Selected quad for the lemma: christian_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
christian_n	day_n	let_v	sabbath_n	1,174	5	9.6962	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A23667	The mystery of iniquity unfolded, or, The false apostles and the authors of popery compared in their secular design and means of accomplishing it by corrupting the Christian religion under pretence of promoting it	Allen, William, d. 1686.	1675 (1675)	Wing A1066; ESTC R10549	54,027	163

thus Are they Ministers of Christ I am more 2 Cor. 11.23 They preached Christ indeed as St. Paul saith but it was of envy strife and contention not sincerely supposing to add affliction to my bonds Phil. 1.15 16. They envied him the honour and respect he had among the Christians by preaching Christ and Salvation by him to them and so they preached Christ and Salvation by him too but yet in a way of opposition to Paul by preaching Christ insincerely mixing other things with his doctrine that were more gratifying to the flesh and thereby drawing off the respect of the Christians from Paul to themselves which if effected must needs add affliction to his bonds They zealously affect you but not well saith St. Paul yea they would exclude us that you might affect them Gal. 4.17 And that they might not be thought inferiour to the Apostles of Christ who were extraordinarily sent and of a higher standing than any other in the Evangelical Ministry they also some of them pretended themselves to be the Apostles of Christ that they might put the more glorious colour upon their design and arts of deceiving Such are false Apostles deceitful workers saith St. Paul transforming themselves into the Apostles of Christ 2 Cor. 11.13 Nay it should seem some of them did not only pretend to an equality with Paul but also to a more unquestionable Apostolick authority than was in him For they called St. Paul's Apostleship into question and sought to undermine the reputation of his Apostolical authority Upon this account and for this cause it was that Paul was constrained to vindicate his Apostleship to the Corinthians as he did in 1 Ep. Chap. 9. Ver. 1 2. Am I not an Apostle am I not free have not I seen the Lord are not you my work in the Lord if I be not an Apostle to others yet doubtless I am to you for the Seal of my Apostleship are ye in the Lord. See farther for this 2 Cor. 10.8 11.5 12.11 12. 13.3.6 They insinuated that Paul had not seen Christ as those that were truly his Apostles had and that he had received the Gospel which he preached but from men and not immediately from Christ and that therefore he might be mistaken In opposition to which it was that St. Paul said I certifie you brethren that the Gospel which was preached of me is not after man for I neither received it of men neither was I taught it but by the revelation of Jesus Christ Gal. 1.11 12. But though too many were so weak as to be deceived with these mens great swelling words yet there were others that were too wise to be imposed upon by their pretensions to Apostleship And such were those of the Church of Ephesus for a while at least till they fell from their first love Thou hast tried them which say they are Apostles and are not and hast found them liars saith Christ to the Angel of that Church Rev. 2.2 As for such as were deceived and did take them to be what they pretended themselves to be Apostles and upon that account could give as much credit to what they said as to what Paul said it was no marvel if they thought themselves in a better condition by their coming among them than they had been in by following Paul in as much as they taught them an easier and cheaper way of being Christians than he had done as I have often said And that they did think themselves in a happier condition appears by that representation of their thoughts which St. Paul made when he said now ye are rich now ye are full ye have reigned as Kings without us 1 Cor. 4.10 S. 12.2 And to gain yet the more credit among the Christians whom they laboured thereby to seduce they pretended to promote the ends of the Gospel holiness and righteousness in what they did and taught For the Gospel is so express for these that the professors of it could hardly be cheated and corrupted in there profession of it but under a pretence of promoting these And therefore there is no question but that these false Apostles talked as high for holiness and righteousness and made as great a noise about it in sound of words and name of the thing in general terms as seducers use to do as the true Apostles themselves And therefore St. Paul saith that they transformed themselves as the ministers of righteousness 2 Cor. 11.15 They were for a form of godliness in profession though they denied it in the power and practice of it 2 Tim. 3.5 They were wells and clouds without water as Peter and Jude describe them they in profession promised the furtherance of Religion and vertue as wells promise water and clouds rain but they were but as empty and deceitfull wells and clouds in this Nay they did not only pretend to holiness and righteousness as well as the true Apostles but they pretended to more strictness in some things than the Apostles themselves They pretended to go farther in mortification and self-denial than the Apostles did in imposing upon themselves and others abstinence from some meats and from Marriage forbidding them to marry and commanding them to abstain from some meats was part of the doctrine of these seducing Spirits 1 Tim. 4.18 Touch not tast not handle not said they which things saith St. Paul have indeed a shew of wisdom in will worship and humility and neglecting of the body not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh Col. 2.21.23 They pretended that St. Paul and such as he walked but according to the flesh in comparison of themselves who lived a more abstemious and mortified Life as they would have others to think I think to be bold saith St. Paul against some who think of us as if we walked according to the flesh 2 Cor. 10.2 Let no man judge you saith he in meat or in drink or in respect of an Holy day or of the New Moon or of the Sabbath dayes Col. 2.16 They were for judging the Christians that followed St. Paul as not so tender and conscientious about these things as they themselves pretended to be For that we see hath been and indeed still is the manner of Seducers to pretend to great strictness in some little things which are not necessary in themselves thereby to gain a great reputation among people of weak minds for holiness mortification and strictness of living when in the mean time they are deeply culpable in other things of moment in the eyes of those of more discerning Spirits Like the Pharisees who were for tithing Mint Anise and Cummin and for divers washings when they omitted and passed over the weightier matters of the Laws Judgment Mercy and the Love of God yea and made void the Commandments of God that they might establish their own traditions By reason of these and other like pretensions they came at last to Separation it self and withdrew themselves from Communion with the Orthodox

