Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	book_n	church_n	religion_n	2,750	5	5.6458	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A30338	A discourse wherein is held forth the opposition of the doctrine, worship, and practices of the Roman church to the nature, designs and characters of the Christian faith by Gilbert Burnet.; Mystery of iniquity unveiled	Burnet, Gilbert, 1643-1715.	1688 (1688)	Wing B5779; ESTC R7432	58,858	73

other Traffiquers and the driving from us those who do so disturb us All the authority we give the Church is Paternal and not Tyrannical our Church-men we hold to be the Pastors but not the Lords of the Flock who are obliged to feed them sincerely both by their Doctrine Labours and whole Conversation but we pretend to no blind obedience due to their directions and count them noble Christians who search and try all they say by that Test of the Scriptures We send the People to confess their sins to God from whom only we teach them to expect their pardon and pretend to no other keys but Ministerial ones over publick and known Scandals In our Worship as all do understand it so every one may joyn in it And in the number use and simplicity of our Sacraments we have religiously adhered to the Rules of the Gospel we holding them to be solemn federal Rites of our Stipulation with God in which if we do worthily partake of them we are assured of the Presence of the Divine Spirit and Grace for uniting our Souls more intirely to God and advancing us in all the ways of the Spirit of Life and if the Institution of them in the Gospel be compared with our Administration of them it will appear how close we have kept to our Rule And thus we see how exactly conform the Doctrine of our Church is to the whole Branches of the Christian Design upon which it is not to be doubted but the Characters of the Christian Religion will also fit ours We found our Faith only on the Scriptures and though we pay a great deal of venerable esteem to the Churches of God during their purity which continued above four Centuries and so be very willing to be determined in Rituals and Matters that are external and indifferent by their Opinions and Practices yet our Faith settles only on the Word of God and not on the Traditions of Men neither do we believe every Spirit that pretends to Rapts and Visions but try the Spirits whether they be of God or not and though an Angel should preach to us another Gospel we would ho d him accursed The Miracles we trust to as the Proofs of the Truth of that Revelation which we believe are only those contained in the Scriptures and though we believe there was a wonder working power continued for some time in the Church yet we make a great difference betwixt what we historically credit and what we religiously believe neither will we for supporting our Interest or Authority have recourse to that base trade of forging lying Wonders but we rest satisfied with the Miracles Christ and his Apostles wrought for the proof of the Religion we own since what we believe is no other than what they taught and therefore we leave the trade of forging new Miracles to them who have forged a new Religion And for the plain genuines of the Gospel we have not departed a step from it since we call upon our People by all the motives we can devise and with all the earnestness we are Masters of to receive full and clear Instruction in all the Matters of our Religion which we distinctly lay open to them And nothing of Interest or Design can be charged on us who pretend to nothing but to be the Stewards of the Mysteries of God nor have we offered to sophisticate the simplicity of our Worship by any additions to it for the determining about some particular forms is no addition to Worship but only the following forth of these Precepts of doing all things to edification peace and order But an addition to Worship is when any new piece of Divine Service is invented with a pretence of our being more acceptable to God thereby or of our receiving Grace by that conveyance and therefore any Rites we have as they are not without some hints from Scripture so we pretend not to become any way acceptable to God by them Further We teach no irrational nor unconceivable Doctrine It is true there are Mysteries in our Faith and even reason it self teacheth that these must be unconceivable but for all our other persuasions they are such as may be well made out to the rational faculties of Man therefore we do not betake our selves to that Sanctuary that we must be believed assert what we please but we assert nothing but what we offer to evince by the clearest proofs And in fine we add nothing to the burdensomness of the Laws of Christ but teach and propose them as we have them from his Gospel without adding changing or altering a tittle from the first Institution And so far have I considered the Doctrine and Worship of our Church wherein if I could justify all our Practices as well as I can do our Principles there were no grounds to fear hurt from all the Cavils of Mortals But for bad practices whatsoever matter of regrate they may furnish us with they afford none for separation Therefore there is no ground that can justify a separation from our Church much less warrant the turning over from us to the Communion of Rome And thus far have I pursued my designed Enquiry which was if with a safe Conscience any might adjoin themselves to the Popish Religion or if Communion with our Church was to be kept and continued in and have found great grounds to assert the evident hazards of the former so that no man to whom his salvation and welfare is dear can or ought to joyn himself to that Church on the other hand without renting the Body of Christ none can or ought to depart from our Churches But I leave the perusal and considering of these things to the serious Reader to whom I hope they may give some satisfaction if he bring with him to the Enquiry an attentive serious and unbyassed mind And I leave the success of this and every other attempt of this nature for the clearing of Divine truth with him who is the only Fountain of Blessings who is over all God blessed for evermore Amen FINIS BOOKS Printed for Joseph Watts SUre and Honest Means for the Conversion of all Hereticks and Wholesome Advice and Expedients for the Reformation of the Church Writ by one of the Communion of the Church of Rome with a Preface by a Divine of the Church of England 4 to Dialogues between Philerene and Philalethe concerning the Popes Supremacy The first Part. 4 to A Treatise of the Corruption of Scripture Councils and Fathers by the Prelates Pastors and Pillars of the Church of Rome for maintenance of Popery by Thomas James Library-keeper of Oxford In five Parts 8 vo The True Nature of the Divine-Law and of Disobedience thereunto in Nine Discourses tending to shew in the one a Loveliness in the other a Deformity By Samuel Dugard sometime fellow of Trinity College in Oxon now Rector of Horton in Staffordshire 8 vo Reform'd Devotions in Meditations Hymns and Petitions for every day in the Week and every Holiday in the Year in two parts Second Edition 12 s. An Earnest Invitation to the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper with Devotions c. By Joseph Glanvil Chaplain in Ordinary to his Late Majesty The Seventh Edition with Additions A Compleat Discourse of the Nature Use and Right-managing of that Wonderful Instrument the Baroscope or Quicksilver Weather-glass in Four parts by John Smyth C. M. To which is added the true Equation of Natural Days drawn up for the use of the Gentry in order to their more true adjusting and right managing of Pendulum Clocks and Watches

