Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	according_a	church_n	doctrine_n	4,717	5	6.8021	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45318	The shaking of the olive-tree the remaining works of that incomparable prelate Joseph Hall D. D. late lord bishop of Norwich : with some specialties of divine providence in his life, noted by his own hand : together with his Hard measure, vvritten also by himself.	Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656.; Hall, Joseph, 1574-1656. Via media.	1660 (1660)	Wing H416; ESTC R10352	355,107	501

variation in effect the same Government with us only there wants some care and life in their execution which might without much difficulty be redressed Every Parish hath or by Law ought to have their Minister ever present with them and carefully watching over them Instead then of their Pastor Elders and Deacons we have in every Parish the Minister whether a Rector or Vicar Churchwardens Questmen or Sidemen and Overseers for the Poor and in places of any eminence a Curate or Assistent to the Rector who is a Deacon at least These may and ought and in some places do duely meet together every week on a set day in their Vestry and decide such differences as happen amongst them and may well be enjoyned to take notice of such abuses and mis-demeanours as are incident into their Parish for their speedy reformation within the Verge of their own power In stead of their Presbyteries consisting of several Pastors we have our number and combination of Ministers in the Divisions of our several Deanries under which are ranged all the Ministers within that circuit Over whom the Rural Dean as he is called is every year chosen by the said Ministers of that division as their moderator for the year ensuing whose office if it were carefully looked unto and reduced to the original institution might be of singular use to Gods Church This Deanry or Presbytery consisting of several Pastors may be injoyned to meet together every moneth or oftner if it seem fit in some City or Town next unto them and may there have their exercise of prophesying as I have known it practiced in some parts of this kingdom and as it is earnestly wished and recommended by that excellently-Learned Lord Verulame late Lord Chancelour of England in his prudent considetions and then and there may endeavour to decide any doubt that may arise in their several Parishes either concerning the doctrine of their Minister or scruple in cases of conscience and may trans●ct any publique businesse that may concerne their whole division But if any such matter or question should arise as their divided opinions cannot fully determine it may under charge of silence be put over to a more publique meeting which is the Synodal assembly of the Clergy held twice a year under the moderation hitherto of the Archdeacon and if there the question fail of a full determination it is or may be referred with like silence and peace to a Diocesan Synod which may be held every year once under the presidency of the Bishop and if yet the decision come not home it may be referred to the determining of a Provincial Synod or yet higher to a National So as in these cases of doubts or errors if men would not be wanting to themselves nothing needs to be wanting in the state we now stand in to the safety and happinesse of our Church For matter of ordination of Ministers the former constitutions of our Church have deeply enjoyned the presence and assistance of those who by their original institutions are the Presbytery of the Bishop at and in the examination and allowance of the persons to be ordained requiring also the joint-imposition of those hands which attested the sufficiency of the said Examinants not without a severe sanction of two years suspension of the act of Ordaining to passe upon any Bishop or Suffragan that shall be found failing in any of the particulars the qualification of those that are to be ordained is in our Canons already set forth with much caution for their age their degrees their abilities the testimony of their holy conversation neither need I doubt to affirm that he who besides all other circumstances of Education is able to give a good account of his faith in Latine according to the received Articles of the Church of England and to confirme the same by sufficient testimonies out of the holy Scripture may be thought competently fit for matter of knowledg to enter upon the first step of Deaconship which the wisdome of the Church hath according to the Apostles rule appointed not without a sufficient distance of time in way of probation to the higher order of Ministery forbidding to give both orders at once and requiring that he who is ordained Deacon shall continue a whole year at least in that station except upon some weighty reasons it shall seem fit to the Bishop to contract the time limited and lest there should be any subreption in this sacred business it is Ordered that these Ordinations should be no other then solemn both in respect of time place neither ought they to be nor in some places are without a publick precognization of lawful warning affixed upon the Cathedral Church door where the said Ordination shall be celebrated and over and besides the charge that none shall be admitted to be a Candidate of holy Orders but he who brings sufficient testimonials of his good life and conversation under the seal of some Colledg in Cambridge or Oxford or of three or four grave Ministers together with the subscription and testimony of other credible persons who have known his life behaviour by the space of three years next before it is well known to you that before the act of ordination there is publique Proclamation made to the whole Assembly that if any man knowes any crime or impediment in any of the persons presented for which he ought not to be ordained that he should come forth and declare it before any hand be laid upon his head for his full admission Notwithstanding all which care of our dear Mother the Church of England if it shall be thought meet that any further act of Tryal shall pass upon those which are suitors for Ordination how easily may it be ordered that at the monethly or if need be more frequent meeting of the Ministers within the same Presbytery or Deanry they may be appointed to make tryal of their gifts and undergoe such further examination of their abilities as shall be thought requisite ere they shall be presented and admitted by the Bishop and his Presbytery to that holy sunction And whereas it is much stood upon that it is meet the people whose souls must have right in him to whose trust they are committed should have some hand in their consent to that Pastor by whom they must be fed it must be said that besides their devolution of their right to the patron who as their trustee presents a Minister for them it may be no prejudice at all to the power which by Law and inheritance is setled upon the patron that the person whom his choise pitches upon be appointed beforehand to preach for a trial to that Congregation to which he is so designed and if either for his voice or other just exceptions he be found unmeet for them that another more fit may be recommended by the said Patron to the place but if through faction or self-will or partiality the multitude shall prove peevish and

