Selected quad for the lemma: reason_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
reason_n	doctrine_n	john_n	use_v	4,211	5	9.5225	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26356	The care of the peace of the church, the duty of every Christian in a discourse upon Psalm 122, 6, wherein the main pleas, for separation are examined and the true causes thereof shewed ... / by Tho. Adderley ... ; to which is annexed a letter, briefly shewing the great danger and sinfulness of popery, written to a young gentleman (a Roman Catholick) in Warwick-shire.	Adderley, Thomas, b. 1648 or 9.	1679 (1679)	Wing A509; ESTC R20224	39,054	53

many of them God knows are like to continue so for their Rabbi's and Teachers will never instruct them in it for that would utterly spoil their trade and they will not learn it of others And therefore could we but once press them to a reception of that superexcellent and truely-gospel grace charity how much would it tend to the abating at least if not to the utter eradicating all hard conceits either of our Church or of the Governors of it out of their minds St. Paul the Apostle in the 13. Chap. of his 1. Epistle to the Cor. gives us a very larg description and a very high Encomium of charity and amongst divers others tells us that these are its properties to suffer long and to be kind not to behave it's self unseemly not to be overhasty to think any evil to bear all things to believe all things to hope all things and to endure all things And were it not I say for want of this they would not thus despise Government and speak evil of those things which they so little understand The forenamed Apostle hath taken all the care imaginable to prevent any such thing He hath strictly commanded us Heb. 13.17 To obey them that have the rule over us and to submit our selves And as if he had foreseen that men would be ready to withhold their obedience to the commands of their Governors under a pretence that the things they command are not plain and clear to them and therefore for ought they know may be unlawful As if he had foreseen I say this pretence he hath annexed a very strong reason to enforce their obedience to all things of this nature which is this for they watch for your Souls says he as they that must give account Which is as much as if he had said more at large thus If your Superiors do command and enjoyn any thing that is lawful nay suppose that it be in some measure doubtful whether it be lawful or no yet in all things of this nature you must be obedient It is not a bare conceit and fancy that the thing commanded may be unlawful that will excuse your disobedience for there is nothing less then a plain command of God to the contrary that can supersede the commands of your Governors And because many of you may be apt to be overmistrustful of the wisdom of the sincerity and integrity of your Governors and so may be as apt to suspend your obedience to them till you your selves shall see a very good reason for the thing commanded do but consider that your Governors are placed over you by God himself that they watch for your Souls their main business is to see that you lead your lives in all godliness and honesty Nay consider further that they must all give an account unto God at the great and general audit when the secrets of all hearts shall be revealed how they have acquitted themselves in such offices and employments And therefore you may not without the plainest reason suspect their good intentions whatsoever they define and lay down they define not only for you but for themselves too they do not only teach others but themselves also And therefore if you had but common Christian charity for your Governors you would never thus deny obedience to their commands nor withdraw your selves from the communion of our Church in which there is nothing at all enjoyned or commanded but what is altogether agreeable with or at least no ways contrary to the word of God Again Thirdly ult Another cause or reason of those persons dislike of our Church and consequently of their separation from it is if I may so express it for want of a due use of their Christian liberty This perhaps may seem a little strange to some persons at first because this is one of their great pleas for their not yielding obedience to their Governors in things indifferent viz that their commanding and enjoyning such things doth too much intrench upon their Christian liberty and would again entangle them in the yoke of Bondage But yet I question not but to make it good And if they would but impartially consult the true meaning of that Text which they so commonly have recourse to Gall. 5.1 They would find that the liberty which the Apostle there speaks of is not that liberty which they challenge to themselves That freedom which our Saviour Christ purchas'd for us is a freedom from sin freedom from the curse of the law freedom from the ceremonial Law of Moses as Circumcision and Sacrifices and the like and not in the least any freedom from paying our obedience to the commands of our Governors in all lawful and indifferent things And it is a wonder to me that any man should be so much besides himself as to think that the least drop of Christs Blood was so vainly spent as to purchase freedom for us in things absolutely indifferent i. e. in such things as were in their own nature indifferent concerning which there was no