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	doctrine_n	england_n	6,989	5	6.3346	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59913	The second part of the birth and burning of the image called St. Michael, or, A new letter to Mr. Jonathan Saunders, lecturer of All-Saints-Barking being the answer of Mr. Edmund Sherman, late church-warder to a sham libel (without any authors name) called The sham-indictment quashed ...	Sherman, Edmund, 17th cent.	1681 (1681)	Wing S3383; ESTC R28864	30,547	16

wrong and consequently Aldersgate as well as the Eight Thousand must all go up to the Altar and there say the proper Prayer We have all erred and strayed from thy wayes like lost Sheep and then it they be Civil they must all turn about to you and say We are all taught of thee Our most cringingly devout and unseriously Ceremonious Brother Johnathan which I dare say thou won't live to see all England learn the Law at thy Mouth If thy Ceremonious practices be not all absolutely so enjoin'd why doest thou defend them and daily snarl at them that won't take thy Word for it rather than an Act of Parliament Tell me not of Canons except such as are allowed by Acts of Parliament for I know no Cannons but the great Guns on Tower-hill and they are almost all worne off or gone too except they have passed the Tripple Scrutiny of England and so become Laws For my part I am clearly of and for the Religion of the Church of England as it is now established by Law and O would to God we could all be of that one uniform Opinion and Practice that is thereby establisht The Cerrificates which I annually make upon Record of my taking the Sacrament on account of the Office I hold in this Honourable City may satisfie the Inquisitors in that point but I further say our Religion as now establisht is the best in the World I write not only my Judgment but my own Experience of the Lutheran and Calvin as well as of the Papists Religion the Practice and Doctrine of all which I have Personally seen known and understood in Denmark Swedeland Sprutia Germany Polonia and Flanders and other parts I value my Experiences in Religion more than my Reading and on that Assurance and Satisfaction I declare our establisht Religion of the Church of England to be the best of the World But as there is danger on one Hand from those that fall short of the Church of England that it may tend to Confusion so there is danger also on the other Hand from those that go beyond for such Winged Seraphim-sons of the Church as fly higher in their Ceremonies than his Majesties Act of Uniformity directs when those Soarers are once upon the Wing of disguise or design of preferment and have got beyond or above the Kings Law they may fly as high as the Church of Rome nay to Rome it self and there Rant and Roar and Sing and Curse and Damn and Drink and Drink and Drink on till they spew and reel and thrust their Thumb under their Girdle and loll their Head to the Larboard and strut and stare and stagger and swagger and so vent and gulp up their words stutteringly and stammeringly calling all Phanaticks perhaps Hereticks too that don 't because they ought not or perhaps can not fly as high as such lofty Sons of the Church do until at last near Eight Thousand honest sober Clergy-men right bred-Sons of the Church more Piously exemplary and Zealous and Serious and more regularly devout shall be all spewed upon by such Mounta Seigniora's from home Libera nos Domine Now seeing it is certainly true that there are about Eight Thousand parochial Churches in England where the Ministers don't say second Service at Communion-Table nor don 't say any part of the Communion Service at Communion-Table at any time but only on Communion-dayes or some perhaps upon High Holy-dayes nor those Eight Thousand don 't quit their Pulpits without Prayer or Blessing to perform their after Sermon-Prayer and Benediction at the Altar ought we not therefore to be so charitable as to believe that the Eight Thousand understand their Duty and Conscience and that they practise as much as they believe to be their Duty And now that I may apply my Answer to your last Sham Pamphlet fully and home to you I will invert your last Paragraph therein and send it packing again home to you to be imbraced in your own bosom and so I say in your own words or sence viz. I leave it to all Impartial Men to determin whether the practice of above Eight Thousand sober and pious Clergy-men all of unbroken yea and Vndrunken Reputation too are to be believed and imitated or the Assertion and Practice of one single Mr. Saunders Now Mr. Johnathan Confute and Convert these 8000. Et eris mihi Magnus Appollo or else hang your Harp upon the Willows for there are Eight Thousand sober Men won't Dance after your Pipe don't obstinately run Counter to Eight Thousand of your own Fraternity but either leave off your foolish conceited singularity or else write Learnedly so as may confute them all by proofs which you must quote out of the Act of Conformity but I will vouch there is