Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	communion_n	external_a	separation_n	2,713	5	10.7038	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56805	The conformist's fourth plea for the nonconformists wherein several considerations are offered for Christian forbearance : with some relations of some of their sufferings ..., together with some account of the infamous lives and lamentable deaths of some informers / by a charitable and compassionate conformist, author of the former Pleas.	Pearse, Edward, 1631-1694.	1683 (1683)	Wing P974; ESTC R34547	112,844	120

Affectation in them Affectation of what of Fines Losses Frowns Threatnings Diminution of Civil Privileges as far as some can deprive them If this be their Hypocrisy verily they have their Reward They go to hear them for Scruples and Fanaticism Let a Divine repent of such a meditated Calumny and Aspersion lest he fall into them So the Heathen objected Sed non ideo bonum quia multos convertit Quid hoc mati est cujus reus gaudet c. Tertull. Apol. chap. 1. Whatever another intends to do that dares to make the Success of their Ministry of the Gospel the Power of God to Salvation upon rational Souls to lead Christian Lives no greater Argument of divine Approbation than the spreading of Mahumetanism and the Success of the Alcoran if he never found the Efficacy of Grace of the Spirit Word and Sacraments upon his Heart let him turn his Thoughts and his Time if not his Pen to make ready for his Judgment and to secure his Peace rather than to rake into Sores and Ulcers and keep them open to get Money as some Beggars do their Sores Consid IX A safe and speedy Union of Diffenters as nearly united as possibly can be made is most desireable that there may be a happy End put to their many Sufferings Religion and Humanity can take no pleasure in the deserved Punishments of Men the Murmurs and Complaints of Sufferers stir and move Compassions and Pity holds the Hand even of Justice in all Cases in which Necessity is not urgent and manifest The Evil of Separation hath been opened when the Evil of their Sufferings hath not been touched upon They are urged with the first but that is but one Side of the Evil let us search into the other Sore to take the whole Weight and Compass of the Mischief that lies upon the Protestant Religion and both run down from the same Cause and he that would stop the Current of Evil in divided Streams and dry up the Flood of Afflictions and Miseries must stop it at the Well head of the Cause They are urged to enter into the Communion of the Church as by Law established because of the Mischiefs of their Separations and it would be a special Service to move our Governors to make their Return as easy as may be by opening the Scandal of their Sufferings If their Consent to our Injunctions were gained the Controversy would be at an end and this Prosecution also But that being not like to be attained this way the Continuance of the Separation is more for the good and profit of the Church than their Sufferings for while they enjoy their Liberty the Gospel is preached and they that are regenerate and called and gathered to Christ are gathered to the Catholick Church tho not united unto a particular Church in some certain Bonds of external Communion But if they were totally suppressed and where they are most narrowly watched and kept in thousands of Souls would lose the Benefit of their Labours and their Hearts are like to be more estranged from us and the Church will still lose the Content and Comfort of their Communion The supposed and aggravated Sin and Evil of the Separation is doubled by their Sufferings and made more incurable by the Exasperation We see and taste the Fruit of above twenty Years Proceedings and better cannot be expected but much worse may be feared To argue for a Release from their Sufferings because they have suffered deeply may seem weak and inconsequent but take them in a Complex of Causes and Circumstances and I do hope the Argument may prove a Matter of Consideration to them that are concerned in these great Matters If a Man should move for a Suspension of the Laws against Malefactors thus Millions have suffered Imprisonment and Death and therefore spare them the Argument is not only ridiculous and weak but weak and sinful because they are Malefactors and the Laws of God both natural and revealed require it and there would be no Safety to the Lives of Innocents nor of Civil Rights and Possessions But to argue Our dissenting Brethren have suffered much therefore forbear to inflict more Punishments upon them is not without some Strength and convincive Evidence 1. The performance of Religious Exercises in a different Form is no such Offence and Crime as deserves to be punished before the Penal Laws decree the Penalties The Difference of the Administrations is made by the diverse using or disusing of Things indifferent some extending their Liberty further than others To use Christian Liberty wisely and as much as may be inoffensively is no punishable Crime but a Duty and if there be not a Liberty in indifferent Things there is none at all 2. But if it were a Matter punishable yet of such Things as are punishable before a Penal Law be made Sed non ideo sequitur eam paenam debere exigi quia boc pendet ex connexione finium ob ques poena instituta est cum ipsa poenâ as Grotius writes De Jure Bell. Pac. lib. 2. cap 4. § 22. Now what can be the Ends of these Penal Constitutions 1. Unity of Mind with our Governors in those Things enjoined that seems to be the Reason of the Assent and Consent which none can be of but such as were so minded before it was required all Reasons and Circumstances perpensed But that all should be of the same mind is impossible in our State That 's an End not attainable and they who propose it propose only for themselves and them of the same Judgment with them and exclude the rest whom the Lord hath received It was a wise and is a celebrated Saying of the Emperor Maximilian the Second to Augustus of Saxe when he interposed for Peueer in the Vbiquitarian Controversies and Persecution The Duke told him he would have all his Ministers agree with him and among one another to which the Emperor answered Ego in negotiis ad fidem conscientiam pertinentibus nec ausim vel velim cuiquam offerre necessitatem aliquam coactione Scis irrito conatu c. I know that will be lost Labour and that it is grievous and dangerous in it self Id nunquam perficies inquit Imperator neque nostrum est imperare Conscientiis an t ad fidem quimque vi cogere Perclius Histor Carcerum p. 361. Hoornbeck Summa Controv. cum Lutheranis p. 657. 2. The Peace of the Church and State may be aim'd at Can there be Peace in the House of God whilst one Fellow-Servant smites another Surely that is not the way to Peace Which brings to my mind that of the Learned Hornbeck Oratione de Ecclesiarum inter se Communiene If we shall receive or treat them otherwise than Brethren whom Christ doth not disdain or think unworthy of so great a Name Place and Honour Atque hoe Christianae charitatis communionisque est fundamentum This is the Foundation also of all Christian and Ecclesiastical Love

