Selected quad for the lemma: virtue_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
virtue_n	act_n	authority_n	enact_v	904	5	10.1864	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A62458	A letter concerning the present state of religion amongst us	Thorndike, Herbert, 1598-1672.	1656 (1656)	Wing T1053; ESTC R5555	12,737	27

can no more be acknowledged by those that pretend to adhere to the Church of England then Belial by Christ or darknesse by light Hereby then you may conclude how to receive those whom the Presbyt●rians may send you for Pastors by any change in the secular Power For I charge not them that they do not beleeve the Church which they would be themselves I acknowledge that they secure you from all Sects but themselves But in as much as they maintain Praedestination to life onely in consideration of what Christ hath already done or suffered for the Elect in so much I say that they do not nor can Baptize into the Cross of Christ that is to say into the hope of Salvation in consideration of fighting against the flesh the world and the Devil for the keeping of Gods commandements under the profession of the Christian Faith For that which is absolutely due as salvation is due to the elect by the gift of Gods Praedestination cannot be burthened with any condition of Christianity afterwards And therefore that Baptisme is no effectual Baptisme before God if Baptisme received in the Church of England be such that is to say it is no Baptisme but by Equivocation of words in as much as the obligation of a mans Christianity is not declared or understood to take hold of him by vertue of it For seeing the hope of salvation which Christians have by their Baptisme is grounded upon the condition of their Christianity that Baptisme which promiseth salvation without providing for this condition is no Baptisme but by equivocation of words I say further that the change which they call Reformation visibly tends to introduce that monstrous imposture of two Sermons every Sabbath in stead of the daily and ordinary service of God together with the more solemn service of God upon Festivals and Lords daies and other extraordinary occasions which the Church of England with the whole Church of God from the beginning hath maintained so far as there was means to maintain it I will not here insist upon the order of Bishops and their chief power in their Dioceses as of Divine Right that is instituted and introduced by the Apostles Let The Presbyterians think themselves priviledged to erect altar against Altar upon so desperate a Plea as now they insist upon that the Presbyteries are rather of divine right then the chief Power of Bishops in their Dioceses I insist now onely that this Power of the Bishops was not against Gods Law which every man must grant me that acknowledges a Church in from the Reformation till now In this case they who to introduce this Christianity and this publick exercise of it transgressing that authority to which they were called by the visible act of the Church of England take upon them to share that Power from which they had their authority among themselves and to execute it by consent among themselves in their several precincts cannot be said to constitute a Church by vertue of any act of the Apostles or any authority derived from such act but by vertue of their own act as all Apostates and usurpers do That is to say that they do not constitute such a Church by being a member whereof a man may reasonably assure himself of salvation upon any principle of Christianity but such a Church as is indeed no Church unlesse it be by equivocation of termes but a conventicle of Schismaticks with misprision of the Heresy aforesaid And therefore their Priesthood is no Priesthood their Eucharist is no Eucharist unlesse it by equivo●ation of words but Sacrilege against Gods Ordinance Besides that what is requisite to the consecration thereof or wherein it consists they seem to be as secure of and as little to regard as the most ignorant of those sects into which the once common name of Puritans stands divided at this time Neither is it in any secular Power though never so unquestionable to cure these nullities and incapacities in the pretense upon which they take upon them to be a Church Though for the present they are not so much as authorized to the world by any priviledge or penalty enacted by any secular Power but onely protected by it That all the world may see that there is nothing but their own usurpation and the consent of those whom they have debauched to their Schisme whereby they subsist as a Church And that they will by vertue of their Original be as malignant to any secular Power that shall not maintain and authorize them as ever they were to that which they have destroyed to introduce this shadow of a Church If it be objected that your Estates will be liable to Penalties that may be enacted against those that withdraw from the exercise of the Religion publickly held forth To this I have no answer but that wee are to obey God rather then man to prefer the next world before this and to bear Christs Crosse if we expect his kingdom Onely thus much I must observe that these Laws proceed from a profession that it is not lawful to force mens Consciences in matter of religion by penalties And therefore though the Praelatical party are not protected in the exercise of their Religion yet cannot they be punished for it but by denying that which is declared upon the publick Faith Besides acknowledging the Christian Religion contained in the Scriptures and professing faith in God by Jesus Christ they are as much qualified for protection as those that are protected by the act of establishment And not to allow the exercise of that Religion the profession whereof is not disallowed seems to bee to forbid men to be Christians who are not forbidden to be such Christians and to expose them to popular tumult contrary to the publick peace whom no Law punishes If the Papists continue neverthelesse liable to former Penalties perhaps it is because they are reputed Idolaters But because these laws and the profession from whence they proceed may change I must confesse you cannot follow my advice but that your estate may become questionable Neither would I give it could I assure you of the kingdom of heaven otherwise If you demand what means I can shew you to exercise your Religion withdrawing from the means which these Acts provide I answer that there are hitherto every where of the Clergie that adhere to the Church who will finde it their duty to see your infants Christned your children Catechised the Eucharist communicated to all thar shall withdraw from Churches forcibly possessed by them whom you own not for Pastors And if they cannot continually minister to you so dispersed the ordinary Offices of Gods service you have the Service of God according to the Order of the Church you have the Scriptures to read for part of it you have store of Sermons manifestly allowed by the Church to read you have Prayers prescribed for all your own necessiti●s and the necessities of the Church To serve God with these in private with such as depend upon you and are of the same judgement with you leaving out what belongs to the Priests office to say I do to the best of my judgement beleeve an acceptable sacrifice to God which you cannot offer at the Church in such case And though I censure not my brethren of the Clergy that think fit to comply with the power which we are under in holding or coming by their Benefices I suppose in respect of their slocks rather then to their fruits yet if they beleeve themselves and their flocks to be members of Gods Church by being members of the Church of England they must needs beleeve those flocks that acknowledge such Pastors to be members of no Church and therefore acknowledge you and own your departure and declare themselves to their own flocks and instruct them to do the like when the like case falls out And so the resusing to hear the voice of strangers will unite us to make a flock under those whom we acknowledge our lawful Pastors I have found my self pressed to Print Copies hereof for mine own use thereby to declare thus much of my judgement to you and to the rest of my friends because the consequence of owning such men for your Pastors will be to make us members of several Churches Which must disable me to do any office of a Clergy man towards you unlesse it be the prosecuting of this by shewing you further reasons to justify what I say here and to reduce you to it Though it shall alwayes be my study faithfully to serve my kinred and friends in all Offices of civility And I hope they will consider what appearance there is that any thing should move me to make my self liable to so much harm as the publick declaring of this opinion will make me liable to but the discharge of my conscience to God and them as the case shall require me to discharge it FINIS