Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	form_n	prayer_n	set_a	6,981	5	11.4340	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26837	A sermon preached before the Right Honourable Sir Francis Chaplin, Lord Mayor of London at Gvild-Hall Chapell, November the 18th, 1677 by William Battie ...	Battie, William, 1634 or 5-1706.	1678 (1678)	Wing B1160; ESTC R15807	20,451	40

prevail with us to make us submit unto Authority that it is the Will of God we doe it Consider we within our selves of this other Motive How we shall be able if we will not doe his Will to endure his Wrath which we see Despisers of Authority have no hopes of escaping but upon these Presumptions that there is no Credit to be given to the Holy Scriptures no Life to come nor Day of Judgment to be hereafter The Duty of Subjection is thus enforced and there are but few who do not at least in words own it to be due to Magistrates but how far and wherein lies all the Controversy Some there be who are against the Magistrate's meddling at all in Matters Ecclesiastical Quid Imperatori cum Ecclesia was the Objection of Donatus an old Separatist What hath the Emperour to doe with Matters concerning the Church To which Objection the Reply Optatus made was then judged fully sufficient The Commonwealth is not in the Church but the Church is in the Commonwealth and consequently the Governour of the Common-wealth is Governour also of the Church But that which meets with greatest opposition at this day is this That the Magistrate should give Commands in things indifferent pertaining to the Worship of God But this men quarrel at without any colour of Reason for the same For these things are the peculiar Province as to Church-concernments wherein the Legislative and Executive Power of the Magistrate is exercised Things of Divine Institution do require our Submission by warrant from a Superiour and Paramount Injunction and cannot be accounted Humane Ordinances or Things indifferent But as to these other things we have sundry Ordinances in the Holy Scriptures Esther 9. 20. we find a religious Festival appointed by Mordecai without any Command from God for it And in the Book of the Maccabees we reade of another Festival instituted by Iudas Maccabaeus and the Iews which was afterwards approved of by Christ's presence at it And in the New Testament we find the Rulers of the Church imposing their Commands in things indifferent as they thought expedient for the present good of the Church The things indeed are called necessary but considering what some of these things were it is plain they were onely called so with relation to their End being at that time judged necessary though not in their Nature yet in their Use for the present quiet and composure of Differences in the Church And as soon as the black Cloud of Persecution was dispersed by Constantine the Great this Authority in matters Ecclesiastical was assumed by the Monarchs of the Christian World and very much to the Satisfaction of the Fathers of the Church in those times Felix est necessitas saith S. Augustin quae nos cogit ad meliora And thus he adviseth the Powers then in being Forìs inveniatur necessitas intus nascetur voluntas Let there be a Power without and there will be a Will within And what is very considerable here The Injunctions of Superiours in these things have never been disliked but by the Factions they have run cross to If Calvin's Opinion will weigh any thing with the Men who now oppose themselves and scruple in these matters we have it at large in his Epistle to the Duke of Somerset the Protectour in the days of Edward the VI. where he adviseth the Protectour in these words Statum esse Catechismum oportet statam Sacramentorum Administrationem publicámque Precum formulam There ought saith he to be a set Catechism a set Form for Administration of Sacraments and a set Form of publick Prayers from which it may not be lawfull for the Pastours of the Church to depart and vary as they please And that as he tells us for these Ends That the Ignorance of some may hereby be relieved the wanton Lightness of others in affecting and meditating Novelties restrained and then that the Agreement among your selves and with other Reformed Churches may be known to the World Which be all very good Ends and the bare mentioning of them is enough to satisfie any that Calvin did not think the Forms usefull onely for those Times and as things then stood as Separatists at this day persuade their Proselytes but for succeeding Ages also For in what Age may it not be necessary to have these good Ends looked after And in the same Epistle he tells the Protectour he understood there were two sorts of Seditious persons in this Kingdom then who have continued ever since and been as very Thorns in the side of the Government from that time to this as ever the Canaanites were to the Israelites The one sort he tells him were those who would by no means forgo the Superstitions of Rome the other sort he styles Cerebrosi and Phrenetici Brain-sick Phreneticks who under a pretence of Gospel-Liberty endeavoured the introducing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all Disorder and Confusion into the Church wherein to use his own words though something harsh excitantur à Satana nominatim they are prompted by the Devil himself that the World may take offence at the best Religion as the Fomenter of Rebellion in the State and Confusion in the Church This is his Censure and as severe is his Direction but it 's Calvin's Merentur quidem tum hi tum illi Gladio ultore coërceri Both these sorts of Seditious persons deserve to be restrained by the Sword which God hath put into thy Hand And Beza's Opinion is the same also in these matters What Laws the Magistrate makes in things indifferent for the sake of Order and Decency in the Church they are to be observed of all Godly men and they so far bind the Conscience that no Knowing and Understanding man can without Sin either doe what is forbidden or omit what is commanded And after the Copy of these great Men did the Presbyterians of the late Times write The bare Injunctions of Parliament were held Canonical in these Matters when time was They are the words of a known Tractate Licensed by Mr. Downham No man that is endowed with right Reason but will acknowledge there is a Necessity of a Government If of a Government then of Vniformity else it will be confused Therefore there is a Necessity of suppressing all Conventicles and that all men should observe such Order Time and Place and publick Gesture as the Parliament by the Advice of the Assembly shall appoint And no man that hath any use of Conscience in any thing but must acknowledge that he is to obey the Laws of the Land in which he lives in all indifferent Things or else he is Turbulent and deserves Censure even for matters concerning Worship Thus far that Authour who was not alone in the opinion in the late Times that the Supreme Power may give Command in these things Whence it appears That they who could not endure the Constitutions of their Superiours in these Matters could when they became Superiours themselves call