Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A41505
|
A discourse about ceremonies, church-government and liturgy humbly offered to the consideration of the convocation / by J.G.G.
|
Gailhard, J. (Jean)
|
1696
(1696)
|
Wing G120; ESTC R25091
|
108,929
|
160
|
and Years I am afraid of you least I have bestowed upon you Labour in vain No doubt the Colossians were doting upon the other Branch eating or not eating which Rudiments of the World Colos 2.20 21. if they were dead with Christ they ought to have been freed from and not subject to Ordinances touch not taste not handle not But a Circumstance which much altereth the Case and takes away the Indifferency is when the Use of such things gives an Offence and becometh a Scandal to weak Brethren this Consideration makes Paul so positive with the Corinthians 1 Cor. 8.9 12 13. but take heed lest by any means this Liberty of yours become a Stumbling Block to those that are weak Whether this eating keeping a Day or using any such Ceremony which some account indifferent is to be minded I say 't is not so small a matter as ye think for when ye sin so against the Brethren and wound their weak Conscience ye sin against Christ wherefore if Meat or the Use of any Ceremony make my Brother to offend I will eat no Flesh nor use such Ceremony whilest the World standeth lest I make my Brother to offend here is Charity here is Christianity for that not only giveth an Offence to the weak Brother but also it sometimes ensnares him to do that which he doth not approve whereby he is destroyed Rom. 14.5 22 23. for if a Man be not fully perswaded in his own Mind but condemneth himself in that thing which he alloweth and doubteth he is damned if he doth it because he doth it not of Faith for whatsoever is not of Faith is Sin Tit. 1. For to the unbelieving nothing is pure and to him that esteemeth any thing to be unclean and unlawful to him it is unclean and unlawful The great Care we ought to take is Rom. 14.14 that no Man put a Stumbling Block or an Occasion to fall in his Brother's way V. 13 15.19 but rather follow after the things which make for Peace and therewith one may edifie another Now if thy Brother be grieved with thy Meat with thy Ceremonies thou walkest not charitably much more if thou enticest or as much as in thee lies compellest him to it nay persecutest him for it I call Persecution to deprive to fine and to put in Prison for not doing such things as his Conscience alloweth him not to do this as much as in one lies is to destroy him for whom Christ died which in this Place the Apostle declareth so much against and if a Man will not because in Conscience he cannot do such and such things then presently a rash Censure is passed upon him he is a precise Man a stubborn and refractory Spirit why should not he do as so many others As preach with a Surplice and use the Ceremonies of the Church As good a Way of arguing as if one would say why should not he go to Hell as so many others do Let such hear what St. Paul saith here but why doest thou judge thy Brother or why doest thou set at nought thy Brother V. 4.10 And who art thou that judgest another Man's Servant to his own Master he standeth or falleth 'T is time to give over such rash Judgments V. 13. V. 17. let us not therefore judge one another any more for the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink or Ceremony that Men should so strictly press it upon others as if the Life and Power of Religion consisted in such things but 't is Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost therefore do not destroy him with thy Ceremonies for whom Christ died V. 21. for it is good neither to eat Flesh nor to drink Wine which yet may be necessary for Man's Health nor to do any thing whereby thy Brother stumbleth or is offended or is made weak And yet those things which the Church accounteth to be indifferent and we unlawful are pressed and imposed upon as if they were most necessary in as much as the thing relateth to my self must another Man's Conscience or my own be a Judge in the Case In our Churches and Worship we have nothing amongst us which our Adversaries may be offended at or take Exception against The Cause of Division the Idol of Jealousie is amongst them let it be put away and then we will be all one but if they prefer those Human Inventions before our Union with them if they have rather to keep us out than to part with their Ceremonies wherewith we cannot stand in the same Bottom they say they can be without their Ceremonies and we say we cannot be with them after that let God and impartial Men judge where the Fault lies who they or we do hinder a necessary Union and Reconciliation which would prove so sweet and so comfortable to many and many Thousands of Souls to the greater Glory of God strengthening of the Protestant Interest and weakening the Enemies thereof both abroad and at home The Contrary of these doth but foment Jealoufies and Partialities keep up Divisions encourage and give Advantage to our common Enemy and if for Peace sake we should grant them what they say of us namely that it is Weakness in us that we cannot come up to them which we in Conscience cannot do though they in Conscience may do what we desire of them then let them know Rom. 15.1 2. how they that are strong ought to bear the Infirmities of the weak and not to please themselves but let every one please his Neighbour for his Good to Edification Now when the Contrives of former Mischief against Religion are removed from the Throne and round about it we have a happy Opportunity of promoting and settling a desirabale and longed for Union which we heartily desire to the end that all Prejudices being removed we may become but one Flock under the great Shepherd of our Souls the Lord Jesus but if this blessed Union be neglected by those in whose Power under God it is to promote it then let those Men know they shall be accountable to God for the Loss of it and guilty of the evil Consequences that may happen to follow thereupon The Worst in some of those Men is that when they want Proofs they revile and abound in abusive Language to my great Grief we find it in those that seem to be or to have been most moderate among them such is the Author of those Conferences we had elsewhere Occasion to mention though otherwise a Person of Worth and Learning who under the Name of a Fanatick Chaplain introduces one as the most nonsensical Fellow in the World but he like the Philistines was sure not to set a right Edge to the Weapons of the Children of Israel The Fanatick Chaplain's Arguments must be laid down flat upon their Back Indeed it had been well for him to have said whom he meaneth by Fanatick and Fanatick Chaplains though in the Book
