Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	england_n	entitle_v	1,993	5	10.1542	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27031	A letter from a minister to a person of quality shewing some reasons for his nonconformity.	A. B.	1662 (1662)	Wing B14; ESTC R12373	8,893	4

A LETTER from a MINISTER to a Person of Quality shewing some Reasons for his Non-conformity MADAM YOU were pleased to require of me the reason of my Non-conformity in compliance with your command I promised to give you some account of it but not the tythe which might be said in the cause and therefore shall not put the whole matter and issue upon what I have here suddenly committed to Paper but only to satisfie you that I have somewhat of apology for my not conforming and that I seem at least to my self not wilful and fanatical but rational and conscientious in refusing Three grand declarations are required to be made by all those who will conform The first concerning the Book of Common-Prayer the second concerning taking up arms against the King the third concerning the Solemn League and Covenant Now with reference to all these especially the first and last I have had hitherto insuperable objections against the making any such Declaration The first Declaration concerning the Book of Common-Prayer is to be made in these very words viz. I A. B. do declare my unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book intituled The Book of Common-Prayer and administration of the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church according to the use of the Church of England together with the Psalter or Psalms of David pointed as they are to be sung or said in Churches and the form and manner of making ordaining and consecrating of Bishops Priests and Deacons Madam Here is required assent and consent yea unfeigned assent and consent and not only to all in general but to every thing in particular contained in and prescribed by the Book of Common-Prayer even whatsoever is there printed and set down from the very beginning of it to the very end of the same Surely words could not be devised by all the wit of man more comprehensive and more significant to testifie our highest justification and commendation of every point and syllable of every rite and ceremony of every matter and thing contained in the whole Book and in every page and line of it A man might well think that this Book of Common-Prayer dropped immediately out of Heaven and that it is nothing else but a continued Oracle from first to last I think here is as much fully to be declared concerning the Book of Common-Prayer as possibly can be concerning the Book of God the Bible it self Yea I question whether many a sober man would not scruple to declare so much concerning any copy of the Bible now extant in the world in any language whatsoever even the Originals themselves not excepted which by transcribing may have their faults and therefore every thing contained in them not to be unfeignedly assented and consented unto Madam We Protestants protest vehemently against the Popes Infallibility and with the same reason against the Infallibility of Councils whether General National or Provincial now they who devised and compiled this Book of Common Prayer themselves were Protestants and at the most and best but a National Council and therefore if true to their own faith must needs acknowledg themselves far from being infallible in every point and thing devised and compiled by them and yet for these mortal erring men like unto our selves to injoyn and require of all others such an unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed by and in their devised form and system of Worship do notwithstanding in so doing in a diametrical opposition assume unto themselves an infallible spirit else stand guilty of an high presumption in requiring such a Declaration Madam In the Preface to this Book of Common-Prayer they profess their own firm perswasion that there is nor was before their last revising of it nothing in the whole Book contrary to the Word of God or to sound Doctrine or which a godly man may not use or submit unto with a good Conscience Now though this be their perswasion yet it is not every mans perswasion and therefore unreasonable to force others to the same profession Hast thou faith have it to thy self force it not upon others compell them not to think as thou thinkest believe as thou believest to declare as thou declarest study thine own and neighbours peace better and the rather because thou art a fallible creature and may be in an error as well as any other And according to the tenour and candor of this blessed rule such was the practice and proceedings of our preceding Governours with reference to this Book of Common-Prayer from and since our happy Reformation For they never went about thus strictly to injoyn the Ministers to declare their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained and prescribed in and by the Book but only appoinned it to be read and used and the rites and ceremonies of it duly to be observed and no more This was their moderation and piety at least their prudence and policy in respect of scandal and further inconveniency and not without cause for had the Ministers in those days been rigorously required to declare their unfeigned assent and consent to all and every thing contained in the said Book as we do in our days I am prone to believe that Hundreds of those who conformed and submitted to the use of things then established in the Church would have thereupon turned as great Non-conformists as any among us and so continued till their last breath For what a conscientious person may think meet to use and submit unto is one thing but what he declares he owns and approves is another of a different nature Though for peace sake I could swallow down some gnats and make no bones of them yet if at the same time I shall moreover be compelled to say and avouch That these gnats are no gnats or though I know them to be gnats yet that I like them and love to swallow them down now these gnats are changed into Camels and my throat is not wide enough to give them any passage Upon which very account I doubt not to declare That present Conformity is foreign and quite of another nature from conformity heretofore Conscience being now much more forced and violated by them in the Chair I would to God therefore they had required no more in conformity than use and submission as they there speak for Jobn his driving on furiously is dangerous and I heartily pray the Chariot may not be overturned in the end but in the interim I cannot keep pace with them nor declare my unfeigned assent and consent to their great zeal nor yet to the great product and manifesto of it in any such imposition Madam As to a Book of Common-Prayer in general or an established Liturgy in the Church I shall object nothing for according to my poor understanding I never yet heard a sound reason given why a man may not pray in a