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	militant_a	triumphant_a	2,791	5	11.4510	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35166	The cynosura, or, A saving star that leads to eternity discovered amidst the celestial orbs of David's Psalms, by way of paraphrase upon the Miserere.	Cross, Nicholas, 1616-1698.	1670 (1670)	Wing C7252; ESTC R21599	203,002	466

in which the immolated victime suffered a real mutation both in that Christian oblation without effusion of blood which he celebrated the night before his death as also in the bloody Sacrifice of himself which he might have hindred but would not he is then a true Priest Again his power not being confined to Sacraments nor to certain words and ceremonies as that of Men who are Priests after him and not depending upon the impression of any Character since he was setled in it sufficiently by his Hypostatick union he enjoyes a degree of Priesthood with eminency above all other Men invested with this sublime dignity Wherefore doubtless this his Priesthood above all other things was most acceptable to God because by this title and quality he hath wrought the Worlds Salvation hath reconciled Souls unto God and put them into a condition of rendering him glory in all Eternity So that among all the sublime qualities of Jesus Christ that of his Priesthood hath been the most beneficial to the World for by it he hath made up all the breaches of sin both in Heaven and Earth appeased God's anger by his Sacrifice and restored us to his lost grace and favour Next he is not only Priest but sovereign Bishop empowred to institute ordain and govern at his pleasure in all spiritual things which relate unto God and the Salvation of Souls wherefore St. Peter Ep. 1. C. 2. Stiles him the Bishop and Pastour of Souls St. Paul likewise to the Hebrews Chap. 7. sayes It was fit we should have a Bishop holy innocent unpolluted and separated from sinners who hath no necessity of offering Sacrifice daily for his own sins So that Christ is not reduced to that extremity as to offer Sacrifice for the expiation of his own faults he hath no need to purify himself since he hath a Sanctity which outvyes that of Angels his only task is to enlighten purify and improve others that he might transmit them from the perfection and spiritual treasures of this life to the perfection and eternal treasures of the next At this his sovereign Chair doth aim that is the acquisition of immortal felicity he hath laid down for our safe passage and firm footing two planks to wit the Cross and pennance he is mediatour between God and Man an intercessour for us he assists at our right Hand that we might not be overthrown and amidst the storm of Stones which fell upon St. Stephen he is awake and upon his Leggs ready to run to his succour so that he hath all the conditions of a powerful and careful Prelat The Prophet Joel had in his prospect this Prince of Ecclesiasticks when in his 2. Chapter he exhorts the Daughters of Sion to skip for joy and fly to the Lord their God because he had given unto them a Doctor of Justice to teach them a spiritual life how to separate their Souls from affection to Creatures and unite themselves to God This he did in commanding us to renounce our selves and follow him to carry with him our Cross to be perseverant in prayer to practise vertues to love God above all things and our Neighbour as our selves In fine his Doctrine permits no vice cherishes all vertues raises Man above himself and his nature and besides his Commandements he gives admirable Councels of chastity poverty and obedience and other precepts leading to perfection which if exactly weighed would evidence as clear as the Sun beams that he is the greatest Master and Doctor of a spiritual life He is then Head of the Church because the Founder from whence she hath received her Life and Being by the seeds of his grace by the preaching of his Apostles by all the good works and stratagems he hath set on foot to draw Souls unto Faith and Baptism From whom she hath received her subsistence and nourishment in the provision of the Sacraments and of a multitude of gifts and graces in order to the propagation and defence of the Church He hath likewise setled here an Ecclesiastical Hierarchy resembling that of Angels and lastly he overwhelms her with the load of his favours transmitting daily her Members to his Church Triumphant where he invests them with glory nor will cease untill he hath made of the Souls issuing from the militant here beneath a Church glorious and without the least stain or wrinkle This Saint of Saints this Prince of Ecclesiasticks this Doctor of Justice is the Corner stone on which our Penitent had fixed his Eye and petitioned to be the Basis of Jerusalem's fair Walls so that having such a foundation what noble superstructure might he not expect and truly this edifice was squared out to the highest Ideas of perfection First we see an addition of the three Theological vertues that is so polished and refined as it gives them quite another lustre as to Faith the mysteries of the blessed Trinity the Incarnation and the holy Eucharist are in the Evangelical Law drawn as it were out of a Cloud into the Sun-beams and therefore St. Paul styles the written Law a Schoolmaster which taught the Jews only the first Rudiments of Religion whereas Christian Faith proposes ravishing objects and discovers the wonders of the said mysteries distinctly which begets reverence and devotion in the Hearts of Men. As to hope which enflames our courage to the Execution of generous undertakings the Jews had very obscure revelations of eternal beatitude nor could they hope for it till the coming of the Messias and Redeemer who was to open Heaven's Gates and have the honor to be the first Man that entered there in the interim they were fed with promises of Earthly rewards which rendered Souls Mercenary and their intentions more gross whilst the Evangelical Law unfolds the wonders of Heaven the glory of a Resurrection and engages for our immediate reception into that place of immortal felicity after this life supposing we are distain'd from all guilt of sin As to Charity the Soul of vertues and devotion it must needs receive from the Evangelical Law many degrees of heat and fervour since it renders our faith and hope more perfect For where the knowledge is greater of things more worthy of love and where our hopes are heightned to a more valuable expectation there doubtless will be found the production of a more ardent desire and affection After this rare piece which much embellished the structure are disposed the Sacraments which like a great water about the circumvallation serve both to secure the inhabitants from the assaults of their Enemies and to strengthen them in the noble exploits of vertues So that by this succour and powerful aid they are obliged in honour and conscience to a more eminent degree of Sanctity We see that Arts and Sciences are improved by success of time and those Masters which come after are more expert than the former Now this proceeding we behold in divine precepts not out of any deficiency in the Law-giver but because after Adam's sin

