Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	believe_v	church_n	faith_n	7,365	5	5.7654	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29074	A vindication of the remarks on the Bishop of Derry's discourse about human inventions from what is objected against them in the admonition annext to the second edition of that discourse by the author of the remarks.	Boyse, J. (Joseph), 1660-1728.	1695 (1695)	Wing B4080; ESTC R1985	67,590	105

will appear to be a very mistaken Account of this Matter if we compare the number of Hearers in the two Meetings of Derry and Burt with the number of Communicants For their ordinary Hearers are about 2400. Of which some part are suppos'd to be left at home every Lord's-day And yet in some of the Communions there since the Troubles there have Communicated 984 Persons in one of those Meetings So that we may compute about 1600 Communicants in both Now tho' we allow a considerable deduction out of this number of Communicants for the Strangers that may be suppos'd to have Receiv'd yet the number of Communicants belonging to those two Congregations compar'd with that part of their Hearers that are of Age to Receive will sufficiently demonstrate that the Bishop's Computation That not one in ten Receive must be very wide from Truth For the generality of the Dissenting Ministers administring this Sacrament far oftner than the generality of the Conforming Clergy I did not as the Bishop here groundlesly supposes Admon p. 151. assert it concerning the Dissenting Ministers in the North of Ireland but of those in England and the South of Ireland which make up the generality of 'em concerning whom 't is too apparently true to admit of being disputed And for their pressing their People as much or more to it if we may judge thereof by the success of their Exhortations I think it past doubt that take an equal number of Meetings and Parish-Churches and according to the proportion of Hearers in the one and the other the Communicants are far more Numerous in the Meetings than the Parish-Churches even tho' the former are far more strict in their Admissions and in the latter few are ever refus'd that desire to come Of which if the Bishop please I shall produce him manifold Instances And for what his Lordship affirms of their Sermons tending rather to deter poor weak Creatures from Receiving than encourage 'em by magnifying the difficulty and danger of the undertaking I know no ground he has for this Assertion unless it be that they endeavour to deter all that are grosly ignorant or scandalous from profaning that Holy Institution and dare not encourage any to approach to it but such as in some measure understand the nature of it and do not by a scandalous Life contradict those solemn Vows of Obedience which they there come to renew upon the memorials of a Crucified Saviour As for this last Matter of Fact in reference to this Head about a reputed Elder or as in his Errata he corrects it Professor of thirty or forty years of Age that never Receiv'd but disputes against it Admon p. 158. If the Bishop had pleas'd to name him the truth of what he asserts might have been examin'd But till we know who he is we must let this matter lie undecided unless we dispute in the dark So that in the whole of this Debate which relates to the Sacrament the mistake lies on the Bishop's side even in reference to the North of Ireland tho' he was oblig'd to make his Charge in his Discourse good concerning the Dissenters in general without any such limitation For the Bishop's being offended at my saying That too many profligate sinners are admitted to the Communion in the Parish Churches and his charging me on that account with being uncharitable and unjust Admon p. 156. and challenging me to instance in some of his Diocese I shall only reply That I never yet met with any Person before his Lordship that doubted this Matter of Fact and would not rather lament than dispute it For 't is no more than has been frequently own'd by the best of their own Writers and imputed to the present corruption or weakness of their Discipline And tho' for naming particular instances I must beg the Bishop's pardon yet I will alledge what is equivalent to it Does his Lordship think there are no profligate sinners in Military and Civil Employments in England and yet the Sacrament-Test obliges 'em all to receive the Sacrament and he knows they are not scrupled when they come Nay were not the common Soldiers since the Restoration in Dublin forc't to receive and driven to it by their Officers with Oaths and Curses when nothing but the consciousness of their own wickedness deterr'd ' em But as to this matter I shall freely appeal to the common judgment of all sober Persons of his own Party and fear not their Censure on this score it being rather to be wish't for the honour of the Reformed Religion that the evidence of this Truth were less notorious Nay to the judgment of the same Persons I would refer it what ground there is for that Observation which the Bishop tells us some have made That Enmity to the establish'd Religion and Immoralities are gotten on one side in too many instances of it be meant of the Dissenters For besides that the Dissenters have no Enmity at all to the establish'd Religion having Subscrib'd in England all the Doctrinal Articles of it That the Members of their Communion compar'd with those of the establish'd Church are more generally guilty of Immoralities is an Observation that I suppose will hardly pass current with any but such as have a faith to believe whatever their Interest or their Affection to a Party dictates to ' em And since in reference to these Matters of Fact his Lordship requires me to produce my Vouchers and charges me as writing upon none or very partial Information I shall so far comply with his Demand as to produce the following Testimonial of the Truth of what I have said in reference to the practice of the Dissenters in his Diocese about whom our present Debate lies from these three under-named Ministers in his Diocese who have diligently examined these Matters of Fact and whose Informations communicated to me relating to 'em were together with these Papers review'd and approv'd by the whole Presbytery WE the under-subscribers having perus'd these Papers of the Reverend Mr. Joseph Boyse drawn up in Answer to that part of the Bishop of Derry's Admonition which concerns the practice of the Protestant Dissenters in this Diocese of Derry do declare Those Informations which we have given him relating to it and to which he here refers to be true and hereby attest 'em as such to the World in order to our just Vindication from the misrepresentation made of those Matters of Fact by the Bishop of Derry Robert Craghead Minister of Derry Andr. Ferguson Minister of Burt. Will. Homes Minister of Strabane And for his Lordship 's farther satisfaction Whereas one of the most remarkable differences between his account and theirs relates to the frequency of Celebrating the Lord's-Supper his account supposing them guilty of very scandalous negligence the Reverend Mr. Craghead has now in his hands and is ready to produce whenever his Lordship desires it particular Testimonials of this Account now given under the Hands of the Elders

