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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
authority_n	call_v	church_n	great_a	2,925	5	3.0562	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
B15559	A practicall catechisme: or, A view of those principall truths according to godlinesse, which are contayned in the catechisme diuided into three parts: and seruing for the vse, (as of all, so) especially of those that first heard them. By D.R. B. of Divin, minister of the Gospell.	D. R. (Daniel Rogers), 1573-1652.	1632 (1632)	STC 21166; ESTC S116040	309,840	430

benefits It would helpe much to the vnderanding of the Scriptures with light and profit But those that thinke all time lost which is thus bestowed needes prooue very confuzed in their iudgemē●s read the word especially Pauls Epistles heare Sermons verie forgetfully and fruitlesly although I discourage none yet I reprooue those who refuze the helpe which God offers them Secondly it s for exhortation that we cease not to adore Vse 2 that most Diuine depth of wisedome and loue in God who when he might haue forsaken vs and cast vs off quite in our first fall was not onely content to restore vs to the same estate and make vs as good as we were but also tooke occasion as I sayd in the first Article by this ruine to settle vs in a better state then euer Adam knew not onely in the grace of perseuerance but in the gif● of eternal life in his heauenly presence This is one of the causes why the Che●ubins pryed into the Mercy-seate in the Holy of holyes as Pet●r Epis 1. Chap. 1. opens it of the desire of the Angels to see this mystery It was once sa●d by a captiue after he saw what preferment he came to I had perished if I had not perished Adams happines was as a perishing in comparison of CHRIST Paul neuer speakes of it without wondring Not as the gift of Creation was so was the gift of Redemption for the former was immortall life in the garden this is eternall life through Iesus Christ as Rom. 6. vlt. Therefore with Paul let vs wonder and magnifie the depth of this loue as 1 Tim. 1.17 so let vs say Now to the King Immortall Inuisible the onely Wise God bee Prayse for euer And Blessed bee God for this vnspeakable gift When men take occasion by the ruine of an house to set vp a better it s for their owne ends but this for our happinesse we fare the better for it Oh Lord what is man that thou so remembrest him to vnite thy Son to his fl●sh that thou mightst lift him vp with thy selfe to Glory See Heb. 1. Thou hast made him little inferior and in this aboue the Angels Thirdly it is exceeding consolation to all beleeuers For why The benefits which they receaue all at once by faith are a Nemo scit of price and plenty All we haue heere said doth argue that God in Christ is aboue all wee can aske or conceaue For who thinkes Christ to amount to such a summe at his first beleeuing Yet the Lord giues him all at once to a beleeuer As he that buyes a rich Lordship at a low rate doth not on the sudden equall his bargain in his thoughts till afterward he come to retaile the parcels buildings lands and royalties pertaining to it But when he sees he hath bought the Lordship and all belonging to it hee reioyces in his purchase So should wee little repent vs of our bargaine or thinke of selling it away if wee could duly meditate of the ingredients but we take small paines therein and so it growes stale with vs. To omit other points by one enlarge all thus When the Lord cals a lost sinner by the t●ouble of his conscience to come ●o Christ and in s●cking he findes him doth it enter into him to consider what a Christ he hath got Alas no he aimes at this that he may get forgiuenes of sinne and peace with God only Hee considers not what enemies what cōba●● dang●rs crosses ●e may meet with by Satans malice the crookednesse of his owne spirit the enmity of men But when he meets these and sees that All the promises in God are Yea and Amen that Christ hath also redeemed his soule out of all aduersity aswell as the horror of his conscience and that euen in troubles of ill marriage sicknesse pouerty imprisonment pursuit of men his Redeemer will saue him oh how precious is the comfort of it vnto his soule How much more then sweet is Christ in all his benefits Oh that our life might bee taken vp in the view of these particulars vnfolding of this fardell and knowing of our wealth If that of the heathen be true That Husbandmen were the happiest men if they knew it how much more Christians and beleeuers Blesse God that hath not onely verified that promise in Christ which we first sought for but more then euer we desired As the Queene of Sheba told Salomon The one halfe of that I find was not reported and yet a greater then Salomon is heere Let our whole life be filled with the meditation thanks and improouement of this our purchase And so much of this fifth Article The sixth Article Question NOw proceed to the sixth Article of this second part what is it A. This that the subiect contayning all or vpon which as a Treasury the Lord bestowes all these good things Christ and all his benefits is the Church of God I say the true Church of Christ is the equall and onely obiect o● them all Q. Before we proceed further open som● termes which will occurre in the discourse following viz. What is a Church constituted or vnconstituted What is the Church Visible or Inuisible What is a malignant corrupt and false Church and what a true What is a Church Militant or Triumphant A. First we call that a Church constituted which is so gathered together by the Word and professing of the same truth that it doth further enioy the free peaceable settled vse and administration of all essentials to saluation the Word Sacraments and outward Assemblies established by Christian authority as blessed bee God this Church doth in which we liue And contrary to this is that Church which consists onely in toleration and conniuence doubtfull and vnsettled A Church Visible is an assembly of such worshippers of God as enioying the liberty of the ordinances doe partake them visibly audibly and sensibly to the eye and obseruation of man so that visiblenesse doth not looke so much at constitution as at externalnesse of worship a constituted Church must needs bee visible but not contrà The Church Inuisible is that Communalty or fellowship of the Elect of GOD when or wheresoeuer throughout the World in all ages and times as being called to GOD and giuen to CHRIST become his Mysticall body and are built vp into one habitation by the Spirit She is called Inuisible not as if she consisted of such members as may not be seene and bodily conuersed with seeing that they do vsually reside in the Church Visible worshipping God with others externally but because that by which shee subsists is an Inuisible grace of the spirit not sensible to the eye of man but knowne to God alone and to others only by the iudgement of Charity more or lesse So that the next two termes of Militant and Triumphant are onely specials of this generall head Inuisible The Militant Church being that part of the Inuisible which heere vpon earth walketh and warreth with

