Selected quad for the lemma: saint_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
saint_n	church_n	day_n	festival_n	1,263	5	11.0355	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A15655	The schollers purgatory discouered in the Stationers common-wealth, and discribed in a discourse apologeticall, asvvell for the publike aduantage of the Church, the state & vvhole common-vvealth of England, as for the remedy of priuate iniuryes. By Geo: VVither.	Wither, George, 1588-1667.	1624 (1624)	STC 25919; ESTC S120316	70,447	142

pietie but let them not measure the Church by their cubite nor judge the profitablenes of her Discipline by the abuses or misinterpretatiōs of ignorāt Detractors For if those who fancie most perfection in their priuate rule of life had at first wanted those helpes remembrances and publique meanes of instructiō which were tendred them by the Church they had eyther wandred perhaps after vncertaine pathes or neglected to proceed at all in their Spirituall Iourney Our holy Mother the Church hath many Children of diuers tempers and constitutions and as the Maister of a great Feast prouideth so that euery Guest may finde some what to agree with his appetite So Gods Church hath established such discipline for her childrē that euery one may finde that which accordes vvith their capacities and inclinations As therefore it were madnesse for a Guest to rayle at his friēds Bāquet because he saw there many moe varieries thē he listed to seed on or some wholesome meates which his stomack loathed through his owne default And as it were barbarous inhumanity in him that had learned the way through an obscure Desert by heapes of stone raised by his Predecessours to pull downe those marks because he imagins that he hath foūd a passage vvithout them So it is monstrous impiety in them who seeke either to take away or make contemptible those Chaistian helpes whereby others may be assisted by which they themselues were at first initiated because forsooth they finde a distast through their owne distemper or a possibillity of doeing well without them through their owne ouerweening cōceit And it is the greate mercy of God if their presumption carry them not into the gyddy and vncertayne pathes of perdition I wish hartily that those weake members of our Church who are ignorantly offended at her Disciplines because they knowe not the Christian vse of them would with more sincerity take those things into their consideration weigh how farr our Solemnityes are from that superstitiō wherof their blinde guides accuse them how differēt from popish Obseruations how greate an offence it is to scandalize that Authority whereunto they ought to be obediēt in euery thing not repugning the sacred word And if they be not hardned in their malice I would those Stationers also who by falsly accusing my Hymnes of blasphemy and superstition haue drawne many of that censorious generation to help them clamor against what they haue not yet perused would make more consciēce of their actions not worke vpon the credulity of their customers to the generall disparagmēt of that booke vvhich they ought rather to haue aduanced But I feare I vvish an impossibility on the Stationers behalfe For they haue so long so vnciuelly resisted those Himnes vvhich haue been published for helpes to deuotion that it may be doubted they will be now ashamed to speake well of them how profitable soeuer they be approued Nor will yt be much materiall I thinke ere long whether those who haue been my Detractors praise or discommend For I am persvvaded they will make their dispositions so well knowne after a while that no man of vnderstanding wil regard vvhat they speake As yet their true qualitey is not fully discouered therefore yf any should happen to ouer-heare them at their Goose-nest behind Saint Nicholas Shambles Or vvhen a knot of them hath gotten a Cuntrey-Chapman Citty-Customer or nevv flovvne Academick to some Drincking-schoole vvithin the compasse of their verge yt vvould deceaue a common iudgement to obserue vvhat grauitey zeale and learning some of them vvill consume in rayling vpon my Hymnes One as if he had been Register or Liberary-keeper to all the primitiue Churches vndertakes to tell his Auditory that no such thing had been published in the first 300 yeares after Christ As if that had bene to any purpose A second out of his deepe vnderstanding in such language dares pronounce some of my expressions obsceane A third by conuersing with the Titles of Bookes only for their insides he vvas neuer acquainted vvithall is become so learned that he ●…yndes himselfe impudent enough to accuse me of blasphemy A fourth iustly suspecting that his owne opinion will add no credit to his foolish invectiues belyes some Reuerend customer of his or brings the Authority of some of those Worshipfull censurers vvho vpon the Stationers bare credite vse to condemne Bookes before they reade them Yea so shamefully will some of them aver obiect whatsoeuer they can imagine vvill disparage my Labour and vvith such counterfeite shewes of pittying me and making a Religions conscience of their words that such as know neyther of vs vvould thinke them the very quintessēce of Sincerity and me some irreligious Scribler vvho cared not vvhat I published