Selected quad for the lemma: england_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A66185
|
An exhortation to mutual charity and union among Protestants in sermon preach'd before the King and Queen at Hampton-Court, May 21. 1689 / by William Wake ... publish'd by His Majesties special command.
|
Wake, William, 1657-1737.
|
1689
(1689)
|
Wing W242; ESTC R4543
|
15,773
|
37
|
and offences contrary to the Doctrine which we have learnt and avoid them With what a scrupulous care did St. Paul manage himself between the dissenting parties in my Text What admirable Rules did he lay down for them to walk by and with what an affectionate earnestness did he enforce them If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any Bowels and Mercies fulfil ye my joy that ye be like-minded having the same Love being of one Accord of one Mind And may I not beg leave tho not with the Authority yet with the Charity of St. Paul to apply all this to those unhappy Divisions that at this day rend in pieces the Church of Christ among us and beseech you by all these endearing Considerations to pursue those things which may make for our Peace and for the closing of those breaches which the malice of our Enemies too successfully begun and our own weaknesse has too fatally kept up among us Never certainly was there a time since our Divisions first began in which we had greater reason to consider of such a Union or I hope a fairer opportunity to promise our selves an Accomplishment of it Only let us all be as careful to improve it as I am perswaded we have all of us not only seem'd to desire but have indeed earnestly long'd for it Let us shew the sense we have of that wonderful Deliverance God has given us out of the hand of our Enemies by uniting our selves in the strictest League of Friendship with one another Hitherto we have defended our Church by our Arguments let us now by our Charity settle and establish it against the like Dangers for the time to come This will indeed render both our selves and our Religion Glorious to the World and may be a Happy Augury that the blessed time so long wrapped up in sacred Prophecy is indeed now ready to be revealed When the Church of Christ being purged from those Corruptions that have so long defaced its Beauty shall again appear in its primitive Purity When all Heresie and Schism being every where abolished and the Mystery of Iniquity laid fully open and the Man of Sin destroy'd true Religion and sincere Piety shall again reign throughout the World God himself shall pitch his Tabernacle among us and dwell with us and we shall be his People and he shall be our God. O Blessed State of the Church Militant here on Earth the glorious Antipast of that Peace and Piety which God has prepared for his Church Triumphant in Heaven Who would not wish to see those days when a general Reformation and a true Zeal and a perfect Charity passing through the World we should All be united in the same Faith the same Worship the same Communion and Fellowship one with another When all Pride and Prejudice all Interests and Designs being submitted to the Honour of God and the discharge of our Duty the Holy Scriptures shall again triumph over the vain Traditions of Men and Religion no longer take its denomination from little Sects and Factions but we shall all be content with the same common primitive Names of Christians and Brethren and live together as becomes our Character in Brotherly Love and Christian Charity with one another And who can tell but such a Change as this and which we have otherwise some reason to believe is nigh at hand may even now break forth from the midst of us would we but all seriously labour to perfect the Great Work which the Providence of God has so gloriously begun amongst us and establish that Love and Unity among our selves which may afterwards diffuse it self from us into all the other parts of the Christian World besides But however whether we shall ever see I do not say such a Blessed Effect as this but even any good Effect at all of our Endeavours here on Earth or no yet this we are sure we shall not lose our Reward in Heaven When to have contributed tho in the least degree to the healing of those divisions we so unhappily labour under shall be esteemed a greater Honour than to have silenced all the Cavils of our Enemies and even to have pray'd and wish'd for it and where we could not any otherwise have contributed our selves but to have exhorted others to it shall be rewarded with