Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	believe_v	church_n	creed_n	1,645	5	10.6358	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A79541	Christian consolations taught from five heads in religion I. Faith. II. Hope. III. The Holy Spirit. IV. Prayer. V. The Sacraments. Written by a learned prelate.	Learned prelate.	1671 (1671)	Wing C3943A; ESTC R232695	66,056	242

1. the Angels desire to look to give us redemption and forgiveness of sins through the bloud of Christ according to the riches of his grace Eph. 1.7 We have trespassed against our God but there is hope concerning this thing Ezra 10.2 Forgiveness of sins is put into our Creed he that doth not believe it hath no Creed nor Christianity in him Do you believe a Catholick Church that 's the dowry of that Church which Christ espoused to him in his bloud Do you believe a Communion of Saints this is it in which we are baptized in which all our communion doth joyn That through Christ is preached forgiveness of sins and by him all that believe are justified from all things from which we could not be justified by the law of Moses Acts 13. verses 38 39. So also it is put into our prayer as well as into our Creed And he that taught us to pray Forgive us our sins hath taught us this comfort that sins are pardonable Yet an afflicted Conscience will receive suggestion that some sins indeed are pardonable but not all not the sin of the evil Angels not the sin against the Holy Ghost and there is a sin unto death I do not say ye should pray for it says St. John 1 Ep. 5.16 These verily are set out for instances of irreversible judgment to deter us from committing crimes of a vast magnitude But mark the Holy Scriptures have not unfolded it clearly and explicitly wherein the hainousness of these sins did consist that we may not accuse our selves of them and fall into despair as if we had committed them Since you know not expresly what these are how can you lay them to your own charge Nay if you lay them to your own charge you must be mistaken for he that condemns himself shall not be condemned of the Lord. Such incurable cast-aways have their Consciences seared and are not sensible of their guilt Who more like to be of that number than the Pharisees who justified themselves saying Are we also blind Well says a forlorn sinner my sins then are not the fore-named nor out of possibility of mercy but it is almost as bad that they are in an unlikelihood to mercy for they are very hainous As unto that confession that your trespasses are very hainous conceive so of them and spare not true repentance thinks no sin to be a little one So St. Hierom spake to the commendation of the Lady Paula in her Funeral Sermon that she was wont to bewail every fault she had committed as if it were one of the most presumptuous crimes But be it so really that God hath let you incur no small delinquencies as Aaron was not free from idolatry nor David from adultery nor Peter from abjuration of Christ nor Paul from persecuting the Church nor Manasses from witchcraft nor Mary Magdalen from indefinite scandal well I know not what who yet all obtained mercy for a pattern to them who hereafter should believe in Christ to everlasting life 1 Tim. 1.18 They were called Novatians who blotted out the beginning of the Eighth Chapter of St. John's Gospel because the story tells us that Christ dismist the woman taken in adultery with a gracious gentleness Why should not his procedure in judgment be like his doctrine did he not preach that Publicans and Harlots should go into Heaven before proud Justiciaries Be merciful unto my sin for it is great says David Psalm 25.11 This is not the way to deal with mortal Judges when we stand at their bar but this is the way to obtain propitiation from our God Heal me for I am sore wounded cure me for I am very sick be merciful to my sin for it is very great Zozimus a Pagan that envied the honour of Constantine the Great makes this tale to discredit him in his History that Constantine had put his wife Fausta and his son Crispus to death after which being haunted with an ill Conscience that gave him no quiet he sought among the Heathen Priests for expiation and they could give him no peace but he was told that the Religion of Christians was so audacious as to promise pardon to all sins were they never so horrible Is not this to commend the Emperor and his Religion under the form of a dispraise for what rest could a troubled mind attain to from the Rites and Superstitions of Idol-gods But in the immense value of the price of the bloud of Christ there is redemption for every sinner that repents and believes Whatsoever ye loose on Earth shall be loosed in Heaven says Christ to his Apostles Matth. 18.18 O lose not a syllable of such comfort in this discomfortable world Quodcunque is all manner of sin great and little And if Christ hath given such commission to men on Earth to unloose every sin by the power of their office and the word of consolation then how unbounded is his own clemency No sins can super-abound his grace if we do not sin presumptuously because grace abounds Yet the poor Publican will beat his breast and cry out dolefully My sins are many they are more in number than the hairs of my head The bill of endictment is a true bill who can tell how oft he offendeth Scarce any sin we act but hath a nest of sins in it then think we what a heap will they make when they are put all together Peter it seems misdoubted that if a man were forgiven that had trespast often it would be scandalous and encourage the offender therefore he thought it fit to stint indulgence to some mediocrity as it is Matth. 18.21 Lord how oft shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him until seven times Jesus answereth I say not unto thee Vntil seven times but until seventy times seven times so that Christ commends a boundless forgiveness in a finite number for an infinite And doubtless himself would not stick with us for the same number God forbid we should think he taught to be more merciful or of greater perfection than himself Her sins which are many are forgiven Luke 7.47 Be thankful and admire the mercies of our Father both for nailing our great sins to the Cross of Christ and for acquitting us from the innumerable fry of Minim-sins those of daily incursion because when one of the least is remitted all are remitted together Mark that considerately One that committed some soul and leprous sin goes mourning upon the deep sense of it and especially the horror of it makes him fear damnation yet he greatly deceives himself if he think his other sins are past over and this great one or a few such do remain to his perdition For do you hope comfortably that some faults of omission some idle words some garish and customary fashion of pride are remitted to you with the same affiance leaning on Christ you may hope that you are discharged from your greatest enormities For all unrighteousness is covered at once to

