Selected quad for the lemma: church_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
church_n	heathen_a	let_v	publican_n	2,742	5	10.9981	5	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A71273	The verdict upon the dissenters plea, occasioned by their Melius inquirendum to which is added A letter from Geneva, to the Assembly of Divines, printed by His late Majesties special command, with some notes upon the margent under his own royal and sacred hand : also a postscript touching the union of Protestants.	Womock, Laurence, 1612-1685.; Diodati, Giovanni, 1576-1649. Answer sent to the ecclesiastical assembly at London by the reverend, noble, and learned man, John Deodate.	1681 (1681)	Wing W3356; ESTC R36681	154,158	329

to be done But as Calixtus and Malcolm have observ'd to give you the sence of them both in the words of the last Necessitas illa non fuit absoluta That Necessity was not absolute but ought to be referred to the condition of the time that there might be the nearer approach and better agreement in their course of life between the Jews and Gentiles Those things were necessary to be decreed respectively to the general Rules of Order and Expedience to take off the aversion of the Jews and to prevent the obduration of the Gentiles and to promote their Coalition into one Body their Association into one Communion in the Church of Christ. Brockman says roundly Quod in se est liberum Propter publicum Ecclesiae Decretum servari debet ut necessarium non necessitate simplici absolutâ sed necessitate Ordinis decori teste Dei spiritu Act 15. 28. That which is free in it self upon the account of the Churche's Decree ought to be observed as a thing necessary not by a simple and absolute necessity but by a necessity of Order and Decorum and he alleadgeth that very Text for it Act. 15. 28. Nothing therefore can be more evident than that our Liberty is restrained both by positive Laws and a standing Authority I shall add yet further That the Apostle did never set up any Liberty against Authority never intended to subject Authority to the designs of false Apostles or the pretences of the Spirit or a tender Conscience He gave this charge Rom. 13. 4. Let every soul be subject to the higher Powers and having the mind of Christ as he Professes he could not forget that decretory Sentence He that will not hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen and a Publican He was sometimes very indulgent out of his great Zeal to gain all that were or might be tractable but when he observed a Faction came in as Spies to find out their Christian Liberty in order to intangle them in a new yoak of Bondage he opposed it with an inflexible stoutness by his Apostolical Authority Again when he saw others put a restraint upon the use of things indifferent for fear of Sin or of offending God or on pretence of Religion He severely checkt them as Superstitious Col. 2. 20. Touch not tast not handle not Whatever Faction was in vogue he ever interposed his Authòrity to quench it When Christian Liberty was invaded upon the account of necessity in order to Justification and Salvation He commands them to stand fast in their Christian Liberty but then lest they should grow high and insolent sleight the Examples of their worthy Presidents and withstand the Laws of a just Authority He refers them to their spiritual Guides and injoyns them to follow their Faith and Practice Hebr. 13. 7 17. Phil. 4. 9. Nor is this all He asserts his Authority at a higher rate than this He tells them he has Power enough in a readiness to avenge all disobedience and to encounter such as were puffed up against his Clemency which makes him put it to their Deliberation what Method of Discipline He should use among them What will you shall I come unto you with a rod or in love or in the spirit of meekness 1 Cor. 4. last And if they will urge him to it if he must use the Rod He tells them he will not spare He will use sharpness according to the Power the Lord had given him to Edification and not unto Destruction 2 Cor. 13. 10. By excusing himself from this severity He makes his threatning the more formidable saith Oecumenius The Power of inflicting Censures he ascribes to Christ and tho' this Power may by accident be destructive to the Flesh yet it is certainly design'd for the benefit of the Church Nam punire peccantes aedificatio Ecclesiae est the Punishment of Offenders is the Edification of the Church while by the Punishment of such others are rendred more stedfast and more approved says the same Author when he made any Ordinances he did expect a due observation of them Now I praise you brethren that you remember me in all things and keep the Traditions or the Ordinances as I delivered them unto you 1 Cor. 11. 2. And 't is observed These Traditions were not Dogmatical but Ritual and about things indifferent nor yet were they Perpetual but Temporary as Sclater notes And when his Ordinances of this nature were neglected or despised He could express himself like a Son of Thunder Witness what he writes upon this Argument 1 Cor. 14. 