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
A80550	The second part of the interest of England, in the matter of religion, unfolded in a deliberative discourse, proving that it is not agreeable to sound reason to prefer the contracted and dividing interest of one party, before the general interest of Protestantism, and of the whole kingdom of England, in which the Episcopal and Presbyterian parties may be happily united. /; Interest of England in the matter of religion. Part 2	Corbet, John, 1620-1680.	1660 (1660)	Wing C6264; Thomason E1857_2; ESTC R210384	40,874	132

very deed this is the sure way of endlesse dissention among a people that are not bottomed on this principle of believing as the Church believes This kind of imposing hath discomposed all Christendom and rends the severall Churches from each other and makes the rent incurable It is the way of the Church of Rome w th upon this account is guilty of the foulest schism that was ever made in the Christian world It is a notable saying of Chillingworth Not Protestants for rejecting but the Church of Rome for imposing on the faith of Christians Doctrines unwritten and unnecessary and for disturbing the Churches peace and dividing unity in such matters is in a high degree presumptuous and schismatical God is jealous for his worship and consciences well informed and duly tender are likewise jealous concerning it lest they should provoke God to jealousie Minds truly religious doe set an high price on matters of conscience and will expose all to sail rather then cross their principles Wherefore if in matters of perpetual controversie between godly wise persons the Church shall make peremptory decrees and severe injunctions it must needs dissolve the band of unity But the best and surest means of preventing and suppressing Schisms is to prevent corrupt administrations and real scandals in matters Ecclesiasticall and seasonably to reform abuses and not to interpose in lesser differences Furthermore a great prejudice is taken up against Bishops ruling in consociation with Presbyters and against Classicall or Presbyterian meetings as inclining to Faction and likely to produce alterations which evils are supposed to follow the distributing of the power among many Whereupon the Government of a single Person or a Bishop having sole jurisdiction is apprehended to be the surest means of keeping Church affairs in a fixed state This prejudice having a great shew of truth we must stoop to pry into it more narrowly And first we have this political maxime to direct us in this inquiry that the condition of the people to be governed is the best rule of discerning the aptest form of Government And according to this principle we resolve that absolute Prelacy is the onely Government to hold a people that content themselves with a customary service and the Religion of their Country and of their fore-fathers whatsoever it be All Discourses Debates Disputations and all occasions of aontest touching Religion and particularly that exe●cise which is called prophesying must be avoided But this Government is not so agreeable to a people that are given to search the Scriptures and try Doctrines In England where the inferior Clergy or parochial Ministery is not rude and ignorant but in a great part learned conscientious where the common people in a great part try all things that they may hold fast that which is good the Ecclesiasticall jurisdiction can not conveniently reside in a Prelate alone governing by severe Canons and denouncing excommunication against all those that express any dissent from any particulars of the received Forms of Worship and Discipline For among such a people this is a likelier way to beget some great distemper then to keep all in quietness and deep silence But a form of Government more free by distributing the power among many and regular meetings for free debates within certain limits will be much more peaceable and succesful It is here acknowledged that in such an order of things dissentions may arise and cause some interruptions Nevertheless no great inconvenience but sometimes much advantage may follow The stirrings of warm contests may be unadvisedly condemned For as Thunder purgeth the Air so these stirrings may purge the Church from Corruptions ingendering in it Let the frame and order of things be so established that both parties may be made hopeless concerning factious attempts of promoting this or that extream that the contests may not be on the one side for Dominion nor on the other side for inordinate liberty but on both sides for Truths due freedom and then they will end in peace If great mistakes should arise in such meetings and seem for a while to pass currently there may be found some persons of that wisedome integrity and reputation as to be able to shew the fallacy and to convince those of both sides that intend uprightly In which case if they perceive an evil spirit on work and an evil design hatching among some they will turn away with indignation from the contrivers of such mischief Wherfore let the frame of Ecclesiastical polity lean neither towards Tyranny nor Anarchy but be set upright for just liberty Let good orders be kept and priviledges not violated and the greater number of those who mean honestly will not be led into the snare of faction And selfish ambitious pragmatick spirits