for mine ovvne aduantage But that whereby they hope to work me farthest out of good opinion is my Hymne for Saint Georges day Yea the bare obiecting of that hath made many who passe for wiser men then they prooue to condemne the same before tryall And as if that Hymne could haue beene to no purpose but to mainetaine a Popish and superstitious obseruation they rashly make yt an occasion of miscōstering all the rest and so malitiously vilify my honoring the solēnity of that day with a Hymne as yf they had been of that Dragons confederacie for whose ouerthrow yt praiseth God I knovv no cause there is giuen of such dislike For I haue ascribed no Diuine honor to any creature in that Hymne nor appropriated it to that Martyr ignorātly reputed the tutelary saint of this Kingdome and by some heretofore superstitiously inuoked in warlike incounters Nor haue I sorted the Festiuall of Saint George among the solemnities appointed by the Church but mentioned the same as an Obseruatiō set apart by the State onely as are the first dayes of Kings raignes And though my Hymne prepared for that Solemnitey is numbred among the Hymnes of the congregation because it is composed as personating many Neuerthelesse euen that all the rest were by me intēded for paterns to assist or direct priuate deuotiōs rather then to be imposed for sett formes which I thought worthy to be vsed in our publike Assemblies Were the obseruation of Saint Georges feast as popish an limpertinēt as some of my traducers ignorantly and irreuerently conceiue yet since I neither inuented it nor haue power to abolish the same why should I be blamed for shewing vvith what meditations it may be the more appleyd to Gods glory and redound to the greater honor and edification of those vvho are attendants on that solemnity Seeing that place of Saint Paul which counselleth that vve should direct all our Actions to the glory of God may be my warrant for so do●… ing without wresting the meaning of the Text. For that Hymne together with a Preface shewing the true vse thereof whome we vnderstood by Saint George I inserted among the rest for those purposes First to giue men occasion of spirituall

from publike vse and therefore why should any dissallowe free passage to those Hymnes in their proper kinde seeing noe man knoweth by what portion of his worde the Diuine prouidence shall please to call his children vnto a true vnderstanding of their duties who can tell but that which is restrayned may be with held from such as woulde receiue needefull comfortes thereby as well as from those whoe will abuse it One tyme or another wee may be enlightened by what is for a season obscure vnto vs and that sentence which was an occasion of stumbling may be a meanes of rising againe to more strength being better vnderstood Yea I perswade my selfe it is lesse inconuenient that a thousand carnal men should add to their confusion by the abuse of Gods grace then that one of his children should want any comfort offered in his word Much more might be said to this purpose euen so much that if the likelyhood of truth deceiue not it would make euery good christian fearefull to oppose the commendable vse of any part of Gods word vpon those weake foundations which fleshlie policy hath laide but this I hope will suffice in this place And as for those exceptions made against the kinde of Measure which I haue vsed and some perticuler expressions I perceiue they haue been flirted out either in mallice to mee or vpon a superficiall viewe without considering the circumstances the proprieties of the Languages Metaphors or Allegories and therefore I regard them not Partlie seeing my Version hath had the approbation of better Iudgementes and partlie because I knowe it ordinarie among such as those to cauell at our most approoued Translations Whereas some alleage that the Iewes permitted not the Song of Solomon to be read of the Vulger what is that to vs They being heritikes we ought not to be ledd by their example They were diuided among themselues concerning that Songe some receiuing it among the bookes called Hagiographa and some reiecting it And it may be those whoe reconned it among the holy writings restrayned the common vse thereof by reason of that scandall those had giuen who accountinge it a prophane writinge had foolishly applyed the same to Solomon and Kinge Pharaohs daughter Or else because the depth of the Mystery made them vnable to accomodate it to the common capacity Or it may be which is most probable they were moued to restrayne it throughe the mallice of the deuill that after tymes following their example the most excellent Mystery therin couched might be the more obscured from vs of later Tymes vnto whom the reuelation of it would much plainer appeare And their negatiue is hard if not impossible to be prooued who deny that Song to haue at any time beene vsed by the christian Congregation in the primatiue ages For they practised the singing of Psalms and Hymnes and spirituall Songes and were at lest counselled if not cōmanded by Saint Paul thereto Coll 3. Why therfore may we not thinke that Solomons song was one of those which the church then sunge seeing the holy ghost hath entituled it THE SONG OF SONGS If it were then sunge it is likely they sung it in