Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	church_n	communion_n	schism_n	2,635	5	10.6078	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A58672	A vvord to Dr. VVomocke. Or, A short reply to his pretended resolution of Mr. Croftons position concerning ministers use of an imposed liturgie. To which is annexed, a blow at Jerubbaal redivivus: discovering his weakness and errours in defence of his groundless secession from solemn publick worship ministred by the English liturgie. By R.S. the publisher of reformation not separation.	R. S.	1663 (1663)	Wing S140A; ESTC R219070	25,745	31

and joynt communion but addeth no new matter onely referreth to Jerubbaal This then I turn back to Jerubbaal justified The eleventh Paragraph noteth that Mr. Crofton will deny that Pag. 8. there are many or indeed any members of the Church catholick who never had opportunity of associating themselves with or of joynt communion in the solemn worship of God in a particular Church and answereth the same with needless distinctions and manifest non-sence As 1. by universal is meant the catholick militant Church comprehending visible and invisible yet note his Jerubbaal did determine it to be visible onely pa. 19. and the catholick Church must be the subject of solemn publick Worship and Gods Ordinances capable of association and joynt communion in them of these the invisible part of the Church are not capable 2. That a man may be a member of the invisible without opportunity of joynt communion in outward Ordinances I do not onely imply but I speak out but what is this to our purpose Nor will I deny a professor may be a believer but that maketh him not a member of the Church visible Profession is the ground of visible Church-membership but it is not the formalis ratio thereof no that is Baptism an act of personal association and joynt communion which must needs have its opportunity in all that enjoy it I say as his greater Sophies ignorantly quoted A professor is visible a believer invisible the believer may be a professor of the same faith and not partake in the same ordinances Yet it will not hence follow there are any or many members of the Church visible who never had an opportunity of joynt communion in solemn publick worship for all such must be incorporated by Baptism without which the best professors and true believers must be foro Ecclesiae judged without the Church The twelfth Paragraph concerning Conventicles tells us A society of persons ten twenty thirty or forty amongst whom is a Minister celebrating true Divine Worship according to the will of Christ by the assistance of his Spirit and in his Name not causelesly and unjustly separating from a true Church is no Conventicle or Schismatical Assembly Who ever said such an Assembly was a Conventicle Jerubbaal justified told you of twenty thirty or forty private members assembled Pag. 22. distinct from and opposite to a Church an holy Convocation And I say again if the Congregations in England be true Churches and secession from them as it yet seemeth to be unwarrantable and groundless though twenty thirty or forty with a Minister constitute themselves a counter-Church opposite to these Assemblies and therein administer Church-ordinances I see not how to acquit them from the repute and reality of a Conventicle and Schismatical Assembly Nor will Christ's promise of his presence be any prop to their Fabrick who are not met in his Name for God is a God of Order We are at length arrived to his five Quaeries before mentioned Pag. 9. by himself stated and so best resolved The first is this What is that which may warrant and acquit from Quaer 1. Schism a persons non-non-communion with the Church of England in the worship alledged to be ministred by her Liturgie or Common-Prayer I must here note that though he come not close to the Question in dispute yet he cometh somewhat nearer and can now mention the subject Worship distinct from his adjunct the Liturgie by which it is ministred so that he hath learned to speak in an entire Proposition worship ministred by the Liturgie I hope he hath so clear reason as to discern the subject Worship the Predicate ministred by the Liturgie are the parts of this Proposition and the Worship ministred not the Liturgical ministration is the object of his Communion or non-Communion controverted under this Quaerie which he resolveth in certain Propositions whereof the first is Communion with this part of the Church is a Duty c. This is square to Mr. Croftons assertion onely I would advise him to revise 1 Proposit the wording of it for it soundeth non-sence in mine ears He noteth an Objection Reading the Word is a publick Ordinance Pag. 10. of God and part of publick Worship He answereth True who ever denied the thing is appointed but not the measure or quantum be enjoyeth it in Textual occasional Reading in the Sermon preached But good Sir is not solemn Reading distinct from and opposite to textual and occasional Reading a part of solemn Worship Cast your eye on Nehem. 