Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	earth_n	heaven_n	holy_a	7,009	5	4.7805	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59819	A discourse concerning the nature, unity, and communion of the Catholick Church wherein most of the controversies relating to the church are briefly and plainly stated / by William Sherlock.	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1688 (1688)	Wing S3291; ESTC R25626	35,974	70

but kept them in the state of Catechumens a great while till they were instructed in the Principles of Christian Faith and had given proof of a holy and vertuous life which is to expect that men should become new creatures before they are born again that they should walk in the Spirit before they have received the Spirit in Baptism that they should bring forth Fruit before they are implanted into this Spiritual Vine Now if Men who have lived very wicked Lives may be admitted to Baptism upon their profession of Faith and Repentance that in this Laver of Regeneration they may wash away all their Sins and become new creatures and receive the Spirit of Grace and Sanctification to reform their Lives this shews that the very Constitution of the Church on Earth is such that there may be very bad Men in it unless all who are baptized should infallibly prove good Men For bad Men who profess the Faith of Christ and Repentance of their Sins have a right to Baptism where they must receive Grace to mortifie and subdue their Lusts and renew their Natures and yet if after Baptism they resist the Grace and Spirit of God they will continue bad Men still and this the Ministers of the Church can never know whether they will or not Nay the Gospel-Covenant admits the Children of Christian-Parents to Baptism and it is impossible to know how those who are baptized in their Infancy will prove when they are Men and yet these are all Members of the Church and the Mystical Body of Christ at least till they are cut off by the Censures of the Church and there is no inconvenience in this if the Governours of the Church were but so strict in their Discipline as to prevent all Publick Scandals for since the Church on Earth is the School and Nursery of Vertue where bad Men may be reformed and become Saints since Christ is that Spiritual Vine from whom alone we can receive the communications of a Divine Life it is very fitting that all believers should be received into the Church and incorporated into Christ's Body for it cannot be known whether they will prove good or bad Men fruitful or barren Branches till they partake of the sap and fatness of the Root till they receive such communications of Grace as my renew them into a Divine Nature And therefore to say that none but real Saints are Members of the Church on Earth is to make no difference between a School of Tryal Exercise and Discipline and the state of perfect and consummate Souls between a state of Warfare where the Victory is doubtful and the triumphant company of Conquerors between those who run in a Race and those who have won the Prize for such a difference there is between the state of the Church on Earth and in Heaven We cannot run this Spiritual Race unless we be in the Church for there is no Prize no Crown to run for out of it And therefore those who lose as well as those who win the Prize must be in the Church and Members of it They are all in the same Covenant that if they overcome they shall receive the Crown good men conquer in this World and triumph in Heaven bad men are conquered and they lose their Crown and this makes the separation and difference between the Church in Heaven and Earth in Heaven there are none but those who have conquered on Earth all who run in the same Race and are engaged in the same Warfare are mixt together in the same Body and Society those who conquer and those who are conquered are of the same Company on Earth but none but Conquerors are crowned in Heaven Thus I have shewed wherein the Unity of the Church consists that the whole Church both in Heaven and Earth are united to Christ in the same Covenant which makes it his One Mystical Body and it was necessary to lay the foundation here for without this it is impossible to understand what the Unity of the Church on Earth means most of the mistakes in this matter being plainly owing to that first and fundamental mistake about the true Notion of Catholick Unity as that includes the Unity of the Universal Church part of which is translated to Heaven and part still militant on Earth Those who have been aware of this that the Church in Heaven and Earth is but one Church have hence concluded that the Catholick Church is only the number of the Elect that none but truly good men who are renewed and sanctified by the holy Spirit are Members of Christ's mystical Body which makes the Church on Earth as invisible to us as the Church in Heaven Others when they talk of the Unity of the Church never think of the Church in Heaven and therefore advance such a Notion of Church-unity as excludes the Church in Heaven as if the Church on Earth were the whole Church of Christ or that the Church in Heaven and Earth were not one Church or that the Notion of Church-unity must not relate to the whole Church but only to one part of it Thus as I observed before the Romanists do who place the Unity of the Church in its Union and Subjection to the Bishop of Rome which can concern only that part of the Church which is on Earth for the Church in Heaven is not under his government Others considering that the Unity of the Church consists in the Union of all the parts and members of it to Christ have no regard at all to the Unity of the Church on Earth as that also is one Body and Communion and therefore it will be time now to apply this Notion of Church-unity to the Unity of the Church on Earth CHAP. II. Concerning the Vnity of the Catholick Church on Earth IF the whole Church be one to be sure every part of it must be one with the whole and therefore one with it self with that same kind of Unity which belongs to the whole So that the Essential Unity of the Church on Earth that which makes a Church and makes it one is that all true Churches are Members of the One mystical Body of Christ as being all united to him as to their Head by the same Covenant So that whatever makes a Church a true Church makes it a Member of the One Catholick Church or of the One Body of Christ. And here comes in what the Apostle makes essential to this One Body One Lord One Faith One Baptism 4 Eph. 5. which signifies what I said before being united to Christ in the same Covenant For Christ is the One Lord to whom we are united the One Faith is the condition of this Covenant and the One Baptism is the faederal Rite of it or the Sacrament of our Union to Christ. Where this is not there is no Church and where this is there is but one Church how many particular Churches or distinct Communions soever this Church is divided into From whence