Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	bind_v	church_n	communion_n	1,436	5	9.0889	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35047	Reformation not separation, or, Mr. Crofton's plea for communion with the church ... in a letter, written July 20, 1661 ... / by the said R.S. to whom it was written ; unto which, is added the copy of another letter, written on the same occasion and subject.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.; P. E., Reverend.; R. S.	1662 (1662)	Wing C7000; ESTC R12168	52,912	78

from my special by those things which will not bar the Duties of my general Relation and Capacity I conceive Administration of Gods Worship is much different from Attendance on Gods Worship and I stand bound to the last when I am justly or unjustly barred from the first Abiathar and the Idolatrous Priests were not barred from serving God with the Church when thrust from serving in the Priests Office In my general Relation as a Member of the Church I stand charged and am capacitated to judge the Matter and essential Form of Gods Worship assent to which is mine only Act But in my special Relation as a Minister I stand also charged and am capacitated to judge the Ministerial Mode and humane Order by which Gods Worship is celebrated and if herein I be imposed on and that by an Order rude irreverend and unsutable to God his Church or Worship which right Reason much less true Religion will not allow me to receive I am interrupted in my Ministerial Office the Formality of which is As a man to Modifie Gods Institutions whereby an intercourse is maintained between God and men such imposition I judge to be a subversion of Ministerial Office and Authority not to be offered by others or admitted by my self without great iniquity and if it therefore be enforced by violence that I must be restrained from my Ministerial Modification of Gods Ordinances according to mine Office and Ministerial Gifts received or I may not be permitted to Minister I yet stand in my Relation as a Member of the Church bound to communicate The Ministerial Mode imposed and sinfully received by such as subjugate their Ministry not vitiating the Subject or nullifying the Ordinances of God will not warrant my Non-attendance on them It is not equally necessitous and obliging that I a Speaker pronounce a wild indigested Speech full of Incongruities Non-sense and Solecisms from which a sound mind doth bar me as that I join and concur in the Substantials thereof with the Assemblies so asking common and certain good things I may not cast off my general Relation wherein I am purely passive because those things are to be personally acted in my special Relation and Capacity which I cannot without sin consent to do and therefore must stand still I cannot beat it into my Brains that it is aeque or aequaliter to attend and give an Assent unto the Matter prayed as to utter pronounce and express the raw rude and disorderly Speech of the Speaker Or that the Necessity or Obligation of the whole House in this general Order to present it self before his Majesty which will and doth warrant the one may justifie the other the Speakers Speech is often censured when the Commons concerned in it are commended and justified But Sir Rather than not enforce this Fancy you will knock me on the Head with a Chamber-pot you urge my necessity to Communion to be the same to Ministration and tell me I judge the Nurse is bound in Duty and Necessity to give the Child his bread his milk had been more proper out of a Chamber-pot as she her self or the Child it self out of it An homely Simile but in a starving Necessity I do judge so but I judge Similes do not currere quatuor pedibus there is no aptitude in this to my Case that Necessity will constrain me to take my Meat in an unclean Vessel which will not constrain me to give it in that Vessel to another I suppose your Nurse is poor who hath no other Vessel but a Chamber-pot yet I must suppose her a good Huswife capacitated to make it clean But if her Superiours have stripped her of all other and will bar her from her cleansing this I suppose she is not bound to play the Nurse and feed others though she must thus feed her self if filthy Parents will have such Nurses or none I hope it is in my power to be none of them I am not bound to it I am by Nature bound to deny it and yet I must maintain mine own being as well as I can If the being of Christianity depend upon my personal Ministry as my being or appearing a Christian doth on my Communion with the Church visible your Inference might be of some force but this it doth not That therefore you may understand the difference keep to similitudes more apt The King hath Decreed All the Citizens shall each Month present their Petitions by a joint Assent to the Expressions of a Speaker the Governours of this City direct a course by which to design different Speakers they consult Matter to be spoken and the Mode of speaking the first is good and allowed the second is rude and disordered the Speakers can better express the desired Matter but shall not be permitted are they aeque or aequaliter ob●iged to speak in this Mode as to attend this Assembly and give Assent to this common good Matter rudely expressed by others Not speaking in this Mode