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
A51000	Misericordiam volo, or, The pharisees lesson shewing the impiety and vnreasonableness of contending for outward formes and ceremonies, to the violation of obedience, charity, and the publick peace.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Long, Thomas, 1621-1707. Character of a separatist, or, Sensuality the ground of separation.	1677 (1677)	Wing M2245; ESTC R33489	37,726	84

in promoting Superstition most virulent in railing against Godliness and honesty We desire say they to unburthen the Consciences of men of needless and Superstitious Ceremonies suppress Innovations and take away the monuments of Idolatry To this His Majesty of Blessed Memory answered thus The fears for Religion may haply be not only as it may be innovated by the Romish party but as it is accompanied with some Ceremonies at which some tender Consciences really are or pretend to be scandalized Concerning Religion as there may be any sufpicion of favour or inclination to the Papists we are willing to declare to all the World that as we have been from our childhood brought up in and practised the Religion now established so it is well known we have not contented simply with the principles of our Education given a good proportion of our time and pains to the examination of the grounds of this Religion as it is different from that of Rome and are from our Soul so fully satisfied and assured that it is the most pure and agreeable to the Sacred Word of God of any Religion now practised in the Christian world that as we believe we can maintain the same by unanswerable Reasons so we hope we should readily seal to it by the effusion of our Bloud if it pleased God to call us to that Sacrifice And therefore nothing can be so acceptable to us as any proposition which may contribute to the advancement of it here or the propagation of it abroad being the only means of drawing down the Blessings of God upon our selves and this Nation And we have been extreamly unfortunate if this Profession of ours be wanting to our people For differences among our selves for matters indifferent in their own nature we shall in tenderness to any number of our loving Subjects very willingly comply with the advice of our Parliament that some Law may be made for the exemption of tender Consciences from punishment or persecution for such Ceremonies and in such cases which by the judgment of most men are held to be matters indifferent and of some to be absolutely unlawful Provided c. as before mentioned under the three cautions To that clause which concerns corruptions as you stile them in Religion in Church Government and in Discipline and the removing such unnecessary Ceremonies as weak Consciences might check at That for any illegal Innovations which may have crept in we shall willingly concur in the removal of them but we are very sorry to hear in such general terms corruption in Religion objected since we are perswaded in Conscience that no Church on Earth can be found that professeth the true Religion with more purity of Doctrine than the Church of England doth nor where the Government and Discipline are joyntly more beautified and free from Superstition than as they are here established by Law which by the Grace of God we will with constancy maintain while we live in their purity and glory not only against all invasions of Popery but also from the irreverence of those Schismaticks and Separatists wherewith of late this Kingdom and City abound to the great dishonour and hazard of Church and State Doubtless they had very much of the nature of the Adder in them who instead of being charmed into a quiet and meek submission by these most pious gracious sincere Reasons and condescensions did precipitate themselves and the three Nations to those horrible confusions which that Prophetick as well as Royal Spirit foretold for immediately after the people of the Land being frighted by frequent remonstrances of fears and jealousies of Popery and Superstition run themselves into certain snares as to their Estates by the insatiable oppression of their new Masters and their Lives by their want of Loyalty and as to their Consciences by illegal Oaths and Covenants till the beauty of Religion was destroyed for want of Order and Reverence and the substance of it devoured by Sects and Heresies of all kinds And this mostly for Reformation of Ceremonies for the Doctrine needed it not I do even tremble to relate in a corner what a Preacher who was then of great repute spake in the most eminent meeting of the Nation the present Parliament Anno 1656. in these words Worthy Patriots you that are Rulers in this present Parliament Praised be God who hath delivered us from Prelatical innovations Altargenu-flexions and cringings with crossings and all that Popish trash and trumpery and truly I speak no more than what I have often thought and said The removal of these insupportable burdens countervails for the Bloud and Treasure shed and spent in these late distractions nor did I as yet ever hear of any godly men