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	unity_n	1,522	5	9.2638	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A31487	Certain considerations tending to promote peace and good will amongst Protestants very useful for the present times.	Moderate conformist.	1674 (1674)	Wing C1695; ESTC R8765	24,369	36

I do not justifie their doings therein yet surely their Service would be missed at such time us need shall require them to give the right hand of fellowship one to another and go arm in arm against the Common Adversary that so there might be vis Unita fortior in which case want of their joint labours with ours there might arise cause of some such doleful complaint as fell out upon an accident of another nature in the Book of Judges Chapter the 5.15 where it is said that for the divisions of Reuben there were great thoughts of heart Also remember that the Benjamites though for their desert in maintaining a bad cause were all destroyed saving Six hundred and the men of Israel swear in their fury that none of them would give his Daughter to Wife to the Benjamites yet when their hot blood was over they lamented and said there is one Tribe cut off from Israel this day and they used all their wits to the uttermost of their policy to restore that Tribe again In like sort if those our Brethren aforesaid should be deprived of their places for the matters premised I think we should find cause to bend our wits to the uttermost extent of our Skill to provide some Cure of Souls for them where they may exercise their Talents Besides this forasmuch as in the life-time of the late Arch-Bishop of Canterbury these things were not so extreamly urged but that many Learned Preachers injoyed their Liberty herein conditionally that they did not by word or deed openly disturb or disgrace the State established ☞ I would know a Reason why it should now be so general and exceeding strictly called upon especially seeing that these men are now the men necessary by so much we see the greater increase of Papists to be of late then were before To conclude I wish I wish that if by Petition made to the Kings Majesty there cannot be obtained a juite removall of the Premises which seem so grievous to divers nor yet a toleration for them which be of the more stay'd and temperate carriage yet at least there might be procured a mitigation of the penalty if they cannot be drawn by other Reasons to a conformity with us See B. of F. L. p. 205. And now to this Bishops excellent Speech let me subjoyn what I find in Print by a Son of the Church I may say by a great Champion and Pillar of the Protestant Church in his Preface to the Reader before his Irenicum What Charter saith he hath Christ given the Church to bind men up to more then himself hath done or to exclude those from Society who may be admitted into Heaven It is not whether the things commanded and required be lawful or no it is not how Christians are bound to submit to a restraint of their Christian Liberty which I now inquire after of these things in the Treatise it self but whether they do consult for the Churches peace and unity who suspend it upon such things how far either the example of our Saviour or his Apostles do warrant such rigorous Impositions We never read of the Apostles making Laws but of things supposed necessary It was not enough with them that the things would be necessary when they had required them but they looked on an Antecedent necessity either absolute or for the presint State which was the only ground of imposing those commands upon the Gentile Christians would there ever be the less unity in a Church if a diversity was allowed as to practises supposed Indifferent yea there would be so much the more as there was a mutual forbearance and condescention as to such things And a little after speaking of the Primitive Church he adds It was never thought worth the while to make any standing Law for Rites and Customs that had no other Original but Tradition Much less to suspend men her Communion for not observing them The first who broke this Order in the Church were the Arrians Donatists and Circumcellians whil'st the true Church was still known by its pristine Moderation and sweetness of deportment towards all its Members The same we hope may remain and the most infallible evidence of the Conformity of our Church of England to the Primitive not so much in using the same Rites as were in use then as in not imposing them but leaving men to be won by the observing the true decency and order of Churches whereby those who act upon a Principle of Christian Ingenuity may be sooner drawn to a compliance in all lawful things than by force and rigorous Impositions which made men suspect the weight of the thing it self when such force is used to make it enter In the mean time what cause have we to rejoyce that Almighty God hath been pleased to restore us a Prince of that Excellent Prudence and Moderation who hath so lately given assurance to the world of his great Indulgence towards all that have any pretence from Conscience to differ from their brethren From the Premises it appears abundantly that Dissenters and Scruplers in by-matters have had some Friends as well as many Enemies and the Reason they have had no more Friends has certainly been a Mis-representation of them to the world as Seditious and Turbulent persons Enemies to Caesar and all good Government and Order in Church and State And this ushers in our second Consideration namely That Dissenters or Non-conformists have been frequently falsly represented to the world Of old the Jews not worshipping the same Gods that the Ægyptians and other Nations did were accused to worship an Asses head and once a year to Sacrifice a Graecian according to their Rites and Ceremonies and to taste and cat of his entrails and in the Sacrificing of the Grecian to Swear to be Enemies to the Greeks v. losephus in his Second Book against Apion Our blessed Saviour himself was accused to be an Enemy to Caesar the Holy Apostles were charged to turn the world upside down The Primitive Christians were Judged to be Atheists because they would not worship the Gods of the Heathens on them was laid the blame of all the Plagues and Droughts and Famines and Wars and what ever else was hurtful to Mankind as you may read in Arnobius his first Book adversus Gentes Of later times the Papists have charged the Protestants as the Authors of Rebellion and Sedition Mr. Gattaker had a Book which was given a Neighbor of his when taken and carried to Dunkirk to make him a good Catholick the Title was Monarcho Machia or Jerusalem and Babel wherein the Author labours to maintain that the Protestant Religion and the Presbyterian Discipline were in all parts introduced and upheld by Sedition and Rebellion To make this good he chargeth Calvin with such Seditious Doctrine as the Protestant Leaders built their Rebellion upon To prove that Calvin by his Doctrine dischargeth men of Oaths made to their Soveraigns he alledgeth his Fourth Book Chap. 13. 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