Selected quad for the lemma: nation_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
nation_n	christian_a	church_n	national_a	1,233	5	10.8067	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70099	An exact enqviry after ancient truths, both in scripture and fathers touching the subsistence of the Church of God, digested into three parts : viz. I. True worship. II. Dominion, or divine jurisdiction. III. Discipline, reduced from our father Adams time, through all ages, to these present times ... / by W. Fenwick ...	Fenwick, William, 1616 or 17-ca. 1682.	1643 (1643)	Wing F724; ESTC R21240	51,760	74

* arinke with the drunken that servants Master will come in a day when he looketh not for him and in an houre that hee is not aware of and will cut him off and give him his portion with hypocrites there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth The office of Deacons of their ordination I have spoken before upon the sixth of the Acts is that they stand in place of the Levites to attend on the hand of the Pastors aswell to helpe to catechise to teach administer the Sacraments as to care for the poore and to take the charge of the goods and revenues of the Church but for their conversation and qualitie it is set forth by Paul in the first of Timothy the third chapter the 8 9 10 11 12 13. verses A Deacon must be grave not double tongued not given to strong drinke not given to filthy lucre holding the mystery of faith in a pure conscience Let him first be proved then let him use the office of a Deacon being found blamelesse Even so must their wives bee grave no slanderers sober faithfull in all things Let a Deacon be the husband of one wife ruling their children and their owne houses well For they that have used the office of a Deacon well purchase to themselves a good degree and great boldnesse in the faith which is in Christ Jesus And if Pastors and teachers would have the like zeale and consideration with themselves which the Apostles had Acts the sixth and the second and would have judged every thing an obstacle whatsoever might withdraw and hinder them in the preaching of Gods word and their care of soules and would make it their delight and labour to give themselves continually to prayer and ministration they would discerne that they can no more be without Deacons one or two in a Congregation then their bodies can be well without hands neither would they nourish that indigne opinion that ignorant Nay often improbous Church-wardens can serve in their place and office as some alledge Now touching the particular dutie and office of Elders which in this our age is taken in a corrupt and improper sence calling them lay Elders which in Scripture from the antient originall are tearmed Elders of Israel or of the Tabernacle as to say Elders of the Church of God or of the people of God to distinguish them from civill Elders and Governours and they are either such as by natures ordination are Fathers of Christian families or such as are publickely chosen by the severall Congregations of the Church and approved by their Pastors and Teachers Their office and duties were such as Ambrose said without whose counsell nothing was done in the Church and that both the Synagogue and the Christian Church had Elders They were to be chosen men such as Jethro advised Moyses Exod. 18. chosen out of the people men of courage such as feare God men of truth hating covetousnesse and place such over the people to rule thousands hundreds fifties and tens But these Elders are here rather to be for civill affaires then Church cares But thus we must conceive that Church Elders might as well be exercised in ministration of Justice for the Common-wealth as in the ministration of Discipline for the Church For this is the proper duty even of Kings Princes and their Magistrates as also of fathers of Families because the Common-weale of Israel is involved in the Church of God and the Church of God in a Christian Common-weale For so ought our Christian Kingdomes to bee composed as Magistrates may be chosen Church Elders in the Church of God For blessed is the Nation whose God is the Lord * And in such a Kingdome Christ raigneth as a King in excelsis and his Vice-roy by him and for him and the flourishing propagation of the ministery of the Word is the soule of such a Common-wealth But there is an evident difference betwixt the Elders that governe the Common-wealth and the Elders that governe the Church Distinct they are in their ordination and in their endowments and in the manner of exercise and execution of their office For Magistrates and Elders in a Kingdome are those who are appointed of the King or chiefe Governour as in the first of Peter 2. 13 14. Submit your selves unto all ordinances of man for the Lords sake whether to Kings as superiours or to Governours as sent of them and their office is for punishment of evill doers and for the praise of them that doe well And these are such as Moyses ordained by the counsell of Jethro before exprest But Moyses by Gods expresse appointment did afterward ordaine other Elders chosen out of those Elders whom God indued with the speciall gifts of his Spirit for helping of Moyses in governing of the Congregation of the Tabernacle as it is set downe Numb. 11. 16. 17. 25. 26. Then the Lord sayd unto Moyses Gather unto me seventy men of the Elders of Israel whom thou knowest that they are Elders of the people and Governours over them and bring them unto the Tabernacle and let them stand there with thee And I will come downe and talke there with thee and take of the spirit which is upon thee and put upon them and they shall beare the burthen of the people with thee so thou shalt not beare it alone So these were another sort of Elders Then the Elders that governed over the people as in the 24 25. and 26 verses So Moyses went out and told the people the words of the Lord and gathered seventy men of the Elders of the people and set them round about the Tabernacle There the Lord came downe in a cloud and spake unto him and tooke of the spirit that was upon Moyses and put upon the seventy antient men and when the spirit rested upon them then they prophesied and did not cease Here their ordination is of God their indowment is of the Spirit and their office and duty is to prophecie and not to cease and the end why they were to prophecie is to beare the burden of the people with Moyses for the people murmured and often tempted and provoked the Lord to wrath And though they received daily instruction and publicke ministration of the word of God from Moyses and Aaron yet the seed of truth fell sometimes among stony ground and sometime upon thorny ground sometime in the high way and either took no deepe root or it was choaked or otherwise picked up and carryed away by the sowles of the ayre so that their murmurings grudgings and rebellions were such a burthen to Moyses and an insupportable griefe that Moyses wished rather to die than to live Therefore God ordained these kind of Elders to be an assistance in his publicke ministration that as Moyses among the Jewes and Paul in the Church of God planted the Word in publicke So these might be as Apollo's to water it in private and that by their vigilancie and

