Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	christian_a	church_n	communion_n	2,479	5	8.9287	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25212	Melius inquirendum, or, A sober inquirie into the reasonings of the Serious inquirie wherein the inquirers cavils against the principles, his calumnies against the preachings and practises of the non-conformists are examined, and refelled, and St. Augustine, the synod of Dort and the Articles of the Church of England in the Quinquarticular points, vindicated.	Alsop, Vincent, 1629 or 30-1703.; G. W.	1678 (1678)	Wing A2914; ESTC R10483	348,872	332

's true Diotrephes his fing●…rs it ●…hed to be tampering but the Beloved Disciple that lay in his Masters Bosom who was privy to his meek and gracious Temper and knew how displeasing such imperiousness was to him gave an early and timous rebuke to the Attempts and Essays of Praelatical Arrogancy and indeed he could not but remember and was concern'd in it how smartly Christ had snibb'd Aspiring Church-men That there was so much Tranquility therefore amongst the Primitive Christians was not that they were without differing apprehensions for mens parts were no more alike nor th●…ir Educations more equal then now But because there was a Spirit of Condescension to and mutual forbearance one of another The strong either in Knowledge or Authority did not trample upon the weak There was then some diversity of Eupressions in which the Pastors of several Churches delivered themselves for there were neither Homilies nor Li●…urgies yet they did not dispute themselves into parties because they made not their own Sentiment the Test of Orthodoxy nor their private Faith the publick standard and measure to which all Christians should be tyed to subscribe They allowed a latitude in things not fundamental nor had learned the modern Artifice of Fettering Consciences in the Chains of Assent and Consent to the Dogmats of a prevailing party In those days me●… were sincerely good and devout and set their Hearts upon the Main the huge consequence and concern of which easily prevailed with those Holy men to over-look other mens private Opinions They were intent upon that wherein the power of Godliness consisted and upon which th●… Salvation of Souls depended and so all that was secure they were not so superstitiously concerned for Rituals either to practice them much less to impose them They would not stake the Churches Peace against Ceremonies and then play it away rather then not be Gamesters They considered that they had all one God one Faith one Baptism one Lord Iesus Christ and never insisted upon one Posture one Gesture one Garment one Ceremony They Good men found enough to do to mortifie their Passions to bear their Burdens of Afflictions and Persecution to withstand the temptations of the Devil and the contagion of evil Examples And had no strength to spare nor superfluous time to wast to Conn the Theory of Ceremonies and practice new devices But when men grow cold and indifferent about great things then they become ●…ervent about the lesser when they give over to mind a holy life and heavenly Conversation then they grow fierce Disputants for and rigid Exacters of the sul●… Tale of Ceremonies Thus when the Scribes and Pharise 〈◊〉 became so violent for the necessity of washing hands they little regarded the cleansing of their Hearts They that will make things indifferent to become necessary the next news you hear of them is that they make things necessary to become indifferent when men cease to study their own hearts they become very studious how to vex and torment other mens for then they have both leisure and confidence enough to trample upon their inferiours Then it shall be a greater sin for a Monk to lay aside his Cowle then his Chastity and to be a scrupulous Non-conformist to the Laws of Men then a scandalous Non-conformist to the Laws of God In short that I may say the same thing over again which I have twenty times already said and that I may convince the Reader that I have read Erasmus de opi●… v●…orum as well as his famous piece of the Art of Preaching Then and not till then do the little Appendices of Religion grow great and mighty matters in mens esteem when the Essentials the great and weighty matters are become little and inconsiderable which I had had little need to have mentioned but for the sake of those Elegant and Modish words Appendices and Essentials which in an Eloquent Oration ought not to have been forgotten Dixi That there are Distractions in the Nation Divisions amongst Christian Brethren and a separation from the present Church of England in various degrees is evident The Industry of our Enquirer in Tracing out the Causes of them has been very commendable though his success has not been answerable Had he pleased to approve himself a skilful and impartial as well as a serious Enquirer he had certainly directed us to one cause more which for want of Ariadnes Threed in the Anfractuous windings of this Labyrinth he has quite lost himself and his Travels Honest Gerson of old has notified it to the non-observing World and from him I shall recommend it to the Reader There can be saith he no General Reformation without the Abolitions of sundry Canons and Statutes which neither are nor reasonably can be observed in these times which do nothing but ensnare the Consciences of men to their endless Perdition no tongue is able to express what evil what danger and confusion the neglect and contempt of the Holy Scripture which doubtless is sufficient for the Government of the Church else Christ had been an imperfect Law-giver and the following of Humane Inventions hath brought into the Church Serm. in die circ part 1. 