Blessings more than all the Stars in the Firmament for number Now the God of patience and consolation grant you to be like-minded one towards another according to Christ Jesus That ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. To Him be Honour and Praise for ever and ever Amen FINIS BOOKS Published by the Reverend Mr. WAâ—â— Printed for RICHARD CHISWELL AN Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England in the several Articles proposed by the late BISHOP of CONDOM in his Exposition of the Doctrine of the Catholick Church 4 o. A Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the Exceptions of Mons. de Meaux late B of Condom and his Vindicator A Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against the new Exceptions of Monsieur de Meaux late Bishop of Condom and his Vindicator The FIRST PART in which the Account that has been given of the Bishop of Meaux's Exposition is fully Vindicated the Distinction of Old and New Popery Historically asserted and the Doctrine of the Church of Rome in point of Image Worship more particularly considered Second Defence of the Exposition of the Doctrine of the Church of England against Monsieur de Meaux and his Vindicator the SECOND PART A Discourse of the Holy Eucharist in the two great Points of the Real Presence and the Adoration of the Host In Answer to the Two Discourses lately Printed at Oxford on this Subject To which is prefixed a Large Historical Pâ—eface relating to the same Argument Two Discourses of Purgatory and Prayers for the Dead 4 o. A Continuation of the Controversie between the Church of England and the Church of Rome being a full account of the Books that have been of late written on Both sides An Historical Treatise of Transubstantiation Written by an Author of the Communion of the Church of Rome rendred into English. With a Preface Preparation for Death being a Letter sent to a Young Gentlewoman in France in a distemper of which she died Printed for WILLIAM ROGERS A Discourse concerning the Nature of Idolatry in which a Late Author viz the Bp. of Oxford's true and only Notion of Idolatry is considered and confuted 4 o. The Sum of a Conference between Dr. Clagett and F. P. Gooden abâ—ut Transubstantiation Publish'd by this Author And to be added to Dr. Clagett's Sermons now in the Press which will be Publish'd this Term. Printed for Richard Chiswell and William Râ—gers AN Exhortation to Mutual Charity and Union among Protestants In a Sermon Preach'd before the King and Queen at Hampton Court May 26 1689. In the Press A Sermon Preach'd before the Honouâ—abâ—e House of Commons at St. Margaret's Westminster June 5. 1689. Being the Faâ—t Day appointed by the King and Queens Proclamation to Implore the Blessing of Almighty God upon their Mâ—jesties Forces by Sea and Land and Success in the War now declared against the French King. Other Tracts by the same AVTHOR A Sermon Preached at Paris on the 30 th of January S. V. 1684 5. The Present State of the Controversie Sure and Honest Means for Conversion of all Hereticks and wholsom Advice and Expedients for the Reformation of the Church Translated and Published with a Preface A Letter from several French Ministers fled into Germany upon the account of the Persecution in France to such of their Brethren in England as approved the King's Declaration touching Liberty of Conscience Translated from the Original French. See ch xiv 1. Acts xv 1. xxi 20. Acts xv 19 28. Gal. v. 1. c. Gal. v. 1. Rom. xi 18 c. Rom. xv 1. Ibid. Verse 2. See Theoderet Chrysost. Theophylact c. in loc Prop. 1. Acts xv 28. Gal. v. 2. Rom. xiv 6. Hâ—stâ—ire des variations des Eglises Protestantes par Mr. l' Evesque de MEAUX The design of which may be seen in the Summary of his Preface Les Variations dans la foy preuve certaine de fausset é. Charactere des heresies d'estre variables Ce Charactere reconnu dans tous les Ages de l' Eglise Charactere d'immutabilitè dans lay foy de l' Eglise Catholique Que les variations de l' un des partis de Protestans est une preuve contre l' Autre c. Praef. ad lib. de Summ. P. T. 1. p. 592. Ingoldstad A. 1586. Bellarm to 1. p. 1377. de Not. Eccl. A. See Mr. Chillingworth p. 99 100. Bellarm. ib. p. 1378. B. Prop. 2. John c. xvi 2. Verse 3. Joh. 13.35 Verse 1. 7. Prop. 3. Rom. xv 1. * See the Petition of the Archbishop and Bishops to King James for which they were committed to the Tower. Phil. ii 6 7. 1 Joh. iv 11. Rom. xiv 19. Joh. xiii 35. Rom. xii 18. Rom. xvi 17. Phil. ii 1. 2. Rev. xxi 3.
