Selected quad for the lemma: sense_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
sense_n	catholic_n	church_n	universal_a	1,773	5	9.0565	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53999	Jerub-baal, or, The pleader impleaded being an answer to Mr. Croftons (lately published) plea for communion with the Church under her present corruptions, &c., entituled Reformation not separation by way of humble remonstrance thereunto : shewing, that non-communion with the Church of England in her liturgy and common-prayer, in those that (yet) joyn with her in the substantial ordinances and instituted worship of Christ, is no schism, and that such are unjustly called separatists : in a letter / written by T.P. for the private satisfaction of a friend, and by him published for common benefit.	T. P.	1662 (1662)	Wing P112; ESTC R7299	36,119	58

breach in tantum though not in totum a breach in yet 't is no interruption or breach of Vnion but rather a temporary intermission of Comfortable Communion What though the Trees of Righteousnesse have their Autumn-season their fall of the leaf the trees of the Vineyard as well as those of the Forrest There is still an Indeficient principle of life in them by vertue of their incision and ingrasture into their Common Root Christ the Tree of Life This is both defensive and offensive Armour against our Arminian Adversaries who daringly assert a Schism and Seperation here de possibilis that is that 't is possible for the truly Faithfull totally and finally to apostatize from Christ and thus of true Converts to become very Cast-awayes sad doctrine Might we receive what they obtrude for Orthodoxy verily we might betake our selves to our pen and write our faith vain all our prayers lost and our selves of all men most miserable If the foundation be destroyed what can the Righteous do But now here is the Beleevers Fort-Royal namely his Inviolable Conjunction with his Living Head Christ this is an impregnable bottom of Saint-stability groud of Christian-perseverance and guard against their total-final Apostacy Quatenus unimur munimur this Vnity is our Safety By vertue of this to speak a big word the State of grace is equally safe though not equally comfortable with the State of glory and the Spiritual State of the weakest equally safe though not equally comfortable with that of the strongest Beleever salvation being annexed to a Real Vnion with Christ which is grounded on the truth of Faith not to comfortable Communion with him which ordinarily attends the raised degrees and strength of Faith Conclude we then all the Members yea the very meanest of the Church Invisible to be in this sense Invincible Obeunt non pereunt dye they must perish they shall not cannot None of them is lost The second is that Vnion and Communion wherein all the Members of the Church Catholick-Visible the Professors of the true Religion throughout the world are by vertue of their Common Profession of One Lord One Faith Eph 4.5 One Baptisme Gospel-doctrine and worship united amongst themselves and joyntly concorporated with Christ as One Entire Body Catholick Now to apply this to our purpose 1. The Vnion that is between Christ and the Catholick visible-Visible-Church considered as a Collective Body of Professors is also un-interruptible admits of no breach She in this sense can neither by Universal Apostacy fall off nor by any Violence be broken off from her Common Head Christ True The Church hath her Moon-like waxings and weanings gradual though not substantial Changes SIONS Sun hath his Apogaeums and Perigaeums The Waters of the Sanctuary their Reciprocations they often ebb as well as flow The Churches Glory is frequently what by Intestine Corruptions and Divisions what by forreign Combinations against her and Torrents of persecution clouded and eclipsed insomuch that an ICHABOD might often seem best to become her whom yet her Lord hath dignified with this title of honour Christ-Mystical But the Light of the Church though often eclipsed was never as yet extinguished being continually renewed by the Auxiliary influences of the great Sun of Righteousnesse The Truth hath in no age wanted either Patron or Proselyte The Visible Church surely was very Consumptive when the whole Body seemed to be contracted to one Member abridged in a single Elijah that second Jerub-baal a Champion-Zealot for the Truth and yet even then were there no less than 7000 Non-Conformists in Israel 1 King 19.10.14.18 God had got their Hearts and now Baal shall not so much as have a knee Reflect we upon the Primitive Churches Sanguine Complexion under the Tyranny and ten Persecutions of the Heathenish Heroes when the whole earth was * Aug. in Psa 118. Vid. Corn. Tacit. Lib. 5. Annal. Tertul. Apolog advers Gent. purpled and scarleted with Martyr-blood when the very name of Christian was a Crime when he that professed himself a Christian dyed by a Sanguinary Law enacted to that purpose without either self-defence or conviction when thousands were dispatched being nominis tantum et sectae rei guilty of a meer name Christian When Dioclesian that Infernal Wolf having upon a Hell-devised Oracle or Prophecy viz That if the Christians were but once cut off the Roman Empire would wonderfully flourish caused no lesse than 17000 to be massacred in one moneth did most wickedly boast De delet● nomine Christiano That he had everlastingly rased out of memory and utterly abolished the very name of a Christian yet could not the sword of violence ever intersect the line of Church-Succession yea the more they were mowed down the more they multiplyed Plures efficimur quoties metimur saith that Christian-Mecaenas * Apolog. adver Geut Tertullian Againe who could have expected any to have appeared for the patronage of the Truth under the Torrid Zone of Antichristian persecution and yet behold even then hath Christ his two Witnesses Rev. 11. Two though but two though the least number yet a number though a small yet a competent number a Quorum of Witnesses by whose testimony the opposed Truth should be protected and established so impossible a thing it is that Christ should ever be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without a Witnesse Call we to mind Modern Persecutors That English Lionnesse Q. M. with her Wolf and Leopard Brethren in iniquity Bloody Charis the fifth and the Duke of Alva both which died their souls red with blood they having destroyed of Protestants the one 50000 in the Low Countries the other 18000 in Belgia in six years time the French Massacre Anno 1572. Even all the conflicts between the seed of the Woman and the seed of the Serpent since the quarrel was first begun in Paradise which hath been fiercely pursued well nigh six thousand years All that time hath God uninterruptedly maintained a continued Series and Succession of Persons notwithstanding Captivities and hostile Cruelties Patriarks Prophets and all the Old-Testament-Professors Apostles Fathers Councels Confessors Martyrs and all New-Testament-Saints in and by whom the true Religion hath been professed preserved and successively though not alwayes very successefully propagated kept by some guarded by others and through good providence transmitted by all to us Isa 53.10 'T is impossible that Christ should want a Seed a Church or that Church a Guardian and Defendor of the Faith For the Church to be Christ-lesse and for Christ to be Church-lesse are equall impossibilities The Church Militant is Christs Sublunary Kingdom which admits of no Interregna or Vacancy There is in her though not an Infallibility yet an Indeficiency Subject she is to Corruption within but not to Interruption to Obstruction from without but not to destruction She is a house built upon a Rock Mat. 16.18 and this Rock is Christ the Foundation as well as Founder of his Church therefore she must needs