Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	church_n	heaven_n	militant_a	1,713	5	12.2504	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A95626	A vindication of the orthodoxe Protestant doctrine against the innovations of Dr. Drayton and Mr. Parker, domestique chaplain to the Right Honourable the E. of Pembroke, in the following positions.	Tendring, John.	1657 (1657)	Wing T681; Thomason E926_5	59,895	91

because we are never able to perform the condition For although Bellarm. saith We can keep Gods Word that is fulfill his Commandement yet he proves it not And for to say his Commandements are not grievous and to say that we can keep them is not the same For a thing may be very light and yet heavier than I can bear For the Commandements are just and holy and good Rom. 7.12 And the yoke of obedience is easie and light Mat. 11.30 yet it is more than we can doe and a great deale heavier than we can beare Acts 15.14 And that not in regard of the heavinesse of the things required but in respect of the weaknesse of us that should perform them It must therefore follow where there is imperfection of Grace there must needs be sin but in this life Grace is not consummate and perfect Ergo c. Lastly that which is the priviledge of the Saints in Heaven is not to be attained here on Earth but to be exactly perfect to be filled with God to have no defect or imperfection remaining is the priviledge of the Saints in Heaven Therefore not the priviledge of the Church Militant Here we pray Enter not into Judgement with thy Servants O that my waies were so directed that I might learn thy Statutes Make me a cleane heart O God Here we still finde our need of Christ our Mediator who is our Advocate with the Father 1 John 2.1 2. What need of an Advocate if no sinne When shall he exercise his Office if not for us in this life c. Here we have cause to admire Gods Mercy to bewaile our sinnes to goe forward to rise after falls to be kept by the mighty power of God 1 Pet. 1.5 But in Heaven sinne and feare shall be gone and all tears wiped away from our Eyes I hope what I have written may suffice for satisfaction to them whose eyes the God of this World hath not blinded that sinne will have a being in the best of men so long as our souls have a being in these houses of clay As to our adversaries I shall pray all that are faithfull to pray with me for them that God would open their eyes that they may see their sinne and then I doubt not but that they will be ashamed of their Doctrine Considering out of what puddles they draw them either from Pelagius or Bellarmine Bayly Becanus the Jesuits or from the Adamits who are conceited that they are renewed to that purity which Adam had before the fall Daneus on Aug. de heresibus 6. cap. 31. or else from some of Romes fraternity that are now crept in amongst us who are very well versed in the old trade of Arch heritiques falsifying truths to maintain lies But I doubt not but God will discover them in due time and in the intervall will keep them that are his from being deluded by them What Men without sinne It was good hap for the woman that was taken in adultery John 8. that her accusers were none such as these Preachers for if they had been such they would have obeyed our Saviour And the woman had not scaped without a volley of stones about her eares And if it be true that they say that a man may live and not sinne then that Article is in vain to believe the forgivenesse of sinne What need I believe the forgivenesse of sinne if I be without sinne But to draw towards conclusion of this point I shall say as the Eunuch answered Philip Acts 8.30 31. When he asked Vnderstandest thou what thou readest How can I saith he understand without a guide So we may answer the Lord when he commands us to walk in his wayes How can we walk in thy wayes O Lord without a guide I shall therefore commend this counsell to all people that desire to serve the Lord and to walk in his wayes as a point of good Religion To turn the Lords precepts into prayers and to say with holy David Psal 43.3 Send out Lord thy light and thy truth and let them lead us into thy holy Mountain and thy Tabernacle and as in the 143.10 Let thy good Spirit lead me into the land of righteousnesse And from blinde Jesuiticall Guides with their false pretended new lights in a dark Lanthorn their feigned lies pretended Revelations but delusions Good Lord deliver us Much good may their perfection on earth doe them The Lord in mercy discover unto me my imperfections more and more and humble me in the sense of them so long as I live on earth that I may alwayes with the poor Publican say Lord be mercifull unto me a sinner And that with St. Paul I may still forget what is behinde and still press forwards towards the Marke putting forth all the strength that the Lord shall be pleased to lend me and improve all opportunities that the Lord affords me to the best advantage for the mortifying of sinne and sinfull corruptions in me and for the growing in grace untill I attain unto the measure of the stature of the fulnesse of Christ which shall be after grace consummate in heaven hereafter And for him that can finde perfection here on earth let him never look for it in Heaven Now in the last place I shall lay you down some of their arguments against this truth and some of the Scriptures that they wrest to maintain their error First They deny originall sinne and say it is taken away from the Saints of God on earth and therefore they cannot derive it to their posterity Unto the antecedent we answer that we must distinguish of sinne There are three things therein the Offence the Obligation the Pollution For the first Although God hates sinne in his dearest Saints yet this to the regenerate man is abolished and blotted out by the mercy of Jesus Christ Secondly For the Obligation of the Sinner to punishment this likewise is pardoned to such a man through Christ But as concerning the pure essence of sin the pollution thereof that is the vitious inclination or pronenesse which that sin leaves in us to fall into it or the like this remaineth in them Although the power and strength of this be taken away that it cannot reign in a regenerate man yet the life and being of sinne is not quite taken away And thus we say God forgiveth all our iniquities and healeth all our infirmities Psalme 103.3 quatenus as to the fault guilt and strength yet this is not done all at once but gradually by degrees he begins this cure here and goes on from day to day But this renewing is not perfected in this life otherwise then as I have shewed you Wherefore the godly doe derive such a corrupt nature to their posterity as they themselves have But they reply That which Parents themselves have not they cannot derive to their posterity But the guilt of originall sinne is taken away from regenerate Parents therefore at least the guilt is not derived Unto

