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

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A67550	The pious mans practice in Parliament time. Or A seasonable and necessary tractate concerning the presages, and causes of a common-wealths ruine, and the wayes, and meanes to preserve a church, and state, in prosperity, plenty, purity, and peace. By R. Ward, utriusque regni in Artibus Magister; and preacher of Gods holy word at Stansteed Mount-Fitchet in Essex.	Ward, Richard, 1601 or 2-1684.	1641 (1641)	Wing W804; ESTC R218413	102,562	298

of weake persons as women and children Thirdly of strangers Fourthly of beasts and cattell so in the Church of God or in any true visible Church there are First such as are strong in faith Secondly the weake and fraile Thirdly hypocrites which in outward shew joyne themselves to the Church as those strangers did Fourthly carnall and worldly men prophane persons yea Devils incarnate which may be compared unto beasts And therefore let neither ther all of us in this land in generall nor any of us in particular trust unto this that we are members of the Church of England which is a true Church and professeth the truth and true Religion It may here now bee demanded Question 2. Doth no prerogative belong to a true outward visible Church or are wee never a whit the better for being within a true Church which purely professeth the truth There is an externall prerogative of a true externall Church Answer which is not to bee contemned or despised The Prophet David had rather bee a doore-keeper in the house of God Psal 8.4 Rom. 13 1.2 c. and 9.4 then to dwell in the tents of wicked men because the Christian every way as the Apostle saith hath great priviledges above Heathens who are without the Church For in the Church are the meanes of grace and salvation offered Psal 79.6 Ier. 10.25 and there or by those within the Church the Lord is more easily entreated and is more difficultly provoked unto anger against them Yea in a true Church wee see many burning and shining lights which animate attract and encourage us to the practice of pietie and therefore it is no small prerogative to be made a member of a true Church neither should our care be small in learning and labouring so to live that wee doe not provoke the Lord to deprive us of this great blessing and blessed priviledge by taking away the Candle or removing the Candlesticke out of his place or letting out his Vineyard to other Husband-men who will bee more thankfull profitable and obedient unto him then we have beene And thus much for the second answer to the first Question Thirdly Answer 1 sometimes wee trust to precedent mercies and deliverances some in this land dow often say The Lord hath not dealt so with any Nation as with ours in giving us pious prudent and religious Princes who zealously and couragiously maintaine and defend the true Faith and in continuing his Gospel among us and peace prosperity and plenty unto us so long a time and in preserving us from the Spanish Armado or Bravado in 88. and that unparallelled Powder-plot and all the plots counsels and consultations of the Jesuits and all the Whoores brood who inendtd mischiefe against our Estate And therefore we may be secure in this land because the Lord we know will bee unto us one and the same to day and to morrow and for ever I answer hereunto 1. That this is most true that the Lord hath long dealt most graciously with England in all the particulars instanced upon And 2. That the mercie of the Lord is above all his workes and greater then all our sinnes And 3. That if we would live sincerely as Ammi the Lords people hee would never then so long as we so continued pronounce against us Lo-ammi that we should be no longer his people If we were ready to embrace the Lords offers or carefull to walke worthie of his love he would never then denounce against us Lonuchama that hee would no more be mercifull unto us For the Lord is immutable in himselfe and these changes are in us and if wee doe not fall from truth unto error from sanctitie unto sinne from profession unto profanenesse from religion to rebellion from God unto Sathan the Lord will never faile nor forsake us but continue to be our God and continue us to be his people But 4. If wee abuse his mercie Rom. 11 2● and long-suffering and prove like those evill Husband-men or that wicked servant we must then expect that mercie will give way to justice and judgement and wee through the Lords just anger shall become as miserable a Nation as ever we were happie by his free mercie and goodnesse And therefore let us adorne that profession which we have undertaken Let us make religion our Sparta 1. Pet. 2.12 and labour to beautifie it by righteousnesse holinesse sobrietie and temperance that those without the Church may bee wone unto her by our holie lives and godly conversations coupled with feare and then we may be confidently and comfortably assured that the Lord will be as a wall of brasse about us and hedge us about with a guard of angels and protect defend and preserve us from all our enemies and all who have evill wil at this our Sion whether forraign or domesticall establish Religion peace in our Borders and continue his Gospell in purity and sincerity amongst us even untill the second comming of Christ unto judgement Amen Fourthly Answer 4. some particular persons presume of their communicating of the Sacraments some will say they were baptized and have beene at the Lords table and therefore they conclude Tush 1 Pet. 2.21 no evill will come unto them But we must know that there is an outward washing in Baptisme as Saint Peter saith as well as an inward and many are washed by water who were never purged from all their fins by the blood of Christ And S. Paul tels us that all the Israelites were baptized in the Cloud in the Sea and were all made partakers of the same spirituall me ate 1 Corinth 10. 