Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
religion_n	church_n	discipline_n	doctrine_n	4,176	5	6.2312	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A03500	A sermon of obedience especially vnto authoritie ecclesiasticall, wherein the principall controuersies of our church are handled, and many of their obiections which are refractorie to the gouernment established, answered, though briefly as time and place could permit: being preached at a visitation of the right worshipfull M.D. Hinton,in Couentry. By Fran: Holyoke.	Holyoake, Francis, 1567-1653.	1613 (1613)	STC 13623; ESTC S115476	21,457	38

shall continue the present gouernement ceremonies giue no way to y Aug. ipsa muta●tio consu●tudinis etiam quae adtuvat vtilitate novitate perturbat Formalists innovations then they may say they hold with the doctrine discipline and ceremonies of the Church they haue subscribed vnto them and yeelded obedience to the Church These men are vile formalists that turne religion into policie either condemne thēselues in those things they know or knowingly cōfirme sooth others in their errors and disobedience These mē neither deserue nor haue loue of Prince Magistrate nor people neither is any trust reposed in them for they cannot haue good consciences which will stretch every way and howsoever some for their owne purpose seem to flatter them yet they are truely esteemed of none Yet God forbid that we should deny but there are some which deny obediēce for their cōscience sake not rightly informed in the word of God who if they could haue beene perswaded otherwise would never haue vndergone such evident losse and trouble yet let such labour to knowe that it is not good to leaue preaching of the word a matter of substance which is commanded vnder a Woe for matters of circumstance ceremonies and in question And to consider the benefit of vnity peace The reason that the people alleadge why they will not be brought to conforme themselues in their places nor like such ministers as are conformable is because they haue beene otherwise taught and they were good men that so taught vs say they And one holdes of Paul another of Apollo Novelty and singularity doe so affect them that they scorne to doe as the Church state do they say the smale number is in the right The way that fewest approue and most condemne that is the true way So did the Donatists plead in S. Augustines time and because some of them were then punished for their outrageous faults they grounded herevpon that they were the persecuted Church they suffered for righteousnesse and yet the louing cariage and mildnesse of the Church then towards them and their proud spitefull and seditious practises against the Church did evidently testifie who were Christs disciples and who not who had the spirit of loue and vnity and who of pride hatred and contention And I pray God we may once cleerely perceiue that this is the practise of Satā as Bucer saith to bring vs to a verball profession and by questions of genealogies and matters of smaller moment to tread S. Iames his religion vnder foot when we shall haue religion all in opinions and little or never a whit in good workes as is now come to passe And all this while the Papists haue gotten greate advantage and by whose meanes the Brownists increase it is more then evident and God grant we may knowe how God delighteth in loue and vnity and how Church nor state can longe consist where divisions are fostered Now because all publique disorders disobedience arise out of particuler houses parishes and that wee are met togither here at the Visitation for reformation of such things as are amisse The churchwardens sworne mē are to take heed that they performe obedience in presenting faults according to their oath Ob But some obiect say they holde not our spiritual iudges nor their courtes lawfull neither will they present for faults such matters as they hold to bee no faults i. disobedience vnto Church orders Ans To answere thee why didst thou sweare to answere by oath particulerly to these and these things and by thy mentall reservation doest thus hypocritically wickedly dispense with thy oath Hast thou learned divinity of the Priscillianist or of the treacherous equivocating Papist Ob Some will presume they neede not present according to oath because little or nothing is mēded but a little purse punishment Ans May not the superiour Magistrate repriue a fellon and the supreme pardon at his pleasure yet thou must bee accessary if thou do not apprehend indite such offenders And learne this withall That Magistrates especially of estate do must do many things whereof we cannot tell the reason and they may seeme to vs to doe ill when they do best and it is not fit for vs to take accompt of them but to looke to our owne duties know they are more wise then we And if in our busines little be mended that thou canst see imagine or hope that it is better then thou canst see and performe thou thy oath which is alwaies sacred Others dispense with their oathes for feare others spare their friends and familiars others because they would not be accompted troublesome and others also because they would themselues be borne with another time Every Minister should herein do wel to admonish his people of the great waight of an oath and if these and like vnder officers would present and indite according as they are bound thē need there not be such exclaming against superiorpowers for the raigning of all abuses seeing the principall cause ariseth from ourselues And thus much for the first point of obedience and for this time FINIS To the Reader I Knowe that it will be expected at this autors hands that he should haue hādled these points more fully exactly haue set thē downe in more plausible polished words sentences But vnderstand that his study about this was begun and ended within the cōpasse of one onely weeke besides it was to be no larger then could be deliuered in an houres space and it was purposed only for the supply of that place at that time without any intent at all of further publishing till their inordinate dealing extorted it out of his hands and now is set downe as neere as may be in the same words His intent was good in Gods feare to perswade them to obedience and vnity which God grant that they and we all may follow Amen