that desired were it possible to purchase their friends or mony again at so dear a rate as the return of these to have those Soul-burthening Antichristian yokes imposed upon us if any such here be I am sure that desire is no part of their godliness and I profess my self in that to be none of the number Can any that bears the name of a Christian hear such things without hornor especially when he shall seriously consider what a deluge of bloud had overflown the land The King being Murthered about Eight years before and the Sword and the Axe having glutted themselves with the Bloud of many Noble Heroes and learned Clergy-men And besides the many thousands that dyed for their Religion and Loyalty there were very many that perished also in Rebellion against God and the King He had little charity for his Brethren that would not on such easie conditions redeem them from the grave and hell if we may argue from a Parable Dives had more charity in that place of Torment than was in this Preachers breast and if this be a mark of godliness Satan needs not to be transformed to pass for an Angel of light sure I am nothing can be more opposite to this Evangelical truth which the Text that is before us commends viz. of preferring mercy before Sacrifice I commend it therefore to your serious consideration whether those persons who so pertinaciously insist upon the abolishing of our Ceremonies as to increase our divisions and engage us again in Bloud and confusion are not acted by a like Spirit of perverseness that delighting it self to live in the fire of contention takes pleasure in drawing others and tormenting them in the like flames At the happy return of our Dear Soveraign who after the example of his Martyred Father was careful to see the Church established in its beauty we found this evil Spirit so violently to oppose as if it had taken seven worse than it self to secure the possession which it had in the hearts of the people being in danger of being cast out then was Nehustan sent abroad to perswade the people that the Liturgy Ceremonies and other things used in the Church of England ought not to be imposed nor retained but utterly extirpated and laid aside and

i.e. with an opinion of the legal necessity of it Christ shall profit you nothing Yet to the Jews that he might win them he became as a Jew and then used Circumcision Acts 16.3 and to them that were without the Law as without Law that he might win the Gentiles and then he would not Circumcise and in all this he was Christs Freeman though he made himself a servant to all The Apostle knew that his Christian liberty was founded in freedom of Judgment and not of practice and that neither Circumcision nor Vncircumcision were any thing 1 Cor. 7.19 but the keeping of the Commandments Now no actions of ours that are required in obedience to our Superiours about the Publick Worship are so obnoxious to censure and scandal as these were but are under our Christian liberty And as we ought to serve one another in love in obedience to Gods commands so ought we in obedience of the same to submit our selves to every Ordinance of man for the Lords sake and not use our liberty as a Cloke of Maliciousness or an occasion to the flesh to cast off either our Love to our Brethren or Obedience to Magistrates For to what end hath God according to his promise raised up Kings to be Nursing Fathers to his Church or what possibility is there that they should provide for its peace if they have not power in these External things If therefore the things commanded be indifferent it is certain that obedience to the Magistrate is no indifferent thing but as necessary as peace and unity which cannot otherwise be preserved Seventhly The means are alway as subservient so inferior to the end Now the end of the Commandment is Charity as the Apostle saith Col. 3.14 and therefore both he and St. Peter require charity above all things 1 Pet. 4.8 When therefore these externals of religion become apples of contention they are forbidden fruit which cannot be injoyed without the breach of the great Commandment and if they had each of them a particular precept yet when lesser duties come in competition with greater they cease to oblige Private Laws yield to publick humane Laws to the Laws of God and among God's Laws Positive Precepts yield to those that are moral and natural A Vow or an Oath concerning a thing lawful if it hinder Majus bonum Naturale ceaseth to oblige The Corban might not be pleaded in Bar to the relieving of Parents much less may any Covenant oblige against the Peace of the Church and the Publick Parent as some still plead for that which they call the National Covenant Those things therefore which are matters of Discipline and external order how precisely soever injoyned ought to give place to those that are the more substantial parts of Religion such as mercy and obedience to Magistrates charity peace and unity among Christians and as we may disuse some things which have been generally received in the Church of God as were the kiss of charity the love-feasts and anointing of