Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	christian_a	church_n	communion_n	1,593	5	9.3126	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23668	A perswasive to peace & unity among Christians, notwithstanding their different apprehensions in lesser things	Allen, William, d. 1686.	1672 (1672)	Wing A1068; ESTC R38421	62,276	166

have been such when they say to the Saints in such and such a place This is not denyed but the Question is upon what account they were esteemed visible Saints and were so styled As whether it were 1. Because there were such special positive signs of saving grace besides their common profession of Christianity visible in all the Members of those Churches as that there was just cause they should be stiled Saints upon that account Or 2. Whether the whole were not denominated from the better part Or 3. Whether it was not because they were all Saints by an outward Calling and Profession 1. It is no wayes probable they had all such positive signs of saving Sanctity upon them as that they were all stiled Saints upon that account Sure it was not for this cause that St. Paul stiled those of the Church at Corinth Saints 1 Cor. 1.2 2 Cor. 1.1 When at the same time he saith there was such Fornication among them as was not so much as named among the Heathen Chap. 5.1 that there were some of them that with Conscience of the Idol did eat of the Sacrifice offered to it Chap. 8.7 that at the Lord's Supper some were hungry and some drunk for which with other profanations of it many of them had been visited with sickness and Death Chap. 11. that some among them had not the knowledge of God and did deny the Resurrection Chap. 15. that he feared that when he should come among them he should not find them such as he would but that he should find debates envyings wraths strifes back bitings whisperings swellings tumults among them and some that had not repented of the uncleanness and Fornication and lasciviousness which they had committed 2 Cor. 12.20 21. These things according to St. Paul's account in Gal. 5.19 20 21. were rather signs of such as shall not inherit the Kingdome of God then of saving grace I doubt those who plead the primitive patern for admitting none into their separate Churches but who are under positive signs of saving grace would be unwilling to receive such for visible Saints as here we have found among those to whom St. Paul writes as to Saints But if Persons under such Characters as aforesaid passed with St. Paul for visible Saints upon one account or other how comes it to pass that those of our Parishes that make the same profession as the Church of Corinth did will not pass for visible Saints too upon the same account be it what it will Is it because they are under worse Characters then those already mentioned I trow not but rather because they are partial that stick at it 2. If they will say they were all denominated Saints from the better part among them in the Church of Corinth and other Churches then why may not our parochial Congregations be so too Unless they will say there is none good among them and prove what they say which to be sure they can never do if they had hearts to attempt it But this cannot be the reason why they are called Saints because these two phrases the Church of God which is at Corinth and the Sanctified in Christ Jesus are of equal latitude and extent and both refer to all the same persons as appears by the words themselves which are these Unto the Church of God which is at Corinth to them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus called to be Saints the latter words being exegetical of the former 1 Cor. 1.2 3. If they were styled Saints upon account of their external Calling by which they were separated from the Pagan and Infidel World and Worship unto a professed belief in and obedience to the Father Son and Holy Ghost into which they had been Baptized then our parochial Congregations consist of visible Saints too as well as those For they have been Baptized into the same Faith and continue to profess it And by that profession are separated from the Infidel and Pagan World So that let our Opponents in this point take it in which sense they will yet they will never be able to prove but that our Parochical Congregations are visible Saints upon the same account and in the same sense in which those of the Church of Corinth were stiled Saints And it is most probable that the primitive Churches were stiled Saints upon this last mentioned account of an outward calling and profession of Christianity Saints with them signified but the same thing as Christians now doth with us and was the common appellation by which the professors of Christianity were distinguished from others then as Christian is now Where they were once called Christians then they were twenty times called Saints if we may estimate their usage by what is recorded For we have the appellation Saints above threescore times in the New Testament and that of Christian but thrice as I take it They were called Saints as it is Rom. 1.7 1 Cor. 1.2 For the two words to be are added by the Translators in both places You will never find I suppose the appellation Saints applyed to the sincere in opposition to the unsincere of the Church as by Custome now they are but alwayes in opposition to those that were not at all of the Church or which made no profession of Christianity at all It was I take it in this sense by virtue of an outward Calling and Profession that those were said to be Sanctified by the blood of the Covenant who yet by Apostacy trod under foot the Son of God and counted that Blood an unholy thing Heb. 10.29 All that were outwardly called so far as to profess Christianity were called to be Saints Saints by Calling Our Saviour hath told us over and over that many are called and but few are chosen it s well if there be not abundantly more nominal then real Saints The whole Body of the People of the Jews by virtue of an external Calling to Worship the true God and to receive and observe his Law were called Saints and a Holy People unto the Lord Deut. 33.2 3. and 7.6 And a Congregation of such are called a Congregation of Saints and Assemblies of such Assemblies of Saints Psal 89.5.7 and 149.1 And yet we know what sorry Saints many of them appeared to be And St. Paul seems to reckon the Church of Corinth and other Churches to consist of somewhat alike mixture as that of the Jews of old did when he told them that they were Types of us upon whom the ends of the World are come and admonished them by God's sore displeasure expressed against most of them And would by no means have them ignorant or unmindful of one thing and that was that those with whom God was not well pleased but overthrew them in the Wilderness were of God's Church and enjoyed special priviledges as well as they themselves which priviledges he expresseth in terms more appropriate to their present Christian state when he saith they were all Baptized unto Moses and

