Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	act_n	church_n	king_n	3,418	5	3.7630	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23818	The reform'd samaritan, or, The worship of God by the measures of spirit and truth preached for a visitation-sermon at the convention of the clergy, by the reverend Arch-Deacon of Coventry, in Coventry, April the sixth, 1676 : to which is annexed, a review of a short discourse printed in 1649, about the necessity and expediency of worshipping God by set forms / by John Allington ...	Allington, John, d. 1682.	1678 (1678)	Wing A1213; ESTC R2327	57,253	87

both to your trouble and my own but I must needs crave leave that you would thus far be an advocate both for me and all in my condition as to procure a belief that such who are constant to their Faith and Principles according to the established and old way of England may be held if weak yet conscientious Christians for it is none of the least pressures of the Cross upon us that we of all men are thought to have no foundation whereas we in our judgements believe verily if what we hold and suffer for be not that very Religion which the Divines of England unanimously subscribed and professed to ratifie there is not any in England that is above seven years old and to innovate in Religion hath I am sure by the Sages of this present Parliament been so severely looked upon that I should be very loth to be such a capital offender All that my soul longeth after is but to obtain the same liberty which all different parties but such as hold to their rule and Conformity daily have a free exercise of my Conscience in that way of Worship in which both Church and State visibly held and profess'd communion till very lately a way of worship in the days of Queen Mary justified against the Papist a way of worship in the days of Queen Elizabeth so highly protested against the Puritan that Stow in his Chronicle hath recorded at Bury Assizes 1538. Hacket and Coppinger were hanged for spreading Books seditiously penn'd by one Robert Brown against the Common-prayer-book Now reverend Sir till some better judgement shall unfold the mystery it must be my wonder that that very Form which this very Parliament pass'd under the notion of Divine Service should on a sudden become such an abomination that any way of Worship but it is permitted any body of Professors conscientious but such as use this all other Ways being held if not religious yet tolerable This I can assure you is no mean scandal and riddle to such as are very intelligent and very conscientious Christians Indeed a Declaration pass'd and by the House of Commons was ordered not onely to be printed but by special order to be published by the care of Knights and Burgesses against all such persons as should take upon them to preach of expound not being ordained here or in some Reformed Church But whereas in October last a Petition against this Declaration was exhibited and with thanks received by both Houses whereas notwithstanding that Declaration such as have no act of Ministerial Ordination pass'd upon them do daily uncheck'd preach and expound in Churches and publick places I humbly desire you so to qualifie my conscientious constancy to the most Christian form of the Church of England that to persevere in it be no more held contumacy against the Ordinance than was that Petition against the Declaration so shall I be bound to give you more thanks than were the Houses to give them In a word I beseech you good Sir by that conscientious subscription in which we both visibly agreed by that Canonical obedience which we both deliberately sware by that Doctrine which at our Inductions in the face of our Congregations and the presence of Almighty God we did profess to ratifie by that solemn Protestation which since this Parliament began we both took by these and by all those duties in which I suppose without scruple we did both within seven years last past practise and communicate Be pleased to look with some charitable respect upon one who now onely is what generally all the Divines of England very lately professed at least pretended for to be one I am who fear to change left as a defloured Virgin that having lost the chaste Vail of her strict modesty then lieth open to all proffers I should finde my self tractable to all changes and how various they may yet prove God knows Blessed be God for Religion whether in Doctrine Discipline Government or Form of Worship I am very well might I enjoy my peace within this pale I should bless God and the contrivers of it or might there be a Reformation and not abolition I should yet hope to live in a Ministerial way But however let me live I beseech you in your esteem either as a conscientious Brother or as your Convert Arguments may pierce deeper than Afflictions the one blessed be God I have born with a tolerable patience and the other I am ready to receive with a proportionable meekness Sir the total of my desire and endeavour is that either as a Divine you would satisfie my Scruples or as a Christian satisfie my friend and