perfect freedome yea meate and drinke Ier. 31.33 Eze. 36.27 according to that Ierem. 31. I will write my Law in their hearts and cause them to walke in my Statutes that is put strength of mine owne into them to agree with my Rule and stoope to my Scepter Kings command their people but serue themselues upon their strength cannot put any into them but Christ is serued by his owne Q. What hath he done for vs as our Prophet A. His Prophecy commeth yet neerer to the matter in hand for although all that I have said be to be supposed ere the Law can direct vs yet the actuall worke of direction issueth from his Prophecie And first by a Declaring and secondly by a Reuealing Worke. The Declaring worke is a witnessing to the soule that he is the true Lord and Comman-of his People Esay 55.4 that he rules his law as by his scepter that all his Preisthood and merit ends in his kingdome and obedience that it is his honour that all knees bow to him and that they kisse the Sonne that hee is the obiect of it through whom the Father is honoured that true Liberty stands not in hauing our wil but in putting on this yoke and who so doth otherwise deceives himselfe But secondly by his Reuealing worke by this hee directs the soule and sets the steps of it as Luk. 1.79 in peace by this he vses the tenor of his Law to be a liuely finger to point out duty for euery occasion and to frame the soule to draw his Law to euery need and vse in the life according to that 1 Ioh. 2 20.27 Ye haue an vnction from the Holy one who telleth you all things And in Esay 30.21 Their eares shall heare a voyce behinde them saying This is the way walke in it This is a Revealing with direction by which the soule sees the vse of Christ in euery Commandement and is led on by him as her Guide thereby as if an Oracle should speake from heauen Esay 55. A Leader and Commander to his people vers 4. And thus a Christian may see how the Commandements of the Morall Law are the directions of Christ and how he is the Law-giver of the soule in them all and till this bee conceiued it is no wonder if we account them as a strange thing Hos 8.12 But by this meanes familiar Q. I conceiue now how Christ hath made his Law a direction to godly life now come to the directions themselues what are they A. They concerne either God himselfe in the 1. Table as his inward worship of feare confidence and setting him vp to be our God alone in the first Or our outward reasonable seruice and worship of him in pure manner in the second Or our faithfull abearing our selues in all holinesse in such actions of common life as are not immediate worship in the third for I referre oathes and vowes to the second which I desire wise Readers to thinke of or the set day of our Worship vpon one day of seuen since the eighth day was turned into Gods day or the Christian Sabbath and that in the fourth Or else our neighbour and our selues in the other six Subiection to all Superiority in the fifth Maintaining his pretious life as being better than all that follow in the sixth Of his Chastity in the seuenth His Estate in the eighth His Name in the ninth The tenth forbidding not onely that Concupiscence which reaches to the detriment of our neighbor but vnder that as most sensible to vs all that wicked propension and bent of nature before actuall sinne whereby originally we are prone to all vn●ustice and impiety and intemperance Concerning which as hauing said enough in the second Ar●icle of Conuersation and it being no part of my purpose to repeat what hath been written by so many learned faithful Writers I omit to say any more only contenting my selfe to lay downsome briefe rules how the Law is to be conceiued the Minister of Christ for righteousnesse and so to conclude the Article with breefe vses Q Mention then some of these Rules A. First that all the Lawes of Christ must be vnderstood to be of another manner of force and authority than the Lawes of men euen the greatest for they are limited with exceptions in all kindes and doe but reach to the outward man and penalties thereof But these doe reach to the conscience and they binde the inner man God whom wee haue to doe with seeing the soule in her vtmost retirednesse as a thing naked Heb. 4.13 and his word being pure as himselfe and piercing betweene the ioynts and marrow Heb. 4.12 and therefore there he sets vp his Throne and there is no evasion from him Secondly Let vs know that his Commands are not idle things and arbitrary which we may obey at our curtesie or if not yet God is as a weake King for whom his Subjects are too strong as Ioab and Abis●ai for David but reall Lawes from an authority that both knowes offenders and can punish them yea which accurseth all transgressours and will not hold them guiltlesse Heb. 12. ult a consuming fire as the manner of his uttering them Exod. 20. in earthquakes and thunder shewed and therefore be we afraid to provoke him and yet he is a God able to gratifie his obedient ones in ample manner even to a thousand generations and it s not to be neglected that both kind of sanctions are expressed in so short a view Thirdly obserue that the commands of the second Table are the edicts of the same God whose the first are Iam. 12.11 and therefore in which the Lord takes himselfe as much either honoured or not as the first which I speake lest any should cavill and thinke that 1 Sam. 2.25 If man sinne against man a man may iudge but if against the Lord who shall entreat to be meant of morall offences No but onely of common discurtesies and offences or breaches which are in mens power to release For even those sinnes of Eli's Sonnes were against women and yet he tels them the Lord tooke them as against himselfe So that although men be the object of the second Table yet not the last into which the morrall offence is carried and therefore it is not in man to release any more of it then his owne damage the rest the Lord onely can remit as the sinne is of equall guilt so the forgiver must be of equall power Fourthly the Law must be alwayes understood according to the scope even as every other part of the Word as promises and threats Wee must not rest in the bare letter and so destrow the life and spirit of the Law How shoud ten words include all our conversation except the letter of the Law be enlarged to the meaning of the Law-giver The Law then rests in the true intent of it Therefore as for all Pharisaicall licentious or prophane wretches who doe limit this Law and acknowledge no more