nor be a Hinderance for Ministers to exercise the Gift of Prayer or to make them neglect it nor to justle out preaching neither must Men make the publick Worship of God consist only or chiefly in hearing Prayers read With these Cautions we approve well of a Liturgy wherefore let it be known we except not against Liturgies in general and as such but in particular against such as we think to have just Exceptions against either as to the matter or to the manner of using them As to those Liturgies fathered upon St. Peter St. James and Mark they are spurious and were obtruded upon the World by the Romanists Although I do not intend to insist upon those Places of the Common-prayer-book which we have just Cause to except against because others have done it before yet something must be said to it and we must come to some particlars I shall begin with the Rubrick concerning the Order how the rest of the holy Scripture besides the Psalter is appointed to be read in the first Paragraph is a Brand and a Slight put upon holy Canonical Scripture of the Old Testament for it is said It shall be read through once every Year except certain Books and Chapters which be least edifying and might be spared yet instead of these are read several of the Apocryphal Books as Ecclesiasticus the Wisdom 2d of Esdras Baruch Judith Tobith c. Whereby a visible Preference is given to those Humane Writings before the authentick Word of God for they are lookt upon as best edifying and least to be spared In the point this is worse than Papists who give the Apocryphas and their Traditions an equal Authority to Canonical Scripture which is the Word of God when the others are the Word of Man but this as I already observed giveth the Preference to some of the Apocrypha before some of the Canonical I hope this shall be no Question between us we all know the Reasons we have against Papists about the Authority of the Apocrypha First They were all written after the Time of Malachy the last of the Prophets Secondly None of the Apocrypha is written in Hebrew which is the Tongue used by the Prophets Thirdly Neither the Jews nor the primitive Apostolical Church ever received them as Canonical Fourthly they were never quoted in the New Testament by our Saviour or his Apostles tho there be Places quoted out of every Book of the Old Testament and our blessed Saviour mentioned the Old Testament under three Heads The Law of Moses the Prophets Luke 24.44 and the Psalms But the fifth and chief Reason because in every thing they do not agree with the Canonical Scripture nor with themselves as hath been shewed by some of our Divines as Whitaker Reynolds c. specially in Vsher's Body of Divinity and by Forreigners as Polanus Chamierus and so many more And this I press the more because the Authority of it in Scripture is one of the Fundamental Points of our Religion and one of the greatest Controversies between Papists and us In the last Paragraph of the same Rubrick 't is ordered thus as often as the first Chapter of St. Matthew is read either for Lesson or Gospel ye shall begin the same at Vers 18. and the third Chapter of St. Luke 's Gospel shall be read unto the middle of Verse the 23d Surely that which is ordered to be left out is Part of Scripture as that which is read the one as well as the other are written for our Instruction as well as Comfort That which is unread is of a high Concernment for though it consists only of proper Names yet contains a most important Matter every Degree of our blessed Saviour's Genealogy which God under the Old Testament took such Care to preserve clear that when the Messiah came to be born there should be no Doubt no Difficulty made of his being of the Seed of Abraham of the Family of David which St. Matthew proves on Joseph his supposed Father's side as St. Luke on Mary's the first divided into three Classes of 14 Generations every one of which makes undisputably a great Article of our Faith how Jesus Christ born of the Virgin Mary is the true Messiah promised to the World out of Abraham's Seed and then the mention amongst Christ's Ancestors made of Thamar of Rachab of Ruth of her that had been Vrias's Wife Bersheba whereby Christ owns for his Relations according to the Flesh some branded with notorious Faults others though Aliens from the Common-wealth of Israel and Strangers from the Covenants of Promise to shew how in his Spiritual Relations he would not disown the most notorious Sinners and never so much Gentiles This I say affords matter of Meditation and so is not to be unread Here followeth the Table of the proper Lessons to be read at the Head whereof we find the Word Mattens for Morning Prayer and to have matched things well there should have been the Word Vespers instead of Evening Song both Words in that Sence used in the Church of Rome from whom we borrow both Names and things as we shall have Occasion farther to speak of now these Words are derived from Latin and used in Italian Spanish French c. 'T is no wonder if having taken things out of their Latin Books we also retain some of their Names as Advent Epiphany Quinquagesima Sexagesima Septuagesima c. which are barbarous to every English Man unacquainted with the Latin Tongue or with the Customs of that Church so we do continue their Mass Names and Days as Christmas the Day when Mass is said for the Birth of Christ Candlemass the Day of the Mass of Candles for then Popish Churches are full of them Lammas Day the Day when here in Time of Popery they said Mass for the Preservation of Lambs Michaelmass the Day when Michael's Mass is said c. We say no Mass upon those Days but we have Collect Epistle and Gospel some of which Papists use upon those very Days Now if we look into the Kalender we shall there find the Names of many Saints which either were never in Nature or else are honoured upon Earth when may be their Souls are tormented in Hell Boniface Silvester Clement Dunstan George Martin Denis for there must be Champions to defend the rest specially the Ladies as Margaret Agnes Magdalene Katharine Agathe c. and to be merry Cicely the Patroness of Musitians with Nicolas Crispin Blasius Patrons of Seamen Shoemakers c. Hugh Valentine Edward Machal amongst other Inventions that of the Cross must be in too Remige and several other Popish Saints whose Names should not be in our Mouths much less in our Common-prayer-book we must not omit how there are five Holy Days for the blessed Virgin Purification Annunciation Visitation Nativity and Conception there should have been also her Assumption when she was as they pretend carried up to Heaven in Body and Soul then we could have