Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	administer_v	sacrament_n	true_a	6,250	5	5.3715	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30498	The holy truth and its professors defended in an answer to a letter writ by Lawrence Potts, priest of Staplestown near Catherlough, unto Robert Lacky, a parishioner and formerly hearer of the said priest, occassioned by his forsaking his ministry and embracing the blessed truth herein vindicated / by John Burnyeat [and] John Watson.	Burnyeat, John, 1631-1690.; Watson, John, 1650?-1710.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5966; ESTC R36040	22,397	32

for Pleasure but to get Fish from whence we may groundedly conclude that they used that Imploy for a Livelihood at times when they were not immediately imployed in preaching the Gospel and we challenge thee to prove the contrary if thou canst Concerning thy querying for a Command for keeping the First day of the week or calling it the Lords day We say we meet together on the First day of the week for to meet is our Duty and also upon other days and for this Practice we have both Command and Example the Saints were commanded not to forsake the assembling of themselves together Heb. 10. 25. and we account every day is the Lords and he that regardeth a day ought to regard it to the Lord and he that regardeth not the day to the Lord he doth not regard it Rom. 14. 6. But what Scripture have ye for all such days as you observe which are called such and such Saints days Thou saist thou hast been the longer on this particular because thou findest it galls us most Answ. When thou hast read our Answer which by reason of thine being so long hath caused ours to be so too thou maist consider of it and of thy impertinency in quoting the Scriptures to prove your Practice which being well observed doth witness against you and then we doubt not but it will prove that which will gall thee and thy Brethren who are so found in such covetous practices as the Scriptures plentifully testifie against and for a further Testimony against your Practices read these following Scriptures of which for brevity sake having been so long already we shall forbear to write the words they that can may read them in the Bible Isa. 59. 9 10 11 12. Jer. 5. 30 31. Ezek 13. 19. Ezek. 34. ch Mich. 3. 5 11. Joh. 10. 12. Tit. 1. 10 11. 1 Tim. 3. 1 2 3. 2 Pet. 2. 14 15 16. Jud. 11. 12 13. In the next place thou undertakest to inform him of some Defects in that Religion he had chosen and first thou saist our Teachers have no lawful Call to preach the Gospel and quotest the Apostles saying Rom. 10. 15. How shall they preach except they be sent that is saist thou how can they preach the true Doctrine of Christ unless they be sent by him or by those Apostles of Christ who received immediate Commissions from him c. Answ. We grant what the Apostle saith How can they preach except they be sent c. But that our Teachers are not so sent thou neither undertakest to prove by Argument nor Scripture although thou hast the confidence to affirm that they have no lawful Call or Commission to preach the Gospel which we turn back upon thee as a false Accusation and demand of thee to prove and make it appear to be true if thou canst for we do believe that none can be true Ministers but such as are sent by Christ and have their Call and Commission from him and also receive the Gospel which they preach and their ability from him for the Scripture is plain that the Gospel-Ministers were sent by him and received the Gospel they preached and ability to preach it from him and not from men as in Gal. 1. 11 12. and in 2 Cor. 3. 6. the Apostle saith they were made able Ministers of the New Testament not of the Letter but of the Spirit and in the fo●egoing verse he saith our sufficiency is of God. And Ephes. 3. 7. he declares that he was made a Minister according to the Gift of the Grace of God given unto him by the effectual working of his Power And Peter saith 1 Pet. 4. 11. If any man speak let him speak as the Oracles of God if any man minister let him do it as of the ability which God giveth that God in all things may be glorified c. And so from him we say we have received our Call by his eternal Spirit and do wait upon him to receive our ability daily that what we do may be by the Gift of the Grace of God given unto us that God in all things may be glorified And if this be not according to the Scripture and the way of God do thou in thy next shew what is and prove your way of being bred up at Schools and learning your Tongues and taking your Degrees there and observing your Ceremonies in your Ordination and coming forth according to your Traditions and then looking for a Benefice the greatest you can get and then settling in a Parish for so much a Year until you can hear of a Place with a greater Benefice and then remove for greater Gain and Preferment and while you stay in a Parish take such Lordship upon you that none of your Church or Hearers may have liberty to speak or preach but such as are so ordained as you are Clear these things in thy next to be according to Scripture if thou canst In the mean while we charge this method and these doings not to be according to the Rule of the Gospel or Example of the primitive Ministers that this is your practice we believe thou canst not deny But in the true Church this Order and Liberty was ordained by the Apostle as in 1 Cor. 14. 