Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A40722
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Toleration not to be abused by the Independents by a lover of truth and peace.
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Fullwood, Francis, d. 1693.
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1672
(1672)
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Wing F2518; ESTC R35474
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9,735
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32
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TOLERATION Not to be ABUSED By the Independents By a Lover of Truth and Peace LONDON Printed for John Martyn and are to be Sold by Abisha Brocas Bookseller in Exeter 1672. TOLERATION Not to be abused by the Independents THE following Discourse shall consist of Four particulars First The lawfulness of Communicating with our Churches by the Confessions and Arguments of the Congregational Divines 2. The same proved by demonstrating the Apostolical Churches more vitiated than Ours from whom a Separation is made by the Independents and yet a Separation from those Primitive Churches utterly discountenanced by the Apostles 3. The same Proposition proved by demonstrating that we have not given them the like or any just Cause as the Church of Rome gave them and us Which is the first particular to be proved Secondly I shall shew the sinfulness of erecting Altar against Altar of gathering Churches out of Churches Thirdly That the Independents are averse in their Principles to Toleration as well as the Presbyterians and so equally obliged not to abuse the present gracious Indulgence Fourthly I shall shew that by His Majesties late Declaration the Church of England is still established as the Basis and the bare suspension of the poenal Laws doth indeed take off the Obligation upon the account of wrath that lay before upon Dissenters but does not cancel the Obligation of Conscience by which the Independents and all Indulged parties are still to avoid all Causless and groundless Separations from this Best of Reformed Churches First The Lawfulness of Communicating with our Churches by the Arguments and Concessions even of the Independents themselves Our Parochial Churches are owned to have the Essentials of true Churches by all sober Congregational men For there is the pure Word of GOD Preached the true Sacraments Administred and an implicite Covenant between Pastor and People in joyning together All that is pleaded is Corruption and Defect in the outward Exercise and Administration of Church Order and Discipline Now that it is Lawful supposing but not granting this bar lies against the Church of England to joyn with Churches so defective and corrupt is not only acknowledged but fully proved by Reverend Mr. Norton of the Congregational way in his Answer to Apolsius as Dr. Stilling fleet in his Irenicum quotes it to the present purpose which I desire the Brethren to consider whom it chiefly concerns and to lay seriously to their hearts and without a reply to his Arguments they cannot justifie their Separation from us 1. A Believer may Lawfully joyn in Communion with such a Church where he cannot enjoy all the Ordinancies of GOD as in the Jewish Church in our Saviour's time which refused the Gospel of Christ and the Baptisme of John and yet our Saviour commands us to hear the Scribes and Pharisees sitting in Moses's Chair which hearing implies Conjunctionem Ecclesiae Judaicae A joyning with the Jewish Church So with Churches rejecting an Article of Faith as the Church of Corinth the Doctrine of the Resurrection the Churches of Galatia rejecting the Doctrine of Justification by Faith yet the Apostle no where requires on that account a Separation from them 2. A Believer may Lawfully joyn in Communion with such a Church in which some Corruption is tolerated in the Worship of GOD without Reformation as the Offering upon High places from Solomon to Hezekiah in the Church of Judah the observation of Circumcision and the Law Ceremonial in the Churches of Galatia 3. A Believer may Lawfully joyn himself in Communion with such a Church in which such are admitted to Sacraments who give no evident signs of Grace but seem to be Lovers of the World this he proves because it is every mans Duty to Examine himself and anothers sin hurts not me and so is no argument against my Duty And besides by mens coming unworthily Non polluitur Communio licet minuitur Consolatio The Communion is not defiled though the comfort of it be diminished This he proves also from the Church of Corinth amongst whom were many scandalous that had not Repented 2 Cor. 12. 20 c. and in the Church of the Jews which lay under great Corruptions when Christ and His Apostles communicated with it 4. Although a Believer joyns with such a Church he is not therefore bound with the Guilt nor defiled with the pollutions of others that Communicate It is his Duty incumbent and in doing his Duty he contracts no Guilt upon himself 5. A Believer which hath joyned himself to such a Church is not bound to withdraw and seperate under pain of Guilt if he does it not for to be lawful to joyn and unlawful to continue the Communion implies a contradiction for the first speaks it to be a Church and the second to be no Church and so it is not Lawful to seperate from a Church true as to Essentials and such the Independents own in their Apologetical Narration our Parochial Churches though guilty of Corruptions for the ground of Communicating is its being a Church not a corrupt or defective Church And that men are not guilty by partaking with those that are guilty of Corruptions in a Church appears from the Church of the Jews in the case of Ely's Sons and the Christian Churches of Asia and Corinth where we read of many Corruptions by S. Paul reproved but no Mandate to separate which had certainly by the Holy Ghost been given and S. Paul would not have omitted had it been a sin to communicate while those Corruptions were in the Churches of Asia and Corinth Thus far their own Reverend Norton Now I desire these Congregational Leaders who gather Churches out of our Churches to reply to this Learned Divine of their own perswasion or to consider what Answer is to be given to the searcher of all Hearts for resisting that light of Conviction that shines in upon their Consciences Again not granting but supposing only that in this Church from which these separate Church-Discipline were neglected Worship defiled Manners corrupted or Tyranny exercised suppose we grant all this which we need not this will not justifie a Separation from the Church of England My reason is because there were greater Corruptions in Doctrine Discipline and Worship and no Separations countenanced by the Apostles in the first Apostolical Christian Churches then in Ours or any other Reformed Churches from whom a Separation is made in these times As for instance to begin with Doctrine In what Church of ours is the Resurrection of the Dead denyed an Article of that importance that all our Christianity in effect depends upon it It was denyed by many in the Church of Corinth In what Churches of ours is the Doctrine of Justification by the Law or any Doctrine so destructive of the Merit of Christ generally maintained as in the Galatian Churches Again for Worship Do ours partake of the Lord's Table and the Table of Devils as among the Corinthians Are our Ecclesiastical Assemblies so confused that whosoever