37 38. and he appeals to such as pretended to the Spirit and to the gift of Prophecy If any man think himself to be a Prophet or Spiritual let him acknowledge that the things which I write unto you are the Commandment of the Lord. But if any man be ignorant let him be ignorant The Apostle does here anticipate the prejudice of proud men saith Sclater who had it in their hearts to object thus Seeing we are spiritual we are able enough surely to judge of these things so that you shall not need to interpose your opinion There were a sort of high-minded men who thought themselves above the Apostles teaching and the only Wise men of all the Church and therefore they prefer'd themseves above all others and here the Apostle does repress their Supercilious arrogance saith Aretius Dickson calls them Sciolists for all their pretended Gifts and tells us the Apostle does here contemn their affected ignorance and a Precept being now given to the Governours of the Church that they should acknowledge these Commands to be Divine He remits these ignorant Contemners of them to the Moderators of Discipline that 's the Phrase it seems among the Scotish Presbyterians to be dealt withal according to the Rule and Judgment of the Apostle In settling these Rules and Orders the Apostle seems to say I have done my duty if any man will yet continue obstinate and will not understand his own Let him affect his ignorance at his own peril Nam spreta Authoritas Apostolica Deum habet vindicem saith Grotius for when the Apostolical Authority is despised God is the avenger of it Atque ita contentiosis qui acquiescere nesciunt nullum finem disputandi faciunt froenum injicit saith Calixtus And thus he casts a Bridle upon the Contentious who know not how to acquiesce or make an end of their disputing By all this it is evident That the Apostle never set up any Christian Liberty against a just Authority never intended to subject Authority to the designs of false Apostles or Pretenders to the Spirit what he hath delivered in favour of weak Christians we shall consider anon In the mean while and in order to that it may be worth our inquiry why the great Apostle should vary so much in his way of handling the same Argument Of Circumcision and other Ceremonies it is observable

you O ye Corinthians aggrieved at those Rites which are observed of all Churches Did the Preaching of the Gospel proceed first from you that we must dance after your Pipe and are you the only wise men of the world and are all the Churches else in dotage For those vain janglers you so much admire I will not odiously contend with them But if any of them be a true Prophet and really endowed with those Gifts of the Spirits which ye pretend to He will easily perceive and acknowledge that I do not vent my own passions in this matter but the Commandments of the Lord who without all doubt is contemned by such as will not obey our Prescriptions But if any man be so prophane or blind with prejudice that he will not or cannot see it let him be ignorant at his own peril 'T is not my part to contend but to teach and admonish If he despiseth the Precepts of the Lord which I have delivered he betrays his own impiety and if he will not obey but continue in his filthiness let him be filthy still Thus Bullinger Comments upon the Apostles expostulation And 't is very material that the Apostle writes this in justification of his own Orders prescribed for edification and decency and he writes thus not to the rude and ignorant populacy but to such as being desirous to seem Prophets and Spiritual studied more to introduce their own Mastership into the Church than to acquiesce in the Doctrine Apostolical as Musculus well observeth He that has St. Paul's Principles and governs himself by those general Rules which he has laid down as the Oracles of God He may use the same expostulation to Dissenters Such faithful Ministers tho' they can compel none yet they may call them to a voluntary amendment if they find them refractory they may say with a good Conscience Qui obedire detrectet detrectat He that denys to obey let him deny it He that rejects the truth let him reject it He that had rather perish in his perversness than be saved by being tractable as a little Child let him perish I have done my part if he refuse the Lord's Commands let him see to it Thus Musculus But do our Dissenting Brethren speak thus home to the Consciences of their followers Do they not love to draw Disciples after them and do they not many times speak perverse things to that effect we are well assured there have been flattering Teachers who have blest the People in their Seduction that they might get the Vogue and keep up their Power and Interest to lead them against the injunctions of the Law and the Edicts of Divine Authority And by such courses 't is no wonder if with the Pharisees they Proselyte their Disciples into Hell Do not some of our Dissenters give the like Scandal to their Disciples Do they not Dogmatize them into ill Principles and encourage the Practice thereof by their Example Do they not fill their heads with doubts and jealousies possess them with vain and superstitious fears till they bring them to an avowed disobedience and separation from the Communion of the Church Do they not perplex their Consciences with endless scrupulosities about those minutes made Sin by their Doctrine which else to use our Author 's own words had been as innocent as a piece of powdred Bief and Turnips and such are the Rites and Ceremonies which are in use among us if they were as inoffensive in their Discourses as the Church is in the practice of them Do they not condemn the Church that themselves may seem