Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	cause_n	church_n	zion_n	29	3	9.2248	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A77236	Several treatises of vvorship & ceremonies, by the Reverend Mr. William Bradshaw, one of the first Fellows of Sydney Colledge in Cambridge; afterward minister of Chattam in Kent, 1601. Known by his learned treatise De justificatione. 1. A consideration of certain positions archiepiscopal. 2. A treatise of divine worship, tending to prove the ceremonies, imposed on the ministers of the Gospel in England, in present controversie, are in their use unlawful. Printed 1604. 3. A treatise of the nature and use of things indifferent. 1605. 4. English Puritanism, containing the main opinions of the ridgedest sort of those called Puritans in the realm of England. 1604. 5. Twelve general arguments, proving the ceremonies unlawful. 1605. 6. A proposition concerning kneeling in the very act of receiving, 1605. 7. A protestation of the Kings supremacy, made in the name of the afflicted ministers, and oposed to the shameful calumniations of the prelates. 1605. 8. A short treatise of the cross in baptism.	Bradshaw, William, 1571-1618.	1660 (1660)	Wing B4161; Thomason E1044_5; ESTC R20875	92,680	129

from the Civil Communion of men so ought the Congregation of which he is a Member cut him off from all spiritual Communion with them If any one of the Ecclesiastical Officers themselves shall sin he is subject to the censures of the rest as any other member of the congregation If they shall all sin scandalously either in the execution of their Office or in any other ordinarie manner Then the Congregation that chose them freely hath as free power to depose them and to place others in their room If the Congregation shall erre either in choosing or deposing of her spiritual Officers Then hath the Civil Magistrate alone power and authority to punish them for their fault co compel them to make better choise or to defend against them those Officers that without just causes they shall depose or deprive 27. We hold that those Ecclesiastical Persons that make claim to greater power and authority then this Especially they that make claim Iure Divino of power and Iurisdiction to meddle with other Churches then that one Congregation of which they are or ought to be members Do usurp upon the Supremacy of the Civil Magistrate who alone hath and ought to have as we hold and maintain a power over the several Congregations in his Dominions and who alone ought by his authority not only to prescribe common Laws and Canons of uniformity and consent in Religion and worship of God unto them all But also to punish the offences of the several Congregations that they shall commit against the laws of God the policy of the Realm and the Ecclesiastical Constitutions enacted by his authority 28. We hold that the King ought not to give this authority away or to commit it to any Ecclesiastical Person or Persons whatsoever But ought himself to be as it were Archbishop and general overseer of all the Churches within his Dominions and ought to imploy under him his honourable Counsel his Iudges Leiftenants Iustices Constables and such like to oversee the Churches in the several divisions of their civil Regiments visiting them and punishing by their civil power whatsoever they shall see amiss in any of them Especially in the Rulers and Governers 29. For as much as no people are more hated persecuted and wronged of the wicked world then the true Churches of Christ We hold that no people in the Earth stand in more need of the civil Magistrate then they And that it is the greatest outward blessing they can injoy in this life to live under the Protection of their Swords Scepters the greatest cause of mourning when the same shall be bent against them And we hold those Churches to be no true Churches of Jesus Christ that living in any Country shall refuse subjection to the civil Regents and Governers of the same be they in respect of Religion never such Paganish Infidells 30. We hold it utterly unlawfull for any Christian Churches whatsoever by any armed force or power against the will of the civil magistracy and State under which they live To erect and set up in publique the true worship and service of God or to beat down or suppress any superstition or Idolatry that shall be countenanced and maintained by the same Only Every man is to look to himself that he communicate not with the evils of the times induring what it shall please the State to inflict and seeking by all honest and peaceable means all reformation of publick abuses onely at the hands of civil publicke persons and all practises contrarie to these we condemn as seditious and sinfull 31. All that we crave of his Majestie and the State is that by his and their permission and under their protection and approbation it may be lawfull for us to serve and worship God in all things according to his revealed will and the manner of all other reformed Protestant Churches that have made separation from Rome that we may not be forced against our consciences to stain and pollute the simple and syncere worship of God prescribed in his word with any humane Traditions and Rites whatsoever but that in Divine worship we may be actors only of those things that may for matter or manner either ingeneral