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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	church_n	faith_n	primitive_a	3,297	5	9.1069	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64233	Pray for the peace of Jerusalem a visitation sermon. / preached at Gainsbrough, May 7th 1691 by Nathanael Taylor ...	Taylor, Nathanael, d. 1702.	1691 (1691)	Wing T547; ESTC R33904	20,217	32

So our Church of England allows of nothing for Doctrin but what is plainly made known in Scripture or may be genuinely deduced from it Our Faith is founded on the Sacred Word of God epitomized in the Apostle and explained by the Nicene and Athanasian Creeds confirmed by the Writings and Decrees of the Primitive Fathers and Counsels and sealed with the Blood of Martyrs Our Church in her Articles adores the holy and undivided Trinity without any Rivals of Saints or Angels receives the Faith of Christ without any thing that destroys his Divinity as Images and Pictures or that nulls his Humanity as Transubstantiation and owns all his Offices without the Doctrins destructive to them of the Pope's Supremacy and Infallibility of Merits and Purgatory and so Believers of the Gifts and Graces of the Holy Ghost as to be free from Enthusiasm or Prophaneness She admits of no Doctrin concerning many States of Creation Apostacy Grace and Glory that any way ecclipseth God's Glory and Mercy and Christs Merits and Satisfaction but all things in her Articles and Homilies are so proposed as may most set forth Gods goodness and Mans vileness our Misery by Sin and Happiness through a Saviour and all this in so plain and familiar a Stile and in our own Language that no Member of her can justly plead a cause of Ignorance of her Principles Let us then be Unanimous in our Doctrins and have a care of basely betraying or denying her or Apostatizing from her It becomes not us to prostitute our dear Mother to the pleasure of every Malecontented Adversary to substract from her Ancient Catholick Principles or to add to their new Opinions as this or the other Party pleaseth whose Zeal against our Church outruns their Knowledge of her Doctrins And when I earnestly beg to lay aside prejudice and heat and employ that Liberty of Conscience granted them in searching impartially and seriously weighing our Doctrin in the 39 Articles and Book of Homilies I doubt not but they would soon find Reason and Religion perswading them to repent of their past Folly and Sin of Schism and to unite with us and pray for the Peace of our Jerusalem Our Church of England which is the envy of all Dissenters and the Glory of the whole Christian World For us Ministers in publick or private to detract from the Doctrins of our Church is Judas like to kiss and betray her And let us but seriously ask the Dissenters or consider with our selves should we recede from our Received Principles where should we center Are our Adversaries agreed what to ask And if we should grant what they now desire would they adhere to their present Proposals or oblige their Congregations to unite with us How indeed can this be thought on when there are so many Sects contrary to us and to one another amongst us The Papists deny the Truth of our Church because of their Multitude The Dissenters separate from us because we are so many and not selected Congregations The one upbraids us with Novelty the other dislikes our Antiquity and would have us change our Religion as often as they please To gain some we must part with the Apostolick Regimen of our Church by Bishops and instead of one have every one to Lord it over us To bring in others we must throw away Infant-Baptism and reduce the Church to Heathenism again and make it always gathering never gathered To engage a third Party we must deny all Christianity in a manner Christ's Incarnation both Sacraments the Resurrection of these our Bodies and must own an Infallibility in every one whenas now but one pretends to it and he grandly mistaken in it too To reconcile the Papist we must disown almost all the Articles of our Church and not only them but of our Creed also and receive Twelve new ones on necessity of Salvation tho' of no longer Date as such than the Trent Conventicle Nor is this all to unite with them we must not only lay aside Christianity but our Humanity also and must deny our Reason and Senses to believe Transubstantiation For tho' we see smell taste and feel Bread and Wine yet must we believe it to be Christs Flesh and Blood the same he had of the Virgin Mary And now consider where we should stop or what a Chaos our Church would thus be Jerusalem would become a Babel and it would be a strange Reformation in order to our being purer and better reformed to lay aside Religion Reason and our Senses and turn any thing but Christians and Men. The Heathens had a Form of Doctrin delivered down to them to which they so adhered that one saith * Cotta in Cicero de Nat. Deorum l. 3. Opiniones a majoribus acceptas defendam defendi semper nec me ex ea opinione quam a majoribus accepi de cultu Deorum immortalium ullius unquam oratio aut docti aut indocti movebit Much more reason surely have we to keep to our Religion which is truly Apostolical was that Faith once delivered to the Saints Jude 3. Rev. 2.10 and in which being constant to Death we may expect a Crown of Life Let us then not be wheedled or frighted to recede from Antiquity or be imposed upon by Novelty We have subscribed the Thirty Nine Articles and they include the Book of Homilies Let us not then against our Judgment our solemn Profession and serious Subscription of them turn from or be ashamed of the best of Churches 1 Tim. 7.20 Such Persons may remember that Hymeneus and Philetus are stigmatized for their Apostacy to all Posterity Let us rather propagate this Faith by Catechising that the People committed to our Care when Men may not be Children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrin Eph. 4.14 and after some years preaching among them Heb. 5.12 have need to be taught again what are the first Principles of the Oracles of God The Heathens own the necessity of instructing Youth * Theog v. 1001.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Roman Orator † Cicero l. 4. ad Heren accounts it a great piece of Wisdom and the greatest Service we can do in our Generation God calls for it and our Church enjoyns * Can. 59. it Prov. 22.6 punishing its continued neglect with Suspension and Excommunication most if not all Dissenters practise it And shall they be industrious to propagate Error and we not careful to train up our People in the true Faith God forbid Let our past remisness make us more zealous in this Practice Our Church injoyns a Catechism which contains the Summ of the Christian Religion the Credenda in the Creed the Agenda in the Ten Commandments the Petenda in the Lords Prayer and the Recipienda in the Doctrin of the Sacraments and she explains them all concisely obliging her Members to their performance from their Vow in Baptism and the Benefits they receive

