Selected quad for the lemma: faith_n
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A50159
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A sermon before the provincial synod at Antrim preached June 1. 1698 / by Mr. John Mac-Bride ...
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MacBride, John, 1651?-1718.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing M115; ESTC R14638
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13,794
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24
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Explain Matters of Faith and Rules of Worship according to GOD's Word to discover and declare the contrary Errors or Corruptions Thus they detected and declared and so by the Word of GOD prevented and removed the Corruption both of Doctrine and Worship which those Pharisaical Men were bringing in with a burden of Ceremonies hereby they pacify and strengthen the Church by securing to it that Liberty wherewith CHRIST had made it free 2. They Exercis'd that Power called Diatactick which relates to the External Order of the Church in Matters Prudential and Circumstantial which are to be determined by the Light of Nature and those General Rules prescribed in Scripture such as 1. That our great and chief End be GOD's Glory according to that 1 Cor. 10.31 2. That no Offence be given to Jew or Gentile or the Church of GOD according to Vers 32. 3. That all be done for Edification 1 Cor. 14.26 4. And in Decency and Order according to Vers 20. By these Rules are Church-Assemblies bound to walk which if they do Peace shall be on them as on the Israel of GOD. Thus this Synod decreed to frame their Decision in a Letter and to send it by fit Commissioners 3. They Exercised that Power called Critick or Disciplinary in Censuring those False Teachers as Subverters of Souls Men running unsent and Teaching what they had no Command for vers 24. And so may Assemblies Use and Exercise Censures provided it be done with Humility Moderation and Compassion and so shall the Church be preserved from Heresie and Schism This being our best Pattern I come to make some Application to our selves Use 1. Seeing GOD hath Commanded Nature's Light hath Directed CHRIST's Precept and His Apostles Precedent hath Authorized Assemblies of Church-Officers for its Safety and Edification we may meet in Faith having the Authority of GOD for our Motive and Warrant so to do and therefore may depend upon His Promised Presence with us and the hearing of our Prayers seeing what we do is not from a Principle of carnal Policy but in Obedience to our Great Master and for the Service of His Church under our care 2. We are hence informed That the want of a Call or Commission to Assemble from Secular Power we being permitted to meet doth not make our Meeting Unlawful before GOD as some may fancy nor doth the want of a Civil Sanction to our Acts make them void For this Assembly had neither yet was blessed of the LORD The Civil Magistrate we confess may and ought to call Ministers to their Work and protect them in it yet this is necessary only to the well-being but not to the being of such Meetings The Primitive Church for the first Three hundred years Enjoyed no such Priviledge more than we yet wanted not their Assemblies nor dare we condemn them as Unlawful and as we have reason to bless GOD that we are Permitted to meet in Peace tho' not Commanded so to do let us as we have hitherto endeavoured so behave our selves as to give no just ground of Offence for sure we can do nothing prejudicial to the Civil Interest if we keep within our own Sphere and pursue the just Ends of our Meeting which are the Preservation of Truth and Peace and promoting Holiness among our selves and those over whom the LORD hath set us for certainly such will be found the best Subjects who conscientiously mind these Duties 3. Seeing GOD hath Commanded Ministers to Assemble when it is necessary then such ought to make Conscience of Meeting when called and not to forsake the Assembling of themselves together as the manner of some is It 's true such as GOD hath Disabled to come are hereby Excused For the LORD Himself hath done it and who may say What doth He But those who are able to go about their own particular Affairs and yet excuse themselves from attending these our Assemblies seem to mind more their own things than the things of CHRIST Some indeed despise these Assemblies as being in their Opinion a Yoke but we have cause to bless GOD for this Yoke which ties us together binds us to our Work and strengthens us in the Performance thereof for by our Meetings GOD hath been pleased to preserve us in as great Unanimity of Judgment Unity of Affection