Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	scripture_n	time_n	2,768	5	3.3859	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A54122	A commentary upon the present condition of the kingdom and its melioration	Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1677 (1677)	Wing P1268; ESTC R32305	33,126	47

and Ceremonies what Reference have they Unless it be to amuse the mind and frame a beliefe in men that Religion quite contrary to the nature of it consists in externalls whereby to the destruction of Religion the mind shall be drawn forth into external appearances to cause it delight in that Pomp and Vanity which it should forsake and by this means it will be blinded so much as not once to look within it self but thinks all is well where there is nothing but rottenness and Corruption If you say that these externals are representations of the Internal work and serve to lead us to them I answer it is a Preposterous and indirect means for what is so near me as I am to my self And why cannont I descend into my own mind every moment without taking that for an advantage which brings ruine with it As Crosses Garments c. For Ceremonies are not only needless but mischeivous cheating and blinding the World whereby they let go the substance and embrace the shaddow 3. Ministers or Bishops have no concern in publick Affairs or in Secular Jurisdiction their business is to press Faith in Christ both in themselves and others to remove the Corruption fallen upon mens minds what duty then lyes upon them for Secular business or what claime have they to it The nature of their Profession and Doctrine does divest them thereof as much as is possible being quite opposite to it forbidding even too much concerne for their Private Affairs in the World which shews that it is their extravagancy and degeneracy when they thrust themselves into publick Imployment which has such tendency to overcharge their minds with that which they should be altogether cleansed from as we have before shewed 4. It is almost needless here to say there is no such Power of Excommunication as is now in use being made to uphold a lye and an unjust usurpation in Secular Affaires to lacky after Fees and to serve the Secular Interest of the Clergy which according to the Truth of their Imployment is none at all we have shewed before what this Excommunication is And certainly the true Church as well as the Government thereof being Internal and Spiritual not External and Secular all the Acts of its Jurisdiction must be agreeable thereto 5. That Method of Preaching is a prejudice to the Life and Power of Religion wherein men set forth themselves by Studied Discourses with Ornaments of History Rhetorick subtile Disputations nice Distinctions c. For by these things the mind is taken up with things that are Circumstantial and External and thereby le ts slip those things that are Internal and of nearer Concernment and therefore has a stamp of of the Beast upon it tending to inhance the value of all other External things which men ought to deny causing them to love and embrace what they should cast away to desire more earnestly such things as they should be mortified unto and consequently they will run more swiftly then before to the pit of Destruction where Antichrist and the false Prophet is So that at the end these men are worse then at the beginning they might have been had they not been trained up in such a Religion as this and it were better for them not to have known the way of Truth then having known it to make it the Instrument of more enlarged wickedness and of going yet farther from God then at first 6. The Minister or Bishop takes no honour to himself all that he is or hath he hath received it it is the purchase of the the blood of Christ exhibited according to the word in the second Covenant to all that belive he seeks not reward nor laboureth for gain having devested himself of Worldly and outward things He Governs the people ●e is set over not with force but meekness he useth no means of Compulsion but draweth them gently he pretends not power over their Wills but an Office to perswade but if men will destroy themselves he is guiltless doing what is suitable to his Office to reclaime them alwayes willing to help them alwayes with open Arms to receive such as come to the Church and restore such as are fallen Lamenting and Praying for such whose Miscarriages are from their own Wills and not in his power to help 7. The last thing we observe from what is said before is that it is impossible there should be any Difference or Sect in the Christian Religion and if you find any amongst them say assuredly Inimicus homo fecit hoc it is a stranger to the Truth a●d proceeds from some other cause The reason is plain for what occasion can be imagined of Division or Schisme amongst those who all conspire only in this to keep their minds Pure and clean from Corruption by Faith in Jesus Christ and in the power of that Holy Spirit which is one in all of them From which oneness divided through many members there must needs be unity But you will say the present time testifies the Division that is among Christians I answer that such as are Christians in pretence only may divise a hundred more Sects and Parties They are men that will inspite of the Scriptures serve two Masters God and Mammon the Lord and Baall Men who are Christians by the halfes that will serve the Lord yet not without a Babel of their own setting up In Briefe the Presbyterians Independants Anabaptists c. Will add to the Scriptures something that is meerly of their own fancies imagining the Scripture to sound according to their prejudice and preconception Now if one man will set up one thing and say this is according to Scripture another man with the same reason may set up another thing of his own hatching and framing and say the like and so we may go on in Infinitum If the Bishops say such and such Ceremonies are to be used in the Church seeming to them decent and according to Scripture The Presbyterians are not obliged to think as they do nor take the same measures of Decency as they do and therefore may claim Priviledge as well as the other of a second Constitution which perhaps will not so well agree with Independants and therefore with as much Right may they set up a third and so every man as his Fancy leads him In the mean time this difference is not in Religion it self but in the Braines and Fancies of men that love to cloth and dress Religion according to their own fashion and there cannot be a unity till men shall come to throw away all these their delightful Imaginations and return to the obedience of that Spirit of Life and Truth which proceedeth from the Father and the Son and is only able to make us wise unto Salvation There is no unity but in this the occasion of our divisions was by departing therefrom and our returning to it will be our advancement to our right minds to live in unity in love in Peace in