not one word therein nor in the Old or New Testament that directs the faying Service at 2 Barking Church differing from Eight Thousand other Parishes in the same Land I say you must do it by Proofs for else of all men no body will believe you when you only say in verbo Sacerdotis without better proof for you are in print for Printing an untruth against a Record it self Therefore pray quote all the places that you have for your proofs in Vindication of your Ceremonies which you use If you have Authority shew it what place or page it is in and in what Book that so you may Receive Answer from some Learned hand when the Quondam Church-Warden can answer you no further But seeing you have first brought me upon the Stage and first began with me by two Pamphlets Challenging and charging me for not defending a vile Image no better and upon those two Challenges when my Vindication came forth in a Book called Birth and Burning c. then by a late Libel entituled The Sham-Indictment Quasht you seem to challenge me again and being once more met by you upon the Stage in print now I do here challenge and charge you that you have been the Beginner of such Ceremonies as have been the occasion of all this pother and noise about this Image you smelt it would come home to your door at last and therefore you first skreamed out But what is the matter now have you catcht a Tartar O! Now I have got you here I will keep you on the Stage untill you Answer me and give an account of your Faith in those Ceremonies that have made this embroyl and I challenge and require you to answer me in Print with your own hand not with a Nameless print or some Sham or feigned Apparitions any more for I will not lay down the Cudgells but Bang you on the Stage in print till you have Answer'd a Quondam Church-Warden in Matters of your own Element let the World see how you can defend your self at your own Weapon by fair play not by Railing for all Clergy-men will yield the buckles to thee that thou art better at that than any of them all come fairly confess

Vestry Chimny were greater Sacreledge than his Act that took it from the Steeple to adorn the Commandments therewith I ask whether the Chimny were not the warmest place and more proper than the Commandments which do so forbid Images that Images are an obomination The Chimny as well as the Commandments were both places contrary to the design of its first creator or maker viz. Ben. Edwards who made it and placed it on the Dial for a Tom Tell Clock And yet I believe honest Ben. may like the Burner better than the Remover or Pulpit Bawler or Apparition Pamphleteer because my Burning had ended all the Noise if the Publiteer had not been a Pamphleteer and spread it in Print Leave off for shame those Glosses in the Pulpit about Sacriledge for every one thinks it too much being on no other occasion but a vile Image If you don 't it will shortly be said by Folks Come let 's go to Barking Church to hear the Parson rail against the Church-warden that burnt St. Michael and every Country Parson that comes to Preach at Barking won't think he have made a Sermon suitable to the place if he han't talkt of Sacriledge or reflected upon him that pull'd down St. Michael till at last Men will come and look in at Door and turn again saying O are you there with your Sacriledge about a rotten Image Like him that Preached so often upon the Text about the two She-Bears 2 Kings 2. v. 24. in every Church he came at one passing by looked in and hearing him said O are you there with your Bears and so went out of the Church again It would become Lecturers much better to lead such sober lives as might convince the World that they are Examples of Temperance but I will not come too near the Ark lest I should touch it for if I do I must expect Vzzah's fate as far as is in a Lecturers power though I believe I may prove it Lawful for Vzzah being a Levite to touch the Ark But I answer it is as Lawful for me to Answer your Prints as it was for you to begin to print against me whether it were Lawful or nor for Vzzah to touch the Ark is not my business now to treat upon else I could say something to it for he being an Officer of the Ark as a Levite might think himself concerned to support the Ark when he perceived it in danger So in our present case when an Image had given such offence and scandal by standing in such a place and your going up to read Service at the place where it stood which you never did before the Image was set there except on Sacrament dayes when Bread and Wine was there And also an Indictment being brought against the Church-wardens for letting it continue sure then it was lawful enough for such an Officer as a Church-warden to pull it down and Burn it especially at such a juncture of time as when the Ark the Church of God was and is in so great danger of falling into the hands of the Philistians Papists and Images are such inseparable Badges of that Religion that there is no Papists Church that I ever saw and I have seen many without them And who ever