'T is that which has ever been lamented and by all moderate persons complained of That unnecessary Impositions have been made the indispensible conditions of Church-Communion without precept or precedent from the Word of God To this cause had he reduced all our Divisions he said more in those few plain words then in all those well coucht periods wherewith he has adorned his Discourse and darkened Counsel As the matter of Law arises out of the matter of Fact so the Justice of the Non-conformists Cause appears from the terms that are put upon them in order to Communion If the Terms be unjust it will justifie their Cause If they have sinfully managed their Cause its goodness will not justifie their Persons what Dissenters usually insist upon for their Justification I shall reduce to these Heads § 1. They plead that some things are imposed upon their Faith tendered to Subscription as Articles of Faith which are either false or at best they have not yet been soo happy as to discover the truth of them In Art 20. They are required to subscribe this Doctrine The Church hath power to Decree Rites and Ceremonies which Clause of the Article as we fear it has been by some indirect means shuffled into the Article it not being found in the Authentick Articles of Edw. 6. so it proves also that the Terms of Communion have been enlarged since the first times of the Reformation They object also against that Doctrine in the Rubrick That it is certain from the Word of God That Children Baptized and dying before the Commission of actual sins are undoubtedly saved The Scripture the Protestant Churches nor any sound Reason have yet given them any tolerable satisfaction of the Truth of the Doctrine about the Opus operatum of Sacraments That Doctrine laid down in the

any man I do as much as in me by alter the nature of indifferent things For things sinful can never be done Duties must always be performed in due time and place and indifferent things should be indifferently used as present Circumstances invite Prudence and Charity to determine but when once they are predetermined I can no more do an indifferent thing then if it had been sinful or no more omit an indifferent act then if it had been necessary 3. By such a fixed predetermination of my liberty I ascribe more to man in his positive precepts then to God in his affirmative moral precepts for the Acts of such Commands may be suspended pro hic Nunc when they obstruct some great Good but in this case I must act uniformly without respect to circumstances let thousands be offended stumbled wounded in Conscience and prejudiced against Religion And in short by such Resignation of my liberty in is't exercise I have reduced my self to that imaginary Liberty of Opinion that dreaming freedom which the Lollards enjoyed in their Tower and the poor Protest ants in Bonners Cole-hole 7 When Christian Charity commands me to forbear the use of the thing which otherwise is within the Charter of Christian Liberty to use and at the same time the Christian Magistrate shall command me to to practise that very thing by a fixed Law I humbly conceive that Christian Charity ought to restrain my Liberty not to act rather then the Commands of the Magistrate enforce me to act 1. Because the restraint which Charity puts upon me will soon determine and ●…pire but the Command of the Magistrate is perpetual 2. The restraint which Charity puts upon me is internal and so agreable to and consistent with the greatest Freedom and Liberty but the restraint put upon me by the Magistrate is external and compulsory which comports not with my inward liberty for if he deals meerly by his will and authority that suits not with my reason and therefore has in it the nature of force But if the Magistrate should deal by Argument then when a stronger appears to act according to his precept then that drawn from the good of my Neighbour by Charity Christian Liberty may be free and yet obey provided always that that argument be taken from the nature of the thing commanded and not from the naked commands 3. The weak Christian for whose sake Charity commands me to forbear acting is one that cannot prevent his own weakness his stumbling scruples and aptness to be wounded but he that commands me to act may prevent recal or suspend his own Edict in that which in it's own nature is indifferent And God has commanded me not to offend my weak Brother by the use of indifferent things but he has no where commanded the Magistrate to impose indifferent things which become not some way or other necessary 4. It seems a most horrid thing to interpret Scriptures at this rate That I should be commanded to walk Charitably