Selected quad for the lemma: word_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
word_n	proper_a	sense_n	signification_n	2,806	5	9.7840	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A13819	Saint Peters rocke vnder which title is deciphered the faith of Peter, the foundation of the church, Christs sacrificehood, and the comfort of the holy Spirit. Done by Alexander Top Gent.	Top, Alexander.	1597 (1597)	STC 24122; ESTC S102450	49,647	124

SAINT PETERS ROCKE Vnder which title is deciphered the faith of Peter the foundation of the Church Christs sacrificehood and the comfort of the holy Spirit Done by Alexander Top Gent. Printed 1597. To the reuerend father in God Doctor Lions Bishop of Cork Rosse and Cloin in Ireland A. T. wisheth prosperitie and grace euerlasting COnsidering your Lordships zeale to the truth due respect of the Gospell and vnfained loue to the professors I presumed to publish this small worke vnder your Lordships protection partly bicause it was begotten in that country partly bicause the country beareth but little fruit of the scripture but principally and especially to gratifie your Lordship for many fauours The subiect is easie yet not learned often red seldom marked obserued of many yet vnderstood of few But seeing the leuell of all controuersie is to hit the truth whose champions ye all are and by you all arguments must die or liue I appeale vnto your L. for my iust defence or your Lordships better aduise The spirit of grace illuminate your L. vnderstanding London March Anno 1597. Euer your Lordships to command Alexander Top. To the Reader GEntle Reader I haue for thy vse and comfort framed as neere as I could the deriuation of the Christian faith and that thou maist the better vnderstand my meaning heerin knowe that as the Creede was a thing most breef and learnedly composed in the prime time of the Church from many places of scripture so my purpose was to make a true dissipation of the articles disposing them to the places from whence they were first taken to the end that from henceforth thy faith should not he grounded vpon bare words but vpon knowledge of these scriptures so materiall for saluation My paines is free freely vse it God giue grace in all points Farewell A. T. SAINT PETERS ROCKE I BELEEVE First I thinke it needfull to expound this word BELEEVE then to shew the vse of it and lastly to what end it is vsed of the beleeuers The word seemeth of a compound and proper signification deeper than meere English can vnderstand for it meaneth therein or thereby throughly to liue wherein we do beleeue yeelding vp the possession of all spirituall senses disposed from all earthly affection of the members by the true mortification in spirit for this syllable be in apposition is no lesse possessiue or effectiue with vs at this day than with the Hebrewes of ancient time 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or BE which alwaies importeth in by or through but far more inwardly of vs to be vnderstood bicause it giueth a most secret meaning to the word it maketh as for example thinke and bethinke adding a very deepe cogitation to thinking get and beget where it hath some speciall conceit in meaning seem and beseem here it makes that which was in outward shew only like it self simple becom a very beautifull creature to the beholders Besides this syllable be that holdeth so small room in a Common-wealth causeth any adiunct to remaine substantially in his subiect as I BELEEVE to wit I am wholy liuing in God the father c. so as quicksiluer confoundeth all other mettals and transformeth their bodies by his liuelyhood so doth this syllable bring a word of common and open sense to a most close and necessarie signification in spirit so that to beleeue argueth a trustie confidence in the essentiall subiect of spirit and for the time of stedfast beleeuing the spirit hath no manner of sympathie with the flesh but the flesh remaineth dead and mortified to all naturall inclination in pleasure or suffering whether it be health or sicknes riches or pouertie loue or hatred cheerfulnes or griefe of hart or any other pleasure or calamitie incident whatsoeuer the communion of the spirit being hereby redeemed out of the prison of flesh and euapored into life eternall For the spirit is no more ruled by the flesh but the flesh by the spirit What then is subiect to this spirituall beleef Ezek. 20. 29. mettals wood or stone as the altar Bamah or such like No you shall not finish that you haue in your mind to do if you serue wood or stone as the heathen Is it mettall not the preciousest of all mettals gold for mightie Emperors haue been deceiued by their golden Idols and haue perished Dan. 3. 1. as Nebuchadnezar by his Image of sixtie cubits high and six broad The Idols stand vp as a palme tree Ierem. 10. 5. but speake not they are born for they cannot goe they can doe neither euill nor good Ierem. 10. 9. fear them not Siluer plates are brought from Tarshish and gold from Vphaz the work of mens hands There shall com out of Bels mouth that Ier. 51. 44. which he hath swallowed vp and the nations shal no more flow vnto it But the wall of Babell shall fall and become an astonishment among nations Can men make gods that are no gods Can their owne hands make them a redeemer or their handy worke saue them No for the beleef of all men being liuely and spiritual cannot liue for euer or be faithfully reposed in such vnprofitable subiects seeing in them there is no blast of life for they neither breath nor smell nor hear nor walk nor speak wherin then can they liue How should they defend a man that trusteth in them but both the caruer and the work perisheth togither What then is subiect to this spirituall beleef A horse bicause he runneth fiercely in the battel or many thousand chariots bicause they seem inuincible or man bicause he can deuise and determin long before nay or princes that so many millions of knees bow vnto these all haue place of life for they both breath smell hear and speak and eeke can go and not be borne yet seeing their bodies be altogither fraile and dissoluble wasting to nothing there is no place for euerlasting life found in them whereupon the spirit of beleef should work much lesse any meanes wherby the grosse nature of man might be iustified Psal. 33. 17. The horse is void of vnderstanding Exod. 14. 28. All Pharaos chariots and confidence perished at once 2. Sam. 24. 1. Dauid was plagued for numbring of his host of eight hundred thousand fighting men whose power and trust was soon abated by affliction This teacheth vs then the vanity of gold the senslesnes of wood and stone the weak defence of horse and chariot nay more Psal. 118. 9. the vtmost safety of an host and the confidence in princes for here Dauid being a king could not saue his host from the pestilence nor his incomparable number worke their Lords securitie wherfore man we see is not the thing to be beleeued in albeit he hath both sense and power in a firme vnderstanding For in nothing but in man is this worke of faith required so that whatsoeuer is aboue man knoweth al things and what so is below him hopeth for nothing One man