blames me in Print or Pulpit for Burning this abominable Badge of Superstition they cannot distinguish themselves from being pleaders for Images and they that plead for Images in Churches are as near a-kin to Superstition as Supersttion it self is of kin to Popery and whoever Bows to an Image or Fathers such Texts as are in the First and Last of the Three Pamphlets upon the occasion can never quit themselves from a Suspicious leaning towards Superstition and he that Bows to meer Bread and Wine that just came out of a sawcy Clarks hands before the Minister hath laid his Consecrating hands and pronounced the Words of Consecration must needs give Papists themselves occasion to Reproach those that do so more than we can Reproach them for Bowing after Consecration I confess I can't write of such practices without emotion for I love not to treat starcht nonsensical Folly with too much Gravity there is no Man hath a more due Respect to pious and serious Clergy-men than my self but to see Ministers that should imploy themselves in Instructing us from Gods sacred word spend their time in scribling Libels in defence of odious Images who can behold these things without Indignation I am verily perswaded that I do upon this occasion discharge my Duty to the Church of England to detect all Image loving and cringingly Ceremonious and unserious Lecturers especially if all this may tend to drive this one out-lving Dear home to his Park at Sandon to take care of his Flock in the hands of a Hireling for how should that Flock yield Milk that have neither Pastor nor Pasture for when you are so often and so long near them at Chelmsford you give them scarce above one or two Sermons in twelve Months last past Sure the Lord Bishop as well as Barking Parish will take notice that you harbour and loyter at Chelmsford and not at Sandon though you pretend to go to Sandon when you leave London but when the People of Sandon see themselves thus slighted at last they will Sue you for Non-Residence why do we complain of Dissenters when Non-Residence is a kind of Non-Conformity to the Law in the Clergy an a great cause of it in the Laity For Sheep will go astray where there is no Shepherd Now for this thou art inexcusable O Man so much to neglect thy Duty and Conscience at Sandon and yet in the mean time to keep such a Noise here at Barking about reading Second Service at Communion-Table and leaving our Pulpit without Prayer or Blessing and in Loyal Nath. Themson's Loya Intelligence Numb 27. dost cause to be Printed as a Reason for you reading Second Service Thus The Lecturer indeed was Conscientiously desirous to observe the Rubrick which commands the same But to come closer to you if you would have the World believe that the Rubrick directs it and you are so Conscientiously desirous to observe it why then do you not cause your own Curat to observe and do the same every Sunday As you have brought that way up here why do you not Conscientiously take care it be so done at Sandon where you are so far absolute that it is in your own power And if out Curate will not do it you may get another if you can that will Therefore no Body will believe you Act Conscientiously in the matter at Barking when you do not cause the same to be done at Sandon every Sunday as you have brought it up to be done here at London For your Curat reads Second Service at Saydon in the D●●k though you read Second Service your self as the Altar at Sandon whose few times you preach there But for your after Sermon Service of going up to the Altar and giving the Benediction

when we fear the prevailing of a Religion that is composed of Ceremonies and Superstitions And Consider the rather with your self who first put you upon running into these Ceremonies I have good ground to believe the Report of some of the People in and about Sandon that it was a Lay Gentleman who in some former Years had been himself or some of his Relations of the Romish Religion and therefore consider and think it no wonder if that Gentleman press hard upon you for a strict Observation and a due Performance of a Multitude of Ceremonies because he may perhaps think that God's worship in the Church of England consists as much in Ceremonies as it did so in the Romish Church but I hope you have not so learned Christ And then you will be able to reply to that Gentleman this other Text viz. God is a Spirit and they that worship him Must worship him in Spirit and in Truth Joh. 4.24 And pray Study Preach and Practise this your own self and begin nor continue no new Ceremonies at least let your betters go before you I mean see it done at Aldersgate before you Print up the Legality of it at Barking or Sandon Thus it seems you have made Divisions at Sandon also and a Noise about the Country as well as die City meerly by your singularity and Ceremonious practices to the wonder of some Neighbouring Learned Clergy-men about Sandon What will you disturb City and Country and with the heat of your pretended Conscientious zeal boyl all the goodness out of the