Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A41069
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The Way to peace, by the proposal of some considerations arguing the necessity of mutual love, and forbearance in many things to effect it
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T. F.
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1682
(1682)
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Wing F64; ESTC R17296
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24,146
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17
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alledged to give in Evidence to the Matter he is in quest of and as an Honest Christian to his Care and Diligence superadds his Humble and Hearty Prayers to the Father of Lights for the Divine Influences and Concurrence of the Spirit Of Truth for his Guidance and Direction What ever Error such a Man may hold what ever Truth he may be unacquainted with upon such a fair Enquiry his mistake and ignorance is invincible and his case compassionable and how he shall be dealt with at the Universal Audit it cannot be hard for them to judge who partake most of the Clemency Benignity and Love of the Father of Mercies who remembers our Frame and knows that we are but dust who will make all favourable Allowances and will not upon the forfeiture of our Eternal Happiness exact degrees of knowledge from us above the Line of the Revelation he hath made and the strength of the Faculties we are indued with and he that is conscious he hath made the best use of his Understanding he is able in this Intellectual Employment may as well rejoyce in the Testimony of his Conscience though in some things he is mistaken that he hath sought the Truth impartially as he that hath had his Conversation in Simplicity and Godly Sincerity may notwithstanding some Infirmities and Inadtertencies he hath been subject to in his life Though we cannot but own that the Reformation both at home and abroad hath some defects and blemishes and is not in all parts compleat and perfect yet the progress that hath been made towards it is a blessing ought to be highly valued and thankfully acknowledged and of all persons they ought not to sleight and vilifie it and violently contest about indifferent things whose lives are not Reformed and scruple not at such things as are undoubtedly sinful and on the other hand the Patronage and defence of it is managed to very little purpose when undertook by such who take liberty to vary from the Rule of Right and live not according to the exact difference of Good and Evil and conform not to that Religion established by the Law of our Saviour and founded in the Eternal Principles of Righteousness Goodness and Truth Nothing being more absur'd and preposterous childish and ridiculous than to be curiously busie about the Publick Reformation before the same work be done at home nor a truer Character of an Hypocrite than a forward Zeal to Correct and Amend the Faith and Religion of others and yet allow himself in irregular and dishonest Fractices to tithe the Mint Anise and Cummin with great exactness and scrupulosity and in the interim to neglect Mercy Judgment Faithfulness and the weightier Matters of the Law These would be happy Signs of the Christian Churches recovery to a state of steady Peace and be a spring of true joy to all that are Friends to real Religion to see the common Interest and Design of Christianity prosecuted with as much diligence and industry as that of particular parties to see our private Picques discarded and every good and vertuous Man of whatsoever denomination in our New Stile accounted our Neighbour and treated accordingly to see all our Controversies about Superstition wound upon this bottom that none place more or less Religion in any thing then the nature of the thing will bear to see our feaverish heats about minute and petty Circumstances in Worship to abate and grow coller to see us so far as we have already attained to walk by the same rule and mind the same thing and wherein we are otherwise minded not furiously attack and condemn one another but humbly wait on him that hath promis'd that these things also wherein we differ he will reveal to us We are too prone to believe that the Ark of God will fall unless we support it with Vnhallowed hands that Christs Church and Faith will be prevail'd on by the Gates of Hell except we call for fire from Heaven to consume its Enemies that Heresies or Superstitions will over-spread the Face of the Church if we run not to an Arm of Flesh and take Vnchristian and Vnwarrantable Methods to suppress and prevent them but let us contrive as many expedients as Humane VVit and Power can execute to preserve the Church and Religion from Rents and Divisions Ruine and Destruction all our Attempts and Remedies are likely to prove Ineffectual and Succesless which are not founded in rational Conviction and Satisfaction and recommended from a Spirit of Love Sweetness and Clemency Blessed Jesus When thou comest wilt thou find Love in the Earth Did ever any Prosestors of a Religion tread so Antipodes to the Example and walk more contrary to the Precepts of their Master It was not because thou wantedst Power but Will that thou didst not revenge the Affronts and Injuries that were offer'd to thy Person and Doctrine Couldst thou not have girded thy Sword upon thy Thigh O thou most mighty and rode on prosperously in the Ruin of thy Enemies and triumphed over them in the greatness of thy Power Hadst thou taught thy Disciples to fight as Mahomet did his Disciples and in lieu of that Meekness Live Gentleness Patience Forgiveness c. which thou requirest as our Principal Tribute injoyned us to be revenged on Enemies to retaliate injuries to make way for thy Gospel by Rapine and Violence by seizing the Properties by Invading the Dominions of those we are able to prey upon Hadst thou allowed us to violate our Faith to quit our Allegiance to Persecute Torment Massacre our Brethren to advance thy Kingdom and Power and Glory then we might have beheld the Desolations those that profess thy Name have made in the World without astonishment and owned they had not forfeited the Title they Assume of being of the Society of Jesus by incouraging and propagating these and such barbarous Outrages which have made good natured Heathen afraid they should meet with them again in the other World In the Prophetick Vision the Four great Monarchies of this World were represented by Beasts full of Savageness and Cruelty as opposite to the Kingdom of the Messiah the Glory and Establishment of which was to consist in Love and Peace in Righteousness and Joy which although at present it obtain not to any great degree among Men yet there are the Seeds of this blessed and happy Estate scatter'd up and down in the Breasts of True Believers and the Love of God and of his Off-spring is shed abroad in their hearts by his Spirit to which the Administration of this Kingdom is committed which like the stone cut out without hands will increase by little and little till it become a great Mountain and fill the whole Earth as now it doth the Heavens with its Glory What Peace can we hope for so long as the several contending Parties with a kind of Hellish Sensuality caress and treat themselves with one anothers Wickedness and Immoral ties and are abundantly gratified that the
