Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
truth_n	church_n	true_a	visible_a	8,046	5	9.4741	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56123	Truth unvail'd by scripture-light In three parts. Written for the sake of those that desire to behold it in its native beauty. To which is added, an appendix, which the author desires to leave as a legacy to his children. By a despised follower of the blessed Jesus, Robert Prudom.	Prudom, Robert.	1699 (1699)	Wing P3883; ESTC R218355	94,157	208

which he plants is his affording the People of the Jews the Privilege of having his Worship set up amongst them and hedged it round about for distinction to shew that it was a Favour granted only to that People for the rest of the Nations had not that Privilege granted to them and digged a Wine-press in it that is appointed such Ordinances as were the instrumental Means in the hand of the holy Spirit to bring the Elect that were amongst them into Communion with God built a Tower that is the glorious Temple and let it out to Husbandmen and went into a far Country that is gave forth a Grant with an Entail that they should enjoy it for many Generations until the ruining of their Church and State for their grievous Sin in crucifying the Lord Jesus Christ Ver. 38 39 40 and 43. Therefore say I unto you The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof By the Kingdom of God he means his Worship which is the instrumental Means to fit for the Kingdom of Heaven The Old Testament Church-state being ended that which secures the continuance of the New Testament Worship amongst any People is the improving of it to God's Glory and the good of their immortal Souls God's removing of his Worship from Asia into Europe from one Nation of Europe to another from one City to another is a sufficient Evidence to us upon what terms his Worship is continued amongst us When the Churches in Asia were threatned with a Dissolution no mention of a Covenant made with their believing Fathers or their being saved by their Parents Faith Rev. 2.5 Remember from whence thou art fallen and repent and do thy first Works or else I will come unto thee quickly and will remove thy Candlestick out of its place except thou repent So that it is plain that it is not by any Right descending from believing Parents to Children that they are admitted Members of the New Testament Church or have the Worship of it continued amongst them I do foresee that this will go to the quick with a great many Persons whose Cries are if the Children of believing Parents be not admitted to be Members of the New Testament Church you make their State and Condition to be worse under the New Testament than under the Old To which I answer that I do not straiten the Privileges of Believers Children for I shew'd before that Salvation doth not wholly depend upon Church-Membership or upon the admittance to outward Ordinances for many of God's Children were saved who were not admitted to be Members of a visible Church yet I do still own it is a great Privilege where it hath its Warrant from the Word of God for then they may expect his Blessing upon it to answer the end for which he appoints it Some Persons do say that believing Parents Children are not admitted to Membership into a visible Church but God with the believing Parent doth take their Infant-seed into the Covenant of Grace But they do not consider that Infants admittance to the Ordinance was by virtue of a right of Membership as Members of the visible Church under the Old Testament That Believers Childrens Privilege is better than theirs that are Unbelievers doth appear in this that those of them that die in Infancy have the Prayers of their believing Parents put up for them in the Name of him through whom rich Grace hath been extended unto them and I think a Heart drawn out to wrestle with God by the believing Parent on behalf of a dying Infant and a Heart enabled to leave the dying Infant to the rich Grace of God which flows through the undertaking of the blessed Jesus will yield a more abiding Comfort to the Parent than a pretended federal Holiness will afford them the Parent many times at the same time being under the sense of inward Corruption And as to these Children of believing Parents that are grown to years of Understanding and are not as yet admitted to be Members of the visible Church if the Parent be found in the discharge of his or their Duty to them they will in Truth and Faithfulness lay before them what is required to their orderly admittance and will seek to the Lord for them that they may enter in at the right Door for the Heart comes not to the Enjoyment of God neither to receive Comfort from Ordinances but as it first is brought into a right frame and hath its Warrant from the Word of God that it is in the way of his Appointments the Worship must be in Spirit and in Truth Secondly A second Reason why the New Testament doth require a Work of true Conversion upon the Heart as that which qualifies or fits a Person to be a Member of the visible Church is because without it the Duties required from one Member to another cannot be discharged as they are concerned in one and the same Interest on the behalf of the Lord Jesus Christ so there is a holy Watchfulness required over one another in order to the faithful discharge of these Duties which their Lord requires of them And saith the Apostle if one Member suffer all the Members suffer with it or one Member be honoured all the Members rejoice with it Where a Church is imbodied together according to the order of the New Testament our Lord hath left us an excellent Rule to walk by that so these things that may tend to bring Dishonour upon the Church may be stopt when they first begin to break forth or otherwise that things may be managed in such a way as that the Church may free themselves of the Offender Mat. 18.15 16 17. Moreover if thy Brother shall trespass against thee go tell him his fault betwixt thee and him alone if he shall hear thee thou hast gained thy Brother But if he will not hear thee then take with thee one or two more that in the mouth of two or three Witnesses every word may be established But if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as an Heathen Man and a Publican If thy Brother do thee any wrong or else sin against God and thou be privy to it for that Sin may be said to be against us which is against God in respect of that common Interest that such Persons are engaged mutually in If a sinning Member have his Sin laid before him by that fellow Member that is privy to it and he bear to be told of his fault so as to be brought to an acknowledgment of it before the Lord and to repent of it and return from it then that Member is gained but if he be stubborn let him be again admonished before Witnesses not one only but two or three Witnesses that so it may appear that means are made use of for the reclaiming of the Offender But if