the Sick so certainly we may use some other things which are injoyned by our Superiors for the sake of Order and Unity When St. Paul had established the Doctrine of Faith in the Church of Corinth he tells them 1 Cor. 11.16 that if about rites and ceremonies Any man seem to be contentious we have no such custome neither the Churches of God that is the custom of the Church is a sufficient Plea against such contentious persons Thus when the Council of Nice had composed the Articles of Faith in that Creed they all with one consent approved of the Ancient rites and customes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And Sozomen says L. 7. c. 19. it was ever esteemed an unreasonable thing for those that agreed in the Substantials of Religion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to separate from each other for customes and matters of doubtful disputation And it is generally agreed that the Churches which are sui Juris agreeing in the same Faith may differ in Rites and Ceremonies which they have power to alter or abrogate and therefore Calvin says they are Mali filii wicked Sons that will disturb the Peace of the Church their Mother for such external rites and as the Pharisees in the Text seek to withdraw the Disciples by such objections against their Master Why eateth your Master with Publicans and Sinners And yet certain it is that the Authors of Sects and Divisions among us have no better grounds for all the disorders and confusion the proud contempt and unchristian censures the slander and vexation that have been as so many evil spirits raised among us and I desire that such as are yet in the fault would not only consider the insufficiency of the grounds but also the mischievous consequences of our divisions how directly opposite to our Saviour's rule in the Text I will have mercy c. Now that there are Divisions among us may be proved by the same arguments that the Apostle useth to prove that there were Divisions in the Church of Corinth 1 Cor. 3.4 viz. when one saith I am of Paul and another I am of Apollos c. which Divisions as they cannot be warranted but on a supposition of some great corruption in our Doctrine or Worship or some grand profaneness in our Members so are they not raised without such thoughts in the hearts of those that do separate from us as Mr. Newcomen observed in his Sermon at St. Pauls Febr. 8. 1646. p. 40. Who are they that brand their Brethren with the title of Proud Time-servers Prelatical Tyrannical Antichristian but such as separate Who will say that they are of the same opinion in Fundamentals and that their differences are but in minutioribus but Why do they in matters of lesser moment transgress the Apostles rule Why do they not keep their opinions private and have their faith to themselves before God Why do they upon so small differences withdraw from Communion with us and gather themselves into distinct and separate Churches This is certainly a Pharisaical leaven that ferments and imbitters our spirits and though the effects of it may be hid for a time yet on every heat and agitation it spreads through the whole lump and swells Men with Pride and an unsociable sowrness of Spirit And though the things wherein we differ seem to be but small and have a shew of piety yet the consequences are so notoriously and really evil that the most zealous pretences for the Discipline of Christ are too narrow a Plaister to cover or cure the festred rancor and malice towards his members Ceremonies are no fit matter to exercise our zeal and contention but obedience and charity Yet as the Ordinances and Rites that were retained by the believing Jews and Gentiles were still a Wall of separation between them and the Apostle calls it the enmity Eph. 2.15 so is it with us The Jews and Samaritans differed chiefly about the place wherein they ought to

of the Nation in their solemn Assemblies and doubtless as St. Ambrose wrote to St. Augustine if they had known any thing better they would have practised that 3 ly It will very much impair the authority and reputation of Magistrates so to comply with the importune clamours of scrupulous persons as to alter or abrogate their laws and constitutions as oft as discontented or seduced persons shall demand it And though it be very uncertain that the craving party will be satisfied when they are indulged in all that they desire yet it is certain that others will be incouraged to make new supplications and so create perpetual disturbances And the gratifying of a few weaklings or male-contents may give just cause of offence to a greater and better party who are desirous to worship God in the beauty of holiness and are really grieved at the irreverence and disorders which are and have been too observable in the Meetings of dissenting parties 4 ly Hereby the Magistrate should tacitly confess himself guilty of all those accusations that have been charged upon him and his predecessors of imposing unlawful superstitious and Popish ceremonies and persecuting the godly and conscientious people that could not conform to them And 5 ly It