Selected quad for the lemma: book_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	faith_n	word_n	3,077	5	4.1931	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A70175	Wholesome severity reconciled with Christian liberty, or, The true resolution of a present controversie concerning liberty of conscience here you have the question stated, the middle way betwixt popish tyrannie and schismatizing liberty approved and also confirmed from Scripture and the testimonies of divines, yea of whole churches : the chiefe arguments and exceptions used in the bloudy tenent, The compassionate samaritane, M.S. to A.S. &c., examined : eight distinctions added for qualifying and clearing the whole matter : and in conclusion a parænetick to the five apologists for choosing accommodation rather than toleration.	Gillespie, George, 1613-1648.	1645 (1645)	Wing G765; ESTC R21730	38,146	48

which follow upon our slacknesse slownesse and sl●●thfulnesse in fulfilling that sacred Oath viz. The hindring of uniformity the continuing and increasing of a rup●ure both in Church and State the re●arding of Reformation the spreading and multiplying of Heresies and Sects while every one doth what is right in his owne eyes the great scandall given both to enemies and friends to enemies who are made to thinke worse of our Covenant because we doe not performe it The Review of the Covenant printed at Oxford upbraideth us with this that Heresie and Schisme was never more suffered and lesse suppressed in London then since we sware to endeavour the extirpation of the same To friends also who are mightily stumbled by our promising so much and performing so little in this kinde which the Wallachian Classis in their late Letter to the Reverend Assembly of Divines at Westminster printed before Apollonius his Booke doth sadly and seriously lay to our consciences A Paraenetick BEfore I end I have a word of exhortation for the five Apologists and such others as shall I trust agree with the Churches of both Kingdomes not only in one Confession of Faith but in one Directorie of Worship Me thinks I heare them calling to me to say on Et tu mi fili said Caesar And must you also brethren give a wound to the body of Christ Doe not O doe not involve your selves in the plea of Toleration with the Separatists and Anabaptists Do not partake in their Separation lest you partake in their suppression Let us heare no more Paraeneticks for Toleration or liberty of Conscience but as many as you will for a just and mercifull Accommodation a thing mentioned by that Author pa. 3. but not sought after If you be the Sonnes of peace you shall be characterized by this Shibboleth you will call for Accommodation not for Toleration for one way not for two Let there be no strife betweene us and you for we be brethren and is not the Canaanite and the Perizzite yet in the land O let it not be told in Gath nor published in the streets of Ashkelon Let it not be said that there can be no unity in the Church without Prelacy Brethren I charge you by the Roes and by the Hind●s of the field that ye awake not nor stirre up Jesus Christ till he please for his rest is sweet and glorious with his welbeloved It shall bee no griefe of heart to you afterward that you have pleased others as well as your selves and have stretched your principles for an Accommodation in Church government as well as in Worship and that for the Churches peace and edification and that the eares of our common enemies may tingle when it shall be said The Churches of Christ in England have rest and are edified and walking in the feare of the Lord and in the joy of the Holy Ghost are multiplyed Alas how shall our divisions and contentions hinder the preaching and learning of Christ and the edifying one another in love Is Christ divided saith the Apostle There is but one Christ yea the head and the body makes one Christ so that you cannot divide the body without dividing Christ Is there so much as a seame in all Christs garment Is it not woven throughout from the top to the bottome Will you have one halfe of Israel to follow Tibni and another halfe to follow Omri O brethren we shall be one in heaven let us packe up differences in this place of our pilgrimage the best way wee can Nay we will not despaire of unity in this world Hath not God promised to give us one heart and one way and that Ephraim shall not envy Judah and Judah shall not vexe Ephraim but they shall flee upon the shoulders of the Philistims toward the East they shall spoile them of the East together Hath not the Mediator whom the Father heareth alwayes prayed that all his may be one Brethren it is not impossible pray for it endeavour it presse hard toward the marke of Accommodation