Selected quad for the lemma: england_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
england_n	according_a	church_n	law_n	3,191	5	4.8145	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53681	A discourse concerning evangelical love, church-peace and unity with the occasions and reasons of present differences and divisions about things sacred and religious, written in the vindication of the principles and practise of some ministers and others.	Owen, John, 1616-1683.	1672 (1672)	Wing O735; ESTC R13316	129,318	262

when upon lesser Differences men judge Churches to be no true Churches and their Ministers to be no true Ministers and consequently all their Administrations to be invalid So do some judge of Churches because they have 〈◊〉 Bishops and so do more of others because they have none But the Validity or Invalidity of the Ordinances of Christ which are the Means of Union and Communion with him unto all his Disciples depend not on the determination of things highly disputable in their Notion and not inconsistent with true Gospel-Obedience in their Practice And we are unduly charged with other Apprehensions God forbid that any such thought should ever enter into our heorts as though the Churches constituted in all things according unto our Light and the Rules we apprehend appointed in the Scripture for that purpose should be the only true Churches in the world They do but out of design endeavour to expose us to popular envy and hatred who invent and publish such things concerning us or any of us But whatever be the Judgment of others concerning us we intend not to take from thence any such provocation as might corrupt our Judgments concerning them nor to relieve our selves by returning the like censures unto them as we receive from them Scripture Rule and Duty must in these matters regulate our thoughts on all occasions And whilst we judge others to be true Churches we shall not be much moved with their judgment that we are none because we differ from them We stand to the judgment of Christ and his Word We cannot but judge indeed that many Churches have missed and do miss in some things the precise Rules of their due constitution and walking that many of them have added useless superfluous Rites to the Worship of God among them that there is in many of them a sinful neglect of Evangelical Discipline or a carnal Rule erected in the stead of it that Errors in Doctrines of importance and danger are prevalent in sundry of them that their Rulers are much influenced by a spirit of bitterness and envy against such as plead for Reformation beyond their measure or interest yet that hereupon they should all or any of them immediately forfeit their Church-State so as to have no lawful Ministers nor acceptable sacred Administrations is in it self a false Imagination and such as was never by us entertained In particular as to those Churches in Europe which are commonly called Reformed we have the same thoughts of them the same Love towards them the same readiness for communion with them as we would desire any Disciples of Christ in the world to have bear or exercise towards our selves If we are found negligent in any Office of Love towards them or any of their Members in compassion help or assistance or such supplies in outward or inward things as we have opportunity or ability for we are willing to bear the guilt of it as our Sin and the reproach of it as our shame And herein we desire to fulfil the Royal Law according to the Scripture thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self The same we say concerning all the Churches in England of the same mould and constitution with them especially if it be true which some say that Parochial Churches are under a force and power whereby they are enjoyned the practice of sundry things and forbidden the performance of others wherein the compliance of some is not over-voluntary nor pleasing to themselves Neither is there a Nullity or Invalidity in the Ordinances administred in them any otherwise than as some render them ineffectual unto themselves by their unbelief And this is the Paganizing of England which some of us are traduced for We believe that among the visible professors in this Nation there is as great a number of sincere Believers as in any Nation under Heaven so that in it are treasured up a considerable portion of the invisible Mystical Church of Christ. We believe that the Generality of the Inhabitants of this Nation are by their Profession constituted an eminent part of the Kingdome of Christ in this world And we judge not we condemn not those who walking according to their Light and Understanding in Particularities do practise such things in the Worship of God as we cannot comply withal For we do not think that the things wherein they fail wherein they miss or out go the Rule are in their own nature absolutely destructive of their particular Church-state And what more can reasonably be required of us or expected from us in this matter we know not The causes of the Distance that doth remain between us them shall be afterwards enquired into For our Duty in particular presential communion at the celebration of the same individual Ordinances with such Churches as are remote from us in Asia or Africa we shall we hope be directed to determine aright concerning it when we are called thereunto In the mean time what are our Thoughts concerning them hath been before declared To love them as Subjects of the Kingdom of Jesus Christ in the world to pray for them that they may have all needful supplies of Grace and the Holy Spirit from above that God would send out his Light and Truth to guide them in their Worship and Obedience and to help them in things spiritual and temporal as we have opportunity is the Sum of the Duty which is required in us towards them Those we are more concerned in who are within the Lines of our ordinary Communication among whom we walk and converse in the world Unto any of these it is in the Liberty and power of every Believer to join himself by his own consent And no more is required hereunto in the present constitution of Churches among our selves but that a man remove his habitation to comply with his own desires herein And this choice is to be regulated by a judgment how a man may best improve and promote his own Edification We see not therefore how any man with the least pretence of Sobriety or Modesty can charge us with the want of an esteem and valuation of Evangelical Vnity For we embrace it on all the Grounds that it is in the Gospel recommended unto us And we do know within what narrow bounds the Charity and Vnity of some are confined who yet advantage themselves by a noise of their pretence But that we do not in the least disturb break or dissent from the Catholick Church either as it is invisible in its internal form by Faith and the Renovation of the Holy Ghost or as visibly professing necessary Fundamental Truths of the Gospel we have sufficiently evinced And the Principles laid down concerning particular Churches Congregations Assemblies or Parishes have not as yet been detected by any to spring from want of Love or to be obstructive of the exercise of it Having therefore thus briefly given some account of what we conceive to be our duty in relation unto the whole Church of

