Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	believer_n	church_n	visible_a	1,349	5	9.2573	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A49123	Mr. Hales's treatise of schism examined and censured by Thomas Long ... ; to which are added, Mr. Baxter's arguments for conformity, wherein the most material passages of the treatise of schism are answered.	Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Mr. Baxter's arguments for conformity against separation.	1678 (1678)	Wing L2974; ESTC R10056	119,450	354

hunger justified the Disciples of Christ for plucking and rubbing the ears of Corn on the Sabbath dayes And hunger justified David and those that were with him for entring into the house of God and eating the shew-bread which was not lawful for him to eat nor for them which were with him but only for the Priests And the Priests in the Temple were blameless for prophaning the Sabbath day Now if things before accidentally evil may by this much Necessity become lawful and a duty then may the commands of Magistrates or Pastors and the Unity of the Church and the avoiding of contention and offence and other evils be also sufficient to warrant us in obeying even in inconvenient Circumstantials of the worship of God that otherwise could not be justified § 18. Reas 12. Lastly consider how much God hath expressed himself in his word to be pleased in the Obedience of believers Not only in their Obedience to Christ immediately but also to him in his officers 1 Sam. 15. 22. Behold to obey is better than Sacrifice c. Col. 3. 20 22. Children obey your Parents in all things that is all lawful things for this is well-pleasing to the Lord Servants Obey in all things your Masters according to the flesh c. And Obedience to Pastors is as much commanded 1. Thes 5. 12 13. We beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you and esteem them very highly c. Heb. 13. 17. Obey them that have the rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your souls as they that must give account c. So Verse 7. 24. 1 Tim. 5. 17 c. § 19. As the General Commission to a Parent or Master or Magistrate to Govern their inferior relations doth authorize them to many particular acts belonging to their office that were never named in their commission so your general command to obey them obligeth you to obey them in the said particulars And so it is also betwixt the Pastors and the flock in matters belonging to the office of a Pastor § 20. If a Child shall ask a Parent Where doth Gods word allow you to command me to learn this Catechism or read this Divines writings or repeat this Sermon or write it c. doth not the question deserve to be answered with the rod The General Commission for Parents to Govern their children is sufficient So if a Schoolmaster command his Scholars to come to such a place to School and to take their places in such an Order and to learn such books and do such exercises c. the General Commission that he hath to teach and Govern them will allow him to do all this Though it will not allow him to set his Scholars to any Artifice or Manual Operation alien to his profession So if a Minister determine of the variable Circumstances of worship as what place the people shall come to and at what time to be Catechized examined instructed c. what Translation or Version of Psalms to use what Utensils to make use of about Gods service or such like he is warranted for this by his General Commission And if he miss it in the manner by choosing inconvenient circumstances or by unnecessary determination of points that should rather be left undetermined to liberty though this be his own sin it will not excuse the people from obedience unless the error of his directions be so great as would frustrate the Ordinance it self or do more harm than our disobedience would do which in Circumstantials is rarely found By long experience I am assured that practical religion will afford both to Church State and Conscience more certain and more solid peace than contending disputers with all their pretences of Orthodoxness and zeal against errors for the truth will ever bring or did ever attain to Wherefore let us consider in the next place The Mischief of Separation The mischief of Separation lies not in the bare error of judgment but in the unchristian and Church-dissolving division and alienation which thence followeth contrary to that humility and love which is the visible character of Christians and to that Oneness which is still in Scripture ascribed to the visible Church Alas that pride and ignorance should have such power among believers that men cannot be of several judgments in lesser points but they must needs be of several Churches God will make us value peace and union a little more before we shall taste of the perfect everlasting peace and union yea before we shall see the blessing of union in the Church Wounding is a dividing healing is a re-uniting a Building is of many stones or pieces orderly conjoyned a Church is an aggregation of individuals an association of Believers what then is it to demolish but to