How much better is it that you be one with the other Reformed Churches though somewhat straitned and bound up then to bee divided though at full liberty and elbow-roome Better is a dry morsell and quietnesse therewith then a house full of sacrifices with strife Doth not the Solemne League and Covenant binde you sincerely really and constantly to endeavour the nearest marke nearest uniformi●y and conjunction in religion and that you shall not suffer your selves directly or indirectly to be withdrawne from this blessed union and conjunction I know there is a spirit of jealousie walking up and downe O beware of groundlesse feares and apprehensions Iudge not lest you be judged Iudge not according to appearance but judge righteous judgement Many false rumours and surmises there have beene concerning the Presbyterian principles practices designes Expertus l●quor I am perswaded if there were but a right understanding one of anothers intentions the Accommodation I speak of would not bee difficult Brethren if you will not hearken to wholsome counsell you shall be the more inexcusable I have in my eye that law of God Thou shalt not hate thy brother in thy heart thou shalt in any wise rebuke thy neighbour and not suffer sinne upon him Faithfull are the wounds of a friend Therefore love the truth and peace Yea seeke peace and pursue it Consider what I say The Lord guide your feet in the way of peace And O that God would put it in your hearts to cry downe Toleration and to cry up Accommodation Amen Amen FINIS See the Review of the Covenant In 2am 2● disp. 1. quaest. 11. punct. 3. * Brochmand de magist. polit. cap 2. quaest. 3. dub 2. Fatemur idololatras istos crassos qui a●●os seducunt ●●●dendos esse Et in●●a Haereticos qui è territorio principis exire jussi detrectant obsequium ac pacē publicam turbant vita plecti posse damus faciles Et infra Haereticos tanquam falsarios castigandos pu●endos esse censemus sed non morte verùm carcere exilio excommunicatime Vide Cal●in Refut error Mich. Serv●ti pag. 694. inter opusc. Scimus tres esse errorum gradus quibusdam fatemur dandam esse veniam aliis modicam castigationem suffic●re ut tantum manifesta impietas capital suppl●cio plectatur Fideles saepius Paulus ●ortatur ut se invicem tolerent quamvis aliqua sit inter eos dissensio nempe siqua levis superstitio inscitia simplicium men●es occupat ut ●am patientia corrigere potiùs studeant quàm intemperanter ad vindictam e●●erveant Secundum errorum genus etsi castigationem meretur mediocr●● tamen adhibenda est severi●as tantum ne indulgentiâ alatur eorum improbitas contumacia qui fidei unitatem scindere cuperent Sed ubi à s●is fundamentis convellitur religio detestandae in Deum

VVholsome Severity reconciled with CHRISTIAN LIBERTY OR The true Resolution of a present Controversie concerning Liberty of CONSCIENCE Here you have the Question stated the middle way betwixt Popish Tyrannie and Schismatizing Liberty approved and also confirmed from Scripture and the testimonies of Divines yea of whole Churches The chiefe Arguments and Exceptions used in The Bloudy Tenent The Compassionate Samaritane M. S. to A. S. c. examined Eight Distinctions added for qualifying and clearing the whole matter And in conclusion a Paraenetick to the five Apologists for choosing Accommodation rather then Toleration Imprimatur Ia. Cranford Decemb. 16. 1644. August contra primam Gaudentii Epist. c. 5. Absit autem ut ista persecutio dicenda sit hominum cum sit potius pro hominibus liberandis persecutio vitiorum qualem facit aegris etiam diligentia medicorum Idem contra Epist. Parmen. lib. 1. cap. 7. Prius enim preb●●● se non esse Haereticos vel Schismaticos ●●…m demum de indignis poenis suis lividam emittant vocem c. nos corporum persecutores vocant se animarum interfectores non vocant LONDON Printed for Christopher Meredith and are to be sold at the Signe of the Crane in Pauls Churchyard 1645. To the Christian and courteous Reader IT cannot be unknown to any except such as are ignorant of Satans devices and altogether strangers to the Histories of former times that when the Church commeth out of Idolatry and out of bitter servitude and grievous pressures of conscience all her storms are not over her head but she begins to be assaulted and afflicted more then before with heresies schismes and home-bred disturbances Which through the manifold wisdome and over-ruling dispensation of God who worketh all things according to the counsel of his will is Englands lot this day that this may be to those in whom the Lord hath no pleasure a stone of stumbling and a rock of offence that they may goe and fall backward and be broken snared and taken that others who are approved may be made manifest yea