Selected quad for the lemma: scripture_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
scripture_n	church_n	ground_n	pillar_n	2,625	5	10.3132	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A52706	A letter from a gentleman in the city to a gentleman in the country, about the odiousness of persecution wherein the rise and end of the penal laws for religion in this kingdom, are consider'd : occasioned by the late rigorous proceedings against sober dissenters, by certain angry justices in the country.	A. N.; Penn, William, 1644-1718.	1687 (1687)	Wing N3; Wing L1388A_CANCELLED; ESTC R9450	23,013	34

A LETTER FROM A GENTLEMAN in the CITY TO A GENTLEMAN in the COUNTRY ABOUT THE Odiousness of Persecution WHEREIN The Rise and End of the Penal Laws for Religion in this Kingdom are consider'd Occasioned by the late Rigorous Proceedings against Sober Dissenters by certain Angry Justices IN THE COUNTRY It is the Part of the Christian-Religion to Suffer and not to make People Suffer for Religion Tertul. Apol. Printed in the YEAR 1687. THE LETTER SIR THE News of a Persecution meerly for a matter of Religion at this time a day when the whole Nation appears professedly to dislike it and the giving countenance to Informers who are the Pest of every Nation and the common Enemies of Property to the Prejudice of Peaceable and Trading People makes your Friends who have had notice of your late Troubles suspect that there is something in your case more than ordinary Had this fallen out in some remote Country where no Informer had ever yet appeared we might have conceived that through Ignorance that sort of Devil might have been mistaken for an Angel of Light and that upon his bare Averrment some well-meaning Persons even against their own Experience might have been induced to mistake their Peaceable Neighbours for Dangerous Incendiaries and unworthy to enjoy their own proper Goods But to see that sort of Creature concerned a Country so near London and Westminster as not to be capable of knowing what Informers are how detestable their Trade how inconsiderable their Power how generally indigent and dissolute how mean their Skill how little they know more than to subborn Witnesses to commit Perjuries which are discovered to their Confusion is that which raised Wonder in some of your Friends to so great an height that they generally request from your own hand the true state of your Case in all its Circumstances to the end they may know whether there be any thing which can differ it from the common Cases of Persecution meerly for Religion from which the generality of the Country-Gentlemen of England and particularly those of the Country where you live do commonly profess to have as great an abhorrency as they have from Depopulating of Countries which is the Effect that such Persecutions must of necessity produce In the mean time do not I pray take me to be one who think it strange to hear of Troubles what hath been formerly may happen again without Astonishment and you are too well known to be thought to be surprized or afraid Well did that Person consider the Creature Man who distinguished him into two parts viz. the Man and the Beast But it were happy for Mankind if the Beast were less imperious and cruel In truth it is rare to find where the Man is allowed to have any power in Acting every thing seems too much to be governed by the Beast and by the Tyranny of its inordinate Passions and Senses And yet where shall one find a single Person in the World who calls himself a Christian or that Party of Men who desire to be esteemed Christians but he and they will readily grant that Principle Mat. 7. 12. All things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you do even so to them for this is the Law and the Prophets and that other Principle Rom. 3. 8. Let us not do Evil that Good may come to be Gospel-Principles and obliging to all Mankind There is not a Politician or States-man nor a Government any where that owns Christianity to be the true Religion but confesseth That in the Council of the Jews which was assembled in order to the Persecuting of the Apostles for matters of meer Religion Gamaliel advised prudently and according to the Principles of true Religion Acts 5. Let them alone for if this Counsel or this work be of Men it will come to nought but if it be of God we cannot overthrow it least happily we be found even to Fight against God. They will all confess readily when pressed with these charitable and peaceable Principles that the Spirit of Persecuting for meer Religion is a Spirit of Injustice as not doing to others as our selves would be done unto and a Spirit of Diffidence and Incredulity refusing to trust God and his Providence with the Defence and Justification of what is Professed to be of God And yet it is hard to find that single Person and much more to name tha● Community or Government amongst Christians now in being whose practice when they have opportunity and power are not contrary to their Principles And not only so but they will take upon them to justifie such practices to be consistent with nay even duties unto which they are obliged by that pure Religion which they take upon them to profess to the whole World. But to the end I may not be esteemed presumptuous or uncharitable in what I here assert and in regard it is impossible to produce evident proofs for what I say as touching single Persons let us a little examine the matter as to Parties and Governments taking this for granted that every particular Party calls it self a true Church or the true Church of Christ If what is here urged of differing Churches shall be proved true the presumption will stand very strong as to single Persons there being no single Person who would be esteemed a Christian but he is in communion or fellowship with some Church which he owns to be the true Church of Christ and by whose Judgment he is willing to be concluded as being a professed Member of it and as taking it for his Principle that every Member of the true Church of Christ ought to be of her Judgment because the Scripture says She is the Pillar and Ground of Truth And though some boggle at this yet nothing is truer than that every Christian Society daily practiseth it Now the better to prepare the way for this intended Tryal we will crave the Liberty first to consider Christianity in the World in general in its first Ages when it was under Persecution for meer matter of Religion and before it gained any civil Power and Dominion From them we shall know what the true Christianity did teach We will then consider Christianity in England when divided only into two distinct Parties viz. The Protestants and the Papists And in the last place We will consider Christianity in England when the Protestants were sub-divided into several Parties viz. The Episcopal or Church of England Protestants the Presbyterians the Independants the Anabaptists and the Quakers and when the Papists were become so small that they were upon the matter inconsiderable and I suppose from these differing times we may hope for a reasonable Information First then Suppose the question put to the Christians of the first and Primitive Times in those first and greatest Persecutions under which Christianity then suffered Is it lawful to Persecute and to make and Execute Laws for the Inflicting of Pains and Penalties upon quiet and peaceable People