they lose the Honour and Advantages of the Speakers but not attending or assenting to the Matter they lose the benefit and being of Citizens are these equally to be embraced and pursued They are bound in the one personally to Act and denying to subjugate their Judicium rationale to the rude Prescriptions of others they are barred from it but resolved into the common state in which assent to the Matter is their only Act being wholly and purely passive in the prescribed and imposed Form and Mode of expression in your Chamber-pot Case you suppose Christianity to depend on my personal Ministry which my Relation as a Nurse doth renounce and then indeed your Inference may be cogent for then your Chamber-pot will square with du Moulins Fools Coat but in my more sutable and sociable Case I am bound to attendance when and where I am not bound to administer The Necessity of City-Interest and Relation doth bind me to attendance and assent to City-Petitions but not to the Duty and Dignity of a Speaker between the King and the City from which I am barred by the irrational imposition of an irregular undue Mode of expression in which I must personally act by a suspense of my Judicium rationale which I am bound to act in this more and beyond what I must judge in my more common Capacity Now Sir I must tell you I know not whom you intend by the Brethren who are 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the rest sure I am they are not Congregationallists who have no little blasphemed the COVENANT by their late Professions for it and by their Martyrs pretences to it as the Bond of their most barbarous pernitious Treasons and Impieties which was by themselves slighted as an Almanack out of Date and prophanely blasphemously violated before they could or did consult and perpetrate the same I cannot suppose them to be the Brethren for the late specifical Difference whose Policy propounded an interpretation of the COVENANT contrary to the literal

shame do know to be true and visible but to my comfort do know to be an Objection of no weight for our question is concerning Communion with not the Constitution of a Church That such matter should not at first Constitution have been taken in and having grown up ought to have been cut off and cast out I can and do yield and consent but that the disorder defection and prophaneness of the members or what is more the Angels and Ministers hath resolved the Church into a non-entity and necessitated non-communion save in a new Constitution and Church gathering I cannot believe because I finde nothing more plainer in Nature then for a degenerate Vine to retain the name and nature of a Vine when it bringeth forth little save sowre Grapes Mat. 3.9 nor is any thing more clearer in Scripture then for the children of the Devil Matth 3 9. John 8.44 to have Abrahaem to their father and be the children of God and Covenant of Graco by visible administration or for disorderly Christians in Corinth to be called and owned as Saints and Believers a man covetous a fornicator and adulterer an idolater 1 Cor. 5.11 Rev. 3.1 a drunkard to be called a brother Sardis having a name to live but being dead is declared one of the golden Candlesticks among which Christ walketh and when Paul wrote to Titus the Christians in Crete were abominable disobedient and to every good work reprobate Titus 1 13 16. yet was Titus charged to rebuke them sharply not to disown them or decline communion with them or to gather the fit matter and orderly Christians among them into a new Church form nor are any among them advised or directed so to do a Ram and a Goat cannot be denied to be of Christs flock on earth though they may be turned on his left hand at the day of judgment Correction and casting out is the priviledge of a Church member and supposeth its capacity in their object though an incestuous person the prophanenesse of the members of this Church may and must provoke my brotherly admonition ministerial reprehension and the Churches Censures against them but will never warrant my non-communion with them or voluntary absence from Gods solemn publick worship celebrated among them because it doth not ipso facto by any due order or divine direction discharge their relation to Christs Catholick visible body so long as God knoweth them as his Spouse and people though deserving having not received from him a Bill of Divorce I may be burdened to see their lewdnesse and lightnesse but must not forsake the Bride-chamber nor his worship therein celebrated without all doubt the capacity of those within the Church though disorderly and as such to be judged is vastly different from Turks Jews and Pagans and those without the Church who refuse to professe the true God and Christ or obedience to them the one being subjected to Gods special pastoral paternal care in the case of their very disorder and aberrations whilest the other only enjoy Gods common providence as do other creatures the works of his hands What hath been urged to nullifie this Church from what this kind of men will needs suppose to be the form thereof Parochial distribution convenient and good viz. that they are by Parochial constitution and Christ never ordained Parishes hath been often and abundantly answered by many and among others I have