those languages which were vnderstood For Saint Paul would sing not with the spirit only but with the vnderstanding also And if yt may bee sunge by the congregation in the vulger tongue why not in Verse the proper language of SONG and the most moouinge way of expression But what necessity is there of examples seeing in lawfull thinges we may make presidentes when we please with good commendations By what pulike example did we sing Dauids Psalms in English meeter before the Raigne of King Edward the sixth Or by what commaund of the Church do we sing them as they are nowe in vse Verily by none but tyme and christian deuotion hauing first brought forth that practise by the prouidence of God and custome ripening it long tolleratiō hath in a manner fully authorized the same And if our metricall translation of the Psalmes were rectified and purged from those imperfections and escapes which the first translators worthy to be christianly excused vnwillingly committed in that infancy of Reformation There was neuer any one accidentall thing in the outward worshipe of God more helpefull to deuotion or more powerfully stirring up the affections towardes settinge forth his prayse then the singinge of Psalmes Hymnes and spirituall songes in such manner as the reformed Churches now vse yt I cannot beleeue therefore but that the singing both of Dauids Psalms and of the song of Solomon was practised in all ages of the Church since Christ as freely and as frequently as the strictnes and blindnesse of the tymes would permyt though not with soe full and in soe publike a Quire as at this present But what if the Canticles had not beene ordinarily sung in former tymes can that prooue the vulger vse of them to be now vnlawfull or inconvenient more then the vse of y● rest of holy scripture in our mother tongue is proued inconuenient because the blindnes of passed ages causeleslye restrayned it May wee not iudge it was rather through ignorance and because they had them not prepared to be sung as now they are Or might it not be because the tyme was not then come in which a more publike vse thereof would be most necessary For the state of the mysticall body of Iesus Christ from the creation to the last Iudgment being expressed Allegorically in that song with the seuerall appearances it had and shall haue in the seuerall peryods of tyme together with those admyrable loue-passages enterchanged beetweene the diuine and human nature we doubtles whoe liue in the last Age of the world and hauing seene by long experience and successe of thinges much more of that propheticall song fulfilled then those who went before vs may without disparagement to their knowledges vnriddle some darke Aenigmas heretofore not vnderstood And the consumation of the LAMBES mariage being neere at hand may the more properly sing that Mariage song of his to the glory of his name and our owne spirituall comforts To that end I fitted the same vnto our English Lyre in measures becomming the nature of the subiect in a playne and vnaffected Phrase and if those whoe vnderstand both the scripture Dialect and the language of an English Muse may be my censurers in words agreeable to the meāing of the holy Text. Yea I haue so well as I was able in so fewe lynes opened also according to the Doctrine of the Catholicke Church the Allegory of euery perticuler Canticle that God might be the more glorified and the vnlearned both delighted and profited in the repetition of those Hymns And thus much I haue deliuered concerning what hath bene obiected touching the song of Solomon not presuming to leade your opinions towards myne owne endes but to declare with what know edge and conscience I haue proceeded therin And as this testifies I had some vnderstanding of

meditations in their ciuill Tryumphs to remēber thē to honor God in those Solemnities wherein he hath honored thē with place Title aboue others Secōdly that the order of Saint George being one of the most honorable orders of christiā knighthood throughout the world Instituted to the prayse of God as I take it our highest Title of honour might haue more high esteeme then among some it findeth And lastly that such whoe are apte to misdeeme of those thinges whose Reasons and true purposes they know not might be more sparing in their censures and not conceiue as many ignorantly doe that our State acknowledgeth any other Patron then that champyon of the holy catholike church by whome the great Dragon and his Angels were ouercome Euen those were my christian intentions in publishing that Hymne amōg the rest which I offer to be censured by your RRces whether there be iust occasion of scandall giuen thereby to others or of any such reprooses as my Traducers haue bestowed on me If it be so let that Hymne bedivorced from the rest in all future impressions But yf it be otherwise and that in your opinions it tēdeth rather to Gods glory and the honour of the State I doubt not but God and that Noble order of whose Solemnities I haue declared the right vse will deliuer me from that many-headed monster which hath Dragon like persecuted the honorer and interpreter of their mistery But Saint George being receaued for a Martyr and the order called after that Name being at first founded vpon a very meane occasion some are