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A70390 A sermon preach'd at Turners-Hall, the 5th of May, 1700 by George Keith ; in which he gave an account of his joyning in communion with the Church of England ; with some additions and enlargements made by himself. Keith, George, 1639?-1716. 1700 (1700) Wing K209; ESTC R14185 28,024 34

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of that holy Man Anselm's observation of a Shepherd Boy that had tied a small Stone with a small Thred to the Foot of a small Bird and then let it out of his hand loose to fly The small Bird did fly but a little at a time being incommoded and retarded with the weight of the Stone though but little flying a little and resting a little now mounting upwards as if it would fly straightway to Heaven but then soon after descending to the Earth which that holy Man beholding made the Embleme of the State of his Soul and fell into Weeping saying to this effect What the little Stone is to this little Bird that my Sin that hangs about me is to me To the Third The Administration of the Sacraments wherein do they suppose that the Dissenters have any advantage above the Church of England they will say that they add nothing to Christ's Institution in Baptism whereas the Church of England adds the Sign of the Cross and at the receiving the Lord's Supper they receive it kneeling to this I answer the Church of England makes not the Sign of the Cross any part of Baptism for she doth not order it to be used at private Baptism to any that is in danger of Death nor does she make it any Means of Grace but a convenient Symbole to put us in mind and also to signify that we own Christ that was crucified on the Tree of the Cross and are not ashamed to confess him the Captain of our Salvation and manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil c. which has but the like Service that a Cross drawn with Ink on Paper has to signify the Cross of Wood that he was crucified upon and is but a sort of Hieroglyphick neither commanded nor forbidden in Scripture but simply indifferent and that our Superiors both Ecclesiastick and Civil have Authority to command us in the use of indifferent Things I am well satisfied and I see not but so ought the Dissenters to acknowledge who grant that our Superiors both Ecclesiastical and Civil may enjoin the keeping of a Fast Day for publick Calamities or a Festival Day of Thanksgiving for publick Mercies Baxter makes no more hurt in using the sign of the Cross in Baptism than if we should tie a piece of Thred to our Finger to keep us in mind of what we desire to remember That the Lord's Supper is received kneeling has no more Ceremony nor hurt in it than that we pray kneeling for both the Minister that gives and the People that receives the Elements of Bread and Wine do it with Prayer For all the great Clamour against the Ceremonies of the Church of England I scarcely find any more but one that may be so called to wit that abovementioned the sign of the Cross at Baptism which is a very harmless and a very ancient Practise in the Church of Christ and had a warrantable Original that because the Heathens upbraided the Christians with the Cross to show they were not ashamed of it after receiving Baptism they received the sign of the Cross on their Foreheads nor is that occasion wanting in our Day where so many Thousands here in this Nation on the pretence of high Divine Inspirations have cast away the Profession of Faith in Christ as he was outwardly Crucified together with the Memorials of him Baptism and the Supper And as concerning Infant Baptism time will not permit at present that I should insist on it but this I say I am fully satisfied with the Baptism I had in Infancy and I do believe that it as duly belongeth to the Infant Children of Believers under the New Testament being a seal to them of God's Covenant of Grace for remission of Sin as Circumcision did belong to such under the Old Testament for God is no less merciful to Believers and their Children now than he was then I cannot but think strange that there should be such a Clamour against the Ceremonies in the Church of England having upon enquiry found them so few I lately met with a Book of one of the Church of England wherein I found him having the same Thought with mine that there is but one Ceremony in the Church of England viz. the sign of the Cross and strictly speaking I see no need why it should be called a Ceremony this hard Word offends many ignorant People why may not our Superiors Ecclesiastick and Civil enjoin some Things that are meerly Circumstantial and in themselves indifferent as to the Habit of Minister's Cloathing and the Use of a Surplice in Divine Service of the Decency and Conveniency of which they are more proper Judges than private Persons as well as they are generally allowed to determine other Circumstances of Time and Place and various Actions relating to both Religious and Civil Matters To bury in Wollen and to lay the dead in a Coffin to lay a Cloth or Cushen on the Pulpit to ring a Bell before Sermon to have a Clock or Hour-glass before the Minister's Face when he Preacheth which the Quakers cry out against as much as others do against the Surplice and sign of the Cross to have a clean Linnen Cloth on the Communion Table and Silver Platter and Cup for the distributing the Elements of Bread and Wine at the Lord's Supper all these and divers other Things the Dissenters commonly allow as well as the Church of England some of them by command of Superiors others of them by Custom why do they not call them Ceremonies and fright the People with that hard Word Lastly as to the Government of the Church the Dissenters are so far from having the Advantage of the Church of England that she hath the Advantage over them in that as well as in the other Things above-mentioned That in all Societies both Civil and Ecclesiastical there should be an Order and Superiority of Officers Rulers and Governours Nature it self teacheth it How can a City or Nation be ruled and kept in Order if all the Rulers be equal How can an Army be governed or disciplined or led forth to Battel without divers Degrees Superior and Inferior of Military Officers if all the Captains of each single Company consisting suppose of one hundred Men each single Company and the whole Army consisting of many Thousands if these single Captains had no superior Officers over them but every one left to his own Discretion to lead on his Company to Battle against the common Enemy who has all in good Order and a due and regular Distinction of superior and inferiour Officers how can it be supposed but that the Army that has this good Order and Distinction of various Officers superior and inferior should prevail against the other that hath no such Order and Distinction we may see a wonderful order of Superiority and Inferiority in all Things in the whole visible Creation in the Heavens and Elements and that there is the like Superiority
