Selected quad for the lemma: life_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
life_n	believe_v	faith_n	scripture_n	6,265	5	6.0885	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59876	A sermon preached at the funeral of the Reverend Benj. Calamy, D.D. and late minister of St. Lawrence Jewry, London, Jan. 7th, 1686 by William Sherlock ...	Sherlock, William, 1641?-1707.	1686 (1686)	Wing S3347; ESTC R21708	14,846	42

Authority is this May not every Christian do the same Is it not the duty of us all as we are able to instruct exhort reprove one another Yes it is and I would to God it were more generally practised but yet every private Christian cannot do this with the Authority of a Bishop or a Gospel-Minister The Instructions and Exhortations of private Christians are acts of Friendship and Charity and the obligation to it is that mutual concernment and sympathy which the Members of the same Body ought to have for each other In Gospel-Ministers it is an act of Authority like the Censures of a Father a Magistrate or a Judge We do not pretend indeed as St. Paul speaks to have dominion over your Faith to exercise a kind of Soveraign Authority to oblige you to believe any thing meerly because we say it but yet our Authority is such that if in the exercise of our Office we explain the Articles of Faith and Rules of Life to you it lays an indispensible Obligation upon you carefully to examine what we say and not to reject it without plain and manifest evidence that what we teach you is not agreeable to the Will of God revealed in the Scriptures For when we come in the Name and Authority of Christ that man who rejects our Message without being sure that we exceed our Commission rejects the Authority by which we act and he that despiseth despiseth not man but God It is our Work and our Commission to instruct you and it is your Duty to be instructed and whoever shall wantonly reject any Doctrines which do not suit with his humour and interest or oppose some popular mistakes and prejudices against the Instructions of his Guide or turn away his ear from instruction and heap to himself Teachers having itching ears such a man must give a severe account of this neglect and contempt to the great Bishop and Shepherd of Souls While we are careful to discharge our Office in pursuance of that Trust our Great Master hath committed to us what our Saviour tells his Apostles is true of the meanest of us all He that heareth you heareth me and he that despiseth you despiseth me and he that despiseth me despiseth him that sent me The like may be said of the Exhortations and Counsels and Directions and Reproofs of our Spiritual Guides they carry great Authority with them they are not like the private Admonitions of our Friends who exhort and reprove out of kindness and their particular concernment for us To reject such Counsels as these does mightily aggravate our sin and our condemnation as every thing does which makes our sin more wilful and obstinate but to reject the Counsels and Reproofs of our Guide is a new act of disobedience to that Authority which Christ has set in his Church Whether you will hear or whether you will obey we must exhort reprove advise and wo be to us if we do not and wo be to those who will not hear who will not obey Our great Master looks upon this as a contempt of his own Authority and this is all the Authority we have We cannot force you to obey our Counsels or Reproofs but ours and your Master will severely punish you if you do not In a word the Instructions Reproofs and Censures of Christ's Ministers carry such Authority with them that they can receive into or shut out of the Communion of the Church which is the onely visible state of Salvation Remission of sins and eternal Life is ordinarily to be had onely in the visible Communion of the Church and therefore the Power of Receiving into the Church by Baptism and of Casting out of the Church by Excommunication which is the onely Authority Christ hath given to these Rulers of his Houshold to Receive in and cast out of his Family is called a Power of Remitting or Retaining sins because the forgiveness of Sins is to be had onely in the Communion of the Church and no man belongs to the invisible Church who does not live in Communion with the visible Church when it may he had The Authority of Christs Ministers is to feed those who are of his Houshold to give them their meat in due season and to judge who shall belong to this Houshold who shall be received in or cast out of Christs Family This is the highest Act of Church Authority on Earth and the onely Sanction of all our instructions counsels and reproofs and therefore this Authority is not intrusted with every Gospel-Minister but is committed to the chief Governours of the Church the Bishops who succeed into the ordinary apostolical Power II. Let us now consider the due Qualifications which are required in Gospel-Ministers and they are two Faithfulness and Prudence Who is that Faithful and Wise Servant First Faithfulness Now Faithfulness in a Servant consists in being true to his Trust and when this is applied to Preaching the Gospel it signifies that he is extreamly careful to publish the whole Mind and Will of God which as it concerns us in this Age includes these following Rules 1. To be careful to acquaint our selves with the Will of God that we may be Scribes which are instructed unto the Kingdom of Heaven who are like unto a man that is an housholder which bringeth forth out of his treasure things new and old The Priests lips must preserve Knowledge but we must first have it before we can teach it others and since none of us now pretend to immediate Inspirations this is a work of difficulty and labour and requires as much faithfulness in our Studies as in the Pulpit It is no argument of Faithfulness whatever it may be of Diligence to run like Ahimaaz without Tidings to vent some crude and indigested thoughts for the Oracles of God 2. Faithfulness requires us to preach nothing for the Will of God but what we are sure to be so to deliver no Message but what we have received in Commission not to indulge our own private conjectures and fancies nor think to mend and sublimate Religion by Philosophical Speculations but to content our selves with the simplicity of the Gospel to Preach Christ Jesus and him Crucified Nothing has done greater mischief to Religion than when the very Teachers of it have been ambitious to be Wise above what is Written All the Articles of the Christian Faith as distinguisht from the Principles of Natural Religion can be known onely by Revelation and therefore there is no reasoning about them any farther than to know what is revealed and what is not revealed is so uncertain and so useless that it is not worth the knowing Since we preach in the Name and by the Authority of Christ we ought not to instruct our People in any thing but what we have his Authority for for this is to exceed our Commission Other nice Speculations may entertain us in private Conversation but when we preach in the Name of Christ

