Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n
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A39064
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An Expedient for peace amongst Christians. The second part grounded on the impossibility of their agreement in matters of religion : and further enlarged in a discourse of church and state : wherein a new ecclesiastical administration is exhibited.
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1689
(1689)
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Wing E3872A_VARIANT; ESTC R31481
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31,841
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51
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contend against and in my former Discourse have shewed to be impossible is that of Men being all of One Mind One Judgment One Apprehension in the matters of Religion or otherwise and whenever I say Agreement is impossible I mean this sort of Agreement which really is so and no other Christian Men have indeed taken indefatigable Pains to bring this Agreement to pass and cannot as yet be brought to leave off although opposed by God Nature and all things Visible and Invisible Let us turn our Eyes wherever we Please we shall see nothing but Diversity and infinite Variety in things if we look up to Heaven what shall we see there but an innumerable company of Stars not ranged and in order but promisciously placed hic et ubique Indeed if the Sons of Men had been to have placed them no doubt but they would have put them in Rows and in Order I mean such a position which they call Order But what they call Order Unity and Agreement The All-Wise God esteems not so He knows and can see Beauty Order and Agreement in different Natures and infinite variety of Things though They cannot and methinks He plainly speaks from Heaven and tells them so having Confronted them with such a glorious appearance of infinitely differing but most beautifull Instructors which they cannot miss of seeing if they will but look upward I say one would think they should learn their Lesson out of this glorious Book of Heaven wrote in such fair and legible Characters and cease their vain attemps about an universal Order and Agreement Further if the Almighty hath not only placed these Heavenly Bodies for Ornament but also hath empowered them to influence the Bodies and Minds of Men as 't is possible he hath and many suppose and contend for Then this will aggravate their vanity in endeavouring to be more in Order and more Methodised than their Principals And they may contend and endeavour to Eternity but all to no purpose for when they shall have Power or be able to remove the Stars from place to place or form them into what Figures they please discharge their Influences or regulate their Promiscuousness Then and not till then shall they be able to bring their Motly Agreement to pass But as 't is impossible to do the one so not more possible to perform the other Then again if we cast down our Eyes upon Earth what shall we see to agree there 'T is nothing but a Composition of things of different qualties and natures a pregnant Mass of Matter productive of infinite Variety of Forms and Shapes And this is not its Deformity but Beauty and it would be but an unpleasing Heap without it But after all we like Men as we are will needs have all to Agree We would have no Differences we would have all Men to have One Mind the Same Opinion the Same Thought and Apprehension of things and perform Actions after the Same Manner and Method Notwithstanding all the discouragement and constant and successive defeats we have met with in the Prosecution thereof For first our Maker defeated Nimrod and his Accomplices the old Babylonian Builders who were contriving and forming to themselves strange universal things under One Form One way and One Government as also of late in the Reformation the New Babylonian Butlders who were carrying on the same work but in an Ecclesiastical manner And most of the great Invaders of the Earth have met with the same misfortune for some of their large Dominions and Empires have at this day scarce any being but in Records and that with great difficulty Preserved By God Almighties proceeding and dealings with the sons of Men in the things of this Nature he seems plainly to tell them That he is not pleased with such their universal Proceedings He never yet prospered or established universal Kings or universal Churches excepting for some little time to punish others but has always pulled down their Buildings and reduced them to their primitive Condition and station And whatever esteem or value they may put upon universal Agreements universal Empire or Churches it doth plainly appear He has not the same For he has divided the Globe of the Earth by Seas and Rivers and Mountains and allotted each Nation its Limits And this Division is both Ornamental and Necessary and no Division with him at all for he beholds all the Kingdoms of the Earth as one Undivided Mass and Spot of Ground and all the Generations of Men as one Stock and Family in one House but several Apartments and though we cry out of Division and Separation yet he beholds all Christian Assemblis together and as in one place and all to be in the Communion of one Church as so many Figures in one Sum. and all their several Opinions to be parts of One Agreement So that we need not be so fierce to attempt impossibilities to fill up the Sea choak up the Rivers or level the Mountains to make all a Terra Firma nor take all that pains which some Men do to reconcile Differences and make all men of One Mind which is equally impossible Which brings me again to my first Assertion which ought a little further to be insisted on 'T is impossible that Christians should Agree in the way and nature they would Agree not onely for the reasons mentioned in my former Discourse but because there is no common Standard fixed and agreed to by all by which all Parties may take their measures and square and decide their Pretences Some will have the Pope to be head of the Church and to be Infallible and the sole Judge of all Controversies and Differences others will have a General Council some will have both in Conjunction others neither of them either apart or in Conjunction Some again will have the Scriptures to be Judge others Tradition some Scriptures and Tradition together others neither Scriptures nor Tradition but every private Person Some again will have the Church others the Fathers some neither Church nor Fathers And what a noise have we perpetually sounding in our Ears about Church Fathers Councills and Scriptures which are true and which are spurious The Objections at this time of Day lie almost equally alike against all But if they agree which are the True they fall out about the Interpretation and every Party say their own Comment is right and nothing as yet on Earth has been found sufficient and competent to make a dicision 'T is not fit that the less number should judge for the greater a single Man for a whole company nor a whole company for a single Man where the matter is Salvation The Scriptures indeed are the best Rule and the best Judge we have but this onely to private and Particular Persons for themselves but not for others not for publick Communities and Societies against one another For the Question Who shall interpret them will never be answered a private Person may judge for himself but not for
