Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	article_n	church_n	homily_n	2,467	5	11.7893	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A93958	Ad clerum. A sermon preached at a visitation holden at Grantham in the county and diocess of Lincolne, 8. Octob. 1641. By a late learned prelate. Now published by his own copy.	Sanderson, Robert, 1587-1663.	1670 (1670)	Wing S580; ESTC R228093	21,750	45

those other Rites and Accoutrements that are used in or about the publike Worship but so many Commandments of men For it cannot be made appear nor truly do I think was it ever endeavoured that God hath any where commanded them Indeed these things have been objected heretofore with clamour enough and the cry is of late revived again with more noise and malice than ever in a world of base and unworthy Pamphlets that like the frogs of Aegypt croake in every corner of the Land And I pray God the suffering of them to multiply into such heaps do not cause the whole Land so to stink in his nos-thrills that he grow weary of it and forsake us But I undertook to justifie the Church of England and hir regular and obedient children in this behalf and it will be expected I should do it If any of the Children of this Church in their too much hast have over-runne their Mother that is have busied themselves and troubled others with putting forward new Rites and Ceremonies with scandal and without Law or by using hir name without hir leave for the serving of their own purposes have causelessely brought an evil suspicion upon her as some are blamed let them answer it as well as they can it is not my businesse now to plead for them but to vindicate the Church of England against another sort of men who have accused her of Superstition unjustly Set both these aside and hir defense is made in a word if we do but remember what hath been allready delivered in the Explication of the Text to wit that it is not the commandments of men either Materially or Formally taken but the Opinion that we have of them and the teaching of them for Doctrines wherein Superstition properly consisteth Materially first There is no Superstition either in wearing or in not wearing a Surplice in kneeling or in not kneeling at the Communion in crossing or in not crossing an infant newly baptized even as there is no superstition in washing or in not washing the hands before meat So long as neither the one is done with an opinion of necessity nor the other forborn out of the opinion of unlawfulness For so long the conscience standeth free The Apostle hath so resolved in the very like case That neither that eateth is the worse for it nor he that eatethnot the better for it A man may eat and do it with a good conscience and he may not eat and do that with a good Conscience too As in the present case at this time it is certain Christs disciples did eat and washed not it cannot be doubted but at some time or other they washed before they ate Not for conscience sake towards God either but even as they saw it fit and as the present occasion required and they might do both without superstition But if any man shall wear or kneel or crosse with an opinion of necessity and for conscience sake towards God as if those parts of Gods service wherein those Ceremonies are used in our Church could not be rightly performed without them yea although the Church had not appointed them doubtlesse the use of those Ceremonies by reason of such his opinion should be Superstition to him Because a man cannot be of that Opinion but he must believe it to be true doctrine that such and such Ceremonies are of themselves necessary parts of Gods worship As on the contrary if any body should refuse to weare or kneel or crosse out of an opinion of their unlawfulnes as if those Ceremonies did vitiate the whole act of that worship whereunto they are applied I cannot see but upon the same ground and by reason of such his opinion the refusal of those Ceremonies should be to him also Superstition Because a man cannot be of that opinion but he must believe this to be true doctrine that such and such Ceremonies are of themselves unlawful to be used in the Worship of God But the obedient children of the Church of England having no such opinion either of the necessity or unlawfulnes of the said Ceremonies but holding them to be as indeed they are things in their own nature indifferent are even therefore free from Superstition in both the kinds aforesaid So then in the things commanded taken materially that is to say considered in themselves without respect to the Churches command there is no Superstition because there is nothing concerning them doctrinally taught either the one way or the other Now if we can as well clear these things taken also formally that is to say considered not in themselves but as they stand commanded by publick authority of the Church the whole businesse is done as to this point Nor is there in truth any great difficulty in it if we will but apprehend things aright For although the very commanding them do seem to bring with it a kind of necessity and to lay a tye upon the Conscience as that of St. Paul implieth both you must needs be subject and that for conscience sake yet is not that any tye brought upon the Conscience de novo by such command of the Church onely that tye that lay upon the Conscience before by virtue of that general Commandment of God of obeying the higher powers in all their lawful Commands is by that Commandment of the Church applied to that particular matter Even as it is in all Civil Constitutions and humane positive Laws whatsoever And the Necessity also is but an Obediential not a Doctrinal necessity But the Text requireth a Doctrinal necessity to make the thing done a vain and superstitious worship Teaching for doctrines the commandments of men Which the Church of England in prescribing the aforesaid Ceremonies hath not done nor by her own grounds could do For look as the case standeth with private men for doing or refusing even so standeth the case with publick Governours for commanding or forbidding As therefore with private men it is not the bare doing or refusing of a thing as in discretion they shall see cause but the doing of it with an opinion of Necessity or the refusing of it with the opinion of Unlawfulness that maketh the Action superstitious as hath been already shewed So with publick Governours it is not the commanding or forbidding of a mutable Ceremony as for the present they shall deem it fit for order decency or uniformities sake or such other like respect but the commanding of it with an opinion as if it were of perpetual necessity or the forbidding it with the like opinion as if it were simply unlawful that maketh the Constitution superstitious Now I appeal to any man that hath not run on madly with the cry for company but endeavoured with the spirit of Charity and Sobriety to satisfie his own understanding herein if the Church of England both in the Preface before the Book of Common Prayer and in the Articles of her Confession and in sundry

