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	particular_a	universal_a	4,571	5	9.4486	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26195	The arraignment of rebellion, or, The irresistibility of sovereign powers vindicated and maintain'd in a reply to a letter / by John Aucher ...	Aucher, John, 1619-1701.	1684 (1684)	Wing A4191; ESTC R14611	67,159	122

principle which restrained the interpretation of Scripture from a particular man's conscience so that particular man always holding the analogy of Faith as St. Paul enjoyns would be contented to be a particular man still not subverting her publick Order or by publishing and dissembling his private interpretations make himself popular and tumultuous And who will have reason to complain of this save such who under the name of Christians take it ill that they may not make Gospel of the Alchoran Or who can call this Tyranny in our Church which she would gladly submit to and accept and that is sufficient to wipe off the Tyranny from any other And I dare proclaim it in the name of my Mother the Church of England though the youngest and very meanest of all her children that if the Church of Rome with whom she has had the longest and sharpest contention of any would go no farther as to necessary matters of Doctrine than what was so esteemed and taught by the Church Primitive nor stretch her discipline beyond that pattern leaving the rest of her Articles how true soever she may think them and so under that name worthy of all commendations yet as no necessary conditions of her Communion or of absolute necessity to Salvation She would then heartily draw together with her in the same yoke And yielding her the right hand of Fellowship and that Primacy of Order and dignity due unto her Bishop as being Primae sedis Episcopus carefully maintain the Vnity of the Spirit in the bond of peace But while the Church of Rome absolutely refusing any such conditions and scorning to be confin'd does still press her new Articles equally to be received and submitted to as the old truths of God and his Church We have this to answer for our selves That it seems very unreasonable that we in this latter Age of the Church of Christ and so at farthest distance from those times of Miracles and extraordinary visible gifts of God's Spirit in Confirmation or his Truth should be tied to believe so much more upon so much less Evidence And what was left at liberty then to believe or not to believe as many Articles of the present Church of Rome confessedly were should now without any pretention of new proof or immediate revelation from Heaven nay though in appearance at least contradicting the manifest truths of God and our own best Reason be required of us under pain of Damnation And while all other Topicks failing them They heap up testimonies from the Fathers in defence of such their additional Articles accounting them thus as the Gibeonites with mouldy bread and clouted shoes to make us believe that they came from afar and are of ancient standing in the Church of God We have apparently this advantage supposing we could not drop Fathers with them if they themselves be not too much convinc'd already to suppose any such thing That if any one Father say but as we say in this point wherein we differ and another in another and so of the rest which an Easie Undertaker might be able to produce we are not prejudic'd at all by the Number against us For that from hence it must needs follow That the contrary to what is so asserted or but admitted as probable by any one Father was not then received as an Article of Faith or of necessity to Salvation in the Church of Christ Which yet now they are not content under any inferiour Character and Superscription to obtrude upon us And have withall so weav'd and mingl'd many of them into their Devotions as if they delighted to stand alone thereby forcing and restraining all the rest of the Christian world from their Communion Whereas the Church of England when put to compile a Liturgy even in Separation and distinction from the Church of Rome by whom she was cast out was so far from heat or spight or animosity nay so full of Charity and Catholick spirit not in Word or in Name onely which the Church of Rome does so much glory in but in deed and in truth that she agrees unanimously upon such a Form as whereby she might gather together into One all that were scatter'd abroad as having nothing in it offensive or contrary to the Romanist or so siding and agreeing with him as thereby to distaste the rest of Christians but acknowledged and approved by both And surely if the Lord's Prayer which was designed for the Common Prayer of the whole Christian Church and the very badge and cognizance of Christ's disciples may be allowed to hold its place and made the pattern of all Church Liturgies as it ought that Liturgy must needs be acknowledged most Christian and Catholick as coming nearest to that Form and most suitable to that design not which is most particular and minute but which is most comprehensive and large and wherein the several differences of the heads and judgments of Christians are least suffered to work a Division upon their Hearts and Spirits or come into their Prayers Which I must take leave again to commend as the particular Excellency of this Church of Ours beyond all the Churches either of the Romanist or Reformed as having nothing either in the matter or ministration of it to be quarrelled at by either Whereas the Romanist in his matter and the Reformed in his ministery are mutually at distance from each other But our matter being apparently good and innocent in both their esteems the Romanist must acknowledge our Ministery a lawfull Ministery as being the same and from the same Mission originally with his own And so the Reformed however rejecting Episcopacy some of them and the order of Bishops which we embrace yet acknowledge those whom they reject as Bishops to be truely Priests Veri sacerdotes and so to have lawfull power of Ordination and Authorizing others to that Function In a word neither the Ministery nor Ministration of our Church could ever be made criminous by any Party or Division of men whatsoever professing the Name of Christ save such of this present generation who together with Ours reject all Forms and all Ministery Condemning upon that very account the Lord's Prayer and arguing against any set and distinct office of Ministery in the Apostles So that our indictment in their mouths runs thus That not having the fear of God before our eyes we have sided with Christ in a set Form of Prayer and succeeded to the holy Apostles in a select and authorized Ministery But to return from whence I have thus largely digress'd You are contented at last to see and acknowledge the excellency of Monarchy and that according to the establishment of England in an Hereditary way above all other ways and Forms of Government whatsoever SECTION VII The strongest Babel say you that can be devis'd to keep a people from being scatter'd into these Confusions is that Form of absolute Monarchy and that in an Hereditary way Well let that be stood too and then