Meat Religion into the Broth of Ceremonies Nay if the marrow and goodness of Religion and quintessence of it be gone into the broth and the All of it lyes there then it is no wonder you contend so much for the Broth that Religion is boyl'd in I mean the Broth of uninjoyn'd Ceremonies for I would not be thought to Ridicule any Ceremonies that are injoyned by the Law it is you Mr. Lecturer that imbroyl London and Sandon and by your bowing c. occasioned an Indictment at London and then that occasioned three Pamphlets at London and this my Second Vindication also it was those Lecturers Lecturers that in Pulpit and Press did turn the World up-side down in 41. in 41. and for a Lecturer now in these times to Print up more Ceremonies and Bowings than the Law hath enjoyned tends to turn us quite topsie turvy because it may tend to bringing in a Religion that is Composed of and upheld by Ceremonies from such Religion good Lord deliver us When I read what the Samaritan Woman said Our Fathers worshipped in this Mountain and ye say that at Jerusalem is the place where Men ought to worship John 4.20 So may I say we had all our Morning Services both First and Second Services all said in the Desk at Barking ever since the Creation of the Kings Act of Conformity till about 78. and now you Johnathan say that the Altar is the place where the Men of Barking ought to worship the same God by saying second Service there So I also may say that ever since the Creation of the said Act our Sermons did end with some Prayer and Benedictions in the Pulpit until about 78. But now you Johnathan say that the Men of Barking ought to receive the benefit of your after Sermon-prayers and Benedictions at the Altar after you have bowed to it and not from the Pulpit It will be now expected that you that have thus exposed your self not only in Loyal Mr. Thomson but in your own Three single Sheets and have exposed me also to the World when you had no just occasion except in defence of an Image I say it will now be expected that you should give the World a Learned and Good Account in Print of the whole Matter particularly why your Conscience is streighter Laced at London than it is at Sandon or else Life Doctrine Print Pulpit Reading Ceremonious Bowing Critical time lucky Minit and all Circumstances considered you will come on and go off the Printed State under a Charactor and in the wildest Notion of the largest sized Latitudinarian of any Clergy-man in England In your Book of Fiery Apparition c. Page 4. you have these words I could have wished with all my Heart that the thing had made no Noise abroad I believe by this time you do wish so with all your Heart and Head and Soul also thou wishest it had made no Noise and yet you begin the Noise your self with Two Pamphlets before ever I Printed one word I find in the second Book Page 4. more of your own Words being thus And I very well understand that Liberty of Conscience and Liberty of the Press are things that have an unhappy Influence upon the whole Nation and therefore as I am no Friend in the present wild Notion to the one so I should hardly have been guilty of using the other had there not been this Too just occasion for it Just so I invert this Sentance of your own If Clergy-men will take Liberty of Conscience in the Pulpit and Press to inveigh against me why then I can't forbear being Guilty of using the Press to tell the World how you Ring of Sacrelidge about one vile Image And I should never have Printed had there not been this too just occasion for it which are also your own words Pray God the Protestant Religion and Church as it is now establisht by Law never receive a greater Bow in England than my Burning an Image God Almighty who equally hates Superstition and Sedition blast the designs of all those on either hand that tend to seek the Destruction of this true Protestant Church of England as it is now establisht by Law especially those of her own Houshould for I am an enemy to all that go beyond as well as to those that come short of the Church of England For every step beyond if it be a Superstitious step it may soonest of all be a Popish step the rather because at this day Romes Agents are so ready to take Men by the Hand and Dance them into Romes Fopperies with the pleasant Song of welcome John Sanderson welcome welcome And then I will say farwel John Sanderson farwel farewel I kept these Two Astonishments till at last in hopes I should have seen you rectifying your mistakes in Print one is your Text Where no Law is there is no Transgression Must you be taught by a Church-warden that there is a Law except you are agreed with some Papist who leave that Commandment out of their Deacalogue you will one day find it in Exod. 20.3 4. in these words Thou shalt not make to thy self any Graven Image nor the likeness of any thing that is in Heaven above or in the Earth beneath or the Waters under the Earth thou shalt not Bow down to them nor worship them c. Though you evade this Image by calling it a Figure or Symbol yet you may