Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	catholic_n	church_n	visible_a	3,605	5	9.5506	5	true

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

observation of all the commands of Christ. But it is such whom we intend who constantly fix their minds on the enjoyment of God as their chiefest good and utmost end who thereon duely consider the means of attaining it and apply themselves thereunto And it is to be feared that the number of such persons will not be found to be very great in the world which is sufficient to take off the reproach from some particular Congregations of the smalness of their number Such they ever were and such is it foretold that they should be Number was never yet esteemed a note of the true Church by any but those whose worldly interest it is that it should so be yet at present absolutely in these Nati●ns the number of such persons is not small 3. Of these persons it is said that it is their duty so to dispose of themselves It is not that which they may do as a convenience or an advantage not that which others may do for them but which they must do for themselves in a way of duty It is an Obediential Act unto the commands of Christ whereunto is required subjection of Conscience unto his Authority Faith in his promises as also a respect unto an appeara●ce before his Judgment-Throne at the last day The way of the Church of Rome to compel men into their Communion and keep them in it by fire and fagot or any other means of external force derives more from the Alcoran than the Gospel Neither doth ir answer the mind of Christ in the Institution End and Order of Church-Societies that men should become Members of them partly by that which is no way in their own power and partly by what their wills are regulated in by the Laws of men For it is as was said commonly esteemed that men being born and baptized in such a Nation are t●ereby made members of the Church of that Nation and by living within such Parochial Precincts as the Law of the Land hath Arbitrarily established are members of this or that particular Congregation At least they are accounted so far to belong unto these Churches as to render them liable unto all outward punishments that shall be thought meet to be inflicted on them who comply not with them So far as these perswasions and actings according unto them do prevail so far are they destructive of the principal foundation of the external Being and Order of the Church But that mens joyning themselves in or unto any Church Society is or ought to be a voluntary act or an act of free choice in mere obedience unto the Authority and commands of Christ is so sacred a truth so evident in the Scripture so necessary from its subject matter so testifyed unto by the practice of all the first Churches as that it despiseth all opposition And I know not how any can reconcile the common practice of giving men the reputation or reality of being Members of or belonging unto this or that Church as unto total Communion who desire or chuse no such thing unto this acknowledged principle 5. THERE is a double jo●ning unto the Church 1. That which is as unto total Communion in all the duties and priviledges of the Church which is that whereof we treat 2. An adherence unto the Church as unto the means of Instruction and Edification to be attained thereby So persons may adhere unto any Church who yet are not meet or free on some present consideration to confederate with it as unto total Communion see Act. 5.13 14. And of this sort in a peculiar manner are the baptized Children of the members of the Church For although they are not capable of performing Church duties or enjoying Church-priviledges in their tender years nor can have a right unto total Communion before the testification of their own voluntary corsent thereunto and choice thereof yet are they in a peculiar manner under the care and inspection of the Church so far as the outward administration of the Covenant in all the means of it is committed thereunto and their duty it is according to their capacity to attend unto the Ministry of that Church whereunto they do belong 6. THE Proposition respects a visible professing Church And I intend such a Church in general as avoweth Authority from Christ 1. For the Min●sterial Preaching of the Word 2. Administration of the Sacraments 3. For the Exercise of Evangelical Discipline and 4. To give a publick testimony against the Devil and the World not contradicting their profession with any corrupt Principles or Practices inconsistent with it What is required in particular that any of them may be meet to be joyned unto such a Church we shall afterwards enquire 7. IT is generally said that out of the Church there is no Salvation and the truth hereof is testified unto in the Scriptures Act. 2.47 1 Pet. 3.20 21. Matth. 16.18 Ephes. 5.26 27. Joh. 10.16 8. THIS is true both positively and negatively of the Catholick Church invisible of the Elect All that are of it shall be saved and none shall be saved but those that belong unto it Ephes. 5.25 26 27. Of the Catholick visible professing Church negatively that no Adult person can be saved that doth not belong unto this Church Rom. 10.10 9. THIS Position of Truth is abused by Interest and Pride an enclosure of it being made by them who of all Christians in the World can lay the least and weakest claim unto it namely the Church of Rome For they are so far from being that Catholick Church out of which there is no Salvation and wherein none can perish like the Ark of Noah that it requires the highest charity to reckon them unto that visible professing Church whereof the greatest part may perish and do so undoubtedly 10. Our enquiry is what truth there is in this Assertion with respect unto these particular Churches or Societies for the celebration of Gospel-worship and Discipline whereof we treat And I say 1. No Church of what den●mination soever can lay a claim unto this Priviledge as belonging unto it self alone This wa● the antient Donatism They confined Salvation unto the Churc●es of their way alone And after many false charges of it on others it begins really to be renewed in our d●ys For some dispute that Salvation is confined unto that Church alone wherein there is a Succession of Diocesan Bishops which is the height of Donatism The Judgments and Determinations made concerning the Eternal Salvation or Damnation of Men by the measures of some differences among Christians about Churches their State and Order are absurd foolish and impious and for the most part used by them who sufficiently preclaim that they know neither what it is to be saved nor do use any diligence about the necessary means of it Salvation depends absolutely on no particular Church-state in the world he knows not the Gospel who can really think it doth Persons of Believers are not for the Church but the Church is

