Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	add_v	church_n	faith_n	2,553	5	5.1567	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43313	An essay for the discovery and discouraging of the new sprung schism raised and maintained by Mr Simon Henden of Bennenden in Kent. Exhibited in some passages of writing which have gone between Mr John Elmeston of Cranebroke, and the same M. Henden. Published according to order.	Elmeston, John.; Henden, Simon, attributed name.	1652 (1652)	Wing H1429B; ESTC R216858	34,427	52

were none that made any visible profession of true Religion but those sealed ones you say that beside the book and without proof For those sealed ones were as you truly say elect and saved ones Now in all ages many more have made profession of Religion then the elect of God Many are called few are chosen Matth. 20. 16. And so here it is clear that during the time especially at the beginning of the defection as in Jerusalem Ezek. 9. Besides the godly mourners which were marked in the fore-head there were sundry that made profession of the Jewish Religion and were visible Members though not living Members of the Church So during this Apostasie beside these sealed ones there were many that did professe the Christian Religion aright for the substance and helpe to make up a visible Church Secondly If there were none else yet that doth not prove that the visible Church did utterly fail For even out of that number visible Churches in sundry places and several Ages in which successively they lived might well be and were constituted as which were a company sealed in the fore-head and making open profession of Christ and his Gospel in the Places where and in the Ages when they lived Two things are about them to be taken notice of 1. That they were a sealed number which doth import thus much That in that great defection in which the greatest part of men perished eternally by wondering after and worshipping the Beast Yet there was a chosen number that were saved that is these sealed ones and none but they though there were many besides them which made visible profession of the Gospel 2. That they were sealed in the fore-head which shews that while the whole earth almost did worship the Beast yet there was a great number in those times that did not defile themselves with that Idolatry but did openly maintain and professe the true faith of Christ and worship of God among which was found a visible Church For a Conclusion you adde That these latter Ordinances have a being in the Scripture and in the minde and desire of the faithfull and that you carry them along with you as the Israelites did of old the vessels of the Lord but that you dare not officiate with them as being in the Territories of Babylon untill you be past Euphrates Answ. What Ordinances are instituted and commanded in Scripture as you say they are for how else have they a being there but by institution and command Gods people are bound to practise them in all times and places unlesse by some external violence of persecution or so they be letted They must observe all things which Christ hath commanded Matth. 28. 20. It will not then serve your turn that you carry them along with you in your minde and desire unlesse you officiate with them as you phrase it Nor will the example of the Israelites help here who used not the vessels of the Lord for any holy service while they were in the way to Sion Of which the reason is very plain for their use was confined to a certain place viz. The Temple at Jerusalem and might not elsewhere be used But so are not any Gospel-Ordinances with which God may now be worshipped in any place John 4. 21 23. And if you purpose to forbear the use of them untill you be past Euphrates I would gladly learn from you what this Euphrates is How farre from it or near to it we be As Irenaeus above said of Prophecies not fulfilled That they are dark and so doubtfull Riddles unto men so about this as not accomplished in your own judgement I finde Interpreters so to vary that I know not where to fix my foot Presume not too much of your own insight into such mystical Prophecies above other godly and learned men but whatsoever your conceit be of it count it but as a conjecture and be content with us in sobriety and humility to wait untill the Lord shall accomplish it and by a clear event reveal to us the meaning of it And thus having said somewhat to most of your new conceits I should here have ended but that there cometh to minde an argument of some weight with the particulars of it much making against your new way which I desire to profer to your consideration It is thus What Way or opinion is contrary to any of the ten Commandments any Petition of the Lords-Prayer any commanded Duty and to the furtherance of mens salvation cannot be of Christ but may justly be deemed Antichristian Such is this of yours which denies the setting up of visible Churches in right order official Ministry and calling thereunto and the exercise of Discipline and therefore it cannot be of God but a spirit of Antichrist is in it To make good the Minor of which onely the doubt can be It is First Contrary to the second Commandment As the negative of that Commandment doth forbid unto men all false and devised means of Gods worship so the affirmative according to the received rule of interpreting the Commandments doth command to us the use of all means of worship appointed by the Lord Now the Lord hath appointed for that purpose two sorts of means the one more principall as directly tending to the exercise and nourishing of Faith Hope and Love viz. Preaching the Word administration of Sacraments publick Prayer The other lesse principall as conducing to the right use of the former and tending to Gods worship as their proper end such are Church-societies official-Ministry and a due Calling to it exercise of Discipline which that Commandment doth enjoyn as well as the former and which cannot be wittingly and commonly omitted without breach of it Secondly It is against the fourth Commandment which as it commandeth the sanctifying of the Sabbath so according to the right interpreting of the Commandments doth it withall prescribe and enjoyn the use of all means that are profitable to the better sanctifying of it And who can deny who is not wilfully wedded to his self-conceit that gathering and ordering Churches in distinct societies and an official Ministery rightly called doth much avail hereunto and that the Lords-day is much better sanctified in such Societies and such a Ministry then in confused Assemblies that are without order and without any orderly Ministry Now the ten Commandments are moral perpetual and binde alwayes Secondly It is against the two first Petitions of the Lords Prayer wherein we are taught to pray That Gods name may be hallowed Secondly That his Kingdom may come Now what we ought to pray for it is our duty to pursue the promoting of it by all Gods means for to pray for this or that and not to apply our selves to the use of all good means to obtain or promote it is to dally with God and to mock him Now the setting up of visible Churches of an orderly Ministery and Discipline doe serve very much to the sanctifying of Gods name and promoting