they inferior ministers or Bishops In all this time there was no question whether the Church ought to be gouerned by Bishops and other ministers of inferior autoritie and yet superior to others If amongst vs this order of gouernment were not both ministers and ministery would grow into contempt and such anarchie here would be the overthrow of the Gospell and Church of God amongst vs. Thus much for the generall Now to speake of the particuler obedience which cōsisteth in two things first in the obedience to the word of God preached by him that watcheth for the soule Secondly of yeelding obedience vnto the autoritie of such ministers as are in preheminence as also in obeying their lawes constitutions and ordinances And first touching obedience vnto the word where we are to consider that vnlesse we reverence the man that preacheth the word at least for his calling and office sake the worde preached by him shall be to smale effect Which Saint Paul knew well when 1 Cor. 4.1 he saith let a man esteeme of vs as the ministers of God and dispensers of his misteries And Gal. 4.14.15 he glorieth that the Galatians receiued him as an Angel yea as Christ himselfe and that their loue to him was such that if it had beene possible they would haue pulled out their very eies to haue done him good this their respect of him was a glory and renowne vnto them Our Saviour Christ complaineth that the base esteeme that his country-men had of him was the occasion why he preached little wroght few miracles and his comming was so little availeable to them This made S. Paul so carefull to right his reputatiō against the practises of the false apostles who in many places standeth much both in proving the autoritie of his Apostleship and also in exalting of his gifts declaring the integritie of his conversatiō Christ to teach the honor due vnto his ministers putteth vpon them his person and saith Mat. 10 that the entertainement and respect given vnto them hee accounteth done vnto himselfe We read that the Prophets were sometimes called mē of God sometimes Prophets of the Lord and even Kings called them fathers 2. King 6.21 In like manner S. Paul in divers places calleth his auditors his sonnes and himselfe their father shewing that as hee loued them as his naturall sonnes so ought they much more to honour him as their father Hieron ad Nepotianum esto subiectus Pontifici tuo tanquam animae parentem suspice In the Revelation ministers are called Angels a high title of honor 1 Tim. 5.17 The Apostle teacheth that those elders that rule well are worthy of double honour the meanest then are worthy of honor because they are more thē themselues they are the Embassadors of Christ 2. Cor. 1.14 pro Christo legatione fungimur Now doe but consider this the place and person they do sustaine that Gods autority doth shine in thē emineently and we shal easily conclude that to deny thē the honor and respect due vnto their office and place is to clip Gods coine is treason against God himselfe In the 5. commandement the yeelding of a due honor hath the promise of a blessed long life Vid. Bueer in lib. de ordinatione ministrorum ecclesia circa initium the contrary must needs procure a wretched life and a cursed death in the 2 King 2.24 verse when certaine children mocked Elizeus God cursed them and sent a shee beare out of a wood adioining which devoured 42 of them Therefore seeing we honour our lawier that watcheth for our goods and our Phisition for the health of our bodies much more ought their feete seeme beautifull vnto vs that watch for our soules that bring vs the glad tidings of salvation The consideration of this will manifest vnto vs the wicked frowardnes of such as without all feare of God or respect of common civilitie howsoeuer they will seeme to doe it in zeale of religion wil speake evil of thē that are in authoritie especially of the ministers from the highest to the lowest they wil bespurtle al with one blot or other though they bee never so sober learned reverend godly or graue yet al must be either false prophets antichristian prelats timeservers idle or evill persons yea though they preach oft if they preach not twice on the sunday they must bee damned creatures dumb dogges and what not if they bee not of their humor for to frame lies to raise slaunders to backbite or any waies to impeach any that are conformable to the gouernement of the Church they account it religion and he the most forward that herein sheweth himselfe most impudent And this is so common a vice annexed to the inbred-pride of faction that few of them that are refractorie to the gouernement established are free from but Saint James tels them they seeme to themselues to bee religeous but their ill gouerned tongue shewes their religion is vaine Another sort there are that esteeme basely of all ministers as they be ministers who though their wickednesse and contempt of God be herein farre greater thē the other yet are they herein the lesse dāgerous because they maske not in the cloke of religion but manifest their prophane hearts to all men yet it were meete that such grosse contempt should not escape vnpunished But the former sort obiect and say they giue honor to the ministerie and the ministers though they esteeme of some and not of others I should say more then others they only denie it to them that are not lawfull ministers which haue not a lawfull outward calling or want the inward calling which is gifts aptnesse to teach For the lawfulnes of the outward calling of our ministers it was not called into question either by Bucer Pet. Martyr or any of our worthy champions at the time of the restoring of the Gospell nor euer since by any godly learned nor by any other protestant Church amongst all which the glorie of our Church shineth in brightnes as the moone amongst the starres yet if there bee any that herein make scruple let him reade S. Augustine and other learned and ancient fathers against the Donatists which serueth for ful confutation of the same sect renued in our daies vnder other names To the second obiection that the minister happily is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 apt to teach and therefore no lawfull minister nor worthy of the honour of a minister Wee wish with Moses and I would to God that all our ministers in England were good preachers yet wee knowe that in all ages there haue been some ministers in the Church who could preach and for sloth would not and some others that for want of gifts could not and yet were ever held for lawfull ministers In the establishing of the Gospell after the abolishing of Popery there was not a sufficient number of preachers and therefore there were many godly men chosen by godly Bishops Martyres into the