Selected quad for the lemma: truth_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A41563
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Spiritual order and Christian liberty proved to be consistent in the Churches of Christ and impositions upon the consciences of believers in religious practices found to be antichristian and destructive to both / by R.G. a protestant.
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Gordon, Robert, fl. 1669-1675.
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1675
(1675)
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Wing G1291; ESTC R29926
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14,410
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15
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further this Spiritual Government and Christian Liberty are not only consistent and was accordingly practised in the first Churches but iâ— was also necessary that it should be so because thereby the Spiritual Vnity and Peace of the Churches is preserv'd on the one hand from Confusion on the other hand from Tyranny all things being done decently and in order and yet in Charity and to Edification therefore the Apostle Paul finding Divisions to be entered into the Church at Corinth and to prevent the like at the Church at Rome in his Epistles to those Churches he leads them to the practice of this Spiritual Government and Christian Liberty as the most proper remedy to recover and preserve them in the Peace and Vnity of the Gospel which he that will be at the pains to read may perceive Indeed under the Old Covenant the Service thereof stood in Meats and Drinks and divers Washings observing Times and Days and carnal Ordinances until the time of the Reformation but now that time being come under the New-Covenant wherein the Lord saith I will write my Laws in their Hearts in the Exercise of Church-Government among a People under that Dispensation Christian Liberty is of absolute Necessity the Law requiring Obedience being not in Tables of Stone but in their Hearts they were to walk in the Order of the Gospel through the Convincement of that Law in their Hearts they were under And the necessity of the continuation of both these conjoyned together is also manifest by the sad Consequences which have followed there where Church Government hath been exalted on the Ruines of Christian Liberty at this Door this dark night af Apostacy entred into the Church at the first a Mystery of Iniquity that begun to work in the days of the Apostles not by a Demas that forsook them but by a Deotrephes that sought Preheminence among them for in the exercise of Church-Government in Christian Societies had the Apostles Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity the best and only Preservatives of Gospel Order and Vnity been observed in all Ages by Church Rulers the many Schismes that have rent and divided the Churchos of Christ had not entred and when contrary to Christian Liberty Innovations are imposed by Church-Authority the Dissenters cannot in truth be reputed the Breakers of the Churches Vnity though accounted such by the Imposers But the many Schismes and the sad Consequences of them in any Christian Society is then most justly laid to their charge who being Church Governours under the name of Comely Orders impose Vnscriptural Traditions of the Elders as necessary Conditions of Church-Communion upon the Consciences of the Disciples unto which they are required to submit though unclear or unconvinced as they would not be accounted Breakers of the Vnity of the Body and as such be refused the Spiritual Fellowshig of the Church Which kind of Imposition as it is manifest by what is said already to be contrary to the Doctrine of the New-Testament and tenour of the New-Covenant so it makes void the Foundation Principle of Protestancy is contrary to Right Reason really destructive both to the Spiritual Order and Christian Liberty of the Gospel and last of all is a direct contradiction to an immediate inward Revelation of the Spirit as being a Rule to every particular Christian for his Conduct in all Religious Practices and to that end implanted in every man as he comes into the World First let the serious Protestants examine the first and great Foundation Principle on which they founded their Separation from those of Rome and they will find that to assert the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures without us and of the Illumination of the Holy Spirit within us they protested that neither Traditions Councils Popes nor Cannons of any visible Church but the Scripture only interpreted by the Holy Spirit gives final Determination in Matters of Religion Which is so wholly at once made void by this kind of Church-Imposition if allowed that their Protestation becomes quite insignificant thereby Secondly it is contrary to Right Reason to allow of such an Imposition in a Christian Society because all in such a Society are of one joynt voluntary Communion it is therefore most unreasonable for one or more of that Society to impose their final determinations in matters controverted on their Brethren unconvinced and not referred to them in respect such Societies are to be governed according to their first Principle of Union which is Inward Perswasion and therefore is to be upheld by that same Principle least it degenerate into Tyranny Uniform Outward Practices they may be driven into but they cannot be the Bond of their Spiritual Union that being ever one and the same whil'st outward Practices are alterable so never to be imposed as necessary but to be perswaded into as they are found agreeable to the Rules of Conveniency Edification Peace and Charity It is Man's Glory that he is not Religious by any kind of outward force but that in his worshiping God he offers up to him a free and reasonable Sacrifice whereas this kind of Church Power once admitted deprives Persons of the use of their Reason who by submitting unconvinced do give the Lye to their Understandings in a word it leaveth a man neither the use of his Reason as a Man nor of his Spiritual Understanding as a Christian and therefore cannot be of the God of Truth that hath indued every man with a reasonable Soul and every Christian with a Spiritual Understanding Thirdly It is also destructive both to the Spiritual Order and Christian Liberty of the Gospel this is sufficiently proved in the sad Example of those of Rome where the many unnecessary and unscriptural Traditions Rites and Ceremonies imposed have wholly extinguished the Spiritual Order of the Gospel mentioned in the New Testament and where the Bloody Inquisition hath buried Christian Liberty and will infallibly produce the same event where it is received Lastly The Contradiction betwixt this kind of Imposition and an Immediate Revelation of the Light and Spirit of God in every individual as his unerring Rule and Conduct in every thing of Religion is manifest in this that this Inward Revelation is asserted to be therefore given to every man as he cometh into the World as being of it self sufficient if obeyed to lead him into all Truth without any necessity of hearkning unto any outward Writings or Instructions whatsoever but as this Light leads thereunto which if it be so and that a Society be united upon that Principle in one joynt Communion the uselessness of one or more in the Church having such a Power or of general or particular outward Laws and Instructions to order Matters in that Society requiring Obedience thereunto And of the fore appointed Standing Meetings Weekly Monthly and Quarterly and the frequenting the Set Times and Places of those Meetings further than it becomes necessary to every individual Person of the Society through the Inward
