Selected quad for the lemma: lord_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A39063
|
An Expedient for peace perswading an agreement amongst Christians &c.
|
|
1688
(1688)
|
Wing E3872; ESTC R25075
|
27,763
|
15
|
Paul told the Romans This is the Word of Faith which we Preach That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus Christ and believe with thine Heart that God hath raised him from the dead thou shalt be saved as also St. John For every Spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is of God God dwelleth in him and he in God So that such a belief with sincere and hearty endeavours to please God according to the best Notices a man can get will secure a man his Salvation if it will not there is no Salvation to be had at all Now the best Notices we can get and only Rule to direct our Lives and Actions are the Books of the Old and New Testament wherein are transmitted the Transactions of Heaven with the Sons of Men and are of an inestimable value teaching all things fully that relate to God or Men as to the Nature and Worship of the one or the Duty and Salvation of the other Now that men can understand these Books is a thing without all controversie and only disputed by them whose interest it is they should not I mean men of ordinary and mean Capacities for if not to what end were they wrote Or why to them directed And why are all commanded to read and search them if they were not capable to understand them And how can such men who deny it be able to vindicate the Wisdom Goodness or Justice of Almighty God in delivering his Creatures a Rule to walk by and exact a due conformity thereto if they were not capable to understand it No certainly the Good God as he has condescended to give his Creatures a Rule so he has calculated this Rule to all their Capacities and so adapted the one for the other that they have the greatest reason in the World to Adore and Admire his Wisdom and Goodness for the same I will allow that some can better understand them than others and that they are not equally understood of all because of the difference of men's Capacities and Acquirements and because they should have a dependance and be beholding to one another which ministers to Charity but then nothing is more certain than that all men of the meanest Capacities may understand them sufficient and enough for Salvation if they come with a sincere affection of being instructed and of finding out Truth otherwise they would not answer the end for which they were designed Some things indeed the deepest Heads cannot reach and others the weakest Understandings can hardly possibly mistake and those too are all of the greatest importance If only one sort of men were able to understand them as some would have it we should have had notice from Heaven who those should be and how qualified and that in such plain Characters that it should not be possible we should mistake but there is no such thing And if any sort of men claim this Arcanum above others 't is an affront to the Understandings of all the rest and their Words ought not to be taken in their own Case And indeed 't is a thing too great to be trusted with any one sort of men Some indeed will only have Learned Men capable of understanding them but then if this should be what alamentable case the World would be in Truth would then 〈◊〉 a precarious thing and we should have no more of it than these Learned Men please and if they should be byassed corrupted or be dishonest what must the other three parts of the World do Must they lie at their Mercy and their Salvation depend on their Honesty No God forbid And blessed be his Name he has taken care men shall not lie liable to any such Impostures But if these men will needs be in the right above the rest and understand for them let them do their duty for them too for 't is not reasonable they should be charged with a duty that do not understand it But having found their own failings herein and that they are but men like others during not to be so confident as usual they betake themselves to shifts and to countenance their fallibility supply the defects of honesty and salve their imposition of their sence they set up a strange sort of Infallibility which indeed would put an end to all the Disputes and Differences in Chistondom were there any such thing But that which they have invented to put out the Flame serves only to increase it for where the Power of Infallibility is lodged Heaven has given us no notice which it would certainly have done had there been any such thing And 't is certain that those who pretend most to this Infallibility have been most deceived of all Indeed the Romanists for the most part have drove furiously and forced all their People to do the same thing and worship God the same way but this cannot be called an Agreement no more than Sheep are said to agree when they are drove up and Pounded all together by the Shepherd And there is greater Agreement amongst those though the foolish World think to the contrary who worship their Maker under the Administration of several Disciplines and Conduction of several Guides For Force and Violence may make a Congregation of Bodies but no Unity of Minds 'T is only a Hearty Intention Sincerity of Mind and Affections Simpleness and Identity of Address to the same Object which can be called Unity and Agreement and nothing else for other things though they may seem differences and disagreements to men yet really they are none at all for the Circumstances of Time and Place Publick or Private Day or Night the several Instances of Respects Methods and Way of Worship are all one and the same thing to God Almighty He only looks at the Unity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Differences with men are not so with him if they agree in sincerity of Affections and integrity of Spirit that 's the Agreement he looks after 'T is true again That men understand the Scriptures differently and to different Senses but why this difference of Understanding should be Objected as a Crime I know not For 't is impossible it should be otherwise so long as there be such great variety of Humane Understandings and as long as they understand not differently and amiss on a bad end and design they cannot possibly be Criminal for no man is Obliged to understand better than he can Then again Many men may be totally Ignorant of many things in Scripture and yet be very Innocent and certainly if their Total Ignorance be no fault their understanding differently those things which they might have been Innocently ignorant of cannot make them guilty of a Crime if it should it would highly advance Ignorance and very much depress Understanding and Knowledge But further if they understand them differently which I contend for the most part they do in order to promote a Virtue encourage a Grace or
