Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n
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A52357
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The true liberty & dominion of conscience vindicated, from the usurpations & abuses of opinion, and persuasion
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Nalson, John, 1638?-1686.
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1677
(1677)
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Wing N117; ESTC R19982
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50,790
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152
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Apostles and Disciples of our Lord and many of them were such as by Martyrdom did with their dearest bloud set their Seals to the testimony of Jesus Such who lived in those Ages before Rome and her Bishops ever thought of usurping the Title of Vniversal and therefore cannot be thought guilty of any combination with them in erecting or imposing this way of Government upon the Christian World Secondly The Determination of the Judgment that this way of Government is the best follows the better more sure and warrantable part viz. the Judgment of Charity Peace and Unity Charity with the first best and past Ages of the Church who all lived and died under obedience to this way of Government of all which glorious Martyrs Saints and Confessors it were the most uncharitable opinion to judge and condemn them as being guilty of living and dying in defending maintaining and practising a way of Government altogether unagreeable and contrary to the Word and Will of God as all Dissenters would persuade the World whilst they tell them this Government is unlawful and Antichristian It follows likewise Peace and Unity both with that part of the Church which is now Triumphant and with the Universal Church Militant over all the World who except some few of the Disciples of Calvin all agree in this way of Government Lastly We have reason to believe this way of Government to be the best in regard that it does more than any other whatsoever promote the great designs of the glory of Almighty God and the happiness of mankind here by Piety Peace Justice and Unity in order to their eternal happiness hereafter following herein the Doctrine Commands and Example of the blessed Jesus and his holy Apostles without turning to the right hand or to the left Besides We have other very strong inducements to persuade us that this Government in the Church is the best as being that which by Gods own appointment and approbation was established in the very infancy of the Church by the Divinely inspired Apostles and for this belief these amongst many others are very probable and persuasive Reasons First The great blessings which God has imparted to the World under this way of Government by Episcopacy for it is notoriously known that all the World which did embrace the Christian Faith received it with and from this Government Secondly which is very remarkable and a confirmation of the former It is impossible to find any Church which wears an antient Name and pretends to be of Primitive Conversion to the Faith of Christ but how much soever they may have degenerated in other things yet still they retain this way of Government witness the Roman Greek Armenian and even the barbarous Russian and Aethiopian Churches who though in other matters they differ as wide in Opinion as in Climate which according to the Adage is toto Coelo yet in this they do all most harmoniously agree retaining both the Name Dignity and Office of Bishops as the Governours of the Church amongst them And I do not know any one thing excepting the Canon of the Holy Writings which contain the Fundamentals of our Faith which Heaven has appeared so solicitous to preserve unaltered and uncorrupted as this way of Government in the whole Christian World Lastly This very argument which with so much pomp and triumphant solemnity is perpetually by all Dissenters urged as invincible and unanswerable if it be well examined will depose plainly for Episcopacy and that there is no positive Rule or Command in Scripture for it is aâ— strong and it may be a more powerful argument for it than they who make use of it are aware of And the true Reason why in Scripture there is no more said to justifie it with the highest probability may be believed to be because with a Nemine contradicente it was by an unquestioned consent acknowledged by all those who did embrace the Christian Faith and there were none found then nor in many Ages after so impious or audacious to oppose or contradict it And had there been any thing in the Government either unreasonable or contrary to the will of God the Jews and Heathens whose hatred made them curiously inquisitive into whatsoever might appear a defect in Christian Religion would certainly with their quick-sighted malice have discovered it the discovery of which would have imported as much as they did desire that was the subversion of the Church from the very foundation But so great was the Unity of the Christians in this point and so excellent and irreprehensible did the Government appear that in all the opposition Religion met withall though not an Article of the Faith could escape their censures we do not meet with any thing against this way of Government and well it was there was then such Unity for could those Enemies of our Religion have met with half those divisions which now Christians have made amongst themselves they would certainly without the assistance of a Miracle to preserve it have improved them to the utter ruine of the Church to which there is no Road leads so directly as that which undermines the Goverment In short I do heartily wish that all those who are so zealously it were well if I might not say furiously bent and opposite against Root and Branch of Episcopacy would consider seriously at what they strike and whether they do not really affront him who as the Root of it is by St. Peter styled the great Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls 1 Pet. 2.25 CHAP. IX The pretences of Dissenters that their ways of Government are the best and to be preferred before Episcopacy examined and tried by the same Rules above-mentioned concerning indifferent Things and Actions LEt us now see any other form of Government in the Church which can make so fair so true so just a plea for it self as Episcopacy has done whether Presbyterian Independant Anabaptist Quaker or any other of what name or distinction soever who dissent from the Church of England and flie from her Communion upon the account of the present Government by Bishops First There is not any of these that can shew express words or commands of Scripture for that way of Government which they would introduce And therefore they are unjust to us whilst they cry up their own way and endeavour to impose it upon the world as matter of Conscience since as before has been proved nothing can be so in its own nature for which there is not a plain and positive command or a natural and true consequence from Scripture the Rule of Conscience Or admitting their Proposition That all Governments being in their own nature indifferent and the best to be preferred how does theirs appear to be the best I hope they are better reconciled to common Sense Reason and Custom than to think their own Assertion or Testimony sufficient to convince us that it is so since the Son of God who was Truth it self yet
