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	guilty_a	schism_n	2,723	5	9.7530	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A90062	The duty of such as would walke worthy of the Gospel: to endeavour union, not division nor toleration. Opened, in a sermon at Pauls, upon the Lords Day, Feb. 8. 1646. / By Matthevv Nevvcomen, preacher of the Gospel at Dedham in Essex.	Newcomen, Matthew, 1610?-1669.	1646 (1646)	Wing N909; Thomason E329_6; ESTC R200691	35,616	55

stulti essent duo volentes videre solem c. saith Augustine What a folly were it in two men that did both desire to see the rising Sun if they should fall a quarrelling among themselves which part of the heavens the Sun would rise in and how it might be seen and in this controversie fall out falling out fight fighting put out one anothers eyes and so when the Sun risieth neither of them can see it I need make no application of this to us and our times But where is the fault you will say True it is there are divisions sad divisions danger-threatning divisions among us but where is the fault I know there are many that lay all the fault upon those whom they call Presbyterians and say it is their rigour and their pride and ambition their spirit of domination that is the cause of all these divisions thus say the Antinomians and thus the Separatists and thus the Anabaptists and thus the others say Now the Lord judge between us and them and let his people that hear judge this day Who are they that divide in judgement from all the Reformed Churches of Christ in the world that have opinions and judgements differing from the opinions and judgements of all the Reformed Churches we or the Anabaptists we or the Separatists we or the Possibly they will all say they are of the same opinion with the Reformed Churches in fundamentalls as well as we and their differences are but in Minutioribus Now supposing this to be true as it may be in some of them why then do they transgresse the Apostles rule why do they not if that it be in matters of lesser moment wherein they differ from us why do not they keep their opinions private and have their faith unto themselves before God why do they upon so small differences if the differences be so small withdraw from communion with us and the rest of the Churches and gather themselves into distinct and separate Churches some of them not holding one body with us others neither holding one body nor one baptisme with us Their agreeing with us and the Reformed Churches in Doctrines that are fundamentall their holding one head and one faith doth not excuse them from being guilty of breach of unity and down-right schisme Aug. contr Faust lib 20. cap. 3. item de fide operibus cap. 3. contra Crescon Gram. lib. 2. cap 7. as long as they hold not one body one baptisme Schisma saith Augustine est eadem opinantem eodem ritu utentem solo Congregationis delectari dissidio Schisme is when a man that professeth the same faith and worship is delighted only with the difference of an Assembly or Congregation And again Schismaticos facit non diversa fides sed communion is disrupta societas It is not a differing faith but breaking the fellowship of communion that makes men schismaticks And again Schisma est Recens Congregationis ex aliquâ sententiarum diversitate dissensio Schisme is a new or late dissension or disagreement of a Congregation arising from some diversity of opinion It is Beza's observation That the Corinthians did agree in the fundamentals of Religion and yet they had schismes among them from whence he takes occasion to say Beza annot in 1 Cor. 1.10 That 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sive 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est cum alij alijs hominibus sive externis ritibus it a sunt addicti ut quamvis alioquin in ipsis Religionis capitibus consentiant tamen animis sint ab alienati factiones quasdam ineant Schisme or division saith he is this when men are so addicted to some men or to some outward rites that though they do agree in the chief points of Religion yet they are estranged in their mindes and engage themselves into parties and factions Now who are they that though they professe to agree with us in Doctrine have yet made a secession with drawn themselves gathered Churches engaged parties Consider and give sentence Who are they that have most broken the band of love There is great fear what the Presbyterians will do if once they get power into their hands But in the mean time what do others Who are they that brand their brethren with the title Proud Time-serverves Prelaticall Tyrannicall Antichristian And what is this lesse then persecution Who are they that have been farthest from condescending descending to their brethren for peace and union sake were it fit I could say something of this yea much I could tell you much hath been yeelded and much more would be yeelded yea almost any thing but that one thing that would lay a foundation of perpetuall division and disunion in families Church Kingdom Who are they that professe