8. 3. Luke 4. 16. Acts 13. 15 27. 15. 21. Consult the practise of the Jews and primitive Christians the determinations of Fathers ancient and modern Divines Systems and Common-places in Divinity especially Expositions on the fourth Commandment tell me which of them assert not solemn Reading distinct from Preaching and its accidents to be a distinct part of solemn publick worship and which of them will conclude textual and occasional Reading to be the performance of it Is not your fancy in this manifestly ridiculous The second Proposition resolving this Quaerie is a most strange 2 Proposit ranting uncharitable if I may not say impious Notion viz. The worship administred or administrable by the English Liturgie or publick set-Form considered as such and in a complex state appeareth as yet to be none of that Worship of which God is the Author the Gospel the Rule the practice Apostolick the pattern but Cultus adulterinus meer adulterate worship a piece of Superstition arbitrary Devotion Scripture-bitten will-worship supererogatory service Lawstruck Tradition and Ordinance of Man Whither will the man run This proved is enough to warrant yea to necessitate secession from the English Church but we must believe it on the Magisterial confident say-so of this Grave Dictator for no proof is so much as offered But doth the man know what he saith or whereof he doth affirm that he thus ranteth not against the Liturgie that may be born but against the worship in abstracto distinct from the Liturgie is to me very strange The Worship administred or administrable by the Liturgie is cultus adulterinus no worship of God is his Position the most rigid Separatists will not say it If this be so well might Doctor Owen acquit Independency from Schism by pleading the Church lost its being under Popery gathering of Churches must needs be a duty yet no gathered Church hath any worship of God or any other the cultus adulterinus c. for they have no other worship then what is administrable by the English Liturgie Good Sir what is the worship administred or administrable by the English Liturgie Is it not solemn reading the Scriptures invocation of God Baptism and the Lords Supper Pray you Sir is not God the Author Gospel the Rule and practice Apostolick the Pattern of these If these be not the worship administred and administrable by the Liturgie give us the name of it that we may enquire its nature

that then suffered minister their last publick and dying devotions by the Liturgie Did not the Congregations who then necessarily served God in corners worship by the Liturgie Did not they wish and wait for the return of the Liturgie and rejoyce in its revival by Elizabeth Came not Life and Liturgie in competition when the Articles objected against and on which Thomas Watts Thomas Osmond Derrick Carver John Launder Mr. Rough the Minister and Cuthbert Sympson Deacon of the congregation in Bowe Church-yard were condemned was that they used attended loved laboured to restore the English Service or Liturgie Concluded not good Mr. Bradford They fell under Gods curse for calling good evil and evil good who condemned the English Service of Heresie How far short is he who concludeth and confidently affirmeth the worship administred or administrable by the Liturgie is not Gods worship but cultus adulterinus God is not worshipped by the Liturgie Sir turn over the Book of Martyrs you may run and read these demonstrations of the matter of fact it cannot be denied Yet I tell the Zealots for the Liturgie they inferr more upon this practice then these premisses will allow for whilst I am forced to produce them against this most rigid Separatist to prove God worshipped by the Liturgie I do deny their practice to be any way cogent to confine all or any ministration of Gods worship to this mode and Liturgie Your third Answer of the disparity between their case and ours hath been fully answered by Mr. Crofton and me who hath told you the difference is gradual not real the worship of God was Reformat not Separ p. 44 45. is and must be always one and the same though the Ministerial mode do and ought to vary Your fourth Answer ad hominem is indeed most judicious I affirm Ministers may not lawfully minister by the Liturgie therefore all that did or do hereby minister do minister by a sinfull and unlawfull Form of Worship a formal positive evil I did I do so affirm what then I did not affirm The Worship administred or administrable by this finfull mode