An Expedient for Peace PERSWADING An Agreement amongst CHRISTIANS c. READER I Saw the World in a Flame and among the rest have thrown in my Bucket to quench it Indeed I have been something in haste but where there is Fire in the case this must not be called a Fault but a Duty But I hope I have not made so much haste or been so ill guided as to mistake with some and to fill my Bucket with Oyl instead of Water I 'll assure thee I drew it from a very Charitable Fountain and am none of those that have either Respect to Persons or Parties But I think I need not make my Excuse for the ensuing Discourse for that would be to Apologize for doing my Duty All that I shall desire of thee is That before thou begin to read thou lay aside all those Common Enemies to Truth and Peace viz. Passion Prejudice Partiality c. or else we shall both of us lose our Labours RELIGION I will not say the True Religion as men manage it is become the grievance and burden of the Nation and is the proper Province of the State to take it into consideration When the Messias was born the Holy Angels Anthem was Glory to God in the Highest Peace on Earth Good Will towards Men but ill men and the Devil together have ordered things so that the same is inverted and may now be said D. shonour to God on High Confusion on Earth Ill Will towards Men The truth is men have been so madly extravagant in the things they call Religion and have made such tumults and stirs in this World about the things of another that notwithstanding I contend earnestly for a Toleration as the only remedy to heal them yet 't is not for a Toleration to do mischief and I can willingly subscribe after all I shall say in behalf thereof that no sort or party of men should be indulged in any of their Religions or Perswasions of what denomination soever but those that are ready and willing to give the State security for their Good Behaviour and Peaceable Living Now the concern of Religion is to make men happy here as well as hereafter and after all men's talk has but two Parts To love the Lord our God with all our Hearts c. And our Neighbour as our selves But men have been so mad that they have almost vacated both by over zealously and indiscreetly endeavouring to perform the first and have thought they could not love God enough unless they hated and destroyed their Neighbour That these things are but too true all Christendom by sad Experience can attest and in particular this unhappy Nation which like a Ship at Sea has been long a sinking The Captain indeed labours to save her having found out her leaks and call to his men for affistance but they like madmen every one endeavour to secure something of her Cargoe not considering that when the Ship is gone all is gone and instead of assisting do unreasonably oppose him So that he must save them against their Wills or they will inevitably perish Indeed it is a lamentable thing to consider that that same Religion which was given by Heaven on purpose to the Sons of Men to make them happy should by an unhappy concurrence of evil Accidents make them miserable and I think to find out those evil Accidents 't is the duty of every Man especially of every Christian and therefore I will lay down my Observations thereof altho' I meet with the common fate of Reconcllers to have blows for my pains Then First I take notice men make a false Calculation of the Differences and Dissentions of men in points of Religion and call them criminal when they are not and endeavour to reconcile them when 't is impossible and put too great a value on Agreements that is when men do the same things together not regarding so much the Truth Unity and Sincerity of their Minds as the Company Presence and Congregation of their Bodies in one Place and performing a thing after the same manner All the World will acknowledge with me that what is impossible to be done is not necessary to be done Now as long as men have variety of Principles several Educations Constitutions Tempers Distempers Hopes Fears Degrees of Light and Degrees of Understanding several Capacities Offices and Imployments 't is impossible and therefore not necessary they should be all of one Mind And therefore he that attempts it does like him that claps his Shoulder to the Ground to stop an Earthquake that would stop the course of the Sun stem the raging Ocean or pull down the Pillars of the Earth 'T is foolish therefore to wish it or expect it and they that endeavour it do but vex and trouble the World and thinking to procure they but spoil all its Harmony which consists in so great variety of Discords It has been said by a learned Prelate that in the large interval of sixteen hundred and odd years so much juggling hath passed in Christendom That the Obscurity of some Questions the nicety of some Articles the intricacy of some Revelations the variety of Humane Vnderstandings the windings of Logick the tricks of Adversaries the subtilty of Sophisters the ingagement of Educations personal Affections the portentous number of Writers the infinity of Authorities the vastness of some Arguments as consisting in the Enumeration of many Particulars the uncertainty of others the several degrees of Probabilities the difficulty of Scriptures the invalidity of Probation of Tradition the opposition of all exterior Arguments to each other and their open Contestation the publick violence done to Authors and Records the private Arts and Supplantings the falsifyings and indâ—fatigable Industry of some to abuse all Vnderstandings and all Perswasions into their own Opinions These and a thousand more even all the difficulties of Things all the weaknesses of Man and all the Arts of the Devil have made it impossible for any man in so great variety of matter not to be deceiv'd And say I too have made it equally impossible for men to agree or be all of One Mind It hath been made plainly appear that Rites and Ceremonies that such and such Vestments such and 〈…〉 Ministers such Discipline Gevernment or way of Administration such Places or Times c. are things of an indifferent Nature and not of absolute Necessity to Men's Salvation nor belong to the Being or Essence of God's Church but are things alterable according to Contingencies and Emergencies to be retained or disallowed according to the custom of Places or Nations or as they are made plainly to appear to minister to the Ends of Peace and Charity for the Edification of God's Church and not Destruction And that the essential and fundamental qualifications that make a man a Christian and a true Member of Jesus Christ are Holiness Purity Piety Charity Belief in God and Faith in our Lord Jesus Christ and our Warrant herein is what St.