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A45585 An humble essay toward the settlement of peace and truth in the church, as a certain foundation of lasting union by Sir Edward Harley. Harley, Edward, Sir, 1624-1700. 1681 (1681) Wing H777; ESTC R11056 25,032 42

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Isralites for Blaspheming God upon the Hills that is in the high Places where God was Worshiped in a manner not commanded by God Therefore it remains a blemish upon the good Kings of Judah See this fully evinced by Mr Mede in his Com. upon Apoc c. 13. P. 624 625. who abolished the false gods notwithstanding permitted superstitious Worship in the high Places to the true God The Lord Jesus also tells the Woman of Samaria that the Samaritans Worshipped they knew not what 2 King 15.4.35 2 Cron. 33.17 Not because they worshipped a false God that was not their Crime but because they adored God by a Worship invented by Man and not appointed by God Joh. 4.22 't was therefore meer Superstition which could not bring to Salvation the blessed of End of true Religion Superstition is fitly called a colloguing with God Joh. 15.14 consequently the acceptance must be as diverse from that of Religion as flattery is from friendship For they only are the friends of Christ that keep his Commandments Religion is the rule of true Wisdom to bring Mankind to Eternal Happiness Religion by directing all his affections and actions to their proper Object according to the will and command of God God Isaiah 45.18 Acts 17.26 27. who made the World of nothing created it not in vain He formed it to be inhabited and made of one Blood all Nations of Men for to dwell on all the Face of the Earth that they should seek the Lord. Not as though he needed any thing seeing he giveth to all life and breath and all things Neither is he worshipped with Mens hands nor dwells in Temples made with hands It is equally impossible for Man to be happy without Religious dependance upon his Creator And for the Worship or Service of any Created Being to be necessary unto God The whole world was made an Harmonious Scheme every Being from the least and lowest to the greatest and highest chiming into the Consort whereof Man was the chief Musitian Eccles 7.29 Man was made upright in a likeness of conformity to his Creator His mind will and affections replenished with Divine knowledg Righteousness and Holiness by which he was capacitated to exercise the Dominion bestowed upon him by God over all the Living Inhabitants of the Air Earth and Water Man therefore is justly defined to be a Rational Religious Creature therein consisting the formal ultimate difference from a Brute and the highest character of his Nature The Excellency of true Religion to be such as before represented will appear in all the due acceptations thereof by which also will be manifested the vanity and mischief of all false Religions Rectum est index sui obliqui for Truth presents the Rule and Indication both of it self and of what is false God who subjected all Creatures to Man bound Man to himself by the Law of Religion This was the Covenant of Life God vouchsafed to man as soon as Created which our Lord Jesus rehearsed to the Scribe in the Gospel Thou shalt Love the Lord thy God with all thy Soul and Mind and Heart and strength and thy Neighbour as thy self do this and thou shalt live Luke 10.28 This is the perfect Rule of true Wisdom the way to real Happiness when the Soul and Mind the understanding and Judgment know God as the only Infinite All-sufficient Good the Almighty Creator Ruler and Preserver of all Beings thence concludes there can be no happiness but in conformity to the will and enjoyment of the favour of God accordingly the whole Heart Will and Affections Fear Trust Hope Delight in God and the strength of all the Powers both intellectual and animal Serve Obey and Prays His Sovereign Lord in whom he lives moves and hath his Being This is vita frui To live indeed As the Eternal Power of the invinsible Godhead is clearly seen by the Creation of the World so all the Creatures we see have such evident Signatures of the Divine Wisdom Power and Goodness as exact a behaviour converse and enjoyment according to the Law of intire Love for love is the fulfilling and Lust is the transgression of the Law Rom. 13.9 10. Therefore he loves not God who loves not Himself and his Neighbour in conformity to the Image of God in which Man was made Holy and Upright How Pleasant and Safe and Happy would Life be if every one did to another only what he would receive from another if every one were sincerely loved by every one This is Natural Religion for he only that doeth Righteousness is Righteous as God is Righteous 1 John 3.7 This was the felicity of innocent Man before his Heart was venomed with Lust and Vanity And even now the work of this Divine Law is Written in all Mens Hearts to which their Conscience bear Witness The