Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	altar_n	angel_n	golden_a	2,087	5	10.8116	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59894	A short summary of the principal controversies between the Church of England, and the church of Rome being a vindication of several Protestant doctrines, in answer to a late pamphlet intituled, Protestancy destitute of Scripture-proofs.	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1687 (1687)	Wing S3365; ESTC R22233	88,436	166

for the office of a Mediator considered as a Mediator consists wholly in Intercession whence his authority and interest to intercede arises is of another consideration and therefore S. Iohn distinguishes between Christ's being an Advocate for us and a Propitiation for our sins 1 John 2. 1 2. if any man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Iesus Christ the righteous And he is the Propitiation for our sins Christ is our only Redeemer who has bought us with his own Blood but to be our Redeemer and to be our Mediator and Advocate are two things by the Constitution and Appointment of God both these are united in one person that he who is our only Redemer is our only Advocate also but yet to redeem with his Blood and to intercede with his Father for us differ as the death of the Sacrifice doth from the intercession of the Priest. To Redeem and make Atonement for our sins by shedding his Blood upon the Cross is not his Intercession for us and to intercede for us in Heaven is not to redeem us by shedding his Blood though he intercedes in vertue of his Blood. So that though Christ be our Redeemer yet considered as our Mediator and Advocate his mediation consists wholly in his Intercession for us And therefore to say that there is one Mediator and one Intercessor is the very same thing Suppose then the Apostle had said there is one God and one Intercessor between God and Men the man Christ Iesus would this have proved that there are no Mediators of Intercession but only Christ Or would they still say that there is an Intercessor of Redemption and Intercessors of Intercession and yet that there is but one Intercessor But besides this this very distinction between a Mediator of Redemption and a Mediator of pure Intercession that is such a Mediator as mediates in vertue of his Blood and Sacrifice and a Mediator who intercedes only by prayers and personal interest and Merits is contrary to the Analogy both of the Old and New Testament For as there is no Remission or Expiation so there is no mediation without Blood. For to mediate and intercede is not merely to pray for another but it signifies a Ministerial authority to apply the vertues and merits of a Sacrifice Thus it was under the Law of Moses The High Priest was the Mediator or as the Apostle speaks every High Priest taken from among men is ordained for men in things pertaining to God that he may offer both gifts and Sacrifices for sins Heb. 5 1. Thus he mediates by offering Gifts and Sacrifices by making Atonement and Expiation of sin And no Man has authority to do this but by God's Appointment No man taketh this honour to himself but he that is called of God as was Aaron v. 4. Since there is no remission of sins without shedding Blood without the Atonement and Expiation of Sacrifice there can be no mediation but in vertue of the Sacrifice and therefore there can be no Mediator but he who offers the Sacrifice which confines mediation to the Sacerdotal Office. And therefore if we have but one High Priest there can be but one Mediator also between God and Man. But that we may rightly apprehend this matter and be able to distinguish betwen the prayers of good Men for themselves and for each other and the intercessions of a Mediator we must distinctly consider the vertue of the Sacrifice the prayers of the people and the Intercession of the Priest all which must concur to an effectual Prayer to obtain our requests and desires of God. Thus it was in the Mosaical Law. The Sacrifice was slain instead of the sinner and to bear the punishment of sin and without shedding of blood there was no remission Prayers could not expiate sin without a Sacrifice and therefore even in the time of the Patriarchs an Altar which is for Sacrifice was the place of their Devotions Thus Noah as soon as he came out of the Ark built an Altar and offered Sacrifice to God. Thus we frequently read how Abraham in his Travels whereever he made any stay built an Altar unto the Lord and called upon the name of the Lord that is he offered Sacrifices and Prayers to God. The like we read of Isaac and Iacob So that an Altar was the place of their solemn Devotions that is they offered up their prayers to God in vertue of a Sacrifice For sinners must not go directly to God without the Atonement and Expiation of a Sacrifice Hence under the Law while the Priest offered the Sacrifice the people offered up their prayers to God to ascend together with the Sacrifice and therefore those who lived in places remote from Ierusalem which was the only place of Sacrifices or those who could not attend the daily Sacrifices in the Temple yet were to observe the time of offering their Sacrifices for the time of their Prayers Whence it is that the time of offering the Sacrifice is called also the hour of Prayer Thus the people were to offer a Sacrifice for sin and to offer up their prayers in vertue of the Sacrifice but then neither their prayers nor their Sacrifice were acceptable to God unless they were offered by the Priest who sprinkled the blood of the Sacrifice upon the Altar to make Atonement and offered Incense as an emblem of their prayers To which the Psalmist alludes Let my prayer be set before thee as Incense and the lifting up of my hands as the evening Sacrifice And therefore the Evangelist observes that the whole multitude of the people were praying without at the time of Incense that their prayers might ascend as Incense Thus we expresly read in the Book of the Revelations of An Angel who stood at the Altar having a golden Censer and there was given unto him much incense that he should offer it with the prayers of all Saints upon the golden Altar which was before the Throne and the smoke of the Incense which came with the prayers of the Saints ascended before God out of the Angels hand Which expresly applys these legal Types to the state of the Gospel that great Sacrifice and great High Priest who presents our prayers to God. The death of Christ upon the Cross was the Sacrifice for all our sins in vertue of this Sacrifice we pray to God but Christ our great High Priest is now ascended into Heaven to present himself before his Father to offer his own blood and in vertue of that to offer our prayers to him This is the work of a Mediator and High Priest not so much to pray for us as to offer up our prayers to God in the vertue and efficacy of his own Sacrifice and with the authority of a heavenly Mediator and High Priest. Now this plainly shows the difference between the prayers of good Men for themselves and one another and the Intercession of a Mediator Good men are humble supplicants

