Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	abate_v	law_n	sunday_n	18	3	10.8320	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A94295	The due way of composing the differences on foot, preserving the Church, / according to the opinion of Herbert Thorndike.	Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672.	1660 (1660)	Wing T1048; Thomason E1838_3; ESTC R210159	28,326	70

what hath passed for the matter of Religion in the World was it ever protested by those who demanded Reformation in the Church that the Eucharist cught to be celebrated but four times or twelve times in the year That by Gods Law there ought to be two Sermons every Sunday in every Church That other Festivals beside the Sunday and set times of fasting oughr not to be solemnized with the service of God That the Church doors ought not to be open but when there is preaching Take the primitive practice of the Church along with the Scripture and they shall tell you another tale that Prayer and the praises of God is the more principal end of Christian Assemblies than Preaching The reason is unanswerable For the one is the end the other the means That the celebration of the Eucharist is the most principal Office of Gods service under Christianity is no less evident For other Offices are common to Judaisme this consisting most in Prayers consists of those Prayers which are proper to Christianity that is to those causes wherein our Salvation consisteth And can there be question how frequent it ought to be Shall not the practice of the whole Church from the beginning decide the question if any remain The single life of the Clergie prevailed for this end that they might be alwaies ready to celebrate the Eucharist say the Fathers and the Canons which I alledged afore It is a question in Gennadius de dogmatibus Ecclesiasticis whither every man ought to communicate every day or not But therefore no question that it ought to be celebrated every day that who so would might communicate In conscience would they be bound to Preach every day that are so much for Preaching After the reading of the Scripture follows the Sermon and after that the Eucharist This is the primitive order of the whole Church at that solemne service when the Eucharist on Fasting-dayes in the Evening on other dayes before Noon was Celebrated After the Scriptures were read the people were taught their duty out of them A thing necessary and possible Not that every Curate should be bound to declame by the Glass But that he should be bound to instruct his Parish out of the Scriptures which are read If he be tied to Preach as often as the Church door opens the Church door must be shut because no sides can hold out so oft as Christians ought to meet for Gods service I call the World to witness Is it not as much a work of lungs and sides as an Office of Gods service which takes up the time of their Church Assemblies Is not the way opened by this means to declame of publick Government in Church and State to intertain the Hearers For alas should men confine themselves to that which the generality of their audience might edifie by in their Christianity the Trade would be obstructed For let me freely say the undoubted truth of the common Christianity which no Sermons ought to exceed because they pretend the edification of the generality of Christians is contained in so narrow a compass that no eloquence much less the eloquence of all that must come into the Pulpit can change the seasoning and serving of it so as to make it agreeable to mens palats without fetching in matter impertinent if not destructive to the common Christianity And the same is for more peremptory reason to be said of arbitrary Prayers For the very posture of him that pretendeth to prefer the devotions of Gods people to the Altar which is above strongly impresseth upon the hearts of simple Christians an opinion that thereby they discharge to God the duty which their creation and redemption requires at their hands Which if the matter of those Prayers be such as the common Christianity requires they may do indeed But if it be possible that Rebellion Slander Nonsense and Blasphemy may be the matter of them as well as Christianity then is it not Religion but Superstition which such devotions exercise Nor can that Kingdom stand excused to God which shall gratifie that licentiousness whereof they see the effect before their eyes All reason of Christianity concurres with the practice of the whole Church to witness that the interest of Christianity requires the service of God to be maintained and exercised daily yea hourly were it possible not only by particular Christians but by Assemblies of Christians so far as the business of the World will give leave and as there is means to maintain mens attendance upon it There may come abuse in the order the forme the matter of that which is tendred to God for his Service But instead of reforming those abuses to take away the means the Rule the obligation of such meetings is meer Sacriledge in destroying under pretense of Reforming his Church And though I charge no such designe upon those who maintain the obligation of the Sabbath to consist in two Sermons yet I do maintain it is manifest to common reason that the forme which that opinion introduceth necessarily tends to that effect Strange it is that a Nation capable of sens in an age improved by learning should be intangled with the superstition of so vain an imagination that God by the same fourth Commandment should oblige both Jews to keep the Saturday Christians the Sunday Especially no man daring to maintain that both were or are tied to the same measure of resting And therefore though rather than cross the stream of such a superstition For let no man think that all superstition can be shut out of Gods Church I am ready to conform to the Order that shall take place so far as the strength of my body shall inable me Yet provided that the Ecclesiastical Laws of England being the Laws of the whole Church be not abated so as to stick an evident mark of Schisme upon the Church of England For the Law that is recommending the celebration of the Eucharist upon all Sundayes and Festivals but commanding the service to be used as well on Festivals and Fasting dayes as upon Sundayes besides the week dayes at the publick Assemblies of respective Congregations To change this Order for two Sermons on the Sunday alone what is it but to renounce the whole Church for the love of those that have divided from the Church of England upon causes common to it with the whole Church They that would have the Reformation of the Church to be indeed that which the Law of the Land calleth it should first provide a course to be established for Law by which all Christian soules who have equal interest in the common Salvation might serve God in publick all Sundaies and Festivals For seeing there was a course in Law before the Reformation for all servants as well as others to be at Masse all Sundayes and Festivals And the Church was inabled to require account of it at their hands It will not be Reformation to abrogate the abuses of the Mass till a