Uniformity in all our Ministerial Actings as any such Number of such Men we know in the like Circumstances with our selves By these we have been helpt to mind the same thing and walk by the same Rule and by our united Care and Counsels in our darkest Times and greatest Dangers have been inabled both to avoid giving just ground of Offence and have thereby defended our selves our own and the Publick Peace have been considerably secured by these means when it hath fared otherwise in other places And Experience daily tells us that the Church shall never be Comely as Jerusalem Terrible as an Army with Banners while every small Company with their several Captains have sole Jurisdiction and no Common Councils kept for War or Peace no Subordination or Authority for Exercise of Discipline Redress of Grievances or Establishing of Order Had some of our Brethren what we Enjoy by these they would soon be more Terrible to their Enemies more Comfortable to their Friends more Peace should be in their Palaces and Prosperity within their private Walls 4. This also may convince us that CHRIST never Appointed His Church to be Governed by Sole Jurisdiction of single Persons for even in case of a private Offence He commands to tell the Church not any single Person howsoever dignified the Promise of His Presence is made at least to Two or Three gathered in His Name Matth. 18.20 As the Apostles with the Knowledge and Consent of the Church chose and ordained an Apostle Acts 1. so they would not exercise sole Jurisdiction even in the Ordination of Deacons Acts 6.3 6. The Apostles joyntly sent Peter and John to Samaria Acts 8.14 The Apostles and Brethren in Judea call'd Peter to Account in respect of his Carriage to the Gentiles Acts 11.1 2 18. It was the Church and not any one Church-man that sent Barnabas so far as Antioch Acts 11.22 Yea the very matters of Charity were managed by Common Consent for the Disciples in Antioch sent to Barnabas and Paul and the Elders at Jerusalem so that there was not so much as sole Jurisdiction in the Distribution of the Churches Charity Acts 11.29 30. Paul and Barnabas are sent by the Ministers of the Church of Antioch assembled Chap. 13. And here it is more evident than to be deny'd so that I would gladly know any Constituted Church within all the New Testament or Old when Church-Jurisdiction was exercised by any single Person And seeing our Laws and Law-Givers have thought it unreasonable and unsafe to trust the Legislative Power in the hands of any single Person or the Lives Liberties Limbs or Estates to any less than a Jury of Twelve Men then
A SERMON BEFORE THE PROVINCIAL SYNOD AT ANTRIM Preached June 1. 1698. BY Mr. JOHN MAC-BRIDE Minister of Belfast Published at the Desire of some Persons then Present Printed in the Year MDCXCVIII Acts XV. 25 26. It seemed good unto us being Assembled with one Accord to send Chosen Men unto you with our beloved Barnabas and Paul Men that have hazarded their Lives for the Name of our LORD JESUS CHRIST AS the Church of Christ since Militant on Earth hath not wanted Foreign Adversaries who have taken crafty Counsels to cut off the Name of Israel from being a Nation so it hath had Intestine Enemies to its Doctrine Worship and Government some privily bringing in Damnable Heresies to over-throw the Faith once delivered to the Saints others corrupting its pure Worship with Superstition and Idolatry and some Imperious and Ungovernable Men subverting its orderly Government by Tyranny and Anarchy By any of which tho' a Form of Godliness may be kept it 's Power is deny'd But we have been faithfully fore-warned that such Offences must come that such as are approved may be made manifest Yet He on whose Shoulders the Government of his Church is laid hath well and wisely provided proper Remedies against all these Evils Watchmen and Rulers who by their mutual Care and Counsels assisted by His Word and Spirit are put in a Capacity to defend this Church Whereof we have a pregnant Instance in this Scripture in which we may see a wise and holy Assembly of Church-Rulers by joint Counsels and Authority Deliberating about and Determining of Ways and Means necessary to preserve the Purity of Doctrine and Worship as well as the Unity and Peace of the Church All which were in manifest hazard while some Men coming down from Judea to Antioch taught the Disciples That unless they were Circumcised and kept the Law of Moses they could not be Saved Whether Cyrinthus was the Ring-Leader of this Party as Epiphanius and Hierom report I determine not but it 's evident from Vers 5. that they were Pharisees The first course taken to remove this Evil we find was Disputing managed by Paul and Barnabas to convince