have not the gift of Faith do not miss it but they that have it though but in a little do insatiably desire the increase of it But do you find that the more you put forward to come to Christ the more you are put back by doubts and temptations It is right the resemblance of him that was sick of the palsie Mark 2.4 fain he would have been brought to Christ but could not come at him for the press This press that stops you are the snares of the world vain imaginations nay perhaps humility a broken heart and a tender conscience Yet find out a way to come to your Saviour though the throng be cumbersom If there be no other way untile the house break down the roof to be brought unto him call unto the Lord to dissolve this house of clay that thy Soul may see him clearly without all impediment But at the worst of all do you lie in a swoon as it were do you think there is no life no motion in your Faith do you fear the light of grace is so eclipsed that you have lost all communion with Christ Remember and be assured that you could not miss Christ so much unless Christ were in you Because God loves you he seems to leave you and withdraws out of the way for a time because he would be found and makes you desire to seek him that you may hold him the surer to you when you enjoy him A mother that hath conceiv'd may think not long after that she perceives some tokens of her conception in a while she doubts of it again and wisheth some signs of better satisfaction she hangs long under many assays of fear and perswasion at last she finds the babe spring in her womb and is utterly confirm'd So it is with them in whom Christ is born anew they have found the Lord yet sometime as it is in the Canticles He is behind the lattice that we miss him with a spiritual jealousie and fall into many of these fits as if he were quite departed And in this state of trepidation we must be exercised that we may know that holy fear and a troubled spirit are heavenly qualities that may consist with Faith Yet I have more to ask Do you look dejectedly upon your Faith because you apprehend it is not full of life in the root nor loden with fruit in Godly practice Wo be to them that are not sensible of those infirmities It is one of the best lessons in the New Testament 2 Tim. 2.1 Be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus but it is one of the hardest God gives a measure of Faith to all in the Covenant that call upon him but we have this gift in earthen vessels and taint it with the affections of our carnal mind The best Faith is weak wavering short-sighted riseth and falls like a tune in musick Therefore to encourage a perplexed mind hearken to Isaiah Chap. 35.4 Say to them that are of a sorrowful heart be strong fear not For though it be but an Infant-faith it is a true Faith as an Infant is a true man in the essence of a man though not a man in growth perfect in the real being though not in the degrees wherein we must strive to grow up more and more To prove the truth of it believe all the Word of God and it can be no wider and for the soundness of it believe in Christ and look for salvation in him alone then it is as legitimate and true born as is the Faith of any Saint that is far more noble A dim or a blear-eye that lookt upon the brazen Serpent did procure a remedy for a wound as much as a clear and well-condition'd Eye And a little Faith casting its weak beams upon Christ and his death will go far The quantity of a grain of Mustard-seed hath warmth and vertue in it to spread abundantly If any Faith on earth had shaken off all frailty and comprehended the joys of Heaven without casting its eye aside to the love of this world I do not conceive how the body could subsist any longer here but that the Soul in that extasie would be dissolved and fly away Lastly as God sees such sins in you as you cannot see so he sees such Graces in you as you cannot perceive The charitable to whom Christ speaks when they are at his right hand Matth. 25. do deny such good things to be in them as Christ did profess they had The Canaanitish woman found no better in her self than the vileness of a Dog that waited for crums under the table but Christ commends her for her great Faith The Centurion Matth. 8. saw nothing but unworthiness in his person but Christ gave him the praise above all those to whom he had preacht in Israel Confess then and be not ashamed to say Lord I believe help my unbelief and take consolation that water-springs shall flow out of a barren ground which suspected it self to be parcht and dry Though you see but little by your own light it is because it is put into the Lanthorn of humility And let these be the consolations of Faith CHAP. II. That a Christian's Comfort flows from the Grace of Hope The object of Hope is 1. That which is Good 2. A Good absent 3. Though absent yet possible and that for three Reasons 4. Though possible yet difficult An account of two sorts of difficulties with particular encouragements against them YET know that Faith never rides single but it carries Hope before it Faith is the substance of things Hoped for Heb. 11.1 No Scripture doth better contain them both in a little than Titus Chap. 1. Verse 1 2. The Apostle says That the Faith of Gods Elect first acknowledgeth the Truth Secondly That it is according to Godliness Thirdly It is in hope of Eternal life which God that cannot lye promised before the world began When you see a weight of iron tied to a line wound up on a wheel from the ground to the top of an house remember it is like the heart of a sinner leaden and heavy lying upon the ground and wound up in this Text with the line of Hope to the top of Heaven Heaven then is the express and fair object of Hope and God in his promise is the procurer Promise I say For we do not grope for Heaven blind-fold and fall upon it out of our own head without a warrant but our assurance is incomparably the best that can be given and in the best manners a Promise made before the world began that is freely unrequested when we could have no being to ask it and made over to Christ the Mediator that it should be put into his hand to perform it to us And it is unchangeable as is all the truth of God for he cannot lye neither is there any shadow of change in him What can we desire more Carry this evidence along with you and shew it to