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ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A64487 There be four heads of reasons by which the absolute necessity of a religious correspondency between the godly party of this common-wealth and forraign Protestants may be made manifest ... 1653 (1653) Wing T861; ESTC R25644 11,606 18

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Oracles of God and there in two Rules of scriptural Interpreration prescribed viz. the Analysis of the Text and the Analogy of Faith that the scholasticall way of handling Evangelical debates should be so much in use and that in the debates about the depth of secret and unfear hab●e mysteries which all sides confesse to be such there should be so much Animosity And lastly that where the substance is agreed unto and in the outside of the profession onely there is some difference about prudential and circumstantial matters of Order Discipline Government there should be so little condiscention and mutual forbearance made use of notwithstanding all the acknowledged precepts and duties of Christian charity and long suffering for mutual edification Now that from this unreasonableness of division and he great want of moderation and discretion in managing the same scandals and offences should infinitely be multiplyed amongst the Churches is no wonder at all for how can it be otherwise when all charitable thoughts are laid aside and no bowels of compassion by reason of humane frailties entertained but that all manner of provocations to offences will on all hands be both given and taken whence prejudices will continually be more and more heightned and the Spirit of strife wil as we see it doth carry on the parties to embrace in their opposite courses wordly interests of a contrary nature that they may cross each others advantages by which means the world takes insensible possession of the hearts of Professors which makes them for the most part mind more the formality of their partial way then the simplicity of the Gospel and the power of Godliness so that the life of the spirit though much pretended unto by some and not altogether unknown to others cannot break through to work any sensible effects of holinesse and spiritual edification but all the means thereof and the wayes of holy communion being either neglected or obstructed and the prophane world observing our miscarriages the way of Truth and Holinesse is evill spoken of by them and the name of God is blasphemed for our sakes Now to Remedy these evils and to draw the Churches to some principle or degree of spiritual unity that the wrath of God may be prevented which may justly suffer us to devour one another till we be consumed one by another or the Candlestick removed from us all let us mind but one Apostolical Rule to be put in practise amongst us whereof the equity is altogether undeniable and there may be yet some hope of our pre●ervation in store This Rule is given to the Philippians to heal the breach which was between the Jews Gentile Believers Phil. 3. 15. 16 about the matter of Circumcilion and it is this If ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you neverthelesse whereto we have attained already let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing If then we could be so happy as to be able to perswade the Churches to observe this part of the Rule one towards another first mainly to bear each with others imperfection in knowledge till God reveal further his Truth and then if in the mean time they would own one another in that whereunto they have already attained and therein walk by one Rule and mind the same thing that is intend that good towards others which they would have others intend towards them the mischief which through the neglect of this duty is like to ensue might be prevented but how to make the Churches sensible of the necessity of observing this Rule and Precept is scarce imaginable except some Godly party would professedly own this as a duty towards them all in common and undertake to provoke them by some religious way of Correspondency to a reciprocall practise thereof Therefore again such a Correspondence is absolutely necessary for the Churches upon this Consideration namely to preserve them from the forenamed evils of their home-bred distempers and from the wrath which undoubtedly will follow thereupon if they continue therein But if the Churches be look't upon with respect unto their common Adversaries the Papists on the one hand and the Prophane the Hypocrites and the Atheists on the other all which enemies lay the Churches wast severall waies and undermine their Settlement this religious Correspondency to maintain the unity of the Spirit in that whereunto they have attained will yet appear more absolutely necessary For it is without all contradiction evident that nothing doth so much advance the wishes of Papists and the plots of Atheistical States-men against the profession of the truth as our Divisions amongst our selves And these Adversaries chiefly the Papists make it a great part of their work by subtile Emissaries of all sorts which the Colledge de propagande side as they call it doth maintain to foment these our divisions and disorders in hope that thereby we shall be made a prey unto them at last Now to take this advantage out of their hands and to stop the gaps whereby they break in upon us that they may cunningly heighten our passions and make our divisions irreconcilible there is no likely way but this that some Godly and considerate Party should stir up the rest to correspond with it self and each with another in these main and fundamental Duties Truths of Christianity wherein they are all united and whereunto they have all attained notwithstanding their different opinions in lesser matters And except some such course be taken there is no humane possibility to prevent the effect of the plots which the Papall Conclave hath against the Churches which it hath proscated and doth