separate and disjoyn and what is it to dissolve Churches but to break their association to reduce them to individuals to cut them into shreds As for the differences in way of Government between the moderate Presbyterians Independants Episcopal and Erastian I make no doubt but if mens spirits stood not at a greater distance than their principles they would quickly be united But of all the four sorts there are some that run so high in their principles that they run out of the hearing of peace or truth For Anabaptism and Antinomianism God spake effectually against them by those wondrous Monsters in New-England but wonders are over-lookt where the heart is hardned and God intends to get his justice a name The fearful dolusions that God hath formerly given them over to and the horrid confusion which they have introduced where they have sprung hath spoken fully against both these later Sects The weeping eyes the bleeding sides the lacerated members of these Churches the reproach of the Gospel the disappointed Reformation the hideous doctrines and unheard of wickedness that hath followed them the contemned ordinances the reproached slandered and ejected Ministers the weak that are scandalized the Professors apostatized the wicked hardned and the open enemies of the Gospel that now insult all these do describe them more plainly to England than words can do and cry loud in the ears of God and man What will be the Answer time will shew but from Rev. 2. 14 15 16 c. we may probably conjecture He that is not a Son of peace is not a Son of God All other sins destroy the Church consequentially but division and Separation demolish it directly Building the Church is but an orderly joyning of the materials and what then is disjoyning but pulling down Many doctrial differences must be tolerated in a Church and why but for unity and peace therefore disunion and separation is utterly intolerable Believe not those to be the Churches friends that would cure and reform her by cutting her throat Those that say no truth must be concealed for peace have usually as little of the one as

of the Venerable Mr. Hales improved such Notions and Arguments as are destructive to the Government and Peace of the Church of England it is not strange that Men of little Learning and great Prejudices should assume them whereby as far as they are able to justifie their Schismatical practices nor that the Scepticke of this Age should be fond of such Notions as may tend to the Subversion of what hath been so long and so well established among us We may rather wonder how so Villanous a Pamphlet as the Rehersal calls it yet so obnoxious to just exceptions should have continued so long in Vogue without a Confutation from some more Learned Hand that the Infection of it might proceed no farther but its weakness be made manifest to all Men. As for Doctor Parker he hath no less judiciously and successfully acquitted Himself against any thing objected by Master Hales or Marvel than Master Hooker To instance in that one particular of pretending Scruples of Conscience against the Commands of Publick Authority he faith more in One Page than all the Objectors will be able to Answer Though this pretence saith he might be allowed of in the Dayes of Queen Elizabeth when it was first started yet after so long time and so much enquiry it is intolerable For if after all their search and examination they have not been able to descry the evils they suspected this is a sufficient Principle of Presumption that their Jealousies are ungrounded so that if they are now able to object any certain crime against them then this Plea of a Doubtful Conscience ceaseth and the Certainty is to be pleaded in stead of the Doubt if not an Hundred and Fifty Years is a sufficient time to satisfie or to cancel scruples And a scrupulous Conscience is of a modest yielding and plyable temper as arising from a diffidence and distrust of it self And Doubts and Scruples are rarely imployed but upon trifling and inconsiderable matters the material parts of Duty being too plain and easie to be liable to so much uncertainty And therefore obedience to Authority being one of the greatest and most indispensable Duties of Mankind in that it is so absolutely necessary to their well being and injoyned upon them by the most Positive Precepts and severest Penalties of the Gospel Nor is it fit that in Doubtful cases of a Publick concern Men should talk too peremptorily of their private Perswasions because they are incompetent Judges of the Publick good and therefore are to be determined and over-ruled by the Judgment of those to whose care the management of Publick Affairs is intrusted unless in case of certain and unquestionable Disobedience to the Law of GOD For we are no otherway free from the Supreme Authority on Earth but as we are subject to a Superior in Heaven AN EXAMINATION OF Mr. HALES's TREATISE of SCHISM Q. WHat is the benefit of Communion Answ Communion is the strength and ground of all society Sacred and Civil whoever therefore causeth a breach if in civil occasions is guilty of