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
A91725	An advice against libertinism shewing the great danger thereof, and exhorting all to zeal of the truth. Written by Edward Reynell Esq.	Reynell, Edward, 1612-1663.	1659 (1659)	Wing R1216; Thomason E2106_1; ESTC R13720	30,764	115

AN ADVICE Against LIBERTINISM Shewing the great Danger thereof and exhorting all to Zeal of the TRUTH Written by Edward Reynell Esq Ye have been called unto Liberty only use not Liberty for an occasion to the flesh Gal. 5.13 LONDON Printed for Abel Roper at the Sun in Fleet-street over against Saint Dunstons Church 1659. AN ADVICE Against LIBERTINISM IT is not the least of miseries in these erroneous and licentious times to see the thoughts and studies of men taken up for the most part in needless questions tening onely to strife and contention and not to that unum necessarium viz. the knowledge of Christ and the cementing of his seamless coat which was never so much and is still more then other divided through dissenting I might say distracted opinions the most part also bending like reeds with every wind of giddiness and self-interest a Religious stedfastness to sound and fixed principles being rara avis in these times of change and backsliding And with how much tenderness and grief of heart must it needs be resented to see Christ persecuted in the name of Christ his Word Ordinances and Ministers to be so much reviled and wounded in the house of his seeming friends and that our own swords should thus devour our Prophets Jer. 2.30 And truly great reason have all those who have found God under a constant and painful Ministry to be sad thereat seeing they thus prophesie in sack-cloth under a general unflexibleness and the great contempt and scorn of their calling A sad principle is taken up amongst us that we must have liberty of conscience to attend on what Teachers or Ordinance we please under which some take liberty for their lusts to attend on none O how soon having once with Hymeneus and Alexander made shipwrack of faith and the means to attain it shall we make shipwrack of a good conscience with it We need not with that famous Orator Marcus Antonius who to move compassion with the people brought Caesars Robes all bloody amongst them much endeavor to manifest the truth hereof and what further may we expect from such as thus go headlong on with a prejudicate opinion and resolving to admit neither debate nor gain-saying rashly adventure the precipice of their own fancy and endless Chimera's so often as the tide of novelties and giddiness shall ebb and flow in their unsetled thoughts obstinacy also being like dead flesh which soon makes the green wound of an error fester into the sore of an Heresie Never was there such a general defection of Religion as now it seems most pretended and held forth such general vitiousness growth of Schismes falseness in profession yea such indifferency therein without any true warmth or holy fire of zeal and godliness If any new doctrine be but commenced the Author thereof must be thought Religious And so backward are we to follow the Sun of Righteousness as that if in a dark night an Ignis fatuus do but precede us or the mists of error and ignorance come athwart us how do their glaring flames amaze our eyes as if those false lights were design'd on purpose to be our pathes whereas their Rayes lead us onely into into Rivers and precipices And doth not almost every hours experience shew how apt we are to embrace their discourses whose doctrine creeps and corrodes like a Cancer and hath justly driven themselves from the communion of the Church who steal into the affections of the ignorant with small humble and modest beginnings catch with flattery binde gently and at last kill privily their out-side of devotion though oftentimes outshinning a sincere Christian being but an ill bait to entice us into the nets of holiness and good discipline Since the more we appear for God the worse we are if we be not that indeed which we appear to be There is more danger of the Wolfe in the Lambs skin then in his own when once we begin to nauseate at old Truths and like flies about a candle to play about new lights it s a thousand to one but we singe our wings if we burn not our selves Those that observe the story of the Eastern Churches do alledge this as the great provocation of Gods wrath to bring upon them the blasphemous doctrine of Mahomet because they rejected the wholesom Truths of the Gospel But what need we go further to prove the sad experience hereof then Germany and God grant it appear not amongst our selves the same flames of evil Doctrine having unhappily broken out amongst us by those who as if they had been the spaun of those Gnosticks in the Apostles time account no sin of power enough to defile them because they were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by nature spiritual Some there are who leading silly women captive serve their ends upon the impotency of the Sex mixing scandal with their heresie Others there are who having surprised their will and possest their understanding with fair pretences of their false doctrine our nature being too apte to believe what we have a minde to presently conclude it Orthodox because spreading like icterical eyes transmitting the species to the soul with colours of their own making and we find the most pleasing doctrine to be ever the most taking it being the weakness of the Organ which thus makes us blear-eyed and carries us headlong into the Precipice of our corrupt humors wherein every man is so subject to hug his own opinion to hold his hand between the Sun and his face and yet stand staring upon every meteor and inflamed Comet And are there not some who having their zeal kindled at the wrong end and like nothing so well as that which goeth cross to the grain of Authority when they are looked on will seem to act vertue with much pompousness and outward bravery but when the Theatre is empty will put off their upper garment and retire into their primitive vileness Are there not some sad Christians benighted in the dark interest of coveteousness and ambition which too often heighren and serue up an external zeal by the wooden pins of worldly espects and make no more account of Religion then the profit or conveniency it brings with it Thus any thing seems lawful enough to some men that serves the ends of their ambition who yet are scrupulous enough in cases of conscience when nothing of interest doth intervene so sadly do evil men in these dayes make Religion the servant of interest their designs being therefore the fouler by how much the more they need to put on a fair out-side But herein it being bad sinning in a Religious habit we ought not to frame our devotions to their pattern how specious so ever they may seem to be according to the model of their own fancies these being but the colours of Religion with which the world is too often deceived by those who cover their Religion with a remote design least it should appear unhandsome in its own dress Our understandings being