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
A41383	A discourse of Christianity laying open the abuses thereof in the anti-Christian lives and worship of many of its professors, especially the Romanists : and shewing the way to a holy life in the character of a true Christian / written originally in French by the famous Monsieur de Gombaud ; and now done into English by P Lorrain.	Gombauld, Jean Ogier de, d. 1666.; Lorrain, P. (Paul), d. 1719.	1693 (1693)	Wing G1023; ESTC R14522	47,226	176

of Superstition She does but too much abound with such as serve only to make up a Number and seem to be engaged therein more by their Birth or Chance than by any desire or affection they have of improving themselves in the knowledge of Truth One would think they only come to see the World in a Place from whence the World should in some sort be banished where they behave themselves with so little respect that it would be a great mistake to call them Hypocrites in whom not the least sign of Zeal or Devotion is to be observed They aim at nothing else but to make a shew in the most conspicuous Places whereas they should return thanks to God that he allows them any in the Company of the Saints and it should suffice them without pretending to any other advantage to have only so much room there as they need to put both knees to the ground Some make of the Day of Rest a day of trouble and perform the most just Duty in the World as a toilfom and tedious Task Others are so abominably wicked and profligate as to hear Sermons with no other intent than to find fault with them and wrest the meaning or make a mock of the Preacher Many cannot relish plain pure easie and rational Exhortations and no Truth can move them unless it be presented to them in a pleasing Elocution a thundering Voice and eloquent Tongue and unless it be adorned with all the Flowers of Rhetorick They slight those things that are plain and obvious and think that below them which the common sort are able to apprehend You cannot satisfie them unless you undertake some high Mystery fathom the great Deeps or wire-draw some difficult Point or other that only belongs to God to resolve and the knowledge whereof he has reserved to himself They have forgotten That as he who has chosen the weak things of the World to confound the mighty 1 Cor. 1.27 was humble so he will have our Knowledge to be modest and not presumptuous that he has put his Word into the Mouths of the simple who yet cannot express it so weakly but that they that love it will know how to discern it from the flash and glittering outside of Lie They have forgot that he doth not willingly employ the skill of so many Languages but to harden those to whom he has so often offer'd his Grace and they as often rejected it to maintain Error with an obstinacy which they will have pass for strength and may be call'd the Constancy and Virtue of Reprobates True Believers in order to their being perswaded need not the Ministry of Eloquence which indeed is seldom introduced into the Church but upon the Decay of Faith and when so much Art is used for moving Men and stirring them up to Piety 't is a visible mark of the hardness of their Hearts Yet the Preachers are oblig'd in compliance with the itching Ears and nice Palates of their Hearers to become nice and over-curions themselves and leave the Simplicity of the Apostles to betake themselves sometimes to the subtleties of Philosophers and at other times to to the lofty Terms of Orators Censure is no longer of use in these cases no more than for the corrupt Manners of the Great Men of the World and many Evils have got such footing in most Churches already that very few can be found who have either courage or strength to remove them The Saints in our Days have much ado to resist the torrent of the Age and the Devil makes him self insensibly to be honoured in the Persons of the Mighty XLII I Found therefore no Reformation but in the Doctrine yet doubted not but that there were Believers where I saw the Word of Truth was preach'd But it was so much the more difficult for me to know them because the Wicked have all the Actions of the Good and the Good all the Infirmities of the Wicked Very few are found who always take care that their Works should be so conformable to the Precepts of the Gospel as not to be sometimes diverted by other Promises and to pursue other Hopes Besides God calls them in each Sex Age and Profession He invites them to him that persecute him and of his greatest Foes when he pleases makes his most faithful Friends Yea and by a Judgment the causes whereof are unsearchable he in an instant converts them who lead an ill Life and prefers them before those whose Manners seem to be perfectly good and holy and who do even boast that they have fulfilled the Law Certainly the most Righteous do but fall too often either through an extraordinary Fear or a Surprize of Satan or by a Trial from God himself who for a while abandons them to the weakne●s of their own Nature that they may not misdeem themselves nor impute that to their own Virtue which is the meer Product of the Heavenly Grace in them But with these the Gift of God is always the strongest so that notwithstanding the Sinful Pleasures whereby they are over-taken and the Errors that carry them away it happens to them as to the Prodigal Son They must soon or late return to their Father However 't is not by any composed or demure Looks nor any peculiar Garb they are to be known They do not affect to appear otherwise than other Men nor recommend themselves by any extravagant or unusual Form All their Actions have nothing common with those of Hypocrites Their Devotion serves not for a Cloak to their Covetousness nor their Humility for a Mask to their Ambition They put on no disguise nor is there any alteration to be seen outwardly in their Countenances but such as really proceeds from an inward feeling God affords them of those supernatural things which Worldlings cannot be sensible of When once the Holy Ghost has touched them there always remains in them a certain Character and impression that makes them shine in the sight of the Almighty as the Stars in the Night which yet have no other Light but what is communicated to them from the Sun He that made and is the Searcher of all Hearts does both know them and make them known to whom he pleases But many there are that seem to be Believers who are not so indeed or at the best have but a temporal Faith Nevertheless if we may be allowed to pass any Judgment upon it methinks Men's Conversation shews their Affections plain enough And I am confident that those who do love God with a true heart are for the most part taken up with the Contemplation of his Works and above all with the Meditation of his Sacred Word in the reading of which they continually exercise themselves not out of meer curiosity nor to find fault with it neither out of a vain desire of Learning nor as Mercenaries to teach it to others and make a Gain of it but only to instruct themselves seek for Comfort strengthen their Faith and assure