Sedition or Rebellion if in Ecclesiastical differences is guilty of Schism so that Schism is an Ecclesiastical Sedition as Sedition is a Lay-schisme p. 193. Q. What is the definition of Schism Answ Schisme is an unnecessary separation of Christians from that part of the visible Church of which they were once Members Q. When is Separation necessary Answ Separation is then necessary when nothing will save us from the guilt of Conscience but open separation p. 195. Q. When is Schisme complete Answ These two things make Schism complete First The choice of a Bishop in opposition to the former 2ly The erecting a new Church and Oratory for the dividing Party to meet in publickly As in the late famous controversie in Holland de Praedestinatione as long as the disagreeing Parties went no further than disputes the Schisme was unhatched but as soon as one Party swept an old Cloyster and by a pretty Art suddenly made it a Church by putting a new Pulpit in it for the separating Party to meet in what before was a Controversie became a formal Schisme p. 197. Q. What is the danger of Schism Answ What the Ancients spake by way of censure of Schisme in general is most true and they spake most strange things of it for they saw that unadvisedly and upon fancy to break the knot of union betwixt man and man especially among Christians upon whom the tye of love and communion doth especially rest was a crime hardly pardonable and that nothing absolves a Man from the guilt of it but true and unpretended Conscience And p. 192. Heresie and Schisme are things of great moment the one offending against Truth the other against Charity and both are deadly Q. Was the Schisme of the Donatists any way excusable Answ No they were compleat Schismaticks upon the grounds before mentioned nor was there any necessary cause for their Separation for the occasion of the Schisme was an Opinion that where good and bad were mixed there could be no Church by reason of pollution evaporating as it were from sinners which blasted the righteous and made all unclean whereas in his Congregations he pretended that wicked persons found no shelter p. 206. Q. How was this Schisme of the Donatists refuted Answ By this one maxime of Saint Augustine which was irrefragably asserted Unitatem Ecclesiae per totum orbem dispersae propter nonnullorum peccata non esse deserendam That the unity of the Catholick Church is not to be forsaken for the sins of some that are within it p. 206. Q. Though in this Schism the Donatist was the Schismatick yet might not any one communicate with them if occasion so required if so be they did not flatter them in their Schisme for why might it not be lawful to go to Church with the Donatist if occasion so required since neither Nature nor Religion suggest the contrary why may I not be present at such publick Meetings as pretend Holiness so there be nothing done but what true Devotion and Piety brook Yea why may I not go to an Arian Church if occasion require so there be no Arianism expressed in the Liturgy Answ 1. You may not communicate with such because of the danger of Schisme before mentioned 2ly Because it is not lawful no not for prayer hearing conference or any other religious office whatsoever for People to Assemble otherwise than by publick order is allowed for why should Men desire to do that suspiciously in private which may be performed warrantably in publick p. 229 230. Q. But what if they to whose care the execution of the publick service is committed do some things unseemly suspicious or unlawful if their Garments be censured as or indeed be superstitious what if the Gesture of Adoration be used at the Altar what if the Homilist or Preacher deliver any Doctrine of the truth of which we are not well

certain by Gods word that children being baptized have all things necessary for their Salvation and be undoubtedly saved where it is plain they mean they have all things necessary ex parte Ecclesiae or all Gods applying Ordinances necessary though they should die unconfirmed supposing they have all things necessary to just baptism on their own part which is but what the Ancients were wont to say of the baptized adult but they never meant that the infidel and impenitent were in a state of life because he was baptized but that all that truly consent to the Covenant and signifie this by being baptized are saved So the Church of England saith that they receive no detriment by delaying confirmation but it never said that they received no detriment by their Parents or Responses infidelity or Hypocrisie or by their want of true right coram Deo to be baptized Q. 39. What is the true meaning of Sponsors or Godfathers and is it lawful to make use of them Answ My Opinion is that they did both witness the probability of the Parents fidelity and also promised that if they should either Apostatize or dye they would see that the children were piously educated If you take them but as the ancient Churches did for such as do attest the Parents fidelity in their perswasion and do promise first to mind you of your duty and next to take care