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	unite_v	1,404	5	10.2542	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61568	The mischief of separation a sermon preached at Guild-Hall Chappel, May 11. MDCLXXX. being the first Sunday in Easter-term, before the Lord Mayor, &c. / by Edw. Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1680 (1680)	Wing S5604_VARIANT; ESTC R35206	32,588	67

such cases and bind Christians to observe them as we find in that famous decree made upon great deliberation in a Council of the Apostles at Ierusalem wherein they determined those things which they knew were then scrupled and continued so to be afterwards whereever the Judaizing Christians prevailed But notwithstanding all their dissatisfaction the Apostles continued the same Rule and S. Paul here requires the most forward Christians to mind their Rule and to preserve Peace and Unity among themselves But doth not S. Paul in the 14th Chapter of his Epistle to the Romans lay down quite another Rule viz. only of mutual forbearance in such cases where men are unsatisfied in conscience I answer that the Apostle did act like a prudent Governour and in such a manner as he thought did most tend to the propagation of the Gospel and the good of particular Churches In some Churches that consisted most of Iews as the Church of Rome at this time did and where they did not impose the necessity of keeping the Law on the Gentile Christians as we do not find they did at Rome the Apostle was willing to have the Law buried as decently and with as little noise as might be and therefore in this case he perswades both parties to Forbearance and Charity in avoiding the judging and censuring one another since they had an equal regard to the honour of God in what they did But in those Churches where the false Apostles made use of this pretence of the Levitical Law being still in force to divide the Churches and to separate the Communion of Christians there the Apostle bids them beware of them and their practices as being of a dangerous and pernicious consequence So that the preserving the Peace of the Church and preventing Separation was the great measure according to which the Apostle gave his directions and that makes him so much insist on this advice to the Philippians that whatever their attainments in Christianity were they should walk by the same Rule and mind the same things II. We take notice of the Duty and obligation that lies upon the best Christians to walk by the same Rule to mind the same things From whence arise two very considerable Enquiries 1. How far the obligation doth extend to comply with an established Rule and to preserve the Peace of the Church we live in 2. What is to be done if men cannot come up to that Rule For the Apostle speaks only of such as have attained so far Whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same Rule 1. How far the obligation doth extend to comply with an established Rule and to preserve the Peace of the Church we live in This I think the more necessary to be spoken to because I cannot perswade my self that so many scrupulous and conscientious men as are at this day among us would live so many years in a known sin i. e. in a state of Separation from the Communion of a Church which in Conscience they thought themselves obliged to communicate with It must be certainly some great mistake in their judgements must lead them to this for I am by no means willing to impute it to passion and evil designs and out of the hearty desire I have if possible to give satisfaction in this matter I shall endeavour to search to the bottom of this dangerous mistake to which we owe so much of our present distractions and fears But for the better preventing all mis-understanding the design of my Discourse I desire it may be considered 1. That I speak not of the Separation or distinct Communion of whole Churches from each other which according to the Scripture Antiquity and Reason have a just Right and Power to Govern and Reform themselves By whole Churches I mean the Churches of such Nations which upon the decay of the Roman Empire resumed their just Right of Government to themselves and upon their owning Christianity incorporated into one Christian Society under the same common ties and Rules of Order and Government Such as the Church of Macedonia would have been if from being a Roman Province it had become a Christian Kingdom and the Churches of Thessalonica Philippi and the rest had united together And so the several Churches of the Lydian or Proconsular Asia if they had been united in one Kingdom and Governed by the same Authority under the same Rules might have been truly called the Lydian Church Just as several Families uniting make one Kingdom which at first had a distinct and independent Power but it would make strange confusion in the world to reduce Kingdoms back again to Families because at first they were made up of them Thus National Churches are National Societies of Christians under the same Laws of Government and rules of Worship For the true notion of a Church is no more than of a Society of men united together for their Order and Government according to the Rules of the Christian Religion And it is a great mistake to make the notion of a Church barely to relate to Acts of Worship and consequently that the adequate notion of a Church is an Assembly for Divine Worship by which means they appropriate the name of Churches to particular Congregations Whereas if this held true the Church must be dissolved assoon as the Congregation is broken up but if they retain the nature of a Church when they do not meet together for Worship then there is some other bond that unites them and whatever that is it constitutes the Church And if there be one Catholick Church consisting of multitudes of particular Churches consenting in one Faith then why may there not be one National Church from the consent in the same Articles of Religion and the same Rules of Government and Order of Worship Nay If it be mutual consent and agreement which makes a Church then why may not National Societies agreeing together in the same Faith and under the same Government and Discipline be as truly and properly a Church as any particular Congregation For is not the Kingdom of France as truly a Kingdom consisting of so many Provinces as the Kingdom of Ivetot once was in Normandy which consisted of a very small territory Among the Athenians from whom the use of the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 came into the Christian Church it was taken for such an Assembly which had the Power of Governing and determining matters of Religion as well as the affairs of State For the Senate of 500 being distributed into fifties according to the number of the Tribes which succeeded by course through the year and was then called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 every one of these had 4 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Regular Assemblies in the last of which an account of the Sacrifices was taken and of other matters which concerned Religion as in the Comitia Calata at Rome From whence we may observe that it was not the meeting of one of

