Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n
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A37363
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A Seasonable advice to all true Protestants in England, in this present posture of affairs discovering the present designs of the papists : with other remarkable things, tending to the peace of the church, and the security of the Protestant relion [sic] / by a sincere lover of his King and countrey.
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M. D.
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1679
(1679)
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Wing D63; ESTC R18433
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50,826
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67
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to be reconciled with us and their own duty by all the Reasons and Commands of God and Man You know and may easily discover in your usual hearers if you please to give your selves the trouble several wicked vices as pride selfconceitedness hypocrisie hatred malice envy c. which their Non-Conformity alone hath bred and nourished in their Souls You know that the blessed rules of the Gospel and the sweet temper of Christs Religion requires from you another disposition and other carriage than many of you and most of your followers exprest to us your Brethren and your Christian Governors If you have a sincere regard to Religion and a desire to advance Gods Glory on Earth you will at last endeavour a reconciliation for fear of the mischiefs which our separation from one another is like to bring upon us all Remember that a compliance with your Peoples Non-Conformity is no longer seasonable in regard of the obstinacy of those that continue in it against all Law and Reason You have sufficiently complied with their humors do you now comply with your obligations to God and Man you have had a care of the salvation of their Souls now look to the preservation of your own and run not your selves into the remediless sin of a wilful denial and opposition of God truth to the last The Apostles in their yielding to the Jewish mistakes laboured always to make them sensible of their Error by minding them still that Moses Ceremonies were not needful to be observed and at last told them plainly That they were a denyal of Christs coming in the Flesh Galat. It would become your Learning and Integrity my reverend Brethren to deal thus plainly with your Congregations if you would be true followers of the Holy Apostles Tell them that Conformity to the Church of England is no such a Crime as they have imagined that they are bound to obey Mans Laws when they are not contrary to the Commands of the Gospel That they should be reconciled with our Worship and Church and strive to Conform as near as they can to what is required from them Tell them that Schism and Separation from the approved way is a grievous sin That their Souls are in danger of Damnation by resisting and disobeying the lawful Commands of their Superiors under God That they should take heed of not persisting obstinately in their errors and not to refuse obedience to the least Command of the Gospel when discovered to them Tell them to be more in love with Truth than with Faction more desirous of meeting with the rest of their Brethren in Gods Worship than fond of their private and unlawful meetings where the Gospel may be Preached it is true because it is in opposition to their other Brethren and to the Authority of the Nation they are not warrantable by Gods Word Tell them in short that the Blessed Gospel of our Saviour as well as his Interest and our Glory requires us all to joyn and unite together in all Acts of Piety on Earth that we may avoid the Devils temptations and be more fit to unite together in Heaven to sing oraises to our great God and Redeemer Our Blessed Saviour who is dead for you as well as for us and is gone to prepare a place for us in the glorious Mansions of Eternity intends not to receive you by your selves and appoint your aboads distinct from the rest of Christians why are you so serupulous or so superstitious as for trivial matters now to divide from us in that Worship which is to prepare us for Gods presence O my Brethren did we but consider how ridiculous our Nation appear to our Neighbours and to the Blessed Angels above and how pleasing our Divisions are to our Enemies of Rome we should doubtless blush for shame to have hitherto encouraged a separation so childish and ill grounded for no other cause but the humor and mistakes of the vulgar sort seeing that it renders us liable to the reproach of Men and Angels and causeth us all to be in danger of the ruin of our worldly interest and what mischiefs it causeth to the Souls of men do you judge If the respect to Religion be pretended examin whether this pretence can avail against an apparent Duty or excuse you from a submission to the Laws of God and Man examin whether at present you draw not more evil upon the heads of your Followers and Religion it self by an opposition to Conformity than you would by yielding to Reason and Law and to your Christian obligations I know that some prophane and vicious persons refuse to be conformable for other reasons because they have cast off all respects for their God and Religion I know the Jesuits and the disguised Papists amongst you will not Conform to our Church but exclaim against our Religious Worship because they have a wicked design to manage the ruin of the Nation But I intend not these lines for their benefit and perusal but only for such of our Non-Conforming Brethren whose hearts God may at last move with a sence of their duty to joyn with us in Gods Service They that hereafter shall refuse and continue in an obstinate refusal and in their usual clamors against us may justly be suspected for Papists or some hired to promote the Jesuitical design the overthrow of Church and State Were the differences in Religion between us in the Fundamentals a Separation would be well grounded But we all agree in the chief Articles of our Faith we embrace together the same Religion and Belief we worship the same one God Creator of Heaven and Earth and expect Salvation through the Merits of a Crucified Christ we subscribe to the same Covenant of Grace and acknowledge but two Sacraments as Seals we look upon the Holy Scriptures as the only infallible Rule of our Faith and Practice In a word we agree in all the essential parts of the Christian Religion many of the circumstances in which we disagree are so inconsiderable that if we had not an earnest desire to contend they would not be able to cause any dispute much less to disturb the publick peace The chief differences are about Church Government and Gods Publick Worship for the latter they are so frivolous idle and impertinent that I shall say no more in vindication of our practices than hath been already said but for the Government we agree in the chief Principles and Maxims though we differ in the conclusion For we all say that in all Church Governments amongst Christians that there is a regard to be had to the Models allowed of and appointed by the Holy Apostles and Primitive Fathers That the Rules of the Gospel ought not to be opposed but obeyed in the prescribing of Laws for the preservation of Christian Societies That in all Church Government there is a special regard to be had to the end of all Government which is the safety of the whole to keep it