command For these were free before and therefore free to be performed before and after they are commanded only the command is necessarily to be obeyed Their great scrupulosity and timerousness as to the use of such indifferent and harmless ceremonies and which God hath no where forbidden will rank them amongst those nice Jewish Christians of which the Apostle St. Paul speaks Colos 2.21 Who cry'd out touch not tast not handle not and that too upon the same account after the Doctrines and Commandments of men For God I say hath no where prohibited the use of them and they have no other reason for their not using them but because those teachers which they have heaped up unto themselves do tell them that they must not use them And therefore we may apply that saying of our Saviour to the Jews John 5.43 unto these people and say though your Governors come to you in the name of God who hath entrusted them with the care of these things and therefore they may very lawfully enjoyn them yet these you will not hear but if another come in his own name and tells you without any reason at all that you may not use them him you will receive and hear Thus they can suffer fools gladly if another man bring them into bondage they can suffer it patiently enough but if their Governors command no more then what they may safely comply with then they kick and fling and will by no means endure it then they cry out of a restraint of their Christian liberty whilst alas they are the greatest slaves to the Doctrines and commandments of other men And thus I say it is for want of a due use of their Christian liberty that makes them out of conceit with our Church and consequently to separate and divide from it And now I have done with my Text and shew'd you which was the main point of it that it is a duty highly concerning and

careful and watchful over it for this reason because that after his departure grievous Wolves would enter in amongst them not sparing the flock and men would arise speaking perverse things to draw away Disciples after them i. e. because they would soon be solicited with false Teachers seducing the faithful and doing great mischief amongst them The Christian Church by reason of that false Doctrine of Simon Magus and the Gnosticks which spread like leaven or like the Leprosie quickly overrun the whole body of the Church and by reason of those grievious persecutions of it by the heathen Emperors soon after the first plantation of it may not unfitly be compared to that Man-child of which the Woman Travelled Revel 12.4 Which was ready to be devoured as soon as ever it was born Had it not been for the extraordinary assistance of Divine Providence the Church of Christ could never have been planted and when it was planted it could never have been preserved had not God himself most miraculously upheld it For on the one hand the heathen Emperors Nero and Domitian Maxentius and Dioclesian and the rest of those that make up that decuplum flagellum Dei that Ten-stringed Scourge of God sought to batter it down by violence and to suppress it And on the other hand Simon Magus and his followers by sowing their Weeds and Tares sought to choke it or at least to stop the growth of that Vine planted by Gods own right hand and by their secret workings to undermine it The former like the Wild Boar out of the Wood sought to root it up the latter like the little but cunning Foxes sought for to devour her Grapes And therefore the Church of God may again be very well compared to that house in the parable that was built upon the Rock Matth. 7.25 It has hitherto and it shall for ever stand firm and unshaken though the rain still descends the Flouds come and the winds do still blow and beat upon it It 's true indeed the Church of God has ever since the time of Constantine the great the first of all the Roman Emperors that publickly owned and embraced Christianity enjoyed some halcyonian days days of peace and of some freedom from those former bloody persecutions But still the Devil hath other Instruments and Engines at work either by violence to batter it down or else by Heresie and Schism and Division and other politick contrivances secretly to undermine it As Saint Paul at his first being at Athens was encountered by two different Sects of Philosophers the Stoicks on the one hand and the Epicureans on the other So is the Church of God at this time most miserably infested by two differing enemies the Papists on the one hand and the dissenting Sectaries amongst us on the other And as it was heretofore Ephraim against Manasses and Manasses against Ephraim but both against Judah So the Papists make a great clamor and out-cry against our Sectaries and our Sectaries cry out as eagerly against the Papists when as they are both of them really and truely against the true Church of God And by this means alas they do contribute too much towards the growth and encrease of each other and indeed as might easily be made out to the growth and encrease of Atheism and of all manner of wickedness and profaneness So that for this reason I say it will appear to be a duty highly concerning and much incumbent upon all Christians to endeavor the safety and to pray for the peace of the Church because of those many enemies which continually lay feige against it endeavoring to disturb it's peace and utterly to overthrow it 2ly It will appear to be a duty highly concerning