Righteous and to justifie their own Schism do they not quarrel at the Terms of her Communion They say God hath left something free but they would leave nothing free in matters of Religion but their own Fancy They make that Sin which God never made so and that I do not slander them you have their own instance in the sign of the Cross. Of which they do not speak of modestly as to say they think they doubt or scruple but positively and definitively they tell us They judge it sinful but by what express Law or clear Deduction they can never make us understand They menage the Consciences of their Proselytes betwixt so much awe and boldness that they can make them either take the hedge or start at a shadow They tickle them with a conceit of Liberty while they inthrall them to their own Dictates and put upon their Necks a yoak of their own making much heavier than that of their Governours which they attempt so strenuously to shake off And when they are charged with such unwarrantable Practices to the Scandal of Religion and the disturbance of the Publick Peace where do they take Sanctuary but in the Temple of a Tender Conscience Conscience I confess is a Centurion of great Command but yet 't is under another Jurisdiction and must be accountable for her Conduct Nor is her Liberty or Privilege so great as is imagined For the whole Nature and force of Conscience is exprest in a Practical Syllogism which consists of three Propositions according to the three Offices of Conscience For instance He that will not obey the Church is to be treated as a Publican and a Heathen This is the Major Proposition and our Saviour's express Revelation But thou do'st not obey the Church This is the Minor Proposition produced and attested by the Conscience Therefore Thou art to be treated as a Publican and a Heathen This is the Third Proposition or Conclusion inferr'd from the other Two By this instance we see Conscience hath a threefold Office 1. To Dictate and declare the Rule of the Law This is call'd Synteresis The Second is to Record and declare Matters of Fact and this is call'd Syneidesis The Third is to give Sentence according to the merits or demerits of the Cause and so to determine the Condition of the Person and this is called Crisis Here is all the Power that Conscience hath And 't is clear that Conscience hath no Liberty in any of these Offices Not in the First not a Liberty to call evil Good or Good evil not a Liberty to dictate or declare what every man please to be the sence or letter of the Law for then it should have a Liberty to erre and to deceive by imposing that for a Rule of Law which is not so For Conscience in this Notion that is the Synteresis is obliged to take direction from the Light of Reason and the Revelations of God's Will and from Humane Laws consonant thereto for such Laws made by persons set over us in God's stead must be obeyed for the Lord's sake if the Conscience directs otherwise it is erroneous and leads to Sin and binds over to Damnation till it be corrected and become conformable to its Rule Nor has the Conscience any Liberty in the Second Office in reporting Matters of Fact for then it should

have Liberty to misinform or tell a lie in representing Matters of Fact otherwise than they are Nor has Conscience any Liberty in the Third Office in determining the Case for then it should have Liberty to be an unjust judge to absolve or Condemn that is to pass Sentence contrary to the Evidence and Verdict 'T is true an evil Conscience may now make use of many shifts tergiverses and evasions but at the Grand Assize or time of Judgment God will beat it off from all its Subterfuges and starting holes He will rectifie and refine it and make it a faithful Suffragan to him in that exercise of his Jurisdiction For then the Synteresis call'd sometimes the inward man shall fully consent to the Law of God that it is Holy and Just and Good And for the breach of that Law which is Matter of Fact it will be a thousand witnesses And in the issue of the Trial it will subscribe to the Sentence of the Judge in a due acknowledgment of his Justice saying with the Angel out of the Altar Even so Lord God Almighty true and just are thy judgments Thus it will be at that great Day And now all the Liberty that a good Conscience has or can pretend to is a freedom from the Power of Satan and the Law of Sin from the rigour and yoak of Moses his Dispensation to do our duty to God and Man to work or forbear working without hesitation or scruple according to the Injunctions or Permissions of the Gospel The measures whereof we have already given some account of if I be not much mistaken to a reasonable Satisfaction Here if it be a digression it is very pardonable to take notice of a sort of busie men who seem to carry on a subtil Project and there are more than one o' foot under this disguise of Liberty of Conscience They make love to natural Religion choose her for their Mistress and cry up her Discipline to so great a height as if Christ and his Apostles came out of her School and the Moral of the Gospel were to be taken from the Philosophy of the Heathens I know very well we may borrow Jewels of the Egyptians provided we do not turn them into Idols or value them above the Gospel-Pearl which is truely Orient For the Apostle tells us of the Heathens that when they knew God they did not glorifie him as God That professing themselves to be wise they became fools for their foolish heart was darkned and they changed the Glory of the uncorruptible God not only into an Image made like to corruptible man but also to birds and four-footed beasts and creeping things and worshipped and served the Creature more than the Creator In their Theology which was that wisdom which had God for the object They knew not God and generally their Morals were as Corrupt as their Divinity Hence the Apostle saith After that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe 1 Cor. 1. 