would greatly defame those worthy Martyrs who not only thought fit to retain them and gave cogent arguments for the lawful use of them but sealed the established worship and discipline with their bloud not only in the Marian days but under the late Usurpation also 6 ly It is an unreasonable thing to demand that which they themselves would deny if they were in the Magistrates place for let me ask them whether they being well perswaded of their discipline and order viz. that it is agreeable to the Word of God to antiquity and reason would comply with the desires of dissenting parties to make such alterations as should from time to time be required by others contrary to their own judgments and consciences and to this we need no other answer than the practice of the Objectors when they were in Authority And who can doubt but that they who being subjects do assume to themselves a power of directing and prescribing to the Magistrate if they were in the Magistrates place would take it very ill to be directed by their Subjects 7 ly If the established ceremonies were removed others of a like nature would succeed as unscriptural and symbolical as they such as sitting at the Sacrament and lifting up the hands to Heaven it being impossible almost to perform divine service with any decency without such and seeing that for many centuries of the Primitive Church wherein other ceremonies have been complained of by Saint Augustine and others no man ever objected against the ceremonies which are used in our Church and which were by those famous Reformers and Martyrs retained in our Liturgy it is no argument of a meek or quiet spirit to make objections and cause divisions upon pretence of Superstition in the Liturgy and ceremonies and to expect that the Church to salve their reputation should betray her own and by abrogating her sanctions give the world more reason than yet hath been given to believe that the Church of England even from the first Reformation hath been in a dangerous error and the Factions that opposed her have had truth and justice on their side In the second Objection Papists and Sectaries joyntly say That other dissenters may as well justifie their separation from us on pretence of the Ceremonies retained by our Church as we can justifie our separation from the Church of Rome by reason of the Ceremonies injoyned by her To which I shall not need to make any other answer than a short appeal to the Consciences of all unprejudiced persons Whether the Church of England requiring the use of three Ceremonies declared by her self to be indifferent and acknowledged by her enemies not to be unlawful can be thought by any sober person to give as great and just a cause of Separation from her as all that load of Superstition in the Church of Rome of which St. Augustine complained in his days that the Jewish yoke was less heavy To require Prayers in an unknown Tongue and to Saints and Angels is doubtless more offensive than to use a solemn plain form of words taken either from the Scripture or the ancient Liturgies of the Church What is the Surplice Cross in Baptism and kneeling at the Sacrament for devotion if compared to their Adoration of the transubstantiated Host worshipping of Images invocation of Saints their doctrines of the Popes Supremacy and Infallibility of Purgatory and Indulgences besides the innumerable ceremonies daily practised by them And as the Sectaries will not condemn the Church of England for receding from these extreams so neither can the Romanists blame her for want of moderation in retaining both purity of Doctrine and decency of Worship and abhorring those other extreams of Sacriledge and profanation of holy things of Rebellion and Bloud-shed though under pretence of Religion wherewith both they and the Sectaries have defiled themselves It was the pious care of the Pilots of our Church to conduct their Successors between the two rocks of Superstition and Idolatry on one hand and irreverence and irreligion on the other in the same course in which I hope we all believe they themselves went to Heaven And the Governors of the Church have ever since taken caution of all its Ministers not to depart from the same either in their publick ministrations or doctrines so that the people need not doubt of their security in such good old ways wherein as the ancient Martyrs did they may even in the midst of outward troubles find peace in their Souls But as for those that give themselves up to the guidance of Unstable men who have degenerated not only from the moderation and charity of the ancient Nonconformists but even from their own principles and neither are what they lately were nor have given their followers any security that they will continue to be what now they are They must needs be like children tossed to and fro with every wind of Doctrine by the slight of men and cunning craftiness whereby they lye in wait to deceive There are perhaps some weak persons among us whose Consciences are really offended at the use of our Ceremonies these we ought to regard so far that if it were in our power we should rather omit the use of the Ceremonies than give them offence But as we are forbid to give any offence to private persons so much more to the Church of God 1 Cor. 10.32 by our disobedience And whereas those that have real scruples of Conscience will be diligent to enquire and ready to receive satisfaction from their more learned Brethren it cannot be presumed that there are many such among us who have the arguments and examples of the first Reformers and Martyrs the fence and Harmony of the Reformed Churches abroad

