Selected quad for the lemma: religion_n
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A41704
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Conformity according to canon justified, and the new way of moderation reproved a sermon preached at Exon, in the cathedral of St. Peter, at the visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God, Anthony by divine permission Lord Bishop of Exon / by William Govld.
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Gould, William, d. 1686.
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1674
(1674)
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Wing G1438; ESTC R10196
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17,842
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58
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Conformity ACCORDING TO CANON JUSTIFIED AND THE New Way of Moderation REPROVED A SERMON Preached at EXON in the Cathedral of St. Peter at the Visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God Anthony by Divine permission Lord Bishop of EXON BY WILLIAM GOVLD LONDON Printed by A. Maxwell for R. Royston Bookseller to his most Sacred Majesty and are to be sold by Abisha Brocas Bookseller in Exon. MDCLXXIV To the Right Reverend Father in GOD Anthony by Divine permission Lord Bishop of Exon. Right Reverend Father in GOD and my ever-Honoured Lord IT were an unpardonable affront to your Lordship to publish to the World that you have laid a command upon me to be thus publique for I must declare that I had not the same injunction to Print this Sermon that I had to Preach it but it was partly done to gratify the importunity of the Regular Sons partly to stop the mouths of the malicious enemies of the Church of England The one zealously pretended it might be someway useful to recover and promote that indisputable Obedience which is due to our Ecclesiastical Constitutions the other cried it down with noise and clamour and calumnies which with men of their Character and Complexion drowns all the force of reason and demonstrations not to mention the moderate Conformist who had two impregnable arguments against the following Discourse the preheminence of Diotrephes and the interest of Demetrius But my Lord however this Sermon be entertained I am happy in the opportunity of thus openly professing my self your Lordships most humble and obedient Servant William Gould Kenne Devon Sept. 28. 1674. Conformity according to Justified c. 1 COR. 14.40 Let all things be done Decently and in Order THAT men pretending a tender Conscience should have Estrich-stomachs and digest Iron rather than Obedience esteem a Surplice more criminal than Schism and Sedition less culpable than Ceremonies plead for compassion from the weakness of their Brains when they have a stubbornness in their Necks which will not bow to any Regular Constitutions This is at once so ridiculous and mischievous an Impiety as puts all Hyperboles to a nonplus Who but a Refractory Non-conformist One who adheres to his own Conclusion in defiance to all Premisses could ever declare by his publique practice That the Whore and the Beast are more nearly allied to the Order and Decorum of my Text than Sacriledg to the late thorow godly Reformation or Witchcraft to Disobedience But these are not the only persecutors of this best of Reformed Churches We have a sort of men who are neither for Liturgy nor Directory Canon nor Covenant part Churchmen and part Schismatical having one Leg for a Tub and another for a Pulpit one Hand subscribing to separate Worship and the other to the Church of England such who conform to the Benefice not to the Canons and Pope-like cancel all their solemn Obligations to the Laws and give themselves a pardon and dispensation for their barbarous Irregularity against the Ecclesiastical Constitutions Ex animo in their Subscription signifies Lukewarmness and Neutrality an unfeigned Assent and Consent is a deep Hypocrisie Decently is a compliance with a faction and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to moderation and too frequently according to contribution Now we have not the Title of precious Soul-searching Ministers unless we sell Divine Worship to accommodate our Interests and add a precious breach of all our promises and engagements to the utmost height of all Sacriledg and Prophaneness He is your only Man of Moderate Principles whose Conscience is a Composition of Five precious Ingredients the Pride of Diotrephes the Interest of Demas the Treachery of Judas the Hypocrisie of the Pharisees and the Disobedience of Devils Such with whom to pray by the Purse is to pray by the Spirit who expose to sale their Duty and the Laws at the despicable pension of a few Ignorant Zealots who call themselves Saints before they are Christians and are Heirs of Heaven without the Civility of Heathens or the Morals of Infidels These are your blessed Episcopal Covenanters Canonical Comprehenders Clergy Merchants and Regular Renegadoes whose very Character is Nonsence and Contradictions It is from their Indevotion Irreverence and wilful Omissions as if some offensive vapours did ascend from our excellent Devotions that the people seldom enter some of our Oratories till the Air be first purged and cleansed and made clear and free to breath in by the Ravishing Meeter of Sternhold and Hopkins These are your powerful men of God described by Tertullian of old Tert. depi script cont Haeret Qui simplicitatem volunt esse prostrationem disciplinae cujus apud alios curam lenocinium vocant The Church hath a Custom to prescribe the Laws of Order relating to Divine Worship and these have a Custom that they be not observed Their Religion consists in the overthrow of Church-Discipline and Goverment and their Moderation is a wilful Omission