Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	bless_a	mercy_n	sinner_n	1,766	5	10.2326	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76078	The Church of England a true church: proved in a disputation held by John Bastwick Doctor in Physick, against Mr. Walter Montague in the Tower. Published by authority.	Bastwick, John, 1593-1654.	1645 (1645)	Wing B1058; Thomason E297_18; ESTC R200205	156,945	174

made them white in the blood of the Lambe therefore they are before the Throne of God c. Here you evidently see that the blessed martyrs which are now in Heaven have not attained unto that felicity and eternall glory by the merit of their sufferings but for that they were washed in the blood of the Lambe the Lord Jesus Christ And as it is not the suffering Mr. Montague but the cause that makes a martyr so it is not for that they passe through many tribulations that they enter into the Kingdome of Heaven but that they are washed in the blood of the Lambe and by that onely are made worthy to be Citizens of the heavenly Jerusalem for when we have suffered all we are but unprofitable servants and have done but our duty for our Saviour saith If any will be my Disciple let him take up his crosse and follow me I will adde but one instance more out of Matth. 11. Learne of me saith our Saviour for I am humble and meeke Doe you believe Mr. Montague that you can keepe or ever observe this commandement of Christ the Lord But if you could attaine unto the greatest degree of humility and meeknesse you were but an unprofitable servant and had done but your duty But how much more Mr. Montague have you and your Roman kindred to answer for your loftinesse and high opinions of your selves who stand upon your justification by your good workes and pretend yea and presume of your selfe-merits and of your workes of desert and that before God If this be not a transgression and a very rebellion against the Commandement I know not what prevarication and rebellion is Yea Mr. Montague if we could observe the whole Law and keepe all the Commandements for doing and suffering that ever God gave if we will be Christs Disciples we must ever say we are unprofitable servants and daily pray forgive us our sinnes and with the leper cry out We are uncleane we are uncleane and have continuall cause of deepe humiliation and selfe-deniall If they Mr. Montague which love God most and most diligently keepe his Commandements and yield the greatest obedience unto them have need yet of mercy how can any mortall man then merit before God who daily and hourely transgresseth all his glorious Commandements yet see what the Lord saith Exod. 20. ver 6. Shewing mercy to thousands of them that love me and keepe my Commandements Learn this lesson of Christ M. Montague to be humble and labour for selfe-deniall and a lowly spirit and meeke heart and with the Church of England and all the blessed Saints disavow your owne righteousnesse knowing that Christ came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance such as are weary and heavy laden which only finde rest unto their soules and think not with the Romanists and justiciaries by your merits or good workes to scale Heaven but I intreat you to endeavor with us of the Church of England to enter into the most holy by the blood of Jesus by that new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the vaile that is to say his flesh Heb. 10.19 20. If you enter not by this way M. Montague you wil never come thither But now to conclude this point That Church which doth believe in Jesus Christ renouncing all selfe-merit and teaches the way to Heaven by the blood of Jesus and by that new and living way that Church believes aright as it ought to believe and is built upon the foundation of Peter against which the gates of hell can never prevaile but the Church of England doth all this Ergo it is a true Church where salvation may be had And this note alone is an infallible and never deceiving marke of a true Church As for antiquity universality unity succession multitude visibility c. if they have not this doctrine joyned with them of the free grace of God and justification by faith in Christ alone they are but markes of errour and abomination which will seduce you from the right way and misleade you into by-paths where you will never finde rest for your soule And thus much I thought fit to speake of this point it being a fundamentall one and such an one as where it is not preached and published there can be no true Church And now I come to the other clause of this proposition viz. renouncing all will-worship and humane inventions in Gods service An eminent marke also of a true Church which when the Church of England doth it is manifest that it is a true Church For all men know that mixtures in Gods worship annihilates a true Church But following my former custome I will first signifie what I meane by will-worship and humane inventions in Gods service and then shew where they are entertained in Gods service and admitted they so adulterate his worship as he himselfe disavoweth it and affirms they serve in vaine By will-worship therefore and humane inventions I understand whatsoever either for Doctrine Service Discipline Ceremonies men out of vaine devotion doting or superfluous feare or unbridled errour or out of humane reason or hypocrisie or whatsoever other pretence they have out of their own brain excogitated and brought into the service worship of God or whatsoever they have added to his worship either of images or representations or traditions against his revealed will or without his expresse command and imposed upon the people as the worship and service of God and proclaime these their ordinances to be Gods service and worship and place holinesse and religion in the observation of them and account the neglect of them irreligion and prophanenesse and worthy of punishment and the submission to them piety religion and obedience which God notwithstanding proclaimes an abomination to him For piety and true religion proceeds from the right knowledge of God the first of the which is the reverence of God joyn'd with love which ariseth from the knowledge and contemplation of Gods manifold favours mercy and goodnesse towards mankind the second which is pure and true religion is faith joyned with a serious and earnest feare of God the which feare containes in it a voluntary and willing reverence and alwaies brings with it the right and exact forme of worshiping him which is onely that way of serving him which he hath prescribed in his holy Word which Word of God alone must be the rule of his worship and of all our obedience so that what he prescribeth and enjoyneth it is our duty both to know and performe and the neglect of which is sinne and whatsoever is contrary to this is either open idolatry or superstition because it is supra quod statutum est and therefore hatefull to God and abominable in his sight as his whole Word declares And as it is the glory honour and very note of a true Church to follow the rule of Gods Word in serving him so it is the evident marke of a false

