Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	authority_n	church_n	scripture_n	4,231	5	6.1426	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A43842	Pithanelogia, or, A perswasive to conformity by way of a letter to the dissenting brethren / by a country minister.	Hinckley, John, 1617?-1695.	1670 (1670)	Wing H2047; ESTC R29478	103,888	196

words in the confession There is no health in us with the Letany as if it were a role of curses with kneeling at that short prayer at the end of the commandements Lord have mercy vpon us and incline our hearts to keep thy Law Alass Conscientis minus scrupulosa noscitur ex vitis these are poor vulgar cavils your scruples run higher concerning assent and consent And here you are very critical learned and curious in finding out gins to intangle and perplex your own consciences as if you had found out a spititual Microscope to discern what is invisible to our duller eyes Not only your wills say you must Consent to the use of it as good but your understanding is ingaged in the truth of the Liturgy And indeed I had thought these two acts had been so twisted together in rational men that ordinarily one doth suppose and infer the other When I consent with my will to use the prayers of the Church this ariseth from the conviction of my reason that I may and ought to do so And the act of my will would be brutish and irregular like that of Medea who was hurried only with the Ocstrum of her wilful passions if it were not steer'd by the dictate of my understanding this is to do it in judgment therefore you-do but put a fallacy upon your selves a bene conjunctis c. And whereas you say some of you that you could read our prayers if you might be abated your Assent n = * The Church in her best ages hath secur'd her vitals with an hedge of subscription In Austins time such as were admitted to the ministry were to renounce the errors of the Manichees Arrians Novatians and Pelagians to declare whether they allowed of first and second marriages the eating of flesh repentance after lapses Whether original concupiscence were a sin or whether such as were out of the Church might inherit eternal life in the Synode of Nice not only the Bishops but Constantine himself subscribed to the decrees of that Synode with his own hands So in Luthers time when the Church was pestered with Anabaptists Servetus Canipanus Stuckfoldius and other Furies it defended it self by prescribing bounds to those that were in the ministry which they should not pass See Melancton Tomo tertio Declarationum selectavum Cap de calumnijs Osiandri p. 699 700. And why should not the Church of England after these and other laudable examples fortifie and preserve the Capitol of her peace against turbulent invaders and pernicious incendiaries by limiting mens exorbitant excursions in joyning their consent to her wholsome discipline saying hitherto shall ye go and no further and Consent 't is all one to me as if if you should say you would use them in hypocrisie But if after all this strife what if these words Assent and Consent are but exegitical where 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the same thing is expressed in several terms as it is very usual in Scripture and import no more than that you shall constantly and unseignedly use this form in publick excluding all others Not as if our Assent to these definitions were in the same manner internal as that is which we give unto decrees as infallible but such as we give to those which are not contrary to the fundamentals of faith out of submission for peace sake Stilling fl desenee of the Arch-Bishop 82. l 509. as one well expresses it whose reading and judgment out-strips his years Whereas some of you have told me you would conform were you not injoyned to do do what is absolutely sinful These are but swelling words of vanity For I must tell you again prove what you say and you shall have more companions If any thing in the Common-prayer were contrary to any part of Gods word we have authority from our subscription to disclaim it It is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to the word of God or besides the same They are the very words of our twentieth Article of Religion so far is she from imposing any thing that is sinful so unlike is our Church to the Church of Rome if Cardinal Peroon hit her meaning right when he told King James pressing him that the cup in the Sacrament was according to Christs institution That t is lawful for the Church to dispense with Christs institutions or if this single Cardinal be no competent Interpreter of that Churches sense yet the counsel of Constance cannot be denied affirming that although Christ hath appointed the Sacrament to be received under both kinds yet Hoc non obstante we decree that the lay-people shall only receive under the species of bread I only add this that by the illustration of contraries ingrateful men might be brought to see their own happiness who breath in the air of the English Church I bless God for his mercy and conclude with those words of remarkable D. Downham Though envy cannot say but our Church holds all substantial points of Divinity and uses the ordinary means of salvation as other Churches testifie yet so wanton in Religion are men through spiritual pride that they care not for the sound food of their souls unless they may have their own sauce 10. Besides your giving Assent and Consent you stumble again very unluckily at the very threshold of the Liturgy The very Calendar you say is intollerable For therein is injoyned the observation of festival dayes by the institution of man I will not dispute with you about the change of the Sabbath day from the seventh to the first day of the week I had rather grant that to be by Apostolical and divine Authority than raise any dust about it Yet this hinders not but that it is in the power of the Church to set apart other dayes especially I am confirmed herein because I find dayes of thanksgiving and fasting set apart in the Scriptures by comission from men and I have seen the like practised by your selves I find the feast of Pu rim so lemnly observed in the Old Joh. 10.22 and the feast of the dedication owned by Christ himself in the New Testament Those Agapae or Love feasts the Apostle speaks of were taxed by him not simply as feasts but as abused by the Corinthians 'T is easie to mention the Homilies and Orations which the Ancients made upon the Nativity of Christ and other festivals That is a false plea against Saints dayes as if they were equalliz'd to the Lords own day For look what difference there is between the Lady and her Maid Christ and his servants the same we acknowledge twixt the Sabbath and other festivals We Honour the Saints and if we should not I find by experience we should give the Papists just offence yet we do not adore them We desire to imitate those vertues and graces that were in the Saints We rejoyce at their conquest over the World their triumph in Heaven because they keep an

