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	doctrine_n	homily_n	2,580	5	12.0475	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A51171	A short answer to several questions proposed to a gentleman of quality by a great minister of state not unfit for these times of our continuing divisions, though written when a general indulgence of all opinions was endeavoured to be obtained : shewing the authors judgement concerning the publick exercise of several religions and forms of worship, either upon pious or prudential grounds, under one and the same government : as they may relate both to discipline and doctrine, ceremonials or essentials in worship.	Monson, John, Sir, 1600-1683.	1678 (1678)	Wing M2463; ESTC R8157	17,665	24

of the Articles and the eminent men of our Church in succession have ever declared their Judgments of them concerning Election Justification Renovation Faith good Works Final Perseverance and Apostacy in all their Writings and Sermons upon those Subjects to be otherways some few excepted and those of late years and do all agree in a Harmony of Doctrine with most of the reformed Churchs abroad in those Tenents As Bishop Cranmer Ridley Parker Bale Jewel Bilson Andrews Buckeridge Abbot Babington Lake Sandes Hall Morton Davenet King Carleton Williams Morly Person Sanderson Gauden Reynolds Ward Arch-Bishop Vsher and all the Irish Clergy and other the most eminent men amongst us as Hooker Feild Downham Dun Jackson Preston Perkins Featly Thorndike Pemble Meade Hales and infinite others in their Treatises upon those Subjects though some of them differ about the Object of Election so as the other Novelists whose Authors have now a great possession of our Pulpits by the favour of those that design the introducing of their Errors do now by scandalous Imputations of dangerous Doctrines to others magisterially condemn our Orthodox Tenents and by it though they press outward Conformity and Communion I believe are the great disturbers of the Peace of our Church and causes of keeping many of our Anti-Ceremonial Separatists from joyning with us Errors in Doctrine affrighting them more than other circumstantial things and makes them look upon us as an Apostatizing Church And therefore I could wish some care were taken to conform them to the Doctrine of the Articles of our Church as well as the others to her Discipline at least to silence their Pens and Preaching upon those Subjects according to former Declarations of the late King of blessed Memory as they are more dangerous as is conceived to undermine our Church in her Purity of Doctrine than the Papists themselves in that they have the countenance of Authority and insinuate their opinions by nearer approaches to the Truth and less dangerous consequences to the civil Power than the other though some of them have endeavoured seemingly to Preach though not force us out of our Proprieties in relation to the Kings Power and Right in them and might do mischief did not the goodness both of our Soveraign and Laws secure our interest and provide against the spreading of such Errors as well as those of the Papists and Sectaries if duly executed In order to which for my own judgment I believe that if the Laws were fewer and less penal they would prove more effectual in that great sufferings move commiseration and remisness in those that should instrumentally execute them especially where the severity reaches to the undoing of Families as in Cases of Recusancy for a negative disobedience in not coming to Church when milder punishments would be more Christian and perhaps more succesful in order to their compliance But for the restrictive part of Laws that secure our peace and Church hinder factious seditious Meetings Conventicles or any thing that may countenance or spread any erroneous opinions especially those of the Papists I think they cannot be too severe nor too quick in finding out ways to discriminate such of them as are bosom and concealed enemies to our Religion and Laws still amongst us yet I wish it not so much for their punishments as our own security the excluding them upon such a discovery from all places of Trust or Power that have any influence upon our Government but not from the charge of those that are in themselves poenal And for that end I would humbly propose some Law to be made to the effect following 1. That all persons suspected of Recusancy or Separation from our Church being presented for such at any Quarter-Sessions where they live or are thought fit by the Sessions originally without presentment to be summoned thither shall upon notice appear at the next Sessions after there held and there acquit themselves both by proof upon Oath of having received the Sacrament in their several Parish-Churches as the Law requires and take the Oaths of Allegiance and Supremacy then in open Sessions or have a Conviction of Recusancy Recorded against them as to the ends before mentioned but not to the forfeiture of their Estates unless otherways proceeded against upon other poenal Laws that shall continue in force which will both unmask and disarm them in a great measure of power to hurt us and be a speedy and merciful way for their discrimination 2. That all Benefic'd Parsons and Lecturers should once in every Three Months be obliged to Read the Articles of our Church in their Desks or Pulpits before or after Divine Service in the audience of the Congregation and there make their solemn protestation before God of their consent and submission to them and our Homilies and Common Prayer as containing the Doctrine and Devotions of the Church of England and that in their most literal and genuine sense which would much remove Jealousies silence Clamour and bring them to a Test that design and openly wish an alteration of them And further to prevent all the aforementioned and growing mischiefs it were well if some further