Selected quad for the lemma: soul_n
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A45675
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The Minster of Cirencester's address to the dissenters of his parish occasion'd by the death of their preacher : together with the answer that was made thereto and his reply to that answer : to which is prefixed a letter relating thereto from the Right Reverend Father in God Edward Lord Bishop of Gloucester.
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Harrison, Joseph.
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1698
(1698)
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Wing H899; ESTC R28524
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45,184
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52
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THE Minister of Cirencester's ADDRESS TO THE Dissenters of his Parish Occasion'd by the DEATH of Their PREACHER Together with the ANSWER that was made thereto AND His REPLY to that ANSWER To which is prefixed A LETTER relating thereto from the Right Reverend Father in GOD Edward Lord Bishop of Gloucester ECCLUS xxi 15. If a skilful Man hear a wise word he will commend it and add unto it but as soon as one of no understanding heareth it it displeaseth him and he casteth it behind his Back LONDON Printed by T. M. and are to be Sold by Ric. Chiswell at the Rose and Crown in St. Paul's Church-yard London and I. Barksdale Bookseller in Cirencester 1698. To the Reverend M R. JOSEPH HARRISON MINISTER of Cirencester SIR I Have read your Address to the Dissenters of your Parish with the very idle and trifling Answer thereto and your Reply to that Answer and advise you to publish the whole unless you can be content as I know you cannot to take so much good pains to little purpose Your Address is a very Commendable Instance of your Hearty Concern conscientiously to discharge that Great Trust which is committed to you and your Defence thereof is as good a Proof of your being no less able than desirous to do the Office of a Pastor even towards those who refuse to own you as such I wish the most Sincere in the several Sects which have renounc'd Communion with us could but think it possible that they may be in an Error and thereupon be perswaded to read with any Impartiality what is written against as well as for their Separation I should not then doubt but this Deplorable Schism would wear off apace among those who make not a Trade of it and are not Wolves in Sheeps Clothing since I am most certain that the Errors of Popery are not more plainly detected and expos'd than have the Principles of our Protestant Separatists been abundantly confuted and the great Vanity of their Pretences demonstrated to all that are capable of Seeing with their own Eyes That GOD would Bless this very good Endeavour of Yours to the Reducing of such to His Church as are gone astray and the more Confirming those who have hitherto been kept by his Grace in the Communion thereof And that He would crown all your Labours with happy Success and make you as instrumental to the Reforming of the Lives of your People as the Rectifying of their Judgments is the most Hearty and Humble Prayer of SIR Your very loving Friend and Brother EDW. GLOUCESTER To My Well-beloved Friends and Parishioners Who do not frequent the Communion of the Church THo' it has pleased God to take away him whom your Selves had Appointed and Setled here as a Distinct and Peculiar Teacher of your own yet I must tell you that this Parish is not yet thro' God's Blessing deprived of a Minister who will be ready to the utmost of his Power to serve every Member thereof in the great and concerning Interest of their Souls It is I my Self who am here placed according to the Laws of God and by the Laws of the Land and I do now offer my Self before you make Choise of any other to Minister before God and for You in all the Offices of Religion according to the Order and Constitution of that Primitive and Apostolical Church Established among Us to which I am inseparably tied by my Reason and Conscience and in all manner of Sacred and Solemn Obligations This Church my Brethen is the Church you ought to Hold Communion with Our Parish-Church is the place where you ought to Serve and Worship God and I how unworthy soever am the only Person whose proper Business it is to Perform any Ministerial Office in this Parish and against whose either Life or Doctrine I hope no just Exception can be made I do therefore most passionately Exhort and earnestly Beseech you all in the Bowels of Jesus Christ that you will as you tender the Peace of Church and State and the Welfare of your own Souls stedfastly Adhere to the Communion thereof If your Separation is grounded upon real Scruples of Conscience you should certainly Endeavour to have them Answered and Removed and I shall be very ready and I trust in God able to give full Satisfaction to any One that shall desire it of Me. But if the Reason of any One's dissenting from Us be only Humour or Prejudice he can never think that either of them will bear him out at the Great Day for keeping up a Schism in the Church of God and Rending and Dividing the Body of Christ Before you Resolve to carry on the Separation I Entreat You for your own Soul's sake for whose everlasting Happiness I have a tender Regard to Consider well the Grounds and Reasons upon which you do it for Schism is not certainly so slight a Matter and so small a Crime as some People think it to be And if nothing will disswade you from Maintaining the Divisions among us by bringing in another Preacher I hope you will take Care that he be a Person of Prudence and Temper One that will strictly Confine Himself within the Bounds and Limits of the Act of Toleration and who will be very cautious of doing any thing that will give Disturbance in a Parish which is at present in a very peaceable and quiet state notwithstanding the Differences among Vs as to some matters of Religious Concern as to which also I most humbly Beseech God in his due time to Unite Us. I am Your Affectionate Pastor and Sincere Lover of your Souls JOSEPH-HARRISON THE Ministers Reply to the Dissenters Answer to the foregoing Invitation of them into the Communion of the Church Most Dearly Beloved in Christ I Cannot express how much I am concern'd that the PAPER which I sent among you upon so Christian an Errand and the Message it contain'd expressed in so inoffensive and obliging a manner and writ with that Sincerity and Purity of Intention as if I had been immediately to have Answered for it at the dreadful Tribunal of Heaven I cannot I say express my Concern that such a Paper as this should be so far from having any good Effect upon those it was sent to as to exasperate them against it its Author and the Church into whose Communion its business was to invite them to so high a degree that when I laboured for Peace and spake unto them thereof they made themselves ready for Battle As for the Reflections and uncharitable Censures which have been made upon me either upon the Account of this or any other Matter I do most heartily forgive them and humbly beseech God to do so too and also to support me with Courage and Patience under all the Opposition and Contempt which I have already and must expect to meet with even in the Discharge of my Duty And this is all the Return I shall make to them But forasmuch as my kind