30 31 32. If any thing be revealed to another that sitteth by let the first hold his peace for you may all prophesie one by one that all may learn that all may be comforted and the Spirits of the Prophets are subject to the Prophets But this Liberty which the Apostle ordained you do not admit of no more than you do of other things which were the practice of the true Church and Christs Ministers but instead thereof are gone into things which are of Mans ordaining and setting up And therefore Robert Lacky and all in whom God hath opened an understanding to see you aright have reason enough to forsake you and your Church and as for those Scriptures thou quotest to prove a successive Power to send others they make nothing for your method of Ordination at all for Matth. 28. he said he would be with them c doth not say they should send others In Acts 1. the Apostles desired one in the place of Judas to be numbered with them and he was chosen by lot so here was the Lords lot And in Acts 14. 23. it is said they ordained Elders in every Church Now how these Scriptures do prove a true Succession to your Call and Ordination let all that are wise in heart judge Secondly Thou saist we have no Sacraments administred in our Religion neither that of Baptism whereby people are admitted into the Christian Church nor that of the Lords Supper by which they are strengthened and preserved in it Ans. First we demand whence thou hast this Term Sacraments and what is the proper signification of it we are sure thou hast it not from Scripture And secondly We put it upon thee to prove whence you have your Authority for

that which thou callest Baptism by which thou saist people are admitted into the Christian Church viz. sprinkling Infants We deny that you have any Authority from Scripture either by Command or Example for it for we never read in all the Scriptures of either baptizing or sprinkling Infants there is no such thing in that Scripture by thee quoted therefore thou art in a great mistake in charging this to be a defect in the Quakers Religion not to have such a Practice which is an unwarrantable human Invention and it is a great defect in your Religion to perswade people that when you have sprinkled a little Water on the Head or Face of a Child and signed it with the sign of the Cross it is thereby admitted into the Christian Church and call it Baptism when it is but sprinkling and therefore a defect throughout But thy Charge upon the Quakers Religion that we deny that of Baptism by which people are admitted into the Christian Church we affirm to be false for we own that Baptism according to what the Apostle saith 1 Cor. 12 13. For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one Body whether we be Jews or Gentiles c This we own to be Christs Baptism and we also own Johns Ministration of Water to have been Gods Ordinance in its day but yours we leave for thee to prove from whence you had it Secondly Thou saist Nor that of the Lords Supper by which they are strengthened and preserved in it Ans. Let all that are wise in heart consider whether that which thou callest a Sacrament which you take hath such a great effect in it as to strengthen preserve in the Christian Church which is Christs Church for the Protestants do account it no more than a Sign of an inward spiritual Grace But we are satisfied concerning what Christ did as in that Scripture thou quotest Luke 22. for he had regard to the fulfilling of the Law and his time drawing near that he was to be sacrificed and so the true Passover as Paul saith 1 Cor. 5. 7. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us had a desire to eat the figurative Passover with his Disciples before he suffered as thou maist see Luke 22. and in eating the Passover he took the Cup and gave thanks and gave it to them and bid them divide it among themselves and likewise took Bread and brake it and gave it to them and after Supper again he took the Cup and gave them and thou maist see what he said both of the Bread and the Cup the one was his Body which was given for us the other was the Cup of the New Testament in his Blood which was shed for us which words import that his Body which is broken for us is the substance of that unleavened typical Bread and his Blood which was shed is the substance of that Cup not that the Bread and Wine was his Body and Blood for that was but typical though some do ignorantly imagine that ho meant the outward Bread and Wine was his real Body and Blood as the Jews thought he had meant