Selected quad for the lemma: doctrine_n
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A44095
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Some considerations of present use wherein is shewn that the strong ought to bear with the weak, and the weak not clamour against or censure the strong, in which the true notion of the strong and weak is stated / delivered in a farewell-sermon at St. George Buttolph-Lane, London, by Benjamin Hoffman ...
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Hoffman, Benjamin.
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1683
(1683)
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Wing H2347; ESTC R36002
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14,423
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41
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Weakness but pity them that they do not see tho Mercies of God in so good a Prince and such good Laws Let us not I say despise them for as the Apostle argues Who made thee to differ Was it not the Grade of God that rescued thee from this Weakness And indeed the Sufferings even of a notorious Malefactor are pitiable as we have a general Respect for Humane Nature And this will induce our weak Brother to think that we are loving and tender and Christian-like when we do not mock at but pity their Calamity Tho 't is very fit and meet that good and righteous Laws should take place and be executed upon Offenders yet 't would be hard if those that are to execute these Laws or any other should superadd any Censure or intermingle any sort of Treatment that the Laws will not directly allow or do not expresly enjoyn 'T is no Persecution to put good and justifiable Laws in Execution but it looks like one when those that are to do it rejoyce in their Brothers Sufferings But 3. The Strong should consider and pity the Meanness and Confusion of their Faith and Understanding Now Faith as the Scripture saith comes by hearing and therefore this Fault I shall rather chuse to lay upon their Teachers than upon them tho 't is in part their fault to make no better a Choice And I must confess I take it to be the particular sleight of their Preachers to cut out Work for themselves to make their Hearers of nice and bogling Consciences that they may have them under their Dominion to raise such Scruples that they and none else care to answer and render Religion an odd and unintelligible Undertaking I must confess I have not much heard their Sermons but I have perus'd some of their Books where a great deal of what they say is very formidable and some again unintelligible Doctrine where Nineteen Marks of Grace are set down and strictly required when Two or it may be never a one of them will serve the turn Now for my part I heartily pity any Hearer that with Awe and Reverence puts his Soul into the Hands of a Teacher that is not Faithful that drags him thorow a rough and tempestuous Way when a much plainer and casier is nigh at hand Christ came to make Religion plain and easie and if any Man that puzzles and entangles it be his true Embassadour judge ye But having some Considerations to add to the other sort of Men the Weaker Brethren I shall pass to them and speak but briefly to them and so conclude And to these my Request is 1. To have a competent and becoming Reverence for Authority And here I do not go perswade these Men into the Notion of Infallibility as if all their Governours did or said were as infallible as any part of the New Testament but to desire them to have in themselves ductile obedient governable and perswasive Frames of Spirit not to be morose or peevish or sowr or obstinate And let the Consideration of his being the Power and the Ordinance of God carry them beyond all their little Doubtings and Objections A meek and a quiet and a submissive Frame of Spirit is in the sight of God of great price 2. My Desire to the Weak of our days is seriously to consider That the Government can never provide against all the petty Exceptions of every particular Person and that 't is impossible that all the Dissenters can be pleas'd Is not this to be prov'd within our Memory when the Presbyterian and Independent tho now they love so dearly were as much Antichristian one to another as now We are to Both And if at this time the Government goes to comply with the Conscience of the Presbyterian what then will become of the Independent If the Mouths of both these can be stopp'd what must be done for the Anabaptist Or if these could be complied with too what shall we do for the great Numbers of Dissenting Quakers All these come in with a pretended equal Cry and Loudness of Conscience and if these Dividers cannot condescend to each others Weakness how can they expect the Government should Therefore when they desire that the Governours should make such Laws as shall suit every Mans Conscience that 's impracticable nay and impossible without bringing absolute Confusion into the Church and State Nay themselves I dare say do not desire the Laws should be made so loose as to take in all the several Sects of Dissenters and if it takes in one Party that is blinded and weakned by his Conscience why not another If they object That a little Condescension would take in some I beseech them On whose side ought the Condescension to lie Is it not more feasible that particular Persons may come into the Church than that the whole Form of Church and State-Government must be new-molded for them If this be an humble or modest Demand I leave every Man that can to judge and I think we may safely undertake that the Government will grant when all the Dissenters are agreed what to ask I mean that will make us all one according to Christ Jesus 3. My Desire to the weak Brethren is not to place Religion or the Suspension of it in little trifling Indifferent Things This was that our Saviour highly blamed in the Pharisees Nay is it not the extreme Dotage of some in our days that think a Tag more the Gospel-mode than a Ribband or a short Black Coat more Edifying and Evangelical than a Gown or a Surplice This is that which we really and truly call Superstition in the Church of Rome that a Stick set on cross should be more Reverend and Venerable than in any other Posture The Substance and Truth of Religion lies in great and weighty Matters and these thanks be to God our Dissenters own we retain in the Doctrine of the Church of England And therefore why do they fly us by reason of our Ceremonies All that we say for them is That they are Ancient and Decent and who fitter to judge of Order and Decency than our Governours If they object Had these things been used in our Saviours time they had not scrupled them But how are we assured that they speak truth in this Matter The Sacraments were used in our Saviours time and yet a great number of our Dissenters scruple them The Creed was compiled in the Apostles time and yet most of them boggle at some part of it viz. The Communion of Saints and the truest and most intelligible Notion of the Holy Catholick Church Besides Christ and his Apostles had then neither Room nor External Authority to plant and perfectly settle a Visible Church they could instil their Doctrines and General Rules of Faith but could not descend to all the Particular Modes of Worship these we derive as faithfully as we can from the Primitive Christians which all sober and wise Men have a great Veneration for And indeed