an utter impossibility of reconciliaton or union and plead for nothing but Toleration Toleration and some for Toleration in the utmost latitude to Papists Jews Turks Vid. Praefotionem ad Acta Synodalia Vedet de Arcanis Ariaini the very artifice whereby the Arminians in Holland sought to gain a party and strength unto themselves Resolve these questions and they will resolve you who are most guilty of these divisions But as Augustine said sometimes of Originall sin so say I of these our divisions Non tam inquirendam c. It is time better spent to inquire how we may come out of them then who hath brought us into them It was a memorable speech of Calvin who said he would willingly travell over all the seas and Countries in the world to put an end to the differences that were in the Reformed Churches And I thinke there is never a gracious heart but would be willing to suffer banishment death yea could almost with Paul wish himself Anathema accursed so he might but put an end to these unhappy differences of our unhappy times Towards which give me leave to speak a few words to you in a third Use Vse 3 This truth That it is the duty of all those that would walke worthy of the Gospel to endeavour a sweet close holy lasting union serves in the the third place to exhort and excite every one to these endeavours and it is impossible to propound this exhortation in more persuasive and prevailing language then that of our Apostle Phil. 2.1 2. If there be therefore any consolation in Christ if any comfort in love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercy full sill you my joy that ye be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one minde And O that I were able so to repeat these words that they might reach not only your ears but yours hearts and not only yours but the ears and hearts of all that have a seed of grace in them throughout this whole Kingdom It is said of John the Evanglist who was the Beloved Disciple and the Apostle of love that as in his life time he did often and much exhort to love saying

wherein we may not differ in judgement and wherein differences in judgement may not be tolerated then to tell you wherein they may First therefore I say that as an absolute unity in judgement that we should all be of the same minde in all things is scarce to be attained in this life though it be to be endeavoured so an universall and absolute liberty of judgement for every man to differ when he pleaseth and in what he pleaseth to be of what opinion and faith he will is not to be endeavoured if it might be attained nor is it to be tolerated or permitted I know no warrant no pretence of warrant for it in all the book of God Scripture no where saith Let every man be of what opinion and of what faith he pleaseth Neque etiam quicquam argumentorum occurrere posse putandum est quod vel leviter in speciem afferri posset nisi quis fortasse illud Pauli Habacuc buc torqueri velit Iustus ex fide sua vivet c. At vero si uterque dixisset Quisque fide sua vivet c. But saith he if both of them had said Every man shall live by his faith possibly it might have afforded some favour to such an opinion but they do not say every man but the just shall live by his faith Now the faith of the just justa fides est non indiscreta nonconfusa non ex quovis trivio petita aut è cujusvis cerebro nata aut sata phantasia The saith of the just is a just faith not an indistinct not a confused faith not a faith raked up in every high-way not a fancie bred and borne in the brain of every private man Cramer Arhor Haereticae consang let every man be left to his own judgement Si quis ex verbis Pauli Rom. 14.5 patrocinium petat c. if any man thinke these words of Paul Rom. 14.5 do patronize this opinion it is but as they are mis-translated in the vulgar Latine Vnusquisque abundet sensu suo but there is no such thing in the text and therefore Beza rejects it and saith plainly Beza ad loc haec sententia Christiana esse non potest as being in his apprehension contrary to that expresse Scripture Deut. 12.8 Ye shall not do after all the things that you do here this day every man that which is right in his own eyes And certainly this absolute liberty or rather licentiousnesse in opinion which is so eagerly contended for by some is not to be indulged unto men Gerhard in loc com loc de Magistratu Libertas illa quidvis credendi nihil aliud est quam libertas errandi quidem errandi in re animae salutem concernente in qua proinde error est longè nocentissimus periculosissimus That same of liberty of beleeving any thing is nothing else but a liberty of errring and of erring in matters concerning the salvation of the the soul and an errour there is most hurtfull and dangerous and therefore saith he as it cannot be safe for sheep to be left to wander alone thorow mountains and deserts and graze where they please lest they fall in upon some unwholsome food and poison themselves or fall into the pawes of the Woolf and become a prey And as it cannot be safe to leave a ship to it self to be driven