Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	apostle_n	church_n	creed_n	1,331	5	10.2664	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A27173	A sermon preach'd before the right honourable the Lord Mayor and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall, December the 27th, 1685 / by Luke Beaulieu ...	Beaulieu, Luke, 1644 or 5-1723.	1686 (1686)	Wing B1577; ESTC R16491	13,439	28

the sense of the Text and shew its design and reprove some mistakes about it First then to contend for the Faith includes the making an open and constant profession of it Not any ways to dissemble or detain the Truth in unrighteousness for any advantage in the World or for fear of Persecution like these false and dissembling Gnosticks who rather than venture any thing would say as others said and comply with false Religions sooner than expose themselves to danger The Apostle contrariwise would have Christians own what they were Confess Christ before men and not be ashamed for his Testimony As they believed in their hearts so to confess with their mouth as St. Paul speaks Or in words of St. Peter to be ready always with meekness to give an answer of the reason of the hope that was in them This is the duty of every man who is serious and upright in his Religion He is not to model it according to conveniences or to choose that which is most safe and profitable but as he is led by his conscience and his understanding so to act and declare himself For every one who doth not trifle with God and his own Soul doth believe that his Salvation depends upon his choice of the true Religion and that he must be faithful unto death to receive the crown of life And then upon this persuasion he never consults what is like to be the event but it is his Duty and his great Interest to embrace this Truth and to make profession of it and accordingly he acts and leaves the success to God But then hereupon we must observe these three things First That it should be the Faith once delivered to the Saints we so stedfastly adhere to That which hath the attestation of the Universal Church from the beginning and hath been accounted fundamental necessary to Salvation and so held universally as the Apostles Creed confirm'd and explain'd by the Primitive Councils That we should faithfully cleave to Rather affect to prove our selves Christians by our firm adherence to that Faith wherein we were baptized and which we profess living and dying together with the rest of the Christian Church I say rather lay the great stress upon this than upon others more uncertain and controverted Opinions which beget new denominations and much uncharitableness It is not our humours nor private fancies nor the Disputes of the Schools the Assertions of imperious Dogmatists nor the Decisions of latter Synods we are thus earnestly to maintain and to contend for but the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is never to change nor to increase and which good men hoped to be sav'd by for more than a thousand years together There is no new Revelation from God no new way to Heaven to be discover'd that which sufficed before Trent or Lateran or Dort is still sufficient That which hath been done or decreed in latter-ages is not the Faith of our common Salvation and not to be contended for with the same earnestness There are indeed Articles of Peace and terms of Communion in every particular Church the needs of Religious Societies and the Laws of Christian Magistrates make these useful and of great necessity a due regard is to be had to them and a good man is oblig'd to conform in every thing which God hath not forbidden But yet these are not of the same moment as Articles of Faith For instance That there is no Roman Purgatory although I firmly believe it as it is declared by our Church yet that cannot be so certain nor of so great an interest to me as what God himself hath revealed with the greatest perspicuity that the blood of Jesus Christ cleanseth us from all sin And accordingly I am not to be so intent nor so concern'd in the denying of the one as in the professing and believing of the other Would Christians of different Communions thus distinguish between the Divine and saving Article which is a point of Christian Faith and the human decision and constitution it would much contribute to make up the breaches of Christendom and qualifie that mischevous and persecuting Zeal which lays a greater weight upon difference of Opinions than upon unity of the same Creed For the most part our loudest contentions are about that which is less material and more disputable contrary to St. Jude who would have us be earnest for what is essential the Faith once delivered to the Saints which is to be contended for not because it is ours and so to be maintain'd with anger and impatience of contradiction as we do those Opinions we are wedded to but because it is God's deliver'd by our Blessed Lord to the Primitive Saints for the common Salvation of Mankind Then if any deny and deprave that Faith they forfeit the benefits of it which are infinite and so are great losers and much to be pitied And if we our selves embrace and keep it stedfastly to the end we shall obtain the end thereof even the Salvation of our Souls And that 's enough to engage us to make a free and constant profession of it as long as we live Secondly This contending for the Faith by an open Profession is so far from including any thing of sighting or violence for the defence of Religion that it signifies the quite contrary the utmost meekness and patience in suffering for the Truth Many are very apt and forward to contend for their Faith or rather their Faction by a Zeal of opposition which is commonly violent and prompts men to clamour and rail to persecute and to shed blood Hatred Injustice Cruelty even Rebellion the most mischevous and worst of all Crimes are pretended to be all warranted when undertaken upon Religious accounts They think they may lawfully fight for what they call God's Cause and his quarrel But I say such men are not led by the Spirit of Christianity they follow the fierceness of their own and the dictates of their angry passions And this sort of Zeal hath ever been very pernicious to Mankind and destructive of Religion The Jews upon this Principle hated and destroy'd Christians with a mighty violence and in the same manner rebell'd against their Governours Their Zealots disturb'd the whole world and at last became a bloody scourge to themselves St Jude was too well acquainted with them and too well knew by his own experience the mischief of this sort of temper and of such proceedings to exhort Christian Converts to contend for Christ in that manner as the Jews did for Moses He knew that our Blessed Saviour would not let his Servants fight for him nor rescue him with the Sword from the hands of the Civil Magistrate That he told his Apostles they should not disturb nor oppose Princes but should be brought before Kings and Rulers for his names sake And that his promises of an Immortal Crown were not to fighting and martial courage upon his account but to meekness and patience and remaining