for either of these I shall subscibe my self December 22 1647. Your thankful Brother in the Lord John Allington THE ANSWER OF Mr. STEPHEN MARSHAL Of FINCHFIELD A Grandee in the late Assembly which could not be importun'd till after the printing of the Letter Responsa prudentum had of old an Equipage even with Law it self and since there hath been no recourse to Oracles no Vrim nor Thummin to give certain Answers the greatest Appeal left to doubting Man in point of difficulty or scruple it is to consult the Prudent Now that Mr. Marshal thought himself and was also thought to be an Oracle in his time I shall onely set down such Answers as except an Oracle who would dare to give For when he was consulted about that sad War which the Land cannot yet forget The Oracle thus The Cause is a right cause the Cause of God In the same year è Tripode in a Sermon preached to the two Houses Earl of Essex Mayor and Aldermen All Christendom except the Malignants in England do now see that the Question in England is Whether Christ or Antichrist shall be Lord and King And then because Oracles are in point of War mainly consulted about the success The Oracle thus Believe this Cause must prosper though we were all dead our Armies overthrown and even our Parliament dissolved the Cause must prevail In his Sermon upon Mich. 7. 1 2. And as we may conceive he would not thus have spoken but that he believed himself possessed inspir'd and fitted to be an Oracle even so that he was taken so to be I shall now call to witness his eminent Employments Who was held fit to be an Oracle to the Army but Mr. Stephen Marshall who so fit to give Answers in Scotland as Mr. Marshall who to satisfie his conscientious Majesty as Mr. Marshall And when the City was in great Fears and Straights when they wanted an Oracle indeed through whom spake the Army but by Mr. Marshall He by Letters answered them The Army had nothing but good thoughts toward the City Upon the Answers received by this Oracle 50000 l. was lent the City-Gates set open and the Tower delivered yea I finde it written As Moneys are decried and inhaunsed by the King's Authority so is every mans Religion cried up or down by

not in the Conviction any charge for flying to or being in any forbidden Quarters Lastly I was so far from deserting my Cure that I kept at my proper cost though sequestred a Curate all my absence one who kept my people freer from distractions and aversions from the ways of the Church of England than since they have been But haec obiter that which my conviction declares me to suffer for it is a pretence of superstition exprest by bowing to the East to the Altar and at the Name of Jesus 2. For not laying aside and relinquishing the Liturgy Now I beseech you with patience peruse this my Defence in which I shall endeavour to clear first my acts of commission from being superstitious And then 2 give my reasons why I take it to be a sin of omission to renounce the Liturgy First bowing to the East and to the Altar are not onely false accusations but false in such a degree that without my confession are impossible to be proved for being the intention onely can specificate the term it is not in the power of any man living to say to what I bow or to what I kneel for I am confident your self bends your Knees toward many a thing to which you abhor to do it Bow at his Foot-stool that is at the Ark and Mercy-seat for there he hath made a promise of his presence The words say not Bow to the Ark but to God at the Ark. Thus Mr. Perkins and thus and no otherwise did your Christian-brother bow either toward the East or toward the holy Table Now as the Jews in Mr. Perkins charitable Divinity did not bow to the Ark but to God at the Ark even so when occasionally your Christian brother bowed at the holy Table it was not to the Table or to the Altar but to his God he made his Adoration and that for the same reason which Mr. Perkins useth for there he hath made a promise of his presence There hath he enabled us vi promissi to say This is my Body this is my Blood Now that it is an act of superstition to worship God by bowing of the Body is a scruple in which I cannot be satisfied For as Mr. Perkins so think I The Worship of the Body is called Adoration which stands in bowing of the Knee bending or prostrating of the Body the lifting up of the Hands of Eyes A duty which the same reverend Author proveth to be as himself speaketh altogether necessary and that for three irrefragable reasons 1. Because Love must not be conceived in the minde onely but also testified in the actions of the body 2. Christ redeemed both and therefore must be glorified with both And lastly Christ being an head to the whole man for this cause not onely Soul but Body also must stand in subjection to Christ Many others might be added but it seems to me vain to adde a Beam unto the Sun Now if to worship by bowing of the Knee prostrating the Body and lifting up of Hands or Eyes be a duty lawful yea altogether necessary no matter which way soever it be done still it is as Mr. Perkins fully an act not