Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	bishop_n	church_n	succession_n	2,569	5	10.4652	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A48849	A sermon preached before the King at White-Hall The 24th. of Novemb. 1678. By William Lloyd, D.D. Dean of Bangor, and Chaplain in ordinary to His Majesty. Published by his Majesties Command.	Lloyd, William, 1627-1717.	1678 (1678)	Wing L2710; ESTC R217682	63,317	74

their Church is not concerned that they should understand it But St. Paul was as we read 1 Cor. xiv 14. If I pray saith he in an Unknown tongue my Spirit prays but my Understanding is unfruitful But I will pray with the Spirit and I will pray with the Understanding also Again verse 16. How shall he that stands in the room of the unlearned say Amen at thy giving of thanks seeing he Understands not what thou sayest Again verse 9. In the Church I had rather speak five words with my Understanding that by my voice I might teach others also than ten thousand words in an Unknown tongue These are plain Texts of Scripture which the Roman Church evidently transgressing does wisely no doubt to keep the Scriptures from the Reading or Understanding of her people For otherwise it could be no great comfort to them to find how directly she goes against as well the Precepts as the Practice of the Apostles I shave shewn that she doth it not only in One or a few Instances But in Many and those of the greatest note In all the Notes that the Apostles have given us of a true Christian Church Having given this account of her that calls her self the Catholic Church Having shewn how far she is removed from this Church in my Text I shall not pass any judgment upon her as she peremptorily doth upon others damning all that are not of her Communion Better leave that to God and they will find so at the last day Only being as she is I think we have all reason to beware of her to thank God that we are at this distance from her to bless her for her curses that have caused that distance to Pray for her and her Children that they may be purged from their Errors And till then to Watch and Pray for our selves and to put it at least in our Private Litany it shall alway be in mine from Popery good Lord deliver us Let us next consider our own Church and when I say our own I know you all understand me that I speak of the Church of England in the first place and proportionably of all other Reformed Churches And this I say If any Church which holds the same Doctrine which retains the same Government which partakes the same Sacraments and the same Worship of God as they did in the Apostles times be a true Apostolical Church We are bound to bless God who hath placed us where we are who hath made us Members of such a Church which hath all those Characters so entire and so visible in it First for Doctrine we profess to believe the Holy Scriptures which I have shewn have been antiently thought to contain the whole Doctrine of the Apostles We acknowledg for Canonical Scriptures neither less nor more than all those Books whose Authority is undoubted in the Church We profess the same Faith and no more than all Christians have professed in all Ages namely that which is briefly comprized in the Apostles Creed explained in the Creeds called the Nicen and that of Athanasius and proved in every Article or Point by the Holy Scriptures taken in that sense which is both most evident in the words and which hath been approved by the consent of the Universal Church Secondly for the Government of our Church as to the Constitution of it it is according to the Scripture rules and Primitive patterns And for the Exercise of it It goes as far as the looseness of the Age will bear If this hath weakened the Discipline of our Church we know the same looseness hath the same effect elsewhere even in those Churches of the Roman Communion And it had no less in the Church of Corinth in the Apostles times For the persons that are emploied in the Ministery They are such as are lawfully called to it they are Consecrated and Ordained for that purpose and that according to the Scripture and Canons of the Universal Church They are such as wholly attend on this very thing in the Apostles words And for our Church of England I may add without prejudice to any other we can derive the Succession of our Bishops from the Apostles as high as most Churches can even of them in the Roman Communion Thirdly for our Sacraments we use the same and no other than those which Christ expresly left to his Church I mean which he both Instituted and Commanded us to use Which can be said of no other than only Baptism and the Lords Supper Lastly For our Public Worship we have cause to bless God that has given us such a Liturgy in which according to all the measures we have of the Apostles we can see nothing but what as to the Substance is Theirs And our most malicious Enemies can tell us of no other ill they see in it but only this that the Words of it are Ours The Ministration of this Worship and of these Sacraments is in a Language understood by all those that are concerned in them They can all say Amen to their Prayers It is performed with such Rites as are not against the word of God but are agreeable to it being only for order and decency And we use them not as necessary in themselves but in obedience to the Authority which every Church hath over its own Members We do according to Saint Cyprians rule condemn or judg no other Church We separate from none any otherwise than by purging our selves from those things which we believe to be Corruptions and Errors to which end several of those Articles were framed to be subscribed by our own Clergy without imposing them on any other In all these respects our Church holds a Communion or hath done nothing to break it with any other National Church no not with those of the Roman Communion and is not only what they deny a true Member but what they are not a Sound member of that one Holy Catholic Church which was from the beginning and which will be to the end of the world The last thing is having proved we have a true Church to persuade you First to continue in it stedfastly And Secondly in the Belief and Practice of those things by which it appears to be a true Church And Lastly to profit by them and so to adorn our Holy Religion with a Holy and good Conversation First to persuade you to continue stedfastly in this Church it is enough if you are convinced that you cannot mend your selves by any Change Who would not desire to continue where he is well Who would not stick to that which is the best he can chuse Who would needlesly run the danger of any loss Especially of losing himself which is the greatest loss that is possible and yet That we have reason to expect from the just indignation of God if we shall reject the great