Selected quad for the lemma: land_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
land_n	church_n	good_a	king_n	1,394	5	3.5072	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40716	The necessity of keeping our parish-churches argued from the sin and danger of the schisms in the Church of Corinth and of the present separations : in a sermon before the honourable judges, at the last assizes, held at Exeter / by Francis Fullwood.	Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.	1672 (1672)	Wing F2510; ESTC R35475	15,123	33

that they are not and ought not to be members of our Churches or that they cannot continue so without sin Answ But neither of these can be bended to the present case for we speak especially of such as were Baptized and have for many years together worshipped God in their own persons in the Temples with us and thus have done as much to the making themselves members of our Parishs-Churches as the very Independents require Besides it ought to be considered seriously that they stand obliged to worship God with us by the laws of Order and Cohabitation by the civil and Ecclesiastical laws of the Church and Kingdom which do what they can will reach and bind their Consciences both by virtue of the natural laws of Government and the positive laws of Scripture Both which have Divine Authority sufficient to exact your obedience to your Rulers in all lawful things And that to worship God with us in the Temple is a lawful thing I appeal to your own present judgment if it agree with your late practice However I am sure I have the general consent of the Reformed Churches and of the Old Nonconformists Puritans and Presbyterians against both your judgment and practice if they be indeed both changed Object I know it is said they do not absolutely deny our Communion but they think they may serve God better in their gathered Churches This is the refuge of their cunning men Answer But can they be in earnest Our Communion then must be either corrupt or defective Defective you cannot say for we have all the same Ordinances that you have and a great many good Prayers that you have not Are we corrupt then Shew wherein there is nothing in our lay-Communion that you use to scruple but Kneeling at the Sacrament As for the Surplice and the Cross these belong to the Pastor's Office And shall not he have liberty to doe his duty as well as you to neglect yours Besides if you should imagine that you are concern'd about the Application of the Sign of the Cross to your Children I need not tell you of wayes to avoid it without gathering Churches If these things be so answer me like Christians You would Separate that you may have pure Ordinances i. e. that you may receive the Communion sitting And is it indeed all come to this And will this bear you out in a Total Separation and tearing our Churches in pieces as you do You cannot think it But what ever is amiss with us your late practice and this very Objection granteth that you believe it lawful to joyn in our Worship and if so nothing can excuse your Separation from Schism according to the Doctrine of Ames and indeed in the Judgment of all men but your selves if not very lately of your selves too Besides to Separate that you may serve God Inter nos quibus idem Christus una Religio eadem Sacramenta nihil in Christiana observatione diversum Donat. Aug. To. 7. p. 46. m. better is too like the pretence of all former Schismaticks that stand condemn'd in the Histories of the Church The Novatians Audeans Donatists the Soberer part of our own Separatists and Independents all these pretended for Reformation and purer Worship and Discipline which with you is to serve God better Lastly pardon me if I warn you of some danger in this Principle if left or trusted in their hands that are Cunning and know how to use it with Advantage It laies the Reins of Government upon the Peoples Neck and impels them to reform without their Rulers and consequently is plainly inconsistent with the Reason and order of all good Polity and opens a Gap for Division and Confusion in the Church how ever it fares with the State while every one is hurried by his own Wild Fancy set on fire by this Principle Yea it carries also in it the Ruine of the Separated Churches themselves It hath been formerly observed to ferment and work strangely in them and may do the like again It hath not been content to pill off the first black or browner Skin of the Onion but it would have it whiter and whiter and still hath pilled and pilled one after another till nothing has been left except tears in the eyes of the beholders but Skin and Husks thought fit only to be trodden under foot by Atheistical Swine while the Reformers themselves are prepared to be torn in pieces by Doggs as the Apostle stiles some Ravenous Antichristian Doctors 2. The Point hath yet force to defeat another great Argument for Separation for if our people cannot leave us without Sin and Schism how vainly it is said We must preach we may not preach in the Temples we cannot preach otherwhere without Auditours we can have no Auditours but out of the Parochial Congregations therefore we must gather Churches out of them One would think the Argument went better thus had we a People of our own there were a necessity of our preaching but seeing we have none there is no such necessity where there is no opportunity there is no duty saith Mr. Baxter The Argument as it is is in plain English no better than this We must provide for our Families we cannot doe this except we steal from our Neighbour therefore we must steal It seems ridiculous to plead an interest in or Pastoral Relation to the people you had ten years agon founded in the Independent Notion of the peoples Consent Where do you find one word in Scripture making the peoples Consent necessary to a particular Pastors Call or his relation to them Besides in a Christian Common-wealth is there nothing required to give such relation but the peoples Consent if that be so Is the Consent of the Magistrate expressed in his Laws respectively nothing in this matter Is the Consent of the Overseers in the Church that give us Institution nothing It seems beyond all doubt that the Laws of the Church where we live must be the measure and standard of our spiritual Title as well as the Laws of the Land of our Temporal And if the King and the Bishop have a hand in our Introduction and Ejection we cannot be restored without them Besides the remedy is too too short were it good Have not the people generally consented to other Pastors How few of the Ejected Ministers do indeed apply themselves to their Antient Flocks as they should do by this Rule Yea they put their Sickle every where into others mens Harvest without all shadow of this poor pretense Give me leave to be plain This pretended necessity of preaching and drawing away our people from us the real necessity of peace and order condemns the necessity of obedience to the Laws condemns necessity of obedience to God's word requiring obedience to those Laws condemns Yea the necessity of keeping your Promises and Oaths if you were ordained by Bishops flatly condemns Lastly that we must preach though inhibited by Law and Law executed is a principle