Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	bind_v	church_n	communion_n	1,436	5	9.0889	5	false

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

customs in matters wholly or in part Ecclesiastical partly concerning the use of sundry pastimes and recreations partly concerning sundry usages and customs in vita communi in things meerly Civil and not sacred or Ecclesiastical the particulars whereof would amount to many scores if not hundreds I shall present unto your view a dozen onely which I have selected from the rest of those that I have observed to have been most urged of late in Sermons and Pamphlets by which you may in part judge of the rest And they are these 1. First that the appointing of a set forme of Prayer or Liturgy to be used in the service of God is unlawful or Antichristian or that it is a straitning or limiting of the Holy Spirit of God 2. That it is not in the power of the Church to ordain any Rites or Ceremonies in the service of God which the people are bound to observe other than such as God hath commanded in his Word 3. That Rites and usages devised or abused either by Heathens or Idolaters may not be lawfully used by Christians in the service of God 4. That it is unlawful or superstitious to kneel at the holy Communion in the act of receiving the Sacrament 5. That Instrumental Musick may not be used in the service of God as well as Vocal 6. That Episcopacy is Antichristian or repugnant to the Word of God 7. That the Presbyterian discipline is the very Scepter of Christs Kingdom or the order appointed by Christ himself for the perpetual Government of his Church which ought of all particular Congregations to be inviolably observed unto the Worlds end 8. That it is simply unlawful for a Minister to be possessed of two Benefices 9. That Ecclesiastical persons may not meddle in secular affairs nor can with a good conscience exercise any Civil office or Jurisdiction although by humane authority Law or custome allowed them 10. That it is not lawful in preaching Gods word to recite sentences out of the Fathers much lesse from the writings of Heathen Writers 11. That the Election or consent of the people is of necessity required either to the ordeining of Ministers or to the appointing of them to their particular charges 12. Lastly which though I find not positively delivered in terminis nor is the danger thereof so generally observed as of sundry of the former yet for that I find it often touched upon in these late Treatises and conceive it to be an Errour of no lesse dangerous consequence than many of the former I thought meet not to omit it That the Examples of Christ and of his Apostles ought to be observed of all Christians as a perpetual Rule binding them to Conformity even as their Precepts doe unto Obedience 23. Concerning which Positions I do here in the face of this Congregation take God to witness who shall judge us all at the last day that I do verily believe and in my conscience am perswaded that all and every of them are the vaine and superstitious inventions of men wholy destitute of all sound warrant from the Written Word of God rightly understood and applied and till they shall be better proved ought to be so esteemed of every man that desireth to make Gods Holy Word the rule of his opinions and actions Many and great are the mischiefs otherwise that come to the Church and people of God by the teaching of these and other like groundless Positions As amongst others these three following First great scandal is hereby given to Atheists Papists Separatists and other the enimies of our Religion especially to the Papists who will not onely take occasion thence to speak evil of us and of the way of truth and holiness which wee profess but will be themselves also the more confirmed in their own wicked errors by objecting to us that since we left them we cannot tell where to stay Secondly many sober and godly men both Ministers and others who cheerfully submit to the established Lawes and Government as they take themselves by the Law of God bound to doe in things which they believe not to be repugnant to his Word are by this means unworthily exposed to contempt and miscensure as if they were time-servers or inclined to Popery or Superstition at the least But if they shall farther endeavour in their Sermons or otherwise to shew their just dislike and to hinder the growth of these unlawful impositions and to hold the people in their good beliefe by instructing them better they shall be sure to be forthwith branded as opposers of the Gospel As if there were such a spirit of Infallibility annexed to some mens Pulpits as some have said there is to the Popes Chaire that whatsoever they shall deliver thence must needs be Gospel Thirdly hereby many an honest-hearted and well-meaning Christian is wonderfully abused by being mis-led into Error Superstition and Disobedience by having his conscience brought into bondage in those things whereunto it was the good pleasure of God to leave him free and by being disposed to much uncharitablenesse in judging evil of his brother that hath given him no just cause so to doe Besides these and sundry other mischiefs of dangerous consequence too long now to repeat the thing that I am presently to affirme concerning all and every of the positions aforesaid and other like them pertinently to the Text and business in hand is this That whosoever shall doctrinally and positively teath any of the same doth ipso facto become guilty of the Superstition here condemned by our Saviour and so farre forth symbolizeth with the Pharisees in teaching for doctrines the commandments of men And I doubt not but there are in the Church of England sundry learned iudicious and Orthodox Divines no way suspected of favouring Popery or Popish Innovations that by Gods help and the advantage of Truth will be ready to maintaine what I now affirme in a fair Christian and Scholar-like trial against whosoever are otherwise minded whensoever by authority they shall be thereunto required I have now finished what I had to say from this Scripture by way of Application From the whole premisses would arise sundry Inferences as Corollaries and by way of Use In the prosecution whereof had we time for it I should have occasion to fall upon some things that might be of right good use for the setling of mens judgments and consciences in a way of Truth and Peace And truely my aime lay chiefly here when my thoughts fixt upon this Text. But having enlarged my self so far beyond my first purpose allready I shall onely give you a short touch of each of them and it may be hereafter as I shall see cause and as God shall dispose I may take some other occasion here or elswhere to enlarge them further The first should be an earnest request to such of my Brethren as through inconsideration zeale against Popery or profanenesse or any other cause have been a little