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
A70394	Lacrymæ ecclesiæ Anglicanæ, or, A serious and passionate address of the Church of England, to her sons especially those of the clergy.	Ken, Thomas, 1637-1711.; Kerr, Thomas.	1689 (1689)	Wing K264C; ESTC R1553	49,273	65

people an inward worship of soul in spirit and in truth before God but withal I enjoyn outward worship of the body which is but a reasonable service to God that made the body exemplary and significant before men in such habits and gestures as may most conduce by the advice of the whole Church for the private spirit of the prophets in those things ought to be subject to the publick spirit of the Prophets to reverence devotion and edification in knowing humble meek and quiet spirits rightly discerning the innocent nature of such things not prohibited and so indifferent and the Christian liberty allowed to them to use those things indifferent when commanded and to lay them aside when not commanded However let the many Obligations to unity by the true Faith you joyntly professe give you more satisfaction then the occasions of dividing the Ceremonies in which you differ give you offence so that you may not upon so small occasions in such small matters sacrifice to your private passion and perswasion the publick Peace and Prosperity of the Church especially since I never heard of any sober Christian or truly godly Minister who being in other things prudent unblameable and sincere did ever suffer any check of conscience meerly upon the account of having been conformable to and keeping communion with me nor did they ever complain of Ceremonies Liturgy and Episcopacy as any damps to their real graces or to their holy communion with Gods blessed spirit but admired them as the united influence the joynt consent the combined devotion of all good Christians in this Nation who publickly agreed with one mind and in one manner to serve the Lord in a way allowed by the most pious of Princes practised by the best Nobility owned by the wisest Gentry maintained by the most learned Clergy and embraced by the best sort of Commons I allow only such Ceremonies as make religious Duties not more pious but more conspicuous not more sacred but more solemn not more spiritual and holy but more visible imitable and exemplary to quicken my children to allure others to instruct and edifie all 5. Are ye offended with my Canons and Injunctions Is it fit that a few men whom order and Policy hath made inferiour to others as the Rulers and Representatives of the whole society should prefer their own private Opinions and Judgements before the well-advised Results the learned Connsels the pious Endeavours and solemn Sanctions of so many eminent for piety prudence integrity publick influence and just Authority 6. Are my solemn Fasts and Feasts your grievances those solemn remembrances of Gods Mercy to men in Christ celebrated with prayer praises preaching and communicating to Gods glory and all sober Christians improvement according to the known president of the Jews and the general practice of the Christian Church What harm is there if some good men observing a day observe it to the Lord and others not observing a day observe it not to the Lord 7. Do you resent my Endeavours for Unity and uniformity Alas I desire only that men sincerely worship one true God and profess the Faith of our Lord Jesus Christ that they may be partakers of the gifts and graces of the blessed Spirit and may have an holy communion with that adorable Trinity and with one another in love and charity as Christians enjoying the noblest life the sweetest society and most heavenly fraternity imitating God emulating Angels Children and expectants of happiness Partakers of grace and daily preparing for eternal Glory that all men who have been called baptized and instructed by lawful Ministers here in the mysteries and duties of the Gospel may make a joynt and publick profession of the Christian Faith and Reformed Religion in the name and as the sense of the whole Nation grounded upon the holy Scripture guided also and administred by that uniforme order due authority and holy Ministry for Worship and Government which according to the mind of Christ the pattern of the Apostles and the practice of all primitive Churches hath been lawfully established by the wisdom and consent of all Estates in this Kingdom for Gods honour the Churches safety the publick peace and the common good of souls 8. Do I not allow you a just liberty to do such things constantly and chearfully which are most proper and advantagious to the nature and excellency of men to think what is true to do what is fit and enjoy what is just in reference to God others and your selves I have taken from you no liberty but that of doing evil you are at liberty to enjoy all the comforts priviledges and Ordinances which Christ hath instituted in an holy order and regular way for private or publick good and to hope for that reward and crown which God the righteous judge hath promised those that persevere in well doing My highest aim is that you may have liberty to exercise a good conscience void of offence towards God and towards man that they may willingly in all things live honestly 9. Are ye displeased with my Members Alas innocent men they pursue after the knowledge of and communion with God in order to a rational religious spiritual gracious perfect and unchangeable life enjoying themselves in the blessed enjoyment of God the enjoyment of whom satisfieth all their desires rewards all their duties requites all their sufferings compleats all their happiness crowns and perfects true Religion They endeavour that on earth which they hope for in heaven viz. a right knowledge and a willing performance which as reasonable they owe for ever to God their Maker Preserver and Redeemer in Christ With this religious frame and temper of which themselves only are conscientious they prepare for a glorious and blessed immortality with a sincerity of heart and uprightness of conversation which hath no other Rule but Gods Word no other End but Gods Glory no other Comfort but the Constancy of this Disposition to their Lives end Innocent men they look for one common Salvation they use one common Sacrament they professe one Faith and Rule of Holiness they have one Gracious Temper the same inward sense of Duty and Devotion they walk in the same order with the Catholick Church over the face of the earth 10. Do you envy me my Patrimony and Maintenance what the Law of God allows me what the Gospel hath provided me what the Piety of Elder times hath bestowed upon me what good Kings Peers and people of their own endowed me with freely honouring the Lord with their substance that they that served the Altar might live by the Altar O why may not my children who attend the Gospel live by the Gospel since they attend a Ministry as venerable in its Mysteries as clear in its Doctrine as glorious in its chief Minister Jesus as painful to it's Ministers and as comfortable to pious and devout souls as the Ministry of the Law Why are you offended that they of my children that are taught should