a very plain and authentiquie Warrant by which such power is delegated to them and that they are constituted by the Supream Lord to be his Vicars and Substitutes to demand and recover in his Name the Forfeitures that Infidels and Hereticks make of all their Temporal Felicity by their unhappy ignorance of the way to Eternal However men manage and ventilate the Proposition That dominion is founded in grace yet when it comes to be reduced to practice they are not willing it should pass for truth any longer then the power continues in their own hands and they are able to improve it to particular advantage The fancying that our differing Opinions concerning some difficult Supernatural Truths and some External Modes of Divine Worship makes us of a different Religion from one another 〈…〉 and excludes them that are mistaken from the benefits of the Covenant and the 〈…〉 of God as much as it doth from ours hath been and is one of the most perniciâ—â—â— and deâ—â—ructive Engins by which the peace and happiness of the Christian Churches 〈…〉 undermined which can never be secured so long as we account such persons Eâ—â—â—◠〈…〉 Goâ— and Goodness whose belief and practice thwarts ours the necessary and â—aâ—al consequence of which will be rigid Censures and bearing hard upon each other in â—â—nchristian and Inhumane Practices I wish that great Truth which at last God reveal'd to his Apostle was the common Faith of all Christians Viz. That God is no respecter of Persons that he hath no special regard to any particular Parties and distinct Societies of Man to do for them as being under a peculiar Denomination more then for others let their profession be never so fair and specious but that in every Nation in every party those that fear God and work Righteousness and those onely shall be accepted 'T is in vain to expect any Zeal or earnest Contention to defend or destroy any of the Rituals and Outworks of Religion will be of an advantage to us whilst we neglect those indisputable and indispensable Duties we cannot but know our Obligations to None of our contests for Truth and Religion should make us abandon those mild and beâ—ign Vertues which are the glory and perfection of it and when we differ concerning such parts of Christian Faith which they are not assented to do not render the Gospel iâ—effâ—â—tual to attain those great ends whereunto it is design'd if after men have fairly pâ—opos'd the Arguments that oblige them to yield their Assent and moderately heard the Allegations that are offer'd by those of a contrary perswasion both do remain of their former judgment without satisfaction from each other 't is most reasonable that they part as good friends and upon as fair terms as they met and innocently continue their differing Sentiments Few men I doubt give themselves the trouble of a fair and diligent Examination and Enquiry into the Articles of their Belief but either to save themselves the labour of a search take up their Creed by whole sale or for fear of the Event being hazardous by finding upon the trial that the true belief is punishable or unfashionable resolve to continue in and promote the Religion in which they are Educated though they are not able to render any account either to themselves or others wherefore they embrace such Opinions which are handed down to them then those Arguments which equally serve for all Religions alike and therefore ought not to be used for the goodness or truth of any No Religion but 't is too good to be the Subject of Plays and Farces and turned into Ridicule and Burlesque In so Profligate and Atheistical an Age 't is the common concern of all that have Reverence for Deity and regard to its Revelation though they differ in the Explication of â—everal parts and passages of it to keep up the honour of Religion in the main by discountenancing that drolling humour which under pretence of being Satyrical against Hypocrites doth frequently encroach upon true Piety and doth by mistake at least to say no worse wound a Friend instead of an Enemy An exact Agreement and Correspondence in all matters is so far from being absolulely necessary to the happiness of Humane Nature that 't is not Essential in the judgment of the Learned to the Bliss even of the Angels of whose disagreement in some particulars we have a probable Account in the History of Daniel though there is no reason to believe it impair'd their Felicity Different apprehensions of things discreetly and moderately managed renders converse more delightful and our company more acceptable to each other then it can be where we all know and own the same Notion and all our parts are of the same measure and proportion The Bâ—ll of Contention is kept up by an hasty and precipitate rejecting other Mens Sâ—nse and Proposals and by an over-eager and impatient pressing of our own as if what was tendred to us by our Antagonist was not worthy Regard and Consideration and what we â—â—ssâ—â—'d ought to be credited without inquiry and rational satisfaction Were this positive humour banished out of our common Discourses together with it we should be quit of mâ—â—â— of that inflameable matter which keeps the fire of passion and anger like that of Hell from going out and ever being extinct If we enquire after the Coercive Power of the Civil Magistrate in Matters of Religion and what is the Adequate Object thereof among those who know that it will be employed for their Interest they are for making broad its Phylacteries and inlarging its exercise and jurisdiction at least to the utmost of its extent If we consult others whose Temporal Concernments are subject to be prejudiced by the Penalties the Law imposeth on Dissenters they urge that whilst they Worship God in the way which he preseribeth in a quiet and peaceable manner no Humane Power ought to disturb and interrupt them but to grant them its protection and provide for their security but be this as it will 't is with me an undoubted Maxime Let the power wherewith the Magistrate is vested be never so absolute 't is given him for the Edification and Benefit and not the Destruction of his Subjects and that the condition of Modest Humble Meek Peaceable and innocent Persons should be rather better than worse by the Civil Magistrates being of the Christian Religion and that even they themselves are not exempted from the Divine commands of Moderation Lenity Compassion Condescention Charity c. but that these Vertues so far as the Publick welfare can be preserv'd ought to be the Principal Ingredients in all their Laws and Constitutions We that are of the Protestant Profession at this time especially ought to remember upon what Principles and Motives we forsook the Romish Communion the more firmly to unite us in mutual love under our smaller differences Some of the Principles which may be as a foundation to this Union are That the holy Scriptures