Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	christian_a	church_n	society_n	2,901	5	9.2764	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A46366	Monsieur Jvriev's Pastoral letters, directed to the Protestants in France, who groan under the Babylonish captivity translated out of the French.; Lettres pastorales addressées aux fidèles de France qui gémissent sous la captivité de Babylon. English	Jurieu, Pierre, 1637-1713.	1688 (1688)	Wing J1207; ESTC R15929	11,939	31

Poictou of Languedoc of Normandy made Conversions for the Bishop of Meaux After this let him boast himself if he can of his easie Converts But I am weary to confute such impudences by matters of fact which our Persecutors deny and by such Witnesses a they reject But let us see whether Monsieur Meaux will contradict himself He wrote his Pastoral Letter in April last a little while before Easter to invite and prepare the new Converts to the next Communion and exactly at the very same time he wrote to one of his Diocess the following Letter which is come to hand Meaux April 3. 1686. Monsieur I Continue to write to you without being discouraged at the Answer you made to my first Letter I did too well perceive a strange Character and a Ministers Style in it to attribute it to you In a word I found that it proceeded not from a Judgment such as yours But suppose it did yet would I not cease to invite you to a return I saw in a Letter you wrote to Madam V ... that the true Church doth not persecute What do you mean by that Sir Do you understand that the Church it self doth never make use of Force It is very true since the Church has but spiritual Arms. Do you mean that the Princes who are the Sons of the Church ought never to draw the Sword God has put into their hands to destroy his Enemies Will you dare say that against the Judgment of your own Doctors themselves who have maintained by so many Books that the Republick of Geneva could and ought to condemn Servetus to the Fire for having denyed the Divinity of the Son of God But without alledging any Examples and the authority of your Doctors tell me in what place of the Scriptures Hereticks and Schismaticks are excepted out of the number of those Malefactors against whom S. Paul says God himself has armed the Princes And if you would not allow Christian Princes the punishing of such heinous Crimes because injurious to God must not they punish them because they are the occasion of trouble and sedition in the Government Do you not see clearly that you are grounded upon a false Principle And if it was true then were the Arrians the Nestorians the Pelagians in the right against the Church since it were they who were persecuted and banished and the Catholicks those who then persecuted and banished them And at this present time the Catholicks who are punished with death in Sweedland and in many other Kingdoms should be in the right against those that call themselves Evangelical and each of them at his turn should be in the right and in the wrong in the right in one place and in the wrong in another and Religion would depend upon uncertainties But this is too much upon this Subject to convince as good a Wit as yours Know only that when it pleases God to leave us to our own thoughts the best Judgments are biassed with the least appearances The fear of worshiping Bread stands according to your prejudice upon better grounds Consider in the mean while without beginning a Controversie that must needs go beyond the bounds of a Letter consider I say it was the like fear that caused the Arrians and the Disciples of Paul of Samosatus to say that they would not give the Divine Honors to a Man to a Child to a Creature what perfections and privileges soever she was endowed with It was human reason senses and prejudices that inspired them with those empty fears Take care that your Religion after their example doth not too much depend upon the senses and human reason in a like case and that your non-compliance doth not proceed from an habit to follow their Dictates However you see your Reformers have done nothing else but renewing the quarrels ended six hundred years ago when Berengarius stirred them and if you question the judgment given against him the others with as much reason may question all the preceding Councils and here we are to examin again all that has been Decreed as if we did but now become Christians and if all that● our Fathers had Decreed was good for nothing this shews in a word that if Christians when they cannot agree upon the sence of the Scripture do not acknowledge a speaking and living Authority to which they submit themselves the Christian Church is certainly the weakest of all the Societies in the World the most exposed to desperate and remediless divisions to the Novators and factious Sectaries of all sorts This is an Objection which your Ministers with all their subtilty could never Answer they satisfie themselves when they alledge some examples wherewith they pretend to prove the Councils have not always well determined All those examples are false or ill alledged and in very little time you that are ingenious might be convinced of it You receive things with too much credulity without ever examining them but without insisting longer upon these things consider only if it is likely that God who has permitted there should be so many depths in the Scripture and that many Schisms should spring from thence among those who make profession of it consider I say if God has left no means to his Church to compound them and if there is no other remedy to heal Divisions but to let every one believe according to his fancy and so lead Men by degrees to the indifferency of Religion which is the greatest of all evils Think Sir Think upon this Consult your own thoughts and not your Ministers subtilties who let what will come of it are resolved to defend their prejudices rather than be accounted false Teachers Nay this is not enough ponderate these things pass by the places where the Scripture appears a little intricated and difficult It is better to see the simplicity of a Brother endeavouring to win his Brother than the neatness of an elaborated do all for your person which I esteem which is dear to me and that I am heartily Your c. Thus signed J. Benigne Bishop of Meaux Having imposed the necessity upon our selves not to go beyond this Leaf we put off our reflections upon this Letter till our next which we shall give you in a few days because this is only as a Preface to the rest In mean while we recommend you to the Grace of God and to his Mercy Amen September 1. 1686. FINIS