already fully spoken to it in my Bethshemish clouded and shall therefore now only say Parochial distribution is no constitution nor any essential form of the Church so as that bare simple habitation within such bounds should ipso facto without further capacity or qualification make men Church members or their removal or non-residence within this or that Parish as do Merchants and Mariners should discharge their relation to the Church but it is a Political order and convenient distribution of the Church Catholick visible to particular Assemblies for the due and more easie Celebration of Gods publick worship the Lord Jesus founded his Church Catholick and universal into which Baptism is the Ordinance of Catholick incision and imitation and excommunication is the Ordinance of Catholick excision and discharge but nature and the necessity of order doth divide it into particular Assemblies according to humane discretion and no order can more conveniently circumscribe particular societies of the Church than vicinity and cohabitation This the holy Ghost doth plainly digitate by denominating the first plants of Christianity Rome Corinth Galatia Ephesus and the like by the places where they were planted not by the first planters or after Pastors blaming it as a Schism in the Church to say I am of Paul I of Apollo and I of Cephas and indeed this distribution doth much facilitate the inspection of the Pastor or brethren beyond what the Covenant constitution of Congregationalists is capable of whereby some living in York are members of a Church in London Parochial Division then being the benefit of the Church and members thereof in Christian Cities Countries and Nations it is so far from blame and avoidance that it is to be commended and approved by men of prudence and order and can never necessitate or warrant any mans non-communion with the Christian Assemblies thus distributed and conveniently assembled Unto such as stumble themselves and would have others so to do at Communion with the Church of England because they do not know that it was rightly gathered Englands Church was rightly constituted at the first and constituted at the first I shall briefly say History the best evidence of an ancient Act doth assure us that the Gospel was first preached and Christianity was first planted in our Islands by the Apostles or Apostolical men which no doubt did with all care rightly lay here the right foundation of Gods Church and if we may as in cases of this nature we must judge a posterior the certainty of the root by the extent and quality of the branches the foundation by the Dimensions and duration of the Fabrick can any man reading the English Stories of the eminent Martyrs of Christianity found in this Church in all ages since the times of the Apostles unto this day and not conclude the Church was at first rightly planted and founded these men shall do well to resolve the old question ever put by the Non-conformists to the Brownists these mens progenitors if they be begotten to God in what Church and by what Ordinances were they converted was it not the Church of England we whom they to serve their designe will own as Saints and declare fit matter for a Church must professe our selves sprouts from this plant their Charity is not sure so irrational as to believe men may gather Gr●pes of Thorns or Figgs of Thistles for if so their gathering Churches will be found needlesse whilest Saints grow in Infidel soils and Gods house existeth without the laying any foundation These men shall do well to

vessel doth quench the thirst and these are either some matter superadded not intermingled with or destructive to Gods Ordinances such as were the high places posts by Gods posts thresholds by his thresholds Altar by his Altar in Israel unto the very Image of Jealousie set up in Gods house which yet remained his and as such was continued preserved and acknowledged The Lord Jesus found the Temple his Fathers house of Prayer though made a Den of theeves and such is our Crosse in Baptism though seemingly sacramental yet distinct from Gods imitating Seal of the Covenant and such is a Roman linnen vesture in ministration of Gods worship by a lawfull Minister or some corrupt rude and unsutable ministerial method and order which is the vessel and only instrument of conveiance though unclean of administration such was the violent and unfitting snatching of the Priests part of the Sacrifice by the sons of Eli the confused acclamations of the Church of Corinth speaking all at once different matters in different tongues and our imposed method disorderly method of publick Prayer by Versicles Responds abruptions abreviations and popular acclamations with artificial singing by boyes and base fellows thereunto appointed under all which Gods Ordinances abide a subject compleat truly and formerly existent and distinct from these superadded corruptions operative unto salvation and therefore may not be declined or disowned Corruptions intrinsecal are indeed such as do not only warrant but necessitate non-communion yea separation of the highest nature as a duty indispensable In sence hereof all those in Israel who feared God and set their hearts to seek the Lord prayed for and according to divine directions departed from Dan