Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	communion_n	external_a	forsake_v	5,198	5	10.0415	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26752	A discourse on my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's and my Lord Bishop of London's letters to the clergy touching catechising, and the sacrament of the Supper with what is required of churchwardens and ministers in reference to obstinate recusants : also a defence of excommunication, as used by the Church of England against such : preached March the 9th and 16th in the parish church of St. Swithins / by William Basset ...	Basset, William, 1644-1695.	1684 (1684)	Wing B1052; ESTC R9117	26,279	41

multò quàm Paulus much more severe than Paul himself who bids every one to examine himself but not others 2. It puts men upon Uncharitable censures and judging of other men contrary to the Command of Christ Judge not that ye be not judged and contrary to the Apostle Rom. 14. 4. and James 4. 12. Who art thou that judgest another 3. It supposes another man's Sin which I have no way incouraged or been in any point a partaker of may pollute the Ordinance to me though duely prepared my self contrary to the Apostles Doctrine Tit. 1. 15. to the pure every thing is pure 4. This Doctrine doth unavoidably destroy the Churches Unity Order and Peace for we can never joyn with any Church in the World but we shall find mixt Communions and therefore must be always shifting forming and gathering of new Churches And that cannot be a Duty which puts men upon the breach of those Undeniable and indispensable ones viz. Charity Vnity Order and Peace This is a fit Opinion to make men Seekers but such as shall never find Therefore Calvin saith Inst l. 4. cap. 1. that men do in vain seek a Church nullo naevo inspersam that hath no blemish and mixture in it And if any pollute this Ordinance I should think it is these very men who are so uncharitable proud and censorious which are the Sins of the Devils and stand as directly opposite to the Nature and designs of the Gospel as the grossest lusts of the Flesh Calvin saith Institut l. 4. cap. 1. he hath no excuse qui externam Ecclesiae communionem deserit ubi Dei verbum praedicatur Sacramenta administrantur who forsakes the external Communion of that Church where the Word is Preached and the Sacraments administred Elsewhere he saith such are Phrenetici Spiritus mad hot-headed People And tanti Ecclesiae suae Communionem facit Dominus c. the Lord so highly esteems the Communion of his Church that he reckons those Renegado's and Desertors of their Religion whoever shall alienate themselves from any Christian Society which hath the Ministry of the Word and Sacraments And Poterit vel is Doctrinae vel in Sacramentorum administratione Vitii quidpiam obrepere quod alienare nos ab ejus Communione non debeat Every Error in the administration of the Word and Sacraments is not a sufficient cause of Separation Luther on the Epistle to the Galatians saith they are Apostles of Men but never sent by God who creep into corners and do not enter into the Publick Church According to whom separation upon any of these Pleas is an evidence of a wild and Fanatick Spirit Mr. Calamy himself at last saw the endless Confusions which Pharisaical Spirits that think no Church pure enough for 'em began to lead men to and therefore about the middle of the Epistle to the Godly man's Ark endeavours to check this growing Mischief Take heed of separating from the Publick Assemblies of the Saints I have found by Experience that all our Church Calamities have sprung from this root He that separates from the Publick Worship is like a man tumbling down an hill and never leaving till he comes to the bottom of it I could relate many sad Stories of Persons professing Godliness who out of dislike to Church-Meetings began at first to separate from 'em and after many changes and alterations are turned some of 'em Anabaptists some Quakers some Ranters some direct Atheists But I forbear you must hold Communion with all those Churches with which Christ holds Communion you must separate from the Sins of Christians but not from the Ordinances of Christ Take heed of unchurching the Churches of Christ lest you prove Schismaticks instead of being true Christians When men once have an itch after Novelties under the notion of Reformation every one is finding fault with what others do till at last they can find no Church or Communion pure enough for 'em because not suited in all Points to their own humors Therefore Mr. Calamy in the next Page doth wish us to avoid as Soul-Poyson all Doctrines which 1. Tend to Liberty 2. Which hold forth a superstitious strictness above what is required in the Word 3. Which are Antimagistratical and Antiministerial But such is this Doctrine of refusing the Sacrament on pretence of mixt Communions and therefore according to Mr. Calamy ought to be avoided as Soul-Poyson We need no other Arguments against a Separation from our Church than the Writings and Practices of the first Reformers from Popery both beyond the Seas and in this Nation The Puritans against the Congregational way and which differs in terms only the late Presbyterians against the Independents 4. Object is against Compulsion especially from the Civil Magistrate This is no more than Hezekiah did in the case of the Passover which answered to this Sacrament For 2 Chron. 30. 5. Proclamation was made from Bersheba to Dan that they should come and keep the Passover which was occasion'd by the neglect of it as now amongst us and this stands recorded to the praise of this Pious King Now the Gospel doth not lessen the Power or the care of Kings over their Subjects Christ and his Apostles never tampered with the Civil Government Religion then never strip'd the Crown of Prerogatives under Pretence of the Peoples Privileges Therefore Kings may Command as much now as then Whence Mr. Baxter himself doth grant that the King may Command the Subject to his Duty Else certainly he may Command nothing at all And in his Apol. That the Kings Laws bind the Conscience to a Conscionable Performance of all his lawful Commands And therefore to this Duty of the Sacrament in particular this being a lawful Command because commanded by Christ himself But let it be on all sides supposed a Duty yet still we have two Objections remaining as 1. They are not prepared We Answer There may be a Proximate and accidental unmeetness even in good Men for some emergent occasions some suddain surprize c. may discompose and disorder the Soul at which time we do not censure a forbearance But an habitual unmeetness is inexcusable God and the King exact this Duty of you and if from one Sacrament and Year to another you still cry you are unprepared the Sin is your own Your neglects cannot null a Duty and take off the Obligation of a Law Should they wait till you say you are ready that day I believe would never come Doest thou really think thou art unprepared and yet makest no Conscience of preparing thy self This implies the giving up of thy self as lost for ever For if thou art unmeet for this Ordinance thou art unmeet for the Fellowship of the Saints if unmeet to eat and drink in his Presence besure thou art unmeet for the Beatifick Vision For he that is not qualified for a remoter cannot be qualified for a more intimate Communion This brings thee into a necessity of Sin for he that is idely unprepared

