. 4.5 Isa 7.14 Deut. 22. v. 23 24. Mic. 53 3. Isa 53.3 Mat. 27.46 Psal 22.16 Zech. 12.10 Psal 16.10 * He casteth out Devils through the Prince of Devils S. Mat. 9.34 Isa 2.4 Zech. 9.9 S. John 18.36 Mat. 23.27 S. John 7.46 1 S. Pet. 2.22 1 S. Joh. 5.7 S. Luk. 8.28 S. Jude 6. S. Jam. 2.26 Eph. 4.5 Acts 4.12 1 Cor. 5.5 Mat. 16.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Tit. 1.9 1 S. Joh. 2.16 Phil. 4.13