Selected quad for the lemma: grace_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
grace_n	salvation_n	teach_v	ungodliness_n	2,577	5	11.7800	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56805	The conformist's fourth plea for the nonconformists wherein several considerations are offered for Christian forbearance : with some relations of some of their sufferings ..., together with some account of the infamous lives and lamentable deaths of some informers / by a charitable and compassionate conformist, author of the former Pleas.	Pearse, Edward, 1631-1694.	1683 (1683)	Wing P974; ESTC R34547	112,844	120

clearly discovered he meant Ammianus Marcellinus taxing Georgius a factious Bishop of Alexandria for abusing the Weakness of Constantius the Emperor by base Tale-bearing and privy Informations notes precisely that he did it Oblitus professionis suae quae nil nisi justum suadet lene quite beside his Profession whose especial Notes were Gentleness and Equity The Christians were called Chrestiani from a Word signifying Benignity and Sweetness What reason is there why that should not be one of the chiefest Notes of the Church of Christ which did so especially characterize a Christian Man except there were a decay of it at this day in the Church Serm. of Dealing with erring Christians pag. 26. of the 2d Impression Consid V. It doth reflect a Scandal upon the Church for now except it be by writing of some Books whose Leaves are not like the Leaves of the Tree of Life for healing of the Nation what little Pains are taken to instruct convince or persuade them neither with soft Words nor hard Arguments Either are better than neither of them But now the Officer called Informer is the first Mover and Instrument in the Reformation an Employment that is which many that are too bad cannot be hired unto A sort of Men these are that are more perfect than the Prosecutors in Tertullian's Time Tales semper nobis Insecutores injusti impii turpes quos ipsi damnare consuestis à quibus damnatos reslituere soliti estis I 'le English the Character left some other make it worse than it is It is no more but this They are unjust ungodly filthy such as ye are wont to condemn and our Judges have often condemned and to restore such s are condemned by them I should not dare to write this but that I would move our professed Friends to take another Course more for the Honour of the Church and our Holy Profession than this The Church that now is can no more turn the Stream or change the Course of the Law than other Men can and are not able to help them as the Reverend Bishop of Cork speaks pag. 121. But is it not fit our Governors should know how it reflects upon them 1. The World is possess'd with a Conceit that this Work of undoing Men is pleasing to some that do not only look on but set Men on not displeasing to others tho some say they are sorry for it as the same foresaid sensible and moving Bishop of Cork 2. That such poor and insufficient Ministers are placed in many Churches which rather drive Men away than give them tolerable Encouragement to attend their Ministry or Hopes of Improvement Methinks the Thing it self should be more offensive than the Mention of it when there is such notorious Truth in it The Bishops cannot hinder their Institution but some are sensible of the great easiness of some in their Admission into Orders If awakened Souls keep at home there is danger that sleepy Preaching may cast them into a Lethargy if they go abroad they are in danger of the Laws 3. When other Means are not used or do not overcome Dissenters to set their Creatures upon them doth alienate the Minds of Multitudes We are not say they provided for nor must we provide for our selves Good Conforming Preachers dare not encourage us to go to them and if we are received with better Welcome there they are suspected to be as bad or worse than the Nonconformists And that they should be hunted and worried and the Fleece torn from their Backs by such a sort of Animals of ignorant infidel voracious Enemies to all Religion is a very great Affliction to the Sufferers and Peproach upon our Religion as if spiritual Means were not used or spiritual Weapons had no Power as if Christians were to be tamed by irrational Methods as if the Shepherd's Voice nor his Rod and Staff could do no Good but the scattered Sheep were given up to the Dogs to bring them to the Fold that prey for themselves As if a self-created Officer that 's below a Commission and unworthy of a Livery had greater Virtue in him to cure Church-Divisions than Ordained Ministers I assure the Reader this is written not to make him merry And I do not know whether it will be pardoned to me to conclude this Head with this That 't is no wonder the Success is no better when no more sanctified Means and Instruments are employed to act in a Work of this Nature and Consequence Consid VI. By this way the holy Ordinances of God many choice Men for excellent Pastoral Gifts Qualifications and Parts and real Holiness are brought to contempt to great contempt and this way is a very great Obstruction to the Encrease of Saving-Knowledg and true Religion in many The malignant Influences of our Divisions upon Religion is demonstrated by the affectionate Bishop of Cork in his second Sermon I shall limit my Observation to the same Design of Peace and Unity and keep to the Thing in hand That this proceeding against the Nonconformists is of ill consequence to Religion in general * Vsque ad aetatem Augustini hoc est plus quàm quadringentis post Christum natum annis nusquam legimus Orthodoxes implorissse Caesaris praesidium adversus Haereticos quum id frequentissimè factum esset ab Haeretacis Nunquam tamen hoc exemplum imitari visum est Orthodoxis donec Donatistarum Circumcellionum porpelleret pervicax insanabilis insania c. Erasmus in Respons de Inquisitione If they were an Heretical Sect except turbulent to the State where have we a Rule for such a Process against them But without disparagement or making any offensive Comparisons between their Ministers and their Hearers and ours there is no Man that can take the measure of Abilities proportioned to the Work of Christ but must acknowledg them to come as near to the Standard as most Men in the Age And for their Auditors generally they are Men of as much Aptness Receptivity of Apprehension Judgment and Experience in the Work and Way of Salvation as any Men of their several Ranks and Qualities in the Places where they live and are as great Examples of Truth Sobriety practical Holiness and are as much exercised in reading praying conserring redeeming Time walking not as Fools but as wise as any Men that profess Christ among us and every way as useful Subjects There are several Degrees of them some have their Indiseretions and their Mistakes and their Heats and their Blemishes and what Party have not But if the Grace of God hath appeared to any Men and if any are taught to deny Vngodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteonsly and godly in this present World as I am sure there are there are such among them And it is no disparagement to them that they are scrupulous considering remaining Ignorance for if Men have a due sense of Sin and have known what it is to be humbled and

