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
A59578	Separation convicted of profanation, oppression, persecution, [brace] rebellion, self-destruction, and antichristianism being a further evidence of the mischief of separation, as asserted by the most learned and pious Dr. Edw. Stillingfleet, Dean of St. Pauls / by Lewes Sharpe, rector of Moreton-Hampstead in Devon.	Sharpe, Lewes.	1681 (1681)	Wing S3006A; ESTC R37382	32,652	45

Covenant to maintain her in her Doctrine Worship Discipline and Government and to endeavour a Reformation according to her Pattern but good men they cannot understand for their hearts what this Church of England should be One would think that a National Church in England might as easily be defined as a National Church in Scotland All the odds is the National Church of England is not now so likely to serve their turns as the National Church of Scotland then so termed was Let us but pull down the Bishops and set up a General Assembly of Presbyters and 't will be as easie to understand what the National Church of England is as what the National Church of Scotland was Sect. 37. Let us reason the case a little with these men Why may not the English Nation become a National Church as well as the Jewish What is there wanting which the Jews had that is essential to the constitution of a National Church May not that be as much from God and have as great approbation and as many Blessings from him which is effected in an ordinary way as that which is effected in an extraordinary way What they were by immediate we are by mediate divine Constitution Were they converted from dead Idols to the living God so are we Were they united in the profession of the same true faith so are we Were they bound to the same rules and modes of Worship so are we What is it which makes a Church but Gods Call to a People and their Answer to his Call Now you shall finde that this is to extend to whole Nations of the Gentiles under the Gospel as well as it did to the whole Nation of the Jews under the Law Isai 55.5 Thou shalt call a Nation which thou knewest not and Nations which knew not thee shall run unto thee Zech. 2.11 Many Nations shall be joyned unto the Lord in that day and shall be my people So Mich. 4.2 Many Nations shall come and say Let us go up to the mountain of the Lord and he will teach us his ways and we will walk in his paths And Psal 72.11 12. All King shall fall down before him all Nations shall serve him all Nations shall call him blessed And Christ tells the Jews Mat. 21.43 That the kingdom of God that is the Church-state shall be taken from you and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof And 't is no more than what Moses foretold them Deut. 32.21 I will move them to jealousie with those that are not a people I will provoke them to anger by a foolish Nation Which the Apostle expresly applieth to the rejection of the Jews and calling of the Gentiles Rom. 10.19 which plainly evinceth that God would convert whole Nations as well as particular Congregations out of them and bring them to a Church-state such for substance as the Jews enjoyed And why may not an whole Nation incorporate into one Body Ecclesiastick as well as into one Body Politick There may be as universal agreement in divine matters as in civil the Members of a National Church may be as useful to one another in that relation as the Members of a Civil State and as governable in the one capacity as in the other So that they which forsake and gather themselves into distinct religious Societies from that Society of Christians here in England which are united by National Laws Political and Ecclesiastical in the profession of the same Faith and observation of the same rules of Worship and Discipline are faulty Separatists and set their Altar beside the Altar of the Lord their God Sect. 38. To make this yet a little plainer to you I shall apply it to a Separation made from our Parochial Churches which are of the same constitution with the National and differ onely as parts from the whole Though Parochial or Congregational Churches are no more of immediate divine Institution than the Jewish Congregation in their Synagogues were but a meer prudential distribution of the whole into parts for the more convenient and orderly Community in a publick confession of Faith and participation of publick Ordinances and no Christian considered simply as a Member of the Church Catholick is any more bound to the Communion of one part of the Church than of another but ought indifferently as he hath opportunity to joyn himself to any one sound part of it as well as to another yet our Parochial Churches being homageneal or similar parts of the National as well as Catholick Church essentially considered they who from Vicinity of Neighbourhood and Cohabitation have or ought to have joyned themselves to them as Christian Assemblies fitly accommodated for publick Worship common Order and Edification and best subserving the duties of a Church-relation if they separate from our Assemblies as acting in a way of Communion with the National Church and set up Assemblies of a different and disagreeing constitution They do not walk as God hath called them 1 Cor. 1.17 pitching every man by his own standard Numb 2.2 according to order 1 Cor. 14.40 Do not go forth by the footsteps of Gods flock nor feed where God maketh his flock to rest at noon Cant. 1.7 8. but set up an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord. Sect. 39. Moreover whatever the Original Constitution of our Parish-churches was or whatever their relation to the National Church is or suppose there were no National Church at all yet 't is evident that our Parish-churches consist of visible Saints such as profess Christianity and have been baptized into the Body of Christ they are the pillars and ground of Truth 1 Tim. 3.15 that is they do preach and proclaim Gods Will as revealed in the Gospel which is the Word of Truth as those Pillars which have the Edicts of Princes affixed to them proclaim their Will and Pleasure the true Sacraments which are the Symbols and Seals of Gods Covenant which is the Bond of all Amity and Commerce with God are administred in them they by mutual consent joyn themselves together as Pastor and People and assemble themselves together to partake of the Ordinances of Christ and therefore they are most certainly true Churches and they which live in an orderly Communion with them keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace abide where they were called with God keep their ranks and places where right Reason and Religion hath fixed them and maintain publick Charity and Order and consequently they which have been once joyn'd to them as all the Separatists in England have been or ought to be for such an Existence as Parish-churches now have they for the main had long before the oldest Separatist in England was born to separate from them they carry it like Mutineers in an Armie violate all the bonds of Love Peace and Order and by setting up distinct and separate Societies for Worship and Discpline from them rebel against God and against us Sect. 40. I. Such