along before the winde without any guidance or steerage So neither can it be safe to leave a liberty to men to be of what faith or Religion they list or to hold what opinion they think good c. Particularly Liberty of opinion or judgement is not to be granted or indulged First in such things as are injurious to God and tending to the blaspheming of his name and glory as Judaisme Arianisme Socinianisme in the Doctrine of the Trinity and of the Lord Iesus Non licet luxuriari a wanton liberty of opining and beleeving what men please is not to be borne If Hymeneus and Alexander once come to blaspheme away with them cast them out deliver them to Satan 1 Tim. 1.20 Nor secondly is there a liberty in such things as are pernicious and destructive to the souls of men Such as are the main Doctrines of Popery Arminianisme Libertinisme Gal. 1.8 Though we or an Angel from Heaven preach any other Gospel unto you then that which we have preached unto you Let him be accursed vers 9. As I said before so say I now again if any 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 if any whether man or Angel preach any other Gospel to you then what you have received Let him be Anathema Revel 2.20 Notwithstanding I have a few things against thee because thou sufferest that woman Jezebel who calls her self a Prophetesse to teach and seduce my servants to commit fornication and to eat things sacrificed unto Idols So then here TOLERATION is abominable Nor thirdly is there liberty left in those things wherein our judgements and opinions in the discovery and practice of them will give just offence unto others 1 Cor. 10.32 Give none offence neither to the Jews nor to the Gentiles nor to the Church of God Nor fourthly in such things as wherein the difference of judgement and opinion will necessarily and unavoydably ex natura rei produce a rent and schisme in the Church of Christ 1 Cor. 1.10 Now I beseech you brethren by the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same minde and in the same judgement Rom. 16.17 I beseech you brethren mark them that cause divisions and offences among you contrary to the Doctrine that you have received and what Tolerate them No avoid them Gal. 5.12 I would they were even cut off that trouble you Nothing can be cleerer then these Scriptures are against the Toleration of all Doctrines and particularly of those that trouble rend divide the Church A grave and judicious Divine delivers his judgement in this particular thus 1. Qui palam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sunt non sunt ferendi 2. Qui 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 inducunt 3. Quimagistratum tollunt 4. Qui bella non necessaria movent Aretits Probl. 5. Qui aperta flagitia tuentur 6. Qui articulos ad salutem necessarios tollunt negant aut in dubium vocant 1. They that are open Atheists are not to be borne 2. Nor they that would bring in confusion 3. Cavendum estsedulo ne haere ticsrum fanaticorum sub sanctimoniae specie pijs obrepentium si mulationi ti●ulum inf●r●●i t●●is facile perm●●ta●us quo cr●●●i v●●us s●u●n in●●utioribus ●●sl●lent abistentes nostra tolera●tiâ ●●●gè lateque spargant Cro●ius in Eph. Nor they that would abolish magistracy 4. Nor they that move unnecessary warre 5. Nor they that maintain open sinnes 6. Nor they that take away deny or call in question any

that all the Churches in the three Kingdoms but that all the Churches in the world may be one in Doctrine Discipline Worship and Government according to the word of God and to endeavour it as much as in us lies Vse 2 In the second place This truth That it is the duty of all those that would walke worthy of the Gospel to endeavour a sweet close holy lasting union among themselves calls us to bewail the great want of that unity that should be amongst Gods people and such as professe to desire to walke worthy of the Gospel and not only want of unity but want of care and endeavour after that unity which is too too discernable in these times wherein we live We live beloved in very sad times sometime I am even ready to call them in respect of the breaches and divisions that are amongst us the saddest times that ever the Church was under But I correct my selfe when I remember how the Church of God in all ages hath been exercised more or lesse in this kinde with breaches and divisions In the first which were the purest and therefore we may conceive were the peaceablest times of the Church in that famous Church of Antioch where the Disciples were first called Christians Acts 11.26 where they had the presence and labours of many Prophets and Teachers as Barnabas and Simeon and Lucius and Manaen and Paul Acts 13.1 2. yet even there there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no small dissension and disputation that within 4 or 5 yeers after the Gospel first came among them Act. 15.1 2. So in the Church of Corinth within almost as few years after its plantation there were both 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Schismes and Heresies 1 Cor. 11.18 