Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	act_n	believe_v	faith_n	5,216	5	5.8503	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A75036	A brief apologie for the sequestred clergie. VVherein (among other things) this case of conscience is judiciously handled: whether any minister of the Church of England may (to avoid sequestration) omit the publike use of the liturgie, and submit to the directory. In a letter from a sequestred divine, to Mr. Stephen Marshall.	Allington, John, d. 1682.; Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.	1649 (1649)	Wing A1206; Thomason E537_11; ESTC R204340	21,192	25

is as Mr. Perkins fully an act not of Superstition but Adoration For as it was no superstition in the Jew to worship God by bowing before the Ark or Westward so superstition it is not to worship God by bowing before his Holy Table that is in the phrase of antiquity Eastward As for bowing to the East or to the Altar I am able to produce a Letter writ by me 5. or 6. yeares ago ex Diametro against it and am still ready to ratifie that Doctrine The second act of superstition it is bowing at the Name of Jesus and to cleare that I shall thus argue No act directly tending and intended for the Advance of the glory of Jesus can be superstitious but to bow at the Name of Jesus in the sence of the Church of England is an act both tending and intended for the advance of his glory and therefore cannot be superstitious For the proofe of the minor Proposition I appeale to the 18. Canon of the Church of England where the end and intention of that gesture is clearly thus When in time of Divine Service the Lord Jesus shall be mentioned due and lowly reverence shall be done by all persons present as it hath been accnstomed testifying by these outward Ceremonies and gestures observe what their inward humility Christian resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord Jesus Christ the true and Eternall Son of God is the onely Saviour of the world Now upon this ground I thus argue for as much as both words and gestures have their individuation and specification meerly by use Law or custome what this gesture of bowing at the Name of Jesus is to signifie and import in the Church of England this the Representative part thereof having clearly manifested we are to take it in that sence and in that signification in which and for which it cometh from them proposed and commended to us For as in Languages we receive and use words in and according to that power and meaning which the first authors and contrivers delivered them unto posterity even so that I might ever avoid the being contentious look what spirituall and internall duties my Mother the Church of England professed to expresse and signifie by such and such exterior gestures such I conceived they did import and in such sence and signification I did use and communicate them unto others Whereas then as the Canon clearly the due and lowly Reverence exacted at the Name of Jesus is only to testifie our inward humility Christian resolution and due acknowledgement that the Lord Jesus Christ is the true and Eternall Son of God This being the knowne and declared end and meaning of this gesture Bowing at the Name of Jesus can no more in my weak apprehension be accounted Superstition then is inward humility Christian resolution or the due acknowledgement of the Lord Jesus Christ to be the true and Eternall Son of God for being Actus exterior interior candem constituunt virtutem being the outward expression and the inward meaning do make but one compleat act if the inward be vertuous the outward cannot be vicious if the inward be religious the outward cannot be superstitious so that since bowing at the Name of Jesus is by the Church and use of England determined to signifie an expression of inward humility Christian resolution and a due acknowledgement of the Deity of the Son of God I cannot yet imagine how to him who so understandeth and so useth it bowing at the Name of Jesus can be counted superstitious Nor doth only the Canon of the Church of England but even the Canon of holy Scripture warrant mee sufficiently that superstitious it cannot be for Dato sed non concesso suppose it no duty of that knowne Text yet there is congruity enough to avoid the Superstition of it for if by those knees the Apostle meaneth the spirituall and inward knees of the heart then as he without thought of Superstition expressed that inward duty by bodily incurvation why may not I or any other by his example expresse my inward profession of the Deity as he by a corporall'expression by bowing at his Name But my intention is not to write a volume or indeed to say ought more then may conclude my design mentioned to prove that I have not been nor yet am scrupulous without cause nor a sufferer without reason Now my first scruple is whether a Minister may with a good conscience renounce or leave off any act Rite or gesture under the brand and notion of superstitious which he believes is not so I dare not do it for these reasons 1. I should bely mine owne soule in calling good evill and evill good 2. I should confirme a scandall laid upon many godly Orthodox Divines that they in thus doing have been superstitious 3. I should do an irreparable violation to those holy gestures which I do verily believe are advancers of Gods glory 4. I dare not omit that as superstitious which I believe not to be so for fear in so doing to this undetermined notion I might add such latitude that under the colour of Superstition even Religion it self may be violated In a word for my particular whether I look upon adoration in abstracto as the meer expression of that subjection and distance which dust and ashes oweth to his maker or whether I looke upon it in concreto as joyned with some other duty as saying our prayers receiving the Sacrament or profession of our Saviours Deity in neither respect it seemeth to me more guilty of Superstition or troubling the waters then was the Lamb in the fable when the Wolf charged him so that if by some greater light or latitude of understanding your clearer judgement shall discern otherwise I shall with all respect and thanks yeeld up my soule to further illumination which till it shall please God to give me I dare not in coole blood call an honest woman whore or what I conceive religious superstitious for more then yet I am or hope for to be worth And this may suffice for the first scruple viz. That my judgement concluding otherwise I dare not acknowledge or relinquish Adoration under the notion of superstitious innovation The second thing I have to do is to give my reasons wherefore I conceived it a sin of omission to lay aside much more to renounce the Liturgie and that I may do it methodically First I shall give my reasons why I dare not countenance the worshipping of God without a form secondly why I dare not in specie omit this form First I dare not countenance the worshipping of God without a form for being the Scripture chargeth not onely to hold the faith but to hold fast the very form of sound words I conceive set forme of prayer a necessary expedient to this end for being experience both ancient and modern hath taught us this sad truth that Errors Heresies and Innovations in Doctrine are instilled and infused by the conceived