that originally the indowment of the Diocese was the Patrimony of the Mother Church and afterwards appropriated to Parish Churches by abating the right of the Mother Church upon particular contracts appearing to be for the good of the parts For if the Mother Church have abated so much of her common right when it was for the good of the Parishes Is it not necessary that the Parishes now abate of their property in their respective indowments by Pensions to these Colleges now they appear to be for the good of the Diocese And this I am now bold to profess before the judgement of Superiors be declared because I am confident that by this position I abate not a hair of that Power which the Bishops in England now use But I adde much to the strictness of discipline that is in effect of Christianity by requiring all Ordinations all acts of Jurisdiction in foro exteriori to pass both the Presbyters and the Bishop in severall instances And further then this I extend not the opinion of a divine to particulars but leave the rest intire to the wisdom of superiors And this may serve to show that there is no cause why the difference on foot concerning the Government of the Church may not settle into a change conducing to the advancement of the common Christianity Which will hold till stronger in the other concerning the Service if men take their measures by the common interest of Christianity not by their particular prejudices For I conceive I may well suppose that the Sectaries pretense of praying by the Spirit is content to be buried in oblivion and silence considering that the excesses are evident and horrible which that pretense hath brought forth Besides that no man now stands to that dangerous position That the offices of Gods service are of no effect when they are ministred by such as are not in the state of grace For I presume it is not nor can be supposed on any hand that all whom the Church must imploy are indowed with Gods spirit that is are in the state of grace I suppose further as not questioned on any hand that the publick service of God is to consist of the praises of God by the Psalmes of David and other Hymnes of Gods Church of the reading of the Scriptures of the instruction of Gods people out of them in fine of the Prayers of the Church and in the chief place of the Sacrament of the Eucharist and those prayers which it is to be celebrated with Some of our Sects have been bold to pretend that the Psalter or Psalmes of David are impertinent to the Devotions of Christians as concerning the particular condition of David and composed whith regard to it Whereby they overthrow the foundation of Christianity standing upon this supposition that the old Testament is the figure ad shadow of the new and that Christ hath the key of the writings as well as of the house of David For seeing Christ and his mystical Body the Church are all one the meaning and intent of the Psalmes cannot concern Christ but it must end in his Church But seeing the Church is but shadowed in the Psalmes being part of the Old Testament I can expect no dispute of the necessity of other Hymnes composed under Christianity in the solemnizing of Gods publick service And seeing the question on foot concerns the setling of the form of Gods service by a Law of the Kingdom there can remain no dispute concerning the necessity of a setled Order in reading the Scriptures and using the Psalmes and Hymnes of the Church Nor do I know any man sincerely professing the Reformation that could not wish with all his heart that the whole order and form which shall be setled with the circumstance of the same might be according to the primitive simplicity and naked plainness of the ancient Church supposing the difference between the state in which the Church lived under persecution and now that being protected by the secular Power it receiveth all the World to take part in the service of God For what difference this will inferre in the Order and Rule of Gods service to be inacted by a Law of this Kingdom common reason and the perpetual practice of Gods Church together with the precedents recorded in Scripture must be admitted to Witness These things supposed no man doubts that the form of service now in force by the Law of this Land may be acknowledged capable of amendment without disparagement either to the wisdom of the Church that prescribed or of the Nation that inacted it For what positive Law of man is there that is not Nay what arrogance can it be in a particular person having bestowed more consideration upon it then it is possible that those who had the framing of it should have leisure to do to think that he knows some particulars in which it might be mended For neither doth it follow that it is better to indanger the spoyling of it by calling it in question than to let it rest as it is And that particular person whosoever he is that should think his own opinion necessary to be followed without com-promising it to the publick would justly incurre the mark of arrogance Since therefore that this is the time for such a debate if any change be pretended and that the reasons mentioned afore are of sufficient consideration to oblige all sides to prefer unity before prejudice what remains but that either it be left intire in that State wherein it stands or that nothing be changed without sufficient debate of reason upon the whole what is fit to be changed what not But one thing I must here expresly stand upon because the forme of Gods service which hath been usurped during the Schisme protesteth against the Law in force I acknowledge that the whole Reformation protesteth against the insufficience and defects of the Church of Rome in the course which it taketh for the instruction of Christian people in the duties of their Christianity against the abuses there practised in celebrating the Eucharist without any pretense of a Communion in private Masses and in serving God in a Language which the people understand not For these abuses are a principal part of the ground for that change which we justly maintain to be Reformation The boldness of those that opposed it being come to such a height as openly to maintain that it concerneth not Christian people to know or to mind what is done at the Mass being the ordinary service of God for which they come to Church or what is said But that the intention of the Priest is enough to apply the sacrifice of Christ to all that are present which they think it doth no less to them that are absent and therefore leave us unsatisfied why people should come to Church who need do nothing but say their Paters and their Aves These abuses I do acknowledge But be the World my witness and all that know