Selected quad for the lemma: kingdom_n
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A31656
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An effort against bigotry, and for Christian catholocism being a discourse on Rom. 14, 17 / delivered at Andover in Hampshire by Henry Chandler.
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Chandler, Henry.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing C1926; ESTC R32616
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24,696
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36
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is that they are sober Moral Persons which by the way a meer Pagan may be If it be said that they are consciencious and serious in their Way that they are frequent at their Devotions O say these Pragmatical Censurers 't is well if they don't rest in their Duties thereby intimating that they fear they do If their Charity be mentioned O say these it may be they think to Merit by their Alms Are not the Papists Charitable Thus they audaciously step into God's Throne judging Mens Hearts with which they have nothing to do Brethren I tell you faithfully this is an evil and wicked thing 't is against the plain Word of God which saith Judge not that ye be not judged Matth. 7. 1. Let us not judge one another any more Rom. 14. 13. 'T is a sin against the Doctrine of my Text For if the Kingdom of God consisteth not in these smaller Matters Persons of different yea contrary Opinions and Perswasions about them may both as you have already heard be the good and acceptable Subjects of the Lord Redeemer Wherefore 't is a very unrighteous Thing to condemn a Man as a Disloyal Subject of the Lord Jesus for that which will not cannot possibly prove him to be so let all be said against it which the nature of the thing will admit Indeed such a Spirit is contrary to the drift of the Gospel that I have as little Charity for such as for any sort of Men whatsoever that carry the Face of Religion in their Lives Let but two Texts be considered and compared together and it will be I think an hard matter to make it out how such Censorious Persons can be truly good or which is the same real Christians The Texts are 1 Cor. 13. 1 2. Though I speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels and have not Charity I am become as sounding Brass or a tinkling Cymbal And though I have the Gift of Prophecy and understand all Mysteries and all Knowledge and though I have all Faith so that I could remove Mountains and have no Charity I AM NOTHING Now compare ver 5 7. where 't is said of this Charity among other Things that it thinketh no evil but hopeth all things By this Text I am strongly inclined to think that Censorious Persons those that are habitually and prevalently so do really want that Charity which is essential to Christianity and so in the midst of their specious Appearances and high Pretensions are Nothing Wherefore methinks Persons should be afraid of being Guilty of a Sin that brings such a Spot as seems not to be the Spot of God's Children To use the words Deut. 32. 5. 6. Hypocritical Triflers are to be reproved Such I mean as satisfy themselves with adhering to the little things of Opinion with the Soul-ruining neglect of the Life of Practical Godliness And whose fault is this Perhaps you 'll say Alas Friends this is the fault of most amongst all Parties this impertinent Devil haunts Church and Meeting-House too By him some are perswaded to think well of themselves if they keep their Church say their Prayers Sundays and Holidays receive the Sacrament according to the Church of England and never go to Meetings Others think they must needs go to Heaven if they be zealous Dissenters and never hear the Common Prayer if they join with the strictest sort and but get to be Church-Members and zealously cry down all that differ from them they think they be as safe from the danger of Damnation as those in Noah's Ark were from the danger of Perishing by the Flood Thus do some of both sides dream though they be Ignorant Earthly Sensual Impenitent Proud Wrathful and unto every good work Reprobate Foolish Wretches how do they mock their God and cheat their own Souls How hateful is their Hypocrisy They strive for a Ceremony and neglect the Substance of Religion they scruple a Ceremony and yet live in the Commission of gross Sins One he is for Decency and Order but neglects Sincerity and Truth Another he is tooth and nail against Supersttion and Will-worship and the same time indulgeth himself in the more hateful and mischievous Sin of Dissimulation and Hypocrisy Poor Souls what will their Opinions avail them in the Day of their Account when their Hypocrisy shall be detected and laid open and they shall by the Sword of Justice be cut in sunder and have their Portion with their Fellow-Hypocrites in Hell As high as their Confidences are built 't is certain they must if they Repent not fall into the bottomless Pit where their Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched where there is Eternally weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth Matth. 24. 51. Mark 9. 