that trouble them will easily be detected and abandoned Unto this reasoning let the authority of an eminent pacifick Bishop be superadded concerning the way of order and stability in the conjunction of Episcopacy and Presbytery Bishop Hall in his Discourse Intituled A modest offer of some meet considerations to the Assembly of Divines at Westminster commends the method of the Church of Scotland for prevention of Error and Heresie by a gradual proceeding from the parochial meering to the Presbytery from thence to the provincial Synod and from thence to the general Assembly for determining any controversie saying This bears the face of a very fair and laudable course and such as deserves the approbation of all the well-willers to that Discipline But let me add That either we have or may have in this very state of things with some small variation in effect the very same Government with us Instead of Presbyteries consisting of several Pastors we have our combinations of Ministers in our several Deanries over whom the rural Dean is chosen every year by the Ministers of that Division as their Moderator This Deanry or Presbytery may be enjoyned to meet every moneth or oftner in some City or Town next to them and there they may have their exercise of Prophecying as I have known it practised in some parts of this Kingdom as it is earnestly wished and recommended by that Excellently Learned Lord Verulam in his prudent Considerations where if any Question fail of determination it may be referred gradually from the lesser to the greater Assemblies till it be brought to a National Synod In the same discourse the said Bishop commends one constant prudent vigilant Overseer superadded to a Grave Judicious Presbytery without concurrence of which Presbytery the Bishop or Overseer should not take upon him to inflict Excommunication or any other important Censure Having discovered certain general Impediments I proceed to Argue upon the particular Concernments of the King of the Nobility and Gentry and of the Episcopal Clergy His Majesties Concernment in this grand Affair transcends the particular concernments of all others whether Parties or Persons and that beyond all comparison Others may advance themselves and Families by the present occasions

of the Protestant Religion cannot be built upon a narrow Interest Let it be considered that the adverse Kingdom to wit the Papacy is ample and powerful Should not the Protestant Religion and the Church of England aim at enlargement and lengthen their cords to take within their line all those that are intirely affected to them Then might they send forth much more numerous Forces of able Champions against the Armies of Antichrist So should this National Church become terrible as an Army with Banners Besides those reasons for Unity which concern all Kingdoms and Nations in the like case there is one reason peculiar to this Kingdom or rather to this Island of 〈◊〉 Br●ttain which is a little world apart It is a ●●●able saying which hath been taken up That England is a mighty Arrival that cannot dye except it destroy it self God hath so sea●ed and placed 〈◊〉 Island that nothing but 〈◊〉 within it self can hurt it 〈…〉 section do not make 〈…〉 Country and destroy 〈…〉 the hope of Forrein Enemies 〈…〉 for ever cut off Wherefore 〈…〉 s be the wisedom of this 〈…〉 ●●ther all dividing 〈…〉 ●●lish all partial Interests 〈…〉 ●●●mon Interest of England may 〈…〉 exalted I am not ignorant that designs of Pacification between disagreeing Parties are liable to much suspition misconstruction and hard censure that the attempts of Reconcilers have commonly proved fruitless and sometimes matter of disreputation to themselves and no marvel that such cross effects should commonly follow such attempts for sometimes they are made to reconcile light and darkness the Temple of God and Idols This was the way of a Great One even a Prince in Learnings Empire who would make an accord between the Augustane Confession and the Council of Trent and also of a certain Romish Ecclesiastick who would make the like accord between the said Council and the Articles of the Church of England than which nothing could be more absurd and vain for it could be nothing else but a violent wresting of those Decrees and Articles to a forced sence against the propriety of language and the scope of the whole matter and the apparent judgment of both Parties and so it could never heal the breach For if both Parties were drawn to subscribe the same forms of Confession but with meanings so far distant from each other as are the Doctrines of the Protestant and Roman Churches they would not really advance one step the nearer to peace and concord Such designs as these sometimes proceed from lukewarmness or indifferency in Religion and an undervaluing of main Truths together with a contempt of godly Zeal as a thing superfluous and impertinent And sometimes they proceed from vastness of mind whereby some through too great a sence of their vast abilities assume to themselves a Dictatorship in Religion to approve or condemn admit or reject according to their own estimation of things which is a dangerous kind of ambition and as a learned man speaks is to take up the Office of an Umpire between God and men But many times such a design is set on foot with much craftiness for the undoing of one of the Parties as it hath