Declaration I have that Charity as to believe did Men well study what the Church injoyns and her Reasons and Motives why they would be asham'd of their own scruples 2. Obj. Some are against the Administration of it by a set Form of Prayer for Christ Blessed the Bread c. but the form of Blessing is not set down Ergo he never intended it should be given by set forms but that all should be left to their own conceptions in imitation of him We answer That had he repeated the Sacrament he might perhaps have used the same form again For he that gave a form to his Disciples and that twice and did himself Pray the same words three times in the same day Mat. 26. 39. 42 44. cannot in reason be supposed to be against a form in the Sacrament If what Christ hath not done in this case be so obliging what he hath done in the like case must be much more obliging because there is a fairer Expression of his Will in this than can be supposed in that therefore if because Christ hath not given us a form for the Sacrament the Church may not appoint one it must needs be that since he hath given us a General Form and indeed a Common Prayer suited to all Times Persons and Places that therefore we may use no other Therefore while they argue against a Form they do but put us in a way to establish that most perfect Form Christ hath taught us to the exclusion of all other Some private Teachers have at this very Sacrament as well as at Baptism used the same Prayer without any material Alterations of which some instances may be given now this though of their own making is as much a Form as that appointed by the Church yet these Men never judge this unlawful why then should they judge the other so Unless because injoyned which brings the dispute to another Question viz. from Forms to the injunction of 'em Even Presbyterian Writers as Calvin Jenkins c. tell us that where there is the Word taught or as some sound Doctrine and Administration of the Sacraments there is a true Church Ergo according to them the manner of Blessing is not material to the being of a Church The truth is Christ hath given us the Substance but hath left the Circumstances to the Church as when how c. and for several Reasons the Church thought fit to appoint very early Forms and Luther tells us that they of the Reformation still retain'd the Publick Prayers and Administration of the Lord's Supper He speaks this by way of Purgation and saith that their Church is falsly accused in that it is said she hath abolished the Missa This is one difference he makes between themselves and that Spirit of Phanaticism which he elsewhere saith is crept into the World that delights in corners c. And such was the sense of the Augustane Confession presented to the Emperor Charles the Fifth by the Duke of Saxony in the Name of the Protestant Princes c. of Germany Therefore these Men do reproach and condemn not only the first Reformers from Popery beyond the Seas whom they pretend to admire and call the Lights of the World But our Reformers and that Reformation too which even themselves are apt to speak the greatest Mercy that God hath done to his Church in these Nations And indeed such scruples serve only to evidence to what Unreasonable excesses a wild and roving spirit is apt to run Men and how destructive a lawless Liberty is to all Religion and Government in the World And if any Form for the Communion be allowed there can be no Objection against that appointed by our Church for however some Parts of our Liturgy be cavill'd at this hath escap'd as free as any For those Men who put in their Objections against the Common Prayer to the Convocation called by His Majesty An. Dom. 1662. had nothing material in this Service to fix upon but that they may say something they plead a little impropriety of speech in the Prayer after Receiving viz. may be fulfill'd with thy Heavenly Grace Which is but a composition signifying satisfactory measures of Divine Blessings a being filled full with thy Heavenly grace While Mr. Baxter himself hath acknowledged that he hath sometimes heard such Extempore Prayers from his Non-Conforming Brethren that no wise man could say Amen to ' em 3. Object Is mixt Communions To which we plead that our Saviour who knew the hearts of all men gave the Sacrament to Judas even after he had Covenanted to betray him For Luke 22. 14. he sat down with the Twelve of which number Judas was one V. 19. 20. he institutes and gives this Sacrament which done he faith V. 21. The hand of him that betrays me is with me on the Table Therefore Judas was present when it was given and consequently did receive with the rest unless excluded or suspended by our Lord which cannot be supposed because 1. There is no mention of any such thing and we ought not to presume beyond what the Text may seem to bear And 2. When our Saviour said that one of them should betray him V. 21. they are surpriz'd and inquire Master is it I But such an Exclusion and such a Declaration immediately upon it would have given 'em a just suspition who it was The Condition of the Church in this World is mixt and therefore is compared to a field of wheat full of tares which Argument Calvin speaks largely to in his Institutions against the Anabaptists and Novatians It is contray to that Right which Baptism gives to every Person till suspended by the Minister or excluded by the Church Therefore though the impure Corinthian was meritoriously Excommunicate upon the commission of the Fact yet he was not legally shut out till it was made the Act of the Church till which time he had a Right still to come For which reason St. Paul was so pressing to that Church to purge out that leaven And in the interim we do not find any Precept or Example of a Separation from the Communion of that Church because that Person was not yet shut out Nor from the Church of Galatia where there was such a defection to Mosaick Rites that St. Paul saith I am afraid of you lest I have bestowed upon you labor in vain None from Laodicaea or Thyatira And therefore what Texts soever they found this Opinion on are abused for we must not expound any place contrary to the Practice of Christ his Apostles and the Churches of God These Men make themselves more pure than Christ himself and greater Precisians than the very Apostles It is a most Pharisaical Doctrine that saith to others like the Hypocrite in the Prophet stand off for I am Holier than thou The wickedness of this conceit will appear from hence viz. 1. That it adds to the Commands of God for which cause Calvin saith that these Men are rigidiores