comes in must presently take us for Mad Do ours come to the Communion drunk as at Corinth Then for Manners and Life We acknowledge our selves heynous Offendors which I suppose those that call themselves the Saints and separate from us Publicans do unless frantick confess true of themselves But what then have we worse than Incest Fornication Covetousness Malice Contentions unrepented of as is the Church of Corinth Or biting and devouring one another permitters of Idolaters boasters of Gifts as in the Church of Galatia As touching neglect of Discipline First in the Apostles own company the Ministers that should exercise Discipline they all sought there own and none the things of Jâ—sus Christ and the grossest Vices winked 〈…〉 mented as we saw before in the Church of Corinth and should have been so still had not the Apostle been Living and exciting them to their Duty Lastly concerning Tyranny Ye see what Oppression the false Apostles used 2 Cor. 11. 20. Ye suffer saith the Apostle if a man take of you if a man bring you into bondage if a man devour you if a man exalt himself c. by which words he toucheth the Tyranny though out of malice against the Apostle willingly submitted to by the Church of Corinth and we know that Dyotrephes exercised his Government with such Insolency that he cast out whom he would admitted whom he would opposed S. John himself yet no news of Separation Now let these men consider that separate from us the Apostolical Church was a Virgin newly espoused to Christ in the midst of the Heathen under the Rod of Persecution the great Apostle then living and yet vitiated more then the Churches that these depart from and yet the then Separatists branded with the Characters of Schisme and Sedition by the Blessed Apostles And here I desire the men of this way seriously to consider that Separation being discountenanced from Churches more vitiated than ours by the Holy Apostles how these men owning our Parochial Churches true as to Essentials can ever justifie their Separation from us It would certainly be duly weighed by such as desire to appear tender Consciences and so capable of a right in the present gracious Indulgence That they do so acknowledge our Parochial Churches their Apologetical Narration declares sufficiently in these following words We have alwaies profest and that in these times wherein the Churches of England were most either actually overspread with defilements or in the greatest danger thereof that we both did and would hold Communion with them as true Churches of Christ and that our Parochial Churches were the very Body of Christ which is in effect to approve and forsake at the same time and gives occasion too great of applying a Sentence in S. Austin against Parmenian Lib. 1. cap. 8. against these Dissenters Et adversum nos loquuntur nobiscum loquuntur cum eos obmutescere compellat veritas silere non permittit iniquitas They speak against us and they speak for us and when Truth constrains them silence their Iniquity will not let them hold their peace There are three things that I would humbly offer to all sober men of the Congregational perswasion and I beseech them to consider them seriously as from one that equally wisheth their Salvation with his own 1. That they would cautiously distinguish between corruptions in Doctrine and corruptions in the practice of a Church 2. That they would Conscientiously distinguish between corruptions whether in Doctrine or Practice profest and avowed by a Church and required as the absolute conditions of Communion from all its members and corruptions only crept in and meerly tolerated in a Church and not any way required as the conditions of 3. To distinguish carefully between Non-communicating as to the abuses of a Church and a positive and total Separation from a 〈◊〉 as it is a Church These three the second 〈…〉 duly weighed and considered would 〈…〉 a period to their Separation 〈…〉 of England or tend at least to 〈…〉 ening of the Breach too sadly occasioned for want of a due reflection upon the Premisses aforesaid Again We of the Church of England have not given them the like or any just cause of Separating as the Church of Rome gave them and us For where do we urge any Doctrines as Articles of Faith which we offer not to a tryal by Scripture and the Four first General Councils which all Christians reverence and were Anciently honoured next to the Four Gospels and if the Church should teach any other Propositions she protests against their being Articles of Faith and of Necessity to Salvation and for this reason imposeth not Her â—â—â—IX Articles as Articles of Faith but of Peace and Communion nor does the Church of England censure other Churches for their different Confessions but allows them the liberty she her self takes to establish more or less conditions of Communion as the Governours of the Church shall deem most expedient for Vnity and Peace She only requires of such as are admitted to any Office or Employment in the Church to subscribe to her Articles as certain Theological Verityes not repugnant to GOD's Word particularly culled out and selected to be taught and maintained within her Communion as highly conducive to the preservation of Truth and prevention of Schisme And for this reason She passes no other censure upon the Impugners of her Articles then against the Impugners of Her Government Liturgy and Rites because all intended by her for the same end The avoiding of all Disorders and Confusions But as for the absolute Articles of the Church of England they were not of Her own Inventing but such as She found established in the best Ages of the Church nearest the Primitive and Apostolical simplicity Here She fixeth the bounds of Her Faith to prevent the danger of endless Additions and Innovations And because in smaller matters somewhat may escape the greatest caution and prudence She hath reserved Just power to her self to reform what is really amiss and finds so abused that the use of them cannot stand with Piety and Holiness allowing the same Liberty to all her Sister Churches and all Church Governours within the sphere of their respective Jurisdictions This is the true state of the Reformation of this Church as hath been apparently evidenced by her Regular Sons against all Opposers Now let the Independents consider whether this be not though a brief yet a True account of the Moderation and Prudence of this Church and then let them reflect at the same time upon the second especially of the Three aforesaid Propositions and upon the whole examine their Tender Consciences whether it does not Justifie our Separation from the Romanists and at the same time prove them guilty by departing from us We both agree that where any Church is guilty of Corruptions in Doctrine and practice which it owns and requires as absolute conditions of Her Communion there to Separate is no Schisme but Lawful and Convenient