〈…〉 Candles were lighted 〈◊〉 the Sun shined most brightly to testifie the ●●●ness of their joy then you had more colourable pretences for your complaints But since ours are so few and so sitted to persons and things I wish you would rather submit and comply with us than carp and dispute Shew us less of your morose criticisms and scrupulosities but more of your kindly obedience You say 't is better to obey God than men I say so too where the commands of men interfere with the commands of God But in this case I must assent until you can convince me of the contrary that those men cannot obey God that herein do not obey men that is such as are set over them in the Lord. There is one particular which doth not a little trouble you either to behold in others or make use of your selves and that is the Surplice though it be the very badge of innocency and purity it self even the figure of that angellical cloathing wherewith we expect to be apparrelled in glory or if you will it may put us in mind of our winding-sheets Hence it was that the Queen of France after the death of her Husband went clad in white yet for all this it cannot escape your censorious rod Polydore Virgil P. 547. you do allow as it appears by your practise a distinction of Ministers from other men in ordinary habit therefore you condescend to wear blacks except some of you who in these dayes of Apostacy for what reason you know best who have transform'd your selves into an habit as varigated and speckled as Jacobs Sheep The lightness of your dress resembling your fancies as if you affected to be great divines in Querpo So that 't is as hard to find you out by your Apparel as 't is to discern the Romish Preists and Jesuits And good reason for otherwise the deluded people would scarcely beleive your cry of persecution Yet though many of you are for a distinction of ordinary garments you will not allow the same in Sacris Although what was said of the Cross before this ornament was used in the Church before any Bishop in the world challeng'd an universal head-ship and jurisdiction over the rest Neither is the Popish Albe according to the form of our Surplice or any way like it yet if you have a mind to turn the stomacks of ignorant well-meaning men against it then you cloath it with the Livery of Popery and off it goes with such silly proselytes for Popish trumpery Even as Painters and Limners by a sudden dash of their pencils can make any figure under their hands ugly and deformed Hooker l. 5. p. 242. Although so far as Papists follow reason and truth we fear not to follow them In older times when poor Christians were cloathed with the skins of beasts and were fain to make use of their dons for Temples and places of their solemn meetings The Minister officiating had his Superpelliceum to cover his course leathern atire and to grace his ministry in the sight of the people And I wish the same reason did not still continue in many places where the Ministers revenues are so short that they will not extend to any other than scandalous apparrel Now this white garment does not only prevent this offence but raises the peoples esteem even as a Judge or Major of a City are more aweful when they put on their Robes However this be now ridiculous in their eyes whose spleen is stronger than their brains and their scorn harder than their arguments yet heretofore it was the garb of Noble men and the Egyptian Priests look'd upon it as most pure quoniam linum ex terra oritur but as for garments made of wooll they look'd upon them as prophane quia ab animato decerpuntur p. 120 121. as Polidore Virgil gives the reason I know you will flye to your old refuges 10. Produce say you some Scriptures for this and other Ceremonies then we shall observe them And for an answer p. 354. I must refer you to Master Hooker who tells us that all things necessary for salvation are set down in Scripture But not all things which concern Ecclesiastical Policy and circumstances in Religon Where had the Gilleadites any command to erect an Altar Josh 22. or the women of Israel to lament the memory of Jephte's daughter Judges 11. yet where the Scripture commands that all things should be done without scandal decently and to edification there is a general command for what rites we are injoyned to observe for though the Church as 't is the body and spouse of Christ wants no external policy The express word of God is a sufficient rule Yet as the Church is a society of men and a body politick so it stands in need of Ecclesiastical constitutions as much as the State doth of civil Concerning the 3. And those bind us to obedience as well as these bot harising from the same authority Innocent Cerem p. 189. sayes Bishop Morton 20. Another 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or sanctuary of yours is that this and other Ceremonies are offensive to good men 1. Cor. 8.12 And the Apostle sayes when ye sin against the Brethren and wound their weak Consciences ye sin against God If such as are offended at Ceremonies be indeed what they pretend to be that is truly good men they understand their duty better to God and the King And then they cannot be ignorant that the publick peace of the Church is more to be regarded than the scandal of private Brethren If my wearing the Surplice or using any other Ceremonies offend any weak persons in my Congregation I will endeavour to inform them better But I dare not be guilty of sacriledge that I may give alms Do evil that good may come on 't I dare not disobey my Mother to please my Brethren or spit in my Fathers face by my disobedience to the King to gratifie the peoples ignorance or humour their distempered zeal As for those texts of Saint Paul forbidding us to offend the weak Brethren by eating of flesh c. These relate to those times when such things as these were not determined by authority but men were left to their own liberty and in such a case I would neither use Surplice or Cross if thereby I should offend my weak Brethren But had Saint Paul lived in our dayes when we are limited and staked down by royal commands no doubt but he would have practised himself those lessons of obedience which he hath left in his Epistles for us to take forth Although in the Interregnum as it were betwixt the Jewish Rites Acts 16.3 and the establishments of the Gospel he yielded to circumcise Timothy that he might not offend the Jews Yet when the Gospel was confirm'd Gal. 5.2 then he declar'd that such as were Circumcised Gal. 2.3 Christ should profit them nothing Therefore he would by no means