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	government_n	worship_n	3,428	5	7.3798	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85427	An apologeticall narration, humbly submitted to the Honourable Houses of Parliament. By Tho: Goodwin, Philip Nye, Sidrach Simpson, Jer: Burroughes, William Bridge.	Goodwin, Thomas, 1600-1680.	1643 (1643)	Wing G1225; Thomason E80_7	16,409	36

unlesse it doe take hold of mens consciences and be received amongst all Churches the offending Churches will sleight all such Excommunications as much as they may be supposed to doe our way of protestation and sentence of Non-communion On the other side let this way of ours be but as strongly entertained as that which is the way and command of Christ and upon all occasions be heedfully put in execution it will awe mens consciences as much and produce the same effects And if the Magistrates power to which we give as much and as we think more then the principles of the Presbiteriall government will suffer them to yeeld doe but assist and back the sentence of other Churches denouncing this Non-communion against Churches miscarrying according to the nature of the crime as they judge meet and as they would the sentence of Churches excommunicating other Churches in such cases upon their own particular judgement of the cause then without all controversie this our way of Church proceeding wil be every way as effectuall as their other can be supposed to be and we are sure more brotherly and more suited to that liberty and equality Christ hath endowed his Churches with But without the Magistrates interposing their authority their way of proceeding will be as ineffectuall as ours and more lyable to contempt by how much it is pretended to be more authoritative and to inflict a more dreadful punishment which carnall spirits are seldome sensible of This for our judgements And for a reall evidence and demonstration both that this was then our judgements as likewise for an instance of the effectuall successe of such a course held by Churches in such cases our own practice and the blessing of God thereon may plead and testifie for us to all the world The manage of this transaction in briefe was this That Church which with others was most scandalized did by letters declare their offence requiring of the Church supposed to be offending in the name and for the vindication of the honour of Christ and the releeving the party wronged to yeeld a full and publique hearing before all the Churches of our Nation or any other whomsoever offended of what they could give in charge against their proceedings in that deposition of their Minister and to subject themselves to an open tryall and review of all those forepassed carriages that concerned that particular which they most cheerfully and readily according to the fore-mentioned principles submitted unto in a place and state where no outward violence or any other externall authority either civil or ecclesiasticall would have enforced them thereunto And accordingly the Ministers of the Church offended with other two Gentlemen of much worth wisdom and piety members thereof were sent as Messengers from that Church and at the introduction and entrance into that solemne assembly the solemnity of which hath left as deep an impression upon our hearts of Christs dreadfull presence as ever any we have been present at it was openly and publiquely professed in a speech that was the preface to that discussion to this effect That it was the most to be abhorred maxime that any Religion hath ever made profession of and therefore of all other the most contradictory and dishonourable unto that of Christianity that a single and particular society of men professing the name of Christ and pretending to be endowed with a power from Christ to judge them that are of the same body and society within themselves should further arrogate unto themselves an exemption from giving account or being censurable by any other either Christian Magistrate above them or neighbour Churches about them So far were our judgements from that independent liberty that is imputed to us then when we had least dependency on this kingdom or so much as hopes ever to abide therein in peace And for the issue and successe of this agitation after there had been for many dayes as judiciary and full a charge tryall and deposition of witnesses openly afore all commers of all sorts as can be expected in any Court where Authority enjoyns it that Church which had offended did as publiquely acknowledge their sinfull aberration in it restored their Minister to his place again and ordered a solemn day of fasting to humble themselves afore God and men for their sinfull carriage in it and the party also which had been deposed did acknowledge to that Church wherein he had likewise sinned Thus we have rendred some smal account of those the saddest days of our pilgrimage on earth wherein although we enjoyed God yet besides many other miseries the companions of banishment we lost some friends and companions our fellow labourers in the Gospel as precious men as this earth beares any through the distemper of the place and our selves came hardly off that service with our healths yea lives When it pleased God to bring us his poor Exiles back