been undertaken by some Romish spirits for the undermining of the Protestant Churches A Divine of chief rank observes the arts and stratagems of some Popish Preachers even of those Orders that have been held most implacable whereby far otherwise than the accustomed manner they extenuate the controversies and acknowledge that too much rigor hath been used in some points and in others too little sincerity yea some Jesuites went about making fair promises yet in the mean time abating no point of the chief foundations of Papal Authority which standing firm they knew that the other Concessions granted for a time might easily be drawn back and the opposite rigors imposed on those that had been taken in the snare by a pretended yielding to some reformation Philip Melancthon as the same Author observes being a most Pious and Learned man and zealous of the Churches peace at first whilst he conceived that some Reformation might be hoped for from a General Council was free and forward in some points of yielding to the Papists but when he found that such a benefit was neither hopeful nor possible he testified by his writings how far distant he was from the aim of the Conciliators But the Pacification here propounded is not by aggregating things inconsistent nor by devising mongrel ways and opinions made up out of both extreams which can satisfie the consciences of neither Party but by taking out of the way such extreams on both sides as both may well spare and part with being such as are acknowledged no part of the Foundation nor yet of divine Institution but mutable according to times and occasions and therefore cannot be of that importance as to break unity amongst brethren that agree in the Doctrine of Faith and the substance of Divine Worship This desired Union is grounded upon the Apostles Commandment and the pursuing thereof is no other then the urging of St Pauls Doctrine throughout the whole fourteenth Chapter to the Romans That none judge or despise another about things indifferent or Ceremonious Observances wherein as several men will abound in their own sence so it is meet that every one be perswaded in his own mind concerning his particular practice that nothing be done with a doubting conscience His MAJESTIES Wisedom hath rightly comprehended this Matter in His Declaration touching Ecclesiastical Affairs wherein He saith VVe are the rather induced to take this upon Us that is to give some determination to the matters in difference by finding upon a full Conference that VVe have had with the Learned men of several perswasions that the mischiefs under which both Church and State do at present suffer do not result from any formed Doctrine or Conclusion which either Party maintains or avows but from the passion and appetite and Interest of particular persons which contract greater prejudice to each other by those affections then would naturally arise from their Opinions In old time there was a partition wall of legal Ceremonies and Ordinances raised up between Jews and Gentiles but when the fulness of time was come wherein God would make both Jews and Gentiles one in Christ he was pleased to take down that partition wall which himself had reared up In these latter times there hath been a partition wall of mans building namely controverted mutable Rites and forms of Religion which have kept asunder Christians of the same Nation and of the same Reformed Protestant Profession Both reason and charity pleads for the removing of these offences that brethren may dwell together in Unity And to transgress this rule of Charity is not only to lay a yoke upon the necks of Christians but also to lay snares for their Consciences Nor will any defect in the State Ecclesiastical insue upon the removal of these matters in controversie for the points of Doctrine

is an erroneous judgment touching the times foregoing the late wars For as much as great and manifold distempers have happened and continued in this Land since the beginning of these troubles the defects of former times are quite forgotten as it commonly comes to pass that latter miseries if drawn out to any length do drown the rememberance of by-past evils but he who discerns only things at hand and not affar off is purblind I abhor to take upon me the defence of our late distracted times the distempers thereof I would not in any wise palliate Nevertheless let this be noted distempers have their times of breeding as well as of breaking forth Certainly that dismal Tempest which succeeded the long Calm in this Nation had its time of gathering in the Clouds To heal the symptomes of a disease its rooted cause being neglected is but a palliative cure To take away the irregularities of these latter times and not to inquire into the former causes is to hide but not to heal the maladies of this Kingdom Another errour which turns away mens eyes from beholding the true state of their own affairs is a contempt of the dissenting Party and of their Opinions as silly and irrational with which is joyned a vain conceit that the whole Party with their Opinions would soon fall to the ground if a few turbulent and factious spirits as they pretend were taken out of the way This makes men to bear down their opposites more with scorn and contumely then with any temperate and solid reasoning This makes men wilful precipitate unmerciful and puts them