behold all things are become New A new Testament and a new spirit like new wine put into new bottles for the preservation of both And as the old Covenant of Circumcision which while it was in force was urg'd by God with so much strictness and severity that the omitting of it was instant death and excision Whosoever among you is not circumcis'd that soul shall be cut off from his people Is yet become in the New Testament not unnecessary onely but far more hurtfull and pernicious in the use of it than the contempt or neglect of it could formerly have been If ye be circumcised says St. Paul Christ shall profit you nothing So the Old Testament spirit which was accounted for righteousness to Phinehas Elias and the rest will bring as swift destruction upon any now who pretend to it As many of you as are justifyed by the Law are faln from Grace 'T is a plain renouncing and bidding farewell to the spirit of Grace to justify your actions by the spirit of the Law a preferring Moses before Christ a direct apostatizing to the sect of the Jews and the most hatefull opposition to Christ and his Gospel Which is made so much more odious than the Judaism of Old in as much as it pretends to this from a height and growth in Christianity A Judaism not from the Jews but Judas who in appearance of kindness and greater interest and familiarity with his Master did shamelesly betray him Thus they are forsooth lifted above Ordinances and while the rest of the Apostles are put upon duties Watching and Praying in the garden While all other Christians are under command to their Superiours Defrauding no man Truth in their promisses and the like and not thinking our selves worthy to sit down with Christ on his Throne esteem it a special privilege to enjoy him in his Sacraments To shew forth the Lord's death till he come as we are bidden in the Holy Supper and to be born again of water and the spirit as a necessary condition of seeing the Kingdom of God Judas rushes in with a hasty kiss And so these overgrown Christians with their lanterns and weapons and armed men fall presently a kissing of Christ no longer to be kept off at the distance of a Sacrament or the reverence of a duty but under colour of a greater growth and interest in him betray him manifestly to the Jews and that Old Testament spirit in all his Laws and Sacraments and services to be crucified by them at their will That there are indeed several degrees and growths in Christanity is perfectly true There is the Babe and the perfect man in Christ there is the weaker and the stronger Christian and that both in respect of knowledge and in respect of Grace whereby some Christians are more regenerate have mortified farther than others Some Christians are more knowing and so at greater freedom and liberty than others But yet certainly they are all within the same inclosure of Obedience to the Laws and Commandments of Christ The less knowing Christian may perhaps miss some part of that liberty which Christ hath purchased for him but the most knowing must not dare to transgress the least law or command of his Master The freedom onely lies in matters of a middle nature which being under no command or prohibition at all the weak or ignorant Christian does by his want of knowledge conceive otherwise and so obliges himself to doe or not to doe accordingly And thus likewise in the growth of Grace and degrees of mortification He that mortifies least must yet be supposed to mortifie every known lust and to practise an Uniform obedience to the Laws of Christ He that is partial to himself in either is but almost a Christian The degree consists not in mortifying this sin which another does not or in obeying this law or command of Christ which another Christian on the same occasion would not But in mortifying this sin in a greater measure hating it with a more perfect hatred watching more diligently against the occasions and provocations which lead to it praying more frequently and earnestly against it So in obeying the command with a greater desire and delight Virtutis amore making it our own choice judging the command most fit and reasonable the yoke to be an easie yoke and so our obedience and submission to it the very pleasurable part of our lives And yet farther enlarging our mortification to some freedoms and Indulgences allow'd unto us by God and his Church wherein we think fit to restrain our selves All things are lawfull for me says the Apostle but I will not be brought under the power of any And thus in our obedience not confining it barely to the plain laws and commands of our Lord but aiming likewise at his counsels and endeavouring towards perfection And while we might without sin nay doe well as S. Paul says by giving our Virgin in marriage yet resolve by giving her not in marriage to doe better Put our selves with the Apostle into the Theatre when we might have the benefit to escape Persecution Labour with our hands when we have a power to live of the Gospel and the like SECTION III. But yet all this makes nothing at all against obliging men to some certain measures of doctrine and worship gather'd out of the New Testament For that some doctrines there are in the New Testament so apprimely necessary that he is not a Christian that is ignorant of them or does not believe them Some parts of God's worship are of such universal interest and concernment that no Christian Church or communion can be without them And to pretend a weakness or unsuitableness of our spirits unto them is to profess our selves really Infidels And for other doctrines as Stars of a lesser magnitude yet certainly God's revealing them unto us in the New Testament does lay an obligation upon us of receiving them as soon as they are propounded unto us by authority of his word And so for our worship if it take in all that is commanded by God in this matter and add nothing forbidden by him supplying the rest with a suitable respect to God and our selves and the whole Church I know not what fault there can be in obliging men to an observation of it Weakness of Conscience was very pleadable in the days of the Apostles and first planting of Christanity When all men being Jews or Gentiles the Christian Jews were to receive Doctrines and Sacraments utterly destructive to what they had received before from the mouth of God which was given unto them by the Ministery of Angels confirm'd by Miracles and endear'd unto them by the Wisedom and witness of all Ages And no marvel if pious souls stuck now and then could not instantly unlearn the Religion of the Prophets and Patriarchs of God and his holy Angels nor swallow down every Camel without chewing And so the Gentiles