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	society_n	2,512	5	9.2730	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A42431	A sermon preached before the Right Reverend Father in God, John, Lord Bishop of Bristol, at his primary visitation in Bristol, October 30 and now publish'd at His Lordships request, as also the desire of several others that heard it / by John Gaskarth ...	Gaskarth, John, d. 1732.	1685 (1685)	Wing G288; ESTC R18419	31,784	43

worse case than many of the Heathens or in a great abatement of their hopes who perhaps never had the opportunity of joyning themselves to the Church of God and maintaining one Uniform Worship with it And now if possibly these Men should affirm themselves to be the true Church and so think to remove this Consequence from them it is very demonstrable that our Church is not only the most reasonable Institution of a Church which may be even defended in a rational way without the advantage of Antiquity but the very Ectype from the Apostles or the nearest resemblance of their Platform and the most Apostolick in the World which none can deny without betraying a lamentable defect in Primitive History And if they should still defend themselves that their Differences to us does not amount to a Dis-union from us or from our Apostolick Church but that notwithstanding they may be still accounted in Fellowship with it it is too apparent that those who do not consent in that particular Order Government and Ministry which God has ordained in his Church but innovate in some of these respects that is who either will not Conform with an Episcopal Church or Christian Society governed in the most Primitive manner by Bishops whom St. Cyprian so often styles the Principles of Unity or that which makes a Church when it is conjoyned to one Bishop as the visible Head of it And therefore the Novatians Donatists Meletians who maintained another Head of Union namely the Martyrs were all accounted Schismaticks by him and other Fathers or those who will not submit to the Primitive Discipline of the Church which was setled and instituted by the Apostles they may well be said to renounce and recede from their Church because in this Obstinacy or incomplyance they promote Factions and Discord in the Church and so violating that indispensible Charity which ought to be in it they lose their Christian Rights or cease to be of it Especially those that will not Communicate in the Sacraments of the Church these being the essential Bonds of of its Communion they must needs be accounted as divided Branches and not of that Society indeed they have no publick badge to maintain themselves Christians from and if they triumph in a good Life as many of them do they may rather be reckoned for a sort of Moral Religionists then such as can pretend to Christs Name or the Religion that he founded And now after all this if we consider the Apostles account of Schism which more plainly expresses the danger thereof seeing it has the same relation to our Church or ours being specifically the same with that which he sounded it may be more affecting and more inforce a Reformation Gal. 5.19 where he reckons up Strife Seditions Heresies with those other abominable works of the Flesh that does exclude from the Kingdom of God and then he shews the particular Character of this Sin 1 Cor. 3.3 Whereas there is among you envying and strife and divisions are ye not carnal and walk as men And St. Jude saith the same thing that those who separate themselves are sensual having not the Spirit vers 19. and to speak plainly 't is evident that either Pride which has always Obstinacy a Concomitant of it that they would be accounted gifted Men and have the credit of a special acquaintance with the Spirit which they think cannot consist with a set Liturgy although never so well composed both as to the extent of Prayer or good things that we should request for and proper expressions of Devotion to promote a due Affection in us it is this same Pride or Covetousness and some secular advantages from it that affords the reason of all Dissenters which indeed are as carnal things as Intemperance or any other bodily enormity can be There can be no Plea of Conscience for it at least in the more knowing of them and when they urge this they either in their proper art of dissimulation speak against their own Conscience and true Notions of things and so deceive some other honest People or they have contracted an habitual prejudice from one of these two Vices and their Indulgence in them and so are under a Self-delusion or deceive themselves in the case And I am confident that if our Non-conforming Brethren should honestly examine themselves in their own minds they would find where profit does not determine a great Preference of themselves and mean Opinion of other Christians who live in the sober use of their own Faculties and the common means of Grace without any pretentions to Miracles or the extraordinary gifts of Gods Spirit I say they would find this Spiritual Pride in them which indeed makes them what they are or Dissenters from us as also hinders them from a due Confession of their Sin and returning to us This I am confident is the predominant Principle in all those that separate from us however they began their Separation whether from themselves or had it more excusably derived to them through Education yet this is in them namely a Self-applause and contempt of others and indeed the Apostle resolves it into this Ephes 4.2 3. as will plainly appear from a due reflection on that place and therefore I believe the best method with them is first to subdue this unreasonable Swelling or Imposthume of theirs to advance some Sobriety in them and a just Opinion of themselves which only will make them capable of Conviction or Reconcilement to the Church For while they continue in their Pride they continue in their Prejudice also this being one effect of it and have no free use of their judging Faculties And therefore this Mountain is first to be removed which indeed is a Moliminous enterprise before we can do any good with them And then he may also offer the civil sin of Separation or Disobedience to Lawful Authority in dividing from a National Church to which Uniformity is absolutely necessary all difference of Worship by ranking Men into several Parties and promoting several Opinions and Assections in them inevitably making if not an actual Disturbance a most certain disposition for it in the State And this is the Eternal reason of Penal Laws in Religion to secure the External Peace of any Kingdom And therefore the Minister must inforce the indispensible Obligation that those of any Society or Government are under to conform with the publick expression of Religion or the practice of the Church there and nothing can justifie a Division from it but only sinful terms of Communion with it which I am certain none can charge with any colour of Argument so as to satisfie an Impartial Spirit in the thing upon the most Pure and Primitive Church of Christ in respect of outward Form and Discipline as we may well maintain ours to be And then he may farther represent the great Blessings of Vnity which in their Separation they deprive themselves of when the Publick Service is an Vniform

