Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	church_n	year_n	4,537	5	4.8354	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A69491	Gestus Eucharisticvs, or, A discourse concerning the gesture at the receiving of the Holy Eucharist or Sacrament of the Lords Supper by George Ashwell ...	Ashwell, George, 1612-1695.	1663 (1663)	Wing A3998; ESTC R16232	72,577	195

Transubstantiation whereon it was built the scandalous consequent of a false opinion For when that doctrine was agreed on and finally determined in the great Councill of Laterane under Innoc. 3d. then and not before was this kneeling at the Sacrament some few yeares after enjoyned by Honorius 3d. his immediate successour as a Gesture agreeable to expresse the Adoration which was due to the Body of Christ corporally present in the Sacrament Now how can that Gesture be fitly retained much lesse rigorously imposed on all which had so false unwarrantable an Originall Answ 1. Suppose that this kneeling had been first introduced by the Bishop of Rome and that upon a false supposall yet it follows not thence that it may not be used by the Reformed Churches or imposed by our Superiours upon a true just Ground Now the Church of England which enjoyneth kneeling openly declares her Judgment against the Doctrine of Transubstantiation and the Adoration of the Hoast which is grounded upon that Principle or Supposall Whereby all Scandall and the very Appearance of evill is quite taken away whenas the same Authority which enjoynes the one renounceth the other as our Church doth in her 28. Article When Naaman had openly profest that he would not sacrifice to any God but the God of Israel he was dismist with a Blessing by the Prophet Elisha and had an implicite leave given him testifyed by the silence of the Prophet not onely to enter the house of the Idol Rimmon but to bow down therein whilst his Master the King leaned on his shoulder The other Tribes were satisfied at the building of the great Altar by the Bankes of Jordan when they heard the answer of the Tribes of Ruben and Gad and the halfe Tribe of Manasseh that they had not built it for sacrifice to worship any false God by or the true God in a Schismatical way but meerly for a monument of Concord equall priviledges in the service of the same God The Primitive Christians in Julian the Apostates time and under the ten Persecutions would not so much as cast a Graine of Incense into the fire which was made before an Idol no not to save their lives because it would have been looked upon and interpreted as a divine religious honour done to that Idol Neither would they bow themselves before the Romane-Eagles the Ensignes of the Camp for the same Reason Yet the same Christians made no scruple of lifting up their hands and eyes towards Heaven when they prayed in the open fields as that Legion of Christian Souldiers did mentioned by Justin Martyr which obtained raine for the Army of Marcus Antoninus in a time of great Distresse not fearing thereby to scandalize the Heathen and confirme them in their idolatrous worshipping of the Sun Moone and Stars because it was sufficiently known unto the world to whom they directed that bodily worship viz. not to the Host of Heaven but to the Lord of Hosts In like manner the Church of England cannot be justly censured for confirming the Romanists in the Belief of Transubstantiation and the suitable Practise of adoring the Hoast because she hath professedly condemned both that Principle and that Practise and openly declared that she directs not this Bodily worship of kneeling to the visible signes in the Sacrament immediately or indirectly or any way whatsoever as it is commonly minced and qualified with distinctions but solely and immediately to God in Heaven Yea I remember to have some where read that the same primitive Christians refused not to bow down and prostrate themseves before the Statues of the Emperours because it was reputed a civile honour and so profest by themselves And though they were taxed by some of the Heathen for worshipping of Ceres Bacchus because they adored at the receiving of the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament yet they constantly reteined the same Gesture not thinking fit to alter it upon so groundlesse a slander Yea Mr Cartwright acknowledgeth in his Epistle to the Church of England That if among the Romish filth we find any good Thing that we willingly receive not as theirs but as the Jewes did the holy Arke from the Philistines For herein saith he it is true that is said The sheep must not lay down her Fell because she sees the wolfe sometimes clothed with it And the Apostle hath taught us that it is lawfull to eate that meat which hath been sacrificed to Idols asking no question for Conscience sake 1 Cor. 10. 25 27. Why may we not then use that Gesture aright which hath been abused to Idolatry 2. But upon a more serious and considerate Review of what was decreed by Pope Honorius some few yeares after the Laterane Councill under Innocent 3. we shall find not that he enjoyned kneeling at the receiving of the Sacrament but Bowing at the Elevation thereof and the carrying it about in Procession Which also appeares clearly enough by the Practise of the Romanists at this Day who performe their Adorations accordingly Honorius Decree runs thus Extra De Celeb. Missarum cap. 10. Sacerdos frequenter doceat Plebem suam ut cum in Celebratione Missarum Elevatur hostia salutaris se reverenter inclinet idem faciens cum eam defert Presbyter ad infirmum that is Let the Priest often teach his People that when the Saving Hoast is elevated at the Celebration of the Masse they reverently bow themselves doing the like when the Priest carries it to the Sicke Ye see the Reverence here enjoyned is not kneeling but Bowing And the Time whereat this Bowing is to be performed is not the Time of Receiving the Sacrament but when the Hoast was elevated in the Masse or conveyed to the sick This Decree was set forth in the yeare 1220. and founded on a former Decree of the Laterane Councill under Innocent 3d. some 5. yeares before wherein it was determined Jesu Christi Corpus sanguinem in Sacramento Altaris sub speciebus Panis Vini Veraciter contineri Transubstantiatis Pane in Corpus Vino in Sanguinem potestate divina that is The Body and Blood of Jesus Christ in the Sacrament of the Altar are verily conteined under the formes of Bread Wine the Bread being transubstantiated into the Body and the Wine into the Blood of Christ by the power Divine See for this also Conc. Trid. Sess 13. cap. 4 5. Where the Cultus latriae or divine worship exhibited to the Sacrament is made the necessary consequent of Transubstantiation From the same fountaine sprang the Institution of that superstitious Festivall of Corpus Christi by Vrbane 4th Anno 1264. confirmed by Clement 5. Anno 1311. But what is all this to the Church of England or other Protestant Churches which use kneeling at the Receiving of the Sacrament touching which Pope Honorius enjoyned nothing nor medled with it at all but left it as he found it practised many yeares before his time whoever then reteine this auncient Gesture and comply not