till I am commanded to walk uncharitably And forbidden to destroy him for whom Christ dyed by my indifferent things till I am enjoyned to destroy him Not to wound weak consciences till I am commanded to wound them Thus shall Moral precepts be avoyded by humane positive Laws which cannot be superseded by the Divine positive Laws And if one may be thus enervated the whole D●…calogue has no firm station And thou shalt not make to thy self a graven Image may be eluded by this till we are commanded by Authority and I am somewhat confident the foundation laid by the Enquirer will bear that superstructure It is therefore a most approbrious and invidious charge with which he begins this discourse All that we have hetherto discoursed about the power of the Magistrate some think may be avoided by pleading the Magna Charta of Christian Liberty for though it may be pleaded against some power that may possibly be assumed yet against none wherewith he stands ' endowed by the Law of Nature or Scripture nor indeed against any useful power for the attaining the great ends of Government publick peace and tranquillity The Church of England in her avowed Doctrine asserts that Christ has ordained in his Church two Sacraments generally necessary to Salvation now we conceive that having a Right as Christians to all the Ordinances of Christ necessary to Salvation ChristianLiberty may plead the enjoyment of all thoseOrdinances upon those naked Terms Christ has off●…r'd them to Mankind This is our Maegna Charta And if any shall encumber that Communion with new clogs provisoes restrictions and limitations we plead our Petition of Right which if it be denyed us our Christian Liberty is so far violated Nor do we deny the Magistrate a Power about our Christian Liberty If any shall turn this Liberty into licenciousness he may restrain them Nay he may restrain the Liberty it self where God has not praeengaged us to restrain it And he will eminently employ his power for Christ when he exerts it to assert and vindicate to all his loyal Subjects the free use of that great Charter And if encroaching violence shall make a forcible entry upon that priviledge whereof we are in quiet and peaceable possession we shall complain of the force to him who will remove it and reinvest us in our Christian freehold whereof Christ has made the purchase with his own blood Two things there are which the Enquirer has lustily promised us and therefore we may confidently expect from him first that he will give us the true notion and secondly the due extent of Christian Liberty and he has freed his name pretty well for first he has made it a meer notion and then layd an extent upon it that is he has seized it into his own hands upon pretence for the Magistrates use 1 And first for his true notion for none cry stinking Mackerel there are two things also very considerable the liberality of his Concessions and the Policy of his Retractations He makes us fair lange Deeds but with a secret Power of Revocation frustrates all so that when we come to cast up our accounts we must say with that Bewildred Clyent in the Comadian when he had advised with his brace of Advocates Probèfecistis incertior sum multò quam du●…m 1 For his Concessions they are truly noble and generous and such as would heal us all § 1. Concession p. 88. When the Gospel was fully published then the aforesaid enclosure is laid open and all Nations invited into the Soci●…ty of the Church upon equal Terms neither party being bound to those nice Laws of Moses nor to any other but those plain and reasonable ones contained in the Gospel This is certainly the great year of Iubilee And will he not deserve to be shut out for ever that shall refuse so free an invita●…ion Is he a reasonable Creature that refuses the plain and reasonable Terms of Communion contained in the Gospel what a

Ex Graecis Bonis fecit Latinas non Bonas This could not be the Reason to be sure No no says he They are commanded so to do by the Head of their Church There 's the Reason then what needed all this stir The command of a Superiour will hallow or at least excuse an erroneous Action As a Transcendent in our Church speaks and if this Doctrine would but pass we should have a sweet time on 't Our Superiours must impose and judge what 's Indifferent and Decent and we have the easiest life in the world nothing but to wink hard and lift up our Legs high enough and there 's no danger And yet the Papists learn'd not possibly all this Lesson of withdrawing from the Church of England from their own Superiours they might be taught the Doctrine neater home A. B. Laud being ask'd by a Lady Whether she might be Saved in the Romish Communion Answered readily Madam You may and the good Lady took his word and ventured it It 's possible it might be the same Lady that Dr. ●…uller Ch. Hist. B. 11. p. 217. tells us of She being ask'd by the same Prelate Why she had changed her Religion Answered Because I ever hated a Crowd And being desired to explain her meaning herein she replyed I perceived your Lordship it should have been Grace by her Ladyships favour and many others are hastning thither as fast as you can and therefore to prevent a press I