forward by rigid injunctions and severe inquisitions to suppress those with whom they might walk in one way if they themselves did walk in love But there is as little of Reason as Religion in this self-admiring humour It is the part of weak and selfish minds to contract Religion to certain modes and forms which stand not by Divine Right but by the wills of men and which are of little efficacy and very disputable and if supposed lawful ought to be governed by the rule of Charity To think that none is a good Christian a sound Protestant a fit minister that cannot subscribe to such modes and forms proceeds from a narrow and ignoble judgment It is also as much pride as weakness to contemn the setled way of a knowing and serious people steddy in their Principles and practices as if they were worthy of no regard because they dissent in some points which in themselves are of little moment This is for men to think that they only are the people and that wisdom shall dye with them Noble and high capacities and judgments of a large and deep reach do know they cannot square the world by the narrow compass of those conceived Principles that have possessed and seasoned their own minds But they look also without themselves rightly judging that as they have their own peculiar Notions so another sort have theirs and that divers men are carried divers ways as they are led by natural temper custom education or studious inquiries They know likewise that there is no constraining of all minds to one perswasion without imbasing their judgments to perfect slavery which we see put in practice in the Antichristian Kingdom of the Papacy Whereupon men of vastest parts and learning and of true nobleness of judgment have been ever favourable to those which dissented only in such opinions as amongst wise and sober men are not with one consent determined unless their peculiar Interest were bound up in those Opinions For this nobleness of judgment which naturally inclines to allow ones self and others this righteous liberty is sometimes driven back and streightned by politique Interests Verily a judgment truly noble is truly Catholique and true Catholicism is most contrary to that which is so called by pretended Catholiques For it is to maintain Christian Concord with all Christians as far as they hold Christ the Head It is incident to ruling men to cherish the passion of indignation against the dissenting Party Hence ariseth a great perturbation of judgment For by reason of the dominion of this passion when dissenters modestly assert their Principles and do not instantly comply as much as is expected it is taken for petulancy and peevishness When some degree of forwardness breaks forth it is encountred with that severity which hazards the undoing of the weak Part that should and might be healed And their dis-satisfaction is judged the effect of incurable pride and malice This perturbation of judgment begets a great distemper in publique Councils Wherefore let persons bearing Rule watch over this dangerous passion and dread its tyranny First let not perversness be always imputed to the non-compliances of the inferiour Party God hath put it into the Kings heart to extend compassion to multitudes of His Loyal Subjects in taking off the rigour of sundry impositions in matters Ecclesiastical and they think it good to make use of those His Majesties Concessions without the prejudice of any part of Religion or of order and decency in the Church Others that should have helped forwards His Majesties design of Peace are offended saying The Presbyterians yield in nothing the late indulgence hath made them more resolved against all points of Conformity But why should their eye be evil because His Majesties eye is good Have the Presbyterians abated nothing when for peace sake they have declared a readiness to part with the Presbyterian platform of Church-Government which is used in other Reformed Churches and to submit to a regulated Episcopacy as also to wave the Directory for Worship and to accept a Reformed Liturgy Indifferent men would judge that this is a good advance towards peace and that a closure is hereby really intended But what have the Prelatists done in testimony of their moderation Have they desisted from the use of any one of the former Ceremonies even such as be not injoyned by any Law or Canon Suppose some of the Presbyterians be they few or many do as yet forbear the us sing of some forms which they apprehend not simply unlawful perhapsome reason of scandal may cause this forbearance otherwise to the judicious they might seem to contradict their own Principles out of servile fear or for worldly ends and the malicious might take occasion though none were given to reproach them for temporizing Now it concerns Christs Ministers to prevent what in them lies not only a just but even an unjust and causeless contempt of their Ministry Besides they are not willing that some persons of good affections but weaker judgments should take offence at their early and easie compliance and so fall into down-right separation The Presbyterians attend a good Reformation and all necessary inlargement that may encompass and gather together in one all that are of sound belief and good life who have been so long scattered abroad Nothing therefore appears but that they have hitherto conscienciously and judiciously made