Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
soul_n	action_n	body_n	life_n	5,700	5	4.7855	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

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 Printed in the Yeere 1649. In Nomine Crucifixi secundum illud primae ad Corinth cap. secundo vers. secundo Reverend Sir THis addresse may seem very strange and yet if you shall consider the occasion it will appeare that I could not prudently do other for you being accompted a light in that very House in which I stand eclips'd I could not imagine by any other mean then your splendor how to obtain the dissipation of this Cloud Sir so it is that that Worshipfull and worthy Knight Sir John Trevor is one to whom I owe very much for it was his Letter and his influence that first guided and planted me to and in the Schoole of the Prophets It was respect to him that gained me a tutor and it is now my respect to him which gaines you this trouble For when about the beginning of Michaelmas Terme I was at London meeting him in the Palace yard I thanked him for a late courtesie his reply was I had disabled my selfe from the capacity of a Courtesie I took leave to answer it was my conscience and the tendernesse thereof that hath thus streightned me He told me againe in words as I conceive to these aequivalent that I was more byassed by conceit then conscience and guided rather by will then Judgement I have so little left that I can demonstrate to the world I have not made gaine my godlynesse and I shall now desire to make it as evident unto you that 't is not fancy but scruple and scruple onely for which my selfe and in me a wife and five children very deeply suffer so that I here with all respect implore your assistance either to satisfie my weaknesse and set me right or which perchance may be the shorter work be pleased to satisfie him whom I do so highly honor that you conceive my grounds and reasons are such as may conclude me a Rational and conscientious though weak Brother The Misdemeanors for so they are called for which my conviction bearing date May 5. 1646. testifieth I am sequestred they are these 1. Adoration or worshiping God by Bowing of my body Eastward or towards the Holy Table 2. For the exterior acknowledgement of the Diety of my Saviour when summon'd to it by his blessed name Jesus 3. For deserting my cure two whole yeares 4. For officiating by the Common Prayer Book with refusall of the Directory To which is added a generall surmise of Malignancy against the Parliament First as of least concernment I shall give you this briefe account of the third charge to which I negatively answer I never at all did desert my Cure For being as Justinian derelictum dicitur quod Dominus eâ mente abjecit ut id in numero rerum suarum esse nolit that only is deserted which is throwne off with a mind to be no more possest I cannot possibly be said to have deserted my Cure when by Petition upon Petition by Letter upon Letter and all the waies I could imagine I implor'd my quiet at home or to have leave to know why and our Committee never would or did give way to either so that what is here called desertion is no more then what those words of Scripture will well warrant when you are persecuted in one City fly unto another Secondly Every absenting more then two years in these daies of triall hath not been accounted sequestrable and therefore under favor I suppose though this by way of cumulation is put in this is not the gravamen for there is not in the conviction any charge for flying to or being in any forbidden Quarters Lastly I was so far from deserting my Cure that I kept at my proper cost though sequestred a Curate all my absence one who kept my people freer from distractions and aversions from the waies of the Church of England then since they have been But haec obiter That which my conviction declares me to suffer for it is a pretence of superstition exprest by bowing to the East to the Altar and at the Name of Jesus 2. For not laying aside and relinquishing the Liturgy Now I beseech you with patience peruse this my defence in which I shall endeavour to cleare first my acts of commission from being superstitious and then 2. give my reasons why I take it to be a sin of omission to renounce the Liturgy First bowing to the East and to the Altar are not onely false accusations but false in such a degree that without my confession are impossible to be proved for being the intention onely can specificate the terme it is not in the power of any man living to say to what I bow or to what I kneele for I am confident your selfe bends your knees toward many a thing to which you abhor to do it Bow at his Footstoole that is at the Ark and Mercy-seat for there he hath made a promise of his presence the words say not Bow to the Ark but to God at the Ark Thus Mr. Perkins And thus and no otherwise did your Christian Brother bow either toward the East or toward the Holy Table Now as the Jewes in Mr. Perkins charitable Divinity did not bow to the Ark but to God at the Ark Even so when occasionally your Christian Brother bowed at the Holy Table it was not to the Table or to the Altar but to his God he made his Adoration and that for the same reason which M. Perkins useth For there he hath made a promise of his presence There hath he enabled us vi promissi to say This is my Body this is my Blood Now that it is an act of superstition to worship God by bowing of the Body is a scruple in which I cannot be satisfied for as Mr. Perkins so think I The worship of the Body is called Aderation which stands in bowing of the knee bending or prostrating of the body the lifting up of the hands or eys A duty which the same reverend author proveth to be as himselfe speaketh altogether necessary and that for three irrefragable reasons 1. Because Love must not be conceived in the mind onely but also testified in the actions of the body 2. Christ redeemed both and therefore must be glorified with both And lastly Christ being an Head to the whose man for this cause not onely soule but body also must stand in subjection to Christ Many others might be added but it seemes to me vain to add a beam unto the sun Now if to worship by bowing of the knee prostrating the body and lifting up of hands or eyes by a duty lawfull yea altogether necessary no matter which way soever it be done still it

