Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	church_n	communion_n	separate_v	1,901	5	9.2917	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47967	A letter concerning the matter of the present excommunications	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1683 (1683)	Wing L1353; ESTC R9567	11,968	37

with Laughter Indignation and Confusion and if Dissenters are to be destroyed it is desired that the work were left unto the Penal statutes which as now prosecuted and interpreted are sufficient for it rather than that the name of Religion and a Divine ordinance should meerly for that end be exposed to contempt The last thing that I shall trouble you with at present is the consideration of the persons against whom the present Excommunications are blustered with the pretended causes of them These are they whom they call Dissenters concerning whom we may enquire what they are and the cause of this pretended Ecclesiastical severity towards them And as unto the first part of the enqury They are such as believe and make open profession of all the Articles of the Ch●istian Faith they do so as they are declared in the Scripture nor is the contrary charged on them There is nothing determined by the ancient Councils to belong unto Christian Faith which they disbelieve nor do they own any Doctrine condemned by them They profess an equal interest of Consent in the Harmony of Protestant Confessions with any other Protestants whatever They own the Doctrine of the Church of England as established by Law in nothing receding from it nor have they any novel or Uncatholick Opinion of their own It is therefore utterly impossible to separate them from the Communion of the Catholick Church in Faith or to cast them from that Rock whereon they are built thereby They do also attend unto Divine Worship in their own assemblies and herein they do practise all that is agreed on by all Christians in the world and nothing else for they do not only make the Scripture the sole Rule of their Worship so as to omit nothing prescribed therein to that purpose nor to observe any thing prohibited thereby but their Worship is the very same with that of the Catholick Church in all ages nothing do they omit that was ever used by it nothing do they observe that was ever condemned by it and this must be the principle and measure of Catholick Union in Worship if ever there be any such thing in the Earth to expect it in any other observances is vain and foolish Offering Prayers and Praises to God in the Name of Jesus Christ reading the Holy Scripture and expounding of it singing of Psalms to God preaching of the Word with the administration of the Sacraments of Baptism and the Lords Supper in a Religious Observation of the Lords Day unto these ends all according as God doth enable them by his Spirit is the Sum and Substance of the Worship of the Catholick Church wherein all Christians are agreed These things the Scripture doth prescribe and these things the Church in all ages hath observed All differences about this Worship which have filled the World with inhumane contentions arose from mens Arbitrary Addition of Forms Rites Modes Ceremonies Languages Cringings Adorations which they would have observed in it whereof the Scripture is silent and Primitive Antiquity utterly ignorant And it may be it will be one day understood that the due observance of this Catholick Worship according as God enableth any thereunto leaving others at liberty to use such helps unto their Devotion as they shall think meet is the only Communion of Worship in the Church which the Scripture requires or which is possible to be attained About the imposition of other things there ever were since they were and ever will be endless contentions Wherefore these Dissenters practising nothing in the Worship of God but what is approved by all Christians particularly by the Church of England omitting nothing that either the Scripture or Catholick tradition directs unto they are notwithstanding this pretended Excommunication secure of Communion with the Catholick Church in Evangelical Worship Moreover they plead that their conversation is unblamable that they are peaceable in the Civil Government and useful among their neighbours if they do evil in these things let them that prosecute them bear witness of the evil but if they do well why are they smitten If they can be charged with any immoralities with any disobedience unto the Rule and Precept of the Gospel those by whom they are thus prosecuted are highly concerned if not in Conscience yet in Honour and Interest to manage the charge against them that some countenance may be given unto their Proceedings For the Law is not made as penal for a righteous man but for the lawless and disobedient for the ungodly and for sinners for unholy and profane and if it be otherwise with the Laws about these Excommunications they neither belong to nor are derived from the Law of God There are indeed great clamours against them that they are Schismaticks and Separatists and things of the like nature that is that they are Dissenters But in this case the whole force of any inference from hence is built on this supposition That it is the Will of Christ that those who profess Faith in him and Obedience unto him unblameably should be excluded from an interest in and participation of these Odinances of Divine Worship which are of his own Institution who will not comply with and observe such rights and practises in that Worship as are not so but confessedly of humane invention But no colour of proof can be given hereunto for it is directly contrary unto express Scripture-Rule to the Example of the Apostolical Churches and unheard of in the world before the branded Usurpation of Victor Bishop of Rome An Assertion of it is to prostitute the Wisdom Authority and Love of Christ towards his Disciples unto the wills of Men oftentimes pre-possessed with Darkness Ignorance and Superstition and other lusts as shall be more fully manifested if there be occasion Let any colour be given unto this supposition from Scripture or Antiquity and the whole cause shall be given up yet thus is it and no otherwise in the matter of the present Excommunications Persons of all sorts every way found in the Faith unreprovable in the Catholick Worship of the Gospel professing Love and Obedience unto Jesus Christ without blame are excluded what lies in them who manage these Ordinances of Divine Worship which the Lord Christ hath appointed and injoyned without pretence of any other cause or reason but only their not observance in that Worship of what he hath not appointed He that can believe this to be the Will of Christ neither knoweth him nor his Will as it is revealed in his Word and the Consciences of men are sufficiently secure from being concerned in that wherein such an open defiance is bid unto Evangelical Precepts and Rules with Apostolical Examples And further to manifest the iniquity of these Proceedings whilst these Dissenters are thus dealt withal all sorts of Persons ignorant profane haters of Godliness and openly wicked in their lives are allowed in the full communion of the Church without any disciplinary admonition or controul But as this serves