these Gain-sayers but to little effect And therefore secondly The Church of Antioch determined to send Paul and Barnabas with certain others to the Apostles and Elders who were at Jerusalem where appears an Appeal from an Inferiour to a Superiour Judicatory in a Case not determined by the Inferiour Thirdly We have an Account of the Constitution of this Assembly consisting of Apostles and Elders both these resident at Jerusalem and such as were delegated from Antioch Vers 6. Fourthly The Method used to find out and determine this Controverted Truth was A Deliberate free and full debating the matter and Reasoning from Scripture Fifthly After this a clear and final Decision of the Controversie the Apostle James as Moderator of the Assembly summing up the Debate and giving his Sentence to which all consented Sixthly We have here the Synod's Method to make this its Decision effectual where 1. It is Enacted That a Letter be written from the Synod informing those Churches to which it was sent with their final Determination and Judgment 2. It is Enacted That some Persons be Commissionated to carry publish and require Submission to this Decree The Words read contain 1. An Account of the Authority giving this Commission or Employing those Persons to Execute this Act viz. the Apostles Elders and Brethren assembled with one accord 2. The Persons commissionated to wit chosen Men with Paul and Barnabas 3. The ground of sending It seemed good to us 4. The Character and Recommendation of the Persons sent which was their Credentials 1. They were Chosen Men 2. Men who had hazarded their Lives for the Name of Christ From which words thus Explain'd this Proposition may be rationally deduced Doctr. When the Necessity or Benefit of the Church requires it is the Duty of those whom Christ hath cloathed with Authority to Rule it to Assemble with one Accord and make such Acts as may contribute to preserve the Purity and Peace of those Churches over which the Holy Ghost hath made them Overseers That the Apostles and Elders did Assemble is here Evident that they did it as their Duty from the pressing Necessities of the Church over which they were set to watch is also evident both its Truth and Peace being in hazard The presence and concurrence of the Holy Ghost granted them the Remarkable Success by GOD's Blessing bestowed on those their Endeavours shews us that they had a Call thereunto and acted in obedience to GOD in it But that this may more fully appear to be not only their Duty but the Duty of all their ordinary Successors I shall first prove secondly consider what Assembly this was for kind and quality and then shew of what use it is to us 1. I take it for granted that the Church of Christ is and ought to be an Orderly Society of Reasonable Men and Women and under Laws and Government and therefore is it called a Kingdom whereof Christ is the King and Lawgiver having Men 〈◊〉 Authority under Him enabled to put in Execution His Laws â—â—s call'd a Family Eph. 3.15 whereof He is the Everlasting Father Isa 9.6 a City compactly built all which shew that it consists of Persons Governing and Governed For no sooner do we hear of any Publick Worship but we have it in a Society Cain and Abel meeting to offer Sacrifice and bringing them to be offered by Adam the then High-Priest of his Family Gen. 4. Those who will have Publick Worship Instituted Gen. 4.16 must understand Assemblies of distinct Families associating for no doubt Adam and his House did before this jointly worship the LORD and Nature's Light hath instructed all Nations who have any Worship to perform it in Publick Assemblies 2. It appears that under the Old Testament GOD did require such as He had Authorized to Rule his Church to Assemble for that End as appears from Exod. 24.1 where the LORD said to Moses Come up unto the LORD thou and Aaron Nadab and Abihu and Seventy of the Elders of Israel all which convened to be Witnesses of and concur with the Congregation in their solemn Engaging in Covenant with the LORD as also to be Witnesses of GOD's Glorious Manifesting Himself to Moses and giving him Authority Vers 10. and particularly to Judge and Determine in the Matters of Debate among that People as appears from Vers 14. That GOD constituted such Assemblies Rulers for ordinary appears from Deut. 17.8 9. where in all Cases too difficult for their Inferiour Judicatories the People are commanded to go to that Place which GOD should choose to set His Name there to enquire of the Priests Levites and Judges in those Days and are Commanded also to be Determined by their Sentence Seeing then the People were bound to Attend it 's evident the Priests Levites c. were obliged to Assemble to hear examine