to heart alledging that they saw no more Religion in the world then Interest and Gain they knew not what to do to be saved Alas you are not sensible that there may be hundreds in Hell that you looked not after cursing the day that ever you were born that ever you were sent into the World that there should be so many Wretches that lived only to damn men If it be a Charge you desire why do you not attend unto that flock over which the holy Ghost made you overseers Why do you not in that calling wherein you are called abide with God Is it possible for you to serve two Cures you will hold to the one and despise or neglect the other and is it possible for you to be saved Lord what if you gained the World at the rate of undoing souls Do you consider that the bread you eat is the price of souls How can you eat with comfort and think Oh some of my charge may be now going to Eternity and I prepared them not How can you sleep securely and think Some of my charge may awake to morrow in another World whether of Wo or Well I know not How can you die peaceably and think Where shall we meet the many souls that have gone before us out of our Congregations Oh where are ye O immortal souls with God or for ever departed from the presence of the Lord Oh did you ever read that of St. Bernard Qui non unus sed plures in beneficiis non unus sed plures in suppli●iis If you pity not me once again by these courses decaying if you pity not poor souls by this means perishing Oh pity your selves and have mercy upon your own fouls Alas that men should be educated chargeably should study diligently should be ordained solemnly to delude souls to mock God to deceive the world and undoe men for two or three or four hundred pounds yearly during a short life that you should appear in a Pulpit if yet you do appear in a Pulpit for a little Maintenance that you should appear very solemnly every Sunday only to put a trick upon God and men I hope better things of you and things that accompany salvation though thus I speak In the Primitive times every Church of so many souls as are of your Parishes had many Ministers whereof the ablest speakers did most in publick and the rest did the more of the less publick work which some mistake for ruling Elders but now one of you takes the care of many Churches The Popish times I mean years 632. could divide England into Parishes for the better discharging of the cure of souls our times unite those Parishes again for the better maintenance of pride and vanity Is it for this that we are reformed is it for this we are Protestants then each Parish had their Ministers to pray with them ferventlie to teach them faithfully to comfort them seasonablie to converse with them usefully Ah! in quae nos reservamur tempora Now now my people are neglected my buildings are ruined my hospitality is lost my authority is shrunk and faln and the Church of England is thought to be nothing else but the interest of a few crafty Clergymen ordering all things to their best advantage Though Envy may know and Prejudice it self may consider I am a Church made up of godly and religious men Princes Nobles Gentry Bishops Ministers and people maintaing an Orthodox Doctrine a Primitive Government a pure and orderly Worship a severe Discipline and a Christian Communion in Word and Sacrament who have forbid these extravagancies by wholsome Laws checked them by severe Canons and disallowed them by fair and just means imaginable In the darkest and most superstitious times I ordered That no Monks i. e. idle persons should take Livings of Bishops or appropriate the Revenues of them to themselves but that the Priests serving those Cures and the Churches might be provided with necessaries Do you know why Monks were pulled down in H. 8. time Lay it to heart I beseech you for many look for your fall too 1. They were accused for engrossing Wealth and trade and do you hear what the world saith of you 2. They were accused for impoverishing Parish-Priests and decrying Preaching as ministring Matter of Schism and Disputes and magnifying their own performances of Prayer and Devotion by which and other Artifices they undermined the poor Priests and procured that many Churches presentative with their Glebes and Tyths were appropriated to their Covents leaving but a poor pittance for the Parish-Vicar This was the occasion of the first Impropriations I pray God your carelesness doth not occasion another Oh remember Robert Whitgifts the Abbot of Wellow's speech who was wont to say That they and their Religion could not long continue because said he I have read the whole Scripture over and over and never found that Monasteries and I may add pluralities were founded by God for said the honest Abbot every planting which my heavenly Father hath not planted shall be rooted up Do you remember that Lay-parliament in King H. 8. his time wherein the Nobles and Commons assembled signified to the King that the Temporal profession of Abbots Priors c. vainly spent would suffice to find 150 Earls 1500 Knights 6200 Esquires 100 Hospitals do you remember those Mock-Parliaments that often considered how many 1000 men your Tythes ill bestowed upon you as they thought would maintain You were once undone now are you made whole I beseech you my sons sin no more lest a worse thing come unto you Bishop Jewel on 1 Thes p. 71. Forasmuch brethren as we were kept from you for a season concerning sight but not in heart we are enforced the more to see your face with great desire Therefore we would have come unto you I Paul at least once or twice but Satan hindred us Such a zeal and care had he over the people of God. Oh in what case then are they that are careless and have no regard of the people of God! which hunt after Livings and bend not themselves to do good which serve their own belly and seek to be rich and eat up the people of God as if they were bread they cannot say they have a desire to see the face of their flock and that their heart is with them howsoever they find time for other matters they can never take time to know their sheep and they do the work of the Ministry among them they care not for them they think not of them they plant not they water not they watch not they give no warning of the dangers at hand they teach them not to deny all ungodliness and worldly lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this present world It were happy if all such were removed out of the Church of God they destroy the souls and lead them to destruction by their negligence What account shall they give unto God for the souls