not go under the name of a Civil Order Constitution or Penalty but of an Ordidance or Institution of Jesus Christ Are not these things in their own Nature everlastingly distinct and is not conscience hereby fully absolved from any respect unto it as such an ordinance which in this supposition it neither is nor can be It is easily discernable how these things tend unto the utter confusion of all things in Religion If it be said That the Power of it as it is Excommunication is originally seated in the Prelates by virtue of their Office and is communicated unto this sort of Persons by Commission Delegation or Deputation under their seals it will yield no relief For this fiction of the delegation of office-power or the power of office unto any without giving them the office it self whereunto that power belongs is gross and intolerable Let it be tried whether the Bishops can delegate the power of Ministerial preaching the Word and Administration of the Sacraments unto any persons without giving them the office of the Ministry If Excommunication be an act of office-power Authority to administer it cannot be delegated unto any without the office it self whereunto it doth belong for these things are inseparable I certainly believe it is the duty and concernment of some men to state proceedings of this nature on better foundations that the exercise of such solemn duties of Christian Religion be not exposed to utter contempt nor men led by a discovery of false pretences of Divine Institutions to despise the things themselves that are so abused It were easie from many other considerations to demonstrate the nullity of these mens pretended Authority with respect unto Excommunication as it is an Ordinance of the Gospel in which respect alone the consciences of men are concerned and as unto their power over the Civil Rights and Interests of men those troubled by them must shift as well as they can But yet further the manner of the administration of the present Excommunications doth evidence their invalidity and nullity That which they pretend unto as hath been said is a Divine Ordinance an Institution of Jesus Christ and this declares in general how it ought to be administred by them who have authority for it and are called thereunto For it hence followeth that it ought to be accompanied with an humble Reverence of him and his Authority diligent attendance unto his Law and the Rule of his Word in all things with solemn reiterated invocation of his holy name for his Presence Guidance and assistance Where these things are neglected in the Administration of any Divine Ordinances it is nothing but the taking the Name of God in vain and the profanation of his Worship It may be some will despise these considerations I cannot help it they do it at their utmost peril it is Conscience alone which I respect in this Discourse they who have any such thing will think these things reasonable Again the especial nature of this Institution doth require an especial frame of mind in its administration for it is the cutting off of a member of the same body with them which cannot be without sence and sorrow To cut off any from a Church who was never a member of it by his own consent nor doth judg himself so to be is ridiculous hence St. Paul calls the execution of this censure bewailing 2 Cor. 12.21 Denominating the whole action from the frame of mind wherewith it ought to be performed and he that shall dare to decree or denounce this sentence without sorrow and compassion for the sin and on the person of him that is excommunicated plays a game with things Sacred for his advantage and shall answer for his Presumption Besides as was before observed it is an instituted Representation of the Lord Christ and his Judgment in and of the Church at the last day If the consideration hereof be once out of the minds of them by whom it is administred they must unavoidably err in all that they do much more if it be never once in them but this they ought to take on their souls and consciences that what they do Christ himself if present would do and will do the same at the last day for so he will deal with all impenitent sinners he will denounce them accursed and deliver them to Satrn There is undoubtedly required from hence a reverential care and circumspection in all that is done herein to make a false representation of Christ in these things that is his Wisdom Authority Holiness Love and Care towards the Church is the worst and most deformed image that can be set up What higher indignity can be offered to his Gracious Holiness than to act and represent him as Furious Proud Passionate Unmerciful and delighting in the Ruine of those that openly profess Faith in him and love unto him God forbid that we should think that he hath any concern in such ways and proceedings Whereas also the next end of this Censure is not destruction but edification or the repentance and recovery of lapsed sinmers it ought to be accompanied with continual fervent prayers for this end This the nature of the thing it self requireth this the Scripture directs unto and such was the practise of the primitive Church If we are Christians we are concerned in these things as much as we are in the glory of Christ and the salvation of our own souls If we only make a pretence of religious Duties if we only erect an image of them for our own advantage we may despise them but at our peril How well these things are observed in the present Excommunications is notorious Once to mention them is to deserve a second Thunderbolt An account of them as to matter of fact will be shortly given at present I shall only say That there is not any transaction of affairs in any kind amongst men civilized wherein there is a greater appearance and evidence of turbulent passions acting themselves in all manner of irregularities more profaness of expression more insolent insultations more brawling litigious proceedings more open mixtures of money demanded in pretended administrations of Right and Equity than there are in the publick proceedings about them Shall any Christian suppose that the Holy Spirit of God on whom alone depends the efficacy of all Divine Ordinances unto their proper end will immix his holy Operations in or with this furious exertion of the lusts of men If this be looked on as the Complement of Christian Discipline or the last and utmost actings of this Authority of Christ towards men in this World it must needs be a temptation unto men of atheistical inclinations certainly greater scandal cannot be given and it is the interest of some at least for the preservation of a veneration to their Office to dispose of proceedings in this case in such a way and manner as may administer occasion of consideration unto them concerned and not be carried on as at present