said by Grotius to have been butchered on the account of Religion And in his Son Philip's time the D. of Alva did in a short time cut down Thirty six thousand Nor need I tell the cruelties were practised in France for about fourty years together nor of that treacherous Massacre wherein there was an equal mixture of perfidy and cruelty which for all that was entertained at Rome with great joy and applauses It will be also needless to tell of their cruelty in England in Queen Mary's days which was chiefly managed by the Churchmen And many are yet alive who remember what enraged cruelty appeared in our Neighbour-Island against all of our Religion which did not only flow from the fury of an oppressed People but they were trained encouraged and warranted to it by their Priests and the Nuntio who came afterwards among them discovered who was the spring of all their motions Shall I to this add all the private assassinations committed on that account which were not only practised but justified I might here congest many instances Brother murdering Brother on the account of Religion Neither is Clement a Dominican his murdering Henry the third nor Chastlets attempt nor Ravillac 's fact on Henry the fourth forgotten Q. Elizabeths life is full of these attempts and the blackest of them all was the Gunpowder Treason All which are to be charged on that Church because the Doctrine of murdering Heretick Princes was taught licensed printed and yet not condemned in it From these hints we may guess how much of the lowly meek and charitable Spirit is to be found with them But should I to this add the horrid cruelties exercised in these Massacres I should be almost past belief had I not undeniable Historians for verifying it but the mildest of them being to be burned alive we may guess what the more savage have done by their tortures and lingering Deaths Next shall I mention their Courts of Inquisition which have been among them in the hands of Churchmen from the days of their pretended Saint Dominick whose Order have been the great Instruments of the cruelties of that Church and whose procedure being tied to no forms of equity or justice is as unjust as unmerciful persons being haled to their black Courts upon bare suspitions or secret Informations without leading of proofs against them are by Torture examined not only of their own opinions but of all that are known to them whose Testimony tho drawn from them by cruel Torture will bring the same Tortures on all they delate neither is there any mercy for any whom this Court declares Heretick but the Civil Magistrate must condemn them to the fire Now what man that considers the meekness of Christ and the Evangelical Spirit can think that Church the Spouse of Christ that hath rioted it with such savage rage against thousands of persons for no other crime but because they adhered firmly to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and would not consent or concur with these signal and palpable corruptions with which they have adulterated it But as from the constitution of their Church we see their deformity from the Gospel-rule so we will next consider their Church-men and we shall find how far they have strayed from the first Original Church-men ought to be the Guides and Pastors of Souls Now how little of this there is among them we will soon be resolved in What do the Popes about the feeding of Souls When do they preach the Gospel or dispense the Sacraments Alas it were below the height of his Holiness to stoop to such mean Offices Does any vestige of a Church-man remain in that Court and do they not directly rule in the Spirit of the Lords of the Gentiles And in this the Cardinals Bishops and Abbots do to their proportion imitate their most Holy Father abandoning wholly the work of the Gospel as if they bore an empty title or at most were only bound to say Mass on some greater Holy-days but in all other things do avowedly cast off the care of their Flocks Shall I here tell of the relaxation of all the ancient rules about the offices and duty of Church-men which these latter ages have invented and mention how children are made Bishops how they allow of Pluralities Non-residencies Unions Commendams Gratia expectativa's with a great many more corruptions which are every day authorised and granted at Rome and so zealous were they for these that they strugled hard against the honest attempts of some at Trent who would have had residence declared of Divine right and got it tho with much ado to be laid aside And thus it is that the Bishops and Abbots among them do for most part relinquish their Charges to live at the Courts of Princes and insinuate themselves upon all affairs and offices And swarms of them go to Rome gaping for preferment there I deny not but even these late ages have produced great men among them who seem to have designed the reviving of the Ancient Discipline both among the Clergy and the People but as these instances are rare so they were hated and persecuted at Rome for their Zeal Witness the condemning of Arnolds Book of frequent Communion and the severity Jansenius and the Abbot of St. Cyran with their followers have met with And thus whatever individuals that Church may have produced yet the corruptions I have hinted are notoriously publickly and generally practised in it and no where so avowedly as at the Court of Rome But to compence this defect of the Superior Clergy they have swarms of the inferior ranks every where both secular and regular who seem to mind the care of souls very seriously But not to reflect again upon any thing hath been hitherto said of their bad conduct of souls I shall now only take notice of the Authority they pretend to as if the People were bound blindly to follow their Confessors direction as the voice of God which clearly makes them the servants of men and subjects them to the heaviest yoke which is most directly contrary to the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free And what a rack to souls have they made Confession and what an Engine to get into the secrets of all the World and to bring mankind under their subjection is obvious enough to any that considers it And to enforce it the more as they teach it simply necessary to Salvation so the authority they made the World believe the Priests were vested with for pardoning sin together with their easie Pardons and slight Penances did root it deep in the hearts of all of that Communion But I go next to examine the Sacraments of which so much being said already little remains to be added By their dividing the Cup from the Bread they destroy Christs Institution and so make it no Sacrament and the hearing of Mass without communicating tho it make up the greatest part of their worship yet is purely a service of their own devising