delicacies sought to preserve a beauty and make it proof against time Yet once grown old or cut off by Death it is cast into oblivion the other kept in Chains and threatned daily with ruine yet at the last proves matter of veneration even unto those who before perhaps contemned it You see then how to live in the Memory of Men what Art is to be used to raise a stately structure of our selves the materials of this must be acts of Charity towards our Neighbour and acts of severity towards our selves the Cement must be Patience Constancy Resignation to God's holy will and the like with these Saints have purchased glory to themselves before God and veneration amongst Men that even Kings have crouched with bended knees before their Ashes who whilst here poor Pilgrims upon Earth were looked upon as Idiots and made as it were the mockery of the World so that humbled bones at last shall Triumph and erect their Trophies where they had been made the spoils of Death St. Gregory Nazianzen affirms the Ashes of St. Cyprian were so powerful as no Disease wanted there its remedy and this Testimony he received from those very persons who had been the Subject of his miraculous Cures St. Ambrose relates of one Severus who being blind by touching only the Casket wherein were enchased the relicks of the Holy Martyrs St. Gervasius and Protasius he recovered his sight St. Austin recounts many miracles wrought by the relicks of St. Stephen and adds The benefits obtained at his shrine were so great and numerous as whole Volumes might be filled with the relation In fine there is not a Doctour of the Church whose writings speak not the wonders Heaven hath owned even in their time upon the score of supplications made in the presence and honour of Saints Bodies Nor did this religious Worship of relicks spring up originally with the Ghospel for St. Epiphanius brings evidence how the Sepulchers of Esay Ezekiel and Jeremy were had in great veneration among the Jews and this from the extraordinary succours God conserred on distressed People at the Tombs of those Holy Prophets We find likewise Exodus 13. that before Moses conducted the Israelites out of Egypt he ordained the Bones of Joseph to be taken up and born away with Ceremony into the Land of promise Now why all this But to verify our Holy Prophets assertion that humbled bones shall rejoyce that Death may cause a separation twixt Soul and Body and so seem to Triumph over this mortal clay of ours cannot be denyed Yet if our members have served in purity as St. Paul terms it and merited in life to be the Temple of the Holy Ghost such as these though exanimated may still retain a vertue by which they give life and joy to other Beings Whence justly our Petitioner fore-declares and humbled bones shall rejoyce Truly it is but rational to conceive there should be a Providence to preserve from common corruption those Bodies who had been instrumental to many acts of vertue and made a daily victime by pennance For since mortality is the effect of sin there ought at least be something that hath the resemblance of immortality to attend that Body which hath much contributed to the Souls happiness Besides we believe our Bodies shall one day be glorified and vested with immortal dotes it is fit then such who have here led a life as it were Angelical without any contamination of sensual pleasures should anticipate in some kind their future glorifyed condition and how can this better appear than by imprinting a Sovereign vertue in their extinguished Ashes since it is decreed a compleat glorification cannot unless particularly dispensed with be conferred till the universal Resurrection This admirable operation given to their Earthly and liveless substance as it is a Testimony of their Souls felicity so is it no less to us a pledge the most dear we could have by which we are assured of their watchful and compassionate care over us In fine how powerfully are we wrought into the imitation of their lives when at their shrines we behold both Death and Nature vanquished and the prodigious effects of humbled prostrate Limbs lowdly declare how precious the Death of Saints is in the sight of God Thus our Holy Petitioner hath laid open unto us First the Jubileys of mind which fill a Soul united unto God by love and repentance Next to compleat the Harmony he tells us our very bones shall not want their portion of joy that if they here be made bare disjoynted or broken Almighty God never fails to sweeten those rigours by internal whispers and consolations which carry them on to perseverance in their pressures and debasements and when Saints have once payed this debt to nature then he gives to the one part the immediate fruition of his Glory and to the other he often communicates such Soveraign vertues that they are as it were certain previous dispositions to immortality 'T is true the relick of a Saint appears but a lump of Earth liveless inanimate and so is not capable of joy yet God making it the instrument of miraculous effects is thereby glorifyed and what ever relates to his honour is matter of exultation Again St. Paul saith that every Creature groans that is feels throwes and longing desires after their Maker If then these resentments be allowed to every Being much more ought we grant it to the Sacred pledge of a Saints Body in which the Omnipotency and other Divine attributes of God do so gloriously shine and humbled bones shall rejoyce The Application Let us then so manage our senses in this life enslaving them to the Lawes of reason that after the short course of their servitude here we may arrive to that joy mentioned by our Holy Petitioner Amen CHAP. XIX Averte faciem tuam à peccatis meis Turn away thy Face from my sins WHen I cast my Eye upon this clause of the Petition I cannot but reflect on that passage of Esay where he sayes it is a bitter thing to have once abandoned God for after a sin is committed though it be secret unseen and none reprehend us for it yet we fear every shadow suspect every look and syllable nor can we ever think our selves secure and out of danger St. Austin sayes as iniquity is alwayes accompanied with a neglect of God and consequently is a kind of Pride by which we value our own satisfaction beyond his honour so sin by a just punishment throwes us down below our selves it first induces us to actions unworthy our reason and after that engagement what Tyranny like to this usurper For having shaken off the fear of God who alone ought to be the Object of that passion we sink into the fear of every thing capable to be the Term of Sense if a sound it is a loud promulgation of our Crime if a Shadow it is some Ambuscado to surprize us if the World be civil they are acts of