Immediate Revelation of the Light in his own Particular then received which he is to abide in hearken unto and obey is so very manifest that indeed it is a deserting the Cause of Immediate Revelation once so fiercely contended for to be in every Man to lead him into all Truth and on 〈◊〉 acknowledgement of the Insufficiency of that Light within of it self so to lead them in whom it is or to preserve them therein It remains in order to the closing of this Discourse to examine some of the arguments of old mustered up by those of the Roman Church against the Protestants and long since refuted by them and manifest in their Consciences to have no force in them against this Doctrine of the New Testament treated of in this Discourse yet now again raised out of that Rubbish to uphold this little new erected Papacy Is the Body to be without Government And if so will it not turn into the confusion of the Ranters every one having liberty to do what he pleaseth Is not this rather a Carnal Licentiousness than Christian Liberty I answer It is not pleaded for here that every one or indeed any one should do what he pleaseth but that none should be constrained or imposed upon to do what others please but they should be left free to do what God pleaseth They that are Christ's are led by his Spirit whose Conduct cannot introduce Confusion or Licentiousness in them especially who own the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture as their Outward Rule Indeed such things may enter into a Christian Society but its only then when the Doctrine of the New Testament and the Leadings of God's Spirit according to them is departed from But are we not to believe as the True Church Believes Is not the Infallible Spirit of God in his Church If so what will you believe if not as the True Church doth believes I answer This is the old reasoning of Carnal Wisdom whereby Christ is justled out of his Office and the Divine Authority of the Holy Scripture trampled upon to introduce an Implicit Blind Obedience the strength of which Argument is at large solidly refuted and the Deceit lurking under that Covering clearly laid open by W. Pen a Protestant in his Book entituled An Address to Protestants the Perusal whereof is recommended to the People called Quakers for their Information herein I am saith he to believe as the true Church believes but not because she so believes but because I am convinced in my Conscience of the truth of what she believes otherwise my Faith may be false though hers be true We have the same Rule for our Faith the true Church hath and the same Reasons to induce us to believe that she hath the whole multitude of the Believers who make up the whole Church having the same Rule of Faith with me in particular therefore I believe as the whole Church believes but upon the same Principles and Motives upon which every one in particular believed who first made up a Christian Church which was Conviction and Choice and though I ought thus to believe as the Holy Catholick Church believes and that the Spirit of God rests in his Catholick Church yet I am not therefore blindly without examination and convincement to give up my whole Concern Temporal and Spiritual unto any particular Society of Christians even though I be ingaged as one among them in Church-Fellowship as unto the Judgment of the Spirit of God in the Men's or Womens-Meetings the generality among whom may be in a Decay and the Dissenters may be the few who keep their Garments undefiled as most ordinarily in ages past it hath happened actually to be in other Christian Societies Obj. But was there not a Government in the Churches in the Apostles Days And were there not Governours and Governed And should it not be so still Were not the Elders to seed the Flock and rule over them and was not the Flock to submit themselves to them and to follow their Faith as they that must give an account of their Souls And it was not Tyranny then to exercise this Authority in the Church how comes it to be so now I answer Church-Government is Spiritual and only to be exercised Spiritually in the Consciences of the Governed not as Lording it over their Consciences by an Ecclesiastick Jurisdiction but by Perswasion and Conviction to become manifest in their Consciences waiting till the Lord shall reveal it to them thus was Spiritual Government exercised in the first Churches by their Governours according to the Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity and thus did the Governed submit themselves in the Lord whereby they were preserved in the Unity of the Spirit in different Outward Practices which being departed from the Government becomes Tyrannous Obj. But the infallible Judgment in reference to Differences in the Church though it be fixed in the Spirit of God according to the Testimony of the Scriptures ought it not to be exercised by one or more certain Person or Persons in the General Meetings of the Elders of the Body so long as he or they abide in the Conduct of that Spirit and are not in a Decay And what can be the hazard to say That in such a Church there is still an Infallible Judgment in one or more so guided to whom all are to submit In respect we are not to imagine that in a Christian Society there must be no Orders made or executed for the better regulating of the Society or that among them Matters controverted shall never be finally determined I answer In such a Society Matters controverted may and ought to be finally determined by Persons of the Society to whom they should be referred and it rests in the power of any one particular Church to make Orders for the better Governing of the Church the Exercise whereof may be committed by the Church to particular Elders and Overseers to whom in their acts of Government they are accountable but in the framing such Orders and in the Exercise of Church-Government the Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity are ever to be observed that the Consciences of the Desciples may be preserved tender under the feeling of Christ's Government within them that Obedience be never imposed as necessary upon them but as the Lord shall clear the Matter to them for this being departed from it ceaseth to be the Spiritual Government of Christ exercised in his Church according to the New Testament and becomes an Ecclesiastâ—cal Jurisdiction usurped and tyrannously exercised over the Consciences of the Disciples So that in any particular Church there is no necessity of any Person or Persons one or more Pope or General Council's having such a Power though Builders in Babylon would make it necessary for preserving in themselves an Ecclesiastical Supremacy over the Scriptures and the Consciences of all in the Church the hazard of which Doctrine is manifest in the Apostacy of those