Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	apostle_n	believe_v	holy_a	5,671	5	4.8590	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29239	The penitent pilgrim	Brathwaite, Richard, 1588?-1673.	1641 (1641)	Wing B4275; ESTC R6455	111,815	454

heavens are uncleane O when the righteous shall scarcely be saved what wil become of the wicked when the axe of his judgement shall not spare the greene tree what will become of the dry O nothing but woe woe may befall thee miserable delinquent if hee deale not with thee in mercy but in judgement I believe in the Holy Ghost This ninth Article Saint Iames the lesse delivered And thou art taught to believe thus much by it that the Holy Ghost the third person in the blessed Trinity is the Spirit of comfort truth and unity without which it is impossible to please God For as hee promised unto his Apostles a Comforter so in the shape of a Dove and in the forme of cloven tongues there appeared unto them this promised Comforter But how is it that thou beleevest in the Holy Ghost and yet with thine hardnesse of heart and loosenesse of life grievest the Holy Spirit of God Thus to beleeve if thou be not penitent will rather bee a meanes to draw on thee then remove from thee Gods heavy judgement The holy Catholike Church This tenth Article of faith Saint Simon founded But how dost thou beleeve the holy Cathelike Church or how is thy faith grounded if thou observe not what the Church has commanded How canst thou bee a Member of her so long as thou livest divided from her Or how canst thou truly call her Mother so long as thou hearknest not to her commands but becommest disobedient to her O then by a right faith knit thy selfe unto her or else disclaime thy being a Member of her But looke unto it for God thou canst not have for thy Father unlesse thou have his Church for thy Mother Neither canst thou ever hope to bee a Citizen in his Church triumphant unlesse thou bee first a Member of his Church Militant The Communion of Saints the forgivenesse of sinnes To this eleventh Article is Saint Iudas Thadaeus intitled And this Communion of Saints thou beleevest and for the forgivenesse of sinnes thou lookest And yet thou livest not as if thou desired to bee of this Communion Neither rendrest thou any such fruits of repentance as may cherish in thee the least hope of Remission The Resurrection of the body and the life everlasting Amen With this last Article Saint Mathias closeth our Creed And by it thou beleevest that thy body shall rise againe from the dust and that thy soule shall live with the just But hast thou not fed thy Body too delicately to rise againe to glory Hast thou not taken too much pleasure in sinning ever to enjoy life everlasting O thou blessed Trinity in unity and Vnity in Trinity thus have I made a confession of my Faith unto thee but my many faintings failings wants weaknesses and imperfections greatly discourage mee unlesse thou in thy mercy strengthen me I beleeve Lord O helpe my unbeleefe Give mee the shield of faith that here on earth I may acquit my selfe like a valiant Champion and in Heaven be made by thee a triumphant Citizen CHAP. 65. Having thus examined himselfe and found in the whole course of his life a fainting in faith and failing in Works He recalleth to mind those Quatuor Novissima or foure last Remembrances Memorials hourely necessary for all Christians THus hast thou laid thy selfe open to all discovery and there is no good thing to bee found in thee For in thy faith thou hast found a fainting and weaknesse and in all thy workes a failing and barrennesse Most freely went that blessed Father to worke and no lesse dangerous has beene thy walke when hee confessed himselfe in this fort Iinherit sin from my father an excuse from my mother lying from the Devill folly from the world selfe-conceit from the pride and arrogant opinion of my selfe Deceitfull have beene the imaginations of thine heart crooked have beene thy wayes malicious thy workes And yet hast thou taken the judgements of God in thy mouth Desiring nothing more then to blind the eye of the world with a counterfeit zeale But all such Hypocrites God will judge Hee will not be mocked with For as the Divell has his sive with which hee lets goe the good but keepeth the bad So the Lord has his Fanne by which he lets goe the bad and keepeth the good O when hee shall separate his goats from his sheepe his wheat from his tares when the Iust and the Wicked shall appeare before him and every man shall be put into the ballance O ● feare mee then thou wilt bee found many graines too light● It were well for thee then to prepare thy selfe against that great and fearefull day And to furnish thee all the better by making thee a true Convert of an impenitent Sinner recall to mind those Quatuor Novissima or Foure last Remembrances Memorials hourely to bee thought and so necessary to be reteined in thy memory as the Christian use of them may prepare thee before Death summon thee and in this vale of misery fit thee for thine heavenly voyage to eternity And yet while I speake thus unto thee I find thy condition to be wofull for if thou consider them the very thought of them cannot chuse but startle thee and if thou neglect them thou wilt stand in amaze when they encounter thee O my deare Lord remember me in thy mercy and so prepare my memory that these Foure necessary Remembrances may never depart from me Let mee be prepared for Death before it come that it may never take mee unprepared whensoever it shall come Let mee thinke of that fearefull day of Iudgement and judge my selfe before I be judged that ● may not be found light in thy scale when I shall be weighed Let me O let me thinke how there is an Hell for the damned for better is it by timely fearing it to avoid it then by never dreaming of it head-long to fall into it Lastly let mee thinke of Heaven how it is the place of the Blessed and that none but those that are of a cleane heart shall dwell in it O cleanse thou mine heart that I may bee prepared for it and with much spirituall joy be received in it CHAP. 66. Death IT is strange that Death should bee such a stranger to thee when hee so daily visits those that neighbour neere thee Thou hast beene familiarly acquainted with many whose habitation is not now to bee found who have enjoyed the pleasures of sinne freely Others who have inlarged their Barnes and store-houses carefully others who have ru●●led in their honours highly and could deliver a Word of Command bravely and now behold how all these being arrested at Deaths suit were enforced to veile to his surly command They have made their Beds in the darke They have left their Houses unto others they are gone unto their Graves and must not returne againe Their substance they have left unto others and strangers are become their Heires They are rooted out from the face of the