of their pious education if you die I know no reason you have to scruple this much yea more it is in your power to agree with the Godfathers that they shall represent your own persons and speak and promise what they do as your deputies only in your names and what have you against this Object When the Churchmen mean another thing this is but to juggle with the world Answ How can you prove that the authority that made or imposed the Liturgy meant any other thing 2. If the Imposers had meant ill in a thing that may be done well you may discharge your Conscience by doing it well and making a sufficient profession of your better sense Q. 42. How is the Holy Ghost given to Infants in Baptism whether all the children of true Christians have inward sanctifying grace c. Ans My judgment agreeth more in this with Davenant's than any others saving that he doth not appropriate the benefits of Baptism to the children of true Believers so much as I do And though by a Letter impleading Davenant's cause I was the occasion of printing good Mr. Gataker's Answer to him yet I am still most inclined to his judgment Not that all the baptized but that all the baptized seed of true Christians are pardoned justifyed adopted and have a title to the spirit and Salvation And we must choose great inconveniences if this opinion be forsaken viz. that all infants must be taken to be out of Covenant with God and to have no promise of Salvation whereas surely the law of Grace as well as the Covenant of works included all the seed in their capacity Of the Responses Q. 83. May the people bear a vocal part in Worship and do any more than say Amen Answ The people bear an equal part in singing the Psalms which are prayer and praise and instruction if they may do so in the Psalms in metre there can be no reason given but they may lawfully do so in Psalms in Prose for saying them and singing them are but modes of utterance and the Ancient singing was liker our Saying than our tunes The Primitive Christians were so full of zeal and love to Christ that they would have taken it for an injury and a quenching of the Spirit to have been wholly restrained from bearing their part in the praises of the Church The use of the tongue keepeth awake the mind and stirreth up God's graces in his servants It was the decay of zeal in the people that first shut out the Responses while they kept up the ancient zeal they were inclined to take their part vocally in the Worship And this was seconded by the pride and usurpation of the Priests thereupon who thought the people of God too prophane to speak in the Assemblies and meddle so much with holy things Yet the very remembrance of former zeal caused most Churches to retain many of the words of their predecessors even when they lost the life and spirit which should animate them and so the same words came into the Liturgies and were used by too many customarily and in formality which their Ancestors had used in the fervour of their Souls And if it were not that a dead-hearted formal people by speaking the Responses carelesly and hypocritically do bring them into disgrace with many that see the necessity of seriousness I think few good people would be against them now It is here the duty of every Christian to labour to restore the life and spirit to the words that they may again be used in a serious and holy manner as heretofore Exod. 19. 8. In as solemn an Assembly as any of ours when God gave Moses a form of words to preach to the people all the people answered together and said All that the Lord hath spoken we will do So Exod. 24. 3. and Deuter. 5. 27. which God approved of v. 28 29. See Levit. 9. 24. 2 Kings 23. 2 3. 1 Chron. 1. 35 36. It is a command Ps 67. 3 5. Let all the people praise thee O God c. And he that will limit this to single persons or say that it must not be vocally in the Church or it must be in metre only and never in prose must prove it lest he be proved one that addeth to Gods word Q. 84. Is it not a Sin for our Clerks to make themselves the mouth of the people Answ The Clerks are not appointed to be the mouth of the people but each Clerk is one of the people commanded to do that which all should do lest it should be wholly left undone If all the congregation will speak all that the Clerk doth it will answer the primary desire of the Church Governors who bid the people do it Of Bowing at the name Jesus And of Priests Altars c. Q. 86. Is it lawful to bow at the name of Jesus Answ That we may lawfully express our reverence when the names God Jehovah Jesus Christ c. are uttered I have met with few Christians who deny nor know I any reason to deny it If I live and joyn in a Church where it is commanded and peremptorily urged to bow at the name of Jesus and where my not doing it would be divisive scandalous or offensive I will bow at the name of God Jehovah Jesus Christ Lord c. My judgment of standing at the Gospel and kneeling at the Decalogue when it is commanded is the same Q. 122. May the name Priests Sacrifice and Altars be lawfully used Answ The New Testament useth all the Greek names