God 2 James 1.17 Mat. 7.7 8. who gives freely to all that importune him by Prayer and surely we have little desire of or care for our own or the Churches Peace if we pray not for it So great Mercies are worth our asking or else God may justly think us unworthy their enjoying The Prophet David resolved never to forget his Jerusalem 1 Psal 137.5 6. and wished his Tongue might cleave to the roof of his Mouth if he preferred not Jerusalem to his chief Joy And how earnest do we find him interceeding with God for it Do good unto Zion O build 2 Psal 51.18 19. up the Walls of Jerusalem But especially in Psalm 80 where he complaining of the Churches Misery and how that the Wild Boar wasted it and the wild Beasts devoured it Begs of God to return and visit his Vineyard to cause his Face to shine on his People and save them And surely this should excite our Zeal we are in as great danger environ'd with Enemies who strive to devour us and our Church like its Dear Master is nigh being Crucified between Papists and Dissenters And 't is the God of Peace that can only grant and continue ours 't is he that makes Men of one Mind in an House and who can cause our Enemies 3 Prov. 16.7 to be at peace with us or stop their Fury against us And suppose no other means were left but Prayer yet that may be prevalent with God to grant us Peace in our Days The Israelites under their Egyptian Bondage when denied the publick Worship of God and deprived of uniform and unanimous petitioning him for deliverance had their Sighs and 4 Exed 2.24.3.7 Groans heard by him and they prevailed with God to send them Moses for their Deliverer And if the Sighs or Closet Prayer of a private Christian shall 5 Mat. 6.6.7.7 be answered and where Two or Three are met together in Christs Name 6 Mat. 18.20 he promiseth their Prayers shall be heard how prevalent must the Prayers of an whole Congregation yea of all the Members of this Church of God in this Nation be When God accepted of Solomon's Temple he promised 1 2 Chron. 7.14 that in all Calamities would his People assemble there and pray he would hear them and grant their Desires Nor are we without Instances of the prevalency of of the Prayers of God's People in behalf of the Churches safety and its Enemies overthrow Moses by Prayer 2 Exod. 17 1● prevailed for the Destruction of the Amalekites and the preservation of the Israelites When Hezekiah heard of Senacherib's Blasphemy against God and his Religion and his Bloody design against his Church he by Prayer prevailed with God to destroy 3 2 King 19.2 Chron. 20.19 22 21. Senacherib's Army and preserve his Church When Jerusalem's Wall was broken down and its Inhabitants were in a very distressed condition under Artaxerxes Nehemiah prayed and God gave 4 Ne●e● 1. Chap. 2. him favour with the King so that he got an order for the redress of the City and People In a word while Daniel was praying for Jerusalems restoration 5 Dan. 9 2●.21 22 23 he had an Angel dispatched to inform him that his Prayer was heard and granted So that no Calamity or Troubles can be so great or many felt and feared by the People and Church of God but by Prayer they may prevail for Deliverance And God is the same Almighty God as ever his promises to the Christian Church as full and free as to the Jewish and therefore to remove all Troubles felt and to prevent all Miseries feared let Ministers and People from the highest to the lowest from one end of the Land to the other joyn in the performance of the Duty of the Text. Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem and the Lord grant us a gracious Answer But Prayer to God is not what alone is required of us for the Peace of Jerusalem For Verbs of Affection in the Holy Language imply Action nor can he have any earnest desires God should grant what he prays for the Peace of Jerusalem who takes not all care he can and useth his utmost endeavours to promote it And indeed the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Text is from the Radix 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is rendred by Buxtorf not only Petiit but Consuluit and the Prophet David explains it Psal 122.8 by I will seek thy Good And Jansenius in his Paraphrase on that Verse hath it Precando optavi tibi bona omni studio tibi prodesse quod in me est conatus sum Bucer comments on it thus Omnes suas quisque curas omnes cogitationes convertat quo illi omnia secundat And he adds the Reason Nam quicquid serio petimus ad id parandum quoque si quid ad hoc modo possumus totis viribus ferimur So that we must not only in observance of this Precept pray to God and that with all Importunity Zeal and Affection but with our utmost endeavours seek after consult for and labour to promote what is the subject to be prayed for and the Second part of the Text. II. Part II. of the Text. The Peace and Prosperity the Integrity and Welfare of Jerusalem as the Original Word imports but also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint hath it or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Dr. Duport translates it In the 70 some suppose * Jansen in loc an error of the Accusative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for the Genitive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 unless by way of Emphasis the Psalmist meant and the 70 would Translate it O pray for the Peace the Peace I say of Jerusalem However † Ainsworth in loc both will oblige our care and endeavour to promote those things that make for the Peace of Jerusalem of which I shall humbly offer Four 1. Vnanimity in Doctrin Thus this Jerusalem of God is stiled a City compact together Psal 122. v. 3. and the Psalms in our Common-Prayer-book as a Paraphrase on it render if a City at Vnity in it self and most agreeable to the Original if we may take Bithner's * Bithner 's Lyra Prophet i● Loc. Judgment who tells us the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 imports Consociata united in one Society unanimous and yet as if this was not enough to declare its unanimity the Original hath as it were an exegetical Word more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifying ‖ Buxtorf Lexicon ad unum simul so that God's Jerusalem or Church is a Society of People Compacted Vnited and by such an Vnanimity knit together And as the Rule of the Jewish Church for their Faith to which they adhered was the Law 1 Isa 8.20 and Testimony declining what was not agreeable to it and to this Law and Testimony the Scriptures our Saviour appealed 2 John 5.39 to prove himself to the Jews their promised Messiah