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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
book_n	church_n	scripture_n	word_n	7,766	5	4.4516	3	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26882	Catholick communion doubly defended by Dr. Owens, vindicator, and Richard Baxter and the state of that communion opened, and the questions discussed, whether there be any displeasure at sin, or repentance for it in Heaven : with a parallel of the case of using a faulty translation of Scripture, and a faulty lyturgy.	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1684 (1684)	Wing B1208; ESTC R11859	46,778	44

despise them but to receive them to our Communion as Christ receiveth us Rom. 14 15. Approving all so far that serve God in that which his Kingdom doth consist in Rom. 14. 17 18. VI. All Christians must earnestly oppose Divisions and Sects and sidings with Strife and Envy as a sign of Carnal Men and must labour to be perfectly joined together in the same mind and judgment and to glorify God with one mind and mouth 1 Cor. 1. 10. 3. 3 c. And must not forsake the assembling of themselves Heb. 10. 25. VII It is by Love that the whole Body of Christ must edify itself and win and overcome their Adversaries even those that curse and hate and persecute them as God doth good to the just and unjust Love being the most powerful Conquerour of Hearts Eph. 4. 15 16. Matth. 5. 44 c. VIII No excellency of one Party above others nor no faultiness of any Christians must be pretended against any duty of Love and Communion But we must not sin for Communion with any IX Though we must not by profession word or subscription own the sin of any Church we must join in their Communion in the Worship of God with those whose Worship is mixt with sin in matter and manner so it be not sin that is by its evil predominant against the good of the duty to make the work rejected of God like Poyson in our food which makes the hurt greater than the good because else we must neither Worship God our selves nor join with any in the world All the works of sinful men being mixt with sin To deny this is virtually to separate from all the Christian world X. Therefore our bare presence is no signification that we approve all that is done in that Assembly The very nature of Christian Communion is a profession of the contrary we being bound by God to communicate in good and not to own the evil And if men command us to own all that they there do their command cannot bind us against Gods nor make our presence a profession that we obey them against God It being God that is the Master of us and our work And Christianity itself being a profession that we obey God before Man Else Man by commanding us to own some ill word or circumstance might drive us from all Christian Communion If Men should command us in our private Meetings to do it for an ill end or an ill Principle as in Obedience to Usurpers we must not therefore forbear all private Meetings nor will our bare meeting signify our Obedience to such Commands If the Pastor of a single Church or many Associate tell the people your meeting must be to own e. g. Anabaptistry Antinomianism Presbytery Erastianism Separation c. this binds them not either to own it or to withdraw without some greater reason He is no Master of their Faith XI Nor will the bare knowing beforehand that the Pastor will say or do somewhat unlawful make our presence guilty of approving it We know before-hand that we and all Men are sinners and shall sin in what we do And we may suppose Men will speak as they think And as we know not but any Man may speak amiss till we hear what he saith so when we know that the Pastors have tolerable Errours and will vent them it will not make us guilty of their sin nor bind us to depart We meet to own Christianity and not all that the Man will say or do known or unknown I know before that I shall have many faults in my own Prayer disorder dulness c. which I do not own though herein I am guilty XII Yet no Man should prefer worse before better if all things set together it be better indeed to the Person at that time XIII God hath by his Son Iesus and his Apostles instituted all that in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Conversation which is obligatory or necessary Universally to all the Church over and above what is required by the Law of Nature And no Man or Men have power to add any thing of universal obligation XIV God hath by Nature and Scripture obliged Men themselves to choose and determine divers subordinate expressions significations modes circumstances or accidents of this universal Religion which are not themselves meet for an universal and unchangeable obligation but local temporary and mutable Some of which every Man may choose for himself some the present Pastor must choose some the associated Pastors may choose and some the Magistrate may choose These must be added to the universal Duties so far is such addition from being sin I have often named many particulars As the Translation of the Scripture which to choose The version of the Psalms in rithme or metre the common use of