lyable to the Quirkes and Fallacies of so many busie Deceivers and also that it may be brought as near as may be to the present Genius and Humour of men by that means that we be not governed by an Antique Humour as we would not be clothed in their fashion To Regulate the abuses therein and hinder Multiplicity of Suites the means may be to appoint Arbitrations that no Suit shall be in any of the Kings Courts under a hundred Pounds But that the Parties at variance for any value under that be made to chuse each his Arbitratour and to enter into bond to approve the Arbitrators shall determine only this bond in case Covenants be not performed to be brought into the higher Courts and Sentence strictly passed thereupon also in case one Party refuse this Arbitration that then the other proceed in the Kings Court and that the refuser be proceeded against upon Evidence given as Non-suited Some such effectal application the Corruption of Judicature and increase of Law Suites do seem to require The Benefits whereof will be 1. That people shall in a manner decide themselves their disagreements it being done by those whom themselves chuse 2. The Case may be more fully known being near the place and Justice more exactly rendered by that means 3. It saves great Expences and long Journeys 4. It may be a means that men run not out of their Estates by long Suits 5. It may keep a good Ballance of Money in the Pockets of meaner men which tends to the advancement of Trade and so Lawyers may be prevented of drawing too much thereof into their Pockets where it is either useless to the publick or manifestly prejudicial by Usury and exaction Likewise it were highly requisite the Universities were looked into which are become Seminaries of Debauchery rather then good Learning or good Manners to the Nation They have too great a Temptation to Debauchery from the too large Beneficence of their Founders which would be Retrenched and part of the Revenues and also of their Colledges better setled upon another designe viz. for maintaining Professors in all manner of Gentile Heroick exercises that young Gentlemen may not only know Arts and Sciences but also to Fence Ride Marshall an Army and the like continual reading flats and deads the mind makes it unfit for Action But this exercise will whet and inlarge it and make men capable of being imployed in the Common-wealth and I perswade my self that these two being conjoyned Reading and Exercise would make a wise active people It were advisable that Tutours trouble not their Pupills with an uncertain and Pedantick Philosophy and with the Fabulous and Futilous Authors of Hethenisme But rather wi●h History Sacred and Profane Mathematicks Sacred Philology Languages Policy c. But above all to instruct them in Religion and matters of the Bible and of Salvation The difference of Habit in their degrees serve to puff them up and cause them to carry a Magisterial Pride throughout their Lives every little adds to a mind already corrupted For a Conclusion let Politicians enquire whether it be safe and requisite in a Common-wealth to allow of two Authorities and two distinct orders of Government in the same body Politick I suppose they will find it noxious if the consider that the Stability and Perpetuity of a Common wealth depends upon its oneness or unity which is like the straight line of the Mathematicians the foundation of all other their operations now this oneness is so near the foundation of a Common-wealth that any receding from it most needs have a dangerous influence upon the whole Fabrick being a weakning and loosning the Foundations and the effects must follow that a violent Push of Storm and Wind will through this defect endanger its overthrow For this Episcopal Government being established upon on different principles and different Interest to the rest of the Government with another Authority then that of the supream Authority it will follow that though it may agree well for a time in subordination to the supream Authority yet there is a gap open for Division which will not be without its evil effects when any unusual accident shall happen in the Common-wealth to its disturbance thus we know by vertue of this Authority and from this principle of Division in the Government our Kings to have been thrown off the whole Kingdom disturbed and made Feudatary to a Forreigne Authority as in King John In those times it played with its Batteries upon our Kings but since the Reformation it has turned the Engines of Malice upon the People and cause them to begin a War In briefe Episcopacy being a Government of it self distinct from the supream and lawful Authority without any just Title or pretensions all which come within the verge of the Civil Magistrate it must needs to support it self for it cannot be idle trouble the Waters that it may have the better Fishing If you say it is necessary for Maintaining Religion the Answer is I have shewed before that Religion needs no such supports And further that the first Instituters of our Religion never used nor claimed any such Authority but with the greatest submission yeilded to the Secular Power in all things The Christian Religion tends to benefit mankind with all good things temporal and eternal it is perfect goodness and perfect unity and it is impossible a principle of Division should proceed from it And therefore those Divisions in Common-wealths can proceed from no other cause then the author of Division who having at first separated from the Holy God makes it his business to fill all things with the effects of that Division But you will say the Church under Christ and his Apostles was persecuted and hated The Answer is that the Tempter made the first proffer the Kingdoms of the earth and the Glories of them to our Saviour if he would fall down and Worship him which our Saviour refusing to do and his Apostles he was forced to keep them till he met such as admiring the beguiling Temptation would submit to the Condition But Politicians will tell us that all mutation in Government goes not unaccompanied with danger to which we may Answer That this happens when Circumstantials are changed for other Circumstantialls as I may call them As the danger is nothing so much in taking away any thing in a Common-wealth that is superfluous but in the bringing in a thing superfluous Thus the taking away the Ceremonies in Scotland at the Reformation was without any great noise but the obtruding a new Lyturgy was not without Tumult and War the like we have seen in England the pulling down of Abbies and Monasteryes in the time of Henry the 8th and alienating the Lands of the Church was done with safety and silence enough But the practises of bringing in new Ceremonies in the time of Charles the first was followed with a Bloody War wonderful change of Affairs whereas the