are the more knowing and judicious and of best repute among them either for Piety or Learning and it will be found that they have more Books of Church of England Divines and other forraign Divines who own Communion with her than of any others And yet for all this shall I be so uncharitably judged and my Friends who go along with me as a sort of Apostates and as having bad Ends and Designs and as some of them I hear suggest against me that I do it for a Living I pray God forgive their uncharitable Judgment I neither was nor yet am so hard put to it for a worldly Living as some imagine and as others wish and desire I mean of my Adversaries among the Quakers who have Prophecied of my outward as well as inward Ruine and longed to have their false Prophecies accomplished against me but God hath hitherto disappointed them and preserved me and mine from Ruine both inwardly and outwardly for which I bless his Name and I hope he will preserve me to the End Why should the Expectation of a Living incline me more to the Church of England than to the Dissenters Had I joyned with them I might have got a Living among them perhaps more plentiful by the Peoples Gratuities than by a Set maintenance in the Church of England Which last way of living I think is the more Honourable and less obnoxious to many great Temptations and every way as suitable to the Gospel I find that the Church of God in Scripture is compared to an Army whose Captain is our blessed Lord Jesus Christ called the Captain of our Salvation Now suppose there were two Armies in the Field the one very great and numerous the other far less in Number as suppose the one Thirty thousand the other Ten pray tell me whether it is not more safe for us all who are concerned in one common Cause against the common Enemy to keep within the Body of the Army then in several Parties to straggle and keep asunder from it or Entrench by themselves The like is our present Case both the Church of England and all called Protestant Dessenters profess to be concerned in one common Cause against Papists Turks and Jews Deists and Atheists and others guilty of vile Heresies in a Spiritual Warfare Is it not therefore more prudent and safe to unite together in one Body of Christian Society and Communion against the common Enemy that we may be the stronger especially seeing the differences betwixt the Church of England and the more judicious and moderate of the Dissenters are not in any Materials either of Doctrine or Worship but the very same as they have Confessed Have not these Divisions and Separations had bad Effects weakned the Protestant Interest strengthned the Papists yea and Deists and Atheists and loose and scandalous Persons who take occasion to say there is no true Religion on either side by observing the great Heats and Annimosities and bitter Prejudices of the differing Parties I will now come to answer what I think they will object mainly against my Reason above given They will tell us that if the parity or equality on both Sides were the same my Reason would be good but they will alledge there is a great disparity and inequality the Dissenters having the Advantage in several Particulars as 1st in Doctrines 2dly in manner of Worship 3dly Administration of the Sacraments 4thly Church Governments which say the Dissenters is more agreeable to Scripture among them than in the Church of England To every one of which I think to say something as briefly as I can And First as to the Doctrine as touching the Articles of Faith the Quakers excepted they profess to be one with the Church of England and have signed or profess themselves willing to sign to her Articles Secondly as to the manner of Worship which the Dissenters contend for should be wholly by an extempore Gift of the Spirit whereas the Church of England though she alloweth that Ministers before and after Sermon may Pray without a Set Form either read or repeated from the bare Memory by using their sanctified Parts and Gifts of Understanding to Conceive Prayer by the Help of the Spirit yet She is not only for the Lawfulness of Set Forms of Prayer composed by Pious Men of Spiritual Abilities both ancient and late but for the great Conveniency and Profitableness of them yea and Necessity of them in many respects in the Publick Worship of God leaving every one to their Christian Freedom whether to use or not use Set Forms in their Closet and Private Devotions But to this I say The most Pious as well as Judicious whom the Dissenters esteem so and repute as their Fathers and others that repute them not so yet will allow that they were very holy and spiritual Men have owned the Lawfulness of Set Forms of Prayer yea not only the Lawfulness but the great Conveniency and Necessity of them in the Publick Worship of God Calvin one of the most famous of the Protestant Reformers was for them as I proved to you some time ago Quod ad formulam precum c. As to the Form of Prayers and Ecclesiastical Rites Note that I greatly approve that it be certain from which it may not be lawful for Pastors to depart in their Function both to guard against the Simplicity and Unskilfulness of some and also that the Consent of all the Churches among themselves may be more certainly known And lastly to Put a Check to the insolent Liberty of some who affect certain Innovations So then it behoveth there be a Set or fixed Catechism a Set Admininistration of Sacraments also a Set Form of Prayers out of his express words in his Letter to the Protector of England Epist 87. The Protestant Churches abroad in Germany Holland Poland Sweden Denmark and France from the beginning of the Reformation to this very day have used Set Forms of Prayer and Thanksgiving in their Publick Worship And yet I think the Dissenters here will not conclude that their Worship was wholly carnal dead and without Life or Spirit as many of them do now argue against the publick Prayers of the Church of England The Life and Spirituality of Prayer doth not consist in the Mode or Form of the words whether Set or Extempore say all sound and judicious Christians but in the Purity and Fervour of the Affections And therefore an Extempore Prayer may be very Formal dead and dry and a Prayer in a Set Form may be very lively powerful and effectual as the experience of Thousands daily confirm And suppose the Dissenters would be so uncharitable to judge that Calvin's Prayers at Geneva in Set Forms and Luther's in Wittenberg and all the other Protestants Prayers in Set Forms were barely Formal Carnal Dead and Dry and the blessed Protestants Prayers who died Martyrs in Queen Mary's Reign that used Set Forms yea many of these now in use which would