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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	find_v	scripture_n	2,794	5	5.7360	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A64030	The measures and offices of friendship with rules of conducting it : to which are added, two letters written to persons newly changed in their religion / by Jer. Taylor, D.D.; Discourse of the nature, offices and measures of friendship	Taylor, Jeremy, 1613-1667.	1657 (1657)	Wing T350; ESTC R41495	50,636	214

Subjects and the Article of the Catholike Church was made up to dispark the inclosures of Jerusalem but to turn them into the pale of Rome and the Church is as limited as ever it was save onely that the Synagogue is translated to Rome which I think you will easily beleeve was a Proposition the Apostles understood not But though it be hard to trust to it it is also so hard to prove it that you shall never be able to understand the measures of that question and therefore your salvation can never depend upon it For no good or wise person can beleeve that God hath tyed our Salvation to impossible measures or bound us to an Article that is not by us cognoscible or intends to have us conducted by that which we cannot understand and when you shall know that Learned men even of the Romane party are not agreed concerning the Catholique Church that is infallibly to guide you some saying that it is the virtual Church that is the Pope some that it is the representative Church that is a Councel Some that it is the Pope and the Councel the virtual Church and the representative Church together Some that neither of these nor both together are infallible but onely the essentiall Church or the diffusive Church is the Catholique from whom we must at no hand dissent you will quickly find your self in a wood and uncertain whether you have more then a word in exchange for your soul when you are told you are in the Catholique Church But I will tell you what you may understand and see and feel something that your self can tell whether I say true or no concerning it You are now gone to a Church that protects it self by arts of subtilty and arms by violence and persecuting all that are not of their minds to a Church in which you are to be a Subject of the King so long as it pleases the Pope In which you may be absolved from your Vows made to God your Oathes to the King your Promises to Men your duty to your Parents in some cases A Church in which men pray to God and to Saints in the same Form of words in which they pray to God as you may see in the Offices of Saints and particularly of our Lady a Church in which men are taught by most of the principal Leaders to worship Images with the same worship with which they worship God and Christ or him or her whose Image it is and in which they usually picture God the Father and the holy Trinity to the great dishonour of that sacred mysterie against the doctrine and practice of the Primitive Church against the expresse doctrine of Scripture against the honour of a Divine Attribute I mean the immensity and spirituality of the Divine Nature You are gone to a Church that pretends to be Infallible and yet is infinitely deceived in many particulars and yet endures no contradiction and is impatient her children should enquire into any thing her Priests obtrude You are gone from receiving the whole Sacrament to receive it but half from Christs Institution to a humane invention from Scripture to uncertain Traditions and from ancient Traditions to new pretences from prayers which ye undestood to prayers which ye understand not from confidence in God to rely upon creatures from intire dependence upon inward acts to a dangerous temptation of resting too much in outward ministeries in the externall work of Sacraments and of Sacramentals You are gone from a Church whose worshipping is simple Christian and Apostolical to a Church where mens consciences are loaden with a burden of Ceremonies greater then that in the dayes of the Jewish Religion for the Ceremonial of the Church of Rome is a great Book in Folio greater I say then all the Ceremonies of the Jews contained in Leviticus c. You are gone from a Church where you were exhorted to read the Word of God the holy Scriptures from whence you found instruction institution comfort reproof a treasure of all excellencies to a Church that seals up that fountain from you and gives you drink by drops out of such Cisterns as they first make and then stain and then reach out and if it be told you that some men abuse Scripture it is true for if your Priests had not abused Scripture they could not thus have abused you but there is no necessity they should and you need not unlesse you list any more then you need to abuse the Sacraments or decrees of the Church or the messages of your friend or the Letters you receive or the Laws of the Land all which are liable to be abused by evil persons but not by good people and modest understandings It is now become a part of your Religion to be ignorant to walk in blindnesse to believe the man that hears your Confessions to hear none but him not to hear God speaking but by him and so you are liable to be abused by him as he please without remedy You are gone from us where you were onely taught to worship God through Jesus Christ and now you are taught to worship Saints and Angels with a worship at least dangerous and in some things proper to God for your Church worships the Virgin Mary with burning incense and candles to her and you give her presents which by