chastise us for such unreasonable dissensions in such matters as we may easily comply with one another I know your common Objection against us is that in regard such Observances Customs and Ceremonies that breed a difference between us are but trivial in themselves they should not be imposed upon you with that strictness In Answer to this I intreat thee my Brother to consider three things first that a Conformity to one way one rule and manner in this Church is absolutely necessary for how unbeseeming a thing it is that one Congregation should practise one thing another act in another manner one Minister wear green another yellow another black another gray another white If in one place were all singing in another all preaching in another all praying How ridiculous would our Church appear to all the foreign Nations if these things were allowed by Authority It is therefore most certain that one way and one worshipping our God is absolutely needful and becoming the wisdom of our Nation Secondly consider that the way and method established by the Governours in Church and State is not to be referred to the humor of every fancy or of every dissatisfied and private person and that it is very reasonable in such cases as all acknowledge indifferent in themselves when one way is to be chosen and others rejected to take that which the publick Authority approves of and agrees with their Judgment and Piety whom God hath established over us and whose office it is to appoint such things for us to observe and obey Thirdly consider that trivial and indifferent things when stamped by the Authority of the Nation cease to be so and become necessary to be observed That which is indifferent in it self and but a trifle is a greater invitation to you to practise it and renders your stifness more inexcusable but in regard it is commanded by Authority I am bound to obey The indifferency ceaseth and I should think it a crime and a breach of Gods Law Of Obeying the Magistrate for Conscience sake If in things indifferent I preferred mine own partial humor to the Commands of my Prince and Governors And wonder not if they require so strictly thine obedience and mine to these orders because in this licentious Age men of corrupt designs take any liberty to dispute against Authority and contemn its injunctions under the pretence of Religion and Conscience And because this way and method seems to them the wisest whom God hath appointed over us to prescribe it in the worshiping of God and most agreeable with Gods Glory and the Nations Honor Credit and Advantage Therefore there can be no Superstition in them to require our exact obedience to all the Rules which they judge to be just and best befitting our Piety and in us to yield it in things indifferent in themselves as some foolishly imagin In all other matters which give you a distast I know none but may be comprehended under this notion and be looked upon as trivial and indifferent in themselves The designed compendiousness of this Seasonable Advice suffers me not to examin them all nor to weigh all the objections that you are wont to make in justification of your Non-Conformity But for those that relate to our Prayers and publick Liturgy I refer you my Christian Brethren to a small treatise now in the Press called the Christians Devotions and Directory in these dangerous times wherein I have laboured to clear and blow away all those mists that hide the truth from your discovery and to give you satisfying reasons for our practice and for your benefit with directions how you shall be able to prevail upon your averseness and bring your selves to receive a real and an inward comfort from our way of worshipping Unto the perusal of that Treatise I refer all those that would receive better satisfaction in matters disputed amongst us Conformity according to the Laws of the Land is plainly required from every person To set up therefore Meeting Places in opposition to Authority and the Established Service of God is an apparent breach of these Laws To haunt and frequent them under a pretence of receiving many Soul-comforts from the Learned and Godly Sermons and Exercises of Piety in those prohibited Assemblies is not warrantable in the Minister nor his Auditory according to the Laws of the Nation To withdraw from the Service of God under Episcopacy and to leave off the Assembling with our Neighbours in our ordinary Churches To forbear from Prayers the Sermons of our Common Teachers and the receiving of the Lords Supper and the other Acts of Non-Conformity are likewise breaches of these Laws of men established by the Lawful Authority of the Nation by the King and Parliament and are so well known to be so that I shall not offer to prove it The greatest Question is Whether these proceedings of the Non-Conformists be against Gods known Laws I doubt not but they will all acknowledge that the false Accusations the wicked Surmises the slanderous Reports and the pretended Crimes of Superstition Idolatry and their other uncharitable Censures of us and our Worship by which we are discredited Gods Holy Name abused and the sincerity and integrity of our Christian Governours and practices misrepresented are contrary to Gods Law Thou shalt not hear false witness against thy Neighbour It is a great injustice for them in hopes of advancing the interest of their Sects Exod. xx Psal xxxiv 13. 140. 11. Psal x. 18. to misconstrue our actions to fasten upon us Crimes to endeavour to discredit us and our Profession for besides the wrong done to us their brethren they blind the eyes and lead into error and mistakes many poor ignorant and well meaning Souls whereby true Religion is slighted and Faction and Schism kept up to the destruction of many persons and the dishonour of our Reformation and Church But their other practices though never so well coloured in the eyes of men with pious pretences are contrary to Gods Laws as well as mans Decrees That this may better appear to you consider these following and undeniable Truths gathered out of Holy Scripture I. That it is the duty of every Christian to seek as well as to pray for the Peace of Gods Church Psalm cxxii 6. To endeavor to be at peace with all that profess Christianity in Truth 1 Thess v. 13. That peace is a precious Jewel which we ought carefully to seek and to preserve 1 Pet. iii. 11. That we should abstain from all those practices that disturb our Brethrens Peace Mark v. 50. That we should follow after the things that make for Peace Rom. xiv 19. That it is the property of heavenly wisdom to be peaceable gentle easie to be entreated full of mercy and good fruits without partiality and without hypocrisie James iii. 17. And many other passages call us to mind in all our actions the peace and publick quiet of the Church and People where we live Now that