Selected quad for the lemma: head_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
head_n	church_n	east_n	west_n	4,816	5	11.5309	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A68833	A briefe declaration of the universalitie of the Church of Christ, and the unitie of the Catholike faith professed therein delivered in a sermon before His Maiestie the 20th. of Iune 1624. at Wansted. By Iames Ussher, Bishop of Meath.	Ussher, James, 1581-1656.	1629 (1629)	STC 24547; ESTC S118942	28,513	46

that which tended both to the perfecting of the Saints and to the edifying of his owne body For as it hath pleased the Father that in him all fulnesse should dwell so the Son is also pleased not to hold it any disparagement that his Body the Church should be accounted the fulnesse of him that filleth all in all That howsoever in himselfe he be most absolutely and perfectly complete yet is his Church so neerely conjoyned unto him that he holdeth not himselfe full without it but as long as any one member remaineth yet ungathered and unknit unto this mysticall body of his he accounteth in the meane time somewhat to be deficient in himselfe And therefore our Apostle having in the words immediately going before this Text declared that the Ministery was instituted for the edifying of the bodie of Christ addeth presently Till wee all come in the unitie of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of GOD unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ. In which words we may obserue aswell the Matter of this Building Wee all as the Structure of it and further also consider in the Structure first the laying of the foundation In the unitie of the faith and of the knowledge of the Sonne of God secondly the bringing of the worke to perfection and the raising of it to his just height unto a perfect man unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ The Matter then of this spirituall edifice that wee may begin with that are Wee our selves Yee also as lively stones are built up a spirituall house saith Saint Peter To this Saint Paul doth here adde a note of Vniversalitie WE ALL as suting best with the nature of the Catholick or Vniversall Church which is that body of Christ of the edifying whereof he here treateth of which therefore he telleth us more plainly in another place that by one spirit we are all baptized into one bodie whether wee be Iewes or Gentiles whether we be bond or free For the Catholick Church is not to be sought for in any one angle or quarter of the world but among all that in every place call upon the Name of Iesus Christ our Lord both theirs and ours 1 Corinthians 1.2 Therefore to their Lord and ours was it said Aske of mee and I will give thee the Heathen for thine inheritance and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession and to his mysticall body the Catholique Church accordingly I will bring thy seed from the East and gather thee from the West I will say to the North give up and to the South Keepe not backe bring my sonnes from farre and my daughters from the ends of the earth even every one that is called by my name Thus must we conceiue of the Catholick Church as of one entire body made up by the collection and aggregation of all the Faithfull unto the unitie thereof from which union there ariseth unto every one of them such a relation to and a dependance upon the Church Catholique as parts use to haue in respect of their whole Whereupon it followeth that neyther particular persons nor particular Churches are to worke as severall divided bodyes by themselues which is the ground of all Schisme but are to teach and to be taught and to doe all other Christian duties as parts conjoyned unto the whole and members of the same Common-wealth or corporation and therefore the Bishops of the ancient Church though they had the governmēt of particular Congregations onely committed unto them yet in regard of this communion which they held with the Vniversall did usually take to themselves the title of Bishops of the Catholick Church Which maketh strongly aswell against the new Separatists as the old Donatists who either hold it a thing not much materiall so they professe the faith of Christ whether they doe it in the Catholick Communion or out of it or else which is worse dote so much upon the perfectiō of their own part that they refuse to joyn in fellowship with the rest of the body of Christians as if they themselues were the onely people of God and all wisedome must live and die with them and their generation And herein of all others doe our Romanists most fearefully offend as being the authors of the most cruell schisme that ever hath been seene in the Church of God Those infamous schismes of the Novatians and Donatists were but petty rents in comparison of this huge rupture which hath pulled asunder East and West North South and growne to such a head at home that in our Western parts where this faction was so prevalent it hath for diverse ages past been esteemed Catholicke In the 17 th of the Revelation wee haue a Woman described unto us sitting upon seven mountaines and upon many waters The Woman is there expounded to be that great Citie which reigneth over the Kings of the earth The seven mountains upon which that City sate needed not to be expounded every childe knew what was meant thereby The waters are interpreted peoples and multitudes and nations and tongues Which is that very Vniversalitie and Catholicisme that the Romanists are wont so much to brag of For this Woman is the particular Church of Rome the City-Church which they call the Mother-Church the holy Ghost stileth the Mother of harlots and abominations of the earth Those peoples and multitudes nations and tongues are such as this proud Citie reigneth over the Catholick-Roman Church they are commonly called by themselves but by the holy Ghost the Beast upon which the Woman sitteth This Woman is the Head of the faction and the very Mother of this schism the Beast that is to say they that suffer themselues to be thus ridden by her are her abbettors and supporters in it For the particular Church of Rome not being content to be a fellow-member with the rest of the Churches of Christ and to haue a joynt dependance with them upō the whole body of the Church Catholick which is the Mother of us all will needs goe out of her rank and scorning any longer to be accounted one of the branches of the Catholick Church would faine be acknowledged to be the root of it so that now all other Churches must hold their dependance upon it or otherwise be cast forth as withered branches which are fit onely to be throwne into the fire and burned The wisedome of God foresaw this insolency long before-hand and therfore caused a Caveat to be entred against it even in that Epistle which was specially directed to the Church of Rome it selfe The words are plaine enough Rom. 11.18 If thou boast thou bearest not the root but the root thee The Church of Rome therefore must know that shee is no more a root to beare up other Churches than other Churches are to beare up her she may not goe