Rules of Worship and Discipline are an interest too considerable to be neglected for any bodies sake All is not Gold that glisters and yet we may buy Gold too dear 'T is possible the Separatists may not be such a good company of Christians as they themselves report but suppose them to be much better than indeed they are they which shall sell the established Government of the Church and its fixed modes of Worship to regain them to it shall pay much too dear for it have a very bad bargain of it and shall be sure to put all the gain in their eyes For they are a People for the most part of such volatile spirits that if you have no binding Impositions to fix them you shall not be able to keep their company when you have it and so in the issue the means used to make their company most sure will bring it to the greatest uncertainty that can be Take away all Order and I am sure there can be nothing but Confusion Or if it be in every mans power to be the Master of Order 't is great odds but the most will be the Masters of Misrule Sect. 33. 'T is therefore certainly better to keep the Church-doors close shut than to set them wide open to those Separatists who would turn the doors out at windows I mean invert the whole order of things and render Religion in its Ministrations like some late itinerant Preachers of it an ambulatory thing as various as the complexions of the Celebrators and as changeable as the Moon which will infallibly harden its Enemies against it and expose it to their contempt and scorn Hath any Nation changed their Gods Jer. 2.11 i. e. all Nations account Innovations in matters of Religion a Reproach to them because mens lightness and inconstancy is an Argument that they have very weak heads or very bad hearts either that they are greatly uncertain or exceedingly careless whether they please God or not by what they do And truly I take it to be as contrary to the revealed Will of God to abolish a good custome 1 Cor. 11.16 as to introduce a bad one And 't is very seldom that the benefit of an alteration doth compensate the trouble of it And we cannot but observe that men given to change are seldom or never satisfied but the gratifying of them in one thing encourageth them to challenge it as their due in others Change is so sweet to them that like the Horsleaches daughters they are still crying Give give And I am sure we may be better employed than to be meddling with those men who are given to change In a word when men who have withdrawn and separated themselves from us into distinct Societies are obstinate and refuse to be reformed we must be so far from studying a compliance with them that we must not give place to them by subjection no not for an hour Gal. 2.5 but must mark and avoid them as the enemies of Christ Rom. 15.16 and the words of Limitation in my Text are the reason of it for they that build an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord rebel against God and against us Sect. 34. The Altar is called in the Hebrew Misbeach a Sacrificatory or a place for the Sacrifices Gen. 22.19 Lev. 1.11 And such a most holy place was it both in the Tabernacle and the Temple that it sanctified what they offered on it Exod. 29.37 Mat. 23.19 Now Sacrifices were Rites of address to God and used as Mediums of Praise and Prayer 1 Sam. 13.12 Ezra 6.10 Psal 116.13 And accordingly you shall finde that where Abraham Isaac and Jacob built Altars they called on the Name of the Lord Gen. 12.7 comp with 13.4 Gen. 26.25 33.20 35.1 i. e. they praised God and prayed to him So that an Altar was a place for solemn religious Worship And then by building an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord must needs be designed as the Children of Israel thought the erecting an holy place for solemn religious Worship contradistinct to that of the Lords own appointment where the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh had conspired to meet in religious Assemblies to worship God in a peculiar separate way under distinct Officers and Orders from themselves who were to inhabit the Land of Canaan And 't is very plain they uncharitably suspected an intent of some kind of Idolatry and so took it for a designe of an aggravated Separation 'T is true they had no such bad designe as was supposed yet lot the fact be such as it was supposed to be and then 't is granted on all hands that by so doing they rebelled against God and his Church Sect. 35. This building of an Altar beside the Altar of the Lord hath been applied by all sorts of men to Schismatical Separations from the Christian Church that is when any sort of Christians do voluntarily and causelesly or rashly forsake those Christian Societies with which they once had or ought to have Communion and gather themselves into separate religious Societies live combined in a submission to distinct Laws of Government and Rules of Worship from those formerly observed or were obliged unto renouncing refusing or not owning publick religious Communion with those from whom they separate they are said to erect Altar against Altar to gather Churches out of Churches and to set up Churches against Churches Sect. 36. Now although this be but too ordinarily practised among us here in England yet 't is such a very bad thing that many of those among us who are most notoriously guilty of it vehemently disclaim and disown it That there are divers Societies of Christians distinguished from one another by the observation of separate ways of Church-government and Orders of Worship is too evident to be denied but who are the faulty Separatists is made by some matter of Question and Doubt 'T is but to put Cases and the Question will be answered and the Doubt if there be any resolved When the Reubenites c. built an Altar if they had withal actually forsaken the religious Communion of the Children of Israel in the Tabernacle and held separate religious Meetings at their New-erected Altar and resolved not to be united by the same common tyes of Government and Orders of Worship with them who had been the Separatists questionless the Reubenites Gadites and half Tribe of Manasseh because they onely would have departed from the Unity of the National Church to which they did belong as Members and to whose Laws of Government and Orders of Worship they owed subjection and obedience So here they who have departed from the Unity of the National Church of England are the Separatists The National Church that is a Scare crow yea less a Chimaera dancing in a vacuum and so some men endeavour to bring the old Church of England to a new nothing They could swear at least the chiefest of them what the Church of Scotland was and