Selected quad for the lemma: nature_n
Text snippets containing the quad
|
ID |
Title |
Author |
Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) |
STC |
Words |
Pages |
|
A49109
|
The case of persecution, charg'd on the Church of England, consider'd and discharg'd, in order to her justification, and a desired union of Protestant dissenters
|
Long, Thomas, 1621-1707.
|
1689
(1689)
|
Wing L2961; ESTC R6944
|
61,317
|
83
|
That thousands are gone to Hell and ten thousands on their march thither that in all probability would never come there if they had not been tempted from the Parish Churches for the injoyment of Communion in a Purer Church Mr. Baxter in his Epistle to the Separate Congregations And as to Popery he says in his Defence of the Cure of Divisions That the Interest of the Protestant Religion must be much kept up by the means of the Parish Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship there performed and they that think and endeavour contrary to this of which side soever will have the hearty Thanks and Concurrence of the Papists And I am perswaded says he that all the Arguments in Bellarmine and all other Books that ever were written have not done so much to make Papists in England as the Multitude of Sects among our selves and shall they use our Hands to do their Work Thus he and to this end he adviseth in his Saints Rest p. 518. of the first Edition Do not meet-together in Opposition to the publick Meeting nor at the time of publick Worship nor yet to make a groundless Schism to separate from the Church whereof you are Members nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new out of its Ruines as long as it hath the Essentials and there is hopes of reforming it Nor can I think what reason the Complainers can Assign why they may not as well conform to the present Church who could conform with the Apostolical Church in their Primitive Constitution for we read Acts 2. v. 41. That those Christians were baptized and v. 42. They continued stedfastly in the Apostles Doctrine and Fellowship in breaking of Bread and Prayers and v. 46. They continued daily with one accord in the Temple They had their Synod which made things in themselves indifferent necessary per hic nunc to be observed for the Peace of the Church they had a Superiority of one Minister above another their Ordinations to that Office their Censures to stop the Mouths of Gain-sayers their Rods and Excommunications against many of which doubtless our Complainers had they lived in that Age would and might as readily have pretended scruples of Conscience as now they do and what marks the Apostles would have set upon such is very obvious Rom. 16.17 Mark them that cause divisions among you and avoid them for such serve not the Lord Jesus Christ but their own bellies So 1 Cor. 3.3 Whereas there are among you envying and strife and divisions are you not carnal and walk as men And Verse 4. While one saith I am of Paul and another I of Apollo are ye not all carnal St. Jude v. 16. These are murmurers complainers walking after their own lusts These are they that separate themselves sensual having not the Spirit which the Apostles seems to give as an Answer to their pretences of having the Spirit in an extraordinary manner But I shall not need to use any other Arguments to convince the Complainers of the Insufficiency of this Objection concerning their Consciences than their own practice for when the Complainers have been concerned in getting or keeping any beneficial Offices the concern of profit doth satisfie the Scruples of Conscience and they can generally conform to the Liturgy and Communicate in the Sacrament and seem the most zealous and devout in the Congregation nor will they stick to Educate their Children in such Callings as may fit them for such Imployments wherein they must conform which they could not do if they did in their Consciences believe Conformity to be a Sin. Certainly we owe more to our Spiritual Guides and Fathers than to forsake them and abandon them to the Malice of our Common Enemies which is as great a sin as if Children who have Parents that provide all Necessaries for their well being should desert them for some supposed Inconveniencies such as the restraining them from some things which they know to be hurtful for them or injoyn them some small matters which they conceive fit for them though their Children think otherwise and if they are corrected for their Faults and shall count them Tyrants and Persecutors they are in the sence of the Scriptures not Children but Bastards Heb. 12.8 And I believe none of the Complainers which are Pastors or Parents would approve the behaviour of such Children I desire therefore they would seriously consider who they were that brought us out of a State of Darkness and Bondage who vindicated the Liberty of the Gospel and the due Administration of the Sacraments who have planted the Tree of Life in the midst of us and cultivated it by their Labours and watered it with their Blood and defended it against those that would grub it up by the Roots And shall we not submit to them in a few Ceremonies enjoyned onely for Decency and Order though we think them inconvenient St. Peter may instruct us better who being demanded of our Lord St. John 6.68 Will ye also go away Master saith he whither shall we go thou hast the words of eternal life Where all things necessary to Salvation are constantly imparted we may and ought to continue in that Communion and it is acknowledged to be a sin to separate from such a Church wherein we may continue not only without sin but to the saving of our Souls To which I shall add a very considerable Sentence of an Ancient Father Non minor est gloria sustinere Martyrium ne scindatur Ecclesia quam ne idolis sacrificetur 'T is as great a glory to indure Martyrdom for the prevention of Schism as to suffer it for not Sacrificing to Idols seeing by this we secure our private Salvation by the other we preserve the publick Peace and Edification we may innocently bear some Inconveniencies at their hands from whom we receive so much good especially considering that what we conceive to be evil are in their own nature things indifferent and in the Judgment of the Church are not thought any parts of Divine Worship but may be changed or laid aside as occasion shall require as in the instance of the Cross in Baptism at which the Complainers are most scandalized which the Church hath declared may be omitted in private Baptism and yet that Sacrament be effectually Administred And I cannot but think that person highly peccant against the Rules of Christian Charity who declared That the removal of such innocent Ceremonies would countervaile for all the Bloud that had been shed in our late Civil Wars wherein the King and his Loyal Nobles and many Thousands of good Subjects lost their Lives besides the many thousands that dyed in that Rebellion But if any person be yet dissatisfied concerning the reasonableness of what is required in order to a Conformity to the Established Doctrine and Worship let him consult the several Cases lately published by some Judicious Sons of the Church of England and if their prejudices be not removed it