or special be concluded out of the word of God Also to this end that it may be lawfull for us to exhibite unto them and unto their Censure a true and syncere Confession of our faith containing the main Grounds of our Religion unto which all other doctrines are to be consonant as also a Form of Divine worship and Ecclesiastical Government in like manner warranted by the word and to be observed of us all under any civil punishment that it shall please the said Majestie and state to inflict under whose authority alone we desire to exercise the same and unto whose punishment alone we desire to be subject if we shall offend against any of those Lawes and Canons that themselves shall approve in manner aforesaid and our desire is Not to worship God in dark corners but in such publick places and at such convenient times as it shall please them to assigne to the intent that they and their officers may the better take notice of our offences if any such shall be committed in our Congregations and assemblies that they may punish the same accordingly And we desire we may be subject to no other Spiritual Lords but unto Christ nor unto any other Temporal Lords but unto themselves whom alone in this Earth we desire to make our Judges and supreame Governers and Overseers in all causes Ecclesiastical whatsoever renouncing as Antichristian all such Ecclesiastical powers as arrogate and assume unto themselves under any pretence of the Law of God or man the said power which we acknowledge to be due only to the Civil Magistrate 32. So long as it shall please the King and civil State though to the great derogation of their own authority as we may have occasion hereafter to prove to maintain in this Kingdom the State of the Hierarchy or Prelacie We can in Honour to his Majestie and the State and in desire of peace be content without envy to suffer them to injoy their state and dignity and to live as brethren amongst those ministers that shall acknowlege spiritual homage unto their spiritual Lordships paying unto them all temporal duties of tenths and such like yea and joyning with them in the service and worship of God so far as we may do it without our own particular communicating with them in those humane Traditions and rites that in our consciences we judge to be unlawfull Only we crave in all dutifull manner that which the very Law of Nature yeeldeth unto us that for as much as they are most malicious enemies unto us and do apparently thirst either after our blood or shipwrack of our faith and consciences that they may not hence forth be our judges in these causes but that we may both of us stand as parties at the bar of

common circumstance to every action for nothing can be done but in some time the particular time is not to be observed except Christ had sanctified it to the communion as God sanctified the 7 th day on which he rested Gen. 2.2 3. or at least chosen it of purpose as he did sitting But whereas it was upon speciall Matth. 26.31.45 Luke 22.53 and necessary occasion for the Passeover must be eaten before the L. Supper could be instituted in stead thereof and presently after Supper the hour came when Christ was to be betrayed Therefore if the Jews transgressed not the Institution of the Passeover by changing a gesture at the first prescribed by God according to that their present occasion into another fitter for a time of rest much less do Christians transgress the institution of the Lords Supper by changing the time taken by Christ upon occasion but not prescribed into some other fitter in discretion for the ordinary celebration of the Lords Supper as probably the Primitive Churches did For every ●●●st day of the week viz. the Lords day the brethren came together to break bread Acts 2.42 20.7 1 Cor. 16.2 Revel 1.10 i. e. to minister the Communion So that either they never met upon the L. day but in the evening or else they celebrated the Communion at some other times But for my alteration of the gestures of sitting especially into kneeling there is the least probability It is further objected That we may kneel in regard of prayers to be used by prescription of authority at the delivering of the bread and wine viz. The body of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given for thee preserve thy body and soule into eternall life and take and eate this c. Here unto these answers may be returned Seeing we reject Christs example of sitting for kneeling we must not stand upon what we may do but humbly consider what we must do For if there be not a necessary and a justifiable cause both of those prayers and of kneeling in regard of them do we not presume upon Christ's patience in rejecting his example Now what necessity is there of those prayers at that very time seeing prayers go before and follow after Again must we needs kneel at every bit of a prayer Is there more necessity to obey a needless direction to kneel at those prayers than to follow the example ●f Christ in sitting when we take eat and drink things required in the same sentences prescribed And why must the people kneel when they hear those prayers rather then the Minister who pronounceth them But it is a question whether those prayers be justifiable or no. For besides that by reason of them Kneeling devised and abused by Antichrist Mat 6 7 26.26 c. doth cross the practice