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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
spirit_n	father_n	son_n	speak_v	11,770	5	5.4768	4	true

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41779	A friendly epistle to the bishops and ministers of the Church of England for plain truth and sound peace between the pious Protestants of the Church of England and those of the baptised believers written with the advice of divers pastors and brethren of the baptised congregations, by Tho. Grantham.	Grantham, Thomas, 1634-1692.	1680 (1680)	Wing G1534; ESTC R10561	15,630	42

Your Wisdoms know very well who hath said A little Leaven leaveneth the whole lump and that every Plant which the heavenly Father hath not planted must be rooted up and how vain the Worship even of the true God is esteemed by Christ which is taught by the Precepts of Men All which crys aloud that Religion be restored to its primitive Purity that so Men may give unto God the things that are God's and cease to serve him with their own inventions What we shall here propose to these holy Ends is no more than what at present we conceive to be very needful Howbeit we may not prescribe to you but only offer an occasion to your Wisdoms to consider us as Christians not as Enemies For it is evident that those Coercive ways which some encline to and under which we have bin and still are exercised are not like to effect Christian Amity and Unity but rather to make the Breach much wider That then it may please God even the God of Peace to direct your Wisdoms to those wholsome Methods which may be natural to procure and continue a lasting Peace between us in the Truth of the Gospel shall be our Prayer to him for you and in whose fear we humbly make these following Proposals And first I. Concerning the 39 Articles c. As we have already hinted that in our judgment some things in the 39 Articles of the Church do admit of some amendment We shall therefore humbly propose our Doubts in that case that the Fundamentals being secur'd other things may the more easily be reconciled 1. Our first scruple concerns the third Article where it requires Belief that Christ went down into Hell besides his being in the state of the Dead and buried in the Sepulchre Now this Passage is so dubious as that even Mr. Rogers who wrote a Book in defence of the 39 Articles doth confess that the native and undoubted Sence of this Article is not known so that we conceive it ought not to be required as an Article necessary to the Christian Faith 2. In the 8th Article all things contain'd in the three Creeds are required throughly to be believed in some of which is the said clause of Christ's Descension into Hell the meaning whereof is doubtful And some terms in the Creed of Athanasius are so hard to be understood that we think they ought not to be imposed as necessary We humbly conceive the Modesty of Hillary more safe than some os the Zealous Speeches of Athanasius who tells us That whatsoever is used more than the Father Son and Holy Ghost is beyond the compass of Speech the reach of of Sence and the capacity of Understanding And though he had used the Words Three Hypostasis yet he confesses This is to do things unlawful to speak that which ought not to be spoken to attempt things not licensed to put things in peril of the Speech of Men which ought to be kept in the Religiousness of minds And Austin confesses that it ought not to be spoken How the Father Son and Holy Spirit are three A Holy Trinity there is but how it subsisteth God only knoweth And here both the Modesty and Caution of Mr. Calvin also is worth our Consideration who speaking of the Titles or Expressions viz. A Trinity of Persons in the Vnity of the Godhead saith If the Names have not been without cause invented we ought to take heed that in rejecting them we be not justly blamed of proud Presumptuousness I would to God saith he they where buried indeed so that THIS FAITH WERE AGREED OF ALL MEN That the Father Son and Holy Ghost are ONE GOD and yet that the Father is not the Son nor the Holy Ghost the Son but distinct by certain Properties Instit l. 1. c. 1. Sect. 5. 3. The 13th Article would have it believed that no Works done without Faith in Jesus Christ are pleasant to God c. Which we think is doubtful considering how it is said that the Prayers and Alms of Cornelius were come up for a Memorial before God Act. 10. 1 2 3. yet 't is certain he did not then know Jesus Christ 4. The 18th Article seems doubtful where it teacheth that none can be saved who diligently frame their life according to the Light or Law of Nature c. Whereas if God have given them no other Law or Light to walk by we conceive it more safe for us to leave them to the Lord who will not gather where he hath not strewed than thus to censure them 5. The second Paragraph of the 27th Article may well be omited seeing it is granted by learned Protestants that there is no plain Scripture for Infant Baptism Instead of which Paragraph it may safely be inserted that the Infants of Christians should be devoted to God by Prayer and Blessing which may be justified by the Law of Nature and specially by the Words of Christ Mat. 19. 6. 6. The 36 Article not necessary to be imposed as an Article of the Christian Faith seeing that Book of Consecration of Archbishops Bishops ordering of Priests and Deacons is not of Divine Authority and it must needs be more safe to refer the business of Consecrating or ordaining Christ's Ministers of what rank soever to the Rules given in the holy Scripture And hence we do further conceive it is very needful that those severe Sentences of Excommunication contain'd in the Book of Canons and Constitutions Ecclesiastical specially these two contain'd in Can. 5. 9. be recalled For seeing they themselves that composed the 39 Articles were but Men though pious Men and therefore as themselves teach Art 21. might possibly err even in things pertaining to God Therefore as they further say things ordained by them have neither Strength nor Authority unless it may be declared that they be taken out of the Word of God Nor ought the Church to enforce any thing to be believed for necessity of Salvation which is either against or besides the Word of God as they also teach Article 20. Thus much of the 39 Articles II. Concerning the visible Church of Christ 1. As it is rightly acknowledged by Christians generally and particularly by the Church of England Article 19. That the Church of Christ is a Congregation of faithful Men in which the pure Word of God is preached and the Sacraments duly administred according to Christ's Ordinance in all those things which of necessity are requisite to the same So it may be as truly observed that none be admitted Members of this Visible Church or Mystical Body of Christ till they give evidence that they are faithful at least by their personal Profession of the Faith of Christ and Willingness to walk in newness of Life according to the Principles or general Rules of the Christian Religion contain'd in the holy Scriptures the Rule of Faith 2. And seeing it is the Work of God through which Man with the Heart believeth unto Righteousness from

