Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	act_n	church_n	communion_n	1,604	5	9.1682	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42261	A perswasive to communion with the Church of England	Grove, Robert, 1634-1696.	1682 (1682)	Wing G2152; ESTC R13941	28,017	46

then our Ceremonies though they should be never so significant cannot be Sacraments because they want so many Necessary and Essential conditions that are required to make a Sacrament They are not of Divine Ordination and Appointment they are of no efficacy to confer any Grace neither are they any Pledges and Assurances of it But suppose we should grant every significant Ceremony to be a Sacrament for it is neither pleasant nor profitable to quarrel about Words There is but one of the Three Ceremonies and that is the Cross at Baptism that can be pretended to be significant and that indeed is made In token that the party newly baptized shall not hereafter be ashamed to confess the faith of Christ crucified c. But this sign of the Cross was very anciently if not always used at Baptism and upon several other occasions by the Primitive Christians in desiance of all sorts of Infidels and as we do it in Token that they were not ashamed of a crucified Saviour Our Church in this does but follow the example of the purest and holiest Professors of the Gospel that ever were and that but at a distance too in doing that but once which they repeated often And this can scarce be called a Significant Ceremony It is not appointed to Represent any thing unto us but only to remind us of a Duty we are bound to do Like the Altar that was built by the Children of Reuben and Gad and the half Tribe of Manasseh Not for burnt-offering nor for sacrifice but that it might be a Witness And if any one should think the Surplice were ordered to be worn to denote the innocency of Life that does more especially become those that are particularly devoted to the Service of God it is more than our Church has declared but yet no man were to be blamed that should take occasion from hence to let his thoughts expatiate into a pious and seasonable Meditation and consider how incongruous it would be to have his inward parts full of filtheness and corruption when his outside was covered with a clean white Linnen Garment The Sum is every significant Ceremony is not a Sacrament and none of ours can be properly said to be significant representing symbolical but only Commemorating or if any man please to call them so Professing signs But though they cannot be proved to be Sacraments yet they may be Superstitious and that is Objection enough against them And I confess that they may be Superstitious but not in themselves for so they are perfectly Indifferent but according to the Opinion or Conceit of those that use them or use them not There may be Superstition in the Observing of these and there may be as much in the forbearing Superstition is nothing but a groundless Fancy attended sometimes with an anxious Fear and sometimes with a fond Hope that God is pleased or displeased with the bare performance or forbearance of what he hath neither Commanded nor Forbidden He therefore that thinks he offends God in doing of that he has not Forbidden and he that imagines he shall please him by the observing of what he has not Commanded are both in some degree and it may be equally Superstitious And then the Superstition that is exercised about the Observation of these Ceremonies must lie on the part of our Dissenting Brethren who think they should Sin in keeping them though they generally confess they are not Forbidden and not on ours who declare them to be Indifferent and no otherwise acceptable unto God but as they are the effects of Obedience to our Superiours and necessary to the preservation of Discipline and Order in the Church But it is farther urged by some that these Ceremonies are a Breach of our Christian Liberty I need not enter upon a Discourse of this but as far as it concerns the matter in hand I say That the being freed from the Ceremonial Law is a part though not the greatest part of Christian Liberty but then it is not so much our being freed from observing it as from the Necessity of observing it The Apostles and first Christians did voluntarily observe it for some time upon Prudential Considerations and imposed some things as the abstaining from bloud and from things strangled and yet they were Free because whatever they did of this Nature they did it not with an Opinion of any Necessary obligation that lay upon them to do it but upon other Motives most commonly out of condescension to the weakness of the Jewish Converts And if some Judaical Rites might not only be observed but imposed then there can be no reason why a few Indifferent Ceremonies may not be appointed now without any intrenchment upon the Liberty which Christ has purchased for us Such things cannot be an infringment of that but only when they are supposed to be either Unlawful or Necessary by Divine Command Kneeling at the Sacrament which is the Ceremony that is wont to be the most scrupled is as little liable to the Objections that I have now answered as either of the other It would be very uncharitable and unjust to say as some have done that it is an Act of Worship to the outward Elements when the Church has declared this to be Idolatry to be abhorred of all faithful Christians If it should be said that we ought to receive in the same posture that they received at the first Institution We cannot certainly tell what that was If it were that which is most probably Conjectured it is never used it is wholly laid aside by those that argue the most Zealously for it But sure if the particular Gesture had been so absolutely necessary as some do imagine there would have been some plain and express mention of it somewhere in the Scripture which there is not as I have noted before And then it must be very unwarrantable in those that Separate from our Church because they will not receive in that reverent manner which She has prescribed If there had been nothing injoyned in this matter a Man upon a serious apprehension of the infinite mercies of God through the merits and mediation of his blessed Saviour could scarce have forborn falling upon his Knees when he came to partake of the Sacrament of his most precious Body and Blood The commemoration of the Death and Passion of the Son of God by which he was Redeemed would strike him almost naturally into the humblest posture of Adoration But if any reverence be granted to be due at such a time I am sure sitting at the Table is a very unfit posture to express it Or if any Man should like it better than that which is required with us yet to make this an occasion of departing from our Communion would argue but too little value for the peace of the Church But some there are who though they be convinced of the Lawfulness of all these Rites and Usages and for their own particular could

