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	popery_n	4,964	5	10.7046	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A66897	Go shew thy self to the priest safe advice for a sound Protestant / by L. Womock ...	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.	1679 (1679)	Wing W3344; ESTC R20291	7,580	22

their Exceptions against Pag. 14. 15. some passages in the Liturgie they desire the Ministers power both to admit and keep from the Lords Table may be in these words The Minister shall admit none to the Lords Supper till they have made a credible profession of their Faith and promised obedience to the Will of God and that all possible diligence be used as is for the instruction and reformation of scandalous offenders whom the Minister shall not suffer to partake of the Lords Table until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former Pag. 124. naughty lives And not satisfied with a weeks warning for the Sacrament they expostulate thus Is there leisure of self-examination and restitution and satisfaction and going to the Minister for counsel to quiet his Conscience In their Reformation of the Liturgie they say thus They only are to be Pag. 48. f. invited to the Lords Table and to come that truly repent and believe and unfeignedly consent to the terms of the Covenant Then follows an odd Parenthesis though all are not to be invited thus to believe and repent and so to come But those are to be admitted by the Pastors if they come who having the use of reason to understand what they do and examine themselves have made a personal profession of Faith Repentance and Obedience And treating of Catechizing and the approbation of those that are to be admitted to the Lords Supper They give this order Let the Minister Pag. 66. either go to their houses or rather appoint the persons of several Families in their courses to come to him for personal instructions where he may confer with those who are unmeet to be Catechised publickly or unwilling to submit to it and there let him acquaint them with the substance of Christian faith and duty And they add this caution But let him not in publick or private meddle with impertinences nor sift people to know things unfit or unnecessary to be disclosed And a little after their order is very strict and positive in these and many other words Let Pag. 67. none be admitted by the Minister to the Sacrament of the Lords Supper till being instructed in the Christian Religion they do openly make a credible profession of their own faith and promise to be obedient to the Will of God And they add A profession is credible when it is made understandingly seriously voluntarily deliberately and not nullified by contradiction in Word or Deed. And a little after It is not private persons only but the Pastors of the Church that must approve of this Profession Therefore before any are admitted to the Lords Supper they shall give a good account of their Knowledge Faith and Christian Conversation conformable thereunto unto the Pastors of their respective Congregations or else shall produce a Certificate that they have been approved or admitted to the Lords Supper in another Congregation of which they were Members and that by an allowed Minister upon such approved profession as aforesaid And they close their charge with these words Let no Minister be inforced to admit any himself to the Lords Supper who hath been clancularly and irregularly approved Those that after this Approbation prove scandalous offenders shall not by the Minister be suffered to partake of the Lords Table until they have openly declared themselves to have truly repented and amended their former naughty lives Thus much for the Presbyterian Brethren We see then that this Lesson Go shew thy self to the Priest is a Doctrine which all Parties themselves more or less concerned in The Church of Rome imposes it with a very strict severity to the overcharging and insnaring of tender Consciences and makes use of it to very wicked ends and purposes to fish out mens tempers and inclinations that as occasion serves they may imploy them to destroy Princes and subvert States and Kingdoms Examples whereof we have in William Parry and Edward Squire in the time of Queen Elezabeth The Presbyterians exact the same duty with no less zeal I hope to no ill intent but with an imperious rigour The Church of England does advise and order the practice of it to these effects i. e. To prevent Scandal to promote Repentance to advance Instruction and to administer both Caution and Comfort to the Penitent or to use the words of our most excellent Litany To strengthen such as do stand to comfort and help the weak-hearted to raise up them that fall and finally to beat down Satan under our feet And to make it like the yoak of a meek and gracious Master the more practicable light and easie she puts it on with as much moderation gentleness and lenity as is imaginable Whether the Discourse above recited be not of this temper and calculated for the very same Meridian I leave the judicious Reader to determine Some men perhaps may think it savours as much of the Presbyterian as others do of the Popish Doctrine yet really it is neither the one nor the other But the genuine Doctrine of the Church of England according to Antiquity and the best Reformed Nevertheless it hath been suggested that the said Doctrine was Popery or wheel'd apace towards it This suggestion I shall not impute to design or want of Charity But to a mistaken zeal or Godly jealousie awakened in the Insinuants by the iniquity and bloudy Practices of the Popish Party And to clear the Innocency of my own Doctrine I shall only appeal to the Protestants of Forein Churches forementioned with the Requiries of the Presbyterian Brethren so strictly insisted on since his Majesties happy Restauration and particularly I shall produce Mr. Richard Baxter never taken for a friend to Popery to be my Compurgator In his Nosegay presented to Mr. Joseph Caryl this Pag. 83. is his positive and avowed Doctrine Let me be bold to tell my Brethren of the Ministry that though I deny them to have Credit or Authority against the known Word of God yet so great is their Credit and Authority even as Teachers and Guides of the Church in Causes agreeable to the Word and in Causes to the People doubtful and unknown and in Causes left by the Word to their determination the Word determining them but generally that I think the ignorance of this Truth hath been the main Cause of our sad Confusions and Schisms in England and that the Ministers have been guilty of it partly by an over-modest concealing their Authority and partly by an indiscreet opposition to the Papists Error of the Authority of the Church And I think till we have better taught even our Godly people what credit and obedience is due to their Teachers and Spiritual Guides the Churches of England shall never have peace or any good or established Order I say again we are broken for want of the knowledge of this truth and till this be known we shall never be well bound up and healed The Reader will please to take notice that this is so far from Popish Tyranny that it is our Presbyterian Moderation and Mr. Baxters own Sober Sadness and he thought it a Truth of so great importance that he set a hand in the Margin to remark it and point it out to every Reader as most worthy of his observation And such as would see more of his thoughts in this point he refers them to what he has written on it in his Method for peace of Conscience and in the Second Part of his Book of Rest and in the Preface to that Part. The Premises well considered I am apt to believe the Judicious Reader will conclude that to adhere stedfastly to the sober and prudent establishment of the Church of England is very safe advice for all Sound Protestants FINIS

