Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	call_v	church_n	synod_n	2,889	5	9.6067	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35171	Caleb's spirit parallel'd in a sermon preach'd at the funeral of the late Mrs. Constancy Ward of East-Smithfield, London, at the meeting-house in Devonshire Square, April 7, 1697 / by Walter Cross ...	Cross, Walter, M.A.	1697 (1697)	Wing C7257; ESTC R22527	45,737	48

Neighbour but disjunctive in the Threat Do all or die Mat. 23.32 This ought you to have done and not left the other undone respects the Rule of our Practice and Profession he was not for half-work almost a Christian he was for all the Parts of our Duty to God and Man a sound Faith a holy Life pure Worship and appointed Government Search most of Professors and you will find them lame in some of these But I must say of this good Woman she was good at this too though she was of large Charity to others she laid strict Bonds on her own Neck and was faithful to the Light God gave her And this is a singular thing in our Day many think Doctrine and Practice are to be minded but the other two especially Church-Government is a Matter of Indifferency and yet it 's visibly from a Defect in that that this Nation is so full of Unholiness the sacred Privileges proper to Believers being thrown to worse than Dogs before whom such Pearls are not to be cast I shall propose to every conscientious Christian the Method of Turetin's defending the Reformation from Popery It pleased God says he to open the Eyes of some who saw themselves instead of being in a Church of Christ to be in a Society that had Error in its Doctrine Idolatry in its Worship Tyranny in its Government it was unlawful to live in that and unlawful to live without publick Worship to prevent Sin in either Extreme we did confederate into Societies for publick Worship and called whom God had enabled and sent to publick and sacred Office for administring Ordinances and Discipline among us The like says Mr. Claud on the same Subject Strauchus adds that the Civil Comitia of Spire had no Power over them in Matters of Faith or Worship and therefore the Protestants tho fewer in Number acted nothing repugnant to the Constitution of the Empire Nor has a Synod to do with any thing but the Churches they represent in the Affairs that are sacred * The Clergy's intermedling with the National Affairs has provoked nursing Fathers to be cruel Step-fathers The Church's grand Apostacy began together with her Inroads upon the Civil Power and indeed where two Powers are of equal Extent that which governs the Mind most is like to command most if the one promise Heaven and threaten Hell and render it credible to the ignorant the other only promise Protection from a foreign Power who will let him be Cobler still if he live peaceably and threatens only a temporal Death that sometime shortly he must suffer we may easily guess and hundreds of Years Experience hath evinced who shall be Slave who Governour Pope or Emperour King or Synod It is true this Affair is but a Hedg but we have a most doleful Prospect of the Flock's Condition by its Removal or never being built See you that design the Good of your own Souls or Posterities who value Loyalty to Christ as King who would do as much as you can to reform a Nation get into or build up Church-Societies with Walls of Government Doors or Ways of Entrance to the Good all the really Good and thundring Exits to profane Hypocrites when their Vileness discovers them It is neither the Interest nor the Duty of a Magistrate to meddle in this they sweam on the Peoples Inclination the Sin lies at the Door of Well-wishers to Reformation the hunting out of bad Houses is a good thing but it will never do the 10th part of Service tho it should succeed that this will This may be my last Sermon too and I leave it as my Advice nay the Counsel of Jesus is rejected in the neglect of it You have here a double Pattern a Caleb in the old Church in the Egyptian Wilderness contending for Obedience to the Theocracy they were under and a Parallel of exact Conscientiousness to our Gospel-Christocracy Civil Government is but human in comparison of its Divinity The Church at first had her Customs 1 Cor. 11.16 and these were copied from Paul's 1 Cor. 4.17 that were uniform in every Church and Paul's from Christ 1 Cor. 11.23 The Form of the one is Arbitrary for the Good of the People the Form of the other settled by him that is the Wisdom of God and cannot err in what Means conduce most to Souls Good his is the only way of correcting abounding Offences the Magistrate's Sword is the Medicine for Injuries Let us leave Sin to God's alone immediate Government Against thee thee only have I sinned * The Popish Abuse of pretending to pardon arose from the primitive Practice of absolving from Offences the Church thereby signifying her Satisfaction but it 's Blasphemy for Man to pretend the other and Folly for the Sinner to multiply Offences by Confession when he only violates God's Law and offends his Holy Eye Let us be like Zachariahs and Elizabeths walking in all the Ordinances of God blamelesly this is our Lord Jesus Christ's great Ordinance Mat. 18. at large If I be off of my Subject I am in in my Duty as is every one that loves our Lord Jesus Christ And though the Person I speak of was a Woman I may say I know not whether her Skill her Zeal or Conscience did most outshine in this very thing And when I again consider I stand amaz'd to see Men of grey Hairs good Men serious Men that excepting hearing a Sermon or going to Prayer never make Conscience of any other Ordinance as if the rest had been appointed by some other Authority they pray and cry for the Seal of the Spirit but will want it before they subject to a sealing Ordinance they are griev'd for abounding Scandals while their Slight and Contempt of Ordinances is as influencive an Offence as Whoring or Drinking Surely says a young Convert there is little Religion or Acceptableness with God in such Duties else such and such a good Man would not contemn them so Such Professors in neighbouring Nations would be counted Atheists however we esteem them here He that dare to pick and choose may on the same bottom throw off all My Judgment leaves a great Bulk of the Nation 's Profanity at such Mens Doors whatever they think of it 2ly A fulness in following the Lord comprehends true Principles and Ends in our Profession and Practice Israel was an empty Vine bringing forth Fruit to her self A selfish End makes an empty Action This is chiefly to be regarded in our Profession for a Man 's own Soul is not edified by that it 's to glorify God in the Edification of others A good Man is satisfied from within himself A Soul is strengthned increas'd in Knowledg Holiness Heavenliness comforted assur'd in Faith by the Ideas and Thoughts God raises up within the Soul but the publick Show or Appearance a Believer makes by his profess'd Subjection to every Ordinance of Christ's Appointment is to edify others God makes Men Lights to be set in