again in these revolutions of the times as also of the condition of this kingdom into our own land the pouring forth of manifold prayers and teares for the prosperity whereof had been no small part of that publique worship we offered up to God in a strange land we found the judgement of many of our godly learned brethren in the Ministery that desired a general reformation to differ from ours in some things wherein we do professedly judge the Calvinian Reformed Churches of the first reformation from out of Popery to stand in need of a further reformation themselves And it may without prejudice to them or the imputation of Schisme in us from them be thought that they comming new out of Popery as well as England and the founders of that reformation not having Apostolique infallibility might not be fully perfect the first day Yea and it may hopefully be conceived that God in his secret yet wise and gratious dispensation had left England more unreformed as touching the outward form both of worship Church government then the neighbour Churches were having yet powerfully continued a constant conflict and contention for a further Reformation for these fourescore yeers during which time he had likewise in stead thereof blessed them with the spiritual light and that encreasing of the power of Religion in the Practique part of it shining brighter and clearer then in the neighbour Churches as having in his infinke mercy on purpose reserved and provided some better thing for this Nation when it should come to be reformed that the other Churches might not be made perfect without it as the Apostle speaks We found also which was as great an affliction to us as our former troubles and banishment our opinions and wayes wherein we might seem to differ environed about with a cloud of mistakes and misapprehensions and our persons with reproaches Besides other calumnies as of schisme c. which yet must either relate to a differing from the former Ecclesiastical Government of this Church established and then who is not involved in it as well

THis Apologeticall Narration of our Reverend and deare Brethren the learned Authors of it 't is so full of peaceablenesse modesty and candour and withall at this time so seasonably needfull as well towards the vindication of the Protestant party in generall from the aspersions of Incommunicablenesse within it selfe and Incompatiblenesse with Magistracy as of themselves in particular both against misreportings from without some possible mistakings from within too That however for mine own part I have appeared on and doe still encline to the Presbyteriall way of Church Government yet doe I think it every way fit for the Presse Charles Herle AN Apologeticall Narration HVMBLY SVBMITTED TO THE HONOURABLE HOUSES OF PARLIAMENT BY Tho Goodwin Philip Nye Sidrach Simpson Jer Burroughes William Bridge LONDON Printed for ROBERT DAWLMAN M. DC XLIII AN APOLOGETICALL NARRATION OF SOME MINISTERS Formerly in Exile NOW Members of the Assembly of Divines OUR eares have been of late so filled with a sudden and unexpected noyse of confused exclamations though not so expresly directed against us in particular yet in the interpretation of the most reflecting on us that awakened thereby we are enforced to anticipate a little that discovery of our selves which otherwise we resolved to have left to Time and Experience of our wayes and spirits the truest Discoverers and surest Judges of all men and their actions And now we shall begin to make some appearance into publique light unto whose view and judgements should we that have hitherto laine under so dark a cloud of manifold mis apprehensions at first present our selves but the Supreame Judicatory of this Kingdome which is and hath been in all times the most just and severe Tribunall for guiltinesse to appeare before much more to dare to appeale unto and yet withall the most sacred refuge and Asylum for mistaken and mis-judged innocence The most if not all of us had ten years since some more some lesse severall setled Stations in the Ministery in places of publique use in the Church not unknown to many of your selves but the sinful evill of those corruptions in the publique worship and government of this Church which all doe now so generally acknowledge and decrie took hold upon our consciences long before some others of our brethren And then how impossible it was to continue in those times our service and standings all mens apprehensions will readily acquit us Neither at the first did we see or look further then the dark part the evill of those superstitions adjoyned to the worship of God which have been the common stumbling block and offence of many thousand tender consciences both in our own and our neighbour Churches ever since the first Reformation of Religion which yet was enough to deprive us of the publique exercise of our Ministeries and together therewith as the watchfulnesse of those times grew of our personall participation in some ordinances and further exposed us either to personall violence and persecution or an exile to avoid it Which latter we did the rather choose that so the use and exercise of our Ministeries for which we were borne and live might not be wholly lost nor our selves remain debarred from the enjoyment