5.8 and drinke and yet many of them perished The Evangelists tell us that Iudas ate with his Master the Paschall Lambe and received a sop from him and yet died in damnable desperation and the Apostle saith that many communicate the outward elements in the Eucharist to their owne damnation And therefore let not us trust to the outword worke 1 Cor. 11.20 or to the partaking of the outward elements only for these alone profit nothing but let us labour for the baptisme of the spirit and true regeneration and endeavour to eate Christ by a faith unfained Luk. 10.20 and then wee shall have greater cause of joy and rejoycing than if wee had power to cast out devils to cure the sicke to raise the dead and to remove mountaines Secondly Quest 2. it may further bee demanded why wee in England may not presume of those many and great priviledges which wee have above many yea the most if not all other Nations First no outward thing will profit or advantage us at all Answer 1. as was shewed before rom 2.2.6 and therefore wee must not trust to any such thing And Secondly Answer 2. our Church and State hath long continued without any desolation or alteration and therefore we have the more cause not to be high minded but

As a Woman is not knowne whether shee will stand chaste till shee hath beene sollcited of vicious men and then shee is discerned Chryso 〈◊〉 in Epist Rom. so the saith of the Church is not well knowne untill by heresies errors the comming of Antichrist and persecution she be thorowly tryed But here were must note againe that this tryall is not for the Lords sake as though he knew not who were his or what his were or what was in their hearts for the Lord knowes even our very thoughts long before they are conceived but it is for our sakes and the sakes of others viz. that the Church may see whether we are sincere or hypocriticall whether builded upon the rocke or upon the sand and that we may bee the more purged refined and confirmed by these tryals Secondly Answer 2. although as wee have showed the Lord sometimes afflicts his children by some spirituall afflictions both for their tryall and also that their saith therby may be like fined gold yet he never layes any common corporall calamitie upon any State or Nation but for sinne and therfore we answer now secondly to the foregoing Question that when God powres down the Viols of his wrath upon any people land or language that it is for their sinnes committed and their continuance in sinne For as no Nation is so deare unto God but a presumption of continuing in sinne will separate them from him Ezech. 18.24 as we proved before so no Nation that ever was deare unto God was rejected by him but for their iniquity obstinacie impenitencie Chrysost hom 32. oper amperf and hardnesse of heart As a wife is not put from her husband but onely for fornication so no people Church or State is put from Christ but only for transgression And therefore if the Lord should give us in this land at this time a stone for bread or a Scorpion for fish that is answer us with a curse when we pray for a blessing and crosse our expectation in the successe of this honourable Parliamant and when we desire to be refreshed with his mercies cause us to drinke the cup of his furie and when we crave peace in Church and State permit sedition and schisme to rend our bowels out of our bellies If I say the Lord in his justice should thus deale with us we must confesse and acknowledge that we have no more no not so much as we have deserved long agoe for our many great and hainous sinnes For application of this Vse let no Church or Nation whatsoever trust to any externall covenant priviledge prerogative or precedent mercie or favour whatsoever This may be applyed to the Churches both of Rome and England First The proposition applyed to the Church of Rome Revet 1.11 Ephesus Smyrna Forgamus Thyatira Sardis Philadelphia Laedicea let not the Church of Rome bragge of or adhere to this that once she was a true yea pure and beloved Church for so also were once the Churches of Corinth Galatia Thessalonica yea those seven Orientall Churches mentioned Revel 1.2.3 all which are now utterly subverted and rooted out There have beene faire and flourishing Churches in Macedonia Asia and Africa as well as Rome which now are wholy deserted and the reason is because if once the doctrine of a Church become to be fundamentally corrupted then the Church is rejected and Saint Paul doth admonish the Church of Rome of this very thing Because of unbeliefe the Jewes were broken off and thou standest by faith Rom. 11.17 Bee not high-minded but feare For if God spared not the naturall branches take heede lest he also spare not thee Yea Histories tell us That that proud Citie Rome who hath lifted up her head above all others and usurped a tyranny