of the Rites and Offices of the Church of England It is with these men as with Servilius in Rome Medium se gerendo nec plebis vetuit odium nec apud patres gratiam iniit Thus these please neither the Church nor the Schismatick not the Last because not wholly Irregular nor do they act according to the Canonical Precepts of their Mother because all things are not done decently and in order Calvin who with some is of more Authority than all the Fathers calls the Text the Canon of Canons giving life and efficacy to all our Ecclesiastical Constitutions Regula est ad quam omnia quae ad externam Ecclesiae Politiam spectant exigere convenit The Learned Dr. Hammond observes That upon these Two all Uniformity is built rendring the first according to Custom Custom being the Rule of Decency and the other words according to Appointment viz. of the Governours of the Church of God The Learned Bp. Davenant on Col. 2.5 where we have the same word for order as in the Text tells us It is a Military Term implying the Church is a well Marshal'd Camp wherein the strictest Discipline is observed and exercised It is an Army with Banners Cant. 6.9 and so where this requisite Order of Offices Distinctions Ranks and Files and Postures are not observed it 's in an Army of Souldiers non Ecclesiastica Disciplina sed politia Cyclopica est saith the Reverend Prelate upon that Text. The Church then is not all Head nor all Body no Roman Monarchy nor Disciplinarian party no Familistical Community nor Anabaptistical Anarchy but a well-compacted Army of Voluntiers who have listed themselves by their Baptismal Covenant to live and dye Christs faithful Souldiers and under the Banner of the Cross to follow the Captain of their Salvation the Eternal Jesus The Lord-Marshals under this victorious General are the Sovereign Christian Princes and in the next degree of Eminence the Reverend Fathers and Pastors of the Church who are especially to provide that the God of the
immediately from Pulpit-conceptions according to the variety of Subjects and occasions and that Men are apt to lose a great deal of affection by the constant use of the same Forms let us with the blessed Jesus pray earnestly using the same Words be truly zealous at the Prayers of our Church and demonstrate that inward fervour by the Text 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and we shall silence these insipid vain-glorious Canters who place all their Religion in their rude impremeditated and tumultuary effusions The reverend Doctor Fell in his life of Doctor Hammond observes of that Divine the late glory of the Church of England that his transport at his Prayer threw him sometimes prostrate on the earth that his tears would interrupt his Words in the Common Service of the Church let these men know that revile Liturgy by our following this eminent Priest in holy fervors that the Votary not the Prayer is in fault when ever zeal is wanting at the publick Devotions 2. With Submission to better Judgments the Canons relating to Divine Service would be more carefully observed amongst us if in Cities Corporations and the most Populous places the Ten-pound-Man did not read the Service I therefore request that the Searcher Melter and Establisher of Souls may read the Prayers of the Church and that he may not be permitted in the least to curtail the solemn Worship for his own private conceptions and then the People will begin to consider with themselves whether God do not require something else besides Ears and Elbows in the Congregation of the Saints 3. I do humbly Request that all that Preach Twice every Sunday and forget Catechising that they would once more Read the Fourty sive Canon and Fifty ninth Constitution I must and do openly profess that I understand not the English Tongue if two Sermons every Lords Day be equally Canonical with this Duty of Instructing the younger sort in the Churches Catechism in order to Confirmation 4. That I may not be misconstrued as Enemy to Preaching I do freely consent from my heart that every Minister with Cure of Souls do herein consult his own prudence I shall not contend whether once or twice but I presume the former to be more consonant to the Ecclesiastical Constitutions but let the Clergy Preach every day of the week provided the old Canon be observed That every Preacher in this Province take a special care that they Teach or Deliver no other Doctrines than what is consonant with the Word of God and Collected thence by the Ancient Fathers and godly Bishops Unless this ancient good wholesom Rule be carefully put in practice the Church will be more edified by our Silence than our Sermons 5. What if the Feasts and Fasts and Letany-days of the Church were Canonically and Conscientiously observed amongst us It would infinitely promote true Piety the Churches Peace and I know no pretence against it but Pride and Interest Applause and Benevolence which too frequently cancel all our Vows and Obligations 6. Let us think the Nation and Church wiser than a particular Priest and the Liturgy more weighty than our own Pulpit effusions and confine our selves to the Canonical way of bidding Prayers with that brevity that the Canon-prayer mentions God is not taken with the Novelty of our expressions but possibly the People is the Idol to which we sacrifice and from whom we expect an answer to our petitions and then there is some Reason for a long-winded Cant before the Pulpit-Discourse because the rabble do admire what is equally ridiculous with themselves Lastly The Seventy fifth Canon must never be forgotten enjoyning a Regular Life and Conversation and this joyned with a publick Spirit that abominates a compliance against the Rules of Conscience and Honour is absolutely requisite to the doing all things decently and in order FINIS