make known to us that they may rashly dive into those which for a time he would have hid from us Without too indiscreet a presumption and a Curiosity not only needless but pernicious I shall never disturb the publick Peace nor raise new Doubts either about the two Natures the two Wills or Substance of JESUS CHRIST and without a too great Love of my self I shall never pretend to be the COMFORTER with Montanus nor the SAVIOUR of Men with Menander I will live as a Believer with Believers and neither scandalize my Brethren by any private Opinion taken up of my own head nor by a general undervaluing of the Opinion of others XXVI So long as the Weakness of Men shall introduce into the Church no other Scruples save about the difference of Meat and have no other Ornaments but Pictures and not provoke God's Jealousie by Graven Images So long as there shall be only some superfluous Ceremonies which in the Judgment of many will pass sometimes for indifferent and at other times be thought necessary though indeed an Error that seems but small at first is commonly a step to a greater So long as its Purity shall be if not altogether such as it might be wish'd yet at least such as is tolerable I will not depart from its Communion But I must and will withdraw from any Assembly where I shall be forced to conform with the outward actions of Superstition and Idolatry and pay a Religious Honour and Worship not only to Saints and Angels who are Fellow-Servants with us but to Wood and Stone where the Sacraments are not entire and where the Commandments of God are made void by the Precepts of Men. Neither shall I think this is any Schism where there is so just a reason of Separating and an impossibility of doing otherwise For what else should be the meaning or use of these Words that command Believers to go without the Camp Heb. 13.13 and to come out of Babylon Rev. 18.4 which going out is not meant of the Spirit only but of the Body too seeing that both are equally to be consecrated to the Glory of the Creator And when we shall see the abomination of Desolation set in the Holy Place Dan. 9.27 must not we fly into the Mountains Mat. 24. Or if once Antichrist be seated in the Temple of God must he therefore be obey'd and what he pleaseth to injoyn be called the Commandments of the Church CHAP. VII XXVII WHen therefore I saw the universal Division of so many Sects which all of them had their Doctors and some of them their Prophets too I thought that upon this account the necessity of Prayer was very urgent that there was great occasion for us to humble our selves and consult not the uncertain Imaginations of Men but those infallible Rules which God himself has laid down And this I desired with so much the more care to do because the Word of God tells us that not only many Antichrists will arise in the Church and one above all the rest but also that in the time of the Apostles themselves the Mystery of Iniquity began already to put forward and consequently must be by this time grown to a great height notwithstanding their blindness who have no minds to see it and think they are safe enough whilst they can find some pretence or other for their wilful Ignorance I therefore suspected all Religions which are not purely Evangelical and Divine which are mixt with Human Inventions meddle with Questions too high and too difficult to be resolved and the Controversy whereof is too subtle and fine-spun I had also an ill Opinion of those that are brought in by the Sword and Tyranny which are so little assur'd of themselves that they are afraid of a Communication with others and to that end keep their Followers in a Brutish Ignorance In like manner I mistrusted all those that comport with the several interests of the World and put in for a share in its Government whatever pompous Title of the Church they may assume because they overthrow the Order of CHRIST's own Appointment and rashly change that into a Time of Glory which is appointed for the Patience of the Saints XXVIII Besides if we will believe universal Experience Every thing that is under the Government of Men is like them subject to Alteration Mutability and Corruption and soon or late follows the Way of their Inconstancy Children do not willingly continue in their Fathers or at least Ancestors Belief and Faith is not hereditary as the Title of a Family or an Estate is For the most part they have nothing left of it but an outward Profession to which they being no otherwise engaged but by Birth or Custom they easily abandon what their depraved Nature neither incline them to know or love so that if they have begun with good and sound Doctrine a bad one is their Portion at last Thus we see that the purity of the Gospel wheresoever it hath been received has been seldom transmitted to the third Generation and the Apostles were yet alive when in the very Churches they had planted Error crept in insensibly into the room of Truth God threaten'd them already with the removal of their Candlestick giving them to understand that Faith was no more the peculiar Priviledge of any one Place Family or People and that the Church being become Universal could not be subjected to the Jurisdiction of one King only or the Administration of one single Priest 'T is in vain for Men to pretend to lay the Foundation of a permanent State or to find a Supreme Good here in this Life They are not able to bear Prosperity long and the surest way to undo them is to grant them their desires If our first Parents though in the State of Innocency could not among the Flowers and Fruits of a most pleasant and delightful Garden resist the suggestion of the Evil Spirit who to tempt them took no other Form than that of a Serpent nor offer'd any thing but an Apple how is it possible for those who are Sinners by Nature to withstand him especially when he transforms himself into an Angel of Light and offers them all the advantages their Hearts can desire It is indeed in a Paradise of Pleasures that the Devil for the most part tempts Men to precipitate them into Hell and on the other hand it is in a Hell of Sorrows and Afflictions that God trys them in order to raise them up to the Glory of Paradise Riches are so hurtful to those that possess them that like a heavy Burthen they hinder them from mounting up to Heaven And so incompatible are they with the Profession of the Gospel that even he to whom they all belong and who could use them without the least abuse did of his own accord become Poor that he might trace us the way of Eternal Salvation and by his Poverty we might be made Rich. Indeed all good Men do