Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	call_v	church_n	visible_a	1,949	5	9.0907	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A73267	The dignitie of Gods children. Or An exposition of 1. Iohn 3. 1.2.3 Plentifully shewing the comfortable, happie, and most blessed state of all Gods children, and also on the contrarie, the base, fearefull, and most wofull condition of all other that are not the children of God.	Stoughton, Thomas.	1610 (1610)	STC 23315.5; ESTC S117855	406,069	519

hauing none by nature and to whom to leaue their inheritances or their Crownes yet for some considerations they will not haue this to be known But it is otherwise with God He hath so loued vs that he doth not only make vs his children but that also hee doth declare and publish and proclaime vs so to be 3 From the former reason ariseth another viz. that the Apostle vseth this phrase to teach vs that if he be not ashamed that such as we are should bee called his children then much lesse should we our selues be ashamed of this honourable title If a great king be not ashamed that the sonne of a poore begger should bee called his sonne is there any cause why the said sonne of such a poore begger should be ashamed to bee called the sonne of such a great King In like manner if God the king of kings be nor ashamed that we poore beggers brats should be called his children is there any reason why wee should bee ashamed of so honourable a title I could much amplify this point But for further amplification therof I do only wish that if any for feare of the disgrace of the world to be spoken of in the obiection following be ashamed to call himselfe the child of God and to carry himselfe accordingly such an one do wel remember what our Sauiour saith of them that are ashamed of him of his words before such an adulterous sinfull generation viz. as this last age of the world is where in we now liue to wit that he also will be ashamed of him when he shall come in the glory of his Father with the holy Angels Mark 8. 38. For certainely in like manner will God the Father bee ashamed of all such and wil vtterly deny them to be his children in the world to come that were ashamed to bee called his children and to liue as his children in this life Yea this is the more certaine because there is infinitely more cause why God should bee ashamed of vs then why wee should be ashamed of him Thus much of the seuenth particular word in this text The eighth word is the children of God Some read the sonnes of God but the originall is the children of God comprehending sonnes and daughters men and women and so the same word is vsed Iohn 1. 12. and 11. 52. and Rom. 8. 16. 17. and in many other places This is to be obserued for the comfort as well of women as of men and for the instruction as afterward wee shall heare of one sex as well as of the other And therefore the Apostle allegeth the words of the Prophet in the name of God himselfe speaking in this manner I will be a Father vnto you and ye shall be my sonnes and daughters saith the Lord Almightie 2. Cor. 6. 18. Heere wee see expresse mention as well of daughters as of sonnes This is to be the rather noted because some in the brauery of their wit or rather in the rage of their madnesse doe not sticke to deny women to haue any part in the matters of saluation although the Scripture doe both expreslie say that there is no exception of male or female with God but that all are one in Christ Iesus Galat. 3. 28. and although it doe also record vnto vs example as well of beleeuing women as of beleeuing men But what doth the Apostle heere meane by children For the vnderstanding of this besides diuers other waies how men may be and are called the children of God let vs know that in a more strict sense this title the children of God is taken two waies First for all the members of the visible Church so long as they continue such members and that because of the outward couenant of God made with the whole body of the visible Church In this sense it is said The sonnes of God saw the daughters of men that they were faire c. Genes 6. 2. Heere the sonnes of God doe signifie such as professed themselues the sonnes of God and so were of the visible Church In the same sense also our Sauiour himselfe calleth the Iewes euen in his time generally by the name of children saying It is not meet to take the childrens bread and to cast it to ●helpes Matt. 15. 26. Secondly this title the children of God is taken for them that haue receiued the spirit of adoption and that are regenerated by the immortall seed of the spirit and by the word of God So it is taken in the place before alleged Rom. 8. 16. 17. and often elsewhere and so only not in the former sense is it taken in this place For the Apostle speaketh of them that worke righteously and are borne of God as wee haue heard in the end of the former chapter and of them that know that when Christ shall appeare they shall be like him as appeareth in the next verse But none worke righteously c. neither doe any know they sha●l be like vnto Christ at his appearing but onely they that are by the spirit of God regenerated and therefore the Apostle speaketh o●ly of such in this place To speake a little more of adoption and regeneration for Note the making thereof the plainer and more perspicuous wee must vnderstand that the adoption of God differeth much from the adoption of men For the ciuill Lawyers that write of 〈◊〉 say that adoption must be of the yoonger by the 〈◊〉 that he that adopteth a childe must bee elder then the person adopted neither doe they onely distingui●h thus betwixt adoption and arrogation that arrogation is the taking of one to bee a childe which is already of age and at libertie and as we say at his owne hand and his owne man but adoption is of one vnder age and of one that is in tuition gouernment and gardianship of another the ciuill Lawyers I say doe not onely write thus of adoption but they also say that adoption properly is when one that hath no children of his owne doth adopt the childe of some other to be called by his name or at least to be brought vp by him and to bee his heire God doth not so adopt vs for hee hath a Sonne of his owne yea more properly his owne then any man can say of any childe in the world because Christ is the proper Sonne of God from euerlasting by communication as wee haue heard of the whole essence of his Father vnto him But the children of men are their children long after them and therefore they are yoonger then their fathers They are also children by taking some part of their parents nature and that of their bodily substance only for their soules are immediately from God who therefore by opposition to the fathers of our bodies is called the Father of spirits Heb. 12. 9. and is said to forme the spirit of man Zechar. 12. 1. As for the great obiection that doth most trouble men viz. if Note God