SOME CONSIDERATIONS OF Present Use Wherein is shewn That the Strong ought to Bear with the Weak and the Weak not Clamour against or Censure the Strong IN WHICH The true Notion of the Strong and Weak is Stated Delivered in a Farewell-Sermon at St. George Buttolph-Lane London By Benjamin Hoffman Master of Arts of Baliol College Oxford and late Lecturer there Rom. 15.1 We therefore that are strong ought to bear the infirmities of the weak Rom. 16.17 18. Now I beseech you Brethren mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple LONDON Printed for F. Gardiner at the White-horse in Ludgate-street 1683. TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE DANIEL EARL OF NOTTINGHAM BARON of DAVENTRY And one of the Lords of His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy-Council My Lord HOW great a Stranger soever I may be to Your Lordship I am not much at a loss for an Apologie for the Boldness of devoting this mean Present to Your Honourable Name The inexpressible Favours I had the Honour to receive from Your Noble Father have justly entitled Your Lordship to the best of my Performances 'T was His generous Charity made me what I am and what the Product of that may be is and shall be a due Tribute to Your Lordship His Vertues Your Lordship inherits and nothing can more fully compleat the utmost Aim of my Ambition than an Opportunity of shewing my self Grateful to Your Lordships Father's Immortal Memory and of manifesting my self in what Circumstance soever My Lord Your Lordships Most Obedient Servant B. Hoffman To the Parishioners of St. George Buttolph-Lane and St. Buttolph's Billingsgate Gentlemen IT is not unknown to most Persons that have known me what Relation for several years last past I have stood in to you and since we liv'd so friendly and kindly together for so long a time I was resolv'd to do all in me lay to part as fairly at the last and to leave some certain Testimony of my Respect behind me And since it is at this time the Indeavour of divers Learned Men in the Church to Sweeten and Reconcile Mens Minds to the Doctrine and Discipline of the Church of England that so the Civil Power may not surprize them without due warning and weighty Reasons given why they ought now especially to indeavour an Union Since several others are upon this Charitable and Seasonable Design I thought my Words might come among you with more Esteem and Reception than a meer Stranger 's And though I every way fall short of the worth of those other Persons that have bended their Purposes this way yet when I consider the Kindnesses I have receiv'd from most of you in all other Cases I cannot in the least imagine I shall be disappointed in my Expectations now in this last piece of Respect I am shewing to you and if it doth in the perusal any Person Service I shall heartily thank God and really Rejoice in my Brothers return I am Your Faithful Servant Benjamin Hoffman Rom. XV. 5 6 7. Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That you may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Wherefore receive ye one another as Christ also received us to the glory of God BEfore I proceed to the distinct speaking to the Words of my Text it is necessary that I first lead you to the Consideration of the Apostle's Method and Design in two or three of the foregoing Chapters Now the sum of that which the Apostle is arguing is laid down in the 13th Chapter of this Epistle In the whole he is managing the Jewish and the Christian Professors and such as were partly of one and partly of the other Perswasion with all the caution and wariness that can be possibly that he may give none offence to either And in order to this he lays down Rules that ought to be universally received by Men of all Pretensions And these he begins with in the 13th Chapter and first Verse Let every soul saith he be subject to the higher powers for there is no power but of God therefore let your lesser Disputes be of what nature they will if you believe a God you must be Obedient for the powers that be are ordained of God as if he had said Nothing in Christianity ought to be pretended or made use of to give any man Immunity from Obedience for this from all Subjects of what Quality soever is due to those to whom Allegiance belongs And this Doctrine he prest in opposition to some that St. Peter and St. Jude reprehended viz. Such as despise Government and are self-willed and presumptuous and that are not afraid to speak evil of Dignities 2 Pet. 2.10 And this Obedience he presses v. 5. that it must be from the heart It 's possible a cunning Rebel or prosperous Oftender may avoid Wrath and Punishment and therefore his Obedience must not be for fear of Wrath only i. e. not only so far as will keep him from a Fine a Prison or a Gallows but it must be from his Conscience i. e. in Obedience to the Constitution of God whose Officer he is For every Supreme Magistrate Legally placed in any Kingdom hath and must be thought to have Commission from God tho' he be an Heathen And after the Apostle had managed this Argument throughly how Christians should carry themselves towards their Governours he then descends to tell us how they should carry themselves one towards another and for this he lays down Love and Charity and Bearing one with another as the Foundation and Ground-work of all good Christian Conversation and here at the time of writing this Epistle he found great Divisions and Dissentions already crept into the Church of Jewish Believers not only against the Gentiles but likewise among themselves some Converts clearly discerning that they had a freedom from the Judaical Yoke and others conceiving themselves still to be under that Dispensation and hence came the Quarrel viz. That those that were zealous for the Mosaical Law condemned and were angry at all others as Breakers of God's Law that did not observe them as they did and on the other hand they that were instructed in the Knowledge of their Christian Liberty were resolved to maintain that Liberty which was purchased by Christ and were apt to despise and contemn those that still continued scrupulous in the abolisht Judaical Rites and so between the one and the other the Christian Communion was likely to be broken and an inveterate Separation to be made among them and to both of these St. Paul applies himself Those of you that do not think your selves bound to observe those Laws you that understand better do not you