of Superstition but Adoration For as it was no superstition in the Jew to worship God by bowing before the Ark or Westward so superstition it is not to worship God by bowing before his holy Table that is in the phrase of antiquity Eastward And here for their sakes who are weak but willing to be wise I shall make a not impertinent digression to shew how it is a pure popular errour to say that mere position can make an Altar or that ranging a Table at the East-end turns it to an Altar Scripture will furnish us with Altars in open Fields nigh no Wall The old Altar repaired by Elijah was so far from leaning to a Wall that it was circumvironed with Water surrounded with a Ditch or Trench In the Temple of Solomon an Altar may be found standing as the contentious would have it in medio in the middle And sure I am the most considerable Altar that the world ever saw the Cross upon which was crucified the pretious Substance of all Types it had no such Dimensions as unhappy Christians have wrangled about For it stood without the Gate yea a Cross it stood and yet was a most real Altar So that it is not Posture but the Oblation not the Scituation but the Sacrifice which makes an Altar I read the very Altar on which the supreme Lord of Superstitions the Pope in person sayeth Mass it stands in medio in the Body of the Quire And doubtless might popish Priests have liberty to say Mass they would not stand upon a position North or South So that Altar-wise hath more of scare than any real fear in it As for bowing to the East or to the Altar I am able to produce a Letter writ by me five or six years ago ex Diametro against it and am still ready to ratifie that Doctrine The second act of Superstition it is bowing at the Name of Jesus and to clear that I shall thus argue No act directly tending and intended for the advance of the glory of Jesus can be superstitious but to bow at the Name of Jesus in the sence of the Church of England is an act both tending and intended for the advance of his glory and therefore cannot be superstitious For the proof of the minor Proposition I appeal to the 18 Canon of the Church of England where the end and intention of that gesture is clearly thus When in time of Divine Service the Lord Jesus shall be mentioned due and lowly Reverence shall be done by all persons present as it hath been accustomed testifying by these outward Ceremonies and gestures observe what their inward humility Christian resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord Jesus Christ the true and eternal Son of God is the onely Saviour of the world Now upon this ground I thus argue For as much as both Words and Gestures have their individuation and specification meerly by use Law or Custome what this gesture of bowing at the Name of Jesus is to signifie and import in the Church of England this the Representative part thereof having clearely manifested we are to take it in that sence and in that signification in which and for which it cometh from them proposed and commended to us For as in Languages we receive and use words in and according to that power and meaning which the first Authors and contrivers delivered them unto posterity even so that I might ever avoid the being contentious look what spiritual and internal duties my Mother the Church of England professed to express and signifie by such and such exterior gestures such I conceived they did import and in such sence and signification I did use and communicate them unto others Whereas then as the Canon clearly the due and lowly Reverence exacted at the Name of

Jesus is onely to testifie our inward humility Christian resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord Jesus Christ is the true and eternal Son of God This being the known and declared end and meaning of this Gesture bowing at the Name of Jesus can no more in my weak apprehension be accounted Superstition than is inward humility Christian resolution or the due acknowledgement of the Lord Jesus Christ to be the true and eternal Son of God for being Actus exterior interior eandem constituunt virtutem being the outward expression and the inward meaning do make but one compleat act if the inward be vertuous the outward cannot be vicious if the inward be religious the outward cannot be superstitious So that since bowing at the Name of Jesus is by the Church and use of England determined to signifie an expression of inward humility Christian resolution and a due acknowledgment of the Deity of the Son of God I cannot yet imagine how to him who so understandeth and so useth it bowing at the Name of Jesus can be counted superstitious Nor doth onely the Canon of the Church of England but even the Canon of holy Scripture warrant me sufficiently that superstitious it cannot be for Dato sed non concesso suppose it no duty of that known Text yet there is congruity enough to avoid the Superstition of it for if by those Knees the Apostle meaneth the spiritual and inward Knees of the Heart then as he without thought of Superstition expressed that inward duty by bodily incurvation