21. Yet this Natural Religion is laid down with much Art and embellished with great Commendations as an immoveable foundation for Liberty of Conscience And this Liberty of Conscience is by several Engineers set up to supplant the present Church of England And this done the Great Mysteries of our Faith and the Institutions of the Gospel will with little difficulty be depretiated at the first and at last utterly evacuated and exploded Then the Socinian System or Model of Divinity will pass for Currant and That by subtile Wits will easily by degrees be reconcil'd to the Alcoran And what will the issue be but this Men at the long run will be at a loss for their Religion They will see the Holy Sacraments laid aside if not trampled under foot as obsolete or Temporary Institutions the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity accounted a vain Speculation of doting Schoolmen the Incarnation of the Eternal Son of God an incomprehensible and unaccountable thing and an Omnipotent Redeemer with his satisfaction and pretious merits but an useless imagination And in fine what will all this amount to Pious and Sober persons will in time not only be awakened but offended at it and will think themselves highly concern'd also to search tho' it be among the much Rubbish of the Church of Rome to find out the Primitive Christianity This I confess will be the furthest way about but it will advance the Jesuits design as certainly as if it were accomplish't by a shorter Method Which would very well become the wisdom of our Governors to take into their most serious consideration But to return Our great Patrons of Liberty are wont to rely much upon that charge of the Apostle Gal. 5. 1. Stand fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free and be not intangled again with the or in a yoak of bondage But what is that Liberty he writes of He is writing unto Gentiles And the Gentile world the creature which the Apostle mentions Rom. 8. 21. was to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption à jugo servitute corruptionis Peccaminosae from the yoak and bondage of a peccaminous or sinful corruption that is from the Bondage of their lusts and depraved affections under which they lay so long inthral'd into the noble Liberty of the Sons of God This is a Liberty not of the brain but of the heart Freedom from the Power of Sin to serve God which is to reign and that is the glorious Liberty of God's Children I shall run the way of thy Commandments when thou hast set my heart at Liberty Psal. 119. The Liberty the Apostle speaks of is opposed to a yoak but 't is not to be understood of every yoak for there is a yoak of Privilege as well as a yoak of bondage such is Christ's yoak and this yoak we are obliged to take upon us Mat. 11. 29 30. This yoak is his Law Mat. 28. 20. which consists of Two Tables and this yoak is made up of both The Commands and Ordinances of the Civil Magistrate are a part of this yoak and we must submit our necks to that 1 Pet. 2. 13 14. Rom. 13. 1. The Orders and Injunctions of the Church are another part of this yoak and we must put our Necks under that too or else we are to be look't upon as Publicans Heathens Mat. 18. 17. And that we may not be at a loss for the Church our Saviour has committed the Keys thereof to certain Select Persons that we may know who have the right and power to govern in his stead And to their Discipline we are to submit 1 Cor. 5. 4 5. And Chap. 14. 40. This is a yoak which we must not shake off Hebr. 13. 17 Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves Mr. Calvin does not doubt at all but the Apostle speaks of the Governours

given to these Rites and Ceremonies by Learned men are these Retinacula Adminicula Incitamenta Ornamenta They call them the hold-fast the helps the Incitements and Ornaments of Religion and Piety These were the Traditions mentioned by the Apostle 1 Cor. 11. 2. Precepts left by Christ to the wisdom of the Governours and Presidents of his Church pertaining to good Order and Decency There were many of this kind saith Grotius of no great moment to Piety but therein 't was fit and profitable that something should be setled in common lest a different use and custom should blemish the Church beget disputes and as it often happens of disputes and Schismes So that these Rites are like the Leades in a Glass-window not design'd to let in Light but to hold the Quarries of Glass together to keep the Window tite and strong and make it the more serviceable to keep out storms and cold That these things in the esteem of the Church stand upon even ground with such things as are certainly Divine is so great an untruth that a modest man would blush at it They have not the same Author not the same end nor the same necessity nor the same obligation 1. They have not the same Author Divine things have God for their only Author but for these Ecclesiastical Rites and Ceremonies they ow their Original either to the customes of several places as standing in sign of Reverence Judg. 3. 