AN ESSAY FOR The Discovery and Discouraging of the new sprung Schism raised and maintained by Mr SIMON HENDEN of Bennenden in Kent Exhibited in some Passages of Writing which have gone between Mr JOHN ELMESTON of Cranebroke and the same M. Henden Love the Truth and Peace Zech. 8. 19. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine that ye have learned and avoid them Rom. 16. 17. Haereses inimicus invenit Schismata quibus subverteret fidem veritatem corrumperet scinderet unitatem Cyprian de Unitate Ecclesiae The enemy the devil hath invented Heresies and Schisms by which he might subvert the Faith corrupt the Truth and rend Unity asunder An esse sibi cum Christo videtur qui adversus Christi sacerdotes facit Qui se à cleri ejus e●plebis societate secernit Idem ibid. Doth he seem to himself to be with Christ who sets himself against the Ministers of Christ Who doth separate himself from the society of the Ministery and people of Christ Published according to Order London Printed for C. Meredith at the Crane in Pauls Church-yard 1652. TO THE READER Gentle Reader IT is like thou hast heard the Story of the Trojan-Horse which the Grecians built by the councel of Pallas and by subtle Sinons perswasion procured to be received into Troy but to the ruine of that ancient and famous City For in the next night issued out of it a warlike troop of the most valiant Greekish Captains couched secretly therein which invaded the City and laid it waste with fire and sword Much like unto this Trojan-horse hath been set on foot here in England an Universall Toleration for all wayes and consciences in Religion No doubt it was by Satans craft and by the insinuation of some cunning Sinons It is like to redound to the great prejudice if not ruine of our Troy I mean of the Church of God in this Land and the Gospel of Christ For out of it have come forth not some small Bands but numerous Armies of ungodly Blasphemies Heresies Errours Sects and Schisms some whereof oppose the Fundamental Truths of the Gospel some disturb the Peace and Unity of the Churches All this to the great Joy of Satan and Grief of the Godly exceedingly hinders the thriving and progresse of the Gospel Out of this Womb have broken forth that execrable crue of Ranters which speak horrid Blasphemies of God of Christ of the Scriptures of the Arians Secinians and Antiscripturists who by their cursed Doctrines break down some main Pillars of our Christian Faith Out of this Womb also are broken forth another sort of erroneous Persons not so pernicious as these former though very dangerous whose Doctrines are I doubt like unto those waters into which the Wormwood-star sell and are become so bitter that whoso drinks thereof is in danger to die And of this rank are our Arminians Antinomians Soul-Mort lists Anti-sabbatarians Seekers and such like Out of this Womb also are come forth another brood not so dangerous for their Errors though some be grosse and absurd as grievous for the Rents and Divisions which they make and delight to maintain Among which our Anabaptists are the ●●ading men After whom come up close all those other Separatists and Dissenters from us who have embraced such a Truth and Gospel as in their sense about it will admit of no Unity with us of the Presbyterian-way in Church nay scarce in Christian Communion and seem so strangely to be affected toward us as if they would not willingly allow us a place in Heaven with them nor they willingly be in the same Heaven with us It is an ancient and approved Axiom Quae conveniunt in eodem tertio ea quoque inter se conveniunt Whatsoever things agree in some one third thing they also agree between themselves What a sad thing is this then that Christians and Saints of God meeting in the one and onely corner Stone Jesus Christ upon whom they endeavour to build the whole frame of their Doctrine Worship and Discipline should so ill agree in their mutual Conversation each with other so farre disagree in the joint-Worship of the Lord that they seem to be possessed with as bitter a spirit of discord as the two Brethren the Poets fable of Eteocles and Polynices whose hatred was so unreconcilable that after Death the flame of the fire wherein their bodies were joyntly burnt would not close but did divide asunder And if that good man Linaker were now alive and should see this implacable division between the Professours of the same Gospel would he not and that justly break out with indignation against us into that his passionate Speech Surely either these men professe not the right Gospel of Christ or are not right Professours of his Gospel This is a Lamentation and this shall be for a Lamentation O God who art the Father of Peace O Christ who art the Prince of Peace O Holy Ghost who art the Spirit of Peace work it in the Hearts and Affections of thy Children Disciples and Saints that they may love and live in peace But to come to mine intended matter From hence also hath arisen this new forged Sect of M. Hendens of the which these following Papers will give thee a slight view and with the which I am at unawares more deeply engaged then at first I meant The brief Story whereof is this M. Henden hath been a man of good Note these many years for Profession of Religion no despiser of Learning but rather a lover of it By his private Industry he hath added to his Grammar-School-learning some Knowledge of the Original Tongues Studious also he hath been of the Scriptures unto which his retired life partly upon some bodily infirmity partly as some have thought upon some worldly Discontents gave him an opportunity and especially of the dark Prophecies of Ezekiel Daniel and the Apocalyps In the which his vein hath been to vary from the stream of other Interpreters and to produce some unusual notion of his own with no small confidence of its truth This man was heretofore a great Antagonist of the old Separatists called Brownists and with much zeal did against them maintain our Churches in England and our Ministery then as the true Churches and Ministery of Christ But now of late I know not how on the sudden it was noised abroad that he was changed in his Principles fallen from our Communion and had erected a new uncouth way by himself and much purer then any other And truly hereupon there was much flocking to him of unstable souls Much like as the Poet describes the flocking of people after Bacchus * his Orgia when they were first brought in at Thebes Turba ruit mistaeque vi●is matresque nurusque Et vulgus proceresque ignota ad sacra feruntur The rout rung headlong and all mixt together Mives husbands and their Daughters each with other