Affectation in them Affectation of what of Fines Losses Frowns Threatnings Diminution of Civil Privileges as far as some can deprive them If this be their Hypocrisy verily they have their Reward They go to hear them for Scruples and Fanaticism Let a Divine repent of such a meditated Calumny and Aspersion lest he fall into them So the Heathen objected Sed non ideo bonum quia multos convertit Quid hoc mati est cujus reus gaudet c. Tertull. Apol. chap. 1. Whatever another intends to do that dares to make the Success of their Ministry of the Gospel the Power of God to Salvation upon rational Souls to lead Christian Lives no greater Argument of divine Approbation than the spreading of Mahumetanism and the Success of the Alcoran if he never found the Efficacy of Grace of the Spirit Word and Sacraments upon his Heart let him turn his Thoughts and his Time if not his Pen to make ready for his Judgment and to secure his Peace rather than to rake into Sores and Ulcers and keep them open to get Money as some Beggars do their Sores Consid IX A safe and speedy Union of Diffenters as nearly united as possibly can be made is most desireable that there may be a happy End put to their many Sufferings Religion and Humanity can take no pleasure in the deserved Punishments of Men the Murmurs and Complaints of Sufferers stir and move Compassions and Pity holds the Hand even of Justice in all Cases in which Necessity is not urgent and manifest The Evil of Separation hath been opened when the Evil of their Sufferings hath not been touched upon They are urged with the first but that is but one Side of the Evil let us search into the other Sore to take the whole Weight and Compass of the Mischief that lies upon the Protestant Religion and both run down from the same Cause and he that would stop the Current of Evil in divided Streams and dry up the Flood of Afflictions and Miseries must stop it at the Well head of the Cause They are urged to enter into the Communion of the Church as by Law established because of the Mischiefs of their Separations and it would be a special Service to move our Governors to make their Return as easy as may be by opening the Scandal of their Sufferings If their Consent to our Injunctions were gained the Controversy would be at an end and this Prosecution also But that being not like to be attained this way the Continuance of the Separation is more for the good and profit of the Church than their Sufferings for while they enjoy their Liberty the Gospel is preached and they that are regenerate and called and gathered to Christ are gathered to the Catholick Church tho not united unto a particular Church in some certain Bonds of external Communion But if they were totally suppressed and where they are most narrowly watched and kept in thousands of Souls would lose the Benefit of their Labours and their Hearts are like to be more estranged from us and the Church will still lose the Content and Comfort of their Communion The supposed and aggravated Sin and Evil of the Separation is doubled by their Sufferings and made more incurable by the Exasperation We see and taste the Fruit of above twenty Years Proceedings and better cannot be expected but much worse may be feared To argue for a Release from their Sufferings because they have suffered deeply may seem weak and inconsequent but take them in a Complex of Causes and Circumstances and I do hope the Argument may prove a Matter of Consideration to them that are concerned in these great Matters If a Man should move for a Suspension of the Laws against Malefactors thus Millions have suffered Imprisonment and Death and therefore spare them the Argument is not only ridiculous and weak but weak and sinful because they are Malefactors and the Laws of God both natural and revealed require it and there would be no Safety to the Lives of Innocents nor of Civil Rights and Possessions But to argue Our dissenting Brethren have suffered much therefore forbear to inflict more Punishments upon them is not without some Strength and convincive Evidence 1. The performance of Religious Exercises in a different Form is no such Offence and Crime as deserves to be punished before the Penal Laws decree the Penalties The Difference of the Administrations is made by the diverse using or disusing of Things indifferent some extending their Liberty further than others To use Christian Liberty wisely and as much as may be inoffensively is no punishable Crime but a Duty and if there be not a Liberty in indifferent Things there is none at all 2. But if it were a Matter punishable yet of such Things as are punishable before a Penal Law be made Sed non ideo sequitur eam paenam debere exigi quia boc pendet ex connexione finium ob ques poena instituta est cum ipsa poenâ as Grotius writes De Jure Bell. Pac. lib. 2. cap 4. § 22. Now what can be the Ends of these Penal Constitutions 1. Unity of Mind with our Governors in those Things enjoined that seems to be the Reason of the Assent and Consent which none can be of but such as were so minded before it was required all Reasons and Circumstances perpensed But that all should be of the same mind is impossible in our State That 's an End not attainable and they who propose it propose only for themselves and them of the same Judgment with them and exclude the rest whom the Lord hath received It was a wise and is a celebrated Saying of the Emperor Maximilian the Second to Augustus of Saxe when he interposed for Peueer in the Vbiquitarian Controversies and Persecution The Duke told him he would have all his Ministers agree with him and among one another to which the Emperor answered Ego in negotiis ad fidem conscientiam pertinentibus nec ausim vel velim cuiquam offerre necessitatem aliquam coactione Scis irrito conatu c. I know that will be lost Labour and that it is grievous and dangerous in it self Id nunquam perficies inquit Imperator neque nostrum est imperare Conscientiis an t ad fidem quimque vi cogere Perclius Histor Carcerum p. 361. Hoornbeck Summa Controv. cum Lutheranis p. 657. 2. The Peace of the Church and State may be aim'd at Can there be Peace in the House of God whilst one Fellow-Servant smites another Surely that is not the way to Peace Which brings to my mind that of the Learned Hornbeck Oratione de Ecclesiarum inter se Communiene If we shall receive or treat them otherwise than Brethren whom Christ doth not disdain or think unworthy of so great a Name Place and Honour Atque hoe Christianae charitatis communionisque est fundamentum This is the Foundation also of all Christian and Ecclesiastical Love