Circumstances of the administration of the true worship And therefore these Scriptures when duly considered are without any colour of reason or truth alledged against the lawful use of undetermined Circumstances of administration of the Substance of Gods worship An opinion doubtless it is no less dangerous than false For since it cannot be conceived as I suppose how the publick worship other than the use of the Lords prayer and the reading the Scriptures and the reciting some words of Scripture in the administration of Baptism and the Lords Supper if so much can possibly be managed without doing something therein in reference to external administration which is not particularly determined and commanded in the New Testament such a position as that must needs tend not only to fill mens minds with endless scruples and their mouths with endless disputes but also to interrupt and put a stop to the administration of Gods publick worship should it be admitted Even under the Mosaical dispensation when things pertaining to the worship of God were far more minutely determined than they are under the Gospel many things were done of a religious nature and some of them more immediately respecting the worship of God which yet were neither commanded by God nor the doing of them censured by him so far as appears so long as any thing Commanded by him was thereby neither opposed nor justled out nor any thing done in the name or under pretence of things appointed by him which were not so as the Pharisees did when they taught for doctrine the commandments of men Of things of this nature these following are instances The rearing of an Altar by the two Tribes and half for a sign or witness that they and their posterity were people of the God of Israel and to prevent Apostasie in their posterity Josh 22.25.34 The erecting of a stone by Joshua for somewhat a like purpose Josh 24.26 27. Solomons hallowing the middle part of the temple for sacrifices 1 King 8.64 The keeping of the Passeover fourteen dayes by order of King Hezekiah and with the advice of the Heads of the people tho' God had appointed but Seven as also the Levites then helping the Priest in the Priests appropriate work 2 Chro. 30. The observation of the dayes of Purim The anniversary fasts of the 4th 5th 7th and 10th month The building of Synagogues for publick worship and appointing governours therein and the ordering what prayers should be made and how and after what manner the Law and Prophets should be improved to common benefit by reading and exhortation and what discipline should be used therein The determinate hours of prayer in the Temple Act. 3.1 The altering the gesture and some other things in eating the Passeover from what was used in the first Institution and conformed to by Christ himself under that alteration The seast of Dedication which Christ graced with his own presence The admitting of Proselytes by Baptism as wel las by Circumcision a practice which our Saviour was so far from testifying his dislike of as a humane invention that he chose the same rite by which to initiate his disciples These things with what was said before if there were no more to be said in the case would be enough to shew that it 's no just exception against our external form of publick worship in that it is not expresly and particularly commanded in Scripture for if it were it would be a just exception against every external form of publick worship whatsoever because there is no one in particular commanded with exclusion of all the rest Which still plainly renders it a thing more inexpedient yea and much more than so to be accessary by rending from the communion of the Church to the bringing on us all those sad effects of our divisions which every good man is sensible of than it is or can be to bear with what does not so well please them in our form of worship as somewhat else different therefrom would do Methinks it should make such as are more considering men among those that divide the Church by withdrawing from her communion to be very jealous of the expediency of their practice when they consider that before men took this liberty there was little of the sad effects forementioned visible among us but since that those bad effects are grown notorious and formidable and that 's no honour to Separation that it hath brought forth such fruit they may know what it is by what it hath done by its fruits ye shall know it And therefore such as would be loth to lye under the guilt unrepented of of being accessary to the drawing on us the sad events we speak of had need to examine again and again whether the grounds upon which they have made or incouraged those divisions which have been the cause of them be such as will abide the trial before God and whether they have any ground to think that what they contend for in case they could obtain it would ever countervail or compensate the damage which Religion in its reputation and the Souls of men have already sustained and are like farther to suffer by the course they have taken to effect it And when ever they do enter into such consideration it will doubtless be their wisdome not to flatter themselves with conceit as I fear some do as if they are not nor can be accessary to the bringing on us these sad effects of our divisions but that they are wholly owing and imputable to our Governours who as they perhaps suppose have given them just occasion of withdrawing from communion in the publick worship by making the terms of it so difficult and unsatisfactory as they have done For tho' that which they surmise should be so far true viz. That the conditions of communion are made more uneasie unto some than they need to be yet it will not follow but that tho' the Governours in some respect do ill in doing so the people may do very well in submitting to them tho' less pleasing to themselves rather than by causing divisions by not submitting to them to draw on such things as may well displease them much more than the uneasie terms of Communion need to do as long as they are but only less desirable and not absolutely sinful in themselves as doubtless those in question are not For if they were it would be wonderful that so many wise inquisitive and good men as well of the old Nonconformists as others as since the Reformation have submitted to them should not be sensible of it No not after all that could be said to work such a sense in them by such as have turned every stone to do it And it is not altogether inconsiderable to remember that however the case is now yet in the Apostles dayes they were such Christians as were less knowing in the right use of their Christian Liberty that caused troubles in the Church about things indifferent in their own nature Rom. 14. These things I have noted upon this occasion for no worse end than to satisfie the Scrupulous That although they should not or could not be perswaded that our external form of publick worship is best in it self yet that to conform to the use of it under present Circumstances is not only lawful but also very much better than to be accessary to all the evil effects and consequences of our divisions and causeless Separations and that there is upon account of the danger of being so much more cause to scruple Nonconformity than Conformity to our form of publick worship But if all the arguings and reasonings which have been used by many shall still fall short of their desired effects to close up our unhappy breaches and to heal our divisions the consequences of them are so dreadful that I could then heartily wish that if the Higher powers think it fit and rather than the wounds of our Church should be still kept bleeding to the exhausting of her strength and the endangering her very life and being that a Sacrifice were made of some such things as can least be born with and best spar'd to the publick peace and tranquillity of the Church if that might procure it Peace and Edification being the ends unto which all External circumstances of order are to be accommodated by way of means Thus much I thought good to add touching the point of Expediency from St. Paul's example THE END