the Temple made with hands when he spake of the Temple of his Body For we read that when the Passover was instituted they were to have a Lamb without blemish and unleavened Bread and the Door-posts were to be sprinkled with the Blood of the Lamb which Passover was certainly a Type of Christ the immaculate Lamb whose Body is the true Bread that nourishes the Soul to Life eternal and his Blood sprinkles the Concience from dead works to serve the Living God. This is that we have an eye to that which was broken for us and shed for us and we think by thy Writing thou art not of the Papists mind for the Real Presence and if not then consider what that Bread and Drink was that was broken and shed for us which he spake of though he was then eating the Passover with his Disciples and then come on and see what the Apostle saith to the mystery of it which was that which he preferred in the Church at Corinth 1 Cor. 10. there he tells them of the Fathers viz. the Church in the Wilderness and saith they did all eat of the same spiritual Meat and did all drink of the same spritual Drink for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them and that Rock was Christ. So here thou maist see the Meat was spiritual and the Drink was spiritual and the Rock was spiritual that they drank of and that was Christ So the Apostle speaking to wise men bids them judge what he saith as in ver 15 and in ver 16. saith he The Cup of Blessing which we bless is it not the Communion of the Blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the Body of Christ and ver 17. For we being many are one Bread and one Body for we are all partakers of that one Bread. The Judgment of this thou seest the Apostle referred to wise men and we know wise men will judge that it is this spiritual Meat and Drink that strengthens and preserves in the Church of Christ whatever thou maist say to the contrary and so thou wrongest the Quakers in saying that we have not the Lords Supper administred in our Religion for we greatly delight in the Lords Supper to eat and drink that which strengthens and and preserves us in the Church of Christ and for your Practice that you use in your Church we demand your Example for it and whence it did arise for thou maist see that Christ in the Figure did eat the Passover with his Disciples according to the Law and gave them the Cup both before and after Supper as aforesaid Thou pretendest thou hast other notorious defects in our Religion but forbearest to bring them forth only one thou saist thou canst not omit which is so great a one that it renders the generality of the Quakers almost no Christians at all and thou saist most of us are guilty and that is a defect in the very badge and mark of a Christian Disciple which saist thou is Love and Charity and so quotest Christs words Joh. 13. 35. By this shall all men know that you are my Disciples if ye love one another Ans. Thou dost in this as thou hast done in other things before charge us to be guilty but dost not bring one Proof or Argument to prove the Guilt upon us from matter of fact unless thy saying it is so be either Proof or Argument which no wise man will understand to be so Thou saist perhaps we have charity among our selves we love one the other who are of our Perswasion However that is well so far it answers this Text of Scripture which thou hast quoted we wish we might say in truth so much for all of your Persuasion But thou goest on to shew how we should love Enemies c. and tellest us what John

says that God is Love and the more a man hath of Love the nearer he doth approach to the Nature of God and so tellest us what Paul saith of Charity c. But what doth all this towards the proving us to be defective in this great badge and mark of a Christian Disciple That this is both your and our Duty we grant but thou dost not shew matter of Fact wherein we are guilty it is an easie matter to accuse and charge but wise men will consider how they can make good the Accusation before they charge But since thou hast provoked thereunto let us take an observation of the Works of your Church and Ministry and see how you have born this badge and mark of a Disciple of Christ or whether we can find any Defects in her or not that we may see whether there is any reason to forsake her or not For many years past the Fruits of your Church and Ministers have been such that we think it will be hard for any to say they are the badge and marks of Christian Disciples for thou speakst in thy Letter of the Protestant Religion as it is profest in the Church of England and Ireland and so it is of that Church we now have Reason to take an observation let it be considered from whence hath all that great Persecution for many years proceeded whereby so many Families have been ruined many thousands imprisoned their Goods taken away not leaving some so much as a Bed to lie upon Cattel to till the Ground nor Corn for Bread and Seed nor Tools to work withal Whipping Stocking