Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	body_n	member_n	mystical_a	10,421	5	11.0632	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A50402	The law of God ratified by the gospel of Christ, or, The harmony of the doctrine of faith with the law of righteousness wherein many of the types and rites of the ceremonial law are unfolded, and the moral law adjusted a rule of holy living to all, though justified by faith / as it was delivered in several sermons preacht to the parochial congregation of Mayfield in Sussex by Mr. Mainard late rector thereof, publisht since his death.	Maynard, John, 1600-1665.	1674 (1674)	Wing M1450; ESTC R33505	161,259	298

be truly godly and not abhor false doctrines which are such a fruitful spawn of a venemous Issue Many flying serpents being hatched of one Cockatrice egg Fiftly Errours are apt to overgrow the Truth as Tares and other weeds are ready to overcome the corn And that 1. by corrupting one doctrine of the Gospel after another And 2. by oppressing and persecuting the sincere professors and Preachers of the Truth It seemeth the errours and corruptions of Popery were first winked at being taken up by particular persons not generally owned then they became more general and overbore the truth then they were armed with power and so opposed and persecuted the sincere maintainers of the truth The Arian Heresie at first was kept under at length prevailed so as to raise most bloody persecutions against the Truth The outrages of the Anabaptists and sue●● as pretended to Revelations how notoriou● were they when once they got a head at Munster in Germany But our age seemeth to exceed former times in this kind that errours and heresies among us have been armed almost at their first appearance It would appear a strange Monster if a child should b● born in armour such a monster if I mistake not I have read of born in Germany about the time of the late wars Is it not prodigious to see armed monsters born amongst us errours and heresies with swords by their sides Pistolls Muskets Pikes ●n their hands at their first coming into the world almost Who knoweth the disma● events and mischief such things presage if the Lord Christ who is the Truth and whose name is the word of God should for our unworthiness forbear to ride forth on his white horse conquering and to conquer But what gracious heart doth not both abhor and tremble at those things that tend to the suppressing of the Truth and rooting out of those that are of the Truth and for the Truth Sixthly Errours aud Heresies are apt to spread far and wide in a short time from a person to a family from the family to a Neighbourhood then over a Province or Country then over a Nation then from Nation to Nation and so over the world Behold how great a matter a little fire kindleth The Arian Heresie being a little spark at first in Egypt in a short time did spread over Asia and Africk and took hold of divers parts of Europe for the devil himself hath declared it that his business is to go to and fro in the earth and to walk up and down in it and he is very swift in his motion and active in his work and who that hath any zeal for Christ doth not abhor such a growing evil such a spreading mischief Seventhly Errours and Heresies are apt to draw poor souls from the means of grace They are deadly diseases and withal of such a cursed nature that they take off the heart from the remedy They cause people to withdraw from those assemblies where the truths of God are taught and the unsoundness of such errours is laid open And then it is as the Devil would have it when he can so bewitch poor souls as to make them drink down deadly poyson and then refuse to take a purge But as this is pleasing to Satan so how grievous is it to them that tender the good of poor souls to see them dangerously sick and altogether unwilling to be healed or come near the means of the cure Eightly Heresies and false doctrines make woful rents and divisions in the Church The Church is one body under one head the Lord Jesus Christ. The Apostle speaking to the Church says now ye are the body of Christ and members in particular Christ is the head of the Church and he is the Saviour of the body and therefore the Apostle exceedingly presseth the members of the Church to endeavour to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace heaping up arguments of unity Saith he there is 1. one Body 2. one Spirit 3. one H●pe 4. one Lord. 5. one Faith 6. one Baptisme 7. one God and Father of all Shall the members of one body fight each against other Is it not monstrous for them that should be quickned with one spirit to strive against each other as if they were acted by contrary spirits Shall they that 〈◊〉 called to one hope be at defiance among them●selves Can the Servants of one Lord bea● arms against each other and one party no● fight against the Lord himself by contending with their fellow Servants Shall those that are called to the profession of one faith embrace contrary beliefs Is it not odious to see those that were washed in one laver of Baptisme cast dirt upon each other or stain their hands yea their consciences with the blood of each other Is it not horrid to see the children of one heavenly Father or such as profess themselves to be so to hate and destroy their brethren Now how clearly doth Scripture witness how sadly doth experience prove that errours and heresies make woful rents and divisions In one of those places formerly mentioned saith the Apostle I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause di●visions and offences contrary to the doctrine which we have learned and avoid them by teaching contrary to sound doctrine dangerous divisions are caused and great offences given What a grievous rent was likely to have been made in the Primitive Church by them which would have perswaded the believing Gentiles that Circumcision was necessary to Salvation had not the Apostles and Elders meeting together in a Synod at Hierusalem carefully suppressed this errour at the first appearing of it It is said Paul aud Barnabas had no small dissention and disputation with them that taught this false doctrine In the Synod it self there was much disputing In the Epistle directed by the Synod to the Churches of the Gentiles it is said We have heard that certain which went out from us have troubled you with words subverting your Souls saying ye must be circumcised and keep the Law scil of Ceremonies to whom we gave no such Commandment And although this Errour was for the present much restrained yet how did it break out again afterward among the Galatians And therefore the Apostle calleth these false teachers the Concision instead of the Circumcision Cum ecclesiam conscinderent lacerarent seeing they did as it were cut and tear in pieces the Church of Christ with their false doctrine or as another saith he called them the Concision tum quod ecclesiam pravo dogmate scinderent tum quod simplciores a Christo abscinderent because by their corrupt opinion they did both cut asunder the unity of the Church and cut off the weaker sort from Christ. But if we should speak of the Rents that were in the Church by Errours and Heresies mentioned in the Ecclesiastical Histories it would amount to a large Volumn What a rent was like to be made in the