more instances Mr. Montague might be produced where Christ the King of his Church commandeth and the Pope prohibits and where Christ prohibits and forbids and the Pope commands the contrary and where the Church of Rome in all things obeyes the Pope and disobeyes Christ by all which it may now easily appeare whether of the two Churches the Church of England or the Church of Rome is more orthodox in their doctrine and whether of them gives most honour to Christ But let me intreat you Master Montague ingenuously to answer me whether that Church that doth all that her Lord and King commandeth her and declineth all hee forbids her and gives her King all that due reverence and dignity that belongeth unto him doth not honour Christ more than that Church that regardeth neither his commands nor prohibitions but neglecteth them both and trampleth all his Lawes under her contaminated feet I am most confident Mr. Montague that upon your mature deliberation you will grant unto the Church of England that preeminency that she is more obedient to Christ her King and more honours his Kingly Office than the Church of Rome and that Christ is King unto the Church of Rome in word onely but in workes and deeds they neither regard either what he commands or what he forbids But now I come to the Priestly Office of Christ concerning which Mr. Montague I shall desire you seriously to weigh and examine the faith and beliefe of each Church concerning that and which of them believeth most orthodoxly and honoureth Christs Priestly Office most whether the Church of Rome or the Church of England Upon triall I believe it will appeare in this point also that the Church of Rome maketh the Priesthood of Christ a matter of nothing howsoever in words they acknowledge it The Church of England believeth that Christ Jesus was appointed and sealed by God himselfe to be the alone and onely mediator between God and man and that he onely has compleated and in all things fulfilled the whole Law of God and satisfied his justice and wrath by paying the ransome due for our transgressions when he offered himselfe a sacrifice propitiatory upon the crosse for our sins She believeth also that Christ alone doth now make request for us with God in whose Name all the faithful with confidence and boldnesse have continually accesse unto the Throne of grace with full assurance to be heard She believeth likewise that Christ alone is Mediator both of redemption and intercession and that we are not to put up our petitions and supplications either to Saints or Angels as being a thing derogatory to the dignity and glory of our Mediator the Lord Jesus Christ and a meere robbing him of his due honour She believeth in like manner that Christ is the onely Priest of the new Testament and that there are no other reall Priests on earth appointed by God to offer up Christ daily to God the Father a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and for the dead and that it is blasphemy against the eternall Priesthood of Christ so to affirme She believeth also that the Sacrifice of Christ being of an infinite vertue and efficacy is to be applied to all believers by such meanes onely as God himselfe hath appointed as by the vertue and power of the holy Ghost and faith by the preaching of the Gospell and the right administration of the holy Sacraments and Prayer and that this Sacrifice offered upon the crosse was most perfect and absolute and ought not to be reiterated and renewed by any man upon the earth and that the reiteration of it is both derogatory to the al-sufficiency of the Sacrifice of Jesus Christ and pernicious to the soules of men and indeed a meere blasphemy She believeth further that we being cloathed with the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ our high Priest and Mediator and appearing before God in it that we are freed by vertue of that both from the guilt and punishment of all our sinnes and are accounted righteous before God She believeth also that the blood of Jesus Christ and that onely purgeth us from all our sinnes and that there is no other Purgatory by which the soules of men are purified and cleansed from their impurities and pollutions and that there is no man living that can either by doing or suffering satisfie the justice of God much lesse merit or doe workes of supererogation and that the preachers of the Gospell have onely power delegative ministeriall and conditionall to forgive sinnes as Ambassadours and not as absolute Judges and that this Office is peculiar to God and Christ alone as our high Priest and Mediator of the everlasting covenant And this is the faith of the Church of England concerning Christs Priestly Office The beliefe of the Church of Rome is this that Christ is the Mediator of satisfaction and redemption but they assigne the other part of his mediation and intercession to Saints and Angels and the prime place of that imployment they give unto the blessed Virgin who they call the Queen of Heaven and the doore of Paradise and they put up their prayers and requests to her and other Saints and Angels hoping to be heard which is nothing else but to allow Christ a momentany or temporary and partiall mediation and to give unto the Saints and Angels that everlasting and never dying intercession then the which there cannot be a greater contumely and indignity offered to the eternall Priest our Mediator Jesus Christ it taking away so great a portion of honour from him and to speake in plaine English it is an unsufferable blasphemy The Church of Rome appointeth other Priests also after the order of Melchisedech to offer up Christ himselfe daily as they say to God the father a propitiatory Sacrifice for the living and the dead which is nothing else but blasphemously to insimulate and accuse Christs Sacrifice of imperfection The Church of Rome also asserteth and believeth that the righteousnesse of Christ our Mediator is not imputed unto us and affirmes that by Christs merits and passion we are onely freed from the guilt of our sinnes but not from the punishment of them that we our selves must satisfie the punishment She believeth also that we are able in this life if we will our selves not onely to satisfie the justice of God and keepe the Law but also to merit and doe workes of supererogation She farther believeth that if any man depart out of this life before he hath fully satisfied God for his sinnes that then he is to remaine in a place called Purgatory there to be tormented and purged from all his pollutions and defilements that there is no entrance into Heaven or redemption out of that place without an especiall indulgence from the Pope or innumerable Prayers and Masses for their soules before they by torment are cleansed from the remainder of all their sins She believeth also that life eternall is of debt due unto us as wages