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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40442	A full enquiry into the power of faith, the nature of prophecy, the translation of Enoch and Elias, and the resurrection of Christ	Freke, William, 1662-1744.	1693 (1693)	Wing F2164; ESTC R100	66,199	82

without 7. But you would have Presbyters instead of Bishops you say Bless me that Men should quarrel about words so 't is plain the Presbyters would be as great as the Bishops if they could and both alike are Scripture Names of Offices and which many Judicious Men have thought to signifie the same thing The case then is we can never agree to what the Scripture-Order of Government is nor will we consent that the State should modestly decide the Doubt between us Lastly but your Offences are not regarded and therefore too you are further offended Bless me that Men can Argue thus What we have a Controversie about Bishops and the Majority it seems are for them and pray what must the State in this case do have no Discipline for fear of offending your two Scruples or let the Offence fall on the least in Number I say to this Dilemma No Discipline and no Church and therefore 't is but as of Necessity that things should be as they are Our Natural Conclusions of Accommodation are 1. That though all these pretences are groundless of a rightful Separation from the State-Religion yet that the State notwithstanding upon it is but just in removing those things that are ill among them as well as the others are unjust to them in their needless Schism for trifles 2. That accordingly our Pageantly Churches too big to be heard in our Cross in Baptism our Orthodoxy in Ceremonies only may be very well laid aside for though when Men are offended at us for good we need not mind it but rather in pity with Christ say Blessed is he that is not offended in me Yet when Men are offended at Indifferencies and as the Apostle instances in Meats offered to Idols then by no means may we Lawfully continue to keep up their Offence Nay 3. That as we see by the Shew Bread that was eaten by David and his Men and Christ's License to help out our Ox on the Sabbath day that the more formal parts even of Piety it self are to give place where the more Essential or Necessary require so sometimes even more than indifferent may be yielded rather than come to Blood or Divisions And thus you Baptize your Infant or you eat the Lord's Body but cannot you let another forbear therefore as the Learned Dr. Taylor has it in his Liberty of Prophecy rather than make him defile his Conscience 4. So Eusebius Lib. 6. Cap. 19. tells us that in his time it was held that Lay-men might speak in Churches and that though even before Bishops pursuant to Nehem. 8.4 c. 1 Cor. 8.14 Luke 2.46 4.15 Acts 13.14 17.22 and other Texts shewing how that in that the Christians pursued the Jewish Discipline and why not to be allowed now too as well if a Congregation generally consent 5. So some are for Praying standing you say and why not since the Jews did but the same before 'T were decent indeed to have all kneel but is not Unity more than Ceremony So some are ignorant you say and what then Did not the Apostles own some for Disciples though they never heard even of the Holy Ghost 6. That accordingly herein Ministers and Congregations of all sorts be left to their discretions nay and further that in and about the City of London and elsewhere where the paucity of Churches may be of further Offence that there be full Liberty given for the further Building of Churches to be erected and ruled as Congregations and Pastors shall by mutual consent agree 7. And that farther as well in such as all other Congregations to avoid all manner of Offence the Minister with the consent of his Congregation be allowed to Pray either by Form or Extempore as shall be seen most convenient or to use Ceremonies or not as they shall agree to let them alone To be short a Comprehension in a Church like this must not only needs cut off all grounds of Heresie in becoming so simply Apostolick but withal force all Foreign Churches to joyn with her and cut off all manner of colour and Foundation for Schisms and Divisions I may say all the mischiefs of a Factioning Toleration will be lost in this And as the considerablest Heads of all Sects cannot but be contented with so innocent a State so I doubt not but that all the little scrupulosity which has so long confounded our Reformation will in a very short time be swallowed up by it and as by Natural consequence a real Schismatick and Heretick will become as odious to all by one consent as he was to the Apostles That which has bewildred Men here has been 1. That Men should be so heedless in their Divisions as they are to break Communion for every Trifle as they have done but as to that I can only say when Men had once trespassed the true Bounds of their Duty in the Publick Unity in Worship afterwards 't is no wonder to see a whole Sea and Deluge of Sects and Schisms break in upon them for how can they hold together that have not the least Principle of Unity left and that are linked with no other Chain than meer Faction and Party at best a few criterion Tenets 2. That the Grandeur of the Church will fall by it and why so wherein is its Grandeur but its Unity But if you call your External Ornaments of Churches and Service as in Cathedrals and Chappels your Grandeur why can you say it will be gone then more than now A poor Church has no Choristers no Lecturers no Organs no Altars nay and too often through a too hard impropriation no Service neither and why then should the want of a little of this Grandeur be so intolerable in the greatest Charity to weaker Brethren that a little necessity and our own corruption can so easily dispense with 3. That the allowance of such Practices will become a Reflection upon the State ay and a very good one too for none can think any ill on 't we shall be united and firm at home and our love and condescention praised abroad and surely that we bear with Tender Consciences on no other terms but the Ancient and Apostolick Liberty and Practice cannot have the colour of Scandal in it when by it we but aim to abolish that real Scandal that is caused by our present Schisms and Divisions amongst us 4. That 't is hard since the State is bound so far in Conscience to be obeyed by her Subjects about Religion that yet after all where even they are to blame she should stoop lower to them and truly if the State were not our Father as well as our Master I should say so too but a Father by his Office bears with his Children and has Patience with them and therefore no wonder if I say that since other measures have succeeded so ill it should become a State even to stoop a little lower also and to see if possible the utmost Lenity and Moderation can make them sick of