went before you What design of Reconciliation with Rome and upon what terms Grotius carried on is pretty well known by this time of day That he had a Party here in England or expectations of one his own words testifie Aequis multis non displicuisse Grotil Propace Labores N●…unt Lutetiae in omni Gallia multi multi in Poloniâ Germaniâ in Angliâ non pauci pla●…idi pacis Amantes Discus p. 16. There were I see by this a Company of Loving Sweet-natur'd Tractable Souls here in England that would have step'd half way over the Ditch to meet his Holiness Especially since Mr. Mountagues time who informs us That the Controverted Points between England and Rome are of a lower and inferiour Nature which a Man may be ignorant of without peril of his Soul and may resolve to oppose this or that without peril of perishing for ever That Images may be used for instruction of the Ignorant and excitation of Devotion And that the Church of Rome has ever continued form upon the same foundations of Sacraments and Doctrine instituted by God They are not single Instances of those who have not abhorred the Communion of Rome which I could give but I will spare the Living and cover the Dead Nor will I say that these or such as these were Papists yet methinks they did incline and warp desperately towards it there 's an odd Distinction we often meet with of a Sensus Compositus and a Sensus Divisus which may a little illuminate us Now because my Readers are not like to be any of the more deadly learned sort I will a little explain the Distinction to their Capacities by a very familiar though I confess a very homely Comparison It 's impossible say I that a Maggot should ever be a Fly That is in your Sensus Compositus or so long as it continues to be a Maggot because these have Two distinct forms and the one keeps the other out of possession whilst it hath a Nail or Tooth to scratch or bite But now it s not only possible but easie for this Fly to become a Maggot in Sensu Diviso that is for the Maggot to strip her self of her old shape and appear in another likeness I shall be modest in the Application and hope the Reader will not be immodest Such persons as I have mention'd could never be Papists whilst they adhered to the Doctrine of the Church of England but yet such were their disposednesses that way that the transition was easie to slide from such loose Principles into Popery and yet the Church the mean time might be Innocont 3. Quest. Whence comes it to pass that the Romish Church have more spight against our Church than against any Sect or Party whatsoever When it is once well proved that they have so it will be time enough to enquire why they have so but we must suppose one half of his discourse to be true that we may have leave to answer the other The spight of the Roman Faction against Protestancy as such has so eminently discovered it self under whatever denominations they have been differenced that none of them have cause to boast of it or be ambitious to tast further of it It were well improved if they who are Objects of their implacable spight could learn to love more and agree better amongst themselves The Papists think themselves excusable in persecuting all when 〈◊〉 Protestant so suriously persecutes another they know no Reason why they should love us better than we love our selves And truly against whom their spight is hottest is hard to judge If we compare the Cruelties of the Parisian Massacre ●…ith the Butcheries of the Irish Rebellion we shall find the true Reason why they flew more in Ireland than Paris was because there was more to be slain The Fire may go out for want of matter but I dare say never for want of a good Stomack to its Food In short their spight is there the greatest where they can shew it most as to one that 's very hungry the biggest Dish is ever the best The Papists judge of the Object of their hatred as one did of Tullies Orations The longest is to be sure the most Excellent And yet I conceive the Enquirer to be quite out in this matter The Papists may spight the Church of England upon the account of its fair and vast Revenues great Dignities marvellous Honours Wealth Splendour and whatever is desirable to the Eye because hereby the Church is able to vye with her and yet their malice upon the pure account of Religion may be greater against other lesser weaker parties whose Principles stand more directily in opposition to those of Rome I do not doubt but our Enquirer could bring better Arguments than these to prove the distance of Religion between the Two Societies for this I am sure is too weak unless it may appear that their spight is levelled against the Church meerly on account of those Principles wherein she differs from Dissenters 4. Quest. How comes it to pass that they of all Men most Zealously ●…and in the Gap to oppose the return of Popery That Gap at which Popery must enter if ever it enters into England is the Division between Protestants and if that Gap were well stop'd Popery might look ●…ver but would never leap over or break through the ●…dge This Gap of Divisions is made by the imposition of such things which in the Judgment of the Imposers are indifferent in their own Nature but