Test could be found out to unscreen and lay open to exception such persons as by their excellent parts and moralities gain reputation to their erroneous opinions and have in effect eclipsed and much lessened the Grace and Glory of Christ by making Grace and Vertue convertible and advancing Natural Religion at least to a share in the salvation of Man whereas though our Church teacheth the same necessity of a good moral and pious life that they also assert as fruits and effects of a lively Faith yet she holds we are saved by Faith alone though not by Faith that is alone without producing good works Moral obedience with inward sanctification being the only evidences and grounds of a Christians comfort according to the Articles of our Church and I think suspension both ab officio and beneficio is too little for such as own their Mother and yet wilfully rebel against her determinations and scandalously defame by Satyrical invectives those that have been most eminent in the Reformation and in our Church ever since or by bold untruths would make some of the most considerable amongst us to patronize errors Nay representing St. Augustine himself as more pious than rational though one of the greatest Lights and most-to-be Reverenced person both for Prudence Knowledg Morality Piety Learning clearness of Judgement and indefatigable Industry that ever lived in the Christian Church since the Apostles days and it hath ever been the boast and glory of our Church to have agreed with his Judgment in our Articles and therefore with all others so far as they depart not from his Principles concerning Election Faith Justification Sanctification and good Works though it is now by some made a matter of detraction scorn and defamation to maintain them Orthodoxly which certainly ought not to be suffered either in our Pulpits or Presses

habitually or to fall into any presumptuous sin without an actual repentance following in which Grace sways so powerfully as if the Will had no freedom in the Action and the will acts freely as if grace had no sway in the Election yet when we co-operate with grace only by grace God not forcing the will but powerfully and infallibly moving it to determine it self in the performance of all Righteousness and by Faith to apprehend Christs perfect obedience as imputed to us for the defects in ours to make us capable of glory into which no unclean thing must enter nor can any be admitted by the Remission of their sins only which freeth but from the pains of Hell without the Imputation of Christs perfect obedience for he pronounceth not his sentence at the day of judgment by though according unto his Decrees but proceeds judicially to conviction upon evidence and judgeth and rewardeth all men by and according to their works and there being made righteous by Gods acceptance of Christs Righteousness for them to supply the defects of their best performances and perfect the imperfections of their most sincere universal and persevering obedience And against these Truths thus delivered few amongst us that I know of has the impudence to clamour but yet there are many learned and rational men that design to undermine them and superciliously and magisterially do by Insinuations and artifices seem to impose new and dangerous notions upon us by wresting and slighting not confuting ours 1. By pressing Moralities not as fruits and effects of a saving Faith but as the means with a general and historical Faith to save us when produced by that common and universal grace God gives to all mankind in Christ by which Doctrine no man can have a firm assurance of his own salvation when Adam fell in the state of innocency without any temptation from within nor of a visible Church on Earth if founded upon no other bottom 2. By asserting That Justification is conditional alterable and commensurate only to our Sanctification so as good works must precede it contrary unto the 11 12 13 Articles of our Church and that a man may fall from it finally though it be the act of the Judge when Sanctification is but the qualification of the person justified who may fall from it in some degrees but not totally Gods Love being free and as unchangeable as himself 3. By allowing Christs passive obedience for the taking away of sin but not the imputation of his active obedience for our Justification and Salvation so as they differ only from Socinus in the first part but come near him in making Christs obedience only an Exemplar to us ours for his sake to be accepted and rewarded through the infinite merit of Christ as God and Man imputed can only make us capable of an infinite reward or make our works clean and pure in the sight of God For which read Bishop Andrews Sermon on Jer. 23.6 Mr. Mead upon Matt. 11.28,29 and on Psal 2. Psal 50 Psal 38 who agree with St. Paul in 1 Cor. 1.30 and 2 Cor. 5.21 and the great ancient and eminent Divines of our Church some of which I have before mentioned 4. By maintaining Gods Decree of Salvation to any is conditional and contingent so as from the contemplation of it no Child of God or tender Conscience can gather comfort or any assurance of stability though they use the means to gain it in that they make the Decree to depend upon the Condition and the Condition upon the actings and use of that general Grace God gives to all without a more particular and constraining Grace as D. Hammond expresseth it for the determination of their wills to good which is contrary to St. Paul Ep. 2.8,9,10 and the 17th Article of our Church when the Condition depends upon the Decree and is part of it which ordains the means to be performed by his chosen ones as certainly as the end so as they cannot fail of either but are preserved by the Power of God unto Salvation through Faith 1 Pet. 1.5 Which if true hath a vital principle in it and is both comprehensive and productive of all other gracious operations 