Selected quad for the lemma: heaven_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heaven_n	church_n	kingdom_n	visible_a	4,215	5	9.6422	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52591	A Declaration of the faith and order owned and practiced in the Congregational churches in England agreed upon and consented unto by their elders and messengers in their meeting at the Savoy, October 12, 1658.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.; Nye, Philip, 1596?-1672.	1659 (1659)	Wing N1487; ESTC R16855	44,499	94

what he asserteth or promiseth and to judge him according to the truth or falshood of what he sweareth II. The name of God onely is that by which men ought to swear and therein it is to be used with all holy fear and reverence Therefore to swear vainly or rashly by that glorious or dreadful name or to swear at all by any other thing is sinful and to be abhorred yet as in matters of weight and moment an Oath is warranted by the Word of God under the New Testament as well as under the Old so a lawful Oath being imposed by lawful authority in such matters ought to be taken III. Whosoever taketh an Oath warranted by the Word of God ought duly to consider the weightiness of so solemn an act and therein to avouch nothing but what he is fully perswaded is the truth neither may any man binde himself by Oath to any thing but what is good and just and what he believeth so to be and what he is able and resolved to perform Yet it is a sin to refuse an Oath touching any thing that is good and just being lawfully imposed by Authority IV. An Oath is to be taken in the plain and common sense of the words without equivocation or mental reservation It cannot oblige to sin but in any thing not sinful being taken it bindes to performance although to a mans own hurt nor is it to be violated although made to Hereticks or infidels V. A Vow which is not to be made to any Creature but God alone is of the like nature with a promissory Oath and ought to be made with the like religious care and to be performed with the like faithfulness VI Popish monasticall Vows of perpetual single life professed poverty and regular obedience are so far from being degrees of higher perfection that they are superstitious and sinful snares in which no Christian may intangle himself CHAP. XXIV Of the civil Magistrate GOd the supreme Lord and King of all the world hath ordained civil Magistrates to be under him over the people for his own glory and the publique good and to this end hath armed them with the power of the sword for the defence and incouragement of them that do good and for the punishment of evil doers II. It is lawful for Christians to accept and execute the office of a Magistrate when called thereunto in the management whereof as they ought especially to maintain Justice and Peace according to the wholsome Laws of each Commonwealth so for that end they may lawfully now under the new Testament wage war upon just and necessary occasion III. Although the Magistrate is bound to incourage promote and protect the professors and profession of the Gospel and to manage and order civil administrations in a due subserviency to the interest of Christ in the world and to that end to take care that men of corrupt mindes and conversations do not licentiously publish and divulge Blasphemies and Errors in their own nature subverting the faith and inevitably destroying the souls of them that receive them Yet in such differences about the Doctrines of the Gospel or ways of the worship of God as may befal men exercising a good conscience manifesting it in their conversation and holding the foundation not disturbing others in their ways or worship that differ from them there is no warrant for the Magistrate under the Gospel to abridge them of their liberty IV. It is the duty of people to pray for Magistrates to honor their persons to pay them Tribute and other dues to obey their lawful commands and to be subject to their Authority for conscience sake Infidelity or difference in religion doth not make void the Magistrates just and legal Authority nor free the people from their obedience to him from which ecclesiastical persons are not exempted much less hath the Pope any power or Jurisdiction over them in their dominions or over any of their people and least of all to deprive them of their Dominions or lives if he shall judge them to be Hereticks or upon any other pretence whatsoever CHAP. XXV Of Marriage MArriage is to be between one man and one woman neither is it lawful for any man to have more then one wife nor for any woman to have more then one husband at the same time II. Marriage was ordained for the mutual help of husband and wife for the increase of mankinde with a legitimate issue and of the Church with an holy seed and for preventing of uncleanness III. It is lawful for all sorts of people to marry who are able with judgement to give their consent Yet it is the duty of Christians to marry in the Lord and therefore such as profess the true Reformed Religion should not marry with Infidels Papists or other Idolaters neither should such as are godly be unequally yoaked by marrying with such as are wicked in their life or maintain damnable Heresie IV. Marriage ought not to be within the degrees of consanguinity or affinity forbidden in the Word nor can such incestuous Marriages ever be made lawful by any law of man or consent of parties so as those persons may live together as man and wife CHAP. XXVI Of the Church THe Catholique or Universal Church which is invisible consists of the whole number of the Elect that have been are or shall be gathered into one under Christ the Head thereof and is the Spouse the Body the fulness of him that filleth all in all II. The whole body of men throughout the world professing the faith of the Gospel and obedience unto God by Christ according unto it not destroying their own profession by any Errors everting the foundation or unholiness of conversation are and may be called the visible Catholique Church of Christ although as such it is not intrusted with the administration of any Ordinances or have any officers to rule or govern in or over the whole Body III. The purest Churches under heaven are subject both to mixture and error and some have so degenerated as to become no Churches of Christ but Synagogues of Satan Nevertheless Christ always hath had and ever shall have a visible Kingdom in this world to the end thereof of such as believe in him and make profession of his name IV. There is no other Head of the Church but the Lord Jesus Christ nor can the Pope of Rome in any sense be Head thereof but is that Antichrist that man of sin and son of perdition that exalteth himself in the Church against Christ and all that is called God whom the Lord shall destroy with the brightness of his coming V. As the Lord in his care and love towards his Church hath in his infinite wise providence exercised it with great variety in all ages for the good of them that love him and his own Glory so according to his promise we expect that in the latter days Antichrist being destroyed the Jews called and the adversaries of the Kingdom of