Spirit of God by which ye are sealed to the day of Redemption IT was a rule of some wise Heathen of old That he was a great Master of Morality that had learn'd to govern his Tongue his Gut his Concupiscence these three And well might it be so when Christianity hath so farr seconded it as that the Spirit of God hath singled out one of these for a Triall of the rest He that offends not with his Tongue is a perfect Man James 2.2 So as that triplicity is reduced to an Unitie and indeed if a man have attained to an exact government of this loose and busie filme which we carry in our mouths it is a great argument of his absolute Mastership over himself in the other particulars whereupon it is that the Apostle hath hedged in my Text with this Charge Before my Text inhibiting all corrupt Communication after it all bitternesse and Clamour and evill speaking and betwixt both enforcing this vehement and Heavenly dehortation And grieve not the holy Spirit Intimating in the very contexture of the words that that man can never hold good terms with the Spirit of God what profession soever he makes that lets his tongue loose to obscene and filthy Communication or to bitter or spightfull words against his Brethren and in these words disswading us both from this and all other before mentioned particularities of wickednesse by an argument drawn from unkindnesse look to it for if you shall give way to any of these vicious courses ye shall grieve the holy Spirit of God and that will be a shamefull and sinfull ingratitude in you forasmuch as that holy Spirit hath been so gracious unto you as to Seale you to the day of Redemption a motive which how sleight soever it may seem to a carnall heart and by such a one may be past over and pisht at in imitation of the carelesse note of Pharaoh Who is the Spirit of God that I should let my Corruptions go yet to a regenerate man to such our Apostle writes it is that irresistible force whereof Nahum speaks that rends the very Rocks before it Nahum 1.6 And indeed an ingenuous Spirit is more moved with this then with all outward violence The Law of Christ both constraines and restraines him constraines him to all good Actions and restraines him from all evill The good Patriark Joseph when his wanton Mistresse solicited him to her wicked lust Behold saith he My Master hath committed all that he hath to my hand there is none greater in his house then I neither hath he kept back any thing from me but thee because thou art his wife how then can I do this great wickednesse and sin against God Gen. ●● 8.9 wherein ye see he hath a double Antidote for her poysonous suggestion the one his Masters favour and trust which he may not violate the other the offence of his God Joseph knew he could not do this wickednesse but he must bring plagues enough upon his head but that is not the thing he stands upon so much as the sin against God A Pilate will do any thing rather then offend a Cesar that word thou art not Cesars friend if thou let him go John 19.12 strikes the matter dead Thou art not Gods friend if thou entertain these sins cannot but be prevalent with a good heart and bear him out against all Temptations and this is the force of our Apostles inference here who after the enumeration of that black Catalogue of sins both of the whole man and especially those of the Tongue infers And grieve not the holy Spirit of God whereby ye are Sealed to the Day of Redemption The Text you see is a dehortatory charge to avoid the offence of God wherein we have the Act and the subject the Act Grieve not the subject set forth by his Title by his Merit his Title The holy Spirit of God his Merit and our obligation thence arising By whom ye are sealed to the day of Redemption the subject is first considerable both in Nature and Act as that the knowledg and respect whereof doth both most disswade us from the offence and aggravate it when it is committed The holy Spirit of God which when we have shortly meditated on apart we shall joyne together by the Act inhibited in this holy dehortation That this is particularly to be taken of the third person of the blessed Trinity to whom this day is peculiarly devoted there can be no doubt for both the Title is his The holy Spirit of God not absolutely God who is an holy Spirit but the holy Spirit of God and the effect attributed to him is no lesse proper to him for as the contriving of our Redemption is ascribed to the Father the atchieving of it to the Son So the Sealing confirming and applying of it to the Holy Ghost There are many Spirits and those holy and those of God as their Creator and Owner as the enumerable Company of Angels and the Spirits of Just Men made perfect Hebr. 12. but this is set forth as Zanchius notes well with a double Article 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that holy Spirit by a transcendent eminence by a singularity as that which is alone The holy Spirit of God Now why the third Person should specially be denominated a Spirit a title no lesse belonging to the Father and the Son to the whole absolute Deity as being rather Essential then Personal or why an holy Spirit since Holinesse is as truly Essentiall to the other Persons also as their very being Or why being coequal and coessential with God the Father and the Son he should be called the Spirit of God though they might seem points incident into the Day yet because they are Catechetical heads I hold it not so fit to dwell in them at this time Only by the way give me leave to say that it had been happy both for the Church of England in general and this Diocesse in particular that these Catechetical Sermons had been more frequent then they have been as those which are most usefull and necessary for the grounding of Gods People in the principles of saving Doctrine and I should earnestly exhort those of my Brethren of the Ministry that hear me this day that they would in these perilous and distractive times bend their labours this way as that which may be most effectuall for the setling of the Soules of their hearers in the grounds of true Religion that they may not be carried about with every winde of Doctrine 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Cockboat of mens fancies as the Apostle speak but this by the way I shall now only urge so much of the Person as may add weight to the dehortation from the Act Grieve not the holy Spirit of God and every notion of it adds a several weight as a Spirit as the Spirit of God as the holy Spirit of God It is a rule not capable of contradiction that by how much more