Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	father_n	lord_n	reverend_a	2,630	5	9.6541	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A07190	The avthoritie of the Chvrch in making canons and constitutions concerning things indifferent and the obedience thereto required: with particular application to the present estate of the Church of England. Deliuered in a sermon preached in the Greene yard at Norwich the third Sunday after Trinitie. 1605. By Fran. Mason, Bacheler of Diuinitie, and sometime fellow of Merton College in Oxford. And now in sundrie points by him enlarged.	Mason, Francis, 1566?-1621.	1607 (1607)	STC 17595; ESTC S112385	61,269	101

THE AVTHORITIE OF THE CHVRCH in making Canons and Constitutions concerning things indifferent And the obedience thereto required with particular application to the present estate of the Church of England Deliuered in a Sermon preached in the Greene yard NORWICH the third Sunday after Trinitie 1605. By FRAN. MASON Bacheler of Diuinitie and sometime fellovv of Merton College in Oxford And now in sundrie points by him enlarged EPH. 4. 3. Endeuour to keepe the vnitie of the spirit in the bond of peace LONDON Printed for IOHN NORTON 1607. TO THE MOST REVEREND FATHER in God RICHARD Lord Archbishop of Canterbury his Grace Primate and Metropolitane of all England and one of his Maiesties most Honorable Priuie Councell c. THe loue and dutie which I owe to this Church of England most reuerend Father haue put into my hand this Oliue branch that is an exhortation to holy obedience and peaceable resolutions which alwaies haue beene the crowne and glorie of a Christian For when I pondered with my selfe how some of the Ministerie stand vnresolued and that as I take it because they doe not duly consider the nature of things indifferent and the dutie of a subiect to his Soueraigne I must confesse that my bowels of compassion were mooued and the fire of affection was kindled within me And therefore although many learned and iudicious men haue richly and plentifully handled this argument yet in commiseration of those my brethren I also haue aduentured to cast my poore mite into the treasurie hoping that as they walke amongst the fruitfull trees they will not disdaine to pull a little berrie from the lowest shrub The principall marke I shoote at is to doe my endeuour to settle the tender and trembling consciences of those which are not wedded to their owne conceits but haue bene carried away rather of weaknesse then of wilfulnesse that such of them as it shall please the Lord may be reduced to the Tabernacles of peace and follow the trueth in loue For alas who can but lament to see so many spend their short and precious time in such scandalous prosecution of ciuill contentions and some of them not altogether vnlike to Platoes Euthyphro who in his inconsiderate course went in all haste to accuse his own father But this Church God be thanked neuer wanted a Socrates to encounter and conuince them and make manifest to the world that they erred by misconstruction and vnaduised zeale O how much better had it beene to haue continued their labours in the Lords vineyard and by bending their vnited forces against Babylon to haue fought the Lords battails to the comfort of the godly who then might haue celebrated their triumph erected their trophae and decked their victorious heads with lawreall garlands O what a griefe ought this to be to their soules so to oppose themselues against such a learned and religious Church and so vnreuerently to traduce that holie Booke of Common Prayer a worke of so great and admirable excellencie concerning which I may truly affirme that it hath beene cut vp like an anatomie euery vaine of it hath beene opened euerie corner searched euery rubricke ransacked not a word but hath beene weighed in the ballance not a syllable but hath bene sifted to the vttermost and yet for all this like to the bridge of Caesar the more it is oppugned the stronger it stands The ceremonies wherof may aptly be resembled to the altar erected by the tribe of Reuben Gad and the halfe tribe of Manasses vpon the passages of Iordan at which the rest of the tribes were grieuously offended imagining that it had beene for sacrifice But when they were truely informed that it was onely for a memoriall that they had a part in the God of Israel they were well content they blessed God and Phinehas said This day we perceiue the Lord is among vs because you haue not done this trespasse In like maner some of our brethren haue beene offended at our ceremonies vpon an erroneous imagination of Poperie and superstition but the Church of England hath often manifested her innocencie and cleared herselfe of those imputations And therefore we hope that one day their eies being opened and their soules satisfied they will with the Princes of Israel blesse God and say with Phinehas This day we perceiue that the Lord is among vs because you haue not done this trespasse For the furtherance whereof I doe in all humilitie present this Oliue branch vnto your Grace whose eminent wisedome and godly care in suppressing innouations and preseruing the well setled state of this flourishing Church is most apparent And therefore as God hath directed the heart of our religious Souereigne to establish you the chiefe Pastor and Father of our Church so I beseech the Almightie to vouchsafe this fruit to your labours that your Grace may see the weake resolued the wilfull relented the wandring reduced and all of them returned to the bosome of the Church like the Doue to the Arke with leaues of Oliue in their mouths in token that all gall and bitternesse being laid aside the swelling flouds of discord are asswaged Your Graces in all humble dutie FRANCIS MASON THE AVTHORITY of the Church in making Canons and Constitutions concerning things indifferent and the obedience thereto required c. 1. Corinth 14. 40. Let all things be done honestly and by order 1 MY heartie desire and praier is to Almightie God the Father of mercy that he would so blesse the Ministerie of the Church of England that we all being linked in loue as it were with chaines of adamant might with one heart and one hand religiously build the Temple of the Lord reuerently performe holy obedience to God and the Prince carefully keepe our selues vnspotted and vnstained of this present world and faithfully feed the flocke of Iesus Christ that depends vpon vs. The comfortable accomplishment wherof whosoeuer shall maliciously hinder let him take heed lest a fearefull curse from the God of Iacob come like water into his bowels and like oile into his bones but whosoeuer shall praie for the peace of Ierusalem peace be vpon him and mercy and vpon the Israell of God The furtherance of which blessings to the glory of Christ and the good of the Church men and brethren beloued in the Lord is the marke I aime at and the scope I intend that we all like obedient children may keepe the vnitie of the spirit in the bond of peace 2 Now this present Sermon by Gods gracious assistance shall be diuided into two generall parts The first an explication The second an application a briefe application of the text and a more ample application of the text to the present estate of the Church of England of which two points in order beseeching the God of all grace and peace to grant vs a blessing 3 And first who spake these words It is plaine that the holy Apostle S. Paul And seeing the holy

