Selected quad for the lemma: act_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
act_n	apostle_n	church_n	elder_n	5,779	5	10.2377	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A09813	Sunday no Sabbath A sermon preached before the Lord Bishop of Lincolne, at his Lordships visitation at Ampthill in the county of Bedford, Aug. 17. 1635. By John Pocklington Doctor of Divinitie, late fellow and president both of Pembroke Hall and Sidney Colledge in Cambridge, and chaplaine to the Right Reverend Father in God the Lord Bishop of Lincolne.	Pocklington, John.	1636 (1636)	STC 20077; ESTC S114780	31,029	56

notorious sinners were put to open penance and that it is a thing much to be wished for that such discipline were restored againe Bishop Latimer soone missed it or some such thing and complaines of the want thereof therefore he with the other godly Bishops of his time send their wishes after it to fetch it againe till God be pleased to provide meanes powerfull for the restoring thereof Tertullian taxeth the Heretickes of his time for neglect of this decent and godly discipline Tertul. de praeser c. 16. They kept no distinction of places nor of Service in their Conventicles Quis catechumenus quis fidelis incertum est pariter adeunt pariter audiunt pariter orant The whole heard of them ranne in a rout together both to Prayers Sermon and Sacrament that you could not know one from another Euseb l. 5. c. 28 l. 6. c. 34. It was quite otherwise in the holy Catholike Church That which Zepherinus required of Natalius Fabianus of Philip and Saint Cyprian of the Penitents of his time S. Cyp. l. 2. ep 7 make it manifest that there were distinction of places in the Church to ranke all sorts of Christians in And Saint Ambrose his practice sheweth a distinction of Service The Catechumeni being dismissed missam facere caepi S. Amb. ep 33. Saint Ambrose began not the second Service as our Church calleth it at the Altar Booke of Fast 1. D●m R●gi● before the first Service in the body of the Church was finished and the Catechumeni sent out which still is the custome in our Church and none will ever goe about to put that sweet harmonie which wee keepe with the Primitive Church out of tune but such as Tertullian complaines of Schismatickes and Sectaries And so we see that all those holy actions which are distinctly performed both in the first and second service are all included in this action of breaking of bread sicut frangitur in Sacramento corporis Christi And so I come to the second holy action 2. This is Preaching The Preacher is Saint Paul What kinde of Sermon then did Saint Paul make for fit it is that his action be our direction Saint Pauls preaching is of three kinds 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he reasoned with them or taught them by way of dialogue 2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he continued his speech 3 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 11. he used a long homily which held from midnight till morning For the first Saint Pauls preaching did not stand onely in making a long discourse which some pitifully perishing in a dearth of matter and in an inundation of light and froathie words trumpet up for the onely preaching But he gave others leave to speake as well as himselfe for that must needs be to hold up the dialogue in the text yet he preached for all that Wherefore if the Curate catechise in the afternoone as he is commanded by question and answer which makes the dialogue in the text this man preacheth There is therefore no cause at all why some should take the matter so grievously that charge should be given by the King whom they never meane to obey therein that afternoone Sermons should be turned into catechising that is that one kinde of preaching should be exchanged for another the lesse profitable for the more usefull Certaine also it is that whether they travell all the Scriptures over and then passe on to the ancient Fathers they shall finde no ground at all for the fruitlesse and disobedient exercise of their afternoone talent till they come home to their owne wilfull selfe-conceitednesse Our Saviour came not to breake the law but to fulfill it who being at Capernaum on a Sabbath day preached but once For statim è Synagogâ from the Synagogue he went immediately to Simons house to dinner where Simons wives mother ministred unto them Mar. 1.31 and there stayed healing diseases till sunne set and went no more to the Synagogue to preach in the afternoon The law that enjoined afternoon Sermons for keeping their Sabbath was not then knowne to the Pharises themselves who else were apt enough to have laid it in his dish at supper Troubles at Franckford pag. 194. no nor to these mens progenitors for 1565. yeares after as by their owne confession may appeare True it is Saint Peter preached once at the ninth houre or at three a clocke in the afternoone Act. 3.1 but the occasion place and other circumstances being so extraordinary his example binds us no more to doe the like than Saint Pauls here doth to preach in an upper chamber all night long The holy Fathers also in the best times had their Sermons in the forenoons and it will be hard for the best or stubbornest of them all to shew a Sermon preached by any of the Fathers in the afternoone Saint Basil onely excepted who had his second and ninth homily in the afternoone Socrat l. 5. c. 21. Niceph. l. 12. c. 34. because as Socrates and Nicephorus affirme the custome in Caesare a was not to preach in the forenoone but Episcopi Sacerdotes post lucernarum accensiones sacras Scripturae populo exponunt the people have the Scripture expounded to them in the afternoone Their preaching was but expounding as they call it and that but once neither Why then should they not yeeld to change their afternoone discoursing into preaching by way of dialogue as St. Paul here did Secondly St. Paul preached 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all the while he was in his Homilie What his Homilie was it is hard for me to say whether it was one that himselfe made and did not reade or one that he read and another made An Homilie I am sure it was and it may be made by all the Apostles or the chiefe of the Apostles as Bucer saies our Homilies were penned by some eminent Preachers I pray you tell me when Saint Paul went through divers Churches as now he did to establish them in the faith and to that end took with him dogmata the decrees made by the Apostles and Elders that were at Jerusalem Act 16.4 and delivered them to the Churches to be kept whether he did reade them or no or delivered them as a Roll sealed up If he read them there 's his homilie And most certaine it is he read them even by his owne rule For if he caused Epistles from some one man to be read in the Church by him that brought them it is more than evident that himselfe bringing the Decrees of the Apostles and Elders he would not in any sort transgresse his owne rule but doe the decrees himselfe and the Church that right as to reade them that the Churches might see what it was that he delivered them to keep and be fully assured that himselfe walked in the selfe same steps with the rest of the Apostles and so be enabled to stop the mouths of all false Apostles who objected that against