c. because the peace and safety of the State and Kingdom does very much depend upon it Here I may ask St. James his question whence come wars and fightings among you Whence have all those Wars and Broils and Bloody Massacres which have happened within less then one Century of years in several of our neighbor nations proceeded but only from diversity of opinion in Religion Whence proceeded our own late civil yet most uncivil and unnatural Wars wherein some Hundreds of Thousands lost their lives when Brother fought against Brother Father against Son and Son against Father but only from the same diversity of opinion in Religion and about the Worship and Service of God From whence springs that inveterate and implacable malice of the Papists at this present even to the endeavoring of the utter destruction of our King and Kingdom but only from a false supposal of our being Hereticks in religion and schismaticks in the Church Ut fratrum odia sint acerrima sic e●rum ferè qui consortes aliquando ejusdem religionis says the learned Lypsius As the hatred of Brothers if once they fall out is the most inveterate and irreconcileable so none do more envy and hate one another then persons that have been but now are not of the same opinion in matters of Religion This indeed ought not to be especially amongst Christians whose Religion enjoins them not only to bear with one another and to be ready to do all acts of kindness one for another but also to love their very enemies to do good to them that hate them and to pray for them that do despitefully use them But alas this is too too little observed and the other viz envy and hatred despite and malice evil speaking and slandering and the like are the most usual and ordinary effects and consequences of difference in Religion If you look but into the 9. Chap. of St. Lukes Gospel and compare it with the 4. Chap. of St. Johns you will find all that I now speak of to be true The Jews and the Samaritans were of a different opinion as to the place of Gods Worship The one thought Jerusalem to be the only place for it the other Mount Gerisin And therefore our Saviour Christ coming to a Village of the Samaritans because he did but seem to them to be going towards Jerusalem they would not so much as give him the least kind reception and entertainment amongst them Did any but seem to them to be Jews or to be going towards Jerusalem they shall neither have meat nor drink nor lodging they may starve for any relief they are like to find from them How is it that thou being a Jew says the Samaritan Woman to our Saviour Christ askest drink of me who am a Woman of Samaria For the Jews have no dealings no communication or familiarity with the Samaritans And as the Samaritans dealt thus unkindly with the Jews meerly because of their dissenting from them in Religion so the Jews even James and John two of our Saviour's immediate Disciples and Attendants shewed as great or rather greater malice against the Samaritans and that too upon the same account because of their dissenting from them in matters of Religion What! will they not give

themselves for not obeying the same Let us when ever opportunity serves put the case thus unto them Suppose that you that are masters of families should command your children and houshold to appear before you at such a time and at such a place and there to joyn with you to worship God in such a posture and by the use of such a prayer which you have composed in consideration of their weakness and that they might all speak the same things This you have given sufficient notice of and none can pretend ignorance of it Suppose now that some of them should come and tell you that you exceed your bounds that you take too much upon you in restraining them thus of their liberty and in tying them up so strictly to the use of such things as God has no where commanded but hath left them altogether free Suppose one that is a little more sawcy and confident than the rest should venture to tell you that if you intend to have his company at your prayers they shall then be at such an hour and not at that time which you have appointed A second encourag'd by the example of the other tells you that your Prayers shall be in such a Room and not where you have ordered Another comes and asks you what you have to do to appoint the posture or the habit in which their Prayers shall be performed he is resolv'd to come in what dress he pleases and there either to sit or stand or loll at his pleasure not so much for his ease as meerly to cross you and to shew that he will not do as you order and prescribe What I pray would you now think of these people What would you their Masters and Governors do to such servants Would you think that you your selves had done any thing amiss herein or that you had done more then you could justifie and so beg their pardon or would you not rather look upon them as a company of unmannerly servants would you not handle them a little ruffly for such sauciness and put them out of your houses as persons unfit to live in any civilised families sure enough they would And then we may presently come upon them with a ye are the men you are these very sawcy refractory servants For a kingdom is but a larger family over which the Prince is the Governor and master And therefore when he hath by his Laws enjoyned such and such ceremonies as are no ways contrary to the commands