Shrine of any other powerful Saints to give all our Estates for saying Masses for the Dead to adore Reliques and Images to kiss the Pavement of such a Church or some Cross drawn on it to say over some particular Prayers so many times a day or to pray before such a particular Altar and such like things as by the liberality of Popes have so many thousand years Indulgence for a reward are indeed works of Supererogation because God has not commanded them but I doubt are no Christian excellencies Such things as these make Men Saints and enrich the Church with Merits and much good may do them with it X. Every Soul as soon as expired is conveyed to Heaven or Hell. In Answer to this I told him that the Scripture gives us no account of any other places of rewards and punishments in the other World but Heaven and Hell. And that this proposition that every Soul as soon as expired is conveyed to Heaven or Hell is only an Inference from this Doctrine that we know of no other place they should go to after death the Scripture having not told us of any other That our Church though She rejects Purgatory yet has not determined against an intermediate State between Death and Judgment Though Christ's Parable of Dives and Lazarus and S. Paul's desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ look fairly towards proving that good Men go to Heaven and bad Men directly to Hell when they die He takes notice only of this last passage of Dives and Lazarus and S. Paul and says that this would prove something if three Souls be All or All Souls expire in either Dives ' s fitness for Hell or Lazarus ' s and S. Paul ' s for Heaven But he should have taken the whole proof together that there is no mention made in Scripture of any other place of rewards or punishments in the next World but Heaven and Hell and that whereever we have any account of the state of Men after Death we either hear of them in Heaven or Hell. As Dives when he died was immediately tormented in Hell and Lazarus was conveyed into Abraham's bosom and S. Paul expected when he died to go immediately to Heaven and to be with Christ but we read of no Man who went to Purgatory when he died and what other proof can we have of this but that Heaven is promised to good Men and Hell threatned against bad Men and we have some examples of both recorded in Scripture unless we expect the Scripture should give us a compleat Catalogue of all who were saved or damned in those days As for Mens fitness for Heaven or for Hell when they die I know not well what he means by it For Men may be fit as he calls it for Hell who are not as wicked as Dives and we all have reason to hope that those may be fit for Heaven who are not so holy as St. Paul was Though there are different degrees of Vice and Vertue which may qualifie Men for different degrees of rewards and punishments yet as we read in Scripture but of two states in the other World Heaven and Hell so we read but of two distinctions of Men in this World the good and the bad to whom these promises or threatnings belong Now every Man when he dies must be one of these either a penitent or an impenitent sinner for the Scripture knows no medium between them If he be a penitent sinner by the gracious terms of the Gospel he has a right to pardon of sin and eternal life and why is not that Man fit for Heaven who has a Covenant-right to it and what should detain him in Purgatory who has an immediate right to Heaven if he be an impenitent sinner Hell is his portion and he must have it But after all this is no controversie between us and the Church of Rome whether every Soul as soon as expired is conveyed to Heaven or Hell but whether those who shall finally be saved must suffer the pains of Purgatory in the other World before they shall be received into Heaven Our Author has a mind to confound these two and seems to think it proof enough that there is a Purgatory if there be a middle state between death and judgment which is neither Heaven nor Hell and possibly those who do not understand this Controversie may be deceived with such pretences and therefore it will be convenient briefly to state this matter There have been I confess very different opinions among some of the Fathers about the state of Souls departed both before and since the Resurrection of Christ from the dead as you shall hear more presently and there may be very different opinions about it still and I believe will be among thoughtful and inquisitive Men and no great hurt done neither while they are not made Articles of Faith nor the foundation of some new and unscriptural worship But that our People may not be imposed on with sham-proofs which are nothing to the purpose as it is plain this Author intended to do in this Article it will be necessary plainly to represent the Doctrine of the Church of Rome concerning Purgatory that they may know what proofs to demand of it Now the Council of Trent determines no more than that there is a Purgatory and that the Souls which are detained there are helpt by the suffrages of the faithful but principally by the most acceptable Sacrifice of the Altar and commands the Bishops diligently to take care that the wholesome Doctrine of Purgatory delivered by the holy Fathers and Councils be believed held taught and preached to Christ's faithful People The Fathers of this Council were very careful not to determine what Purgatory is what the punishments of it are where the place of it is but refer us to former Fathers and Councils for it and therefore among the rest I suppose they mean the Council of Florence where this purgation is expresly affirmed to be by fire and to be a state of punishment Cardinal Bellarmine who wrote since the Council of Trent understood Fathers and Councils and the sense of the Roman Church as well as any Man and therefore I shall briefly shew what he thought of this matter That Bellarmine did believe that Souls departed were purged with fire is abundantly evident from what he discourses on 1 Cor. 3. and from those testimonies of the Fathers which he abuses to this purpose But for what end these punishments serve is as considerable as Purgatory fire it self and they Bellarmine tells us are to expiate venial sins or such mortal sins whose guilt is pardoned but not the temporal punishment due to them For according to the Doctrine of the Church of Rome there are some venial sins which in their own nature do not deserve eternal but only temporal punishments and as for mortal sins when the guilt of them is pardoned by the Sacrament of Penance by