Apostle Ephes. 2. 12. And in sundry other places wherein he allows them no possibility of obtaining eternal blessedness Neither do we in this matter consider what God can do or what he hath done to the communicating of grace and faith in Jesus Christ unto any particular persons at any time or in any place in an extraordinary manner We are not called to make a judgment thereof nor can any Rule be hence collected to regulate the exercise of our love Secret things belong to the Lord our God but revealed things to us and our children that we may do his will When and where such grace and faith do manifest themselves by their effects we ought readily to own and embrace them But the only inquiry in this matter is What those that are utterly destitute of the Revelation of Jesus Christ either as made originally in the promise or as explained in the Gospel may under the meer conduct of the Light of Nature as consisting in the innate principles of Reason with their improvement or as increased by the consideration of the effects of divine power and Providence by the strength and exercise of their own moral principles attain unto as unto their present acceptance with God and future eternal salvation That they may be saved in every Sect who live exactly according to the Light of Nature is a Doctrine anathematized by the Church of England Artic. 8. And the Reason given hereof is because the Scriptures propose the Name of Jesus Christ alone whereby we may be saved And if we do believe that description which is given in the Scripture of men their moral abilities and their works as they lye in the common state of Mankind since the entrance of sin with respect unto God and salvation we shall not be able to be of another mind For they are said to be blind yea to be darkness to be dead in trespasses and sins not to receive the things of the Spirit of God because they are foolishness unto them and their minds to be enmity against God himself That there may be any just expectation concerning such persons that they will work out their salvation with fear and trembling we are not convinced Neither do we think that God will accept of a more imperfect obedience in them that know not Jesus Christ than he requires of them who do believe in him for then should he prove a disadvantage unto them Beside all their best works are severely reflected on in the Scripture and represented as unprofitable For whereas in themselves they are compared to evil Trees Thorns and Briars we are assured they neither do nor can bring forth good grapes or Figgs Besides in the Scripture the whole business of salvation in the first place turns upon the Hinge of Faith supernatural and divine for without faith it is impossible to please Gid and He that believeth not shall be damned He that believeth not in the name of the Son of God is condemned already for neither Circumcision availeth any thing nor uncircumcision but faith that worketh by love And it is by faith that the just shall live That this Faith may be educed out of the obediential Principle of Nature 't was indeed the opinion of Pelagius of old but 't will not now we hope be openly asserted by any Moreover this Faith is in the Scripture if not limited and determined yet directed unto Jesus Christ as its necessary peculiar Object For this is Life eternal that we may know the only true God and Jesus Christ whom he hath sent It seems therefore that the knowledge of the only true God is not sufficient to attain eternal life unless the knowledge of Jesus Christ also do accompany it For this is the record of Heaven that God hath given unto us eternal Life and this life is in his Son He that hath the Son hath life and he that hath not the Son of God hath not life Which is enough to determine the controversie And those Assertions that there is no other Name given amongst men whereby they may be saved and that other foundation can no man lay save what is laid that is Jesus Christ are of the same importance and it were needless to multiply the Testimonies that are given us to that purpose elsewhere Neither can it be made to appear that the concatenation of the saving means whereby men that are adult are brought unto glory is not absolutely universal And amongst them there is Vocation or an effectual Calling to the knowledg of Christ by the Gospel Neither will the same Apostle allow a saving invocation of the Name of God to any but those that are brought to believe by hearing the Word preached It is said that God may by wayes secret and unknown to us reveal Jesus Christ to them and so by faith in him sanctifie their natures and endow them with his Spirit which things it is granted we suppose are indispensibly necessary unto salvation Those whom God thus deals withall are not Pagans but Christians concerning whom none ever doubted but they might be sa●ed It is also granted that men may learn much of the power wisdome and goodness of God which both require and teach many Duties to be performed towards him but withall we believe that without the internal sanctification of the Spirit communicated by and with the knowledg of Jesus Christ no man can be saved But we intend not here to dispute about these things Instead of an effect of Love and Charity it is manifest that the Opinion which grants salvation unto the Heathen or any of them upon the due improvement of their Rational Faculties and moral Principles ariseth from a want of due consideration of the true nature of Sin and Grace of the Fall of Man and his Recovery of the Law and Gospel and of the Wisdome and Love of God in sending Jesus Christ to make attonement for sinners and to bring in everlasting Righteousness And not only so but it evidently Prepares the way unto those noxious Opinions which at this day among many infest and corrupt Christian Religion and foment those Seeds of Atheism which spring up so fast as to threaten the overspreading of the whole Field of Christianity For hence it will follow by an easie deduction that every one may be saved or attain unto his utmost happiness in his own Religion be it what it will whilst under any notion or conception he acknowledgeth a Divine Being and his own dependance thereon And seeing that on this supposition it must be confessed that Religion consists solely in moral Honesty and a fancied internal Piety of mind towards the Deity for in nothing else can a centring of all Religions in the world unto a certain end be imagined it follows that there is no outward Profession of it indispensibly necessary but that every one may take up and make use of that which is best suited unto his