of God you that disobey your Prince in these things do justifie your own children and servants in their disobedience to your selves But come and let us reason together a little further why may not Christian Kings use the same authority as the Kings of Israel and Judah did Produce your cause bring forth your strongest reasons Shew us when and where and how they lost such authority This seems to be no less a right then what is founded in nature and approved of by God himself Abraham shall become a great and mighty Nation says God and then it follows I know that he will command his children and his houshold after him to keep the way of the Lord Gen. 18.18.19 There is nothing more plain then that the Governors and Princes of Judah did exercise such power and that it did of right belong unto them And this is a thing that hath been often proved beyond all contradiction especially in a late piece called the modern pleas for comprehension toleration c. To which I shall refer my reader Thus you see that this objection against our Church of enjoyning some ceremonies which are no where particularly and precisely commanded by God is of no validity at all And that in regard the worship of God cannot be performed without some ceremonie and who so fit in order to the avoiding of confusion to determine in this case as our Governors to whom God hath enjoyned obedience and told us that we must submit to every ordinance of man for his sake In regard the Church doth no more then what every Master of a family doth expect from his children and servants And in regard too that it is no more then what hath been done by Kings and Princes in the Old Testament And I am sure that they can never prove that they have been divested of this power in the new And that we may not pass the least part of the objection unanswered I shall in a few words shew you that this is not that will-worship which is condemned by St. Paul and therefore they cannot have the least shadow of reason to separate from our Church upon this account and so disturb the peace of our Jerusalem If you look into the 2. Chap. of St. Pauls Epistle to the Colos you will find verse 18. That the Apostle forbids the worshipping of Angels as a bold invention of men for which there was no revelation From thence he proceeds to speak against such superstitious people as did forbid marriage and the eating of some sorts of meat as in themselves utterly unlawful And those that were of this humor he directly charges verse 23 with will-worship So that it is very plain that those persons whom he charges with will-worship are such as do enjoyn or command any thing to be done or not done as if it were the will and command of God he should be so served when it is but a meer constitution of the will of man and enjoyned for some prudent considerations Now all the world must needs acquit our Church from this when she hath plainly declared as it is in the preface to the Common Prayer-Book that none of these ceremonies are imposed under the notion of necessary or religious but are of an indifferent nature and only used as decent and comely in the judgment of the present Governors who may alter these things and constitute others in their stead when they see fit which they could not do did they look upon them as things in themselves necessary And thus have we fully answered the main objections which are commonly made against our Church and shewed that it hath no affiance at all with the Church of Rome in any thing that is sinful And that the enjoyning some ceremonies which God hath not particularly and precisely commanded is not that will-worship which is condemned by the Apostle and therefore we may reassume what we did at first lay down and say that to separate and divide from this Church upon such accounts is highly blameable in any nay Extreamly sinful But what if after all this we should undertake to shew that these are but meer pretences and that the great maintainers of a separation from our Church have not really any such thoughts of her but yet least the people should suspect their separation from her to be causeless they are willing that they should think so of her Alas how commonly hath the world been deluded by specious pretences When Mary anointed

the ground were it not for their interest and profit to uphold them And there is as little question to be made but that most of the zealous Preachers in the separated congregations would soon return to that Church which they have causlesly left and forsaken were it not for the profit and advantage they reap by it They find a more fruitful crop as to temporal advantage by sowing in those by-fields and unlawful enclosures then they could expect by laboring in Gods Vineyard where alone they ought to have been true Laborers and work-men Though I will not say that the Disciples and followers of these men do so highly affect them as to pluck out their eyes for their sakes as St. Paul tells us the Galathians once would have done for his yet it is easy to be observed by any that will but a little inquire into it that their liberality and bounty is so great towards them that many of them will almost starve themselves and their families to feed and to cloth their admired teachers they will leave themselves neither scrip nor shooes nor purse rather then not be contributers towards filling the purses of those whom they look upon to be the only