44. I conclude my Discourses on this part of my Text with this one Exhortation To poor weak Christians that are ready to stumble and be turned out of the way upon account of the many and various Opinions that there are amongst Christians at this day Be you assured that you may please God gain his Favour and Blessing on Earth glorify him before Men be happy in your Death and be eternally Glorified with him in Heaven hereafter of which Party of these differing Christians soever you be Always provided you Act according to your Light and sincerely live those grand Duties which none dispute or question That is to say if you give up your selves to God as to your chief Good and last End to love and serve him before all if you accept the Lord Jesus for your All-sufficient Saviour and obey and trust him if you walk after the Spirit speaking in and by the Scriptures endeavouring to die unto the World to Crucify the Flesh and resist the Devil If you live a Sober Righteous and Godly Life loving God with all your Heart and your Neighbour as your selves and if you persevere herein unto the end depending upon the Merits and Mediation of Christ for your Pardon and Acceptance You shall be Saved which Party of Protestants soever you side with or if you never trouble your selves with the Disputes or Contests amongst them Your being of one Opinion or other as to these smaller Matters cannot possibly hinder your eternal Salvation at last or your comfortable Walking with God here so you conscientiously mind the Substance of Religion wherein all are agreed For 't is a certain Truth I pray you to remember it That no one Party of Protestants is so in the Right as to Christian Religion that the other be damningly Wrong for the Controversy amongst them is not about those Things that are Necessary to Salvation in these they are All Agreed Wherefore 't is undoubtedly certain that a Church-man may be an Holy Man and be Saved A Dissenter of one sort or another whether Presbyterian Independent or Anabaptist may be an Holy Man and be Saved Yea they will be such infallibly if they live the Religion they profess I doubt not but that Heaven is peopled with all these though there they be of one Mind Wherefore the question is not Which is the Way to Heaven by Church or by Meeting If it was I would boldly say either is the Way But the question is Which is the nearest neatest streightest Way And here I 'll leave every one to judge for himself Only this for a Conclusion I exhort you having given up your selves to God by Christ as aforesaid to put your selves under the Pastoral Care of such a Ministry as in your most deliberate Judgment you think best qualify'd with Ministerial Gifts and Graces and most Faithful in the use of them for the good of Souls and such as you have found by real and undoubted Experience to be most useful to you And when you have made your Choice remember your Duty and in Humility Meekness and Patience learn of them as of your Spiritual Guides and submit your selves to them as to your Spiritual Rulers under Christ according to the Word and you will find the Blessing from Heaven descending upon your Souls in such a manner as will abundantly satisfy you that you are going to Heaven whither you hear in a Church or Meeting-House For the Kingdom of God is not Meat and Drink but Righteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost FINIS ERRATA FIrst Page Epistle line 5. penult for Opinions read Ceremonies Page 2. line 10. for of r. our Page 9. line 5. for him r. himself Page 13. l. 5. penult dele them
AN EFFORT AGAINST BIGGOTRY AND FOR Christian Catholicism Being a Discourse on Rom. 14. 17. Delivered at Andover in Hampshire By HENRY CHANDLER Nunquam de Dogmatibus Christus disseruit sed saepe ubique imo semper de vivendi Sinceritate Mat. 23. 23. Wo unto you Scribes and Pharisees Hypocrites for ye pay Tyth of Mint and Anise and Cummin and have omitted the weightier Matters of the Law Jam. 3. 17. But the Wisdom that is from above is first pure then peaceable gentle and easie to be intreated LONDON Printed for Iohn Lawrence at the Angel in the Poultry 1699. To my Generous and much Respected Friend Mr. Gabriel Goldney of Andover THE following Discourse was delivered in your hearing with an honest Design and 't is now Presented you in compliance with your Request You some time since intimated That the hearing of it was very grateful to you I pray God it may in the review be altogether as profitable 'T is not Calculated for the Interest of any Party of Christians as a Party needlesly Dividing from or Hurtfully Opposing the rest but if I mistake not equally serving the real Interest of all Let my Tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth and my right hand forget her cunning rather than by Word or Writing I should wilfully promote Faction to the damage of Substantial Vncontroverted Christianity No Man on Earth more sincerely wisheth than my self that all Names of Distinction amongst Protestants were for ever buried under a just and righteous Accomodation no Man more heartily laments the Schisms that are amongst us or more unfeignedly longs for a thorough Healing of them I doubt not but that