of Adam is destroyed and passed away and all things are become new Quia Christianus renevatus est per omnia because a regenerate man is renewed in all things throughout in every part and power both of body and soul and therefore the Regenerate are quite free from all corruption of sinne and indued with all perfection of grace Resp I answer that it is not the meaning of the Holy Ghost in those or the like places to shew that sin is quite abolished and grace perfected in the Saints no otherwise then I shewed unto you before Inchoative non perfective by way of inchoation not perfection But the spirit of God by these formes or phrases would give us to understand two special things First To assure us that now sin is like a serpent crushed in the head according as God said Gen. 3.15 That the promised seed should bruise the Serpents head and therefore can never recover his former strength nor any wayes hurt the regenerate man but only to bruise his heel that is by the wrigling of her tail to cause some temporary affliction to light upon them Secondly to signifie unto us that this should be the main scope of all Saints to strive continually to mortifie the deeds of the flesh and to doe their best endeavors to be clean rid of them and for to perfect holiness in the fear of God 2 Cor. 7.1 And this is plainly intimated unto us in all the exhortations of the Scriptures as where we are advised to abstain from filthy lusts and mortifie the deeds of the flesh and the like For if there were no lusts no deeds of the flesh in us to what end are we bidden to mortifie them Script 3 1 John 3.9 quoted before He that is born of God sinneth not therefore say they the regenerate sin not Answ First He sinneth not to death For they doe not wholy forsake God albeit they may sin against their Consciences but they retein still some beginnings of true godlinesse by which as by sparks they are stirred again to repentance as David Peter and others Secondly He sinneth not as he is regenerated but he sinneth as long as he abideth in this life sin not reigning in him and yet sometimes reigning too as he is regenerated but in part and in part carnall For regeneration or renewing us to the Image of God is not perfected in an instant but is begun only in this life as I have formerly shewed you and in the life to come is at length finished for so doth John himself pronounce of himself and all the Saints in this life 1 John 1. If we say c. And if we acknowledge our sinnes he is faithfull and just to forigve us our sinnes this therefore is the meaning of St. John that the regenerate indeed doe sinne but yet not so as that they make much of their sinne Or doe so at any time yeeld and assent to evill desires that they cast away all love of godlinesse and repent not For alwayes in the regenerate there remaineth some remnant of a regenerate nature Which causeth either a strife against sinne or else true repentance that is it suffereth them not to sinne to everlasting destruction Or thus more briefly He that is born of God makes not a trade of sinning he lives not in his sinne he lies not in his sinne he delights not in his sinne he sinnes not with purpose with pleasure with malice with perseverance sinne raigneth not but as the Apostle saith the evill that I doe I would not doe c. Object It is said His seed remaineth in him neither can he sinne because he is born of God Sol. The Spirit of God remaineth in him so that he cannot sinne a sinne unto death he cannot come under the power of sinne Script 4 1 Pet. 1.23 Bring born a new not of mortall seed but of immortall by the word of God who liveth for ever If therefore say they the seed of Gods word never dieth in them that are born a new they ever remain regenerate and ever retain Grace neither ever fall into sinne Answ I answer first that the regenerate may loose and doe often loose Grace and the holy Spirit as concerning some guifts sometimes more somtimes fewer although they loose it not if we respect all the guifts For still there abideth in them some beginning or print of true Faith and conversion which although when they yeeld to evill inclinations or desires it is so oppressed and darkened that it neither can be known of others neither confirm them of the Grace of God and their own Salvation for the present yet it suffereth them not wholly to forsake God and the known Truth and to cast away their purpose of embracing by Faith the Merits of the Sonne of God So David prayeth Psal 51.10 11. Create in me a clean heart O God and renew a right spirit within me and restore me to the joy of thy Salvation He had lost therefore cleanness of Heart rightness and newness of Spirit and the joy of Salvation which he beggeth of God to be restored unto him and yet he did not wholly want them for otherwise he would not have asked neither would he have looked for from God this renueing and restoring Secondly The Seed of God that is the Word of God working true Faith and Conversion in the Elect abideth and dyeth not in the regenerate as concerning their coversion and finall perseverance how ever they may fall often grievously and foully before their end If they had been of us they would have continued with us saith the Apostle 1 John 2.19 Script 5 A good tree cannot bring forth evill fruit Answ I answer it cannot as it is good which shall so come to passe in the life to come But if it be partly good and partly evill such is the fruit also whereof we have sufficient tryall and experience in this life Script 6 Eph. 5.25 26 27. This shews us how Christ in this life by the Word Sacrament and the operation of Grace doth cleanse us that in the state of glory we may be perfectly holy without spot or wrinkle and that the words are to be understood of the state of glory I shall prove by these ensuing Reasons Reas 1 First Reason Because here we are absent from Christ and know but in part and so although we love inchoatively yet we love not perfectly Reas 2 Second Reason Because otherwise there would be no distinction between the state of Glory and the state of Grace if Grace were consummate in this mortall life Reas 3 Third Reason Because the Saints on Earth have sinne remaining in them and they that deny it are lyars and no truth in them And we shall finde that all the Fathers against the Novatians and Donatists so understand the place The Church Triumphant without spot or wrinkle and not the Church Militant Script 7 2 Tim. 4.7 Paul had fought a good fight and finished his course And