Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	church_n	faith_n	profess_v	3,565	5	8.8932	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29671	The sacred and most mysterious history of mans redemption wherein is set forth the gracious administration of Gods covenant with man-kind, at all times, from the beginning of the world unto the end : historically digested into three books : the first setteth down the history from Adam to the blessed incarnation of Christ, the second continueth it to the end of the fourth year after his baptisme ..., the third, from thence till his glorious coming to judgement / by Matthew Brookes ...	Brookes, Matthew, fl. 1626-1657.	1657 (1657)	Wing B4918; ESTC R11708	321,484	292

called in the old testament Ramathaim Zophim of mount Ephraim the city of Elkana the father of Samuel the prophet a rich man 1 Sam. 1.1 an honourable counsellor a disciple of Jesus but secretly for fear of the Jewes which also waited for the kingdom of God a good man and a just who had not consented to the counsell or deed of them who gave up Jesus to death consulted it should seem with Nicodemus who was a pharisee and a ruler of the Jewes who came to Jesus by night St. Joh. 3.1 2. and had formerly declared against them St. Ioh. 7.50 51. concerning his buriall to the end that he might not be laid or cast aside with the other malefactours but might have an honourable interment Whereupon Ioseph went in boldly unto Pilate and begg'd his body for it did belong unto him to dispose of it Pilate marvelling that he was so soon dead called unto him the Centurion and being certified by him that he was dead indeed he gave his body unto Ioseph who took it down from the crosse having first bought fine linnen to wrap it in Then came Nicodemus bringing a mixture of myrrhe and aloes about an hundred pound waight So they did unto the body according to the manner of the Iewes viz. they washed it for the Iewes did wash the bodies of the dead before they wrapped them up for the grave Act. 9.37 Then they wound it in the linnen clothes with the spices as the manner of the Iewes was to bury which being done they caused it to be carried into a garden neer at hand where was a new sepulchre wherein no man had ever been laid which Joseph had made for himselfe causing it to be hewen out of the rock intending it for himselfe when he should depart out of the world by death In that new sepulchre they disposed that blessed body and when they had rolled a great stone to the doore of it they departed S. Mat. 27.55 56 57 58 59 60 61. S. Mar. 15.40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47. S. Luc. 23.49 50 51 52 53 54 55. S. Joh. 19.38 39 40 41 42. All which things were observed by Saint Mary Magdalen and the other women mentioned by the Evangelists who saw what was done unto him and where they had laid him Nor were they much scanted of time to do all this and to bury him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the sun went down as Saint Ignatius saith in that they had the whole Evening or the greatest part of it which was of the artificiall day from the ninth houre to the twelfth to do it In which pious act Ioseph and Nicodemus did wonderfully cooperate with the divine providence and will of God 1st To keep that sacred body from corruption with the myrrhe and aloes which must not have entered into the least degree of corruption 2ly That his resurrection might be the more apparent and undeniable for had his body been laid with the bodies of others they would have said that it was some other that was risen Or had he not been laid in a tombe hewen out in the rock but built of many stones they would have said that some one or other had undermined and taken him away So likewise had he been laid in a grave of earth that the earth had been removed and that he had been stollen For which cause God also would that a great stone should be rolled to the dore of the sepulchre which might not be removed but by the help of many Aquin. 3. q. artic 2 3 4. Thus did Joseph and Nichodemus testifie their love and affection towards him but they did not believe that he would rise again upon the third day for had they believed that they would have understood that it had been needlesse for them to wrap his body in such a quantity of myrrhe and aloes to keep it from putrifaction which God had promised not to see corruption But the Jewes thought they would make all safe enough therefore the next day that followed the day of the preparation the chiefe Priests and the Pharisees came together unto Pilate S. Mat. 27.62 63 saying Sir We remember that that deceiver said while he was yet alive After three daies I will rise again Command therefore that the sepulcher be made sure untill the third day lest his disciples come by night and steal him away and say unto the people He is risen from the dead 64 65 66. So the last errour shall be worse then the first Pilate said unto them Ye have a watch go your way make it as sure as you can So they went and made the sepulcher sure sealing the stone and setting a watch Thus did these sanguinarious hypocrites