there are multitudes of different Denominations that can easily more Skilfully Prescribe for the Healing of our Distempers than my self but other Persons receiving more Talents than my self is no Discharge to me from a faithful managing and improving what I have receiv'd Nor must a Sense of the Deficiency of my Performances so far dishearten me as to prevent my just Endeavours Wherefore I am willing that you should have this Discourse to read after your hearing of it and to communicate it as you shall judge expedient And to this I am the more inclined for that the Discourse hath been expresly approv'd by two worthy Ministers whose Judgment we both value One of them is pleased thus to express himself As to the Discourse it self I could not but be pleased with it It does with great Piety Solidity and Justice expose that which I take to be the most prevailing and dangerous Distemper of the Age viz. a placing our Religion in and laying out our Zeal upon little insignificant things as Words or Phrases Speculative Opinions or meer Circumstances and Opinions in being for or against these in which supposing we be in the right we are we can be but very little the better but if it shou'd happen we are under a mistake we must needs be greatly the worse To place the Kingdom of God in such things is the common mischief of our Day hence we are broken into Parties and by the same Spirit are our shameful Divisions fomented and kept up and 't is the Cure of this Spirit that alone can effectually heal the Breaches there are amongst us Nor is this over magnifying our self-devised Religiousness and confining thereupon the Kingdom of God within the Pale of our Respective Parties the less pernicious and fatal for being so exceeding common Hence it is that there is so visible a Decay of Christian Charity that there is so notorious a disregard of the most important and distinguishing Instances of Christianity through the misapplying of Zeal to the little Impertinencies that neither need nor deserve it If this Discourse fall into the hands of such as need it most and the Divine Spirit please to accompany it I cannot doubt but its success will be such as will greatly promote and help on a more Peaceful and Flourishing State of Christ's Kingdom amongst us for which end it shall be followed with the fervent Prayers of your affectionate Brother c. Sir When I read these Lines and considered the worth of the Person that wrote them and when I remember'd that another very valuable Minister had said of the Discourse That he wish'd there were Ten Thousand of such Sermons Printed and scattered up and down I found my selfless unwilling to venture upon appearing thus in publick than I was before I doubt not but that the most diseased will find fault no matter for that let me be blamed by them so I may but heal them but if that be not the Issue I shall have the satisfaction that occompanies an honest Design and Endeavour May the infinitely great and good God requite with Spiritual and Eternal Blessings the Respect and Kindness you have shewn me May you experience more and more the Solid and Durable Comforts of Practical and Peaceable Christianity may you be the Temple of the Holy Ghost and your Family a little Church may all good things be multiplied to you and you made better by all may I and mine meet You and Yours with Joy at the right hand of Jesus in that Day may fiery Faction continually decrease and Faith Love and Holiness grow exceedingly every where These Sir are the Sincere and Fervent Desires of Your Obliged Friend and Servant In the Work of the Gospel Henry Chandler Andover Aug. 16. 1698. Romans XIV xvii 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For the Kingdom of GOD is not Meat and Drink THE Decay of Holy Zeal for Practical Godliness and its woful Degenerating into an Uncharitable Factious Contending for little Notions and the disputable Appendages of Religion is too too visible every where And of such scandalous Aspect and destructive Tendency is it that it deserves to be lamented with if it were possible Tears of Blood And the Cure of this Distemper raging amongst all sorts to be attended unto with the most Speedy Skilful and Industrious Application This is my Serious Thought and the reason of my pitching upon this Text as the Foundation of the Present and some following Discourses Which Text I purpose with God's help to manage with the best of my Skill and with all possible Faithfulness and Impartiality for the aforesaid End not caring whether I do hereby Please or Displease Men so I may but be Approv'd of God as one that hath taken the proper Method to Build his Kingdom in the World and particularly in this Town I shall endeavour to acquaint you with the Occasion and Sense of the Words that I may clear my way for raising the Doctrine that I intend more largely to prosecute The occasion of these Words as of the whole Chapter which is one continued Argument was this Many of the Jews being by the Doctrine and Miracles of the Apostles convinced that Jesus was the Promised Messiah Believed in Him and became Christians but as yet not understanding the full design of the Christian