was not Gods Worship or cultus adulterinus or that God was not worshipped by the Liturgie But I affirm the contrary I did also affirm this evil formal positive evil to be a personal evil consistent with whilest conversant about Gods true worship and therefore no ground of separation I affirmed salvability under this evil positive evil And herein your Censure is a manifest breach of Charity you conclude the Martyrs had not Gods worship but adulterate false worship which is inconsistent with salvation for otherwise the very Devils may dance in hope of Heaven for they believe and tremble yea and profess true Doctrine I charge a defect in circumstantials you in the subject and substance I reprove a sin of weakness consistent with salvation you the heighth of wickedness adulterate worship which concludeth its subjects living and dying as you cannot deny the Martyrs to have done if your Notion be true under it in utter impossibility of salvation Have you not cause to sing jam sumus ergo pares Your fifth Answer is The Martyrs devotion was not confined to the Liturgie Nor is theirs who use it and administer by it or ours who attend the same Your third Proposition resolving this first Query concerning Pag. 21. the expulsion of the Liturgie I pass as not concerned in it consenting to your Conclusion though grieved to see you give so much advantage to Liturgical Zealots as by your weakness and wildness of Argumentation you have done I say it ought not to be but being will not warrant a separation The Objections you take from me I will observe your Answers to The first is Mr. Crofton's sence of scandal Your Answer doth witness you either did not read or did not regard and consider Mr. Croftons Plea to the Barr of Scandal you would else have seen his care of and compassion to the weak his concession of scandal in all acts of liberty sui juris and his neglect of scandal onely when it doth obviate his duty But you insult here as every where on manifest mistake wonder at the charge whilest you will Your fifth Proposition is your Conclusion built on the forenoted horrible and erroneous premises and must be consonant Pa. 26 27. thereunto I will to it say no more but I deny the Conclusion Your second Query as a species of the first is of the same nature Quaer 2. and in it included discussed and resolved yet you do particularly state it thus What is that which may warrant and acquit from Schism a persons non-non-communion with the Church of England in the Sacrament of the Lords Supper under the present mode manner and method of administration In this Query I cannot but note that the Lords Supper as in the former worship abstracted from the Ministerial mode is proposed as the Object of non-communion Your Answer to this Query is general and granted you in Thesi That if one cannot communicate in the Lords Supper without sin he is warranted in his non-communion But your Hypothesis and Assumption is yet denied Nor can your horrid breach of Charity pass without observation That the mode manner and method of administration maketh the Lords Supper poyson whereby you must conclude that all who have all who do communicate in this Ordinance thus ministred have received poyson Yet you give us no proof for this Martyr-blaspheming Saint-damning Notion But you pretend to answer some of mine Objections 1. What superstitions and corruptions attend the Ministration of the Lords Supper in which he must personally act so as to become guilty of 1 Object pag. 98. the same You answer Two the Service and the Gesture Common-prayer and kneeling But Sir you have not proved the communicants personal acting in Common-prayer nor an impossibility of receiving the Lords Supper without this gesture Suppose these warrantable reasons your secession cannot be warranted by them until you have essayed all means for publick communion without them in which I am sure you might have found a possibility of enjoying this with at least connivance as to those Ceremonies which call for personal action Your Plea that the gesture of kneeling is imposed is meerly frivolous King James his Proclamation was no Law the Statute of 25 Hen. 8. extendeth not to Successors but if it do his now Majesties Declaration concerning Ecclesiastical affairs hath discharged the Canon challenging this Authority the Common-Prayer Book doth imply and suppose not impose this gesture your reason is as weak in matters of Law as of Divinity And Sir personal acting in the Service and Ministration being as it may be avoided it will be an hard dispute whether the Gesture imposed will constitute a sufficient Barr to so great Priviledge and so certain Duty But that it maketh the Lords Supper poyson express poyson is out of dispute to men of modesty and charity who