of opinion that there was neyther any such Allegory vnderstood or to be vnderstood in the story of Saint George as I haue affirmed nor any thing directly intended to the glory of God in the so lemnization of that day And vpon this false ground they improperley conclude that I haue neyther warrant for shaddowing the true Cham pion of the Church vnder that Name nor ground for applying that solemnity to so Christian a pur pose That there was George a Martyr wee may be leeue but that euer he slewe a Dragon delivered a Lady as the vulger story of saint George relates the same there is noe probable testimonie Therefore yt hath bene generally vnderstood as an Allegoricall expression of the churches deliuerāce from the powre of Sathan And that the Title of saint George may bee allegorically imposed vpon our spirituall Patron without iust exception I haue declared in my preface before the Hymne of saint George his Day by an argument drawne from the greater For the Father being by the Aevangelist called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that person doubtles vvho is inferior touching the māhood may in some respects be called by the same Name without irreuerence Or if this be not sufficient it may be inferred also by an argument from the lesse For if Iesus Christ be termed a Lambe a Lyō or by the Nams of creatures inferior to those as a Doue a Way a Vine c sure vve may then vvithout exception entitle him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and giue him such attributes or appellations as are proper to creatures of a higher nature if they may with any warrant of the holy Text serue to expresse him the better to our apprehensions Soe ignorantly deuoute were those tymes in which the Order of Saint George vvas first instituted that it may be some mistook our Patrō Yet none can peremptorily affirm that it was any created Saint whom our Fore fathers first chose to bee the Gardian of this Kingdome honored by the Name of Saint George much lesse can they affirme that it vvas George the Martyr For if they had aymed at a creature for their Patron it is likely they would haue chosen one of the blessed Patriarcks or Apostles as Scotland Spaine other Nations did or one of their owne contry Saints as in Ireland and France and not haue committed themselues to a stranger-saint who perhaps neuer heard of this Realme and of whose being or holynesse they haue no certainty Otherwise they were either much distrest for a Sainte or very indifferent to whose patronage they committed themselues Our predicessors desiring a tutelary Saint for this kingdome according to the superstition of their neighboring Cuntrys as the Children of Israel longed for a King after the manner of other Nations It may be that it pleased God prouiding better then they themselves desired to mooue them to make choyce of a Name long since attributed to God himselfe which being considered according to that allegoricall story aunciently ascribed therevnto vsually interpreted to meane the Champion of the Churcb could not certainely be applyed to the person of any inferior Saint And so they honored in their solemnity the true Deitie though it were perhapps till the light of the gospell begann to shine clearer as ignorantly as the Athenians did when they sacrifized therevnto vpon that Alter which they inscribed TO THE VNKNOWNE GOD. For the vulger history of Saint George is in the litterall sence so improbable so hyperboicall so voyd of testimony And in the Allegoricall sence so proper so auntiently receaued So aluding to the Victory of Saint Michael that name of George aunciently made the patron of soe many Christian Cuntryes Honorable Orders of kingthood that I am perswaded it siginfied no lesse person then he that is said to make warr with the Dragon in the Revelation of Saint Iohn But whomsoeuer former Ages vnderstood by St. George the Soueraignes of that Order who were since the Reformation of Religeon who by the lawes of that fellovvship are to resolue all doubtfull questions concerning their Order haue long since as I am informed declared that by Saint George they vnderstand no other Patron then he to whose praise I haue directed my Hymne Yet some will not allow the Solēnities of that day to be esteemed so reverend nor the Order of St. George to be so Christian an Institution as I account it by reason of that occasion wherevpō it is said to haue bene first inuēted As if the almighty prouidēce did neuer turne mens vaine purposes to become beyond their ovvne meaning the occasion of that which is of great cōsequence Yes verely When Pharohs daughter vvent to fetch but an idle vvalke shee brought home Moses the Deliuerer of his Brethren vvhen Saul went to seeke Asses he found a Kingdome whē Agrippa heard St. Paul out of curiosity only he vvas made almost a Christian. So the first founder of that Honorable Order did intend a vvhile it may be to erect some Title of honor sutable to his first apprehension But considering better thereupon aduising vvith his graue Counsell hovv to establish that vvhich might redound most to his honor he raised his purposes farr aboue the first designe instituted a new Brotherhood of Christiā Knights which he his Nobles entred into recōmēded to posterity to be professed cōtinued to the