20. Eglon stood up when Ehud told him he had a message to him from God When the word of God was mentioned Eglon gave honour to it by rising up saith Pet. Martyr And he says it is to be believed that it was the custom of those Countries at that time Or else 2. They derived their Original from the Authority of Superiors as 1 Cor. 11. 2. 34. and Tit. 1. 5. and the Practice of their institutions in process of time become customs too 1 Cor. 11. 16. Upon these words The rest will I set in order when I come St. Austin saith that Christ commanded no-nothing in these matters but left them to the ordering of the Apostles with whom he entrusted the disposal of the Churches c. Read the Epistle at large Or 3. The Rites and Ceremonies may take their rise from the Devotion of Pious Persons as the Practice of the Publican and Mary Magdalen Luke 7. 38. c. 18. 13. 2. As they have not the same Author so they have not the same End The end of Divine institutions is internal Grace and Sanctification This is said to be the end of Christ's Dispensation to his Church That he might Sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of Water by the word Eph. 5. 26. But the end of these Ecclesiastical Rites Ceremonies is not to confer Grace but to preserve good Order and Decorum to procure reverence and as objects fit for that purpose to help Devotion 3. They have not the same necessity For as touching Divine things an absolute necessity is laid upon us to observe them and it may be a double necessity Praecepti Medii not only because they are under command but also because they may be means without which salvation is not to be had But for Ecclesiastical Rites the necessity is not absolute they may be changed they may be abolished and we may be saved without them and that they do not stand upon equal ground the Church professeth in her Articles and this is clear upon an other account For Lastly There is a great difference in their Obligation Divine Commands and Institutions do bind the Conscience immediately and of themselves under peril of Eternal Death Ecclesiastical Rites doe not so And where there is no breach of Charity and that is where there is no contempt of Authority or Scandal to our Neighbour the Omission does not wound the Conscience nor incur the guilt of deadly sin as the Reverend and Learned Davenant has determined But perhaps there lies a Fallacy in the expression for to stand upon even ground does not always argue an equality 'T is said Exod. 14. 31. The People believed God and his Servant Moses Likewise 't is commanded Prov. 24. 21. My Son fear thou the Lord and the King There God and Moses may seem to stand upon even ground in the term Believed and here the Lord and the King stand upon even ground in the term Fear yet he were little less than a mad man that should conclude from hence that God and Moses or the Lord and the King are of equal consideration when notwithstanding the difference between them is no less then infinite We read in the book of Josuah of an unlucky jealousy which did arise in the heads of some of the Tribes of Israel against their Brethren and this begat a Dissent and that Dissent had ended in a Fatal and deadly Breach if it had not been made up by interposing the Innocent Parties Protestation The Two Tribes and half when they left the Camp of Israel in their return to their own Inheritance they built an Altar for Memorial and a Testimony Hereupon their Brethren lookt upon them as Apostates and Idolaters and took up Armes as they imagined to avenge God's quarrel When the Children of Ruben and God and those of Manasseh had heard by their Legates of their preparation for War and their bitter expostulation they calmly made their Defence The Lord God of God's knoweth and Israel shall know our Innocency If we have built this Altar in Rebellion or for Sacrifice to turn from the Lord let the Lord himself require it but we have done this only to intitle our selves and our Posterity to a share in God's Publick and Solemn Worship and to an Interest in his Tabernacle and Altar When the Priest and Princes of the Congregation had heard their Apology they were well pleased and declared their hearty satisfaction This day we perceive that the Lord is among us and they blessed God and all was concluded in a happy Peace Calvin reflecting upon Phinehas and the Ten Princes which were with him he commends the temper of their zeal that they did not insist upon the prejudice which they had conceived against their Brethren but admitted their excuse with kindness and alacrity For there are many saith he if they take offence no Apology can be calm them but they will always be finding out something unjustly to carp at rather then yeild to reason 'T is Lavaters complaint in treating of this story Hodiè reperies Magnos Theologos qui tam sunt importuni praecipites ut nondum auditis aut lectis aliorum argumentis statim responsiones fabricent in lucem emittant We see great Divines at this day who are so importune and precipitant that before ever they have considered or read the Arguments of other men they are busy at framing Answers and sending them abroad in publick But both Parties ought to be