Catechising that Instruction and Consolation which does accompany this wholsom practice is very profitable and to many very necessary that they may testifie their hearty sorrow for their sins past and their firm purpose of amendment for the future and that they may not be left in the dark and doubtful of their pardon and forgiveness Next we will observe the Augustan Confession tendred with all humility in the year 1530. to the Emperour Charles De Confessione the Fifth from which the very Name and Title of Protestants was derived their address ending with these words De quo hic etiam solenniter publicè Protestamur In that Confession they do highly extol the power of the Keys and the benefit of private Absolution that it does declare and apply the Gospel to terrified Consciences And this application it makes not only to all in general but to every single person in particular as our Saviour Christ affirms Thou hast gain'd thy Brother That this Absolution is therefore to be retained in the Church and that the voice of the Gospel in this Ministry is to be believed as a voice from Heaven And seeing Confession does make way for the benefit of this Absolution and forasmuch as the Rite and Custom thereof does preserve in the people the understanding of power of the Keys and of the Remission of sins and besides seeing that Conference there had is of great advantage for mens instruction and warning Therefore say they we do diligently retain the use of Confession in our Churches yet teaching them withal that the particular enumeration of sins is not necessary of divine right nor as mens Consciences to be burdened with it c. To this Confession subscribed John Duke of Saxony Elector George Marq. Brandenburgh Ernest Duke of Lunenburgh Philip Lantgrave of Hess John Frederick Duke of Saxony Francis Duke of Lunebergh Wolfangus Prince of Anhalt the Senate and Magistrates of Nurenborgh the Senate of Kentlingen In the Confession of Saxony offered to the Council of Trent 1551. they declared thus Concerning private Confession to be made to the Pastors we do affirm that the Custom of private Absolution is to be retained in the Church And we do constantly retain it for many weighty causes though we teach also that a particular recital of all sins is neither of divine command or possible but apt to make faith the more feeble and pious minds the more doubtful In the Confession of Wittenbergh of The Translator into English refers it to Auspurge ut infra 1586. 1552. they declare Though they do not think the enumeration of their sins before a Priest of necessity to Salvation nor of any merit toward the remission of sins Yet they take care as far as may be that Confession of sins in general may be retained in their Churches for two reasons The first that the more ignorant sort of people may by that way of Conference be the better admonished and instructed in all things necessary The other That upon this occasion the Gospel of Christ touching the remission of sins may be particularly applied and the assurance of Absolution be either apprehended or confirmed In the Confession of Bohemia they declare 1535. That though they do not injoyn nor require a particular enumeration of sins yet they teach that Penitents should have recourse to the Priest whom the English Translation Edit by Tho. Thamas at Cambridge 1586. calls the Physician of their souls to confess their sins to God before him and as that Translator wordeth it to declare their grief trouble and remorse to take advice and counsel how they may avoid sin for the future and to seek for absolution and pardon by this Ministry of the Keys which is Christs Institution They teach men also to magnifie this Absolution and undoubtedly to believe what this power of the Keys promiseth seeing it is the voice of Christ himself and exprest by his command Receive Joh. 2. ye the Holy Ghost Whose sins ye remit they are remitted c. and they would have them know that by this power and Ministry of the Keys and the authority of Christs Word all their sins are pardoned To leave Foreiners Let us see what the Advice and Practice of the Church of England is 1. She is very positive in her Order Rules and Canons that all persons should shew themselves unto the Priest to be Catechized and to hear Sermons for the Information of their Judgments But 2. as to such as find themselves disquieted in mind and conscience it is rather a matter of advice than of command for thus she does invite and persuade them to apply themselves for their own benefit And because it is requisite that no The first Exhortation before the Communion man should come to the holy Communion but with a full trust in Gods mercy and with a quiet Conscience therefore if there be any of you who cannot quiet his own Conscience but requireth further comfort or counsel let him come to me or to some other discreet and learned Minister of Gods Word and open his grief that by the Ministry of Gods holy Word he may receive the benefit of Absolution together with Ghostly counsel and advice to the quieting of his Conscience and avoiding of all scruple and doubtfulness Nor is the Church of England less tender or cautious in her advice and order at the Visitation of the Sick for the Rubrick before the Absolution runs thus Here shall the sick person be moved to make a special confession of his sins if he feels his Conscience troubled with any weighty matter After which Confession the Priest shall absolve him if he humbly and heartily desire it I confess that in the third case that of Scandal her Rules and Canons are more strict and it would be much for the honour of God and of our Profession if the iniquity and looseness of these times would allow us to be no less strict in the observation and practice of them The Rubrick is See the Rubrick before the second Service this If any one that offers to come to the holy Communion be an open and a notorious evil liver or have done wrong to his Neighbour so that the Congregation be thereby offended the Curate having knowledge thereof shall advertise him in no wise to presume to come to the Lords Table till he has openly declared his repentance and given satisfaction to the offended Congregation and the party whom he hath wronged The like order the Curate is to take with such as live in habitual hatred and malice These are the terms and ends for and upon which the Church of England sends her Members for their advantage and remedy to the Priests Office And whether the Presbyterian Party be more modest and gentle in their Requiries we shall now consider Not to look so far back as their Directory and their Humble Advice to the Parliament In their Grand Debate by the Kings Commission amongst