Conclusion or summ of the whole matter of Religion is Eccles 12.13 Fear God and keep his Commandments This is the whole Duty of Man Therefore the second part of Religion called Instituted is therein necessarily comprised and from thence derives Evidence of Authority and Obligation being given before the fall to establish and direct natural Religion and since the fall to supply its defects This part of Religion is fitly called supernatural or Revealed and is known not by Reason but by Faith For though it be the highest Reason to believe the Word of God which is the only ground of Faith yet Faith is above Reason representing things not seen by Reason and evidencing Divine Objects more certainly then any Method of Reason can demonstrate viz. by the infallible word of God Instituted Religion is the Rule of Divine Worship both Moral and Ceremonial prescribed by God Instituted Religion Prayer by which the Heart powers out it self to God by which the Soul ascends to God Psal 62 8. is only such when animated with the Priviledge and Authority of Gods Word For only God can teach how he pleaseth to be prayed unto and worshipped Solus Deus docere potest ut se velet orari It is the Word of God that teaches we shall not be heard for our much speaking Tertul. de Orat c. 9. that we must not use vain Repetion as if prayers like Egyptian Bricks were to be delivered by Tale Mat. 6.7 or there were Efficacy and Interest in a Phraseologie of Devotion All Flesh is guilty and silent before God Psal 65.23 until the word of promise opens the lips Rom. 8.26 and teaches the Heart how to pray And this Tertul. p. 6.60 sine Monitore quia depectore Oramus saith Tertullian was the Practice of Primitive Christianity It is the Scripture that assures whoever calls on the Name of the Lord Rom. 10.13 14. shall be saved But it also saith How shall they call on him whom they have not believed and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not
Church hath no power over Internal Actions Jesuites Morals Page 387. the evident Consequence of which Position overthrows the Foundations of Religion and Christian Piety but other Doctrine cannot be expected where Religion is only an Artificial Worship and the Church only a Politick Guild or Corporation As there is but one God from whom and to whom is derived and directed all true Worship though as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 8.5.6 There be many called gods whether in Heaven or in Earth 2 Cor. 4.4 and there is the God of this World Gal. 4.26 so there is but one Church the Mother of us all ● Tim. 3.16 the Heavenly Jerusalem Which is the Piller and Ground of truth Joh. 17.17 the Word of God which only Sanctifies Religious Commands to Oblige Conscience Yet there be many Churches some Heavenly some Earthly For beside the Idolatrous Pollutions of some Churches which render them Synagogues of Satan There is also in some Churches a mixture of Civil Policy by which the Word Church becomes a Law Term and signifies a Body Politick endowed with certain Honours Priviledges and Revenues by the Munificence of Kings Such is the Gallican Church and such is Ecclesia Anglicana according to the Purport of several Statutes 26 H. 8. c. 1. in which respect it is a part of the Estates of the Realm 24 H. 8. c. 12. Lord Ch. Justice But all the Priviledges and Dignities given by the Crown to the Church Cook 5. report as it is a Political State in the Realm is in order to and for the sake of those Administrations necessary to its Being as a Member of the Catholick Church Article ●9 that is a Congregation of Believers in which the Word of God is purely Preached and the Sacraments in things necessarily required according to the Institution of Christ rightly Administred It must be therefore altogether Irrational and Unchristian to suborn an Authority in a Political Church to subvert the Essential Liberty of any Member of the Catholick Church If the Reverend Prelates of Christendom would govern their power according to this undeniable Rule of Christianity it would notably conduce even to their own security For if the Ceremonial Accidents in the Church were not necessarily imposed the dignified Accidents therein would be rendred more agreeable to all Christians and Mankind If Religion were cleared from Additional Superfluities which can no otherwise secure and adorn it then Clouds and Mists do the Sun the World might enjoy the desired felicity of our Lords Kingdom the Empire of Light and Love Prisons Fagots Gibbets would be no longer the miserable Propagators of Faith the Benign Influence of Princes would not be Intercepted from their Subjects the Obedience of Subjects would be Conscientious Religion no longer supposed an Awful trick would be embraced and obeyed in the absolute perfection and simplicity of Divine truth and Goodness For therein only may we find a certain Foundation for lasting Union among Christians Force and Violence may under pretence