Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	believe_v	church_n	pillar_n	1,678	5	10.0870	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53701	A guide to church-fellowship and order according to the gospel-institution wherein these following particulars are distinctly handled, I. The necessity of believers to joyn themselves in church-order, II. The subject matter of the church, III. The continuation of a church-state, and of the administration of evangelical ordinances of worship, briefly vindicated, IV. What sort of churches the disciples of Christ may and ought to joyn themselves unto as unto entire communion / by ... John Owen ...	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1692 (1692)	Wing O760; ESTC R38177	32,962	84

them are 1. That constant Difference be put between the Good and the Bad in all Church Administrations 2. That Persons openly or fl●gitiously wicked be not admitted into the Society of the Church or a participation of its Priviledges 3. That Holiness Love and Usefulness be openly avowed as the Design and interest of the Church But they are all so comprized in the General Head of Discipline as that I shall not in particular insist upon them From what hath been thus declared it will appear on the other hand what Church it is that a Disciple of Christ who takes due care of his own Edification and Salvation ought in duty to joyn himself unto in compleat Communion To ans●er this Enquiry is the end of all those Discourses and Controversies which have been about the Notes of the true Church I shall briefly determine concerning it according to the Principles before Evinc●d 1. IT must be such a Church as wherein all the Fundamental Truths of the Gospel are believed owned and professed without Controversie and those not born withal by whom they are denied or opposed Without this a Church is not the Ground and Pillar of Truth it doth not hold the Head it is not built on the foundation of the Prophets and Apostles Neither is it sufficient that those things are generally professed or not denied A Church that is filled with wranglings and contentions about fundamental or important Truths of the Gospel is not of choice to be joyned unto For these things subvert the Souls of Men and greatly impede their Edification And although both among distinct Churches and among the Members of the same Church mutual Forbearance be to be exercised with respect unto a variety in Apprehensions in some Doctrines of lesser Moment Yet the Incursion that hath been made into sundry Protestant Churches in the last and present Age of Novel Doctrines and Opinions with Differences Divisions and endless Disputes which have ensued thereon have rendered it very difficult to determine how to engage in compleat Communion with them For I do not judge that any man is or can be obliged unto constant total Communion with any Church or to give up himself absolutely unto the conduct thereof wherein there are incurable dissensions about important Doctrines of the Gospel And if any Church shall publickly avow countenance or approve of Doctrines contrary unto those which were the Foundation of its first Communion the Members of it are at Liberty to refrain the Communion of it and to provide otherwise for their own Edification 2. IT must be such a Church as wherein the Divine Worship Instituted or approved by Christ himself is diligently observed without any Addition made thereunto In the Observation of this Worship as unto all external occasional Incidencies and Circumstances of the Acts wherein it doth consist it is left unto the Prudence of the Church it self according to the Light of Nature and general Rules of Scripture and it must be so unless we shall suppose that the Lord Jesus Christ by making men his Disciples doth unmake them from being rational Crea●ures or refuseth the Exercise of the rational Faculties of our Souls in his service But this is so remote from Truth that on the contrary he gives them an improvement for this very end that we may know how to deport our selves aright in the Observance of his Commands as unto the outward discharge of them in his Worship and the Circumstances of it And this he doth by that Gift of Spiritual Wisdom whe●eof we shall treat afterwards But if Men if Churches will make Additions in or unto the Rites of religious Worship unto what is appointed by Christ himself and require their Observance in their Communion on the force and efficacy of their being so by them appointed no Disciple of Christ is or can be obliged by vertue of any Divine Institution or Command to joyn in total absolute Communion with any such Church He may be induced on various considerations to judge that something of that Nature at some season may not be evil and sinful unto him which therefore he will bear with or comply withal yet he is not he cannot be obliged by vertue of any Divine Rule or Command to joyn himself with or continue in the Communion of such a Church If any shall suppose that hereby too much Liberty is granted unto Believers in the choice of their Communion and shall thereon make severe Declamations about the Inconveniences and Evils which will ensue I desire they would remember the Principle I proceed upon which is that Churches are not such sacred Machines as some suppose erected and acted for the outward Interest and Advantages of any sort of men but only means of the Edification of Believers which they are bound to make use of in Obedience unto the Commands of Christ and no otherwise Whereas therefore the Disciples of Christ have not only a Divine warranty justifying them in the doing of it but an express command making it their indispensible Duty to joyn in the Celeb●ation of all that Religious Worship which the Lord Christ the only Law giver of the Church and who was faithful both in and over the House of God as the Son ●ath Instituted and commanded but have no such warranty or command for any thing else it is their Duty to stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made them free And if by the same ●reath in the same Rule Law or Canon they are commanded and obliged to observe in the Worship of God what the Lord Christ hath appointed and what he hath not appointed both on the same Grounds namely the Authority of the Church and on the s●●e Penalties of their Omission no man can be divinely obliged to embrace the Communion of any Church on such Terms 3. IT is required that the Ministry of a Church so to be joyned with is not defective in any of those things which according to the Rule of the Gospel are fundamental thereunto What these are hath been declared And because Edification which is the end of Church Communion doth so eminently depend on the Ministry of the Church there is not any thing which we ought to have a more diligent consideration of in the joyning of our selves unto any such Communion And where the Ministry of any Church be the Church of what sort or size it will is incurably Ignorant or Negligent or thro' a defect in Gifts Grace or conscientious attendance unto their Duty is insufficient unto the due Edification of the Souls of them that believe no man can account himself obliged unto the Communion of the Church but he that can be satisfied with a Shadow and the Names of things for the Substance and Reality of them If therefore it be granted as I think it is that Edification is the principal End of all Church Communion it is not intelligible how a Man should be obliged unto that Communion and that alone wherein due Edification