Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A59215
|
Rex theologus the preachers guard and guide in his double duty of prayer and preaching : deduced from scripture, reason, and the best examples : in three parts ...
|
Seppens, Robert.
|
1664
(1664)
|
Wing S2560; ESTC R37366
|
44,281
|
75
|
REX THEOLOGVS THE PREACHERS Guard and Guide In his double Duty of PRAYER and PREACHING Deduced from Scripture Reason and the best Examples In III. Parts 1. A Vindication of the Kings Letter to the late Lord Archbishop of Canterbury concerning the Regulation of Preachers 2. A Demonstration that Forms of Prayer do best suit with Publick Worship 3. An Antidote to the virulent Clamours of the Non-conformists LONDON Printed for R. Royston Bookseller to the King 's most Excellent Majesty 1664. To the Right Worshipful Sir RALPH HARE Knight and Baronet and Sir EDWARD WALPOOLE Knight of the Bath Two worthy Members of the Honourable House of Commons Honoured Gentlemen AS you were in your Capacities highly instrumental to the Restauration of His Sacred Majesty to His Crown so I know there is nothing you desire more than the happy settlement of His Majesty with the Church and State under His Dominion upon the foundations of Peace and Piety Amongst other things that hinders such a desired Establishment one is the Exorbitancy of the Pulpit though you have done great things already in the Parliament which we acknowledge to your everlasting Honour in order to the correcting of those Irregularities yet something you left undone as a work proper for an Intelligence of an higher Orb wherefore His Sacred Majesty hath made a further progress in His late DIRECTIONS recommended to the Reverend Fathers of the Church wherein at once He hath approved Himself Episcopum extra Ecclesiam a Bishop without the Church and Theologum intra Ecclesiam a Divine within the Church But forasmuch as His Majesty's DIRECTIONS meet not with that general Reception and Approbation they deserve but are traduced by some as contrary to the Doctrine of the Church my design is in this ensuing Treatise to defend Theologiam Regis the Kings Divinity shining in them I am conscious of my own Defects and therefore implore your Patronage I fear I have presumed too far in sheltering my self under your Names and therefore beg your Pardon and withall your Acceptance of this Testimony of my Observance promising what I fall short of in this Expression of my Gratitude I shall make up with my daily Prayers for you both and the Branches of your Honourable Families to whom I am A most devoted Servant in all Observance Robert Seppens DIEV ET MON DROIT To the Most Reverend Father in God WILLIAM Lord Archbishop of Canterbury CHARLES R. MOst Reverend Father in God We greet you well Whereas the hold abuses and extravagancies of Preachers in the Pulpit have not onely by the experience of former Ages béen found to tend to the dishonour of God the scandal of Religion and disturbance of the peace both of Church and State but have also through the licentiousness of the late times much increased to the inflaming fomenting and heightning of the sad distempers and confusions that were among us And whereas even at this present notwithstanding the merciful providence of God so signally manifested in restoring Vs to Our Crown and Our pious care and endeavours to govern Our Realms in peace and tranquillity the said Abuses do yet continue in a very high measure in sundry parts of this Realm through the busie diligence of some unquiet and factious Spirits who instead of preaching the pure Word of God and building up the People in Faith and Holiness have made it a great part of their business to beget in the minds of their Heaters an evil opinion of their Governours by insinuating fears and jealousies to dispose them to discontent and to season them with such unsound and dangerous Principles as may lead them into Disobedience Schism and Rebellion And whereas also sundry young Divines and Ministers either out of a spirit of contention and contradiction or in a vain ostentation of their Learning take upon them in their popular Sermons to handle the déep points of Gods Eternal Counsels and Decrées or to meddle with the affairs of State and Government or to wrangle about Forms and Gestures and other fruitless Disputes and Controversies serving rather to amuse than profit the Hearers which is done for the most part and with the greatest confidence by such persons as least understand them We out of Our Princely Care and Zele for the honour of God the advancement of Piety Peace and true Religion and for the preventing for the future as much as lieth in Vs the many and great Inconveniencies and Mischiefs that will unavoidably ensue if a timely stop be not given to these and the like growing Abuses Do according to the Examples of several of Our Predecessours of blessed memory by these Our special Letters straitly charge and command you to use your utmost care and diligence that these Directions which upon long and serious consideration We have thought good to give concerning Preachers and which We have caused to be Printed herewith sent unto you be from henceforth duly and strictly observed by all the Bishops within your Province And to this end Our Will and Pleasure is That you forthwith send them Copies of these Our Directions to be by them spéedily communicated to every Parson Vicar Curate Lecturer and Minister in every Cathedral Collegiate and Parish-Church within their several Dioceses And that you eaâ—nestly require them to imploy their utmost endeavour for the due observation of the â—ame whereof We shall expect a strict accompt both of you and every one of them And these Our Letters shall be your sufficient Warrant and Discharge in that behalf Given at Our Court at Whitehall the 14. day of October in the 14. year of Our Reign 1662. By His Majesties Command ED. NICHOLAS Directions concerning Preachers I. THat no Preachers in their Sermons presume to meddle with matters of State to model new Governments or take upon them to declare limit or bound out the Power and Authority of Soveraign Princes or to state and determine the differences betwéen Princes and the People but that upon all good occasions they faithfully instruct the People in their bounden duty of Subjection and Obedience to their Governours Superiour and Subordinate of all sorts and to the established Laws according to the Word of God and the Doctrine of the Church of England as it is contained in the Homilies of Obedience and the Articles of Religion set forth by publick Authority II. That they be admonished not to spend their time and study in the search of abstruse and speculative Notions especially in and about the déep points of Election and Reprobation together with the incomprehensible manner of the concurrence of Gods Frée Grace and Mans Frée Will and such other controversies as depend thereupon but howsoever that they presume not positively and doctrinally to determine any thing concerning the same III. That they forbear in their Sermons ordinarily and causlesly to enter upon the handling of any other controversies of less moment and difficulty but whensoever they are occasioned by invitation from the Text they preach