of extirpating Heresie or exacting Uniform Decency and Order determine in a Common Calamity and Destruction by such Course Princes may be deprived of their People and People forced from their Dwellings into Graves or Goals or Wildernesses But that is Desolation not Peace 'T is not Union but Depopulation No Tacit. v●t Agrie Vbi solitudinem faciunt Pacem Apellant the way to find and stablish Peace is only in the way of Gospel Truth which gives Glory to God in the Highest Peace on Earth Good Will toward Men and among Men From which only can be hoped a certain Foundation of lasting Union among our selves For suppose a present Submisson and Compliance unto the Humane Rites and Ceremonies enjoyned as Conditions of Church Communion yet there can be no Certainty such Union shall be lasting because the Terms are Arbitrarily alterable and may with one breath vanish and disappear to make make room possible for shaddows of another Mode but no less troublesome Hath not this been within fresh Memorie misery and almost our ruine But if we consider what is our Defence against the Common Enemie we may find what may be our Cement among our selves Dr. Stillingfleet's Rat. Acct. Page 53. Learned Dr. Stillingfleet in his Rational Account of the Grounds of the Protesant Religion hath excellently demonstrated That the Union of the Catholick Church depends upon the Agreement of it in making the Foundation of its Being to be the Grounds of its Communion For the Unity being intended to preserve the Being there can be no reason given why the Bonds of Union should extend beyond the Foundation of its Being which is the Owning things necessary to the Salvation of All. From whence it necessarily follows that whatsoever Church imposeth the belief of other things as necessary to Salvation which were not so Antecedently necessary to the Being of the Catholick Church doth as much as in it lies break the Unity of it And those Churches who do desire to preserve its Unity are bound thereby not to have Communion with it so long as it doth so These things premised saith he we shall thereby find what the necessary Conditions of Ecclesiastical Communion are and consequently where the proper cause of Schism Lies in transgressing those Bounds and what Foundations may be laid for the Peace of the Christian World Upon these Grounds was the Church of England Reformed from the Idolatrous Superstition of Popery defends it self against their assaults and thereby can only be preserved For the Church which is the House of the Living God can receive no Edification but what is Homogeneal with the Foundation Eph. 2.20 the Doctrine of the Apostles 1 Cor. 3.10 11. Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone The Sum of all is briefly comprised in the Words of a late Learned and Pious Divine in the Church of England Mr. George Lawson's Coment upon the Hebr. c. 9. N. 5. Printed 1662. viz. He that will not serve a God is a profane Atheist He that serves any but the true God is an Idolater he that serves the true God after his own Fansies and the Inventions of Man is a Superstitious Fool. He that Inventeth Rites and Ceremonies and Modes of serving God and imposeth them on others is a presumptuous Wretch for as God alone doth know what kind of Worship and Service is fittest to be performed unto Him so He only hath Power to Impose it These two Books are lately Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Three Cocks at the West end of S. Paul's and Thomas Simmons at the Princes Arms in Ludgate-street 1681. CHurch-History of the Government of Bishops and their Councils Abbreviated Including the chief part of the Government of Christian Princes and Popes and a true Account of the most troubling Controversies and Heresies till the Reformation Written for the Use especially of them I. Who are ignorant or misinformed of the state of the Antient Churches II. Who can not read many and great Volumes III. Who think that the Universal Church must have one visible Soveraign Personal or Collective Pope or General Councils IV. Who would know whether Patriarchs Diocesans and their Councils have been or must be the cure of Heresies and Schisms V. Who would know the truth about the great Heresies which have divided the Christian World especially the Donatists Novatians Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Eutychians Monethelites c. By Richard Baxter a hater of false History in 4o. A Treatise of Episcopacy confuting by Scripture Reason and the Churches Testimony that sort of Diocesan Churches Prelacy and Government which casteth out the Primitive Church-Species Episcopacy Ministry and Discipline and confoundeth the Christian World by Corruption Usurpation Schism and Persecution Meditated in the Year 1640. when the Et coetera Oath was imposed Written 1671. and cast by Published 1681 by the importunity of our Superiours who demand the Reasons of our Nonconformity By Richard Baxter in 4o. FINIS