have arisen among the several Parties and Communions of it and some of them in Points so near to the Foundations of Christianity that whilst Men resolve to keep fast to their Conclusions and will not suffer the plainest Arguments to convince them of their Errors 't is in vain to hope ever to see things brought to such a Temper as we could wish in that But especially whilst that part which is the most corrupt is so far from being willing to concur to any such Union that on the contrary she has cut off all possibility of attaining it And by arrogating an unwarrantable Infallibility to her self and Authority over all others will neither reform her own abuses nor admit any into her Communion that will not profess the same Errors in which she her self stands involved So that here all we can even wish for is that Men would at last be so wise as tho they differ in Opinion yet to love as Brethren and agree together in a common Charity till we shall be so happy as to unite in a common Faith and worship of God. But for us whom it has pleased God by delivering us from the Errors and Superstitions of the Church of Rome to unite together in the common name of Protestant Reformed Christians would we but as heartily labour after Peace as we are all of us very highly exhorted to it I cannot see why we who are so happily join'd together in a common profession of the same Faith at least I am sure in all the necessary points of it and I hope amidst all our lesser differences in a common love and charity to one another should not also be united in the same common Worship of God too I will not now enter into any Dispute to shew how little reason there is for any one to separate from the Offices of the Church of England upon the account of those few Exceptions that have sometimes been offer'd to justifie the doing of it This is a work both too large for such a Discourse and besides the design of my present Undertaking And that one Concession of many of our Brethren themselves who tho they continue ordinarily to separate from us yet nevertheless freely allow of what they call Occasional Communion with us I think sufficiently shews how little real ground there is for those Scruples that have so long detain'd them in an unjust aversion to our Worship Blessed be God who has abundantly justified both the Purity of our Doctrine and the Innocency of our Worship not only by the general Approbation of the Reform'd Churches abroad who both freely communicate with us in our religious Offices and have often given Testimony in favour of them but in the happy Conviction of many at Home who were once Enemies to our Constitution but who now go with us into the same House of God as Friends And indeed the things for which some forsake us now are no other than what they were in the Beginning of the Reformation when yet there was no such thing as Separation from our Communion But on the contrary the old Non-Conformists themselves tho they disliked some things in our Worship yet freely declared they thought it a Crime to divide the Church upon the account of them And they who at this day separate from us for the sake of those few Constitutions that have been made for the Order and Decency of our Publick Worship must for the same reason have separated from all the Churches of the Christian World for above 1500 Years in none of which they might not have found as great that I do not say and much greater occasion of Offence than they can in Ours But yet since mens Scruples are unaccountable and after all that can be said they will still differ even about indifferent things and be afraid many times where no Fear is and a too long Experience has already shewn us That if ever we mean to accomplish that Union so much recommended to us by our Apostle so advantageous to the Church at all times but especially at this time so necessary to our Peace and our Establishment that it seems to be the only way that yet remains to settle and to secure us and upon all these accounts so much to be desired by all Good Men we must seek it by that Rule which St. Paul here proposed to the Dissenting Christians of my Text We then that are strong in the faith ought to bear the infirmities of the weak and not to please our selves I cannot but think it a Reflection becoming every good Christian among us but in a more especial manner worthy the Consideration of such an Auditory as this Whether somewhat may not yet be done for the sake of Peace and to bring things to such a TEMPER that both Order and Decency may still be preserved and yet our Unity no longer broken And for Exhortations to so good and Christian a Work shall I set before you the Example of our Blessed Saviour recommended to us in the Text with what a mighty condescention he has treated Us how He came down from Heaven and took upon Him the form of a servant and being made in the likeness of a sinful man humbled Himself even to the Death upon the Cross for us How He still bears not only with our Infirmities but with our Sins too and by all these wonderful instances of his Love to us teaches us says St. John How we ought also to love one another Or rather shall I shew you how far such a Blessed Union as this would conduce to the Glory of God to the Security of our Religion and to the promotion of Peace and Charity and Piety among us I need not say what a dishonour our Divisions have already brought to the Reformation nor what a stop they have put to the progress of it Great to be sure is the Advantage which our Enemies either have or at least hoped to have made by those Contests which they have taken so much pains both to bring in and to keep up among us And methinks there should need no other Argument to stir up every true Friend to the name of Protestant to endeavour all he can to compose our Differences than this one thing That we are sufficiently convinced who they are that we please and whose Interests we serve by the continuance of them Let us add to this what great Obligations our Holy Religion lays upon us to follow after those things that make for peace and whereby we may edifie one another How our Saviour has set it down as the very Badge of our Discipleship By this shall all men know that ye are my Disciples if ye have love one to another What Exhortations his Apostles have given us If it be possible as much as in us lies to live peaceably with all men But especially with reference to the differences about Religion To mark them which cause divisions