man a man as rationall is bound to suffer Now if it be so that honor and honesty hath so strong an influence upon a reasonable soule that Reason will perswade even the naturall man to prefer honor and honesty before life if property liberty and the Lawes of the Land are so deare to Subjects that even for them thousands have laid down their lives my great and grand scruple is whether bonum religiosum whether a religious good whether that which I verily believe tends to the good of Religion ought not to me a Christian and a Minister to be full as deare as any bonum honestum as any honest or mere secular good to me or any subject in the world And I professe to you upon the faith of a Christian be it sound or be it weak this is the principall ground and motive of all my losses and to support me I have these reasons 1. Corinth 9. If we have sowen unto you spirituall things is it a great thing if we shall reap your carnall things Between spirituall and carnall things the Apostle seems to make so despicable a difference that the one is not to be compared with the other carnall things secular and worldly interests they are not considerable if compared with things spirituall A cleare argument to me that no spirituall or religious performance ought to give way to any carnall end And such I conceive are all the muniments of Christian Religion such in particular a blamelesse Liturgie Secondly it is a rule amongst Casuists that man that suffers either for doing this or for bearing that in relation unto Christ and his glory that person is a sufferer in the cause of Christ as he that will not lie upon this ground because dishonourable to the Christian profession if he should be persecuted because he will not lie such an one though not in materia fidei yet because his restraint is for Christ and his glory he were persecuted for Christ his sake Whereas then in my poore judgement I am convinced there is no means generally more expedient for the advance of the glory of Christ and the preservation of the faith then a well composed and set form of Liturgie what ever I shall suffer for not rejecting this I shall confidently lay upon the score of my Saviour for as much as I therefore onely by suffering endeavour the defence of of this because I do verily beleeve Liturgy is the advance of his glory So that if a temporall good whose reward and encouragement cannot be but temporall can move a man to suffer much more a spirituall whose reward through the mercy of a gracious accepter may prove eternall For he who will not see a cup of cold water given for his sake lost neither will he forget the least of sufferings which relate to his glory Thirdly In suffering for spirituall muniments and for that only which relates to Christ onely and his glory there is no interest but God Almighties considered or concern'd But in suffering for temporall though publique good we have private ends and personall advantages of our owne so that it must be much more acceptable to God Almighty to suffer for spirituall that is his interest then for secular that is our own Fourthly If that Citizen be held an unworthy Member who will not spend his purse and paines for the priviledge of his Corporation and if that Country-clowne be held no good Townesman who will not stiffly maintain the Modus Decimandi The custome of h●s Towne certainly then that Minister hath a very low and poore estimate of that Liturgy which he subscrib'd unto a very unworthy esteem of the Catholique custome of the reformed Church of Christ that will without suffering betray his trust making lesse account of what Martyrs sealed with their blood then will a Citizen or a Countryman of a trifling priviledge or custome Fifthly Considering and inquiring after the elder times when such was the purity of intention that nothing but Christs glory was attended I cannot find that any thing in Religion was moulded unto State ends Si ecclesiasticum negotium sit nullam Communionem habento civiles Magistratus cum câ disceptatione sed Religiosissimi Episcopi secundum sacros Canones negotio fine imponuntom in Authentica Con. 123. Not to the civill Magistrate but to the Religious Bishops Justinian no lesse then an Emperour attributes and decrees the decision and determination of Ecclesiasticall affaires and certainly if there be any Ecclesiasticall Government as the Law speakes Cui jurisdictio data est ea quoque concessa esse intelliguntur sine quibus jurisdictio expleri non potuit To whom jurisdiction is committed all that must be granted without which he cannot exercise jurisdiction and that must needs be a directive and a coactive power Now impossible it seemes to me that those who have be they Prelates be they Presbyters or be they of what name or title soever our next new light shall call them I say it seems to me impossible that those who have this spirituall power should ever discharge their trust unlesse they resolve to suffer and to suffer precisely for the muniments and defence of the Church of Christ and the power of him committed to them for the impartiall and thorough executing of this charge cannot but displease great ones and flesh and blood is a bitter adversary so that indeed it will evidently appeare the decay of Discipline Liturgy and all the muniments of the Church they have therfore suffered because those who should have suffered for them would not And I beseech God this sin be not laid to our charge for my own particular I beseech God give me grace to say heartily as did some of the Martyrs though I cannot dispute I can suffer for him Sixthly For me to omit any act gesture or forme of worship which I beleeve or feel to be an advance to piety meerly from secular or private interest this in my judgement is to prefer a carnall thing before a spirituall to endeavour rather to please man then my God And indeed I could here with a great deale of truth and sadnesse relate unto you the serious and sharp complaints of such Ministers who professe their souls long after the Liturgy grieved at heart and as they pretend troubled at soule because they dare not use what they conceive much the better way A lamentable condition is the Church in when Ministers worship God with reluctancie and onely to save their stakes comply and do as the State would have them Lastly Forasmuch as the muniments of Religion are preservers of the dearest thing imaginable Gods glory and our soules welfare I do not know what I should suffer in defence of if not of these I lately reading as it fell proper to the day the fifth of Esay when I came to those dreadfull words I will take away thy hedge and it shall be eaten up break downe the wall and it shall be trodden downe