over Nations hath beene humbled for all her pride and impoverished for all her riches and made a prey unto many Nations It was sacked and ransacked twice by the Visigothes taken once by the Herulians surprised by the O strogothes destroyed and rooted up by the Vandales annoyed by the Lumbards pilled and spoyled by the Grecians and whipped and chastised by many others and we hope are long that she shall receive the last blow of the indignation of the most Mightie to throw her headlong into everlasting and horrible desolation And for matter of Religion I should desire no easier taske then to prove That the present Religion of the Church of Rome doth substantially and sundamentally differ from the Religion professed by Rome in the Apostles time But because I speake of our selves and our owne Common-wealth I will therefore passe over Rome and apply what hath beene said unto our selves Secondly The Proposition applied to the Church of England let not the Church of England nor any person therein boast of or trust unto any outward priviledge or prerogative whatsoever A Quaere or two may here bee made as namely First some may demand Question 1. What outward things any person or Church either adhere unto or presume of or trust in First Answer 1. some trust to their outward workes performed as the Papists in their Tenet O peris operati of the work wrought But we must not adhere to these for many Philosophers were eminent and singular for morall vertues and Herod did many things and yet perished at the last for ought we know Acts 4.12 Rom. 12.6 Yea the Scripture testifieth abundantly that there is no way unto salvation but only by faith in Christ And Secondly Answer 2. many trust to their outward profession or rely upon this That they are members of a true Church The Rabbies tell us That when all the world besides who were without the Arke perished in the deluge Og the King of Basan got astride upon the Arke and saved himselfe by riding thereon Thus as the Prophet saith many ride a stride upon the Church crying Templum Domini Templum Domini The Temple of the Lord the Temple of the Lord and hope to bee saved because they are within the palle of a true Church and make profession of the true Religion But we must not trust to this neither that being not so old as true which Saint Augustine saith Multi in Ecclesia qui non sunt de Ecclesia There are many who are within a true Church which are not of the true Church many are members of the visible Church Exod. 12.38 who are not mēmbers of the invisible It is said A great multitude of sundry sorts of people went out of Egypt with the people of Israel Now as among these Israelites there were many other people mingled which were to have no part in the inheritance of Canaan so there are many hypocrites and carnall men in the visible Church which shall have no part in the Kingdome of God for many are called but few be chosen Againe as in this great mixt multitude there were foure companies viz. First of those who were fighting men Secondly

to feare For Ominum rerum est vicissitudo there is a revolution of times and a vicissitude of all things But yet our long enjoyment of Peace and the Gospell shall be neither cause nor meanes of the depriving us of them if wee be but obedient to the Gospell thankfull for the Gospell and profitable and fruitfull in every good worke under the Gospell But Thirdly Answer 3. Hinc illae lachrymae whereas the longer we enjoyed the meanes and light of the Word wee should have beene the better and more zealous holy and fruitfull wee have contrarily beene worse and more cold wicked and barren And although with the Church of Ephesus we have yet many good things in us yet like her Revel 2.2 ● c. we have fallen from our first love and the Lord hath daily more more things against us And therefore let us not presume but as shee was admonished remember from whence we are fallen and repent and doe our first workes and shine and burne as formerly yea daily more and more even unto the perfect day lest the Lord come against us speedily as hee there threatens and remove our Candlesticke out of his place And Fourthly Answer 4. wee in this land must nor trust to any outward prerogatives or former covenants because all externall covenants which the Lord makes with any people or Nation Church or State are but conditionall as was proved before and therefore except wee performe the Articles of agreement and conditions on our part viz obedience repentance faith thankfulnesse and love wee cannot expect the performance of the Lords promise Thirdly Quest 3. it may yet further be demanded by what meanes this our Church State and Country of England may be still confirmed and established in prosperity peace preserved and saved from those direfull distresses and dolefull miseries and calamities which the Lord inflicts sometimes upon those parts of the world and place which have beene most deare unto him and pretious in his sight Do wee desire this Answer I know all true English hearts do desire it and therefore the way thereunto or meanes to obtaine it are these viz 1 Take heed that we doe not provoke the Lord unto anger by our sinnes and then we may trust him for our safety He hath had a care of us a long time and he will still be carefull of us if we be but carefull to please him and fearefull to offend him He hath carried us in his