new made Hymns the dividing the Scripture into Chapter and Verse the words of Sermons their method the particular Text to be chosen what Chapters to read at what hour to begin how long to Preach in what words to pray whether the same oft or changed whether fore-studied or not whether written or unwritten whether studied and written by our selves or by others where the place shall be where the Pulpit Font Table c. shall stand what Ornaments they shall have Linnen Silk silver Vessels or otherwise Whether we be bare-headed or covered at Prayer Sacrament c. Whether we shall kneel stand sit or be prostrate at Prayer c. what distinctive Garments Pastors shall use By what signs of consent and obligation Men vow and swear whether by putting the hand under the Thigh lifting it up subscribing laying it on the Book kissing the Book c. what Catechisms to use with many more such God hath commanded men to choose such things as these by the Rules of Edification Love Peace Concord Order Decency winning those without c. XV. These may be called Worship in a sense subservient to Gods Ordinances of Worship as we Worship Men by putting off the Hat kneeling bowing c But if any will not call it Worship they must not call it false Worship nor pretend that the Controversy is any more than about the bare name XVI They that feign such things as these to be sinful additions and an invading of Christs Office and denying his faithfulness c. condemn the Scripture that commandeth such determinations and contradict the Law of Nature and the practice of all Churches on Earth and would exterminate all Gods Worship which cannot be performed without some such determinations XVII As God hath not tied us to words in Prayer or Preaching though he have recorded many forms in Scripture but left all to choose what words time and circumstances make fit by Book or without so the conveniences and inconveniences both of set forms and of free speaking are on each part so great and undenyable that we have no cause to censure that Church which useth both that is which agreeth on a set form to

name Dr. O. in my Cure of Church Divisions or his Books I told you great reasons against it what now you call a brave advantage would have been otherwise called by yours I was not inclined to note a little evil among much good If you cannot see the Doctors Arguments there answered by me I cannot help that Must. I transcribe them to convince you Pag. 177. D●r 32. Obj. Where hath God given any men power to prescribe impost Forms for others or commandea others to obey them Read the answer pag. 178 179 180. At least not on Ministers p. 181. Christ hath given gifts to all his Ministers and commanded them to use them They use them not when they use imposed Forms So pag. 190. p. 196. of approving of sin and signifying Consent by joyning More fully p. 201. And in my Christ. Direct If you never found these Arguments there answered in Dr. O. Book I cannot help that others have Pag. 11. I thought you had known how usual it is to speak to the second person in answering Books many hundred years old If not you have free leave to take it for my folly I 'le not contend with Quakers whether we should say You or Thou nor with you whether it be better to say Him or You. You say It displeaseth him not Pag. 15. If numbring mens Errours used to do hurt be worse than committing or defending them I mistook Pag. 16. I consent that you do so by me so you speak nothing but truth 2. Repentance is a hard work and the impenitent impatient therefore we all suffer what we do Pag. 17. My Pleas for Peace have been all ill taken by the other side And which of you therefore were so offended at them 2. I am sorry that you seign the healing Parliament to have disowned our Repentance I preacht to the Parliament but once and it was for Repentance I have oft publickly accused my self and I hope I break not the Act of Oblivion by it They forbad reproaching and troubling one another but not remembring our sin nor seeling when we suffer nor asking what caused it to stop the like again if not for a cu●e But dear Brother do you not know that it was your divulged Writing that rubb'd upon the sort and broke the Act of Oblivion if this be breaking it Did it not tell what work the imposing the Lyturgy had made against Reformation for Ignorance Rtviling and Reproaching the Spirit sit up ungifted Ministers made great disolations in the Church silencing painful Ministers ruining Families destroying Souls c. Do you think this broke the Act of Oblivion or is condemned by the healing Parliament or doth nothing break it but on one side Look on both sides and tell me how such Arguments misused should be answered but by shewing that there was danger and ill effects also on the contrary extream Did the Parliament forbid one side only this Commemoration I pray you if but one side may be called to Repent let it be us that we may be forgiven Pag. 18. If you know not that the Principles of Separation were the great cause in Armies and elsewhere of the subversions and confusions which brought us to what we have felt I do And you would not at once live