Selected quad for the lemma: judgement_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
judgement_n	according_a	church_n	scripture_n	1,819	5	5.8931	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41780	Hear the church, or, An appeal to the mother of us all to all the baptized believers in England, exhorting them to stedfastness in the truth, according to the scriptures : together with some farther considerations of seven queries, sent to the baptized believers in Lincolnshire, concerning the judge of contriversies in matters of religion : in three parts / by Thomas Grantham.	Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692.	1687 (1687)	Wing G1536; ESTC R5931	41,980	66

the Priest cannot deceive us when the Prophet tells us that though the Priests Lips should preserve Knowledge and that we should seek the Law at his Mouth yet they had caused many to stumble at the Law because they had been partial in the Law Mat. 2. 8. It supposes whoever falls under the Sentence of the Priest is as surely damned as he is cast or hanged that falls under the Sentence of a Judge in Law. Which may be false for the Priests did joyntly sentence our Blessed Saviour Saying We have a Law and by our Law he ought to die It 's true whatsoever the Church doth bind on Earth is bound in Heaven but then nothing is bound on Earth unless she judge righteously for it is written that the Curse causeless shall not come Prov. 26. 2. and seeing she may be deceived at least by false Witnesses She may condemn the Innocent though She had no mind to do so which shews She is not infallible whatever men talk to the contrary I do not like this Opinion therefore because it leaves not Liberty for those whom the Church condemns to appeal so much as to Almighty God who knows the Hearts of all men whilst the Church knows them not But I answer to the Objection by saying 1. There is a Judgment Authoritative this indeed must be referr'd to the Church and no wise Man ever thought otherwise and the Members of the Church must be content to abide the Sentence of the Church though they be innocent till God clears their Innocency but all this while we suppose the Church we speak of to be a true Church and that She judges according to Evidence and yet because She knows not all Secrets nor all things contained in the Scriptures we also suppose She may possibly mistake though never so Honest But 2. There is a Judgment of Knowledge or Discretion by which Men receive the Truth of the Gospel as understanding and so believing it to be so and by the same Judgment he refuses what is false as understanding it to be so and till his Understanding be well informed or rationally satisfied by convincing Evidence he cannot if he have the Understanding and Spirit of a Man do either the one or the other And hence it is that Salvation and consequently the means to obtain it are offered to men in the manner of choice Josh 24. 15. Chuse then this day whom you will serve Heb. 11. 25. Moses chose rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season And forasmuch as all Men are not called at the same moment but some receive the Truth in their Youth others in their middle Age some not till Old Age all the Liberty which we contend for is that Men may have the free use of the Means by which they may know the Truth and be allowed to understand it before they be admitted to Sacred things that they may not only be able to give a Reason of the Hope that is in them but also be able to do as they are also exhorted Prove every man his own Work that he may have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another Gal. 6. 4 5. Thus much in answer to this Objection There is no Man living that would more gladly than my self give to the Church of God all that Honour and Obedience which God hath allowed Her but to say She cannot err is to make Her more like God than She is I think all that can be safely affirmed is That She shall not sail so as utterly to cease from being but that God will have a Church in the World to be his Witness to the end of the World though the Apostacy be never so great or seemingly universal And as it pleased God to foreshew the great Apostacies which should be found among the Christian Nations So he was graciously pleased to intermix some words of comfort that when it should so fall out that the Spouse of Christ should be like the Dove in the secret places of the Stairs Cant. 2. 14. or thrust into Prisons and out of sight which might cause the Faithful even to think there was no Church remaining like that of the Prophet who desired rather to die than to live because he thought the Faithful had utterly failed and himself left alone I say that then they should remember that the Gates of Hell should not prevail against the Church and therefore God hath always had a Church however she might be obscured Finally Brethren my Hearts desire and Prayer to God for you is that you may be of one Mind and Judgment in all the Will of God and especially in these Sacred Principles before mentioned and in the Constitution of your Ministry in respect of the Threefold Order of Ministers under which the first Churches were undoubtedly governed viz. Messengers Elders and Deacons And I do the rather advise to this because some have been pleased to publish in Print that there are only two Offices remaining in the Church of Christ viz. Elders and Deacons This Presbyterian Principle will I fear undo such as receive it They boldly tell us that the Office of Timothy and Titus was Temporary as if they had none to succeed them What I have formerly written in the defence of the first of these Offices is extant among you and as yet unanswered and to that I refer you Our Divisions have been and will be if continued very prejudicial to the Truth it self and our Adversaries know how to make use of them against us and our Holy Profession though they cannot be Ignorant of the great Divisions which were in the Churches in the Apostles Days nor should they be ignorant of their own and to the end they may see they are no more happy in that matter than their Neighbours let them consider what Bernard hath written of them as he is quoted by the Learned in Cant. Serm. 33. His Words are to this effect From whom shall the Church hide her self All are Friends and all are Enemies all are Kinsfolks and all are Adversaries all are Houshold Servants and there is none at peace all are Neighbours and all seek but their own Profit They are Ministers of Christ and serve Anti-Christ they do walk in the Honour of the Goodness of the Lord unto whom they do no Honour Thereby cometh that Beauty of the Harlot which thou seest daily in their Apparel as the Players of Comedies As in the Apparel of a King thereby thou seest the Gold in the Bridles Saddles and Spurs Thereby are the Tables beautified with Meats and Vessels Thereby cometh Drunkenness and Gluttony Thereby proceedeth the Harp and the Viol Thereby are the Presses running over and the Garners full answering the one to the other Thereby are the Boxes full of Oyntment and sweet Savour Thereby are the Purses filled Therefore would they be and are the Princes of the Churches The Provosts Deans Arch-Deacons Bishops Arch-Bishops