himself against another when another is concerned he is a party and therefore cannot be Judge But all the several Sects and Societies of Christians are Parties therefore cannot be Judges neither can Reason Scripture Tradition Fathers Councils c. be Judges being interpreted by Parties neither is there a Judge on Earth but is a Party Our Agreement therefore must be concluded to be impossible and our Differences left to be judged by the God of Heaven who is only sufficient and competent for Judgment From this Impossibility therefore of a material Agreement proved from the infinite variety of humane Understandings as men and from the infinite difficulty of things as Christians I would lay a Foundation for a formal Agreement integral and compleat in all its parts towards God and towards Man but a further improvment I shall reserve to the foot of my Discourse and make Answer to a very necessary Question which may be asked me viz. Amidst so great Indeterminations and Irresolutions of men amidst so many Plausibilities and Probabilities and infinite Pretentions to Truth what Measures must Men take or what Rule must they walk by To which I answer That 's a Reason which convinces and that 's an Argument which perswades and that 's a good Sermon which makes men better besides those which are the best in their kind and in their own nature really so and he has understood Councils and Fathers and Scriptures right who understands them in a sense which assists him to mortifie a Lust crush an evil Affection or make him a better Man although he understand them wrong and differing from the original Intent and 't is possible for a man to understand wrong yet live right to be convinced by a slender Reason a weak Argument and edified by an ordinary Sermon Every one of these though not the best in their kind yet are equivalent to the best if they produce the Effect of the best And this will put a Check to a great Evil there is in the World viz the extravagant Commendation of Preachers Books and Discourses raised often to that height that Charity is infringed and the Peace endangered Why must the greatest and most sublime Reasons be pressed upon me when one of a lesser magnitude doth convince me And I be forced to hear and may be vilified for not commending such a Brave Preacher when one of another stile and another Method doth more operate upon me and give me better Satisfaction There is a necessity that Truth should be served no and addressed to men in various and differing VVays and Methods because there are Men of various and differing Understandings to be wrought upon and hereby all Books Comments and Discourses infinitely differing one from another according to the differing Capacities and Apprehensions of their Authors become useful and profitable And this in a great measure may serve for answer to the Question but that which must make it compleat is an honest Heart and sincere Endeavours of finding out the Truth and a ready and willing Disposition to comply with it when found And when men have done their best to please God and find out the Truth as every Party of Christians say they do if they mistake they mistake like Men and God will never punish them for it for that would be to punish them for doing their best which ought to be far from the thoughts of every good Christian so that 〈◊〉 they be not 〈◊〉 yet they may be safe safe I say from the Displeasure and Punishment of their Maker thought not of their Fellow-Creatures For when men have been diligent honest and sincere and used their utmost Endeavours to find out the Truth please God and save their Souls in comes an armed Band of humane Sanctions Laws Penalties and Compulsion to drive them out of this way which they have judged and pitched upon to be the only true way to Salvation which brings me to the second Head to be discoursed of in order to the Peace of Christendom and that is Law which I shall publickly and solemnly arrest as the grand Enemy and Disturber thereof For in the name of the King of Peace what has Law to do in Religion Religion ought to be the most free most voluntary and unconstrained thing in the World he that ministers in it ought to do it freely and willingly I and he that performs any Action in it ought to choose it and be fully convinced and satisfied in his Mind and no Method ought to be used either in the Administration or Propagation but Argument Reason and Discourse and it must be acknowledged as a most certain Truth That if the whole World joyn together to make a Law this Law cannot make a Reason a good Reason or an Argument a good Argument or make any Proposition either true or false and if we ask any party of Christians why they use such a Method or such a way in Religion Their Answer is Because they think it true Since Truth then is and ought to be the Standard and Measure by which men ought to determine their Choice and since it is most certain that Law cannot make or determine Truth Law by a plain and necessary consequence must be judged useless in Religion Again If Actions are not voluntary and Religion be not chosen there will be no Grounds lest for either Rewards or Punishments Nil ardet in Inferno nisi propria voluntas nothing burns in Hell but a Man's Will 'T is the VVill that makes men criminal and subject to be rewarded or punished but when there is a Law there is no Room lest either to will or to choose but it comes with a must with Authority and Power and puts both Religion our Wil and Choice out of doors And here one may easily discover the Paw of the Grand Imposter and Enemy of Mankind who when he foresaw what great Advantages the Religion of the Holy Jesus would bring to the Sons of Men by a sly and crafty Device spirited away the True Babe and left us a Changeling in his room he stole away Religion and left us a Law and so effectually brought about his cursed Designs and ruin'd us But further amongst Protestant Christians Law is the most absurd and vain thing in the world for they do and that truly acknowledge the Books of the Old and New Testament to be the Only Rule of Faith containing full and ample Instructions how to Worship God and perform all necessary Actions in Religion also that men in common are able to understand interpret and judge of these Books Now if these be their Rule and only Rule what have they to do with Law which is another Rule Our Saviour faith His Toke is easie his Burden light But Law is a Tyrant and Usurper of Christian Priviledges and lays on heavy Burdens contrary to the sweet and gentle Methods of the Gospel it neither is nor ought to be a Rule to Christians in their Religion and in things