A SERMON PREACH'D Before the Right Honourable THE Lord Mayor AND THE Court of Aldermen At GVILD-HALL December the 27 th 1685. By LVKE BEAVLIEV B. D. Chaplain to the Right Honourable GEORGE Lord JEFFREYS Lord High Chancellor of England and one of the Lords of His Majesty's most Honourable Privy-Council Licens'd Z. Isham Jan. 7. 1685 6. LONDON Printed by T. Moore for Charles Brome at the Gun at the West-end of St. Pauls 1686. Geffery Major Curia special ' tent ' die Dominica in festo Sancti Johannis Evangeliste xxvii o. die Decembris 1685. Annoque Regni Regis Jacobi secundi Angl ' c. primo This Court doth desire Mr. Beaulieu to print his Sermon this day Preached in the Guild-hall-Chappel before the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of this City Wagstaffe To the Right Honourable Sr. Robert Geffery Lord Mayor of LONDON My Lord THat wrangling and violence some have used for the Faith as they pretended hath been much to its prejudice and hath appear'd to be rather for a Secular Interest Fighting for the Gospel is as preposterous as if a man should fight to shew his meekness and patience It is that contention with God and our selves which I here recommend that hath had the approbation of the best Ages of the Church and been blest with success The state of things as they are at present doth severely admonish us of our former miscarriages and our present duty 'T is seen that a furious and ungovernable Spirit which some have miscall'd Zeal is of pernicious consequence God Almighty to keep us within the bounds of our duty and make us seek our safety in its performance would not permit unlawful means any ways to conduce to the preservation of his true Religion Long experience hath now shew'd us that to disturb the Peace in Church and State to break the ties of Allegiance and disobey the Church promotes nothing but Licentiousness and Irreligion So that 't is to be hop'd they that have lik'd and follow'd those methods are now sensible of the iniquity and the mischief of them and that the remembrance of their mistakes and misdoings will make them now the more humble and quiet and effectually persuade them to the Union and Obedience of this Church whose Doctrine is the Creed or Christianity it self whose Government is truly Apostolick and whose Rituals and Devotions are most Primitive and Pious An understanding man would blush to own himself before the Christian World to be of such or such a Sect and to confess that his publick Worship depends upon the abilities and extemporary effusions of a person not inspired besides the mischief of such divisions there is a shame that goeth along with them But the Church of England as now establish'd hath had many cheerful Martyrs and Confessors Many wise and good men glory to own Her for Mother and dare profess and justifie that according to that way She prescribes and some count Heresie so they worship the God of their Fathers God Almighty hath appointed that devout Prayers good Lives should at first propagate and ever after preserve the Religion of the Blessed Jesus If we but double our Zeal in these we shall infallibly secure its Purity and still make it flourish To excite us to this duty I preach'd the ensuing Discourse to the same end I make no doubt Your Lordship commanded it should be made publick Your approving the good Design made You pass-by the defects of its management My Lord I have obey'd much pleased that we have Magistrates who so much countenance and befriend Religion as to accept of such mean endeavours for the service of it May the succession of them still preserve Peace and promote Truth and Righteousness and may Your Lordship after a long and prosperous life in this World obtain the endless and perfect Bliss of a better So prayeth heartily Your Lordships Most Humble and Obedient Servant Luke Beaulieu A SERMON Preach'd before the Lord Mayor AND Court of Aldermen Epist of St. Jude v. 3. And exhort you that you should earnestly contend for the Faith which was once delivered unto the Saints FOR the solemnity of this great Festival the Church appointed three sorts of Martyrs to wait on the Prince of Sufferings who at this time was born to die for Mankind St. Stephen who actually died for Christ and made it his choice so to do St. John whose memorial the Church observes this day who was willing to die and yielded up himself but was rescued by a miracle and the holy Innocents who unknown to themselves lost their lives for Christ and became his Martyrs without concurrence of their will An Exhortation therefore at this time to contend for the Faith may very well agree with the joyful celebration of His happy Birth who is the Author and the Finisher of it Especially having before our eyes the Example and the Memorial of those great Contenders who resisted unto blood and cheerfully gave up their lives for the cause of their Christian Faith To this St. Jude here exhorts us He is writing against those Hereticks who subverted the foundations of Christianity turning the grace of God into lasciviousness and denying the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ Men that would comply with any thing rather than expose themselves to Persecution and would accomodate the Profession of our Saviour's Doctrine to their lusts and to their safety Against these whom here the Apostle describes to be very bad and dangerous men he cautions those Christians who as yer adhered to the simplicity of the Gospel which he calls the Faith once delivered to the Saints Delivered first by our Blessed Saviour to his Apostles and by them preach'd to the world and committed to faithful men who should teach others And lest that oral Tradition should be corrupted written by the guidance of the Holy Spirit for the sure and certain instruction of after-ages This Faith profest by the Christian Church the Congregation of God's Saints he here exhorts them to maintain pure and undefiled Not to admit of those mixtures which evil men had devised to serve their lusts and their worldly designs not to shrink from their adherence to Christ and confessing him before men by obedience to his Laws and a constant profession of his true Religion but rather constantly own and keep the same against all oppositions and temptations whatever This is here call'd a contending for the Faith and this contention we may say consists as well now as in the Apostles time in these following particulars First In making an open and constant profession of the Christian Faith Secondly In conforming our lives to its Rules and Precepts Thirdly In a devout performing of those acts of Worship and Piety which are enjoyn'd by it And fourthly and lastly By giving it all that credit and establishment in the world of which we are capable in our several places Whil'st I insist upon these as briefly as I can I shall sufficiently explain