under the fruit of it as we now do and I yet make so light of it as to take it for a noli me tangere if it had cost you as many painful days and nights as many ungrateful disputes as many groans and tears and as much blood as it hath done me And how little is my part to that which England cotland and Ireland hath suffered even by that cause conjunct with Pride and Ambition these sourty years If I may not have leave to say as Bradford Repent O England you should give me leave to Repent my self that ever I preacht one Sermon with any byass of overmuch desire to please Persons of the accusing separating humour Pag. 19. I said of our late overturnings in England that all this is publickly known Many late Volumes on both sides record it were it but Whitlocks Memorials it were enough The Nations ring of it and I have ost lamented it heretofore and you mistaking all this seign me to say that the passages debated in Dr. Owens Papers and his words were all known before and so bestow many reproofs upon a fiction of your own Pag. 20. You would put such terms upon me in dispute a Veron devised to put on the Protestants I must oppose his Doctrine only as in the Syllables written Accidentals in Worship signify you think at least an Integral Part. Doth in turn Accidents into parts Are Accidents parts because Inherent Are not your Quality Quantities Immanent Acts Passions c. inherent Is not Kneeting putting off the Hat Methods Translations Meeter Tunes c. in the Worship of God And is it unlawful because in it If it be therefore a part of Worship you must conclude that either all these are unlawful or that it 's lawful for men to make parts of Gods Worship 2. Are all things duly belonging to it parts of it I believe you own none of this your self Pag. 21. The Doctors 7th Argument was that this practice condemneth the suffering Saints of the present age rendring them false Witnesses of God I answered Let us not stand to any dividing Principle or Cause lest the Saints be blamed that have fathered it in God I used the word Saints but as repeating his own phrase And this you make to have better become the Observator Is not this partiality May the Argument use a term which the answerer may not repeat And dear Brother is it not a sad case if among the many ill causes fathered on God any or all of them should say We must not repent ●or amend lest we be blamed as false Witnesses of God Pag. 22. Sir if telling me of any sin that ensnareth Souls be using me more scornfully then the most virulent adversaries spare me not but use me so wo to me if Repentance become odious and intolerable But I must stop lest I cross my purpose of not writing for my self but you The conclusion of all is dear Brethren the longer I study the Gospel and the longer I live in the world the more fully I am Convinced that Love is the great work of the Spirit and the Men that Love most are the best Men and those the worst that have least love And I would write in golden Letters as my Motto GOD IS LOVE and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him And if Christians loved no more than others they would be no better than they And that Love desireth union and familiarity and that censoriousness contempt and flying from each other both signify and breed hatred Could we but so live as to make all our Enemies believe that we heartily love them it would conquer their enmity and tie their Hands and Tongues by reconciling

Bishop of Lincoln the Bishop of Hereford Dr. Peter Moulin Dr. Stillingfleet and many more have done is known Your Mr. Mat. M●ad once commended a Conformist for a Benefice to me with these words I take him to be the holiest Man I know I have loved him the better ever since for his Candor Charity and Impartiality SECT 6. An Expository Advertisement about naming faulty Persons AS all men ought to have a just regard of their own and their neighbours reputations so the over-much tenderness of the guilty and the proud doth make it a matter of much difficulty for an impartial man to know whether and when he should name or make known the persons whom he doth oppose or blame Though the resolution seem easie both to them that have no charity to caution them and to them that will do no duty that displeaseth others Being called to review my own practice in this I shall give the World an account First of my Judgment in it and then of my doings I. I take such a nomination to be a duty in these cases following 1. In case of necessary defence of the Truth against some dangerous Errour of some men otherwise pious and tolerable the greatest Pillars of the Church have usually named them I hope all those Iudaizers that Paul so sharply writeth against were not in a state of damn●tion Doubtless Peter and Barnabas were not Gal. 2. nor I hope Demas nor all the rest that he saith were not like-minded to Timothy but sought their own and not the things of Jesus Christ And I hope the like of Diotrephes much more assuredly of Iohn that blamed him though that beloved Disciple is thrice named as culpable seeking to be greatest and offering to call for Fire from Heaven and forbidding one to do Miracles in Christs Name And Peter oft and once tremendously Matth. 