to satisfie their owne malice Prophanation of the sabbath most impiously prophane the great sabbath by going to Pilate an heathen man by setting the watch by sealing the stone especially if so much labour were bestowed about it as Nicephorus tells us by a nothing unlikely tradition Lib. 1. cap. 32. who had so often pretended against him the violation of the sabbath for the good which he did upon that day From the cross his soul went immediately into the heavenly paradise The state of his soul after death 1st Going into paradise S. Luc. 23.43 2ly Descending into hel to open the gates thereof to all believers and in particular to prepare a mansion for the penitent thiefe according to his own word and promise upon the crosse To day shalt thou be with me in paradise And having first opened the kingdome of heaven he then persues his victory against the enemy who had caused the gates of that kingdome to be shut against all mankinde by sin This he doth by descending into hell for that he did descend into hel it is an article of the christian faith believed and confessed all the world over which the Church of England constantly professeth and in terminis while the creed is repeated in the publick worship by the minister and by the people standing Also in the administration of the holy sacrament of Baptisme where the party baptized doth professe by the mouth of his sureties that he doth believe that he descended into hell Hell is the place of the damned not a purgatory a limbus patrum or a limbus infantium much lesse the grave or the pains and torments such as he suffered in his soul upon the crosse least of all a temporall captivity of his blessed body in the grave But he descended into hell therefore into the place of the damned into which he descended according to all that wherein it was possible for him to descend now God doth neither ascend nor descend nor is he moved from place to place he containeth heaven and earth but is not himself contained in heaven or earth 1 Kin. 8.46 His body was confined to the grave though not there to see corruption Therefore he descended in soul for his soul went

down into the place of the damned really and by locall motion so that he descended not onely by effect and virtue but by actuall descent the divinity being also present therewith by the hypostaticall union Which thing is no less no otherwise nor by any other faith to be believed but in the same measure in the same manner and by the same faith by which we believe his death and buriall For saith the Church of England As Christ dyed for us and was buried so also is it to be believed that he went down into hell Art 3. It is to be believ'd because it was predicted and foretold by the spirit of prophecie in the old Testament Thou wilt not leave my soule in hell It is to be believed because it was typed by Sampson and by Jonah the prophet It is to be believed because it pertained to his triumph over principalities and powers Psal 16.10 Jud. 16.3 Jon. 1.17 to spoile them utterly of all that they had and to enter as a conqueror into their strong city there to triumph over them and to spoile them of that dominion which they had there seeing that he was made not in his divinity for that he was before but in his humanity wherein he was crucified and wherein he conquered Lord of hell and of all infernall things It is to be believed because Saint Peter saith expresly That he went and preached unto the spirits in prison which sometimes were disobedient 1 Pet. 3.19 when once the long sufferings of God waited in the dayes of Noah while the Ark was a preparing wherein few that is eight soules were saved by water 20. He sealed up their just condemnation for their incredulity by exhibiting himself there who would not believe in him the seed of the woman who should break the Serpents head whom Noah had preached unto them that they might be saved Finally it is to be believed because this Creed and all other creeds are to be understood onely in the literall sense and without tautalogies which while some have not observed they have been put to miserable shifts and have thereby fallen into divers errours while some by hell understand the grave others those sufferings wherewith his soul was afflicted upon the cross others his captivity in the grave whereby his body lay in bondage under death till the third day some have flatly denyed the article it self and have not spared to style it a fiction some think the Creed to be corrupted and that the words in time got in by negligence Some have translated hell to the garden of Gethsemane and to mount Calvary and said that there he descended into hell both in soule and body by his sufferings in both and that he suffered there the torments of hell rejection desperation the second death Some also do describe as perfectly as if they had been there and do say that in hell there be four receptacles the one where the souls of the righteous Fathers who departed this life before the comming of Christ in the flesh and before his death were kept and thither went the soul of Christ say they by actual reality and brought