Selected quad for the lemma: ground_n
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A52038
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An expedient to preserve peace and amity, among dissenting brethren. By a brother in Christ
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Marshall, Stephen, 1594?-1655.
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1647
(1647)
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Wing M754A; ESTC R204591
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29,957
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42
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AN EXPEDIENT TO PRESERVE PEACE AND AMITY AMONG DISSENTING BRETHREN By a Brother in CHRIST LONDON Printed for H. R. and are to be sold at his Shop at the Signe of the three Pigeons in Pauls Church-yard 1647. AN EXPEDIENT TO PRESERVE PEACE and Amitie among dissenting BRETHREN SEeing it hath pleased Almighty GOD 〈…〉 at this time to put a stop to the effusion of Bloud so prodigally powred out in our native Country and thereby given a hope of speedily stating the whole Kingdome in a firme and durable Peace It doth not a little grieve my soul that this happinesse should be clouded or retarded under the pretence of Religion which is the best cimenter of Peace But herein I take comfort that God hath his own work no lesse in these controversies then before hee had in the warres and will reap glory out of both We must neither start nor stagger when we see Schismes and Heresies rise in the visible Church They are the Tares which the envious man soweth among Gods Wheat and Christ hath fore-warned us and so hath his Apostles that through the rage of Satan and corruption of men there must of necessity in all times and ages arise scandals dissentions and Heresies in the Church for the exercise of the godly that their faith might be proved and manifested to the world by holding their ground and cleaving to the truth Yea the very Gospell of Christ which in it selfe is a Gospell of peace by the bloud of the Son reconciling of us to the Father Meeteth with such Malignancy and opposition in the world that to the true professors of it it becometh a Gospel of warre and hatred and persecution This is the condition of the faithfull to be alwayes in outward troubles wherein were they not supported with inward peace they were of all men most miserable Upon this ground Martin Luther that undanted champion of the truth being taxed by the Emperour in a great Councell that he was the man who by his Doctrine had disturbed the long continued Peace in Germany Answered that what others thought he could not tell but it rejoyced his heart to see that there was divisions about the word of God for Christ came not to bring peace but the Sword By all this it appeareth that as every true beleever must expect tribulation in this world so hee shall have peace with God and ought to have peace and communion one with another Christ when he left his Disciples left them Peace for a Legacy and a commandement to love one another we are also frequently exhorted to follow after Peace to bee of one mind and preserve the unity of the spirit in the bond of Peace How comes it then about that we see so many minds among brethren who will all passe for the Disciples of Christ and that from the diversity of minds wee see so many rents and separations whereby the bond of Peace is broken and the spirits of men disunited Certainly when it commeth so far it can proceed from no other root then from our lusts which war in our earthly members Otherwise difference of judgement among true beleevers in the sincere search of truth may well stand with unity of affections without breach of Peace For it is manifest enough that the true beleevers over the whole world are not of one mind in all things that concerne Religion and the worship of God Witnesse the severall formes of outward worship among all Nations no lesse various then their fashions And this may also happen among the faithfull aswell in the same as in severall Nations nay if we consider it home wee shall find the like difference in our selves that we need not wonder at it in others for what Christian is there who in pursuit and study for truth observeth not in himself degrees and diversities of judgement every day teacheth knowledge this life being a time of growth not of perfection neverthelesse no man hateth himself because he formerly knew not so much as now he doth but rather praiseth God for hauing revealed to him a greater measure of knowledge by this rule wee should deale with others as we do with our selves for that is the rule of Charity We are all Gods building and albeit they may chance to differ among themselves They are not for that to make a breach in the building but in Love and Peace suffer their opinions to bee tryed by the word of God making that the decider not the breeder of controversies This being premised I will proceed to the subject lying before me and take my beginning from the beginning it self Almighty God doing all his own works in order was pleased to make Man a sociable creature first in himself associating an earthly and heavenly nature that one might guide and governe the other and himselfe receive glory from both Then by ingrafting in that compounded nature rules of spirituall and humane duty whereby he might be fitted for a well-being in the society of others For as the conjunction of flesh and spirit though parts far differing in nature make one man so the conjunction of many men though of severall ages complections humors passions callings and degrees make up a common-wealth for the good of all in their temporall well-being Even so likewise the conjunction of many spirits and minds of men though dissenting in opinions wayes and strength of judgement yet ayming at the same end by faith in Christ to attain salvation Maketh a common union or a Church for the good of all in their eternall wel-being Flesh alone nor spirit alone cannot make a man but the union of both no more can a Common-wealth by it self nor a Church by it self make men temporally and eternally happy but the unity and harmony of both They are so conjoyned and intwined together that as the soule is in the body so is the Church in the Common-wealth single they cannot subsist For there never was nor can there be any multitude of men that bodied themselves into a Common-wealth who agreed not in some kind of Religion neither can any multitude of men body themselves into a Church but they must be subject to some kind of government These two cannot be separated without the ruine of both Seperation destroying Society wherein consisteth the happinesse of man for in heaven wee cannot bee happy alone nor on earth without society These principles are written by the God of order in the tables of humane nature which are commonly called the light or the Law of nature But sin and time having so fullyed that Character that it was scarce legible by posterity God was pleased to revive it againe to his peculiar people writing it with his own finger in Tables of stone to authorize and moralize it to all generations for their good therein giving power to the Magistrate to take care for the keeping and preserving of both Tables placing our duty to him between our duty to God and towards our neighbour that hee might