admiration of it But we thinke and contend that it is ynough to acknowledge Christ our redeemer and to beleeue in him whom the father hath sent we are much deceiued to call that ynough which is in due respect nothing For the diuell acknowledged Christ to be the sonne of God which the Papists are alwaies ready to obiect when we argue iustification by faith but the text saith that he confessed him with trembling So then before we can acknowledge him our redeemer we must of necessity learne how we became bound and before we can rightly beleeue in him whom the father hath sent we must needs vnderstand some warning of his message which most often and breefly is repeated throughout the body of the old Testament Then must we try whether he came according to the fulnes of time wherin the father promised to send him and afterward when he is come whether his message be of God or not he himselfe exhorteth vs to make trial These seem good ground-works to build our faith vpon for as it is required in vs to beleeue so is it most expedient for vs to know him in whom we do beleeue bicause it separateth vs from death to life as before I alleaged For example Christ saith to the theef Luk. 23. 43. This day shalt thou be with me in paradise and againe of himselfe Father into thine hands I commend my spirit But concerning his body it died in the flesh for it was wrapped in linnen and laid in a tombe by Ioseph a iust man of Arimathaea and Nicodemus according to the manner of the Iewes Luk. 23. 52. and buried and to manifest that his body was dead after the maner of men the women prepared sweet odours and ointments and rested the Saboth day Nicodemus might heer see a cleerer sight of the second birth than he had before neither was his buriall an illusion to deceiue mens sight for the Iewes would not be mocked but commanded a watch and sure fastening to the doore least his disciples should steal him away keeping in mind the words that he spake vpon the earth Math. 27 64. Within three daies I will rise Thus haue I concluded his passion the manner of his passion and also his buriall which was according to the law HE DESCENDED INTO HELL Heer commeth the article that drew me to this whole discourse for that I saw the learned somthing at ods about it yet so as all both the one and the other did firmly hold it necessarily inserted in our Christian faith Neither wil I take vpon me heer so much to reconcile the learned which diuersly allow of it as to debell the vnlearned opinions which admits it not at all holding it a superfluous and needlesse article to be taught among Christian families It is somthing strange when clownes exceed in sophistry This kind of men had rather be followed as Christs of a new church than follow Christ as disciples of the true Church It behooueth them therfore in whom remedy consisteth speedily to redresse such erronious errors least some other soone after should deny that hee ascended into heauen Acts. 23. wherby a sect of Saduces might arise amongst vs Math. 27. denying any resurrection at all and so the latter error become greater than the former Now therfore concerning the misconstruing of these words then touching the abiection of them and lastly how to vnderstand them both in their vtmost force and also how they were first ment in the primitiue Church as appeereth by the indifferency of the penners of them But as concerning his descending or going downe no man I know will deny this word that hath any feeling of the ascension and going vp which is most manifest by Saint Pauls Epistle to the Ephesians which reciteth the prophet Dauids words mentioned in the Psalmes Ephes. 4. 8. Thou art gon vp on high Psal. 68. and hast led captiuity captiue thou hast receiued gifts for men yea euen the rebellious hast thou led that the Lord God may dwell there praised be the Lord which ladeth vs daily Selah But Saint Paules allusion is this that he ascended and captiued captiuity and gaue dwelling places to men Now insomuch that he ascended saith he what is it but that he descended first into the lower parts of the earth and he that went downe is he that went vp aboue al heauens to fulfill all thing● If therefore he had been to go downe to the place of the damned as some will he must had descended into the lowest part of the earth as he went vp to the highest heauen for his depth ought to had been answerable to his height nay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 vnder all the earth as he ascended 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aboue all heauens Reason will that as the Lords glory wherwith he glorified his sonne is aboue all heauens for they were made by him and they are the work of his owne hands and waxe old as doth a garment and shall passe and melt away like wax euen so the damned are to haue their portion below all the earth by opposition Seeing as happines and vnhappines are extremities so are their habitations most extreme and remote one from the other which cannot be in places to be discerned by flesh except we will deuise to make purgatories in the concauities of the earth as Papists haue done or our eies more sharp than Moses eies were For arguments sake then I conclude this that seeing the state of the damned is permanent for euer it is not to be changed by a new creation 2. Pet. 3. 9. For there shall be a new heauen and a new earth so that this heauen which we see is as a vaile before our eies to keep vs from the sight of God whose face would be so glorious that we should not be able to look vp for he appeered in a flame of fire Exod. 3. 6. which God our sauiour maketh himself vsing his fathers owne words shewing Exod. ●2 ●2 that it is he that sitteth on the firy throne this earth but a bar to defend vs from the outrage of the damned spirits which would consume vs with horror and there were no helpe for vs. But for the places of Gods existence and of the euerlasting prison the diuine scripture in no language hath affoorded names except circumstantiall or metaphoricall nay God himselfe hath forborne to name the place of the happy or vnhappy and much lesse was man able to perform it for he neuer went and came againe Neither in our sight can any proper resemblance be made of it Therfore let vs thinke of Christs descension that he went first into the lower parts of the earth which Saint Paul alluding Ezechiels words Ezec. 32. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 writeth in these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is all one as to say What is it but that he also descended first into the lower parts of the earth Heer he said