of Popery were thought a sufficient Justification of the most illegal irreligious methods to keep it out when it was scandalous to speak a word either for the King or the Church when cunning men were silent and those who affected Popularity swam with the Stream then this great good man durst reprove Schism and Faction durst teach men to conform to the Church and to obey honor the King durst vindicate the despised Church of England and the hated Doctrine of Passive Obedience though the one was thought to favour Popery and the other to introduce Slavery but he was above the powerful Charms of Names and liked Truth never the worse because it was miscalled His publick Sermons preached in those days and printed by publick Authority are lasting Proofs of this and yet he was no Papist neither but durst reprove the errours of Popery when some others who made the greatest noise and out-cry about it grew wise and cautious This was like a truly honest and faithful Servant to oppose the growing Distempers of the Age without any regard either to unjust Censures or apparent Danger And yet he did not needlesly provoke any man he gave no hard words but thought it severe enough to confute mens errors without upbraiding or reproaching their persons His Conversation was courteous and affable to all men soft and easie as his Principles were stubborn he could yield any thing but the Truth and bear with any thing but the Vices of men He would indeed have been the Wonder of his Age had he not lived in such an Age as thanks be to God can shew many such Wonders and yet in such an Age as this he made an Illustrious Figure though he had his Equals he had not many Superiours Thus he lived and thus this good man died for thus he was found doing when his Lord came The first symptoms of his Distemper seized him just before his last Sermon at White-hall but gave him so much respite as to take his leave of the World in an excellent Discourse of Immortality which he speaks of with such a sensible gust and relish as if his Soul had been then upon the wing and had some fore-tast of those joys it was just a going to possess And indeed he encountered the apprehensions of Death like one who believed and hoped for Immortality he was neither over-fond of living nor afraid to die He received the Supper of our Lord professed his Communion with the Church of England in which he had lived and in which he now died and having recommended his Soul to God he quietly expected how he would dispose of him But I must not forget to tell you that he died like a true and faithful Pastor with a tender care and affection for his Flock When he imposed this unwelcome Office upon me he told me he did not desire any Praises of himself but that I would give some good advice to his People who said he are indeed a very kind and loving People And this was not the first nor the onely time I have heard him own not onely your kind reception of him at first but the repeated and renewed expressions of your affection which did signally manifest it self in his late Sickness and now accompanies him to the Grave A Character which to your honour I speak it you have now made good for several successions and which I hope you will never forfeit But what that good counsel is he would have me give you he told me not and therefore I can onely guess at his intentions in this Were he now present to speak to you I believe he could not give you better counsel than he has already done and therefore my advice to you is 1. To remember those Counsels and Exhortations which you have heard from your deceased Pastor Though the Sower be removed yet let that immortal Seed that Word of Life which he has sown live and fructifie in your hearts and bring forth the blessed Fruits of Righteousness He has shewed you the plain way to Heaven have a care you do not forget it have a care you do not wander out of it He has recommended the Communion of the Church of England to you He has taught you to be Loyal to your Prince and to be true to your Religion take care then that neither your Religion destroy your Loyalty nor your Loyalty corrupt your Religion remember that beloved person whose memory is dear and sacred to you was neither a Rebel a Papist nor a Fanatick 2. Since you have lost your Guide a faithful and a prudent Guide and the choice of a Successour is in your selves be very careful as the concernment of your Souls requires you should be of your Choice Consider what an Age we live in which requires an experienced and skilful Pilot to steer a secure and steady course Have a care of dividing into Factions and Parties let not meer private Interests or Friendships govern you if it be possible admit of no Competitions much less of Pulpit-Combats which do oftner occasion lasting and fatal Divisions than end in a wise Choice Remember what a succession you have had of Great and Good Men in this Place and let it be your ambition still to equal and out-do it if you can And now I shall conclude with one word to you my Brethren of the Clergy We have lost a faithful and diligent Labourer in Gods Vineyard in a time when we could ill have spared him let us then who still survive double our diligence and express a greater Zeal and Concernment in the defence of Religion and in the care of Souls Let us remember that we are all mortal and how little time we have to work in we know not but let us so improve the remainder of our days that when our Lord comes he may own us for faithful and wise Servants and bestow on us a Crown of Righteousness and Immortality Which God of his infinite mercy grant through our Lord Jesus Christ To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be Honour and Glory and Power now and for ever Amen FINIS ADVERTISEMENTS ☞ A Sermon Preached before the Honourable House of Commons by W. Sherlock D. D. Price 6 d. A Vindication of that Sermon from a Popish Remonstrance 4 o. Price 6 d. Both sold by John Amery at the Peacock in Fleetstreet A Discourse against Transubstantiation Price 6 d. Doctrines and Practices of the Church of Rome truly Represented in Answer to a Papist Mis-represented and Represented Both printed for W. Rogers 1 Cor. 3. 16. 2 Cor. 6. 16. 6 Gal. 10. 3 Heb. 5 6. 20 Acts 28. 1 Cor. 4. 1. 1 Cor. 3. 2. 5. Heb. 12 1 Pet. 2. 2. 2 Tim. 4. 2. 20. Acts 28. 21. John 15 16 17. 1 Pet. 2. 2. 17. John 3. 5 Eph. 23. 10 John 14. 4 Eph. 8 11 12 13. 28 Mat. 18 19 20. 20 Joh. 21 22 23. 1 Act. 4. 8 9. 2 Cor. 10. 3 4 5. 2 Cor. 13. 10. 2 Cor. 1. 24. 10 Luk. 16. 13. Mat. 52. 2 Sam. 18. 22. 1 Cor. 4 1 2 3. 20. Acts 26 27. 16 Rom. 18. 2 Cor. 4. 2. 10. Mat. 41. 2 Cor. 6. 1. 2 Cor. 2. 16. 1 Cor. 4. 12 13. 19 Mat. 28.