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	new_a	scripture_n	3,254	5	5.6161	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75036	A brief apologie for the sequestred clergie. VVherein (among other things) this case of conscience is judiciously handled: whether any minister of the Church of England may (to avoid sequestration) omit the publike use of the liturgie, and submit to the directory. In a letter from a sequestred divine, to Mr. Stephen Marshall.	Allington, John, d. 1682.; Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1649 (1649)	Wing A1206; Thomason E537_11; ESTC R204340	21,192	25

it made my heart even ake to think how applicable this methodicall destruction is to our ungratefull vineyard I will take away the hedge I will break downe the wall Take the hedge and the wall away cut up the fence and the Vinyard will soon be wast The Government the Discipline the Liturgy which as a hedge or a wall ever since our reformation preserved the Vineyard since I see it hath pleased God to suffer this hedge and the wall to be trodden downe I can but feare confusion and desolation to be the sequest For since the worldly wiseman verily believes where the fence is wanting spoile and wast inevitably followeth and therefore his maine care is to tend it Even so where the muniments of any prosession or Religion are slighted and taken away where Liturgy this 13. hundred years without controversie held the hedge and mound of faith and Gods worship in Natiohall Church where I say this is pull'd downe and taken away there is iminent and evident feare a gap is opened to let in what ever will come Be it the beast of the field be it the little foxes be it the wild bore of the forrest come what will there is no muniment no provision no fence against it so that in my poor conceptions the hedge the fence the muniment of the Church they are matters of such necessary consequence that Ministers I conceive had better lay themselves and all their fortunes in the gap then for want of fence to suffer the destroyer to come in Indeed I have been told by some who wish very well unto me that humane inventions and things meerly circumstantiall ought not to be thus stood upon I thank them heartily for their affection and blesse them for their good will but our judgments yet must differ For if no suffering for humane invention if life it selfe may not be exposed to hazzard in defence of humane constitutions certainly then no fighting for the Lawes of Land nor no taking up arms for Priviledge of Parliament for these sure are humane and politicall institutions and as these are necessary for the preservation of a State even some such are also necessary for the preservation of a Church and of such Church-men cannot be too chary Againe whereas Liturgie in genere or ours in specie is counted but a circumstantiall businesse I believe I may find out such circumstantialls in a Christian Church as will hazard the whole if they perish In the tenth persecution under the Tyranny of Dioclesian a Decree past ut Templa libri delerentur that Christians should deliver up their books and destroy or at least permit the destruction of their Churches Books and Churches I conceive are but circumstantialls to Religion for the world was more then 2400. yeers old before there was any Scripture in it yea the Christian Church it was from the birth of Christ more then 90. years before the Canon of the New Testament was compleated yea after the death and Resurrection of our Saviour there is supposing his passion at 31. ten years numbred before any Gospell at all was committed unto writing twice ten before the second thrice ten before the third and more then three twenti●s before the last a plaine argument that bookes and writings are but circumstantiall to Religion for one may live and die a very good Christian and know never a letter on the booke Suppose now the Pope and Popery should so far prevaile as to have under the notion of books hereticall for so they will sticke to call our Bibles to call in and under paine of death to deliver up our Bibles even to the fire could any conscientious Protestant satisfie his soule with this poore evasion alas the Bible is but circumstantiall the Doctrine and Religion of it I can preserve though the Bible be gone without all peradventure it is most true a learned and well grounded Christian he may preserve the faith he may deliver and hold fast the forme of sound words though among Turks where a Bible is not to be looked upon and yet for my particular I should scarce looke upon that man as Christian who to save his purse yea his body should deliver up his Bible to the fire In the Roman Martyrologie there is a commemoration made of many holy Martyrs who despising the sacrilegious Edict of Dioclesian 7. quo tradi Sacros codices jubebantur potiùs corpora carnificibus quàm sanctadare canibus maluerunt chose rather to deliver their bodies to the executioner then holy things to dogs or holy books unto the fire And truly I should rather honour these as Martyrs then those for good Christians who under pretence of things circumstantiall should deliver those to save themselves so highly I conceive God would be dishonoured in the betraying of so great a preserver and muniment of his Honour Again as Books even so to some much more clearly Churches Oratories Temples they are meer circumstantialls Now suppose the Independent and Congregationall Brother-hood should so far over-power as to command the demolition as they call them of our Steeple-houses the destruction and levelling of our Churches I would very fain know whether in point of conscience I were not rather bound to suffer then in any measure to appeare willing to so high a sacriledge I who am flesh and blood as well as other men could find pretty evasions and glosses to foole my soule withall I could say as I hear is not a Sermon as well in a Parlour as in a Church Did not Christ preach in a Ship Paul pray upon the sands and shall I suffer in defence of so unnecessary a trifle as an heap of stones a Popish Relique a sorry meeting house For my particular I am afraid many things are daily called circumstantiall not with consideration whether so or no but because these are the things in question these the points which I must either dissemble desert or suffer for I pray let me as a close to this present you with the example of one who though a Bishop was ever reverenced as a Saint a good man I mean that great Doctor S. Ambrose who being once tempted and provoked even in this very point and that by no lesse then the Emperour to deliver up his Church though it pleased the Emperour in a faire way to send Earles and Tribunes to him ut Basilicae fieret matura traditio that there might be a seasonable del●verance of that Royall Pallace for so his piety termes the Church yet you shall find this reverend Bastor so far from deeming this a circumstantiall trifle that he offers his goods his body his life in lieu of it Ea quae Divina Imperatoriae potestatinon subjecta The things of God are not subject to imperiall power was the peremptory position of this Bishop and then proceeds Si patrimonium petitur invadite si corpus occurram vultis in vincula rapere vultis in mortem voluptatiest mihi