why may not I or any other by his example express my inward profession of the Deity as he by a corporal expression by bowing at his Name But my intention is not to write a Volume or indeed to say ought more than may conclude my designe mentioned to prove that I have not been nor yet am scrupulous without cause nor a sufferer without reason Now my first scruple is whether a Minister may with a good Conscience renounce or leave off any Act Rite or Gesture under the brand and notion of Superstitious which he believes is not so I dare not do it for these Reasons 1. I should bely mine own Soul in calling good evil and evil good 2. I should confirm a scandal laid upon many godly Orthodox Divines that they in thus doing have been superstitious 3. I should do an irreparable violation to those holy Gestures which I do verily believe are advancers of God's glory 4. I dare not omit that as superstitious which I believe not to be so for fear in so doing to this undetermined notion I might adde such Latitude that under the colour of Superstition even Religion it self may be violated In a word for my particular whether I look upon Adoration in abstracto as the meer expression of that subjection and distance which Dust and Ashes oweth to his Maker or whether I look upon it in concreto as joyn'd with some other duty as saying our Prayers receiving the Sacrament or profession of our Saviour's Deity in neither respect it seemeth to me more guilty of Superstition or troubling the Waters than was the Lamb in the Fable when the Wolf charged him So that if by some greater Light or Latitude of understanding your clearer judgement shall discern otherwise I shall with all respect and thanks yield up my Soul to further illumination which till it shall please God to give me I dare not in cool blood call an honest woman Whore or what I conceive religious superstitious for more than yet I am or hope for to be worth And this may suffice for the first scruple viz. That my judgement concluding otherwise I dare not acknowledge or relinquish Adoration under the notion of superstitious innovation The second thing I have to do is to give my reasons wherefore I conceived it a sin of omission to lay aside much more to renounce the Liturgy And that I may do it methodically First I shall give my Reasons why I dare not countenance the worshipping of God without a Form Secondly why I dare not in specie omit this Form First I dare not countenance the worshipping of God without a Form for being the Scripture chargeth not onely to hold the Faith but to hold fast the very form of sound words I conceive a set Form of Prayer a necessary expedient to this end for being experience both ancient and modern hath taught us this sad truth that Errours Heresies and Innovations in Doctrine are instilled and infused by the conceived Prayers of such who are either Authors or Abettors of such Opinions therefore and especially in these times I dare not but endeavour a set Form A set Form seeming now as necessary as an Antidote in time of pestilence Secondly to worship without a prepared and set Form it seems to me to serve the living God with less care than Pagans did their Idols For witness Plato a Law there was whatever Prayers or Hymns the Poets composed to the gods they should first shew them their Priests And Alexander ab Alexandro testifieth the Gentiles read their Prayers out of a Book before their Sacrifice and that for this reason Ne quid preposterè dicatur c. or for fear some thing rashly or preposterously might pass the Lips as if stolen from that of Solomon Be not rash with thy mouth and let not thine heart be hasty An Argument to me that even an Heart may be over-hasty and therefore my weakness desires a set Form Thirdly The serving and worshipping God by a set Form seems to be approved by God in all ages before the Law under the Law under the Gospel Before the Law we read thus Then began men to call upon the Name of the Lord Eo tempore ritus certos colendi Deum institutos fuisse quos observarent filii Dei From that time forward say Expositors certain Rites or set Forms were taken up for the publick worship of God yea forsitan propter Idolatriam insurgentem perchance for the prevention of incroaching of Idolatry saith a learned Neoterick therefore was Enoch sedulous to prescribe and deliver a set Form But whether Enoch were or no sure we are God Almighty under the Law to prevent Idolatry had his set Rites and in particular to the point in hand a prescribed and set Form of Prayer On this wise shall ye bless the children of Israel saying as it followeth The Lord bless thee and keep thee c. Under the Gospel both St. John the fore-runner and our blessed Lord and Master the substance both we know taught to pray and it is strange teaching without a Form as the corner and first Stone in the building the Lord left us a Prayer and this Prayer proved the basis and fundamental of all future Liturgies This through the devotion and piety of the Church increased and grew into a Form and in this I suppose M. Beza may be my advocate who tells me and