A Friendly Epistle TO THE Bishops and Ministers OF THE Church of England FOR Plain Truth and sound Peace BETWEEN The Pious Protestants of the Church of ENGLAND AND Those of the Baptised Believers Written with the Advice of divers Pastors and Brethren of the Baptised Congregations By THO. GRANTHAM Follow Peace with all Men and Holiness without which no Man shall see the Lord. Heb. 12. 14. London Printed in the Year 1680. THE PREFACE TO THE READER THe Complaint is both great and just that Christians are so divided amongst themselves that it 's hard for an impartial Christian to find where to fix for his own comfortable Society And this Calamity is much aggravated by the backwardness of each Party to offer any thing to accommodate these Differences each expecting rather that their Opposites should wholly conform to their Sentiments and relinquish their own And what may be thought in that case of this present Overture we cannot certainly divine nor will be too confident that there is nothing of that nature in it But of this we will be confident that the things here desired do carry much of their reasonableness in the very nature of them and have their approbation both from the sacred Word and the Works of those to whom they now address themselves for a Christian Compliance But it will be said What are the Men that make this Overture Our Answer is We are the Servants of the Living God or We are Christians and having seen the Discords and Ruines which have befallen the Christian Nations do heartily desire those Breaches may be made up And as it is not so 't is hoped it will not be deemed any Transgression of the Law of God or man for any Christians to seek for Peace one with another in the Truth notwithstanding their differing Circumstances in respect of worldly Honours or the disparity of their Education seeing they ought all to be cloathed with humility the strong to bear the infirmity of the weak and not to please themselves The Brother of high degree to rejoyce in that he is made low and the Chief to become Servant to the rest When Paul heard of the Divisions which happened in the Church at Corinth how does he blame them for their Carnality as the cause and bestir himself to recover their Unity in the truth which at first they had received 1 Cor. 1. 10. Now I beseech you Brethren by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ that ye all speak the same thing and that there be no Divisions among you but that ye be perfectly joyned together in the same mind and in the same Judgment Referring them to the Foundation and Rule of all Christian Unity that only Christ was Crucified for them that Christ is not to be divided and that they were baptized in the Name of Christ and that therefore they should not follow any Man but as he follows Christ But it seems this great Apostle did not live to see an end of their Divisions as appears not only from the close of his last Epistle to them 2 Cor. 12. 20 21. but also from the Epistle of Clement who survived him which he wrote upon the occasion of that ungodly Sedition so he calls it which had kindled among them through pride and self-love which he vehemently laboured to extinguish by many Arguments but specially by reducing them to the blessed Example of Christ their Leader and the practise of such as lived after a godly sort His words are these Christ Jesus our Lord the Scepter of the Majesty of God came not in vain boasting of Arrogance and Pride although he could do all things but in humility of mind according as the Holy Spirit had spoken concerning him See beloved Friends what an Example is given unto us for if the Lord was so humble what shall we do who are come under the yoke of his Grace let us stick to these therefore who live godly and peaceably and not to them who hypocritically only seem to desire Peace for somewhere he saith they blessed with their Mouth but with their Heart they cursed for their Heart was not right with Him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant Now if the Points in Controversie among the Christians at Corinth were of as great moment as ours as that may be made evident then 't is as rational for us to seek for concord each with other as it was for Paul and Clement to seek to unite them And hence we are the more desirous to make this present Overture for Christian Amity with the pious Protestants in the Church of England for divers Causes And first As it is very evident there hath bin a great departure from the simplicity of the Gospel both in the Form and Power of it since the plantation of it in the World by Christ and his Apostles so also it is certain that many good Men in Ages past as well as in this present Age have still bin labouring and that often-times under great tryals for the Restoration of the Truth to its Purity some in one point and some in another more especially And here the English Protestant hath bin as active as others some in reforming divers things in Doctrine and Practice others in keeping the ground they have gained against the opposers of Reformation Now this Work as it is of God ought to be carried on in the Nations of the World to its perfection Namely till the Truths of the Gospel be delivered from all humane Innovations which have incumbred it to the disturbance of the peace of Christians in all ages since they found opportunity to croud themselves into the Service of God But the great obstruction of this work of Reformation has bin the falling out of the Reformers among themselves And this is the case of the sober Protestant and the Baptised Believer in this Age and Nation the latter not so honouring the first as he ought with respect to what God hath done by him and the former despising the latter by whom God is pleased notwithstanding to bring to light some antient Truths which the former overslip'd or took not due notice of And by this impatience and disrespect in each towards other they prove inimical to the very Work which in the main they both design to promote It is the way of ingenuous Men in reviving decayed Arts to honour their Predecessors though inferior to themselves and to encourage those that succeed to attempt things more excellent Why are not Christians as ingenuous in their endeavours to restore decayed Religion There is nothing in the Authour of our Profession or the Profession it felf but candor and ingenuity Wherefore if we intend the furtherance of the Work of Reformation hitherto carried on through manifold Afflictions let us timely consider our common Interest which is to make one Shoulder to defend what our Ancestors have worthily atcheived as also to joyn our industry for the restoration of every Truth which