soul-saving teachers They make but little conscience to rob their Parish Ministers of their Dues to bestow them upon these House Preachers Like the wicked sons of Athaliah the usurper they take away the dedicated things from the house of God to bestow them upon Baalim 2. Chro. 24.7 And while they find their admirers so bountiful to them it 's no wonder if they continue their separation from the Church and use their utmost endeavors to keep up a faction which it's well known affords more profit to the greater part of them then those livings which the best of them held during the sad times of confusion So long as they can by this craft get such a plentiful livelyhood it 's no wonder if like the Silver-smiths at Ephesus they decry Apostolical Doctrine and Government it's self and cry up their own fancies as the only Diana's to be worshipped But would to God these persons would timely consider what is like to be the issue of this whether this be any better then to make gain their godliness and what it can profit though they should gain the whole world and lose their own souls at least if not the souls of others too thereby at the last Would they would consider how much alike they are to the Priests and Prophets of Israel spoken of by the Prophet Micah Chap. 3.11 Who did teach for hire and Divine for money i. e. they taught such Doctrines as they knew to be most pleasing to their hearers not regarding the truth and that too meerly for the sake of profit And yet will these too as well as they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us None evil can come upon us But let them read the next verse and see what is like to be the issue and event of this Therefore shall Sion for your sakes be plowed like a field and Jerusalem shall become heaps But 3ly ult A third cause or reason of these persons separating from our Church and consequently disturbing the peace and unity of it is a fond and unjustifiable desire of preserving their reputation and credit I do not design hereby to blame any man for using his utmost care to keep a good name because it is a thing so tender that like a glass that is broken and shatter'd in pieces if it be once lost it is very hardly recovered A good name is rather to be chosen then great riches says Solomon It is a pearl of such inestimable value that there is no man that truly weighs it but would with the Merchant in the parable part with all he hath rather then go without it It is not this I say that I do in the least design to speak against But there are a sort of persons in the world that are much to be blamed who having once espoused an opinion having once been patrons of a cause and abettors of a faction and having thereby procured the name of zealous and holy men we may as soon remove mountains as perswade them to renounce that cause though never so much convinced of the unjustifiableness of it and all because as they phrase it they shall thereby give scandal to the world but in plain terms it is because they shall for ever lose that name and reputation they have gotten for it That this is the plain English of the business whatever is pretended to the contrary will most evidently appear if we may but look a little back to what hath heretofore passed Time was when most of our dissenting teachers might have kept their livings upon their conformity This favor was offerr'd to them though but little deserving it by our gracious Prince upon his return to his undoubted rights Upon this how notorious is it that they met together to consult and debate upon it They perswaded the people that they spent their time in fasting and seeking God to direct their consciences but we have more reason to think that they were consulting their own credit and whether upon their conformity the people would not only deride them but hate them too for setting up those things upon deliberation which they before had rashly and unadvisedly pull'd down We can never imagine that they could be strangers to the Government and Discipline of the Church unless we will make them of the number of those who spoke evil of those things they understood not We can never imagine that they could be ignorant of what would be required of them before they could be admitted into it And therefore if it was so plain a business that there consciences would not suffer them to conform why did they not at very first profess it openly and tell the world as much without any more ado and without so many meetings and debates about it No! no! they then thought what some of them have plainly enough declared since that they did not scruple what we do but only they thought it unhandsome i. e. not for their credit for them to do it But surely if it be better for a man that hath been overtaken in a fault to confess it and to do so no more as I suppose they will none of them deny then is it better too for them to renounce those erroneous tenets which occasion'd their former dislike of our Church and to evidence that they were mistaken by their free and open complyance with it And this would be so farr from procuring shame in the thoughts of all sober and considering men that it would be very much their glory Let them call to mind the many examples of this kind that have gone before them Let them but peruse St. Austine's retractations and there they 'l find a copy which I could with they would imitate and write after Let them consider whether