it made my heart even ake to think how applicable this methodicall destruction is to our ungratefull vineyard I will take away the hedge I will break downe the wall Take the hedge and the wall away cut up the fence and the Vinyard will soon be wast The Government the Discipline the Liturgy which as a hedge or a wall ever since our reformation preserved the Vineyard since I see it hath pleased God to suffer this hedge and the wall to be trodden downe I can but feare confusion and desolation to be the sequest For since the worldly wiseman verily believes where the fence is wanting spoile and wast inevitably followeth and therefore his maine care is to tend it Even so where the muniments of any prosession or Religion are slighted and taken away where Liturgy this 13. hundred years without controversie held the hedge and mound of faith and Gods worship in Natiohall Church where I say this is pull'd downe and taken away there is iminent and evident feare a gap is opened to let in what ever will come Be it the beast of the field be it the little foxes be it the wild bore of the forrest come what will there is no muniment no provision no fence against it so that in my poor conceptions the hedge the fence the muniment of the Church they are matters of such necessary consequence that Ministers I conceive had better lay themselves and all their fortunes in the gap then for want of fence to suffer the destroyer to come in Indeed I have been told by some who wish very well unto me that humane inventions and things meerly circumstantiall ought not to be thus stood upon I thank them heartily for their affection and blesse them for their good will but our judgments yet must differ For if no suffering for humane invention if life it selfe may not be exposed to hazzard in defence of humane constitutions certainly then no fighting for the Lawes of Land nor no taking up arms for Priviledge of Parliament for these sure are humane and politicall institutions and as these are necessary for the preservation of a State even some such are also necessary for the preservation of a Church and of such Church-men cannot be too chary Againe whereas Liturgie in genere or ours in specie is counted but a circumstantiall businesse I believe I may find out such circumstantialls in a Christian Church as will hazard the whole if they perish In the tenth persecution under the Tyranny of Dioclesian a Decree past ut Templa libri delerentur that Christians should deliver up their books and destroy or at least permit the destruction of their Churches Books and Churches I conceive are but circumstantialls to Religion for the world was more then 2400. yeers old before there was any Scripture in it yea the Christian Church it was from the birth of Christ more then 90. years before the Canon of the New Testament was compleated yea after the death and Resurrection of our Saviour there is supposing his passion at 31. ten years numbred before any Gospell at all was committed unto writing twice ten before the second thrice ten before the third and more then three twenti●s before the last a plaine argument that bookes and writings are but circumstantiall to Religion for one may live and die a very good Christian and know never a letter on the booke Suppose now the Pope and Popery should so far prevaile as to have under the notion of books hereticall for so they will sticke to call our Bibles to call in and under paine of death to deliver up our Bibles even to the fire could any conscientious Protestant satisfie his soule with this poore evasion alas the Bible is but circumstantiall the Doctrine and Religion of it I can preserve though the Bible be gone without all peradventure it is most true a learned and well grounded Christian he may preserve the faith he may deliver and hold fast the forme of sound words though among Turks where a Bible is not to be looked upon and yet for my particular I should scarce looke upon that man as Christian who to save his purse yea his body should deliver up his Bible to the fire In the Roman Martyrologie there is a commemoration made of many holy Martyrs who despising the sacrilegious Edict of Dioclesian 7. quo tradi Sacros codices jubebantur potiùs corpora carnificibus quàm sanctadare canibus maluerunt chose rather to deliver their bodies to the executioner then holy things to dogs or holy books unto the fire And truly I should rather honour these as Martyrs then those for good Christians who under pretence of things circumstantiall should deliver those to save themselves so highly I conceive God would be dishonoured in the betraying of so great a preserver and muniment of his Honour Again as Books even so to some much more clearly Churches Oratories Temples they are meer circumstantialls Now suppose the Independent and Congregationall Brother-hood should so far over-power as to command the demolition as they call them of our Steeple-houses the destruction and levelling of our Churches I would very fain know whether in point of conscience I were not rather bound to suffer then in any measure to appeare willing to so high a sacriledge I who am flesh and blood as well as other men could find pretty evasions and glosses to foole my soule withall I could say as I hear is not a Sermon as well in a Parlour as in a Church Did not Christ preach in a Ship Paul pray upon the sands and shall I suffer in defence of so unnecessary a trifle as an heap of stones a Popish Relique a sorry meeting house For my particular I am afraid many things are daily called circumstantiall not with consideration whether so or no but because these are the things in question these the points which I must either dissemble desert or suffer for I pray let me as a close to this present you with the example of one who though a Bishop was ever reverenced as a Saint a good man I mean that great Doctor S. Ambrose who being once tempted and provoked even in this very point and that by no lesse then the Emperour to deliver up his Church though it pleased the Emperour in a faire way to send Earles and Tribunes to him ut Basilicae fieret matura traditio that there might be a seasonable del●verance of that Royall Pallace for so his piety termes the Church yet you shall find this reverend Bastor so far from deeming this a circumstantiall trifle that he offers his goods his body his life in lieu of it Ea quae Divina Imperatoriae potestatinon subjecta The things of God are not subject to imperiall power was the peremptory position of this Bishop and then proceeds Si patrimonium petitur invadite si corpus occurram vultis in vincula rapere vultis in mortem voluptatiest mihi