Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	according_a	apostle_n	doctrine_n	2,761	5	5.6844	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A85416	Some modest and humble queries concerning a printed paper, intituled, An ordinance presented to the Honourable House of Commons, &c. for the preventing of the growing and spreading of heresies, &c.	Goodwin, John, 1594?-1665.	1646 (1646)	Wing G1204; Thomason E355_1; ESTC R201102	8,784	15

thing moe or of any worse demerit then a mistake or misunderstanding of some Scriptures Whether a mistake in judgement as suppose a man verily and in the simplicitie of his heart judgeth that Infants ought not to be Baptized or that Presbytery is unlawfull or the like joyned with a publique and free profession of his judgement in this kinde be more sinfull or more deserving imprisonment death c. then an open and manifest deniall in works of such Truths which yet men professe in words as when men professe that they beleeve Jesus to be the Son of God and that the Scriptures are the word of God c. and yet live loosly prophanely in drunkennesse riot c. Or whether the Ordinance maketh not the former denialls which at most are but of Truths very questionable and obscure yea and but of inferior consequence neither at least comparatively punishable by imprisonment or death whereas it inflicts no censure at all upon these latter denialls except it be in the case of blasphemy which are every whit as full publique as the other yea and of Truths both more generally received and farre more easie to be proved yea and of a far greater and more formidable consequence then those other Whether Ministers truly faithfull and conscientious being fully perswaded in their soules and consciences that many of the opinions asserted in the Ordinance for Truths yet are not such but errors of wch perswasion there are many such Ministers in England shall doe well to comply with the Ordinance so called against their judgements and publiquely hold forth to the people those things for truths which they are absolutely perswaded in their judgements to be nothing lesse Or whether the said Ordinance threatening them with imprisonment or death in case they shall declare themselves otherwise be not a dangerous temptation upon them to draw their foot into that snare of death Whether the publicke holding of any such opinion which according to the doctrine of the Apostles themselves deserves not excommunication from or by a Christian Church may yet deserve imprisonment or a cutting off by death by the civil Magistrate Or are they who are meete and worthy to live and converse as members in a Church of Christ unworthy so much as to live in a politique or civill State Or were there not in the Church of Corinth yea and in other Churches besides in the Apostles dayes who publiquely held some opinions of farre worse consequence then very many of those which the said Ordinance censureth either with imprisonment or with death Of whose excommunication notwithstanding the Apostle is silent even then when he argueth against and condemneth their errors Yea doth he not intreat them graciously notwithstanding the danger of their error calling them beloved Brethren a admonisheth them to take heed of being deceived to be stedfast unmoveable c. Whether is it not very possible that persons who may hold and upon occasion publiquely maintaine many of the opinions condemned as errors by the Ordinance may yet be as full of grace and goodnesse as precious in the sight of God as fruitfull in every good worke as serviceable to the State and Common-wealth as those who are of another judgement and practise O● what repugnancy is there in either of those things unto any of these if so whether can it be a thing well pleasing unto God or of any good accommodation to the State to make a Law for the punishing or afflicting of such persons Whether is not such an Ordinance were it an ordinance indeed in the very nature and direct tendency of it likely to prove a grand discouragement unto many from taking the calling of the Ministery upon them the Kingdome suffering at present so extreamely for want of able and faithfull men in this calling and especially such who are most ingenuous and most eminently qualified by God for this great worke or whether are not men of greatest worth for parts and abilities especially in conjunction with good and tender consciences the most absolute composition for the Ministery more like then other men to decline that imployment wherein they are so much the more like to suffer for a good conscience sake then other men by how much the more likely they are to discover the common errors and misprisions of the present age in matters of Religion then they Whether is not the said Ordinance in the example of it a direct incouragement and confirmation to Popish Magistrates to persecute the faithfull servants of God who live in their territories with fire sword for professing the truth of God amongst them And whether doe not they who here seeke to plucke up the tares by such an Ordinance plucke up the wheat also there by the same Whether was there ever any such Ordinance or State act ever heard of or knowne in any the Reformed Churches I meane which was so apparently bent against the faces if not of the greatest part yet of so considerable a part of the best and most conscientious men amongst them as this is Whether was there ever any thing done in the Bishops times or any thing attempted to be done by this generation of men in the day of their greatest interest and power in the Kingdome of that bloudy consequence to those godly persons Ministers or others whom they most hated and sought to crush as this Ordinance if once established is like to be to surre greater numbers of truely pious and conscientious men Whether the said Ordinance ministreth not an advantage of opportunity to the worst and wickedest of men who commonly hate the best and faithfullest Ministers most to accuse them unduly of such things which according to the ordinary course of Law may touch their lives or otherwise bring much affliction and vexation to them Whether twelve simple Countrimen such as our ordinary Juries usually confist of at Countrey Assizes who alas are far from being versed or any wayes judgemented in the profound questions in Divinity unto many of which the Ordinance relateth and who are generally uncapable of such equipollencies proprieties and differences of words upon the understanding or right discerning whereof the innocencie or guiltinesse of the person indited is very likely to depend be of any competent faculty or interest to passe upon the life or liberty of a studious learned and conscientious man in such cases which the greatest and ablest professors of Divinitie in the world are not able cleerly or with any competent satisfaction to the scrupulous many times to resolve or determine Whither an ordinary Judge of Ass●●e who either doth not pretend or at most in most cases doth but pretend to any thoroughnesse of search or inquiry into the deep things of God in the abstruse and disputable points of Religion as that of free will of the Trinity of the hypostaticall union concerning the death of Christ the condition of the soule after death c. be a competent Judge in such