oppressions and persecutions and then to destroy the Priesthood by seizing upon the Church-revenue Thus they served the Clergy at last for their preaching As the Fox did the Crow in the Fable commended their voices till they got away their morsels Lastly by overthrowing the study of Divinity for since preaching came to be of such high esteem with the people that they measure all mens worth by their sides and lungs many of the Clergy give over the difficulties of Theology and content themselves with such superficial knowledge therein as will qualifie them for popular Preachers and no more The Critical Polemical Scholastical Casuistical parts of Divinity crown'd with the admirable Learning of Fathers Councils Ecclesiastical History in all which or at least in some Ministers should excell or be competently versed are now laid aside as superfluous and no way requisite to the accomplishment of a Preacher Whence it comes to pass that in a Church abounding with Preachers there is a great scarcity of Divines Abundance of Preachers but few Divines These considerations with others have moved me to search into the bottom of this art of Preaching to see upon what foundation it stands how it was used in the ancient Church what boundaries should be set to it assuring my self it would be impossible ever to deliver the Church from these Confusions till Preaching the design of all former Reformations were reformed it self and reduced to the just rule purged from the dross and restored to their hands to whom of right it belongs For as in all natural and ordinate mutations there must be removens prohibens so that there should be in moral mutations Prudence dictates If there be any thing hinders the Peace and Welfare of Gods Church even that should be removed But how this can be done without the interposing of Civil and Ecclesiastical Authority without some Canons and Laws first deliberately made and then faithfully executed is not to be imagined For though prudent and considerate men cannot but see the horrible inconvenience that comes upon the Church by this liberty of prophecying yet the Silver-smiths that get their living by this Craft and have made of this preaching artem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Philosophers Stone will cry up this Diana And then the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the many on the other side who were carryed meerly by opinion and what they have once imbibed hold as Pilate quod scripsi scripsi they having received an opinion that this preaching is the Alpha and Omega of all Religion It will be more then an Herculean labour to dispossesse them of their darling fancy It was an ingenious device of him that to express the love of preconceived opinions elegantly painted in the gate of humane infelicity a greater number of men in prison loaden above measure and oppressed with heavy chains and fetters who yet were so far from grieving at their misery that they strove amongst themselves every one for the Prerogative of his shackles while some licked them some gently touched them some measured them some covered them with rags from the injury of the air all gloried of their imprisonment and if any had less irons then another he envyed the others happiness The World is governed all by opinion and as every Crow thinks his own bird fairest so every man his own opinion though thereby he is miserably imprisoned and the fetters whereby he is holden be iron impolish'd burthensome grievous to be born yet he hugs them as Ornaments not Impediments as Golden Chains and Bracelets not Iron gyves and by them lies fast bound in the Dungeon of ignorance From which if a man goes about to deliver them they complaine of signall injury done them as the Devil did of Christ Why art thou come to torment us before the time With these kind of men I can promise little successe to this paper when I behold the huge mountains of prejudice that oppose themselves to truth and reason But when I look again upon the grand Impostures and cheats practised upon poor weak souls by these new Quacks in Divinity I consider though it be not in my power to remove or cure so great an evil yet it will be some discharge of Conscience to testifie against it some step and furtherance to the cure to lay open the sore and to shew the necessity of the generous Medicaments his Sacred Majesty hath used for the healing of our breaches in the Church As certainly 't is a thing of huge concernment for the publick peace to look unto the regulation of the Pulpit from whence such innumerable evils have broke in upon us and so many inconveniencies may arise for the future if there be no stop to the insolence of some so there can be no more soveraign remedies to prevent them then the directions of our Dread Soveraign recommended to the Reverend Fathers of the Church I know Regium est bona facere mala audire The best actions of Princes are obnoxious to censure and calumnie Ignorant persons may derogate from them malicious persons may traduce them but none can propound a better Catholicon for the cure of this Epidemical Disease in this juncture of affaires then His Majesty hath done And I hope in this ensuing Treatise to make it appear to every unprejudiced Reader that His Majesties directions are highly prudential and agreeable to the Principles of sound Theology and the practice of the golden age of the Church If it be demanded why I have not confined my self to them alone in the treatise I Answer First because they being not prime verities evident of themselves it was requisite I should search out some antecedent truth from which these doe follow by good consequence Secondly because in this disquisition many Homogeneal things offer themselves which may be of some moment to the right understanding of the matter If I answer not the expectation of any in this my undertaking I shall satisfie my self with the intention of doing good and that I have according to my poor talent contributed the best I can to the justification of his Sacred Majesty and the Peace of my poor labouring Mother the Church of England to whose judgement I submit my self and this poor conception And all that I have to say I shall for orders sake reduce to these four Heads 1. Of Preaching in generall 2. To whom this Office of Preaching primarily belongs 3. How it was managed in the ancient Church 4. What Innovations have been introduced in these latter times CHAP. I. Of Preaching in general THe first thing I am to treat on is Preaching in generall And to doe that I am in Justice bound to give some account of the importance of the word Forasmuch as words are the garments of things and notionall words make us understand the natures of things As Epictetus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The beginning of knowledge is the consideration of words Now the word to Preach is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is