bosome and nourished us and extraordinarily encreased us who were but little in the times of Wickliffe Husse Luther and Tindall and he will still continue to educate and instruct us if wee will but willingly be instructed by and obedient unto his sacred behests Hitherto Sathan hath raged and the Iesuites and Iebusites conspired against us but our good God for which ever blessed and praised be his holy Name hath hitherto laughed them to scorne and infatuated the devices and confounded the plots intended against us And if we do not incense and exasperate him by our sinnes hee will quickly confound our foes and not subject us to their rage And 2. Let us in the state of our soules Toto divisorbe Britannos or spirituall condition resemble the situation of this Iland of little Brittaine All our Historians Chronologers and universall Maps tell us that England is as it were thrust out of the world or separated from it because it stands at the very outside thereof Let us Englishmen be thus that is let us not be of the world although we are in the world but separated from the world Let not unlearne the vices evill customes of other Countries let not us follow pride or profanenesse or drunkennesse or gluttony or superstition or covetousnesse or swearing or atheisme and the like as some other Nations doe and as we have long done and still do too too much but let us follow the Prophet Esaiah's counsell Esa 52.11 and be admonished by his caveat to depart and come out stom them to learne no uncleane thing of them nor in sinne to partake take with them lest wee also partake of their plagues but to labour that we may be cleane and pure and the Lords Peculiar people because hee hath done great things for us in this land And 3 Let us labour to be a fruitfull flocke and folke in every good worke For as every tree in Paradise was faire and fruitfull so England would certainly be another Paradise if every plant person therein were such And therefore if we desire to grow greene and to flourish like the plants of Paradise let us all labour to abound in the workes both of Religion and righteousnesse and endeavour that wee may be a chast Church and a pure pious and prudent people truly wise unto Salvation Let all who are members of the Church labour to be like Christ the head of the Church Let all who are of the Militant Church labour to be like those of the triumphant Church Let all the mēbers of our true visible particular Church of England strive to resemble in purity piety sincerity sanctitie equitie and zeale the true members of the internall invisible spirituall and Catho lique or Universall Church and then wee shall be the wisest best happiest Harding Major Boeth Fabian Bale Engl. votar sol 27. and most flourishing people under Heaven After the Saxons had conquered our Nation it was called Eugland of Engist which was their chiefe Captaine as witnesseth divers Authors But after wards Gregory the first seeing some English boyes to be sold in the open market at Rome asked of what religion they were beholding them to be faire skinned beautifully faced and flaxen haired And answer was made him that they were of an I le called England and they were called Angli well saith hee they may be called Angli English men quasi Angeli of Angels because they have Angelicall faces Oh my beloved Countrimen let us all labour that wee may be here like Angels in grace and purity and then we shall be like themin heaven in glory and felicity When Sertorius was sentenced to be expulsed out of Rome and banished he solicited Pompeius and Metellus to procure his revocation saying Hee had rather be an obscure Citizen of Rome than elsewhere an Emperour And I for my part shall thus say of my owne Nation that I had rather be a private person and inferiour Preacher here in England so long as we enjoy peace and the libertie of the Gospell than a Patriarch elsewhere Lipsius saith Vt hominibus singulis sic populis suae laudes suae labes as persons so places have something in them to be praised and commended and something to be dispraised and condemned And this may be truly said of our Land for as wee want not our faults and failings and those grosse ones so we have by the great goodnesse and undeserved love of God towards us beene like a

Countrey and in service with King Artaxerxes poysoned himselfe with the blood of a Bull Theucidides in presence of all the Persians lest hee should be compelled to fight against his Countrey Livius Vetruria disswaded her sonne Martius from the siedge of Rome onely by reducing to his memory the love he ought to have to his Countrey Antiochus or as Plutarch in his Apophthegmes saith Antigonus had such a care of his Countrey and was so fearefull of doing any detriment or discommodity thereunto that hee made this order That if letters came from him or his Nobles to the prejudice of the common good his subjects should pocket them up as unwittingly written Thus wee see how the Heathen stood affected to their Countries and therefore if wee would not seeme to be or rather be indeed worse then they wee should be earnest with God by prayer for the good thereof And thus we see the reasons why we ought to pray for our Chuch and State It followes in the next place seriously to consider How wee-must pray How we must so pray for our Common-wealth that our prayers may be heard of God and pleasing unto