Soul can have no real Satisfaction that it is called of God to the work of the Ministry of the Gospel because there wants a Union by Faith with the Lord Jesus Christ from whence fresh Supplies should be drawn for the discharging of that great Work besides there wants the knowledg of the worth of poor Souls accompanied with yerning of the Bowels after their eternal good But Learning being put under the Qualification of which I have been speaking and brought to be a Servant to it is to be prised as a very choice Jewel Yet so greatly are Christians degenerated from the Power of Christianity that Learning is made the main thing in this day and their Hearts are taken up more with the curiousness of the Stile of the Minister than with a serious search about the matter delivered and so their Faith stands in the Wisdom of Man and not in the Power of God Having shewed that the extraordinary and the ordinary Qualification to dispense the Gospel with the holy Spirit 's accompanying of it as the instrumental means to gather the Elect out of the World unto God do depend upon the Intercession of the Lord Jesus Christ as being their Head and Mediator I proceed in the second place to shew that the keeping of them in the way of Salvation until they be brought to the Manisions of eternal Rest is committed to him and dependeth on him And under this Head I shall endeavour to shew the nature of that Work which the holy Spirit carries on in the Hearts of the Saints In shewing that the keeping the Saints in the way of Salvation until they be brought to the Mansions of eternal Rest doth depend upon the Lord Jesus Christ I shall consider the Power with which he is invested as the Church's Head his Prevalency with his Father for them and his unlimited Power over all the Church's Enemies for the Church's good Acts 2.36 Therefore let all the House of Israel know assuredly that God hath made that same Jesus whom ye have crucified both Lord and Christ The Father hath given him to the Elect to be unto them Christ a Saviour that by feeding upon his Person by Faith they should find that comprehended in him which should be sufficient to keep them for ever in the Love and Favour of God and a Lord to them as having an unlimited Power vested in him Mat. 28.18 And Jesus came and spake unto them saying All Power is given unto me in Heaven and in Earth Compared with Ephes 1.22 23. And hath put all things under his feet and gave him to be the Head over all things to the Church which is his Body by Church here is meant the whole Body of the Elect. For the good of these he is set over the holy Angels that they might be imploy'd by him for their good Heb. 1.14 Are they not all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be Heirs of Salvation And gave him to be Head over all things to the Church not Head unto all things Neither Satan nor his Instruments have any benefit by this unlimited Power that the Father hath invested him withal but the Elect only yet his Power is of so large extent as to overturn all the Plots and Designs of Satan so as to make the issue of them end in the Church's good and his own Glory he countermines them and either takes out their Powder by which they designed to blow up the Church or in the springing of it makes the Ruin fall upon themselves In clearing up a little further this Soul-refreshing Truth I shall open the words of the Apostle Paul 1 Cor. 11.3 But I would have you know that the Head of every Man is Christ and the Head of the Woman is the Man and the Head of Christ is God In opening the words of the Apostle we are to understand the Head of the Woman is the Man where the Woman is joyn'd in Marriage-Union to the Man and by the Head of every Man is Christ must be meant every elect Person who comes to witness a Union with him and by the Head of Christ is God we must understand him as having his Human Nature join'd to the second Person in the Godhead and so brought into a nigh relation with the Father Now that I may-come to some discovery of this glorious Mystery I shall consider the Relation which the Woman hath to her Husband by this Marriage-Union and the Privileges that she is invested with by this Relation That her Relation is very great doth appear in that of two Persons they are so far made one that ever after this Knot of Marriage is tied he looks upon her as a part of himfelf she loseth her own Name and takes the Name of her Husband thereby shewing that she is become a part of him and so great is her Privilege by this Union that how mean soever her Extraction hath been before Marriage it is from that time forward forgotten and she is made a sharer with her Husband in whatsoever Honour he is invested and whatever is confer'd upon him she becomes a sharer with him in it This saith the Apostle it a great Mystery but I speak concerning Christ and the Church That is he was for typifying out the Relation that was betwixt Christ and the Church by it And this leads me to the second thing in the Apostle's words viz. to shew how every elect Person doth become one with the Lord Jesus Christ and a sharer with him in the Honour the Father hath invested him withal Every elect Person doth become one with the Lord Jesus by the free tendering of himself to them this must be to bring about the Marriage And O what Condescension is here in this excellent Person that he should stoop so low to take such unworthy Creatures into so nigh a relation with himself Persons that before they become related to the Lord Jesus Christ are under the Penalty of the first Covenant that is are under the Sentence of the Law whose Threatnings are no less than eternal Misery an eternal Exclusion of Soul and Body from the Presence of God being that which is comprehended in the Sentence That this should be the state that the Elect are in before the offers of these Tenders and that Embassadors should be employ'd to make Tenders outwardly and the holy Spirit sent from the Bridegroom to draw the Hearts of the Elect to condescend to this Marriage-Union O wonderful amazing Work if we consider the different state that these two Parties are in before Marriage The Hearts of the Elect being drawn to accept him upon the terms he is offered with what Cheerfulness is the Heart given up to him to be one with him and how do they look upon themselves ever after this Union to be concerned in his Interest as it is in the World Doth it call for a daily bearing the Cross With what willingness of Heart do they come to it