passages in the Homilies occasionally and these Books are acknowledged her most Authentick writings the two former especially and the just standard whereby to measure her whole Doctrine if I say she have not in them all and that in as plain and expresse terms as can be desired disclaimed all humane Traditions that are imposed upon the consciences of Gods people either in point of Faith or Manners and declared to the world that she challenged no power to her self to order any thing by her own authority but onely in things indiffenent and such as are not repugnant to the word of God and that her Constitutions are but for order comelinesse and uniformity sake and not for conscience sake towards God and that therefore any of those her Orders and Constitutions may be reteined abolished or altered from time to time and at all times as the Governours for the time being shall judg to serve best unto Edification What should I say more If men list to be contentious and will not be satisfied who can help it yet thus much I dare say more Let any Papist or Precisiian in the world give instance but in any one single thing doctrinally maintained by the Church of England which he can with any colour of truth except against as a Commandment of men if we do not either shew good warrant for it from the written word of God which we doubt not but to be able to do and is most adrem or else which is enough ad hominem for every single instance they shall bring return them ten of their own teaching every whit as liable to the same exception as that we will yield the Bucklers and confesse her guilty But now what will you say if after all this clamouring against English-Popish Ceremonies as of late they have blasoned them they that keep all this adoe prove in the end the guilty persons themselves I am much deceived if it do not clearly prove so if we either compare her doctrine and theirs together or take a view of some of theirs by themselves First compare them a litle which will also adde some confirmation to the former point for the farther justifying of the Church of England in this behalf And for example and perspicuity sake let the instance be kneeling at the Communion there being the like reason of all the rest I pray you consider well the evidence weigh the grounds and observe the course held on both sides and then give sentence accordingly If as God hath given those our Church Governours power to determine of indifferent mutable circumstances and they using the liberty of the Power given them have appointed kneeling rather than sitting or standing as judging it a gesture of greater reverence and well becoming our unworthinesse but without any opinion either of the necessity of that gesture or of the unlawfulness of the other two so God had given the like Power to these our Brethren and they using the liberty of that Power had appointed sitting or standing rather than kneeling as judging either of them a more proper Table gesture than it yet without any opinion of their necessity or of the unlawfulnesse of kneeling the case had then been alike of both These had been as free as they neither of them had been guilty of Superstition in teaching for doctrines the commandments of men because there was no doctrinal necessity whereby to bind the conscience of Gods people on either side Again if as these say to their Proselytes peremptorily in effect thus you are bound in conscience not to kneel it is an unlawful gesture a superstitious relique of Popery and carrieth with it a shrewd appearance of their idolatrous Bread-worship and therefore we charge you upon your consciences not to kneel so our Church-governors should say to the people peremptorily in effect thus you are bound in conscience to kneel or else you profane the holy Sacrament not discerning the Lords Body and therefore we charge you upon your consciences to kneel the case of both had here also been alike Both alike guilty of Superstition in teaching for doctrines the commandments of men because by that doctrinal necessity as well the one sort as the other had laid a perpetual obligation upon the Consciences of men in a matter which God having not any where either commanded or forbidden hath therefore left free and indifferent But now taking the case as de facto it is without Ifs and And 's set the one against the other and make the comparison right and here it is Our Brethren having no publick authority given them to order what shall be done or not done in matters of external government do yet bind the consciences of Gods people by teaching that which they thus forbid to be simply and in it self unlawful Our Governors on the contrary though having publick authority to prescribe in such matters do yet leave the consciences of men at liberty without teaching that which they appoint to be of absolute necessity in it self This being species facti as the Civilians speak the even true state of the case say now I beseeeh you in good sooth and be not partial Quid Juris At whose door lieth the Superstition The one side teaching no such doctrine but having authority do by virtue of that authority appoint the people to kneel The other side having no such authority but teaching a doctrine do by virtue of that doctrine charge the people not to kneel Whether of both sides may rightlier be said to teach for doctrines the Commandments of men Tu quum sis quod ego fortassis nequior Their guilt herein will yet farther appear if leaving comparisons we take a view of some of their doctrines by themselves I say but some of them for how many hours would serve to reckon them all or who indeed even of themselves knoweth them all There are so many Covies of new doctrines sprung up ever and anon especially in these late times of connivence and licentiousness which by that they are well hatcht presently fly abroad the Countrey and are entertained by some or other for as good Divinity as if they were the undoubted Oracles of the Holy Ghost I dare not affirme it because I will not put my self to the trouble to prove it and because I heartily desire and wish I be deceived in it yet I cannot dissemble my fear that it is but too true by the proportion of what we almost daily hear or see that within little more than this one twelvemonth last past there have been more false and superstitious doctrines vented in the Pulpits and Presses in England than have been in so open and daring a manner in the whole space of almost fourscore years before I mean since the first of Queen Elizabeth of blessed memory And to make good the former charge omitting sundry other their unwarrantable positions partly concerning Church-Government Orders and Ceremonies established by Law partly concerning sundry received