of the Ordinances of Christ which we account our birth-right and best portion in this life This being our condition we were cast upon a farther necessity of enquiring into and viewing the light part the positive part of Church-worship and Government And to that end to search out what were the first Apostolique directions pattern and examples of those Primitive Churches recorded in the New Testament as that sacred pillar of fire to guide us And in this enquirie we lookt upon the word of Christ as impartially and unprejudicedly as men made of flesh and blood are like to doe in any juncture of time that may fall out the places we went to the condition we were in the company we went forth with affording no temptation to by as us any way but leaving us as freely to be guided by that light and touch Gods Spirit should by the Word vouchsafe our consciences as the Needle toucht with the Load-stone is in the Compasse And we had of all men the greatest reason to be true to our own consciences in what we should embrace seeing it was for our consciences that we were deprived at once of what ever was dear to us We had no new Common-wealths to rear to frame Church-government unto whereof any one piece might stand in the others light to cause the least variation by us from the Primitive pattern We had no State-ends or Politicall interests to comply with No Kingdoms in our eye to subdue unto our mould which yet will be coexistent with the peace of any form of Civil Government on earth No preferment or worldly respects to shape our opinions for We had nothing else to doe but simply and singly to consider how to worship God acceptably and so most according to his word We were not engaged by Education or otherwise to any other of the Reformed Churches And although we consulted with reverence what they hold forth both in their writings and practice yet we could not but suppose that they might not see into all things about worship and government their intentions being most spent as also of our first Reformers in England upon the Reformation in Doctrine in which they had a most happy hand And we had with many others observed that although the exercise of that Government had been accompanied with more peace yet the Practicall part the power of godlinesse and the profession thereof with difference from carnall and formall Christians had not been advanced and held forth among them as in this our owne Island as themselves have generally acknowledged We had the advantage of all that light which the conflicts of our owne Divines the good old Non-conformists had struck forth in their times And the draughts of Discipline which they had drawn which we found not in all things the very same with the practises of the Reformed Churches And what they had written came much more commended to us not onely because they were our own but because sealed with their manifold and bitter sufferings We had likewise the fatall miscarriages and shipwracks of the Separation whom ye call Brownists as Land-marks to fore-warn us of those rocks and shelves they ran upon which also did put us upon an enquiry into the principles that might be the causes of their divisions Last of all we had the recent and later example of the wayes and practices and those improved to a better Edition and greater refinement by all the fore-mentioned helps of those multitudes of godly men of our own Nation almost to the number of another Nation and among them some as holy and judicious Divines as this Kingdome hath bred whose sincerity in their way hath been testified before all the world and wil be unto all generations to come by the greatest undertaking but that of our

father Abraham out of his own countrey and his seed after him a transplanting themselves many thousand miles distance and that by sea into a Wildernes meerly to worship God more purely whither to allure them there could be no other invitement And yet we still stood as unengaged spectators free to examine and consider what truth is to be found in and amongst all these all which we look upon as Reformed Churches and this nakedly according to the word We resolved not to take up our Religion by or from any partie and yet to approve and hold fast whatsoever is good in any though never so much differing from us yea opposite unto us And for our own congregations we meane of England in which thorough the grace of Christ we were converted and exercised our Ministeries long to the conversion of many others We have this sincere profession to make before God and all the world that all that conscience of the defilements we conceived to cleave to the true worship of God in them or of the unwarranted power in Church Governours exercised therein did never work in any of us any other thought much lesse opinion but that multitudes of the assemblies and parochiall congregations thereof were the true Churches and Body of Christ and the Ministery thereof a true Ministery Much lesse did it ever enter into our hearts to judge them Antichristian we saw and cannot but see that by the same reason the Churches abroad in Scotland Holland c. though more reformed yet for their mixture must be in like manner judged no Churches also which to imagine or conceive is and hath ever been an horrour to our thoughts