wrapped up in generall precepts it behoveth us to learne from his deputies upon earth asking councell of the Lord what his mind and pleasure is and such for the most part are the outward rites formes and circumstances of his Evangelicall worship these things fall within the compasse of order and decency which are rather civill notions then devine yet as Armies in the field easily fall into a rout not well arrayed so assemblies in the Church and Churches in the Common-wealth prove but rude and tumultuous meetings if they be not decently ordered a lute or violl is seen plaid upon but there is much adoe to tune many instruments into one consort private Christians may dispose of themselves in their owne houses but when they meet in a publike body they must be tuned by the publike Magistrate the world would never have stood without societies nor can societies hold without government neither can there be any government where some rule not and some obey all the question is to set due limits and bounds to the civill government wherein I conceive that there is the selfe the same measure betwixt the Magistrate and the conscience for as the word of God bindeth the conscience to obey so it prescribeth the Magistrate to governe otherwise if as the high Priest forbad the Apostles to teach in the name of Jesus so the Magistrate shall impose any thing upon the people contrary to divine law or the word revealed the case is plain that we ought to obey God rather then men These rubbs thus remooved in our way I shall proceed to the solving of such objections as are commonly made by those brethren that challenge a liberty and exemption from this lawfull obedience 1. First they build upon our owne ground alledging that since the nature of conscience is so free and voluntary in it self it must needs be a manifest violation of her freedome to constraine her by laws or penalties or impositions of men To which I answer that we must remember to put a difference betwixt the constraint and the restraint of mens consciences no law nor power of man can constraine the conscience in her voluntary act to goe against her owne light or approve that which she condemneth or say to her self conscience I lye no she may and ought rather to suffer then undergoe such a constraint but the lawes of man may so farre restrain their liberty that she produce not the act of her private sence and freedome into hurtfull effects such as may endanger and disturbe our christian and publike peace it hath bin alwaies observed that it is as naturall and appetitions for error to beget error opinion to spread opinion as for one kind to generate and multiply the same insomuch when an erronious conscience will not be limited nor contained within it self it may and ought to be restrained and inhibited from infecting others and dispersing the contagion 2. Secondly it may be againe objected that although it be granted nothing can bind the conscience but the pure word of God yet forasmuch as no word of Scrirture is produced expresly confirming this from of polity and Presbyterian government which we are commanded to obey it will plainly follow that the consciences of men are therein left unto their liberty To give a full answer hereunto it would be necessary to take the frame of this government in pieces as the Levites did the Tabernacle when they removed their Tents and then bring it piece by piece to the light of Gods word to see what is thereby confirmed and what unfirmed But because this is already done by divers worthy brethren of the holy calling I shall forbeare to insert their volumes into these few sheets and shall onely say that this kind of government is either expresly or by good consequence included and allowed by the Scripture as not repugnant to it in any thing Of the Presbytery it selfe where the government is inherent I heare no question made but that it is expresly mentioned in the Scripture the main doubt and difference is whither it be Independent in particular Congregations subordinate to Synods and Assemblies as the urgencies and occasions of the Church may require Those Brethren that maintain Independency of single Congregations stand upon a ground feeble and unfirm saying that in the Apostles time there were no other Churches but onely congregationall in which alone all government was confined This assertion will hold no further true then in such Churches as were gathered whiles Christ was upon earth then indeed we may conceive that the first Evangelicall Church consisted in the congregation of the Apostles and afterwards of the Disciples but when Christ ascended into heaven and the holy Ghost descended upon earth we shall find that when the multitude of believers increased so much in severall Cities as one Congregation could not contain them their manner was to distribute themselves into severall meetings accordinp to the commodity of their habitations in the said Cities or else as it might most stand with their safety Now th' Apostles themselves and their coadjutors th' Evangelists and other Founders of Churches under them did usually constitute and ordain Elders in every City but not in every Congregation who had power in common and colleâ—gially to teach and govern the whole flock though severally congregated in the same City Thus we read of the Elders of Hierusalem of Antiochia of Ephesus of Corinth of Philippi and many mo where the numbers of the faithfull were inlarged Whereby it appeareth that in the Apostles times and the times succeeding those primitive Churches were City Churches consisting of divers Congregations and not congregationall as is pretended Independent within themselves True it is the City church was commonly independent within it selfe but thereof the reason was because the Cities in their civill policy were free and unsubjected otherwise the government of the City Church reached as farre as the jurisdiction of the City If all this be true as it is made most evident by the unpartiall searchers of Antiquity we may herein observe a pattern though not a precept for the subordination of Churches for if in the Apostles time a City church consisted of many congregations by the same proportion according to the increase of Beleevers a Provinciall Church may consist of many Cities and a Nationall Church of many Provinces and the Catholick Church of many Nations the lowest step was laid by the Apostles the highest step is a point of our belief and from the lowest to the highest there is no passage but by gradations which is the scale of that government now held forth by Parliament But to this may be replyed All this that you say is but conjecturall and that hath no power to bind the conscience which must have a word infallible to rest upon To this I answer That for the substance of this government wee have the infallible word of God whereof neither part doubteth for the frame and