did all eat the same Spiritual meat and drank the same Spiritual drink By whose example he would have them take warning and not be flattered into a good opinion of themselves meerly upon account of their Baptism and holding Communion with the Church in Holy Administrations and being numbred among the Saints or Christians 1 Cor. 10. And truly they seem to be much more in danger of being betrayed into such a self-flattery who are not admitted to Church-fellowship upon their Christian profession unless besides that they can give such a satisfactory account to the Church of their conversion after they have been first received into the Church Catholique by Baptism in which there may be great mistake in them that so receive them And therefore the New-England Ministers in their Answer to Mr. Davenport's Apologetical Preface p. 43 44. say thus Indeed when Men confound these two and do tye visible Church-Member-ship unto such Conditions and qualifications as are reputed enough to Salvation this may tend to harden Men and to make them conceit that if once they be got into the Church they are sure of Heaven whenas alas it may be they are far from it But in all this there is nothing against the great usefulness and defirableness of Discipline in the Church for the Cure or Excommunication of the notoriously scandalous But yet a neglect of this in them to whom it belongs is no sufficient ground of separation from that Church where it is so neglected For though Discipline be necessary for the better being of the Church yet it is not of the Essence of the Church it doth not cease to be a true Church for want of it And the neglect of it in a Church is so far from being a reason why the better part in such a Church should separate from the worse as that it is indeed a reason against it why they should not Because where publick Discipline is wanting there is the more need of private application to delinquent Members which separation takes Men off from or at best puts them under a great disadvantage of doing that good among them thereby which otherwise they might Such a separation rather puts those separated from under a temptation of Making a party against them as is frequently seen and the division made and heightened thus on both sides tends more to weaken the Christian Interest in the main then all the exercise of Discipline in separate Congregations tends to promote it It s true if Christians were to mind only the pleasing of themselves it would be a pleasant thing for the good indeed to converse and hold Communion with such only as themselves But it will turn to a better account at last if by denying their inclination in this they help and bring on a worser sort and gain their Master ten Talent There should be more abundant honour given to that part which lacketh that there may be no Schism in the Body 1 Cor. 12.24 Our Saviour himself was chiefly for the bringing home of straying Sheep and as a Physitian to be among the sick rather then the whole Not because he loved them better but because they had more need and because he could thereby be more serviceable as to the main end of his coming into the World He came not to call the Righteous but sinners to Repentance to minister and not to be ministred to And to be this way employed seems to be more acceptable to God then to have to do only with the Righteous There is joy in Heaven over one sinner that repenteth more then over ninety and nine just Persons which need no Repentance And thus much I think may suffice to shew how unlikely yea how impossible it is to prove that the mixture of the bad with the good in the Parishes makes Communion with them unlawful 3. They cannot prove the constitution of parochial Congregations to be bad upon account of that distribution by which the whole Nation is divided into parts into so many Parishes which they are wont to call humane institution For first they are of the same institution in the main as those were which were planted by the Apostles themselves For from what were those called Churches but from the Christians usual Assembling together for Communion in Gospel-Ordinances The Greek word Translated Church properly signifying an Assembly And if the Parishioners in a Parish do usually Assemble together upon the same account are not those Gospel-Churches as well as the other and of the same institution Secondly for the Christians that live within the same Precincts or Parish-bounds to Assemble together for Communion in Gospel-Ordinances and so to be of the same particular Church and not of another is a thing which best answers the ends of particular Church-ship and the primitive patern For vicinity of Neighbour-hood and cohabitation which generally are not to be had so well in any other way as in that of parochial distribution do best accommodate those in Church-Relation with the knowledge of each others Condition and Conversation and with opportunity and advantage to watch over confer with and to admonish exhort and comfort one another and to Assemble together for publick Worship which are the ends of particular Church-association And accordingly the primitive Christians which lived together within the same civil bounds of Cities and Towns as of Corinth Cenchrea c. were constantly of the same Church and as such were still denominated by the places where they did reside And if some such distribution of the Christians in a Nation into several particular Worshipping Congregations as is now made by humane Authority is necessary of it self in reference to the Church-Association though no humane Authority had required it then certainly the command of humane Authority that it should be so cannot make it unnecessary much less unlawful 4. They cannot prove the Worship now used in our parochial Assemblies to be such as may not lawfully be joyned in The Lawfulness of Communion in the Worship of the English Lyturgy is the thing in question And if they cannot prove Communion in it unlawful neither 1. Because it is a set Form nor 2. Because it is such a set Form as it is nor 3. Because it is imposed then I shall take it for granted they cannot prove it unlawful any other way And whether ever they are like to prove Communion in that Worship unlawful upon any of those accounts consider what I have to offer and then judge 1. They cannot prove Communion in that Worship unlawful upon account of its being a set Form because they cannot prove all set Forms of Worship fotbidden We have Prayer several times commanded in Scripture but no where determined that it shall be extemporary that ever I could learn And therefore if the want of an express precept for praying in a set Form made praying in a set Form unlawful the same thing would make extemporary prayer unlawful too When God hath in Scripture plainly