heal even Babylon it self by a reduction of all things unto their first Institution if it would be healed Jerem. 51.9 and if not we are to forsake her and reform our selves Rev. 18.4 There is nothing therefore in all these pretences that should in the least impeach the infallible continuation of the Evangelical Churches and Worship as to their right unto the end of the world And the Heads of those Arguments whereby the Truth is invincibly confirmed may be briefly touched on 1. There are express Testimonies of the Will of Christ and his promise for its accomplishment that the Church and all its Ordinances of Worship should be continued always unto the end of the world So as to the Church it self Matth. 16.13 Rev. 21.3 The Ministry Matth. 28.20 Ephes. 4.13 Baptism Matth. 28.18 19 20. The Lords Supper 1 Cor. 11.26 As for other Institutions Publick Prayer Preaching the word the Lords day singing of Gods Praises the exercise of Discipline with what belongs thereunto they have their foundation in the Law and Light of Nature being only direct●d and applied unto the Gospel-Church-state and worship by Rules of especial Institution and they can no more cease than the original Obligation of that Law can so do If it be said that notwithstanding what may be thus pleaded yet de facto the true state of Gospel-Churches and their whole worship as unto its Original Institution did fail under the Papal Apostacy and therefore may do so again I Answer 1. We do not plead that this state of things must be always visible and conspicuous wherein all Protestant Writers do agree It is acknowledged that as unto publick view Observation and Notoriety all these things were lost under the Papacy and may be so again under a renewed Apostacy 2. I do not plead it to be necessary de facto that there should be really at all times a true visible Church as the seat of all Ordinances and Administrations in the world but all such Churches may fail not only as unto Visibility but as unto their Existence But this supposition of a failure of all instituted Churches and Worship I grant only with these Limitations 1. That it is of Necessity from innumerable Divine Promises and the nature of Christ's Kingly office that there be always in the world a number greater or lesser of sincere Believers that openly profess subjection and obedience unto him 2. That in these Persons there resides an indefeazable Right always to gather themselves into a Church state and to administer all Gospel ordinances which all the world cannot deprive them of which is the whole of what I now plead for And let it be observed that all the ensuing Arguments depend on this Right and not on any Matter of Fact 3. I do not know how far God may accept of Churches in a very corrupt state and of worship much depraved until they have new means for their Reformation Nor will I make any judgment of Persons as unto their eternal Condition who walk in Churches so corrupted and in the performance of worship so depraved But as unto them who know them to be so corrupted and depraved it is a damnable sin to joyn with them or not to separate from them Revel 18.4 2. The Nature and Use of the Gospel Church-state require and prove the uninterrupted continuance of the Right of its Existence and the observance of all Ordinances of Divine Worship therein with a Power in them in whom that Right doth indefeazably reside that is all true Believers to bring it forth into exercise and practice notwithstanding the external Impediments which in some places at some times may interrupt its exercise In the observation of Christ's Institutions and Celebration of the ordinances of Divine Worship doth the Church-state of the Gospel as professing consist It doth so in opposition 1. Unto the World and the Kingdom of Satan For hereby do men call Jesus Lord as 1 Cor. 12.3 and avow their subjection unto his Kingly Power 2. Unto the Church-state of the Old Testament as the Apostle disputes at large in his Epistle unto the Hebrews And this state of the professing Church in this World is unalterable because it is the best state that the Believing Church is capable of For so the Apostle plainly proves that hereby the believing Church is brought 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which it was not under the Law ●hat is unto its Consummation in the most compleat Perfection that God hath designed unto it on this side Glory Heb. 7. ●1 19. For Christ in all his Offices is the immediate Head of it Its Const●●u●ion and the Revelation of the ways of its W●rship are an effect of his Wisd●m and from thence is it eminently suited unto all the ends of the Covenant both on the part of God and man and is therefore liable to no Intercision or Alteration 3. The visible Administration of the Kingdom of Christ in this World consists in this Church-state with the Administration of his Institutions and Laws therein A Kingdom the Lord Jesus Christ hath in this World and though it be not of the World yet in the World it must be until the World shall be no more The Truth of all God's Promises in the Scripture depends on this one Assertion We need not here concern our selves what Notions some men have about the exercise of this Kingdom in the world with respect unto the outward affairs and concerns of it Rut this is certain that this Kingdom of Christ in the world so far as it is external and visible consists in the Laws he hath given the Institutions he hath appointed the Rule or Politie he hath prescribed with the due observance of them Now all these things do make constitute and are the Church-state and Worship enquired after Wherefore as Christ alway h●●h and ever will have an Invisible Kingdom in this world in the Souls of Elect Believers led guided ruled by his Spirit so he will have a visible Kingdom also consisting in a professed avowed Subjection unto the Laws of his word Rom. 10.10 And although this Kingdom or his Kingdom in this sence may as unto the essence of it be preserved in the external Profession of individual persons and it may be so exist in the world for a season yet the honour of it and its compleat establishment consists in the visible profession of Churches which he will therefore maintain unto the end But by Visible in this Discourse I understand not that which is conspicuous and eminent unto all though the Church hath been so and shall yet be so again nor yet that which is actually seen or known by others but only that which may be so or is capable of being so known Nor do I assert a Necessity hereof as unto a constant preservation of Purity and Regularity in Order and Ordinances according to the Original Institution of them in any place but only of an unalterable Right and Power in Believers to