Selected quad for the lemma: power_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
power_n	ceremony_n	church_n	rite_n	2,845	5	10.3412	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57315	A true prospect for the bishops, priests & deacons and all other within the jurisdiction of the Church of England who are professors of the common prayer, through which they may see how far they are short in faith, principle and practice of divers sound truths therin specified : also the proper right of the Quakers to divers good things therein vindicated and pleaded for ... / published by Ambrose Rigg.	Rigge, Ambrose, 1635?-1705.	1663 (1663)	Wing R1499; ESTC R25100	19,344	24

hearing of them Our plea is to such that forasmuch as the teachers of this age who reads the Common Prayer doth deny those solemne covenants which they cause many to take at the first receiving of a child into their Congregation causing them to promise and vow three things in the childs name First that he shall forsake the Devil and all his works and all the sinful lusts of the flesh which covenant they say when the child comes of age he is bound to perform And we find by dayly experience that when the child comes of age the Priest tells him that he cannot forsake all the Devils works but must have a body of sin while he is upon the earth as they commonly do which is absolutely contrary to their promise and vow in Baptisme and therefore we deny them as Covenant-breakers and turn away from them according to the Apostles command 2 Tim. 3. Our second plea is that notwithstanding they injoine the Godfathers and Godmothers as they call them to promise and vow that the child shall keep Gods will and Commandements and walk in the same all the daies of his life and afterward in their preaching saith it is impossible to keep Gods holy will and Commandements as many can witness but break them every day in thought word and deed as they commonly say And therefore we turn away from such confusion in wich they as Babylons Merchants are dayly found answering the word of the Lord which saith Come out of her my people be not pertaker of her sins least you pertake of her plagues and we finding them so grosly overthrowing the foundation principles of the Church of England by their preaching and practise that we are neither bound by the law of God nor right reason to uphold or follow them Yet nevertheless though we deny them for abusing their own principles and duties which in words they prosess and vow to persue yet we retain that pure principle in life and practise which brings young and old to forsake the Divel and all his works with all the sinful lusts of the flesh which can never be performed or kept by the carnal man in his will though he may promise and vow to do it neither have we attained to the performance of this while we followed them but as we received that which discovered their confusion unto us and we standing in this principle at this day which the Lawes of King Edward Queen Eliza. Charles the 1st and Charles the 2d doth protect we ought not by right reason to be persecuted but rather the Priests who dayly confound this principle which gives every Infant admittance into the Church of England to be a member thereof 2. We retain that which brings us to keep Gods holy will and Commandements which is Gods love shed abroad in our hearts and by this doth many know that we love him because we keep his Commandements and his Commandements are not grievous but joyous Joh. 14. 15. Therefore it is contrary to right reason that we should suffer for keeping these principles pure and inviolable which the Church of England imposes upon every Infant while their own teachers in doctrine and practise are opposers of these principles in affirming that no man on this side the Grave can keep Gods will and Commandements but must have a body of sin while they live through which the Commandements of God is broken every day witness their dayly outcry against perfection in this life which the aforesaid principles holds forth for he who forsakes the Divel and all his works and all the pomps and pleasures of the world and all the sinful lusts of the same and keeps Gods holy mark that will and Commandements and walks in the same all the Mark that also dayes of his life is not such a perfect man all the dayes of his life and if so is not this contrary to the Priests Doctrine who dayly affirme the contrary therefore let any rational man judge whether we or they ought to suffer by the Kings lawes Furthermore our plea is against them in this thing in causing men and women to promise and vow such things as aforesaid which cannot be performed and so layes heavy burthens upon them which they themselves are so far from touching that they cry out it is impossible to be born and so makes them truce-breakers and teaches the children to call such Godfathers and Godmothers which is not so for they are neither the childrens God nor their father nor mother neither hath their God a father or a mother So this thing we cannot but deny them in because we beleive it is not of God neither do we read that any of the sons or daughters of God in the Scripture of truth did use such sayings nor the Ministers of the Gospel impose such things upon any in their infancy but if any aske how this was instituted first and how these Ministers came by such things who now use them my answer is according to the antient writers In the year of the world 4102. and of Christ 142. being the first year of the reigne of Anthonius the Emperor was Iginus consecrated Pope he reigned four years three moneths and six daies he ordayned that every child in Baptisme should have a Godfather and a Godmother standing at the Font and so likewise at the time of confirmation Therefore we not finding such a practise warranted by the Scripture but invented by the Pope as aforesaid we cannot own it nor them in it or think it to be requisite to salvation nor beleive it is of God at all but a blind ceremony set up in the invention of man and practised by them who cannot keep the commands of God and therefore is not to be required of any man according to the 6th Article of the book of Canons in these words Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to Salvation so that whatsoever is not contained in the Scriptures nor may be proved thereby is not to be required of any man that it should be beleived as an Article of the faith or to be thought requisite or necessary to salvation Likewise in the 20th Article The Church hath power to decree Rites and Ceremonies of faith and yet it is not lawful for the Church to ordain any thing that is contrary to Gods word written neither may it so expound one place of Scripture that it be repugnant to another wherefore although the Church be a witness and a keeper of holy writ yet it ought not to decree any thing against the same so besides the same ought not to inforce any thing to be beleived for necessity of salvation Likewise in the 21. Article of the Canons General counsels may not be gathered together without the Commandement and Writ of Princes and when they be gathered together forasmuch as they be an assembly of men whereof all be not governed by the spirit and word of God they may erre and sometimes have erred