Selected quad for the lemma: death_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A54468
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Persecution for conscience condemned by the light of nature. Law of God. Evidence of our own principles.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing P1659; ESTC R221445
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7,510
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15
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not in our Company In my Fathers house are many Mansions says Christ why may there not be as many paths that lead to them if they that have no Law shall be judged without the Law certainly they that unblameably mistake the Law shall be tryed according to those Expositions which appeared unto them to be the meaning of the Lawgiver for the Sense is the Law and not the Letter especially having so gracious a Judge who hath already declared by his Apostle 2 Cor. 8.12 and if there be first a willing mind it is accepted according to what a Man hath and not according to what a Man hath not wherefore let us not by a suddain violence break into pieces the Consciences of our Brethren but mildly thaw them into a cordial and ingenuous Unity that righteousness and peace may flow together in the same Channel and not as broken Ice dash one against another let us patiently expect till the Lord be pleased to take off the Vail from their hearts that are otherwise minded and not by forcing their Judgments add to their Vail of Ignorance a worser fort of Hypocrisie it being now a common experiment that generally the Issue of compulsionary and forced Conformity closes in this to make some few counterfeit Protestants and a great many real Atheists whence it is clearly concluded that the only true means of winning Souls to God is the Gospell-like way of meekness and perswasion and indeed it may worthily be esteemed the prime Miracle of Christianity that a person so humble as our Saviour appeared without the assistance of Kings and Princes without the enchanting words of Mans Wisdom without the affrighting threats of Fines Imprisonments and Deaths though all these were absolutely subject to his pleasure should conquer Powers and Principalities should outcharm the Magick of Human Eloquence and by the admirable Success of his Mildness condemn all those politick Religions that confess their own craziness by using cruelty to support them whereas to reduce the disobedient only with the Spirit of Gentleness and Admonition or at most desertion argues indeed a Divinity in the Author and a purity in the Ordinance and here we may fitly apply the words of our Lord John 14.2 If it had been otherwise I would have told you if the means of preserving Religion had been by watering it with the blood of refusers to embrace it rather than of those that sought to propagate it I would have told you either by my example all the world being in the power of my Deity or by my Doctrine all justifiable proceedings concerning the Government of my flock being derived from the Warrant of my Word thus we see our gracious Lawmaker faithful and constant to his own Principles the Son of man came not to destroy mens Lives but to save them Thus we see our own Duty to learn of him for he is meek and humble of heart let us not therefore judge one another any more but use our Judgment rather in this that no man put an occasion to fall or a stumbling block before his Brother Rom. 14.13 Let us always remember the Advertisement which the beloved Disciple gives to all his Fellow Servants of the Lord Christ John 13 16. The Servant is not greater than his Lord if you know these things happy are you if you do them These few unpolisht Lines which I here present for Incouragement of Tenderness I desire may not be stretcht to draw in a wild and an extravagant Licentiousness since they aim no farther than to hold up a Liberty to such only as profess Christ and walk before the Lord in the Integrity of their heart who by the following marks are easily discernible from all those that for their blasphemies in Doctrines and Debauchery in manners are worthily excluded from the benefit of this Indulgence Supposing first as confest by all understanding men that Tenderness of Conscience is not the same thing with Truth of Judgment else there could be but one only kind because Truth is but one but it signifies a proceeding bonafide without sinister respects or dissimulation seeking before all things to know God and fearing above all things to offend him And secondly since in our Inquiry to whom belongs so honourable a Title we cannot pierce into the inward thoughts of men we must give Sentence as they appear to us which rule in Cases of this quality is in it self sufficiently certain however it is the only means God hath allowed for nature to guide her resolutions in the judging of others The Signs then of tender Consciences are these if they lead regular vertuous and peaceable Lives if their Opinions be not justly accusable of self-interest or Licentiousness but rather require of them a prudent and religious severity against the Inclinations of corrupted Nature if their Judgments be steddy not fanned to a new Sense with every breath of wind if they continue in the same perswasions at their death which is no time for dissembling at least we ought to judge so if they not only die in their Faith but for it not only give away good part of their Estates charitably but suffer all to be taken away patiently and all this for Christs sake or to speak more closely for that which they believe to be his Will and Commandment no higher Testimony of a true and real Sincerity can possibly be given or easily imagined and whosoever doubts after such Evidence chiefly if many concur in the same way deserves to be condemned as the most passionate malitious and uncharitable person in the World for though one man may value his fancy above his Life or estate yet it is very near an absolute Impossibility that many especially if they be discreet and rational in other Negotions should agree to undo themselves for a meer conceit did they not seriously believe it more imports them to keep their Faith than lose their Fortunes By these Rules we may easily conclude the admission of those pious and religious Persons who were imprisoned and persecuted by the late Prelates who into the number of tender Consciences as also those precious Servants of the Lord who by a voluntary banishment left their Friends and Country to place the Liberty of the Gospel amongst the savage Heathens of America How are we degenerated from the primitive Believers who would rather have given their own Lives to perswade their Enemies to Piety than sought to take away the Lives of their Brethren to force them to Hypocrisie Which have been occasioned by infringing the Liberty of Conscience by violent means to alter Conscientious mens Judgments and their present perswasion which kind of severity I fear may at last find the Truth of Gods Threatning if you bite and devour one another take heed you be not consumed one of another Gal. 5.15 Wherefore it shall be my daily Prayer to our great and good God that he would gratiously inspire the Governors of the Earth his Servants who now sit at the helm to prevent those heavy Judgments upon themselves and seriously considering that both their Allegiance to reason their Duty to God their Ingagement to their own Principles call so loudly upon them that they would fulfil now our Joy and compleat the good Work by putting the tender Conscioned and peaceable minded people of this Nation into a Condition of perfect security for matters of Religion which cannot be effected without a general Act of Conscience-Indempnity for all that profess the Gospel of Christ For incouragement of which Holy design out of the bowels of Mercy I have endeavoured in this short Discourse to demonstrate That Persecution of Conscience amongst Christians is clearly repugnant to the Light of Nature the Law of God and the Evidence of our own Principles FINIS