from the Parent a solemn Promise to bring up his Child in the knowledge of the Grounds of the Christian Religion and in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. For this implys his owning himself the Christian Religion besides that his being a known Professor of it is presuppos'd to his Childrens Admission to that Ordinance Nor does the Directory hinder the Minister from requiring a more express Profession from the Parent of the Christian Faith where it is doubtful whether he own it or no. And I am sure the Form of Baptism drawn up by the N. C. Divines at the Savoy-Conference in their Proposals for Accommodation does expresly require it and I have observ'd it ordinarily requir'd at least in general terms For the third and fourth Defects of the Directory That there is no solemn Recognition of the Vow of Baptism requir'd of Persons Baptiz'd in Infancy when they come to understand their Duty as there is in the Confirmation practis'd in the establisht Church and that the express words of the Covenant are not prescribed out of the Word of God Tho' I take this to be an Omission and therefore have both my self practis'd and known many others practise that Confirmation recommended in the Reformed Liturgy drawn up by the N. C. Divines at the Savoy-Conference according to which no Person Baptiz'd is admitted to the Lord's Supper till at years of discretion not only understand the Baptismal Covenant but with his own mouth and with his own consent openly before the Church ratifie and confirm it and promise his faithful observance of it to the end In which Liturgy there is also an excellent Form of the Baptismal Covenant drawn up as agreeable to the Scripture as any I have yet seen yet I think this Omission of the Directory far more excusable than what the Common-Prayer-Book imposes in reference to Confirmation of which they have both made something too like a Sacrament and also turn'd a very useful practice and agreeable to the general Rules of Scripture into a Childish Formality as I had occasion to shew in the Remarks 'T is easier to supply such Defects than to remove such unreasonable Impositions I shall conclude this Head with observing that the Bishop has of all Men the least reason to blame the Directory for these Defects For unless he could produce express Scriptural Precepts or Pattern for these things which he saith the Directory has omitted as I think no Man can do it he must according to his former Principles censure 'em for Human Inventions and rather commend the Directory for omitting them For the Bishop's Charge against the Directory for requiring Additional Conditions contrary to Scripture Presidents of which he gives us only one Instance viz. It s ordering that Baptism be not Administred in private Places Admon p. 174. but in the place of Publick Worship and in the face of the Congregation I suppose the Bishop will grant that it should ordinarily be Administred in Publick and if these words of the Directory were intended in the strictest sense they are capable of I am sure the generality of Dissenters have receded from the rigour of this Rule II. The Bishop comes to shew that my Argument against the Cross is of no force Of this he only gives us this short Account Admon p. 175. His great Objection against it is That we make a new Human Sacrament and then it must be a Human Invention And upon this the Bishop proceeds to give us a new Account of his own concerning the Nature of a Sacrament and endeavours to shew that the Cross is not made a Sacrament by 'em according to that Account Now tho' I should have thought it fairer to have propos'd the Argument in the same manner I had done yet in order to the bringing this Debate to some issue I shall do these two things 1. I shall set the Argument I had propos'd against the Cross in Baptism in its due light by giving as distinct and clear an Account as I can of the Nature of those Parts of Positive Worship which we call Sacraments and applying it to the Subject in dispute 2. I shall shew the insufficiency of the Bishop's Answer to this Argument 1. I shall set the Argument I had propos'd against the Cross in Baptism in its due light by giving a distinct and clear Account of the Nature of those Parts of Positive Worship which we call Sacraments and applying it to the Subject in dispute And this is the more necessary not only because the uncertain signification of the word Sacrament has involv'd this Subject in great obscurity and confusion but especially because the Account which the Bishop gives of it when he supposes us ill-instructed in it and proposes to inform us better seems to me not only indistinct but also very lame and defective omitting several considerable uses of Sacraments which were the chief strength of this Argument against the Cross There are two Ordinances of Positive Worship prescrib'd in the New Testament viz. Baptism and the Lord's-Supper There have been two Names invented and frequently us'd among Christian Writers to signifie the common nature of these two Institutions that of Mysteries in the Greek Church and that of Sacraments in the Latin a word probably borrow'd from the Military Oath which Soldiers took with certain Rites appointed for that end and which was call'd the Military Sacrament But 't is the thing it self we are concern'd to enquire into Now if we can fix upon the true general Notion wherein these two Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's-Supper agree we may thence easily infer what a Divine Sacrament is For of that I am now speaking And if we attentively consider this Matter we may soon observe that those two Ordinances of Baptism and the Lord's Supper agree in this that they are Foederal Rites or Sacred Ceremonies instituted by God for Publick Solemnizing the Covenant between him and us And on the other hand in this they differ that the former is the Sacred Rite whereby that Covenant is first publickly Enter'd into the latter is that whereby 't is Renew'd And accordingly these Positive Institutions under the Gospel succeed in the place of two parallel Ordinances or foederal Rites under the Old Testament viz. Circumcision and the Feasts upon Sacrifices By the former the Israelites were initiated into that Covenant made with Abraham and his Seed By the latter their League of Amity and Peace with God was upon the Attonement made by Sacrifices renew'd by these Feasts upon ' em Of which more may occur anon Now these Sacred Rites that are appointed by God both in our first publick Entrance into the Covenant and our publick Renewal of it at the Lord's Table are design'd for several uses and principally for the three following 1. As representing signs for Instruction 2. As obliging signs to Confirm and Ratifie the Covenant Enter'd into 3. As distinguishing Signs or Badges of our Profession and the Relations