of a new Refinement that themselves are approved Members admitted to the Lords Supper and their children to the Ordinance of Baptism they regard not other matters as Gallio did not but do easily and readily give up themselves unto their Guides being like dead fishes carried with the common stream whereas those that have a further renewed light by a work of the holy Ghost whether saving or temporary are upon the quite contrary grounds apt to be busie about and inquisitive into what they are to receive and practise or wherein their consciences are professedly concerned and involved And thereupon they take the freedom to examine and try the spirits whether of God or no And from hence are more apt to dissatisfaction and from thence to run into division and many of such proving to be inlightned but with a temporary not saving Faith who have such a work of the Spirit upon them and profession in them as will and doth approve it self to the judgement of Saints and ought to be so judged until they be otherwise discovered who at long run prove hypocrites through indulgence unto lusts and then out of their lusts persist to hold up these divisions unto breach of or departings from Churches and the Ordinances of God and God is even with them for it they waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived and even many of those that are sincere through a mixture of darkness and erroneousness in their judgements are for a season apt out of conscience to be led away with the error of others which lie in wait to deceive Insomuch as the Apostle upon the example of those first times foreseeing also the like events in following generations upon the like causes hath been bold to set this down as a ruled Case that likewise in other Churches so constituted and de facto empriviledged as that of the Church of Corinth was which single Church in the sacred Records about it is the compleatest Mirror of Church-Constitution Order and Government and events thereupon ensuing of any one Church whatever that we have story of his Maxim is There must be also divisions amongst you he setly inserts an ALSO in the case as that which had been in his own observation and that which would be {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the fate of other Churches like thereunto so prophesieth he And he speaks this as peremptorily as he doth elsewhere in that other We must through many tribulations enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Yea and that all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution There is a MUST upon both alike and we bless God that we have run through both and do say and we say no more That as it was then so it is now in both respects However such hath been the powerful hand of Gods Providence in these which have been the worst of our Tryals That out of an approved experience and observation of the issue we are able to add that other part of the Apostles Prediction That therefore such rents must be that they which are approved may be made manifest among you which holy issue God as having aimed at it therein doth frequently and certainly bring about in Churches as he doth bring upon them that other fate of division Let them therefore look unto it that are the Authors of such disturbances as the Apostle warneth Gal. 5.10 The experiment is this That we have seen and do daily see that multitudes of holy and precious souls and in the holy Ghosts word approved Saints have been and are the more rooted and grounded by means of these shakings and do continue to cleave the faster to Christ and the purity of his Ordinances and value them the more by this cost God hath put them to for the enjoying of them who having been planted in the House of the Lord have flourished in the Courts of our God in these evil times to shew that the Lord is upright And this experimented event from out of such divisions hath more confirmed us and is a lowder Apologie for us then all that our opposites are able from our breaches to alleadge to prejudice us We will add a few words for conclusion and give a more particular account of this our DECLARATION In drawing up this Confession of Faith we have had before us the Articles of Religion approved and passed by both Houses of Parliament after advice had with an Assembly of Divines called together by them for that purpose To which Confession for the substance of it we fully assent as do our Brethren of New-England and the Churches also of Scotland as each in their general Synods have testified A few things we have added for obviating some erroneous opinions that have been more broadly and boldly here of late maintained by the Asserters then in former times and made other additions and alterations in method here and there and some clearer explanations as we found occasion We have endeavored throughout to hold to such Truths in this our Confession as are more properly termed matters of Faith and what is of Church-order we dispose in certain Propositions by it self To this course we are led by the Example of the Honorable Houses of Parliament observing what was established and what omitted by them in that Confession the Assembly presented to them Who thought it not convenient to have matters of Discipline and Church-Government put into a Confession of Faith especially such particulars thereof as then were and still are controverted and under dispute by men Orthodox and sound in Faith The 30th cap. therefore of that Confession as it was presented to them by the Assembly which is of Church-Censures their Use Kindes and in whom placed As also cap. 31. of Synods and Councels by whom to be called of what force in their decrees and determinations And the 4th paragr. of the 20th cap. which determines what opinions and practises disturb the peace of the Church and how such disturbers ought to be proceeded against by the Censures of the Church and punished by the Civil Magistrate Also a great part of the 24th cap. of Marriage and Divorce These were such doubtful assertions and so unsutable to a Confession of Faith as the Honorable Houses in their great Wisdom thought fit to lay them aside There being nothing that tends more to heighten dissentings among Brethren then to determine and adopt the matter of their difference under so high a title as to be an Article of our ●●ith So that there are two whole Chapters and some Paragraphs in other Chapters in their Confession that we have upon this account omitted and the rather do we give this notice because that Copy of the Parliaments followed by us is in few mens hands the other as it came from the Assembly being approved of in Scotland was printed and hastened ●nto the world before the Parliament had declared their Resolutions about it which was not till June 20. 1648. and yet