them out from thence and this they call limbus patrum Another receptacle they say there is where the soules of penitent Christians are kept which have not been perfectly cleansed from the blemish of sinne in this life and this they call Purgatory A third wherein are kept the soules of children departing this life before baptisme which they call limbus puerorum or infantium And the fourth into which the damned are sent to suffer eternally by a double penalty of the loss and of the sense And this they call the hell of the damned into which if we will believe them Christ descended not by actuall reality as neither did he into purgatory and the limbus puerorum but only by a virtuall and operative descent But the Creed having told us what became of his body after death and that he was buried doth likewise tell us what his soul did after it was departed from his body and that he descended into hell so that his descending into hell did not pertain to his humiliation but to his glorification inchoated and begun which was manifested by his glorious resurrection whereby he was declared to be the Son of God with power Rom. 1.4 as Saint Paul saith but was fully consummated by his ascension into heaven When the third day was come after that his soul had done all those things in the heavenly paradise The history of Christ his blessed resurrection and in hell which he in his soul by divine dispensation was first to do and after that his blessed body had rested in the grave about the space of thirty six or thirty eight hours from the friday at what time he was laid into his sepulchre by Joseph of Arimathea and Nichodemus before the sun went down to the morning of the first day of the week to the end that he might fulfill the types and prophecies of the scripture Gen. 22. Gen. 41. Jon. 2. 3. S. Mat. 16.21 and also his Evangelicall word whereby he had promised his resurrection upon that day And that his Church in all her members might know and believe that he had fully conquered and subdued death And that he might fully manifest himselfe to be the Son of God S. Joh. 10.17 18. and Lord of life and that he dyed not by compulsion but of his own free will And to the end that he might make a gracious and effectuall application of his obedience and of his sufferings and of his death to all true believers by ascending into heaven Heb. 9.24 Rom. 8.34 S. Joh. 2.1 2. to appear in the presence of God and to make intercession for them and to be their advocate with the Father Upon all these respects and for all these great waighty causes he delayed no time but early in the morning somewhat before day and to that end that he might with all speed comfort his sorrowfull Disciples who as yet believed not that he would rise againe by his own power and virtue S. Joh. 20.9 he arose from the dead and went out of the sepulchre leaving behind him the linnen clothes and the napkin wrapped together in a place by it selfe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the stone which was rolled S. Jo. 20.6 7. yet remaining upon the door of the sepulchre Theoph. in Mat. 28. Then was there a great earthquake S. Mat. 28.2 for the Angell of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled back the stone from the door and sate upon it His countenance was like lightning 3 and his raiment white as snow And for feare of him the keepers did shake and became as dead men Such was the cause of the earthquake 4. and of the comming of the Angell It was not to role back the stone to the end that his body might come forth

demanded for themselves and for those of their own profession 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Master what shall we do And he said unto them Exact no more then that which is appointed you 13 The soldiers also hearing his answer to the publicans desired the like particular instruction for themselves and for their commilitants and therefore demanded saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And what shall we do And he said unto them Do violence to no man neither accuse any falsely and be content with your wages 14 His preaching and baptisme were had in great admiration by all the people and much talk went concerning him they mused in their hearts and reasoned and disputed one with another concerning him whether he were the Christ or not whom all men then expected This gave him occasion to put them out of doubt concerning both his person and Baptisme and to inculcate that which he had said before to the Pharisees and Sadduces in his commination observed by Saint Matthew 15 For saith the text The people were in expectation and all men mused in their hearts of John whether he were the Christ or not 16 John answered saying unto them all I indeed baptize you with water but one mightier then I commeth the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose he shall baptize you with the holy Ghost and with fire 17 Whose fan is in his hand and he will thorowly purge his floor and will gather the wheat into his garner but the chaffe he will burne with fire unquenchable 18 And many other things in his exhortation