and Light of Nature which Heathens did and beside against a far clearer Light and more perfect Law delivered to them in the holy Scriptures of the old and new Testament for the Light and Law of Nature though it was given to the Heathen yet it was not peculiar to them it was not limited to them alone but was common to them with others it is given also to Iews who have the old Testament also it is given to Christians who have both old and new Testament and therefore their sins are highly aggravated So the the Lord by the Prophet Amos having threatned heavy Judgements against those Heathen Nations mentioned before then turneth his speech to the people of Iudah Thus saith the Lord for three transgressions of Iudah and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof because they have defiled the Law of the Lord and have not kept his Commandment and their lies caused them to err after the which their Fathers have walked but I will send a fire upon Iudah and it shall devour the Palaces of Ierusalem they had the written Law and Commandments of God which the other had not and therefore they despised and kept not they had the Truth of God revealed from Heaven and delivered to them by Moses and the Prophets immediately inspired by the holy spirit of God but they rather chose to walk in lyes after the example of their Fathers and therefore their sins were much more sinful than those of the Heathens Then he threatneth Israel scil the rest of Israel the Kingdom of the ten Tribes who followed the sin of Ieroboam charging them first with barbarous cruelty and oppression contrary to common humanity because they sold the righteous for silver and the poor for a pair of shoes I conceive he speaketh especially against that great sin of Judges and Magistrates in perverting justice for Bribes and withal against them which hired such corrupt officers to act unjustly by giving them rewards They sold the righteous for Silver they exposed the innocent to the lust and will of their Adversaries for mony and the poor for a pair of shooes either because being once corrupted with some considerable gains they afterward were so hardened in their sins that they would pervert justice for a pair of shooes for a triflle or else because they could not get much for giving sentence against a poor man in his Cause because their Adversaries would not offer much to have their will of them who had little to loose these corrupt judges would transgress for a petty-bribe where no more was to be had That pant after the dust of the earth on the head of the poor or as one readeth it that pant or breath after the head of the poor that they may cast it down to the dust of the earth If we take it the former way the sense may seem to be this when they have overthrown the poor and laid him in the dust such is there inhumane cruelty that they are not satisfied with his misery but desire his utter ruine and destruction 2. An other sin was abominable uncleannness that Father and Son would lye with the same woman which is set forth and heightned with this aggravation they prophaned the holy Name of God pretending to be the people of God and yet committing such lewdness this highly redounded to the Lords dishonour above the sins of meer Heathens 3. Their wicked glorying and triumphing in their oppression and prophaning that worship which themselves had embraced as religious laying themselves down upon clothes laid to pledge by every Altar keeping the garments of the poor which they had taken to pledge and being so far from restoring them according to the Law that they durst lye upon them by the very Altars and drink the wine of the condemned in the house of their God feasting themselves in the Temple of their God with the very spoils taken from those whom they had unjustly condemned these sins of Israel are aggravated divers ways in the words following There Israel and Iudah are both joyned together Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you O Children of Israel against the whole family which I brought up from the Land of Egypt saying You only have I known of all the families of the earth therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities The Lord had owned them above others and made himself known to them above all other people and therefore their sin was greater than others and they might expect more gievous punishments How much more are sins of professed Christians more heinous than those of the Heathens who have greater light then the people of Israel had having the new Testament added to the old who have the Lord Jesus Christ set forth before them in the Gospel not under Types and shadowes but clearly not as to come but as already come actually crucified for sin buried risen again ascended into Heaven The Lord Christ sheweth that the sins of Corazin and Bethsaida were more heinous than those of Tyre and Sidon and their condemnation would be more intolerable in the day of Judgement because they sinned against greater light The like comparison he maketh between Capernaum and Sodom And the very Name of Christian is an aggravation of the sins of those who profess themselves Christians This Name was first given to them that professed the faith of Christ at Antioch because of the great success of the Gospel there Barnabas and Saul or Paul a whole year assembled themselves with the Church and taught much people and the Disciples were called Christians first at Antioch The denomination of a Christian is derived from the blessed and glorious Name of Christ himself as he is annointed of God the Father with the spirit above measure What signifieth a Christian then but 1. A member of Christ united to him as the head of the whole mystical body of the Church How great is the sin of those that can themselves Christians and suffer themselves to be led by Satan the enemy of 〈◊〉 readily entertaining his suggestions and temptations serving this Prince of darkness in the work of darkness Saith the Apostle Shall I take the members of Christ and make them the members of an Harlot God forbid or let it not be What know ye not that he which is joyned to an Harlot is one body for two saith he shall be one flesh It is a fearful thing for a man professing himself a Christian that is a member of Christ to make himself a member of an Harlot or for a woman making the same profession to make her self the member of a fornicatour or Adulterer 2. The name of a Christian signifieth one that partaketh of the annointing of Christ of the same spirit and the same graces in some measure wherewith Christ was annointed above his fellows yea above measure He which stablisheth us with you and anointeth us is God The