the consent of all Nations used to be esteemed a worship peculiar to God and it is the same thing which was condemned for Heresie in the Collyridians who offered a Cake to the Virgin Mary A Candle and a Cake make no difference in the worship and your joyning God and the Saints in your worship and devotions is like the device of them that fought for King and Parliament the latter destroys the former I will trouble you with no more particulars because if these move you not to consider better nothing can But yet I have two things more to adde of another nature one of which at least may prevail upon you whom I suppose to have a tender and a religious Conscience The first is That all the points of difference between us and your Church are such as do evidently serve the ends of covetousnesse and ambition of power and riches and so stand vehemently suspected of design and art rather then truth of the Article and designs upon Heaven I instance in the Popes power over Princes and all the world his power of dispensation The exemption of the Clergy from jurisdiction of Princes The doctrine of Purgatory and Indulgences which was once made means to raise a portion for a Lady the Neece of Pope Leo the tenth The Priests power advanced beyond authority of any warrant from Scripture a doctrine apt to bring absolute obedience to the Papacy but because this is possibly too nice for you to suspect or consider that which I am sure ought to move you is this That you are gone to a Religion in which though through Gods grace prevailing over the follies

you are not to think that the Priests power is lesse that the Sacraments are not effective that your prayers may not be repeated frequently but you are to remember that all outward things and Ceremonies all Sacraments and Institutions work their effect in the vertue of Christ by some morall Instrument The Priests in the Church of England can absolve you as much as the Roman Priests could fairly pretend but then we teach that you must first be a penitent and a returning person and our absolution does but manifest the work of God and comfort and instruct your Conscience direct and manage it You shall be absolved here but not unlesse you live an holy life So that in this you will find no change but to the advantage of a strict life we will not flatter you and cozen your dear soul by pretended ministeries but we so order our discourses and directions that all our ministrations may be really effective and when you receive the holy Sacrament of the Eucharist or the Lords Supper it does more good here then they doe there because if they consecrate ritely yet they doe not communicate you fully and if they offer the whole representative Sacrifice yet they doe not give you the whole Sacrament onely we enjoyn that you come with so much holinesse that the grace of God in your heart may be the principall and the Sacrament in our hands may be the ministring and assisting part we doe not promise great effects to easie trifling dispositions because we would not deceive but really procure to you great effects and therefore you are now to come to our offices with the same expectations as before of pardon of grace of sanctification but you must doe something more of the work your self that we may not doe lesse in effect then you have in your expectation We will not to advance the reputation of our power deceive you into a less blessing 3. Be carefull that you doe not flatter your self that in our Communion you may have more ease and liberty of life for though I know your pious soul desires passionately to please God and to live religiously yet I ought to be carefull to prevent a temptation lest it at any time should discompose your severity Therefore as to confession to a Priest which how it is usually practised amongst the Roman party your self can very well account and you have complain'd sadly that it is made an ordinary act easie and transient sometime matter of temptation oftentimes impertinent but suppose it free from such scandall to which some mens folly did betray it yet the same severity you 'l find among us for though we will not tell a lye to help a sinner and say that is necessary which is only appointed to make men doe themselves good yet we advise and commend it and doe all the work of souls to all those people that will be saved by all means to deout persons that make Religion the businesse of their lives and they that doe not so in the Churches of the Roman Communion as they find but little advantage by peroidical confessions so they feel but little awfulnesse and severity by the injunction you must confesse to God all your secret actions you must advise with a holy man in all the affairs of your soul you will be but an ill friend to your self if you conceale from him the state of your spirituall affairs We desire not to hear the circumstance of every sinne but when matter of justice is concerned or the nature of the sinne is changed that is when it ought to be made a Question and you will find that though the Church of England gives you much liberty from the bondage of innumerable Ceremonies and humane devices yet in the matter of holinesse you will be tied to very great service but such a service as is perfect freedome that is the service of God and the love of the holy Jesus and a very strict religious life for we doe not promise heaven but upon the same terms it is promised us that is Repentance towards God and Faith in our Lord Jesus and as in faith we make no more to be necessary then what is made so in holy