19. In the Church of Rome there were 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sects or divisions and offences Rom. 16.18 yea and these dissensions divisions offences were not only inter plebem among the ordinary sort of Christians but among those that were the pillars of the Church the very Apostles themselves So Paul and Barnabas Acts 13. in the second verse they had no small dissension with the false teachers in the 39. verse of that chapter Medicu● medico verbo acerbitatem virulentiam dissidij experimere voluit Brent ad loc ye read there was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a very sharpe and bitter contention between themselves So Paul and Peter there was a publike contest between them Paul withstood him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to his face and before them all Gal. 2.11 14. So in after-times the difference between Polycrates the disciple of John and Victor Bishop of Rome though it were in re nihili being but about Easter day yet how they did divide and distract the Christian world and engage yea even enrage the Easterne and Westerne Churches one against another adeò ut sese mutuò excommunicarint anathematizarint that they did excommunicate and curse one another I might mention the difference that fell out in after ages between Cyprian and Cornelius Basill and Domacus Chrysostom and Epiphanius Cyril and Theodoret Hierom and Augustine Prosper and Cassianus Luther and Zwinglius Luther and Calvin But I mention these things only that you may see that the differences that are among our selves among the godly among Ministers are no new thing under the Sunne sic fuit ab initio it was so in the ages that were before us and therefore there is no reason that any of us should be scandalized or offended at them yet reason there is that we should all bewail and lament them What sober gracious heart would not bleed to see how small a matter some men make of dissenting from all the Churches of Christ and embracing opinions not so much new and strange as Heteradox witnessed against and condemned by all the Churches To see how many under pretence of pursuing truth and liberty have clean forgot that there is any such thing to be regarded as unity Every thing that to them is new is in their apprehension truth and every thing which they thinke truth they presume they have a liberty to hold and to hold it forth without any regard to unity Men are not able when once they have drunke in an opinion to keep it to themselves according to the rule of the Apostie it must forth Scire tuum nihil est nisi te scire hoc sciat alter To see how men multiply opinions and rowl and run from one errour to another waxing worse and worse deceiving and being deceived till at length they come to down-right blasphemy renouncing all Ordinances Scriptures yea we should tremble to thinke of it some are fallen so far as to renounce Christ and God himself and which is worst of all if some mens doctrines be true all this must and ought to be tolerated and it is now in some mens judgements more lawfull and safe for men to erre and blaspheme then either for Ministers to reprove or for Magistrates to represse these errours But these things I had rather mourn over then speak of them It is not words but tears and prayers it any thing under heaven that must heal these sad evils To provoke you and my self to contribute something of this kinde to this purpose let me propound but two particulars to consideration First Consider the detriment and prejudice that Religion suffers by the divisions that are amongst us Secondly Consider the prejudice and detriment that we our selves may suffer by it First The Divisions and Dissensions that are amongst those that professe the Gospel brings a great deal of scandall upon Religion it self and upon the Gospel which we professe I dare confidently speak it there is scarce any one thing that hath been more prejudiciall to the Gospel from its first going forth into the world then the divisions and differences which have fallen among the professors of it Clemens Alexandrinus who lived about the year of Christ 200. and in whose time there were more then 20 Haeresiarchae arch hereticks or Masters of opinions in the Church who had every one of them their peculiar disciples catus Ecclesiasticos and peculiar Church-meetings among whom ●latius de Sectis dissensionibus c Relig. Papisticae c. Clem. Alex. lib. 7º Strom. doctissimi excellentissimi viri reperiebantur were some most excellent and learned men he tells us that the Jews and Heathens in his time were wont to upbraid the Christians with this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. You O Christians cannot agree among your selves but have so many and so differing sects among you who though they all challenge to themselves the title of Christian yet they do all extremely detest and curse and condemne one another wherefore your Religion fay they can neither be true nor come from God Chanes is fuit Chiauses Mamaluchus cui ●nteà Eust achio nomen fucrat qui non