Selected quad for the lemma: world_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
world_n	catholic_n	church_n	universal_a	3,343	5	9.1066	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29078	Vox populi, or, The sense of the sober lay-men of the Church of England concerning the heads proposed in His Majesties commission to the Convocation.	Boyse, J. (Joseph), 1660-1728.	1690 (1690)	Wing B4084; ESTC R19826	46,104	48

stile them our most Religious and Gracious ones and that in the Church too don't look like that Reverence we have been taught to bear towards Crowned Heads True indeed the Israelites once did pronounce several of these Curses on Mount Ebal with an Amen but this was by virtue of an express Command from God and this might be suitable enough to a Legal Spirit to the rough and sowre dispensation of the Law but not to the calm kind and peaceable Institution of the Gospel which is soft and gentle as the wings of that Dove that lighted on the head of him who was the Author of it Having consider'd the Liturgy we proceed to take notice of those Rites and Ceremonies of our Worship which His Majesty hath join'd with it and concerning which he says That being things in their own nature indifferent and alterable and so acknowledged it is but reasonable that upon weighty and important Considerations c. Now it being confess'd on all hands that they are things alterable and indifferent in their own nature we are all of us of the mind that many unanswerable Reasons may be urg'd for their utter removal and their being totally laid aside such as are the dangers and hazards to which they have already expos'd our Church the fatal Divisions the unnatural and implacable animosities they have occasioned and continue to foment the obligations that we lie under from the Commands and Examples of Christ and his Apostles to yield in things of so small moment to the invincible scruples and the earnest importunities of our weaker Brethren as well as many others that have been alledged and inforced by many Learned Pens We cannot tell how to excuse the conduct of those persons who notwithstanding all the respect they owe to a Gracious Prince their Duties to God and their scrupulous fellow-Christians will evidently lay open both the Church and State to an unavoidable Ruin rather than depart from the Imposition and Use of such Rites no more than we could have justified St. John the Baptist if he had fallen a Sacrifice to the fury of Herod meerly because he would not administer Baptism without his Raiment of Camel● h●ir and his leathern Girdle We cannot blame the Piety and Wisdom of our first Reformers who introduced and continued these to avoid throwing the Nation that was then over-run with Superstition into great and deadly Convulsions but since these reasons are now ceas'd and very dismal inconveniences do attend their present use we do think it better to throw them by than retain them It was necessary that when our Church first rose out of the Superstition Darkness and Idolatry in which she had been so long buried she should like Lazarus have some of the Grave-cloaths about her but if out of some odd Humour she should resolve still to wear them she would appear not only unlovely but ridiculous But lest we should seem to push this matter too far we shall only say That it is highly requisite that the use of them should be left indifferent that a strict Uniformity in these Rites is no longer necessary provided there be an Agreement in all the Essentials of her Doctrine and Worship and there are many Grounds that move us to insist on this viz. that they are but trivial things and of no moment that they neither add any real Decency and Beauty to our Worship nor render it more acceptable and pleasing to God besides there are many Persons in our Communion who are weary of them and many others who frequent our Churches that do either despise or smile at our rigorous insisting upon them P. 20. 22. for as the Letter concerning the Convocation well says The number of those who are addicted to them is not very great and the greatest part of the Nation are such as are not over-zealous and fond of them but might by the Method we offer be more firmly fixed to us There is a Body of Men who are still among us and attend in our Churches and at our Sacraments who do think our present Contests about these matters to be much like that which we about London saw managed between the Ladies and the Mobile about Top-knots the Rabble design'd to force them to lay them aside by Ballads Pictures and insolent Jeers but that S●x which uses to conquer by their Charms got the Victory now by Obstinacy and Resolution and the poor Top-knots have outlived their fury While we saw no prejudices arise to the Nation this afforded us a pleasant diversion but had the dispute run so high as to endanger an universal Mutiny and Insurrection we should have commended that Sex if they had prudently thrown them off and quitted the Field We do therefore judge That such things as these should no longer be imposed as terms of our Communion and such as will not submit to them may be esteemed as genuine Sons of our Church as those that do that this is a Season wherein these latter should be allowed as free an access to our Altars and Fonts as the other and that it is a condescention which we owe not only to our Blessed Saviour and those weak Disciples which he hath so tender a concern for but to the Safety and Honour of our Church as well as her present Constitution Of the Canons SInce the consideration of the greatest part of 'em will fall under the following Heads in His Majesty's Commission we shall confine these Remarks to a few of 'em that cannot be so conveniently rang'd under those Particulars The first Canon enjoins the maintaining the King's Supremacy over the Church of England in Causes Ecclesiastical Can. 1. And as that Canon declares all Foreign Power forasmuch as the same has no establishment by the Law of God to be justly taken away and abolish'd so that Doctrine should in all reason be disown'd and censur'd which so many Divines of our Church have endeavoured to def●nd and propagate in their publick Writings viz. That the Church Vniversal ought to be governed by the Decrees of General Councils and during the interval of such Councils the only way of Concord is to obey the Governing Part of the Universal Church viz. All the Bishops in one Regent College governing the whole Christian World per literas formatas Especially when on pretence of the easier Execution of these Universal Laws some of 'em have been so liberal to his Holiness as to assign that Province to him of Patriarch of the West and the Centre of Unity to this part of the Catholick Church And how much all the fierceness of Archbishops Laud and Bramhall Dr. Heylin Bishops Morley Gunning and Sparrow Dr. Saywell Mr. Dodwell c. against all Dissenters at home and their strange chilness to the Reformed Churches abroad is owing to a miserable fondness for this Notion as the hopeful ground of a Reconciliation between the Church of England and the French Church that has cast off the Papal Infallibility it