Clayton Mayor Martis quarto die Maij 1680. Annoque Regis Caroli secundi Angliae c. xxxii THis Court doth earnestly desire the Reverend D r. Stillingfleet Dean of S t. Pauls to Print his Sermon Preached at the Guild-Hall Chappel on Sunday Morning last with what further he had prepared to deliver at that time Wagstaff THE Mischief of Separation A SERMON Preached at GUILD-HALL CHAPPEL May II. MDCLXXX Being the First Sunday in EASTER-TERM Before the Lord Mayor c. By Edw. Stillingfleet D. D. Dean of S t. Paul's and Chaplain in Ordinary to His Majesty LONDON Printed for Henry Mortlock at the Phoenix in St. Pauls Church-yard and at the White Hart in Westminster Hall 1680. TO THE Right Honourable S r. Robert Clayton LORD MAYOR of the City of LONDON My Lord IN obedience to Your Lordships Order I now present to Your hands not only the Sermon You lately heard but those Additions which the straits of time would not then permit me to deliver In all which I was so far from intending to stir up the Magistrates and Judges to a Persecution of Dissenters as some ill men have reported that my only design was to prevent any occasion of it by finding out a certain foundation for a lasting Union among our selves Which is impossible to be attained till men are convinced of the Evil and Danger of the present Separation it being carried on by such Principles as not only overthrow the present Constitution of our Church but any other whatsoever For if it be lawful to separate on a pretence of greater Purity where there is an Agreement in Doctrine and the substantial Parts of Worship as is acknowledged in our Case then a bare difference of opinion as to some circumstances of Worship and the best constitution of Churches will be sufficient ground to break Communion and to set up new Churches Which considering the great variety of mens fancies about these matters is to make an infinite Divisibility in Churches without any possible stop to farther Separation But if after themselves are pleased with condescensions to their own minds any think it fit that others should be tied up notwithstanding their dissatisfaction the world will judge it too great partiality in them to think that none ought to separate but themselves and that the same Reason will hold against themselves in the judgement of others it thereby appearing that it is not Uniformity they dislike but that they do not prescribe the Terms of it But my Lord I intend not to argue the Case of Separation here which is at large done in the following Discourse but only to shew how necessary it was in order to the laying a Foundation for Peace and Unity to have this matter throughly discussed And if once the People be brought to understand and practise their duty as to Communion with our Churches other Difficulties which obstruct our Union will be more easily removed I have endeavoured to pursue my design in a way suitable to the nature of it without sharp and provoking reflections on the Persons of any which often set Friends at distance but never reconciled or convinced Adversaries However I must expect the Censures of such who either make our Divisions or make use of them for their own ends but I am contented to be made a sacrifice if thereby I might close up the Breaches among us God Almighty bless this great City and Your Lordships care in the Government of it and grant that in this our day we may yet know the things that belong to our Peace and to the Preservation of the true Protestant Religion among us I am my Lord Your Lordships most faithful and obedient Servant Edward Stillingfleet PHIL. III. 16. Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same things ALthough the Christian Religion doth lay the greatest obligations on mankind to Peace and Unity by the strictest commands the highest examples and the most prevailing arguments yet so much have the passions and interests of men overswai'd the sense of their duty that as nothing ought to be more in our wishes so nothing seems more remote from our hopes than the universal Peace of the Christian World Not that there is any impossibility in the thing or any considerable difficulty if all men were such Christians as they ought to be but as long as men pursue their several factions and designs under the colour and pretence of zeal for Religion if they did not find Names and Parties ready framed that were suitable to their ends the difference of their designs would make them So that till mens corruptions are mortified and their passions subdued to a greater degree than the world hath yet found them it is in vain to expect a state of peace and tranquillity in the Church We need not go far from home for a sufficient evidence of this for although our differences are such as the wiser Protestants abroad not only condemn but wonder at them yet it hath hitherto puzzled the wisest persons among us to find out wayes to compose them not so much from the distance of mens opinions and practices as the strength of their prejudices and inclinations What those divisions of Reuben of old were which caused such thoughts and searching of heart we neither well understand nor doth it much concern us but the continuance if not the widening of these unhappy breaches among our selves do give just cause for many sad reflections When neither the miseries we have felt nor the calamities we fear neither the terrible judgements of God upon us nor the unexpected deliverances vouchsafed to us nor the common danger we are yet in have abated mens heats or allayed their passions or made them more willing to unite with our established Church and Religion But instead of that some rather stand at a greater distance if not defiance and seem to entertain themselves with hopes of new revolutions others raise fresh calumnies and reproaches as well as revive and spread abroad old ones as though their business were to make our breaches wider and to exasperate mens spirits against each other at such a time when Reason and common security and above all our Religion obligeth us to follow after the things that make for peace and things wherewith one may edifie another and not such as tend to our mutual destruction as most certainly our divisions and animosities do Yet all parties pretend to a zeal for Peace so they may have it in their own way by which it appears that it is not Peace they aim at but Victory nor Unity so much as having their own wills Those of the Roman Church make great boasts of their Unity and the effectual means they have to preserve it but God deliver us from such cruel wayes of Peace and such destructive means of Unity as Treachery and Assassinations and an Inquisition Their feet are swift to shed blood destruction and