of Christ and his Apostles and they may seem a vain repetition Even the adding of them to the words of Institution is contrary to the mind of Christ For he did first bless or pray and after gave the Elements in a Sacramentall form of words without any addition saying take eat Mark 14.21 Luke 22.19 c. c. Which order of administration and form of words Matthew Marke Luke and Paul do so constantly precisely and sincerely related that any may perceive the meaning of the spirit to be That the sacramental form of words ought precisely to be observed without any addition And the rather because Paul beginneth his relation thus 1 Cor. 11.23 24. I have received of the Lord that which I have also delivered c. So that it may seem to be against Religion and Reason that to a sacramentall forme of speech wherein the Minister should onely supply the person of Christ there should be added a prayer as in the name of the Church This confusion is fitter for Babylon than for Sion Lastly Why is not a short prayer after other going before as well joyned to the sacramentall forme of Baptisme viz. N. I baptize thee in the Name of the Father c. Rom. 14.5.23 If then this addition of Prayer to the sacramentall forme of words be not of faith how then can we with faith and a good conscience confirm or allow the same with our kneeling 10. Lastly for justifying of Kneeling it is affirmed That it is indifferent whether we sit stand or kneel seeing Christ did sit when he did eat the Passeover Whereas God commanded the children of Israel in Egypt to eate the Passeover standing and some Reformed Churches receive standing for all that Christ did sit at his last Supper Therefore the KING may appoint Kneeling as the most reverent gesture and best beseeming so holy an action For answer whereunto howsoever that which is already said may suffice Yet it may be further considered that though it be admitted that it is indifferent to sit or to stand yet it doth not follow that Kneeling is indifferent For sitting is the example and standing is a gesture sometimes used in ordinary eating and in the objection it is said to be prescribed at a Sacramentall feast Again it doth not follow That because Christ used a gesture fitter for eating in his time instead of a gesture prescribed upon occasion it is therefore lawfull to use a gesture nothing answerable to eating 1 Cor. 14.36 and that taken out of the Synagogue of Antichrist as though the Word of God came out of it or to it onely instead of a gesture most answerable to eating and of purpose used by Christ at the Institution of the Sacrament So that notwithstanding all that is said for Kneeling His Majestie upon whom the burthen as of this gesture so of other Ceremonies 2 Chro. 29.25 is layd may remember That Hezekiah appointed Levites in the house of the Lord with Cimbals c. according to the commandement of David and Gad the Kings Seer and Nathan the Prophet for the commandement was by the hand of the Lord and by the hand of his Prophets And withall consider that if Kneeling were the most reverent gesture and best beseeming the holy Communion our Lord and Master would not have sitten down of purpose at his last supper And that Ahaz was deceived in deeming the Altar at Damascus more honourable for Gods service 2 King 16.10 12.14.15 than the Altar of the Lord. 11. Having said that which may be sufficient to a man reasonable and not contentious against the institution of kneeling for supposed reverence in regard of God it remaineth that somewhat be said against the institution of Kneeling for reverence in regard of bread and wine which need not to be much For no sound Protestant of any knowledge will affirme it but rather presently consider That if kneeling be instituted for reverence in regard of bread and wine it must be either because they represent the body and blood of Christ though remaining bread and wine touching their substance And then for like reason we may worship the

in controversie are either all or the greatest part of them such Ergo They are parts of Divine Worship and Service The Proposition cannot with any modest face be denied For else how could a sole Divine ratification of the present use of them make them parts of his true Worship If they were not used as parts of his Worship before The Assumption is as manifest For if Christ should by some Revelation from heaven signifie That it is his will that a Minister in Divine Service should wear a white linnen garment in Baptism make the sign of a Cross to these ends and purposes that are expressed in the Service Book then certainly they should be essential parts of his Divine Worship else the Jewish Rites and Ceremonies and our Sacraments are no parts thereof The second part of the Assumption of the first Syllogism That they are imposed only upon the pleasure and will of man This is evident For those things that God leaves as indifferent to the will and discretion of man to do or leave undone being imposed by man upon man are imposed only upon the will and pleasure of man The third part of the Assumption is That they are of necessity to be done in Divine Service Which is also out of all doubt For a Minister stands bound to do them upon pain of suspension and deprivation And God must have no solemn Worship in England except it be administred in the same Upon all this it