Selected quad for the lemma: state_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
state_n	church_n	invisible_a	visible_a	1,968	5	9.3548	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43057	A discourse about the charge of novelty upon the reformed Church of England made by the papists asking of us the question, Where was our religion before Luther?	Hascard, Gregory.	1683 (1683)	Wing H1110; ESTC R13685	23,223	39

the late inventions of the Romish Bishop and is known to be the Spouse of Christ by her first Features and Complexion though She hath cast off the new Italian dress For was the Christian Church the House of God Irregular in its building wanting of Beams and Pillars the Essentials of Religion till Romes curious and careful builder cast it into a new model and compleated it 2. This Question supposeth that the Christian Church ought always to be Visible which is not so strictly true For Visible or Invisible make not two Churches but different States Conditions or Respects of one and the same 'T was designed by Christ that all that are Baptiz'd into the Communion of his Faith and Church should make an Outward and Visible Profession of it by their Religious Assemblies and Worship by their Sacraments Discipline and Government whereby being United among themselves and to Christ their Head they should Constitute one Body call'd the Catholick-Church in whose Communion they must Live and Dye But so it came to pass that the number of Christian People so professing and owning the Faith of Jesus was lesser or greater more conspicuous or obscure as Persecutions or Heresies grew and prevail'd among them which like raging Plagues wasted whole Countries destroying some perverting others and making many Fly into remoter Kingdoms and only some Scattered and Solitary Christians living in Caves and Wildernesses remain'd behind or only the Face of a distressed Christian Church as it hapned to the seven Asian and the African Churches which now labour under a Mahometan Pride and Superstition But as it lost in one Country it gain'd in another the Jewish Presecution and others driving several Colonies of Christians into remoter Countries where they spread and enlarged their Religion and many times the distress or triumph of the Church follow'd the changes and revolutions in the Civil State suffering or flourishing with it And often the abuse of Religion Prostituting of it to Hypocrisy and secular ends the Wicked lives of its Disciples or want of courage or resolution in its defence hath tempted Providence to permit pestilent Heresies worse then that in these Northen parts to prevail and Paganism to return again But still the promise of Christ to his Church was firm and the Gates of Hell did not prevail against her And though she was forc't sometimes to Travail from Country to Country and lookt small and obscure in the number of her followers yet still some or other parts and corners of the World and True and Zealous Christians in them made up the little flock and shall never fail while the World endures Popery like the Egyptian darkness had overspread this and other Nations yet here and there was an Israelite that had light in his dwellings and a countercharm against the enchantments of Egypt the Gospel that at length did prevail against corruptions and made its followers Visible and Numerous They ask us where was our Religion before Luther As though it was not because it did not Visibly appear or no where in the World because not here in England or in other parts where Popery did domineer and the Romish Faction was all and whole Christianity in the World the Catholick-Church which implies contradiction and absurdity Christianity here indeed was obscur'd and like the Sun under the cloud but still the Sun was the same and at length conquer'd the mists 't is a fine Question to ask Where was the Sun before Noon day We will suppose her followers to be few yet Christ is True though others are Lyars for he never promist that the Members of the True Catholick-Church should be always famous for their numbers or that multitudes should always follow Truth nor ever directed Men to follow the multitude in search of Truth which is found otherways not by Votes and Polling for her Did not our Saviour ask the Question when he should come again whether at the Destruction of Jerusalem or at the Judgment day whereof the other was a Type and Prefiguration whether he should find Faith on Earth or no did not the Prophet sadly complain in the Reigns of Jotham Ahaz and Hezekiah Kings of Judah that the good Man is perished out of the Land and there is none Righteous among Men they could not then reckon up of the Tribe of Judah twelve thousand and yet there was True Faith and a Church of God though little and obscure Doth not King David cry out Help Lord for the Godly Man ceaseth for the Faithful fail from among the Children of Men corruption in Faith and manners usually going together And Elijah tells a sad Story of the Children of Israel that they had broken their Covenant and destroy'd the Altars and the Prophets and he only was left alive that they sought his life also God tells him that yet for all that he had seven thousand Knees that had not bowed to Baal still there was a small Church not infected with Idolatry though obscure and unknown to Elijah Have not some of the Romish Writers told us that at Christ Passion the Church was only left in the Virgin Mary all them forsaking Christ but the Holy Mother The Shepherd was Smitten and the Sheep disperst And they further confess that in the times of Antichrist there shall be neither Pope Monk nor Mass if this be all that Monster is not so Terrible as he is Painted and their Annalists complain of such sad things as these in the tenth Century And certainly they have read of the Woman in the Wilderness and the Witnesses Slain and of Hay and Stubble covering the Foundation which describe the deplorable condition of the Christian Church and Fopperies Niceties and Inventions of Men obscuring the Essentials of the Christian Faith Should a revolt happen which God divert from the reformed Church of England to Romanism again might not others ask them the same Question where was your Religion before eighty three or eighty four before such a time Would they not Answer at Rome and in England also only kept under and obscur'd by Hereticks and Tyrannical Princes Ours was also here lockt up in Bibles own'd by some numbers desire'd by more only frighted from a Visible profession of it by the torments that did attend it And Christianity though not so Visible yet was purer when it and its professors dwelt in Rocks and Mountains and Dens places of privacy and obscurity in the Reigns of Nero and Dioclesian then when some Kings were its Nursing Fathers and Queens its Nursing Mothers and took possession of the seven Hills And there was a True Church of God though overlay'd and groaning under Arrianism as before Persecution and in Cyprians time as ours once under the Popish Yoke And the Truth of Christianity like the Truth and Essence of other things depends not upon splendid entertainment or Judgment of others nor the Church upon the Visible number of its Members but it may be a