expel the Canaanites till their Iniquities were grown to the full and Sodom and Gomorrah had not been destroyed had there been but five Righteous Persons remaining therein and even the Old World had the Patience of GOD for 120 Years ere they were destroyed by the Flood I see the matter we would fain excuse our Lusts and fling all on GOD we would fain make his ways unequal as the Children of Israel did about the sour Grapes when they aspersed GOD that the sins of the Fathers set the Childrens Teeth on edge But what are not these Calumnies false and have we not reason on the contrary to be even ravished with the unspeakable Love of GOD But to illustrate this the better shall not GOD bestow one or five Talents on whom he pleases Shall the Stone complain that he is not a Plant and the Horse that he is not a Man or the Man that he is not an Angel Or what ought we not rather all to joyn together to be thankful for the Bounty of our Maker At this rate like Lucifer else we shall endeavour at last to be our own Carvers even of the God-head also I say then if GOD gives him that has one Talent a fair Tryal as well as him that has two or him that has two a fair Tryal as well as him that has five have they reason to complain no surely Nor is this our case neither for GOD is more good than so he has promised to increase our Talents likewise if we use them well and if so where is the least room for those Calumnies Have we not rather reason to admire the infinite and unfathomable Mercies and Judgments of GOD Nor is the Objection from the Parable of the Labourers of any obstruction or difficulty in this matter neither for what though as our Saviour therein tells us that he that comes in to work at the latter end of the day shall have his Peny equally with him that bore the heat of the day must that destroy the degrees of Glory which his Apostles also have revealed unto us and which he himself also has declared by his Parable of the Talents No rather every Man shall answer for his Improvement only and live longer or shorter or work more or less yet shall no such accidental Advantages benefit or injure him but only his true and real advance through the Grace of God But you say GOD protected Moses and Christ from their Infancy and why not Where he has sown an extraordinary Seed of many Talents for the good of the World and his own Glory may not he justly in such a case also give notice of the birth of such a Seed nay and give it an extraordinary Preservation and that without the least prejudice to his Justice in their Tryals Thus could St. Paul's peculiar Call keep him from working out his Salvation with fear and trembling Phil. 2.12 and Praying and keeping his Body under lest whilst he Preached he himself should be cast away 1 Cor. 9.27 Thus could Lucifer's Height secure him or Moses's Revelations bring him into the Land of Canaan Or to put the Argument to a higher Topick will you question that Justice that even the Devil does not who upon his certainty of its sincerity ventured to tempt even our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus No no the ways of God are too immutable to be drawn aside at any time into petty shifts and by-ways Nor on the same Account may we safely venture to Judge any Man what do we not see that greatest Sinners every day Repent And does not the Spirit often choose unlikely means to Worldly appearance lest therefore like those who would not let even that great Prophet Christ Jesus have Honour in his own Country let us forbear to censure and judge the Mercies and Judgments of God which are unfathomable Let us not look therefore on what Men are or have been but what they may be Upon the whole matter therefore if God usually lets the Father's Ignorances descend on the Son according to his Fourth Commandment and as we feel to our sorrow through the Fall of Adam and his Piety come as a Blessing to increase the Talents of his Generation as he did in Abraham yet if he allows them equally fair Tryals is he not Just And if he gives him that has one Talent five for the Improvement or takes his away quite that abuses them is not this Just also O the wonders of the Mercies and Judgments of GOD who can sufficiently admire the Mercies or dread the terrible Justice of our God And yet though the Scriptures Of our gradual access herein in pursuance of this Doctrine acquaints us that we shall not all dye 1 Cor. 15. as if the wickedness of one part of the World should draw down immediate Judgment and of the other side its Purity should attract Translation at the Consummation of all things Yet for all this we may assure our selves that this Conquest must be by a Gradual Access Christ tells us that the Kingdom of GOD is like a Seed sown that springs up we know not how Ue must not expect therefore to jump out of one state into another whether into Miracles or Translation but to proceed by degrees and as our time of Tryal will lead us for as Nemo repente fit turpissimus so Nemo repente fit optimus is as true and as if there were an Hundred Journeys to the Kingdom of GOD so we must have an Hundred rises and Stonds in Prayer and Purity ere we can receive our Crown We may see at first that Adam was intended for a tryal of time as he was to be Fruitful and multiply ere he was to be translated and if he as made a Prophet was in a state of delay what must we expect then that are a compleat Stage below him and that require as long a time ere we can be Prophets also Surely I say we may well have Patience would we travel our two long Journeys in a Minute or perfect such a Stage in an Hour And thus suppose our state to Prophecy required Ten Years the perfectest application to GOD and in the absolutest resignation after we are adult and as indeed seems rational enough in the Age of Christ and so I say suppose the like time were allotted for our Stage of Translation also could we be so unreasonable as to be angry at this bound of Tryal set us by God himself Or should we not rather patiently wait the leisure and Laws of our Purisication in it Had we not as rationally expect an Infant to be a Man and an Acron to be an Oak in a day and so over-rule all the Laws of Heaven Surely we had And if so why may not we have the Natural Patience of all things Nay and since we see that even the very World its self is forced to grow old and purifie it self thus by degrees But what after all dost thou think that thy Tryal proposed