that many may be purified and tried and made white and that in the issue God may have the greater glory in making a soveraign remedy out of poysonfull Ingredients and his people may say blessed be the Lord God of Israel who only doth wondrous things But now will the Sectaries be contented as Christs witnesses in former times were to be examined and judged according to the word of God and if they be found to be what they are accused to be then to suffer accordingly Nay if so they fear they shall run too great a hazard Therefore they cry out for toleration and liberty of conscience hereby going about not only themselves to fish in troubled waters but to improve at once the manifold advantages of sympathising with the principles of the most part of men amongst us for as it is a common plea and bond of union among all hereticks and sectaries how many soever their divisions and subdivisions be among themselves yea they give in this the right hand of fellowship to the Prelaticall and malignant party for they also put in for liberty of conscience and as carnall and prophane men desire nothing more then that they may not be compelled to any religious duty but permitted to doe what seem good in their own eies So liberty of conscience is a sweet and taking word among the lesse discerning sort of godly people newly come out of the house of bondage out of the popish and Prelaticall tyranny I say the lesse discerning sort because those of the godly who have their senses exercised to discern good and evill know that liberty of heresie and schisme is no part of the liberty of conscience which Christ hath purchased to us at so dear a rate But is there no golden hook and taking bait for the Magistrate yes sure for his part he is told that he may punish any breach of peace or civill justice or a trespasse against the State and against civill authority but yet not put forth his power against any man for heresie or schisme being matters of religion and of conscience As if both Polititians and Divines had been in a great error when they said that the end and use of Magistracy is to make bonum hominem as well as bonum civem a good man as well as a good commonwealths man Shall I adde further that all who wish well to the publike from principles either of religion or policy want not here their own tentations perswading to a toleration of sectaries in regard of the necessity of an union against the common adversary and the great hazard if not certain ruine of the cause by our own ruptures Vnder these fair colours and handsome pretexts doe sectaries infuse their poyson I mean their pernicious God-provoking Truth-defacing Church ruinating State-shaking toleration The plain english of the question is this whether the Christian Magistrate be keeper of both Tables whether he ought to suppresse his own enemies but not Gods enemies and preserve his own ordinances but not Christs Ordinances frō violation Whether the troublers of Israel may be troubled Whether the wilde boars and beasts of the forest must have leave to break down the hedges of the Lords vineyard and whether ravening wolves in sheeps clothing must be permitted to converse freely in the flock of Christ Whether after the black Devil of Idolatry and tyranny is trod under our feet a white Devill of heresie and schisme under the name of tender consciences must be admitted to walk up and down among us Whether not only pious and peaceable men whom I shall never consent to persecute but those also who are as a pestilence or a Gangrene in the body of Christ men of corrupt minds and turbulent spirits who draw factions after them make a breach and rent in Israel resist the truth and reformation of religion spread abroad all the ways they can their pernicious errors and by no other means can be reduced whether those also ought to be spared and let alone I have endeavoured in this following discourse to vindicate the lawfull yea necessary use of the coercive power of the Christian Magistrate in suppressing and punishing hereticks and sectaries according as the degree of their offence and of the Churches danger shal require Which when I had done there came to my hands a book called The storming of Antichrist Indeed The recruting of Antichrist and the storming of Zion if so be that I may anabaptize an Anabaptists book Take one passage for instance pa. 25. And for Papists saith he though they are least to be borne of all others because of the uncertainty of their keeping faith with Hereticks as they call us and because they may be absolved of securements that can arise from the just solemn oaths and because of their cruelty against the Protestants in divers Countries where they get the upper hand and because they are