Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A31656
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An effort against bigotry, and for Christian catholocism being a discourse on Rom. 14, 17 / delivered at Andover in Hampshire by Henry Chandler.
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Chandler, Henry.
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1699
(1699)
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Wing C1926; ESTC R32616
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24,696
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36
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herein and so far Pests and Plagues to Christian Societies And 't is my serious Thought that if God in Mercy doth not by some speedy unexpected Providence prevent it this sort of Men will ruine our Liberty and bring us into miserable Confusion Friends if you call this Railing I cannot help it but this shall support me that God hath commanded me to mark them which cause Divisions Rom. 16. 17. and that if I uprightly do my Duty God will at last acquit me tho' Men for the present condemn me God will for Christ's sake shew me his reconciled Face tho' Men my Acquaintance and Friends turn their backs upon me and will not vouchsafe to hear me I say to you as the Apostle in another case 2 Cor. 11. 1. Would to God you could bear with me a little and indeed bear with me I have no delight in offending any Body be sure not in troubling those whom I have found Comforters of me and from whom I might possibly yet expect further Comfort I know Discourses of this nature are not pleasant to either the Guilty or Innocent and you may assure your selves I have as little pleasure in speaking them as you have in hearing them But I say as David to Eliah 1 Sam. 17. 29. Is there not a cause Is not this that I am speaking against a Sin And hath it not done Mischief these many Years in this Nation and particularly in this place Doth not this dividing Spirit naturally lead to the levelling the Ministry with the People and destroying the necessary distinction of Teachers and Learners Rulers and ruled in Churches And is not this the way the high-way to Christianity-Ruining Quakerism and Fanaticism And am not I a Watch-man and shall not a Watchman speak when he seeth Evil approaching You will cut a Dog's throat that will not open when he should and the Spirit of God compares cowardly silent Ministers that tell not the People of their Sin and Danger to dumb Dogs that cannot bark and what the Lot of a People is like to be that have such Ministers you may see Isa 56 9 10. All the Beasts of the Field come to devour yea all the Beasts in the Forest c. 4. Proud Contemners are to be reproved Such I mean who having Knowledge and a greater Latitude than others do therefore despise and contemn their Christian Brethren that having less Knowledge make more Scruples than they This was the fault of the converted Gentile in the Apostle's Time and this is without Rancour I speak it the fault of the more Knowing if more knowing and less Scrupulous Church-man at this Day There was in the Apostles Day a dispute between the converted Jews and Gentiles about the Lawfulness of Eating such and such Meats and the necessity of keeping such and such Mosaick Holy-days or Festivals the converted Jew thought that the coming of the Messiah was to Establish the Jewish Polity and Mosaick Institution therefore tho' he believed in Christ yet he durst not but observe the Ceremonial Law Wherefore he conscienciously kept the Jewish Feasts enjoined by that Law and forbore those Meats that were by that Law pronounced Unclean The Converted Gentile being better informed took no notice of the Precepts or Prohibitions of that Law but eat any Meats and took no notice of those Feasts Rom. 14. 2 5. This diversity of Opinion and Practice in these two Parties of Christians occasioned a sinful Distemper of Mind in both one against another the Distemper of Mind that the converted Gentile sinfully harbour'd against his Brother was proud Contempt as we learn by the Apostle's prohibition ver 3. Let not him that eateth despise him that eateth not By this it appears that he did despise him he looked upon him as a scrupulous humoursome Fool. Brethren we have a like Case in this our day Some there are that think we be under the Gospel tied up to all the Circumstances of Worship as strictly as the Jews were heretofore under the Dispensation of Moses and that nothing is to admitted in or about the Worship of God but what is commanded in Scripture There are others who think that we are not so strictly tied up under the Gospel but that if the Direction of Scripture be observ'd as to the Object of Worship the recommending Mediator and the assisting Spirit if God the Father Son and Spirit be Worshipped and we present our Adorations by the Lord Jesus in the strength and vertue of the Holy Spirit if the Doctrine preach'd be according to the Analogy of Faith our Prayers suitable to the Directory for Prayer commonly called the Lord's Prayer if we use no Sacraments but such as Christ hath appointed and all be done in Sincerity and Truth Decency and Order unto Edification they think their Worship nevertheless acceptable to God if in it they observe some Ceremonies of Man's appointing This is the profess'd Judgment of the Church of England for these are her Words sc We think it convenient that every Country should use such Ceremonies as they shall think best to the setting forth of God's Honour and Glory I undertake not to determine at this time which is in the Right here but this I say those Church-men are to blame that do despise and vilify those who differ from them 'T is their Sin if they look upon and treat a Person as an ignorant humoursome Fool meerly because he scruples those things that they can dispense with in the Worship of God 'T is Uncharitable and Unchristian for such to overlook the Substantial Piety and serious Godliness that may be in such meerly because they have not the Compliment and Finishing of supposed Orthodoxness in the business of Circumstance and Ceremony of which even the Church of England her self saith That the keeping or omitting of a Ceremony is in it self but a small thing When a Church-man therefore shall in scornful Pride look a-wry upon an humble peaceable pious just charitable Christian meerly because he is a Dissenter from his Ceremonies he sins against the Law of Christ and walks unsuitably to the Principles of his own Church 5. Vncharitable Judgers are to be reprov'd Such I mean as allow themselves to Condemn Persons as Graceless and Prophane upon account of their using such Liberty as they scruple This was the fault of the Converted Jew as we learn by the Words of the Apostle Let not him that eateth not judge him that eateth And this to speak impartially is the fault of the Censorious Dissenter As the Jews heretofore condemned the Gentile as a prophane wicked Person for his eating of Meats forbidden by the Ceremonial Law so some Dissenters thanks be to God 't is but some are ready to condemn those of the Church of England as Prophane and Graceless upon account of their use of the Church Forms and Liturgy Those of them that are not visibly Prophane and Irreligious they censure them as meer Formalists the best they can think of them