and Bersheba forsook the solemn Assemblies Jeroboam had constituted and followed the Tribe of Levi Gods only Ministers unto Jerusalem Gods only place of publick solemn worship and our Saviour resolved the woman of Samaria her enquiry concerning the place of worship with a ye know not what ye worship for salvation is of the Jews This is the very ground of the Reformed Churches departure and non-communion with Rome who though she be by original constitution the Temple of God is become the very seat of Antichrist and by the same so vitiated that her Ministrations are the cup of abomination by which she hath made the Nations drunk having by her intercessions of and to Saints the Popes infallibility divine power and properties and by her expiatory Sacrifices disowned and nullified as much as in her lieth Christs mediatory offices and by dividing the elements destroying the outward signe essential to a Sacrament and on a fancied transubstanciation turning it into a Sacrifice for quick and dead nullified Christs Ordinances and by many other intrinsecal evils poysoned Gods whole worship and rendred it directly destructive to salvation and is therefore presented to us under the Appellation Babylon in the very abstract spiritual Sodom and Egypt and so the object of our departure advised with a lest ye partake of her sins which were and are so universally diffused and hath so farre vitiated the subject that a guilt will be contracted by meer Communion Corruptions extrinsecal may Extrinsecal corruptions warrant no separation and must grieve the spirits of Gods people occasion their loud complaints his Ministers most zealous reproofs and the stud●ous endeavours of all to prevent and remove them because scandals to the Church prejudicial though not directly destructive to salvation dishonourable to Religion and the God whose prerogative it is to prescribe every pin and the very snuffers to be used in his House 1 King 11 3● and is therefore highly displeasing to God provoking him to rend a Kingdom from the house of David to loath and at least to leave his holy place and remove his Candlestick from such as will not fear him in the simplicity of his own institutions without the vain and needlesse Appendants of their own inventions But yet these cannot warrant separation or voluntary non-communion because the Church abideth related to God as his Spouse his worship and Ordinances remain for matter and essential form entire and exactly his own notwithstanding the concomitancy of some super-added matter or the unfit ministerial method and order by which they are dispensed and Gods presence is to them continued though with a grieved striving spirit threatning his departure and thereby we are under a possibility of salvation though engaged to more care and industry this was the case of the Prophets our Saviour and his Disciples the Church of the Jews and Primitive Christians under the many parallel yea transcending to ours corruptions before mentioned without any prescript or practice of Separation or non-Non-Communion Christian Friend it is too evident That many and great Corruptions are to our sin and shame retained The Case of England under corruption and to the aggravation thereof with an high hand and defiance of the God of Jealousie returned after a Solemn and Sacred Expulsion into our Church but yet they are extrinsecal and not of the substance of Gods Worship which for Matter and essential Form remaineth entire and properly his own though not so acceptable under as well as without them and will not therefore warrant my Separation or Non-Communion so far as to lie at Home or loyter in the Church-yard until the Common-Prayer whereby God is truly though not orderly invocated and worshipped wherein I as a Member of that Church am interested and unto which as it is Publick Solemn Prayer though in an unsutable Method my Amen is an indispensable Duty being ended The Administrations of Gods Worship among us are indeed nauseous and unhealthful but not void or venemous our waters are bitter and pudled but not poysonous our Pastures are trodden down and the proud of the Flock do push us with Horn Ezek. 34.18 19 20 21. and with Hoof but we are not yet driven out of Christs Fold not dare not we say our Pasture is quite taken from us To be plain Under all our Corruptions we must not we cannot we dare not deny the Matter and essential Form of Gods Ordinances and Worship is continued to us though some superstitious Rites are unto them annexed which are apparent Appendants redundant to and separable from and not vitiating destructive or annihilating to their Subject and are therefore pretended and professed by the Canons appropriated to this Church to be Acts of Order and Ornament rather than of Worship and Adoration to God and they are such wherein the people are generally passive not active Baptism is fully and formally Gods Ordinance though the Cross be needlesly and superstitiously added thereunto and the Parent by virtue of whose interest in Gods Covenant the Child receiveth the Seal is unjustly excluded and a deputation of Godfathers and Godmothers is groundlesly imposed The Word of God is not excluded though now and then a piece of Apocripha is unwarrantably read in the publick Assembly nor doth it cease to be