discretion to judge of and yet there are such invincible prejudices created within them that they cannot be reconciled Non amo te nec possum dicere quare that is they must keep at a distance and live in hatred and malice though they have no reason for it But when God shall call us to an account for our ignorance and uncharitableness and make inquisition for the Authors and grounds of all those divisions that obstinacy and cruelty that hath been practised among us what shall we answer him can we say as Saul did except it be falsly I have kept the Commandments of the Lord it will be replyed then what meaneth the lowing of the Oxen and the bleating of the Sheep that are gone astray if it be pretended that they are set a-part for a more solemn Sacrifice the Prophet demands hath the Lord as great delight in Sacrifice and burnt-offerings as in obeying the Voice of the Lord Behold to obey the Commands of God for Peace and Charity is better than Sacrifice and to hearken than the fat of Rams Shall we say all our divisions were occasioned by misinformation that the Cause of God and the Kingdom of Christ were concerned or that it was done in opposition to a Ceremony because we would not receive the Sacrament on our Knees or see our Minister wear a Surplice or because we would not submit to the injunctions of our Rulers in matters of Decency Vbi ad summum illud Tribunal ventum fuerit ubi reddenda erit olim functionis nostrae ratio minima erit de Ceremoniis quaestio Cal. Epist in Catech. Genev. or which is as much as any of the rest because we would not eat with Publicans and sinners Consider if this be not contrary to our Saviours rule of preferring Mercy above Sacrifice when we sacrifice Mercy and Peace and Charity which are so strictly commanded to our own ignorance or interest or to the discontent and maliciousness of wicked men which are so peremptorily forbidden Remember the Blessing pronounced to the Peace-makers by our Saviour and the Cu●se against them that are Contentious and obey not the Gospel and then think whether true Comfort and Piety do lye most in being instruments of Peace Deterior est qui recedit ab Ecclesiae concordiâ in haeresin aut Schisma demigrat quam qui impurè vivit salvis dogmatibus Eral de Eccl. concordiâ p. 113. of Mercy and good Works or in being Fire-brands in the Church of God instruments of Satan accusers of the Brethren enemies of Peace and authors of Confusion And think often that God hath made our following of Peace a condition of Salvation as well as of Holiness Follow peace with all men with all our Christian Brethren more especially without which no man shall see the Lord. The Plea of Templum Domini will but aggravate the guilt of such as do steal Jer. 7.4 and murther and commit Adultery and swear falsly Is this House which is called by my Name become a den of Robbens What greater dishonour can we do the Church of God than under pretence of Zeal for Reformation of things inconsiderable and doubtful to open a gap for the greatest impiety such as Rebellion and Schism a contempt of things Sacred and Civil which have been after mature deliberation and Primitive custom legally established in the Church of God If men do indeed desire the honour and safety of Religion and the whole Nation there is no better method of effecting it than by a hearty endeavour that we may all speak and mind the same things and keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace by this the power of godliness will appear as well as the form of it when that Dove-like spirit shall possess our Souls and banish all those proud and wrathful dispositions James 1.20 that do as much hinder the righteousness of God as love and charity to our Brethren What an honour is it to be a Repairer of the breaches of Sion to settle the Ark of God that hath been so long in a wandring condition to convert Thousands of Souls from the error of their ways and as the good Samaritan pour in Wine and Oyl to their wounds that have fallen among Thieves in their journeying from Jerusalem to Jericho If Christ will so graciously reward at the last day all those temporal and bodily supplies that we bestow on his distressed Members as himself hath expressed Matth. 