the perfect words of the New Testament whereto nothing may be added and wherefrom nothing may be taken away by him that will lead a life agreeable to the Gospel Euseb Hist l. 5. c. 14. Thus Brethren I have for your sakes as well as others taken a fresh view of the State of this most Primitive Church to whose holy pattern through the Grace of God you have diligently laboured to conform your souls her Principles are yours her Government in good measure is yours if in any thing any of them be otherwise minded my hearts desire is that God would speedily reveal even the same unto you and then it is to be hoped that all well disposed will in time see themselves concerned to adhere to the truth of your Principles in the very Order wherein you maintain them Hear the Church OR AN EPISTLE TO All the Baptized Christians in England Exciting them to Stedfastness in their Holy Profession under their various Tryals and great Afflictions The Second PART BRETHREN AS it hath pleased God to exercise you many years with various Tryals and Afflictions for your Faithfulness to the Christian Religion in respect of the Restoration of it to its ancient Purity both in the Form and Power of it wherein you have laboured hitherto and have not fainted but by the Grace of God have attained to some degree in that behalf above what hath as yet been attained by the generality of your Country-men for which you owe the greatest Thankfulness to Almighty God. And having as I verily believe laid a right Foundation for a true Church-State you are indispensibly obliged to go on unto perfection as the first Churches which were built upon the same Foundation were expresly required and exhorted Heb. 6. 1 2 3. In which Holy Profession being by the Grace of God one with you and also called to the Ministry and Office of a Messenger of your Churches which I mention because it is the most despised Office amongst all Christians as it seems to have been in the Apostles days 1. Cor. 4. 9. do hold it my Duty at this time to endeavour to strengthen you in what I may in your Holy Profession as also to call upon such as have been shaken in mind by the violence of those Temptations which have befallen them in common with their Brethren For as it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God as those undoubtedly shall who draw back from the Truth they have once embraced unto Perdition so I am very confident that for any to fall from the Truth as it is professed by the Baptized Churches is the most dangerous of all other they being indeed the nearest to the Truth in the Pristine Order and Simplicity of it of all sorts of Persons who own the Honorable Appellation of Christian For What sort of Christians can with any Confidence look upon or bring themselves close to the Rules of St. Pauls Catechism Heb. 6. 1 2. as the Antients used to call it except the Baptized Churches To say nothing of others can they of the present Roman Catholick-Church in any wise square themselves or justifie their present Church-State by the Rule of those Sacred Principles in the simplicity of them No these Principles of Christ's Doctrine will in no wise be concordant with the Catechism of the present Roman Church seeing a Doctor of their own hath told us that if the Scriptures must be our Rule c. they must all cross the Cudgels to the Anabaptists which is a plain giving up the Victory to the Baptized Churches unless a better Form of Doctrine can be assigned than this is which will never be Yea so pressing is this place from the true Institution of the Antient Christian Religion that the Rhemists seem to be under no small difficulty how to express themselves about it For thus they speak upon the Text Heb. 6. 1 2. We see hereby say they what the first grounds of Christian Institution or Catechism were in the Primitive Church and that there was ever a necessary Instruction and Belief of certain Points had by Word of mouth and Tradition before men came to the Scriptures which could not treat of things so particularly as was requisite for the teaching of all necessary Grounds Among these Points were the twelve Articles contained in the Apostles Creed The Doctrine of Penance before Baptism the Manner and Necessity of Baptism the Sacrament of Imposition of Hands after Baptism called Confirmation the Articles of the Resurrection Judgment and such like without which things first laid if one should be sent to pick his Faith out of the Scriptures there would be mad Rule quickly 1. It 's highly observable from hence that the first Grounds and Principles of our Churches which indeed are no other than what men read Heb. 6. 1 2. are openly acknowledged by our most Potent Opposites to be the same which were in the Primitive Church received for the first Grounds and Institutions of Christianity or Christian Institution and Catechism That in the Primitime Church these Grounds were held in the very Order now observed by the Baptized Churches particularly Repentance before Baptism and Imposition of Hands after Baptism Sure this is a full Testimony that the Institution of the Baptized Churches now wrongfully called Anabaptists and theirs only is truly Apostolical Whilst all the Paedobaptists in the World among whom the Papists have quite subverted this Order giving their supposed Baptism before Repentance and that unto Persons that are not capable of Repentance 2. They tell us there was a necessary Instruction and Belief of certain Points had by Word of Mouth and Tradition before men came to the Scripture Admit this to be so in respect of such parts of the Holy Scriptures as were then unwritten when the Apostles first preached the Gospel yet it is certainly false in respect of such Books of Scripture as were then in being for it 's evident that our Blessed Saviour propounded the Text of Scripture Luke 4. 17 18 19. and thence preached to the People and commanded his Hearers to search the Scriptures John 5. 29. He did not send his Hearers to Tradition as the Papists do The great Apostle of the Jews St. Peter even then when he was filled with the Holy Ghost Acts 2. 17. preached from and notably confirms his Doctrine by the Scriptures Act. 2. not by Tradition And Philip Acts 8. 35. began at the same Scripture which the Eunuch read and preached to him Jesus without making any use of Tradition Apollo being mighty in the Scripture not in Tradition convinced the Jews shewing not by Tradition but by the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ So did the great Apostle of the Gentiles St. Paul Acts 28. 2● Perswading men concerning Jesus out of the Law and the Prophets not out of Tradition from Morning to Evening and the best sort of St. Paul's Hearers searched the Scriptures daily not Tradition to see whether the