For this is the fundamental Misery of Man that he submits himself too much to his carnal Affections by this means advanceing them to an undue strength in him and then too greedily embraces whatsoever can be contrived to defend and patronise his Vices which are only the pursuits or gratifications of these Affections thus Jerem. 5.31 The Prophets prophesie falsly and my People love to have it so This was the Case of backsliding Israel and doubtless is still with the generality of Men he shall have the most Proselytes that gives the greatest liberty to corrupt Nature and most indulges the evil Inclinations of it as may be exemplified from the flourishing estate of our neighbour-Neighbour-Church which alas is too much Catholick although in many things it be not Christian But we may ask the Question with the Prophet And what shall be done in the end thereof It must needs be a terrible end that must befall these Men who have thus misled whole Multitudes into Ruine through their Delusions and false Doctrines Secondly A vitious Person cannot be sound and Orthodox in his Doctrine It is absolutely necessary in order to give a true Judgment in any thing that the proper Faculty in that Case be in a right Frame and Disposition otherwise the thing will not appear in its own Natural Qualifications but be represented in a different manner according to the Distemper of the Faculty Thus to men under some Diseases of Body all Objects do appear in undue Colours Figure and Magnitude perfectly other things than they are in their own Nature So that if the Mind of man be indisposed and out of order that being the Faculty by which he judges of Divine Things he can have no just perception of them But Vices and Immorality do quite debauch all our Faculties they blind them with Passions and warp them with undue Affections and pervert all their Sense and Knowledge of Spiritual Objects what Ruines these have brought into our Nature is too apparent from the fall how dusky are our Understandings at the best ever since unless they be advanced above themselves through Grace and have a Beam of the Divine Wisdom displayed upon them How false in their Judgments and how apt in a base Inclination to Sense to prefer the Worse before the Better Earth before Heaven the Empty and Fading Enjoyments here before the Substantial and Permanent Possessions of another World How obscure then must those Minds be and how incapable of discerning Spiritual things that besides the injury done to us or the imparement of our Original Constitution in the sin of our first Parents are further depraved with customary Vices and live under the influence and habit of them Such distorted Minds as these can no more perceive or relish the Noble Excellencies of Vertue than blind men can apprehend the Beauty of Colours or those that are deaf the Harmony of Musick they both wanting their proper Faculties in their several Cases There is a refined sensation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Platinus speaks which is only obtained from vertuous living absolutely necessary for our apprehension of Diviner things and therefore Aristotle frequently intimates in his Morals that 't is impossible for any to have a right Sense and Notion of Vertue unless they be also good and have lived under the Influence of it Thus he that is a Wine-bibber and places his whole delight in the silly brisk impertinences of that Liquor will not be able to discern the true pleasure and satisfaction which is in Temperance nay he will rather argue in the defence and for the necessity of his Vice that man is in his own nature too grave and serious a thing and his Life is but a melancholly business at the best unless you infuse into him some quicker and more aiery Spirits than his own when alas the Effect of this is freely to inflict that upon himself which if received from another might well be accounted the greatest Injury that is for the time perfect Madness and Distraction and 't is Gods great mercy that he does not in justice punish this great abuse of Understanding or his best Talent committed to Men and make that madness perpetual extending it self through his whole Life But blessed be his Holy Name that gracious Being takes better care of us than either to reward or punish us according to our deservings And he that is inslaved to that sordid thing of Covetousness or has his mind determined to the Possessions of this World will scarcely be perswaded of the Vertue of Beneficence and being Charitable He will be more apt to conclude after this manner that God may make our Heaven Brass and our Earth Iron and hinder all our Provision and Increase at home he may incompass us about with foreign Enemies and stop the income of our Riches from abroad and he may make these sad circumstances of things to continue for a long season what then will become of me when through my Charity and the scarceness of the Land there is nothing left in my hands Is it not better to reserve my Riches and provide of my own Store for the evil time than expose my self to these Uncertainties This is his depraved opinion of things and his practice from it and indeed 't is very true God may of his infinite Mercy send these Judgments upon a sinful Nation for their Correction and Amendment but he might consider if he had freedom for it what folly it is to rebell against God who has commanded the Rich to support the Poor that their abundance should be a supply for the others wants when in this neglect of his or this carnal Wisdom to secure himself he provokes God to deprive and denude him of all that he has which he is so retentive of because he does not pay the just homage of it I say he might consider this what folly it is to rebel against an express Precept which also has this present consequence of it and distrust that careful Providence that clothes the Lilies of the Field and feeds the young Ravens that call upon him Shall That neglect Man the Masterwork-man-ship of Heaven for whose enjoyment this lower World was created shall That neglect man in the very performance of his Duty O ye of little Faith It is a free thought that of Solomon which the captivated Soul of a covetous Person is not capable of that Charity is our surest Provision as engaging God for us Eccl. 11.1 2. Cast thy bread upon the waters and thou shalt find it after many days Give a portion to seven and also to eight for thou knowest not what evil shall be upon the earth Thus also the proud Person who is only filled with emptiness if I may so speak or the vain opinion of himself will not be able to observe the great Vertue of Humility he will rather account it a very debasement of himself in several instances of it than as it really is the most becoming