Scripture so in the matter of Repentance we give you no easie devices and suffer no lessening definitions of it but oblige you to that strictnesse which is the condition of being saved and so expressed to be by the infallible Word of God but such as in the Church of Rome they doe not so much stand upon Madam I am weary of my Journey and although I did purpose to have spoken many things more yet I desire that my not doing it may be laid upon the account of my wearinesse all that I shall adde to the maine businesse is this 4. Read the Scripture diligently and with an humble spirit and in it observe what is plain and believe and live accordingly Trouble not your self with what is difficult for in that your duty is not described 5. Pray frequently and effectually I had rather your prayers should be often then long It was well said of Petrarch Magno verborum fraeno uti decet cum superiore colloquentem When you speak to your superiour you ought to have a bridle upon your tongue much more when you speak to God I speak of what is decent in respect of our selves and our infinite distances from God but if love makes you speak speak on so shall your prayers be full of charity and devotion Nullus est amore superior ille te coget ad veniam qui me ad multiloquium Love makes God to be our friend and our approches more united and acceptable and therefore you may say to God the same love which made me speak will also move thee to hear and pardon Love and devotion may enlarge your Letanies but nothing else can unlesse Authority does interpose 6. Be curious not to communicate but with the true Sonnes of the Church of England lest if you follow them that were amongst us but are gone out from us because they were not of us you be offended and tempted to impute their follies to the Church of England 7. Trouble your self with no controversies willingly but how you may best please God by a strict and severe conversation 8. If any Protestant live loosely remember that he dishonours an excellent Religion and that it may be no more laid upon the charge of our Church then the ill lives of most Christians may upon the whole Religion 9. Let no man or woman affright you with declamations and scaring words of Heretick and Damnation and Changeable for these words may be spoken against them that return to light as well as to those that goe to darknesse and that which men of all sides can say it can be of effect to no side upon its own strength or pretension The End Post-script MADAM IF you shall think it fit that these papers passe further then your own eye and Closet I desire they may be consig'nd into the hands of my worthy friend Dr. Wedderburne For I doe not only expose all my sicknesse to his cure but I submit my weaknesses to his censure being as confident to find of him charity for what is pardonable as remedy for what is curable but indeed Madam I look upon that worthy man as an Idea of friendship and if I had no other notices of Friendship or conversation to instruct me then his it were sufficient For whatsoever I can say of Friendship I can say of his and as all that know him reckon him amongst the best Physicians so I knew him worthy to be reckoned amongst the best friends A Catalogue of some Books Printed for R. Royston at the Angel in Ivie-lane London I. Books written by H Hammond D.D. A Paraphrase and Annotations upon all the Books of the New Test in fol. 2. The Practical Catechisme with other English Treatises of the same Author in two vol. 4. 3. Dissertationes quatuor quibus Episcopatûs Jura ex S. Scripturis Primaeva Antiquitate adstruuntur contra sententiam D. Blondelii aliorum in 4. 4. A Letter of Resolution of six Queries in 12. 5. Of Schisme A Defence of the Church of Engl. against the Exceptions of the Romanists in 12. 6. Of Fundamentals in a notion referring to practice in 12. 7. Paraenesis or seasonable exhortatory to all true sons of the Church of England in 12. 8. A Collection of several Replies and Vindications most of them in defence of the Church of England lately published in three Volumes in 4. 9. A Review of the Paraphrase and Annotations on all the Books of the New Testament with some additions and alterations in 8. II. Books and Sermons written by Jer Taylor D.D. viz. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 A Course of Sermons for all the Sundayes of the Year together with a Discourse of the Divine Institution Necessity Sacrednesse and Separation of the Office Ministeriall in fol. 2. The History of the Life and Death of the Ever-blessed Jesus Christ second Edition in fol. 3. The Rule and Exercises of Holy Living in 12. 4. The Rule and Exercise● of Holy Dying in 12. 5. The Golden Grove 〈◊〉 A Manual of daily Prayers ●●ted to the dayes of the Week together with a short method of Peace and Holinesse in 12. 6. The Doctrine and Practice of Repentance rescued from Popular Errours in a large 8. Newly published 7. A Collection of Polemical and Moral Discourses in fol. Newly published The Mysterie of Jesuitisme discovered in certain Letters Written upon occasion of the present differences at Sorbonne between the Jansenists and the Molinists New III. Books written by M. Th Pierce Rector of Brington 1. THe Sinner Impleaded in his own Court wherein are represented the great discouragements from Sinning which the Sinner receiveth from Sin it self 2. A Correct Copy of some Notes concernig Gods Decrees especially of Reprobation The 2. Edition Now at the Presse with some Additionals 3. The Divine Philanthropie defended 4. The Divine Verity defended