Stoning and grievously abusing so that many thereby have lost their Lives and meerly because they could not come to your Worship for Conscience sake or for meeting together to worship God according to their Faith and in these Persecutions the Ministers have often had a hand themselves in sending forth wicked Informers and sometimes appearing in their own persons besides the great Sufferings wherein many have suffered for the Ministers Wages and Hire which hath not been a little this in England Yet we have not escaped in Ireland but have often been imprisoned for meeting together to worship the Living God as we have also been for the Ministers Wages Now these not being the acts and deeds of former ages but of our present age and of a people yet living We need not say much to make it out it being still as Wounds bleeding which may be seen therefore come to the Application and see where the Imputation of this great Desect which thou couldst not omit will fall If thou canst prove these doings of yours to be the effects of Love and Charity then thou clearest your Church from this great defect and if so may be it may be a true Church but sure they manifest quite the contrary and were never the marks of a true but of a false Church as may be seen from the days of Cain downwards So that there 's no want of Reasons why R. L and others may turn from your Church and so in turning from you to the Truth which the Quakers are Witnesses of is not unsafe but a safe way to Heaven notwithstanding all that thou hast said to the contrary in reflection upon us and our Religion as also upon him as if he had forsaken you and changed his Religion out of Covetousness for which thou neither dost nor canst give any grounded Reason and therefore having said so much already we need not say much more to these matters When he answered thee and told thee it was the Love of God manifested in his heart c. and not Covetousness neither Humours Passions nor Prejudice c. for all he tells thee so yet thou still asserts that it plainly appears to be out of Covetousness and sayest in this as in other things he shakes hands with the Papists and not meerly for Conscience sake so here as in other things thou dost charge and accuse without proving what thou sayest as if thou knew his Heart and Conscience better than himself what dost thou think who is now judging another mans Servant and who is now assuming Gods Prerogative And when he tells thee it was the Love of God manifested thou tellest him it seems to thee that God had withdrawn his Love from him in suffering him to forsake so rational and pure a Religion as the established one is for a Persuasion that has either little or no Reason or Purity in it Ans. As for your esteablished Religion what Reason and Purity is in it or the contrary we have in some measure before shewed and all that will but observe your Religion and the effects of it may easily see that this is but a vain boast in thee to set forth your Religion for such a rational and pure one And for thy saying That which he hath chosen hath little either of Reason or Purity in it it is but thy Say so thou dost not undertake to prove or make it out at all so that if people will believe what thou saist it must be because thou saist it and not from any thing thou makest appear to manifest what thou saist to be true Thou goest on still after the same rate and when he saith he felt nothing of incurring the Displeasure of the Lord but on the contrary had more Peace in his own Conscience than when under thy Teaching thou tellest him of what Paul saith of some whom God had given up to a reprobate mind and so wouldst persuade him that this is his state and when he speaks of enjoying Peace more than when under thy Doctrine thou saist the reason is plain enough while under thy Doctrine his Conscience was under a tenderness it wassore with sin c. Ans. Truly we believe there was Reason for it to be sore with Sin but he might stay long there before it would be saved from Sin and so healed from that soreness for that you never come to by your own confession for all your days you are complaining that there is no Health in you so you are like to be sore with Sin but all that see their infirmity and what Physicians of no value you are had need to look out for a better Religion and better Ministers or Physicians to their Souls So that it s still evident he had reason to forsake yours and look out for a Religion that had more Power and Vertue in it to deliver from Sin and heal the Wounds it had made but it is not to be questioned that if he had slayed with thee and lived in his vain Conversation that would have been better born with by thee than his owning of that which leads to a Reformation and so like them of old that while people put it into their mouths they cried Peace but when they did not then prepared War against them Thou tellest him of going into the Quakers old way of uncharitable censuring because he saith many of the