5. By teaching that Gods election which is only an Emanation of his free love and goodness to his chosen ones quia complacuit Ep. 1. does depend upon foreseen Faith and Works in them that are only fruits and effects following which wholly inverts the Methods of God in his Decree making him to go out of himself in his works ab intra and they not to be ex mero beneplacito which is derogatory to Gods Grace against Scripture and the Articles of our Church 6. By ascribing less to the Grace of God than to the Will of man in his final determination of himself to good as in Peter and Judas for supposing them to have all outward means of conversion equally applied and that one should be effectually converted and not the other they place the discriminating Power in the will of man and not in the superfluence of Gods Grace by it making the determination of Gods Will and Decree to depend upon mans not mans upon Gods which is the setting up an Idol of their own shaping for the true God and shakes the foundation of an humble sober and well-grounded Christian confidence in regard of our own weaknesses which are so great as none can assure themselves of final perseverance or that there is a holy Church on earth or Saints in Heaven upon such Principles Yet these dangerous Tenents for some late years have much spread and prevailed amongst us by the distraction of the times the remisness if not indulgence of Governors in the Church and the advantage the Patrons of those Opinions have had both by our Press and Pulpits to vent such crude raw and undigested matter though sufficiently refuted by our Orthodox Clergy as contrary to the Doctrine of the Church of England and the Reformed Churches abroad as may appear by the ever to be reverenced Synode of Dort which however vilified by some scurrilous Pens is to be received for confirmation of us in our Articles and Tenents so far as they agree with them in the most chief points there controverted in which some of the most eminent of our Church both for Learning Prudence and Piety did concur being delegated by King James of blessed memory to act with them and though they extend not to us by way of obligation they ought not to be condemned by any person by artifices not Arguments and by affirming perhaps a Truth to insinuate a false and illogical conclusion That their determinations were erroneous because no one ancient Father except St. Augustine did agree with them in all things which could not be expected because the Church until his time was a Stranger to those disputes and that God by his Providence as light from darkness did by the labours of that unparallel'd Saint illustrate many Truths by the errours of Pelagius and others yet asserted nothing but with the authority of the Fathers in what he dogmatically taught however we might vindicate the Council of Dort by an Argument as fallacious as the other in affirming that not one of the Ancient Fathers did ever reject or disown their opinions in all particulars or differ from them in any material thing concerning Grace and Free-will But to recall my self in this little digression I shall sum up all in this That my design in these Papers if your Lordship think fit to communicate them is both to caution and undeceive the ignorant that by their admiration of some mens persons with an implicite faith receive such dangerous and uncomfortable notions as are before mentioned And to show it necessary that there should be some care to suppress them as they relate to Doctrine and the disturbance of the Church which may be most indangered by those in communion with it Poyson being sooner taken from the hand of a Friend than an open Enemy So as I hope you will pardon my freedom of expressing my thoughts and that your Lordship will be instrumental for the silencing of such opinions for the future by some prudent restraints and discountenance with an addition of such Tests for the Clergy in general as may often be renewed and by Oath oblige them to maintain the Doctrine of the Church of England as now established by Law and contained in her 39 Articles Liturgy and Homilies in their most literal and genuine sense to secure us both against Popery Pelagianism Socinianism and Arminianism Yet I wish only the preservation of Truth without animosity to persons not any mans ruine but reformation But that those that have left their first Principles by which they were admitted into the Church may be thrown out if they refuse to submit no sober person can except against them that hath once subscribed unto them without great crime and danger to the established Doctrine which doth clearly assert That we are justified by Faith alone without works though a posteriore they are certain and necessary consequences as Breathing is of Life and fruits of that Faith which justifieth and are conditions by the performance whereof we can only apply the promises to our selves of our being accepted with God through Faith in Christ by the imputation of his Active and Passive obedience in that our Faith foro conscientiae cannot appear either to our selves or others to be true and saving but by holiness good works sincerity and universal obedience as effects of our Sanctification which is the way to Glory with St. Bernard but no cause of it FINIS