of a kingdom furnished with the knowledge of all former lawes of the same kingdom and well instructed likewise in the word of God doe meet together to make new lawes for that kingdome yet after consultation one with another and after many daies conferring their readings and iudgements one with another the lawes that they make will not be so perfect but that either something might haue been added or something might haue been left out But the word of God is so absolute and complete that as nothing therein is superfluous so nothing is wanting vnto it What a singular priuledge then haue the children of God that haue the benefit of this law To lay forth the perfection of Gods word yet a little more fully and to make the same somwhat more euideut let vs vnderstand it to be so perfect for matters of faith and knowledge vnto saluation that whatsoeuer is not agreeable thereunto is to be held as erroneous Touching manners life and conuersation it teacheth all duties to God and men euen to all sorts of men superiors inferiors equals friends and foes and in euery state and condition viz. what to doe for them or to them in sicknesse or health in pouerty or wealth in liberty or in prison being ioyfull or mourning dwelling far off or nigh vnto vs being of the same nation or of another kinsfolk or strangers friends or aduersaries within our family or without widowes or fatherlesse or in any other state whatsoeuer As it directeth vs how to carry ourselues towards al of what condition soeuer and in what state soeuer they be so it prescribeth our behauiour at all times and in all places in the day and in the night when we eat when we drink when we labour when we rest when we walke when we lye when wee sleepe in the winter and in the summer publikely and priuately at home and abroad in our secret chambers and when wee are with company in the time of peace and in the time of warre It hath rules likewise for our selues in respect of our selues what to do in prosperity in aduersitie when wee are children when we are men and when we are old touching meate drinke apparell sleepe and the vse of all other things indifferent or not indifferent for this life and for the life to come Whereas also the lawes of men reach only to the outward man to restrain the same from euill and to bind it to the performance of good the lawes of God are giuen for the gouernment not onely of the outward man but also of the inward not onely of the body but also of the soule euen of our mind vnderstanding memorie thoughts and all affections There is likewise no member of the body but that in the word of God there is direction for it for the eye to see for the eare to heare for the nostrell to smell c. But of these things before in Chap. 11. where for further sight of these things I referred the learned reader to the Treatise of Otho Casmannus in his anatomy of a spirituall man By these things thus pointed at touching the perfection of the word of God we may the better see the priuiledge of the children of God to bee such by the word of God that they need neuer to bee to seeke further for direction in anything concerning saluation then only to the word This briefly shall suffice for the perfection of the word of God Touching the perpetuity of the word it is testified in many places of the Scripture The feare of the Lord that is the word which teacheth and worketh the feare of the Lord is cleane and endureth for euer Psal 19. 9. and againe O Lord thy word endureth for euer in the heauens Psal 119. 89. Another prophet saith The grasse withereth and the flower fadeth but the word of God shall stand for euer Isai 40. 8. Our Sauiour saith Heauen and earth shall passe away but my words shall not passe Mat. 24. 35. Luk. 16. 17. Luk 21. 33. This is manifest by experience For whereas the word of God hath continually had both more aduersaries in number as also greater for power as some Emperors and for malice as the hereticks especially the Papists then all other bookes whatsoeuer the one sort of such enimies seeking vtterly to extinguish the word and the other endeauouring to corrupt the very text it selfe yet al other writings haue beene mangled and some bookes haue vtterly perished but the Lord hath alwaies preserued the Scriptures from destruction on the one side and from corruption on the other side As the souldiers that brake the bones of the two theeues that were crucified with our Sauiour had no power for all that to breake any bones of our Sauiour himselfe so they that haue either consumed or corrupted other bookes haue neuer had the power either to destroy or corrupt the scripture touching the originall text thereof The Lord hath alwaies most mightily preserued some copies both inuiolate and also vndefiled Yea the papists that at their pleasure haue mangled clipt defaced and corrupted all the writings and bookes of the ancient fathers taking out of them what they haue thought in them preiudiciall to their damnable heresies as appeareth in Index expurgatorius their dealing in that behalfe may be called Ignis expurgatorius haue notwithstanding neuer had power to laye such violent hand vpon the originall text of the Scripture This perpetuity of the Scripture is not onely to be vnderstood of the very letter and word thereof but also of the sense and meaning Euery sentence of the scripture is not onely the same in letters and words that was at the first but also in sense Note and meaning No scripture no sentence of scripture hath any other meaning now then it had at the first giuing thereof by inspiration from God As God himselfe is immutable so likewise the will of God reuealed in his word is vnchangeable Therefore the word is one of the two immutable things wherby we may haue strong consolation Heb. 6. 16. As no man may adde any thing to the words themselues nor take ought from them so no man may alter or change any thing touching the sense meaning of them The letters and words of the scriptures are but as the bodie thereof the sense and meaning are as the life and soule of it If therefore no man may encrease or diminish any thing of the former much lesse may any alter or change any thing in the latter The Lord that hath forbidden the maiming of a man in any limme hath much more forbidden the hurt of him in his life The like is to be sayd of the word of God This then is a great difference of the word of God from the lawes of men For though the lawes of men doe remaine the same touching the letter of them yet oft times the sense and meaning of them is changed as times and Iudges are chāged And therefore it is a