16. rebuk't by Christ. The sins of Noah and his Sons Lot and his Wife and Daughters Sarah Abraham Isaac Iacob and his Sons Moses Aaron Miriam many Judges Eli David Solomon Rehoboam Asa Hezekiah Iosiah and many more are left on Record in Scripture with their names by him who is LOVE it self and hareth uncharitableness And though we believe not all that Bernard Walaf Strabo and such others though good men believed of Peter Bruis Henricus and other Albigenses Waldenses and Bobemians much less all that Tho. Waldensis saith against Wickliss the wisest Reformers have seen cause to mention some of their mistakes Luthers first mistakes while he disowned not the Papacy and his after sharpness against Carolostadius and Zuinglius are recorded by many that dislike them as he recordeth his distaste of those aforesaid and many more whom he dissented from All that are contradicted by name are not taken by sober men to be graceless or intolerable Swenkfeldius was a man of honour and his Character was that he had an honest heart but not a regulated head and yet the generality of Reformers cryed down his Errours and Sect. The Calvinists write for Communion with the Lutherans and the Moderate Lutherans love the Calvinists yet they write against each other by name as too many Volumes openly shew George Major was a wise and good man though Schlusselburgius and such others number him and his followers as Hereticks as Ca●●vi●● doth the Calixtines Nicholas Gallus and Am●sdorsius were noted Divines and Century Writers though they so used Major and maintained that Good works are not necessary to Salvation for which wiser men did write against them Mat. Flac. Illyricus the chief Century Writer was a Learned Zealous Protestant and yet many more than Melancthon and Beza have left as a blot upon his name that he was so fierce against Ceremonies and unpeaceable and that he maintained that Original Sin is the substance of the Soul Andrew Osiander was a very Learned Protestant high in favour with his Prince yet he and all his followers greatly opposed by the Orthodox Reformers for maintaining that we are justified by Gods Essential Righteousness made ours And Fu●ccius sped the worse for following him though it was for State-Councils that he died How high a Character doth Melancthon and many other the greatest Divines give of Hubertus Languetus as an Honourable Learned Pious Excellent Man and yet it 's now scarce denyed but it was he that wrote Iunius B●●tus though it was long falsly charged on Beza and the Noble ●● Plessis Doubtless Cassander Erasmus Wicelius and Gr●tius were men of great worth that yet for peace owned the Roman Church and Corruptions so far as is not to be justified or overlookt All the Germane Prophets or Fanaticks that Chr. Beckmans Exercitations name and copiously confute were not ungodly or intolerable men Whatever the Pa●●c●lsians Weig●lians and many of the rest were I know not but sure Th●ulerus was a godly man and Grotius commendeth Iohn Ar●di and his followers as men of piety and peace and notwithstanding his vain affected words Iacob Behmen seemed a pious man and I loved many of his chief Followers in England of my acquaintance because their Spirit and Writings were all for Love and Peace and their difficult Gibberish made me fearless of their multiplying or ever doing any great hurt And the Papists quite out-do us in naming their Opponents and their Errours and yet not renouncing Communion with them but keeping them in the bosom of their Church as whole loads of Books written by the Schoolmen and several Sects and Orders against each other shew And specially the Controversies between the Seculars and Regulars sharply handled by Watson in his Quodlibits and divers others And newly Peter Walsh that calls himself Valesius and S●rjeants and his Blaklows Controversies tell us more But none more than the Jesuists and Jansenists did we differ about half as many and weighty points as are recited in the Iesuites Morals and their Charge against the Iansenists we should scarce think each other fit to be Members of one Communion And naming Opponents is oft necessary to make the Reader know what Books we write against for distinction sake 2. And there is yet another great cause of naming faulty men both otherwise godly and heretical The Duty of a Publick or National Repentance oft requireth the mention of publick sins and sinners specially if they be our own God long forbeareth the publick National sins of Ancestors to see if Posterity who are the same Na●ion though not the same Persons will prevent his Judgments by Repentance In which case they must confess their own and their Fore Fathers sins This was the due practice of the Church of Old as Psal. 78. 107. and many other shew and the prayers of Ezra Daniel and others they named many and bewailed more of their National and Fore Fathers sins and if they do not Christ will name them for them as he did the blood shed from Abels till Zach●rias and will revenge all together on the Impenitent Generation Matth. 23. It was not to call dead