vices and nursing them up with the milk of flattery in calling good evil and evil good a Isa 50.20 which is a beautifying of a people as the Pagan Negroes do by painting with Ink instead of Colours b Isa 9.16 to which the greatest wo belongs though the wicked may bless for a time those whom God abhorreth c Psal 10.3 3. Mandando So Vriah's Murder and Drunkenness were Davids sins though effected by others 4. Consentiendo For thus St. Paul was guilty of Stephens Martyrdom d Act 22.20 and therefore if sinners intice thee consent thou not e Prov. 1.10 for sentient eandem poenam qui consentiunt in candem culpam 5 Provocando By inflaming or inticing others to sin as the Harlot in the Proverbs f Prov. 7. for by setting any others house on fire we are sure to burn and consume our own if contiguous to it and be answerable for the others damage 6. Participando For if thou seest a Thief attempting to steal and hast a power to hinder him and dost it not thou art guilty of his crime the not preventing sin in another where I may do it lawfully being a promoting of it And then Aequum est ut qui participes fuerunt in peccato participes fiant in supplicio it is but just that we suffer in the punishment if we partake in the sin g Rev. 18.4 for so wrath came upon Jehoshaphat h 2 Chron. 19.2 for a good wish to a bad action is a partaking of the evil i 2 Joh. 5.11 7. Omittendo vel Conivendo by conniving at or not reproving others in their sins a Eph. 5.11 Lev. 5. Ezek. 3. such a love and indulgence to my brother being the greatest hatred b Lev. 19.17 For so God hates us most when he seems not to hate us at all by reproving and correcting us but suffers us to go on in a course of wickedness c Isa 1. 8. Defendendo for he that defends or maintains a bad cause or action espouseth the guilt of it when He that justifyeth the wicked or condemneth the just is abominable before or unto God d Prov. 27.15 and becomes the greater sinner in that he hath more of deliberation and perhaps less of temptation in it than the other had 9. Praecedendo by giving ill examples for if I pluck up the first pale in anothers inclosure and engage others by my example to lay it waste and common I am guilty of their trespass as he that wilfully makes or inlarges any cuts in a Sea-bank is liable to repair the damages any receive by those waters And thus Jeroboam made Israel to sin saith the Text even exemplum dando as well as imperando and Peter the Jews e Gal. 2. And to these I might add many other ways as a learned Divine hath observed to me by which we derive others sins upon our selves to make us vigilant over our own and others Souls since there are so many Avenues for sin to approach us and that it is of so subtil and insinuating a nature as though the Guards be never so well kept it will sometimes enter by a false pass or glide in by the advantage of that gloomy darkness that sometimes over-shadows the best men And therefore we need add Ballast to our Sail examination to every action to poise and prove it by it being a safe and noble no melancholly thing as one wittily expresses it to be always in ploughing weeding and worming a conscience in removing Straws as well as Logs occasions of temptations by trying and testing every thought word or work to make them currant and by filing the Iron and melting the Ore to clear and smooth the greatest difficulties lest our spungy souls apt to receive any liquor suck in and imbrace any thing evil and swell us into such an immence body of sin as through custom or impenitency may become too big to enter into the Bethesda of Christs Blood though what comes there is ever cleansed and cured But to express it the better almost in a great Authors words I conceive a wilful permission or toleration of the most atom airy sin is a crime in any man that may prevent it and much more in a Magistrate who bears the Sword in vain if he endeavour not to restrain all appearances of evil and sheaths it in his own bosom like Ely 1 Sam. 3.14 For the Devil brought the Divinity of doing ill that good might come of it Rom. 3.8 early into the Church to undermine and ruin us and of all other evils Factions in Religion if countenanced for any civil end prove the most dangerous in that mistaken zeal hath a Cement in it that makes the strongest Combinations tyes the closest and yet breaks the strongest Bonds violates all Obligations natural and civil and under a pretence of serving God brings the Devil in upon his shoulders and inthrones him for a Deity acting all Rapines and Disorders under a pretence of Piety so as the mutual Communications of Members in civil bodies that should be a means of common advantages is corrupted and men live rather to stir up Animosities than pay the Duties of Charity to Neighbours or of Obedience to Superiors not only to the invasion of Order and Unity but the undermining of Christianity it self though pretended Religion be the Engine by which they work and all this to shape Government at the last for the Interest of the strongest party ever pretending to fight for their God when they fight against their King and glory in their Crime as the highest vertue so as Religion the great instrument of Peace and Piety proves the greatest Incendiary For a light distemper in the Church proves many times a Contagion in the State and is ever to be cured by Corrosives where Lenitives work not but with more moderation to those that agree with us than to such as depart from us in our setled Doctrine though they artificially pretend to be in these times the great Patrons and Vindicators of our Church by it with the unnatural Viper to eat out the bowels of their own Mother for there are many now of our High Clergy that with a strange impudence do intitle her to their Errors and want not the countenance and encouragements of many great ones to invite them by preferments to it yet their Arguments are rather Railings than Reasons by slighting and defaming our most Orthodox Doctrine concerning Faith Grace and Justification with disowned and false consequences to make way for the entertainment of their dangerous Errors which are both derogatory to Gods honour and tend to the shaking the sure foundations of our Christian Faith comfort and assurance of our spiritual Estate by improving Arminianism beyond the modesty of its Author into great degrees of Pelagianism and Socinianism and press them as agreeing with the Articles of the Church of England though I dare confidently affirm that both the Compilers