follows That to use these Ceremonies in manner and form prescribed is to use such Ceremonies as are parts of Divine Worship imposed only by the will of Man c. The Second Argument It is a sin against God for him that is by way of Excellency a servant of Jesus Christ without a precise and direct warrant from him at any time especially in the Solemn Worship of God to give special honour to Antichrist and his members But to use these Ceremonies is in that manner aforesaid to give special honour to Antichrist and his members Ergo It is a sin against God to use them THE Proposition is manifest and clear to any that have an eye of Reason and any light of Divinity shining in it For what is a sin if this be not That a Servant of Jesus Christ even then when he is in the Service of Christ should perform special honour and service to Antichrist or any of his Limbs The Assumption is proved if our Adversaries will grant it that the Pope is Antichrist and that all the visible members of his Church acknowledging him their supream head are members of him by this reason Such a Conformity to Antichrist and his members in the Ceremonies of Religion and Form of Divine Worship as is not only besides the Word of God but in a special manner derogatory to all reformed Churches that have departed from the Synagogue of Rome is a special honour to Antichrist and his members But to use these Ceremonies in Divine Worship is such a Conformity to Antichrist and his members Ergo. To use these Ceremonies in that manner aforesaid is to give special honour to Antichrist and his Members The Proposition is without exception For if it should be a special honour to the Bishops of England and their conformed Cleargy for the Churches of Scotland voluntarily to leave conformity to the Churches of the Low Countries France and Germany and to conform themselves in Ceremonies and Form of Divine Worship to the Prelatical Clergy of England It must needs be a special honour to Antichrist and his Members for any to do the like to them The Assumption is thus proved For a Minister of Jesus Christ to conforme himself in such peculiar Rites Ceremonies and Formes of Divine Service to Antichrist and his members as other reformed Churches have rejected for vain foolish and superstitious is in a special manner derogatory to all other reformed Churches But to use these Ceremonies in controversie is in that manner to conforme himself Ergo It is in a special manner derogatory to all other Reformed Churches Both parts of the Syllogisme are such as may easily be proved if they be denyed The 3. Argument All Worship more than Civill performed to any besides God is a sin To use these Ceremonies in manner and forme prescribed is to performe a more than civil honour even a Religious only to a humane Power and Authority Ergo To use these Ceremonies is to sin THe Proposition needs no proof For there is no middle Honor between Civil and Divine and therefore that which is more than Civil is Divine Now Divine Honor is to be given only to God who will not have his Glory given unto another The Assumption is thus proved If these Ceremonies be Religious Ceremonies and all Religious Ceremonies be a part of Divine worship performed to that authority that instituteth and commandeth them If also the authority that instituteth and commandeth them is but meerly humane Then the Assumption is true But the first is true Ergo The latter is true also The Proposition cannot be denyed of any reasonable creature The Assumption hath three Parts I. That these Ceremonies are Religious Ceremonies This needs no proof For what shall we make to be Religious Ceremonies if those Ceremonies be not that are prescribed by the Church to the Church only tied to Religion only and Religious Functions Offices and Persons to be acted and performed only in Exercises of Religion and Divine Worship and are mystical shadowes and types of Religious Doctrine II. That all Religious Ceremonies are parts of Divine Worship This neither should need any proof If those that are adversaries unto us in this cause did not too much presume of the weakness of our Discourse and the strength of their own wit For there being an external Divine Worship which properly consists in the outward Rites and Ceremonies of Religion What Ceremonies can be called parts thereof if such Religious Ceremonies as these be not For if bowing the knee c. in Divine Worship though it be used also in Civil Worship be a part of Divine Worship much more are those Ceremonies that are peculiarly appropriated to Divine Service and Worship and wherein part of the forme thereof is made to consist But it may for further satisfying of men be thus proved All meer and immediate Actions of Religion are parts of Divine Worship All Religious Ceremonies are meer and immediate Actions of Religion Ergo They are parts of Divine Worship Further How can a man imagine that a meer Religious Ecclesiastical Act done by a Servant of God in the solemn Service and Worship of God by precise Canon of the Church should be no part of Divine Worship sith all the solemn Rites and Ceremonies that are used in the solemn Services of Civil States especially such as are done in their presence have been ever reputed parts of civil Honor and Worship Lastly Considering that God in his Divine Worship doth require the whole heart