the glory This kingdome is one entire kingdome of distinct gradations yet individuall like the wheeles in the vision of Exechiel one within another as the kingdome of Providence the Church of Christ militant with the Soules triumphant and the dominions powers and principalities of Angels ministring before him The dominion given unto Christ as he is the Sonne of man * Christ God and Man is the personall power of the Fathers eternall begotten Word by individuall union of Divine nature with the humanity communicated to Gods elect whereby hee is the ingraven forme of the Fathers owne person unto the world holding up all things by his mighty Word This Word by the ministeriall proceeding of the holy Ghost is that Scepter of righteousnesse whereby he guideth and ruleth his kingdomes as David saith thy Throne O God is for ever the Scepter of thy kingdome is a Scepter of righteousnesse This is that Scepter of righteousnesse by the precepts and power whereof Kings raign and Princes decree Justice For this cause Christ is called the King of Kings and Lord of Lords the onely ruler of Princes Of the first gradation For the first gradation of Gods great kingdome God by Divine ordination in nature in the Creation gave a blessing and dominion unto Adam to fill the earth with his seed and to subdue it under his obedience For this cause it is said the heaven of heavens is the Lords the earth he hath given to the Children of men from hence God claimes the first borne to be his substitutes on earth which honour in the beginning was due to them as the dignity of their birth-right by Gods ordination which continued in the Family of Adam till Cain lost it by killing his brother Abell Cham lost it by scoffing his father Noah Esau sold it for a messe of Pottage and Reuben lost it by defiling of his fathers bed Then by the law of that ordinance the dignitie of Birth-right was of divine right conferred upon the Tribe of Judah and reserved in the line of Iudah for the Lyon of Judah who is the image of the invisible God the first begotten of every creature and for that all things were created by him and for him and that he is before all things and in him all things consist And also being the ordained Lambe of God before the foundation of the world he is therefore made the head of the body of the Church King of Israel that in all things bee might have dominion and preheminence both of things in earth and things in heaven For it was the Fathers pleasure that in him all fulnesse should dwell from this fountaine all soveraigntie is derived How Christ doth constitute his Vice-royes on earth Kings Princes and Potentates c. The first ordination of Soveraignty being thus as I have shewed of Divine right conferred upon the naturall Sonne of God sitting upon his highest Throne of glory farre above all powers and principalities he doth by his divine and all foreseeing providence constitute whom it pleaseth him to sit upon his earthly Thrones over any Nation people or language induing them with proper gifts of his owne spirit for rule and government Thus doth God constitute Kings and Princes and Rulers after what manner soever it bee done on earth whether by lineall descent or Nationall choise or by the sword howsoever the hand of Providence doth direct appoint and establish 1 Sam. 2. 4. Psal. 123. Hee raiseth the poore out of the dust and lifteth the beggar out of the dung to set them among Princes and to make them inherit the seat of glory Also hee pulleth downe and setteth up at his pleasure It is profitable for us to observe that Adam by his transgression lost neither the natural faculties of his soule nor the honour and dignity of his birth-right and dominion though at the first by losing that breath of life which was the light and life of his soule and that made him the perfect Image of God they were weakened and blemished in capacitie For if he had lost his naturall faculties hee had lost the forme of his being and if his birth-right and dignity of dominion had beene abolished before it had beene conferred upon another then should nature have been deprived of the ministration of judgement Justice and equity which would have brought forth an utter dissolution of the whole generation of man But after the sonnes of Adam as it were forfeited their dignity and birth-right of dominion by multiplying transgression then God the Father conferred the preheminence thereof upon the Sonne of Man even Christ that he might consecrate and appoint whom it seemed good unto him to sit upon his temporall Throne so that birth-right and preheminence might be his in whom all fulnesse dwelt And that by him Judgement Justice and equity might reigne with men Thus the Regall power of Princes is derived from Christ by the rule of divine ordination in nature for he that is the Author of nature is the observerr and preserver of all the ordinances in nature so that this royall office is restored to man by ordination in Christ But the priestly and propheticall office man hath from God by union and communion with Christ and by inspiration and supernaturall donation through the holy Ghost For this cause a Tyrant may bee a lawfull King by ordination of God yet no Christian member of Christ Difference betwixt Regall ordination and Divine power From hence we may extract an evident difference betwixt the power of royall ordination in nature and the supernaturall power of God which is given to his Church on earth That is a ministeriall power to distribute Judgement Justice and equity amongst men with absolute power of coaction to punish actuall offences with corporall or pecuniary punishment upon body lands and goods This other is a supernaturall power and divine efficacy properly given to the elect of God by inspiration whereby they have union and communion with Christ and one with another for every ones owne particular prerogative of son ship and for the edification one of another and to some men it is given in a peculiar manner and a greater measure of divine power and gifts for the ministration writing teaching and preaching of the Word and Sacraments of God which is that which was revealed by God to the antient Prophets and that which was taught by Christ and after written by the Spirit of God from the pen and mouth of the Apostles And this power is a ministeriall power mighty in operation to bind and loose the conscience to open and shut heaven and hell by declaring the judgement of God against unpentient sinners and his mercy in Christ to the penitent man as he hath taught and revealed for this power doth not follow the judgement and will of man nor succession of profession but is tyed and limited to the power of the Word and will of God Therefore what they bind