looked for in that day of Iubilee In the consideration whereof never did chased Hart long more thirstily after the Water-brookes then my poore wearied spirit did after her heavenly Bethesda O how shrilly mee thought did the cryes of the Saints under the Altar sound in mine ●are O how long Lord How long O how long shall I sojourne in this Pilgrimage of cares this valley of teares and become estranged from that Inheritance of lasting joyes the only sight whereof shall make me happy and from this Wildernesse of sinne bring me to the Sinah of glory Woe is me my Light my Love my Dove my onely one for that I have dwelled with the inhabitants of Cedar Woe is mee my King and my God that my habitation is prolonged For if holy David David a man according to Gods owne heart sometimes said how much more may I unhappy one say My soule hath beene too long an inhabitant Long and all too long have I sung because I was unsensible of my sinne my own countrey songs by those waters of Babylon Well therefore may I say It was good for mee that I have beene afflicted that I might learne thy statutes O my Lord hadst thou never afflicted mee I had never sought to know thee Hence is it that I know thee because thou ●ast afflicted mee And now my soule melteth for heavinesse not for that thou hast afflicted mee but for that shee has beene so long divided from thee I know Lord I know how hee who never mourned while hee was a Pilgrim shall never rejoyce when hee comes to bee a Citizen And as to abide for ever if wee would we might not so rejoyce here and hereafter though we would wee may not It is a great argument that hee loves not his Countrey who without occasion foreslowes his returne into his Countrey or takes any delight in any place before he returne unto his Countrey Alas I must confesse I have longed too much after the Onions and Garlicke and Flesh-pots of Egypt but now with gushing eyes doe I returne unto thee O receive mee I have protested and O strengthen so religious a protest with thy Spirit never to take any more delight in Idumaea I have suffered too much in it and by it to be now any more taken or delighted with it And now after my loathing of these puddles of vanity I have longed after those ever-running streames of eternity O how hath my soule thirsted after thee how greatly hath my flesh longed for thee my soule hath thirsted after thee the living fountaine O when shall I come and appeare before the face of the Lord when wilt thou come O my Comforter For whom else shall I expect O that I might see thee O my Ioy which I desire O then shall my soule be satisfied when my glory shall appeare for which I so long hungred O then shall I bee made drunke with the fulnesse of thine house after which I have sighed O then wilt thou refresh me with the Brooke of thy pleasure after which I have thirsted In the meane time let my teares become my bread day and night untill such time as it be said unto me behold thy God! untill my soule heare behold thy Spouse Meane while thou heavenly Shepherd feed me with my sighes refresh me with my sorrowes My Redeemer will doubtlesly come for hee is good neither will hee fore-slow his comming for hee is gracious To him be glory for evermore O hasten thy comming for thine Elect sake Come Lord Iesu come quickly CHAP. 75. The poore penitent Pilgrims last Will and Testament IN the name of the Father the Sonne and Holy Ghost I S. M. A poore penitent Pilgrim found in body and of perfect memory yet being daily read in the Lecture of mans mortality how all Flesh is Grasse and the beauty thereof as the Flower of the field which this day flourisheth to morrow withereth and that it is every Christians duty to prepare himselfe before Death come lest it find him unprovided at such time as it shall come Moved I say with these considerations I have here made this my last Will and Testament as followeth First I bequeath my soule into the hands of my gracious Redeemer by whose most precious blood I was redeemed and by whose merits and mercies for my merits are his mercies I hope to bee glorified And forasmuch as there was no safety out of the Arke nor no salvation now without the pale of the Church figured by the Arke and that the tares from the wheat must be severed the Sheepe and the Goats must not into one Fold be gathered HERE in the presence of God and his blessed Angels for the discharge of mine owne conscience and the satisfaction of others who perchance have in their opinions been divided doubting much how I in points of Religion stood affected Doe I make a free and publike confession of my Faith being that Cement by which we are knit unto her and made Members of her I beleeve the holy Catholike Church to be the Communion of the Faithfull whereof I desire to live and dye a Member for which to suffer I should account it an honour holding this for a Principle ever That none can have God for his father that will not take his Holy Spouse the Church for his Mother There is no Article in the Apostles Creed which I do not beleeve for Catholike and Orthodoxall with the exposition thereof and every Cl●use or Particle thereof in such manner as it hath beene universally received by the holy Catholike Church from the first four hundred years after Christ and as it holds in consent or harmony with the Holy Scripture the Christians Armour by which and the constant practise of piety every faithfull Souldier of Christ Iesus may be enabled to pull downe those strong Holds of his spirituall enemy and by possessing his soule in patience obtaine a glorious victory And as there have been at all times tares in Gods field so is it more to be pittied then doubted that there are many surreptitious errours crept into the bosome of the Church through the corruption of time and our enemies malice which though they ayme not at the Corner-stone nor at the maine foundation yet being but stubble no wayes conducing to so glorious a building they are to bee accounted of that quality as they blemish much her primitive beauty These then being the fancies of humane braines and introduced into the Church for private ends and so continued rather by an imperious then just command I hold them so farre from being effectuall to salvation as they become scandalous to many tender consciences and consequently deserve rather to be rejected then imbraced But for the Ornaments of the Church as shee is the Kings Daughter so she should be comely and for her musicke or melody being his Spouse it admits harmony for so drowsie is mans zeale and affection as hee stands in great need of something