preached he unto the people passed over by the Evangelists for that brevities sake which the Scripture every where affecteth Christ baptized by St. John the Baptist Bethabara While these things were thus transacted by Saint John at Jordan a fair river in Judea which divideth Galilee from the residue of Judea falleth into the dead Sea Jesus himself upon the sixth day of the month of January in the beginning of the thirtieth year of his age came from Nazareth the place of his education and abode with his parents unto Bethabara where Saint John baptized It was a town scituated upon the east-side of the river Iordan sixteen miles from Ierusalem and as they say fiftie and two miles from Nazareth where it seems was some bridge or ferry to passe over the river from whence the place had its name Bethabara for Beth signifieth an house and Abbara is transitus a passage as if you should say the house of the passage Thither came he who had no need of Baptisme to be baptized of his servant It was because it became him to fulfill all righteousnesse How in fulfilling the types for the Ark which was a type of Christ passed through Iordan and Elijah and Elisha who were typicall persons and types of Christ passed through Iordan prefiguring his Baptisme And not only to fulfill the types but to sanctifie Iordan it self and all other waters in a lawfull sacramentall use to the mysticall washing away of sin for so the Church of England with consent of the primitive Church believeth and confesseth as Saint Ambrose saith Cum salvator abluitur jam tum in nostrum baptismum tota aqua mundatur Serm. 18. in Epiphan When the Saviour is baptized then is all the water made clean for our Baptisme And no marvell for if the temple sanctified the gold and the Altar sanctified the gift surely Christ the Lord of the temple and the true altar must needs sanctifie and who shall doubt but that by his baptisme he sanctified the whole element of water for the sacrament of Baptisme It is Christs own prerogative to institute his sacraments by sanctification of the Elements Therefore it is fond and frivolous to object that Christ sanctified not all those things that he touched and therefore not the river Iordan by being baptized in it seeing that he hath instituted this great sacrament in the element of water for sanctifications are ex consilio destinato to the end that being taken off from common and ordinary uses by divine institution they may serve for that purpose to the which they are sanctified Therefore though he descended into hell he sanctified not hell nor yet the Palace of the high priest nor all or any of those places in the land of Palestina into which he came In a word he would be baptized of his servant for instruction to teach us neither to despise the Sacrament for the weakness of the Element nor for the unworthiness of the Minister and withall to give us to understand that like as he in old time brought the people of Israel the carnall seed into the earthly Canaan through the river of Iordan Even so in these last dayes doth he bring the spirituall seed into the heavenly Canaan through the sacrament of Baptisme For therein are we made members of Christ children of God and inheritors of the kingdom of heaven Except a man be born of water S. Joh. 3.5 and of the spirit he cannot enter into the kingdom of God Now when he was come and tendred himself to be baptized of him St. John who knew him in his mothers wombe supernaturally and by such a knowledge as was never given to any other and leaped for joy and yet never knew him nor had seen him in all his life till that instant of time knew him then by divine inspiration S. Luc. 1.44 S. Joh. 1.31 and therefore thought himself altogether unworthy to baptize his Lord and for that cause forbad him saying I have need to be baptized of thee I who am a sinner and born in sinne of thee who art no sinner nor born in sin I who am thy servant of thee who art my Lord and comest thou to me Thou the immaculate lambe of God thou the eternall word of God thou the eternall God comest thou to me to me a servant to me a sinner O wonderfull and mysterious Christ submonisheth him of his dispensation and that he came to fulfill all righteousnesse wherefore being presently admitted without further contradiction or delay he descended into the water and was baptized 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and straight way He went up straight way out of the water presently without delay he went up out of the water for he made all possible speed to pray unto the Father and that the Holy Ghost might descend upon him and that he might receive the Fathers testimony from heaven And therefore St. Luke saith That when all the people were baptized and that Jesus also being baptized and praying the heaven was opened And the holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon him and a voice came from heaven which said Thou art my beloved sonne in thee I am well pleased I shall not doubt but that he did pray for the holy Ghost and that the element of water which he had sanctified in the lawfull use of it might become