of Saints doth consist in Practice and Exercise And had we not better spare the Things we contend for than an Article of Faith Or why may not a Conformist hold occasional Communion with the Nonconformists in indisputable Duties retaining the Liberty and Reputation of his Conformity without suspicion Is it because we must not offend Authority Then certainly a greater Weight is hung upon Conformity than it can bear if ever it be weighed in an even Ballance We are forward to blame the more rigid sort of Separatists for not coming to our Worship and why are we so rigid as to forbear all Christian Communion with them as if Christianity were all lost among them O that we were as averse from other Company as we are from them in holy Duties I do declare for this very reason taken from my Creed that I do hold mental Communion with all the holy Brethren Partakers of the heavenly Calling and am prepared for local and external Communion with them in all Christian Duties and Ordinances Consid VII To silence molest and punish sound and able Ministers and Protestant Christians is as much as to render them altogether unserviceable to the Church and Kingdom in a time of need and in places that need all their Labours and to cut them off except they be moved by force of Law to come in and do as we do But the Church of God in England and Wales hath great need of more such Men as they are and some places had sat in Darkness had it not been for them This is true and therefore this course of proceeding with them is detrimental to Religion it self and to the Salvation of precious Souls Surely either we do not know what it is to save Souls or we must be sensible that it is a Work of great Study Industry and Watchfulness and how a small Parish is too great and numerous without great Diligence for most of us and how long it is before we come to a holy dexterity in the management of our Calling Who is sufficient so to preach as to be a savour of Life But who is sufficient for publick and private Work Some make no more of it but to send a Man and a woodden Staff but the Prophet himself must stretch himself and breath upon the dead Child c. It is matter of Praise to read diligently the Prayers and preach constantly but we know that many must be setched in not by citing them first to Court that way is much about so far about that some are lost that way and never come in we must go and setch them in by our personal Applications and Addresses to their Consciences It is better have too many than too few saith the Reverend Bishop of Cork We have too few if they were all admitted and encouraged And what an unreasonable loss is it to be deprived of their Labours who are devoted to the Work and have as edifying a Gift of popular persuasive Argumentation as any Men Who have been our Teachers and Examples in this kind more than they What an Example was the most faithful and successful Mr. Baxter whose Practice was copied after his Gildas Salvianus and the Ministers of that Association How diligent was Mr. Stubbs Mr. Allen Mr. Waddesworth and others But they were not worthy This course we undertake to follow when we are ordained this was the commendable Practice of the the ancient Bishops See Prosper de vita Contemplativa l. 2. c. 2. tales Seriptura appellat Speculatores qui speculantur actus omnium c. that watch the Actions of all how every one lives in his House how in the City among the Citizens c. lib. 1. cap. 21. the Chapter answers the Title a lamentable Description of a Priest living carnally Cyprian Epist 40. It troubled St. Augustin that his Health would not serve him to do his Office It grieves me more than it doth you perhaps that my Infirmity is not sufficient for all the Cares which the Members of Christ require of me Epist 138. Clero Populo Hypponensi c. How seldom do many People especially Women and young Ones in Parishes of five or six Miles Dimensions or more come to Church Have not they Souls Perhaps they would be careful of them if they were told and convinced of their Case and Danger but O how well do they take themselves to be and think themselves excused from saving Ordinances because they live so far from their Churches The Learned Dr. Bright saith somewhere in his Book of Prayer that upon computation there is a Priest for every fifty Persons in France But alas here in England there is not a Minister wholly for two or three Parishes in many Counties and this where I live I have known a poor silly Curat travel on foot four or five Miles to read Prayers in some very populous Parishes where Esquires and Gentlemen live very thick While we are careless of Souls we teach poor Souls to be careless of their Salvation If the Cry of spiritual Murther Damnation of Fire of Hunger and Thirst had any Entrance into our Hearts we should mind Realities more than Formalities and not persecute Preachers for Preaching but send them forth in Peace and commend them to God But Preachers yet not Preachers make an Outcry against their Preaching and others that never knew the Need or Benefit of it cannot endure them in their Coasts But they who are more concerned for the Salvation of Souls and Prosperity of the Work of Christ should be otherwise affected But to use them as they are used is not tenderly to consult the eternal Salvation and Good of many People and suppose them as disaffected to the Church whose Happiness they intensely wish and would certainly part with more if they had it to come in again into the publick Service than ever it cost them to forsake it both against their Wills and against their Interest Ease Quietness and Honour I am consident of what I write tho I have not asked any of them the Question because I do verily believe them to be wise rational and good Men. If some Places can be without them tho I know not one send them to Places which are in danger of being lost for want of such as they and send them as it is fit they should be received How beautiful are the Feet of them that bring good Tidings with respect and honour Consid VIII As many Places have great need of them so the Lord hath been with them his Work hath prospered in their hands even when their Disgraces and Dangers have been a great Obstruction I never mean such a Conversion as ends in Destruction to Conceitedness Pride Faction but I mean that which is to Salvation by Holiness Righteousness and Peace And for all their Hazards Reproaches and Disgraces an understanding and wise People hear them which they would never do if they did not receive Edification Is there nothing but Humor and