25.34 much more bountifully will he recompense all that labour of love which we manifest for the preservation of those Souls which he redeemed with his precious bloud to reduce a sinner from the error of his ways by a mild reproof a seasonable instruction a peaceable and pious example This is to be as Moses was to Aaron Exod. 4.16 instead of a God and a Saviour unto them Great is the advantage and opportunity that those Men have who by their parts and reputation have an influence upon the spirits and consciences of their misguided Brethren if they would instruct them in this plain lesson of preferring works of mercy and charity above all external services whatsoever if they would convince them how hateful to God a Pharisaical temper is that disposeth Men to quarrel about external circumstances wherein they are not at all concerned and to neglect the most necessary duties of the Gospel Judgment Mercy and Faith which are of Eternal concernment to their Souls In so doing they may save themselves and perhaps thousands of those that know them and are ready to follow them And if there be a pleasure in doing good there is no pleasure like that which will arise from being instrumental in so publick a blessing wherein the very being of Religion the peace of the Nation the salvation of souls are bound together especially in this juncture of affairs when for want of exercising mercy to one another we expose our selves as a Sacrifice to our common enemies Misericordiam volo is God's voice to us and may it ever be heard in our Land If he should have dealt with us as we do one with another lay hold of every provocation to destroy us the whole Land might have been a sacrifice to his Justice but he hath in the midst of judgment remembred mercy and seeing it is his mercy that we are not consumed let us not be so unmerciful to our selves Gal. 5.15 as to bite devour one another till we be utterly consumed Misericordiam volo is the Kings Motto as well as God's He hath sometime graciously manifested his readiness to dispense with the use of those established forms of worship which himself retains as most agreeable to the Word of God and in which the Arguments and Sufferings of his Royal Father have confirmed him next to a Jus Divinum against all doubtings or contradictions yet to shew that he also loves mercy rather than sacrifice he indulged the omission of them as long as the peace and welfare of the Nation could bear it how ill do they requite this great condescension that will not recede one step from their pretended holy but really unpeaceable Discipline to follow such a Divine and Royal example as both God and the King do propose to them Misericordiam volo should be our Petition to the King to pardon all that obstinacy and peevishness of spirit that keeps us still in disobedience and contradiction to those good and wholesome Laws whereby we might lead quiet and peaceable lives in all godliness and honesty 1 Tim. 2.2 Sure I am Misericordiam volo will one day be our Petition to God that he would not enter into judgment with us and we may know what our sentence will be then Rom. 2.16 for by the Gospel we must be judged and that assures us that with what judgment we judge we shall be judged and Mat. 7.2 he shall have judgment without mercy that sheweth no mercy James 2.13 Voluit Deus ut quisque sit sibi mensura misericordiae And now Misericordiam volo shall be my Plea also that you would pardon my trespassing on your patience and that you would suffer a word of Exhortation God hath planted us in his own Vineyard Isay 5. hedged us about with his Almighty providence and been at the expence of Miracles of Mercy to restore and establish us on foundations of peace and righteousness And now that he expects Grapes let us not bring forth wild grapes he looketh for judgment let us not bring forth oppression and when he expects righteousness let us not bring forth a cry of our own sins and divisions and the sufferings of our brethren lest he take away our hedge and we be eaten up and lest he break down our wall and we be trodden down of them that bear evil will to Sion and watch opportunities to lay us wast If there be any fanatick principle among us and there are certainly very many this is one to think that purity of Ordinances will commute for the impurity of our lives or that we are either better or safer for being of this or that Party Lot and Noah are commended for being righteous in a wicked and perverse Generation their condemnation will be the greater that are wicked and unrighteous in a holy Nation and Schismatical in the Communion of a Church truly Catholick and Apostolical Let none of us be as the Sons of Eli Sons of Belial that snatched at the flesh while it was raw and served themselves before the Lord whereby they made the offerings of the Lord to be abhorred of the People Let none of us be like the Proud and Hypocritical Pharisees who thought to cloke their real impieties in neglecting works of mercy and peace by a pretence of zeal for the minute circumstances of external Worship and Disciplin but let us offer to God the sacrifices of a humble and contrite heart and not forget to do good and communicate Heb. 13.16 for with such sacrifices God is well pleased and then he will accept our praises and answer our Prayers with a Misericordiam volo I will have mercy upon you and heal your Land Which God grant for the sake of Jesus Christ Amen FINIS