all of them together are of force enough to move an unprejudiced Person to forsake her Communion It may not be done upon the account of Liturgy Ceremonies Scandal mixt Communion or out of hopes of greater Edification I might have easily inlarged upon all these particulars but the compass of my present Design would not allow it And I have some hopes that these and other points in difference may be handled by others to better advantage and to the satisfaction of those that are not yet convinced and to the happy settlement of a lasting Peace and Vnion among all the Members of this divided Church God grant that all our indeavours may tend this way and that the Divine Goodness may make them Successful If these Papers should chance to fall into the hands of any one of those that have Separated from us I would intreat him not to be Offended at them but to look upon the Author as a well-meaning Man that was willing to throw a little Water upon the common flame that is like to consume us They were not written I am sure with any bitterness of Mind or Expression but out of meer pitty to see a poor lamentable distressed Church languishing away and ready to perish by desperate Wounds and Convulsions within her own Bowells Such sad and Melancholy thoughts as these apprehensions must needs occasion could scarce be vented in angry and provoking Language But some are so tender of the Opinions they have taken up that whether true or false they cannot indure to have them touched They are impatient of the calmest Opposition and when you offer any thing to perswade them though it should be to brotherly Love and Peace among Christians they suspect you for an Enemy and think that you come to set traps in their way to insnare their Consciences But I hope this short Discourse will not be incountered by any such Prejudice but that it may be perused with the same Impartiality that it was written On this presumption I shall be bold to exhort all those that now Dissent to a Brotherly Vnion upon such motives and arguments as the Gospel suggests and make for the Credit and Safety of the Protestant Religion It will be readily acknowledged by every so ber and intelligent men that Peace and Amity and a good Correspondence betwixt the several Members of which they consist is the only Beauty Strength and Security of all Societies and on the contrary that the nourishing of Animosities and running into opposite Parties and Factions does mightily weaken and by degrees almost unavoidably draw on the Ruin and Dissolution of any Community whether Civil or Sacred Concord and Union therefore will be as necessary for the Preservation of the Church as of the State It has been known by too sad an Experience as well in ours as other Ages what a pernicious Influence the intestine Broils and Quarrels among Christians have had They have been the great stumbing Block to Jews Turks and Heathens and the main hinderance of their Conversion they have made some among our selves to become Doubtful and Sceptical in their Religion they have led others into many dangerous Errours that shake the very Foundations of our Faith and some they have tempted to cast off the Natural sense they had of the Deity and imboldened to an open and professed Atheism These are some of the most usual Fruits which the unhappy Differences in the Church are wont to produce over and above the particular Unkindnesses and uncharitable Feuds which they commonly beget among Christians of the same Perswasion as to all substantial and weighty matters of Belief And it were a thing very desirable in all respects that these at least should be all firmly United in the same holy Communion They that have the same Articles of Faith and hope to meet in the same Heaven through the Merits of the same Lord should not be afraid to come into the same Assemblies and join seriously in sending up the same Prayers and participating of the same Sacraments Besides the many strict Precepts and other strong Obligations which we have unto this our Saviour Died that he might gather together in One the Children of God that were scattered abroad And should we not then contradict this end of his Death if we should set those at Strife and Variance which he intended to Vnite Nay might we not be said in some sort to Crucifie the Son of God afresh if we should Mangle and Divide any sound and healthful part of that Body of which he owns himself to be the Head If indeed our Church did require us to make profession of any false and erroneous Opinions if in the external Order and Worship we were injoined to do any thing contrary to any Divine Command we were bound in such Instances to withdraw from her But if her Doctrine be highly approved by most of our Dissenting Brethren and her Discipline and Service such as is not any way inconsistent with any Law of God then we are indispensably ingaged to join in Communion with her For as has been intimated several times and it cannot be inculcated too often Nothing but the Unlawfulness of Communicating can make a Separation Lawful But if it be resolved that the Church of England must be forsaken notwithstanding that neither her Doctrine nor Discipline can be justly condemned it would yet be convenient to bethink our selves what might be the most advisable to be done after we had left it Whether we should set up another way of Administration in the room of it Or whether every one should have the Liberty of following that which he fancied the best If we are for the setting up another way it must be either Presbytery or Independency For if there should be any other new Forms of Government they are not yet of Reputation enough to be put in Competition with these two great Pretenders to Divine Right And Presbytery which had once the fairest hopes of establishing it self is now grown weak and inconsiderable in comparison of what it was and those few which would still be thought of that Perswasion are manifestly departed from their own Principles and are fain to support themselves by Gathered Assemblies which they were not wont to allow Independency therefore seems at this time to be the prevailing way but their manner of Gathering Members and Associating themselves into particular Congregations their holy Band special Agreement or Covenant which they make essential to the Constituting of a Church are things which have not the least foundation in the holy Scriptures neither were they ever Countenanced by the practice of any Orthodox Christians in former Ages But put the case we should admit of either of these Forms of Discipline and Government we should be as far if not farther from being Vnited than we are now For they have both been known to have been very rigorous Imposers wherever they have had the Power of Commanding and as they have sometimes been