Yea we alwayes have professed that in these times when the Churches of England were the most either actually overspread with defilements or in the greatest danger thereof and when our selves had least yea no hopes of ever so much as visiting our own land again in peace and safety to our persons that we both did and would hold a communion with them as the Churches of Christ And besides this profession as a reall testimony thereof some of us after we actually were in this way of communion baptized our children in Parishionall congregations and as we had occasion did offer to receive into the communion of the Lords Supper with us some whom we knew godly that come to visit us when we were in our exile upon that relation fellowship and commembership they held in their parish Churches in England they professing themselves to be members thereof and belonging thereunto What we have since our returne publiquely and avowedly made declaration of to this purpose many hundreds can witnesse and some of our brethren in their printed bookes candidly do testify for us And as we alwayes held this respect unto our own Churches in this Kingdome so we received and were entertained with the like from those reformed Churches abroad among whom we were cast to live we both mutually gave and received the right hand of fellowship which they on their parts abundantly manifested by the very same characters and testimonies of difference which are proper to their own Orthodoxe Churches and whereby they use to distinguish them from all those sects which they tollerate but not own and all the assemblies of them which yet now we are here some would needs ranke us with granting to some of us their own Churches or publique places for worship to assemble in where themselves met for the worship of God at differing houres the same day As likewise the priviledge of ringing a publique Bell to call unto our meetings which we mention because it is amongst them made the great signall of difference between their own allowed Churches and all other assemblies unto whom it is strictly prohibited and forbidden as Guiciardine hath long since observed And others of us found such acceptance with them that in testimony thereof they allowed a full and liberall maintenance annually for our Ministers yea and constantly also Wine for our Communions And then we again on our parts not onely held all brotherly correspondency with their Divines but received also some of the members of their Churches who desired to communicate with us unto communion in the Sacraments and other ordinances by virtue of their relation of membership retained in those Churches Now for the way practices of our Churches we give this briefe and generall account Our publique worship was made up of no other parts then the worship of all other reformed Churches doth consist of As publique and solemne prayers for Kings and all in authority c. the reading the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament Exposition of them as occasion was and constant preaching of the word the administration of the two Sacraments Baptisme to infants and the Lords Supper singing of Psalmes collections for the poor c. every Lords day For Officers and publique Rulers in the Church we set up no other but the very same which the reformed Churches judge necessary and sufficient and as instituted by Christ and his Apostles for the perpetuall government of his Church that is Pastors Teachers Ruling Elders with us not lay but Ecclesiastique persons separated to that service and Deacons And for the matter of government and censures of the Church we had nor executed any other but what all acknowledge namely Admonition and Excommunication upon obstinacie and impenitencie which we blesse God we never exercised This latter we judged should be put in execution for no other kind of sins then may evidently be presumed to be perpetrated against the parties known light as whether it be a sin in manners and conversation such as is committed against the light of nature or the common received practices of Christianity professed in all the Churches of Christ or if in opinions then such as are likewise contrary to the received principles of Christianity and the power of godlinesse professed by the party himselfe and universally acknowledged in all the rest of the churches and no other sins to be the subject of that dreadful sentence And for our directions in these or what ever else requisite to the manage of them we had these three Principles more especially in our eye to guide and steere our practice by First the supreame rule without us was the Primitive patterne and example of the churches erected by the Apostles Our consciences were possessed with that reverence and adoration of the fulnesse of the Scriptures that there is therein a compleat sufficiencie as to make the man of God perfect so also to make the Churches of God perfect meere circumstances we except or what rules the law of nature doth in common dictate if the directions and examples therein delivered were fully known and followed And although we cannot professe that sufficiency of knowledge as to be able to lay forth all those rules therein which may meet with all cases and emergencies that may or sometimes did fal out amongst