God and granted by God and consequently profitable both to our selves and our Countrey First wee must pray with humility reverence 1. With humility and reverence Orans considerare debet quid petit seipsum quem petit Be rn and feare remembring what we are who pray viz. dust and ashes wormes and no men what is he to whom we pray viz. the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords and for what we pray viz. for the felicity and prosperity of our Church and State which is a suite of that moment that without it wee and ours cannot be truely happy Psal 2.11 And therefore wee should serve the Lord with feare and come or pray before him with trembling Faith saith one joyned with prayer maketh it more forcible but humility coupled with it maketh it beneficiall and effectuall as wee may see by the example of one reverend suiter and humble petitioner Luke 18.11 I meane the poore penitent Publicane in whom we may observe these things viz. 1. He stood farre off there was his feare 2. Hee durst not lift up his eyes to heaven there was his shame 3. Hee smote his breast there was his sorrow 4. He confesseth himselfe a sinner there was his humility And thus we see feare humility and reverence in him when bee prayes Now what was the effect of this prayer Bernard tels us Publicanus qui dum non auderet oculos in coelum tollere ipsum coelum ad se potuit inclinare id est Whilest this Publicans dorst not lift up his eyes unto heaven bee inclines and puls downe heaven unto him For the text saith Hee went away justified and was made partaker of that mercy which hee praid for And therefore let us powre forth our prayers for our Common-wealth with a religious reverence and feare and holy humility in regard of the Lords beauty and our basenesse of his purity and our impotency of his power and our poverty and then wee may be assured that our prayes shall be prevalent and effectuall with God And Secondly 2. With our whole man as we must pray humbly and reverently so also with our whole man that is In prayer we must lift up our hands with Moses and our eyes with Stephen Wee must pray with our tongue as David did Exod. 17. Act 7. Psalm 8. Iudge 5. Exod. 14. Luke 1. Lam. 3.41 Gregor in Iob. 27. and with our heart as Deborah did Moses could pray when hee held his peace and Zachary when he was dumbe And the Prophet exhorteth us to lift up our hearts with our hands unto God in the heavens upon which words a Father gives this note Corda cum manibus levat qui orationem suam operibus roborat nam quisquis orat sed operari dissimulat cor levat sed manus non levat quisquis operatur non orat manus leavt cor non levat c. He lifts up his heart together with his hands who both prayeth for what is good and practiseth what is good but hee who prayeth and practiseth not lifts up his heart but not his hands and hee who practiseth that which is good but prayeth not lifts up his hands but not his heart Thirdly 3. With pure hearts if wee desire that our prayers may be powerfull and prevalent with God and profitable and effectuall unto our selves and those for whom we pray then wee must be carefull first to purge and clease our hearts from sinne Prayer must bee accompanied with the mortification of dead works because no Prayer can tye the will of God unto us except first of all wee renounce and conquer our owne wils August de rectie cathol-conver For as no medicine can cure a wound if the iron remaine within it so no prayer profiteth his soule which hath sinne and iniquity residing therein it is found to be true by experience that if the Apothecarie put into his perfume the lest jot of brimstone it poysoneth all the other perfumes Even thus is it with us for our prayers are our incence our hearts the perfumingpot and the free our zeale to which if wee adde but one sinne wee infect and make unpleasing our whole sacrifice Gellius And hence when Dingenes saw wicked men to pray unto God for helpe and deliverance he laughed them to scorne because hee knew that the prayers of perverse and impenitent petitioners were not pleasing unto God There is a certaine serpent which before she drinkes vomits up her poyson whereby shee teacheth us to cast from us whatsoever is impure and uncleane in us before we powre forth our prayers unto God Levit. 1.16 The Priests under the Law were commanded to throw away the crop or maw wherein the meat began to be digested shewing that he who offers up any spirituall sacrifice unto God should in like manner bee purged from the filth of sinne Psal 66.18 if hee desire that his suite may be heard for the Prophet David saith If I regard wickednesse in my heart the Lord will not beare me and therefore Saint Paul exhorts 1 Tim. 2.8 that men every where should lift up pure hands And Origen thus noteth upon Exodus 16. Where it is said that the Manna was turned into worm Orig. ●hom●… in Exod. Post susceptum verbum si quis peecat efficitur ei verbum vermis If after a man have received the word hee sinne the word is turned into wormes Indeed the Lord may and doth sometimes give good temporall blessings unto those whose hearts are not purged from sinne as wee see in Ahab 1 King 1.29 but not spirituall and therefore if wee desire that both spirituall and temporall blessings should be given and granted both to our Church and Common-wealth then wee must labour that our hearts may bee cleansed from