communicate you cannot be excused from the Sin of Schism at least as to the Matter and Outward Act of it because where-ever there is an Actual Separation from a Church with which we ought and with which we may lawfully communicate there is an Actual Schism commenced let the Pretence for the Separation be what it will How far you are chargable before God with the formal Guilt of Schism I know not I must leave that to your Consciences and the Searcher of Hearts who knows whether your Separation be occasion'd through the fault of your Wills or the weakness of your Understandings whether through Passion or Humor or Interest or from the misfortune of your Circumstances as to Education or any other matter I hope the best and judge as charitably as I can and that is as charitably as any Man living This was and this is still my real Opinion and there is nothing said in your Paper to induce me to alter it for unless the Errors you separate from be such as make Communion absolutely unlawful you can never produce a Command to withdraw your Communion from the National Church where the Divine Providence hath placed you and especially from that Church wherein you were born and baptiz'd That 1 Cor. 6.17 which you pretend as a Command will not stand you in the least stead till you have proved our Service to be Idolatrous and we Unbelievers of whom you will find that the Apostle speaks if you will but look to v. 14 and as the Margin directs you to Isa 52.11 whence these words are cited where the Prophet bids the whole Body of the Jews to fly out of Babylon and therefore it must be something worse than gross Ignorance to apply it to such a Separation as you are in I doubt not but the Errors as you call them mentioned in this Paper are thought by you to be the greatest of any in our Church and yet even these have been abundantly vindicated from that Imputation and Christ's own Ordinances are Administred by us according to his own Institution without any such Defect or Addition as alters their Nature and destroys their Vertue And what purer Administration and Ordinances Men would have than those of our Saviour's own Institution without any corrupt and sinful Mixtures to spoil their Vertue and Efficacy I cannot tell nor durst this Man positively say in his Paper that Christ's Ordinances are not thus purely Administred by us notwithstanding his sly and malicious Insinuation to the contrary But granting that in the Administration of Christ's Ordinances there be some particular Modes and Rites accompanying them which are not commanded in the Gospel if they are such as do not destroy the Efficacy or alter the Nature of the Ordinance they cannot be pretended unlawful or the Ordinance ever the less purely Administred because the Vnlawfulness of any thing depends upon its being forbidden and the Purity of Divine Administrations upon their Agreement with the Institution Thus the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper is administred exactly according to the Institution of our Blessed Saviour and because it is the most solemn part of Christian Worship and deliver'd to the Receiver with a most devout and affectionate Prayer that the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ which was given and shed for him may preserve his Body and Soul unto Everlasting Life and therefore requires the utmost Devotion and Reverence of both Soul and Body it is order'd to be received kneeling Thus also is Baptism purely Administred and after the Person is baptized and solemnly received into Christ's Church he is signed with the Sign of the Cross in tokâ— that hereafter he shall not be ashamed to confess the Faith of Christ crucified but manfully to fight under his Banner against Sin the World and the Devil and continue Christ's faithful Soldier and Servant unto his Life's end And at the Baptism of Infants Persons are deputed by the Parents expâ—icitly in the Infant 's Name to make that Vow and Stipulation which those who allow of their Baptism must however suppose to be tacitly and implicitly made by them and also to give Collateral Security to the Church for the Religious Education of the Infant the design of which Institution was to provide against the Remisness or Mortality of the Parents whose Obligation to breed up their Children in the Fear of God is never the less but is on the contrary thought to be already so great by the Laws of Nature and Religion that they themselves cannot be more strictly bound It is indeed to be lamented that the Regard to this Appointment is not answerable to the Piety and Excellency of its design but it ought to be consider'd that that is the fault of the Men and not of the Constitution and that those who object against it upon this score may themselves help to remedy it Now if when Christ's Ordinances are thus purely Administred it be not a rending and dividing the Body of Christ so highly to contend for such Modes of Administration which are not more Scriptural but only more agreeable to their own Fancies as to separate from and break the Peace of Christ's Church if I say this be not a rending the Body of Christ I know not by what Name to call it and I believe my Opponent will be hard put to it to give it a more proper one But allowing that those you insist upon be Errors Are they fundamental ones Are they destructive of true Christian Faith and Practice Did I not know the Power of Passion and Prejudice I durst be confident you will say they are not but however I positively assert they are not and defie all the Dissenters in England to prove that they are If they are not then your own Writers shall instruct you in your Duty Private Brethren says Mr. Noys may not separate from Churches and Church Ordinances which are not fundamentally defective neither in Doctrine or Manners Heresie or Prophaneness Dr. Owen asserts That many Errors in Doctrine Disorders in sacred Administrations irregular walking in Conversation with neglect and abuse of Discipline in Rulers may fall out in some Churches and yet not evacuate their Church-State or give sufficient warrant to leave their Communion and separate from them Mr. Cotton saith Vnless you find in the Church Blasphemy or Idolatry or Persecution i. e. such as forces them to leave the Communion there is no just Ground of Separation Observe saith Mr. Baxters in his Catalogue of the Faults of nine Churches in Scripture that no one Member is in all these Scriptures or any other commanded to come out and separate from any of all these Churches as if their Communion in Worship were unlawful And therefore before you separate from any as judging Communion with them unlawful be sure that you bring greater Reasons than any of these recited were And this Advice he gives to his Brethren Teach them to know that all Men are imperfect and faulty and so