goe out of her my people that you be not partakers in her sinnes and that yee taste not of her plagues haue vpon your former premises gathered a practicall conclusion and made an actuall separation and rent from the Church of England And surely my brethren as they had their original from your positions so now they are strengthened by your practises for they may well thinke that such learned and vertuous men so famous and renowmed Preachers knowing a Wee pronounced against them if they preach not the Gospell would neuer suffer themselues to be silenced for matters which they iudged indifferent and therefore they will take it as granted that the things you sticke at are in your opinion simplie vnlawfull Vpon this dangerous position they will builde an other for if the Liturgie of the Church of England as it is inioined at this day to be performed be such as a Minister cannot execute his function with a good conscience then they conclude that neither may the people heare it with a good conscience because their presence were an approbation of it thus the vnquiet wit of man will still be working euen till it runne it selfe vpon the rocke of his owne destruction Wherefore my deare brethren I beseech you as you tender the good of the Church to lay aside all contentious humors Let there not bee found in you a spirit of contradiction and singularitie but follow those things which concerne peace and wherewith one may edifie an other Let vs consider one an other to prouoke one an other to loue and good works Bend your selues to settle the quiet of the Church and keepe the vnitie of the spirit in the bond of peace Which is rather to be expected at your hands because the points in question are the publike constitutions of the venerable conuocation which is the Church of England representatiue in whose voice your owne voice is included Some peraduenture will replie that if this reason be sound then the reuerend Martyrs in Queene Maries time should haue subscribed to poperie because it was then decreed by the Conuocation But I answer that there is not the like reason For against their popish conclusions the blessed Martyrs had euident and necessary demonstration of holy Scripture to which all dec●●es of man must vndoubtedly giue place but against the orders of our Church no such demonstrations can be produced Againe the matters they stood vpon were substantiall points of religion whereas our controuersies are of a lower nature And surely as probable inducements must yeeld to necessarie so amongst probable of which sort are all reasons deduced from the authoritie of man the priuate must giue place to the publike Will you haue the iudgement of master Caluin in this point also Then attend and heare a notable place which was touched before but deserueth to bee pondered againe and againe his words are these Quamuis enim quod obtruditur scandalum afferat malam caudam trahat quia tamen per se Dei verbo non repugnat concedi potest maximè vbi maior numerus peruincit quando ei qui membrum est tantum illius corports nulla ratio suppetit vlterius pergendi Let it therfore be imagined that our orders bring scandall and draw after them a long and foule traine of inconueniences yet seeing that in themselues considered they are not repugnant to Gods word for this still wee must presume till the contrarie bee prooued and are agreed vpon by the greater part yea by the sacred Synod which is the Church of England representatiue and that with the royall assent of our Soueraigne surely in the iudgement of Caluin they may bee yeelded vnto by such as are members of the same Church neither in this case can they proceed any further Wherefore my brethren I cast my selfe downe at your feete and with tender teares beseech you euen in the bowels of Christ Iesus that you will seeke peace and follow after it and bee not like to them of whom it is saide The way of peace they haue not knowne 46 Fourthly looke vpon those reuerend Fathers and Bishops of our Church by whose hands and voices that blessing was powred vpon you which made you ministers of holie things Haue you not at your ordination made a promise and at your institution taken a reuerent oth of canonicall obedience Wherefore let mee exhort you which haue taken this oth and being admonished by your Bishop oppose your selues notwithstanding against the laudable discipline of our Church to enter into your owne soules and vprightly to consider whether while you pretend conscience you doe not that which is vncomely for conscieence And for our Bishops ò what an anguish will it bee to their soules if those voices which ordained you be constrained to depriue you And what a comfort would it be both to them and to all your brethren of the Ministerie if we might ioine together against the common enemie and bee linked in euerlasting chaines of loue one with another And heere most reuerend Fathers though in your wisedome you finde it fit that authorized lawes be put in execution yet remember that the offenders are your owne children in the Lord and by Gods mercie your assistants in dispensing the precious trueth of Iesus Christ and many of them very learned and laborious in the Church of God adorned with manifold vertues and graces of the spirit and therefore let all your proceedings towards them be with a tender heart and a tender hand Consider the multitude of papists and the insulting of vaine-glorious Iesuits behold how sinne and iniquitie euerie where abound and what need the Church hath of their learned labours and therefore in the name of God trie all meanes in Fatherly maner to reduce them endeuour according to your godly wisedome to giue them full satisfaction of their doubts and to make the equitie of the required subscription plaine and manifest vnto them that their consciences being resolued they may proceed as before in the worke of the Lord for this will tend much to the glorie of God the good of the Church your owne comfort and the sauing of many thousand soules This in all dutie I haue aduentured call to your remembrance most reuerend Fathers in behalfe of my brethren wherein if I seeme too bold that loue which caused me must excuseme 47 Finally beloued call to mind the flocke of Christ that depends vpon you their profiting in religion was the comfort of your hearts your ioy and your crowne the seale of your Ministerie they heard you as the Angels of God yea as Iesus Christ and could haue beene content to haue plucked out their owne eies and haue giuen them to you And therefore if there be any loue any bowels of compassion forsake not the lambes of Iesus Christ whereof the holie Ghost hath made you ouerseers For let me tell you that your loue to the flocke ought rather like a golden chaine to draw you then the