a just and warrantable if not an undeniable Plea to a Divine Right Secondly There is long succession of both of this very Race of Kings for above 600 years and long may their Imperial Crown and Royal Dignity flourish and increase even so long as the Sun and the Moon endure And for the succession of Bishops it is of much an ancienter date and though the time be not certain yet that the Britains did very early receive the Christian Faith and with it Episcopal Government is a thing not to be doubted if we will give any credit to the ancient Historians some of which would persuade us that Britain was Christian as soon or even before Rome it self Lastly there is Choice and a freedom of Election in the House of Commons which represents the gross Body of the Nation and is one part of the Authority thereof as for the Interest which the rest of the most Honourable Peerage have in the management of Publick Affairs it being one of the dear bought Fundamentals of the Magna Charta it was a thing never disputed till the late dayes of Confusion when the very foundations were violently torn up by the roots with the Tempest or rather Hurricane of Religious Rebellion and I hope it will never come to a second Vote that the House of Peers is useless to this Nation or a Government without them So that here is whatsoever is requisite to make any Authority lawful so as to have a just Right and Dominion over all those who live under it for the final determination and conclusion of all indifferent things both in Religious and Civil Affairs That this may appear plain to every apprehension we will give an instance in a point controverted amongst us Prayer is an immediate act of Divine Worship and of it self absolutely necessary to be performed to God Psal 65.2 Matth. 21.13 who is the God of all flesh and therefore unto him shall all flesh come because he heareth prayers and his house is the house of prayer for all Nations But to pray in a set and prescribed form of words or to pray as a mans abilities give him leave or as it is called by Extempore prayer according as the present occasion may seem to require are in their own natures indifferent and I doubt not but if either be done with all due circumstances they may be acceptable to God But now one man is persuaded that set forms in the publick service of God are the best another thinks Extempore prayer the best way So long as this is undetermined by a Lawful Authority every man is obliged to follow his private Opinion because Conscience obliges him to follow that determination of his judgment in indifferent things which he is fully persuaded is the best and conduces most effectually to God's glory and the promoting of Piety But because diversity of Opinion Persuasion and Practice in this Duty is apt to breed Division and Dissention and to prejudice if not ruine that Unity Peace Charity and Order which ought to be preserved inviolate amongst all men especially Christians therefore that Authority which has a just power over us as being of God's appointment of long succession and of our own choice to prevent these disorders and the confusion and dangers which may ensue upon divisions of Mind and difference of Practice interposeth it self and considering that our great Lord and Saviour who tells us he was to be our Example prescribed a set form of Prayer and positively commanded his Disciples so to pray Luke 11.2 When ye pray say Our Father c. That both the Antient and Modern Churches did and do use and approve set Forms of Prayer in Publick Worship that hereby rash and inconsiderate men shall not have liberty to utter any thing before God Mat. 6.7 nor to use vain repetitions as the Heathen did nor which is much worse than they were guilty of in their much speaking for which they thought to be heard non-sense indecent or irreverend expressions that men of greater abilities should not be puft up and those who have not that freedom and fluency of utterance should not be despised in regard for their Piety soundness of Judgment integrity of Life or ability to Govern they may be of as great use in the Church as others That hereby the ignorant and unlearned shall be better able to joyn with him that Ministreth knowing what he is to say than if they did not and with a safe Conscience may say Amen which I am sure to every Ex tempore Prayer they cannot and that all men may by Uniformity be brought to Unity that so necessary Bond of perfection both as to Religion and Civil Policy For these and many other necessary and prudent considerations this Lawful Authority judges it most conducive to God's Glory most agreeable to his Will and most effectual to procure the happiness of those under their Authority both here and hereafter to prescribe and command a set Form of Prayer in the Publick Worship of Almighty God And now that which before was indifferent becomes necessary in point of Conscience because the Scripture is clear in the case that Lawful Authority is to be obey'd in whatsoever it commands that is not simply and absolutely unlawful and that for Conscience sake and the obligation which before I might have from my private Opinion or Persuasion ought in Modesty as well as Duty and Charity to give way to the Determinations of my Lawful Superiors in all indifferent things And therefore they who now it is determined either despise it or refuse to use it or to joyn with those who do use it sin against Conscience because against many plain and positive commands of Scripture before mentioned and for which St. Paul seems extremely solicitous as well knowing Pride and Disobedience to be the most natural sins and therefore commands that men be put in mind as being apt to forget their Duty that they be subject to Principalities and Powers Tit. 3.1 to obey Magistrates The very same may be said of any of the rest of those things which are enjoyned by the present Authority of this Nation which by being commanded from indifferent become necessary and with such a dreadful necessity that whosoever resisteth a Lawful Power if St. Paul be to be credited shall receive to themselves damnation And let them seriously take notice of it how light a matter soever it may be made there is no man who does thus wilfully resist and disobey Authority that can hope for Salvation As for those who do it in ignorance I will not determine how indulgent God may be to them But they must know that though God may have winked at their former ignorance yet now he commands them and all men every where to repent And they will be inexcusable if they be ignorant because they will be so It is their duty therefore to look for a better Information of their minds and laying