prosecute with indefatigable diligence with innumerable Agents of several sorts with immense cost and charge with all manner of crafty insinuations and fair pretences and with all the zeal that either the opinion of deserving heaven or the hope of temporal Greatness Power and Profit can breed in Superstitious in Ambitions and in Covetous minds Therefore to countermine these practises of the common Adversaries and to cut them short of the advantages by which they will at last work out their ends if no remedy be found this religious Correspondency in things whereunto the Churches have attained is absolutely necessary and without some intercourse between them to this effect it will be impossible as to men to prevent the mischief which will ensue Of the Third AS for the Protestant states in Germany and elsewhere through out Europe if we look upon the causes of their weakening and unsettlement hitherto we may easily read their destiny in time to come if these Causes bee not speedily removed For it is certain that the House of Austria and the Papall Conclave since the dayes of Charles the V. When the first warre about Religion was raised in the year 1546 have entered into a League for the Extirpation of the Protestant Party which hath been to this day maintained between them and the Design thereof constantly
to do it will have much to answer before God Therefore such a Correspondency is absolutely necessary to be intended and maintained not onely for the advancement of the Truth of the Gospel in serving Christ with one shoulder against Antichrist but in respect of outward safety and the securing of our Naturall and Spirituall Rights and Liberties to our selves to our Brethren and to our Posterity Of the Fourth NOw if it hath been Convincingly made out both upon Spiritual and Rational grounds that for the advancement of Christs Kingdom in the world and for the outward safety and Preservation of the Churches a Religious Correspondency is absolutly necessary unto them then an Enquiry may further and ought also to be made of two things First to whom chiefly the procurement of this Correspondency doth belong Secondly How it may be procured and obtained amongst the Churches And to answer these Queries I conceive we may say thus first in the Generall That the procurement of this Correspondency doth chiefly belong to those who stand most in need thereof for their own welfare and safety and who have most eminently engaged themselves to undertake the procurement of it And that the way to procure it amongst the Churches can be none other but a Christian endeavour to live and converse with other Professors in the communion of Saints which is not to look to our own things alone but that every one should look also to the things of others and in the consideration of others to Phil. 2.4 Heb. 10.24 provoke them unto love and to good works This much in Generall but then to Answer the first Query in particular I conceive it may be truly said That the Godly Party living in this Common-wealth doth stand in more need of this Correspondency for the welfare of their Cause and for their own safety then any other Churches do and that this same Party hath more eminently Engaged it self towards God and Men to undertake the procurement of this Correspondency then any other Churches have done And to make out both these Assertions to be truths I shall briefly offer these Considerations First in respect of the need which they stand of it it is in my apprehension thus The Godly Party of this Nation hath been led forth in a peculiar way of acting against the world and against Antichrist which others have not been acquainted withall This acting hath set them in opposition not only to the world and Antichrist in a more direct way then others but also put them at a distance from their Brethren themselves who partly by reason of their weakness partly for want of that information which we should have given them partly because they have been prepossessed with false and injurious Informations against us are for the most part so offended at us that they scruple to own us as Brethren and look upon us rather as Apostates from the Cause and cut of from all Relation towards other Protestants in their esteem we are a new thing start up and standing alone by our selves Now to be in such a condition seemes to be for us very unsafe for if our Enemies be able without any controule to represent us unto the world and to the Professors of the Gospell as Monsters of Men and if we take no thought how to vindicate our Cause from false aspersions towards our Brethren and towards Men of impartial judgement the Cause of Christian and civill Liliberty which we have undertaken and maintained hitherto cannot prosper but must needs at last miscarry in our hands For the prosperity of the Cause is nothing else but the gaining of Godly Mens Affections at home and abroad to it and if we make no Appilcation to our Godly Brethren and Neighbours to set them right and inform them of the truth of our Cause and Proceedings and to interest them to Correspond with us upon a Gospel account how can our Proceedings be successeful how can our Cause be justified and how can we promise safety to our selves when our professed Enemies together with our misled Neighbours shall joyntly conspire and rise up against us I know and am confident that the Cause will prosper in Gods hand and that he will carry it on and preserve the Instruments thereof who follow him in his way but I do not see any ground to believe that he wil do it without the ordinary Gospel Means of propagating the Truth and of maintaining the Communion of Saints If then he doth intend to preserve us and to make use of us any further in this his work I am very confident that he wil set us in the way wherunto he hath promised to give a blessing which is the way of Brotherly love in a Religious Correspondency towards the rest of the Churches professing his Name in the Truth By how much then our undertakings are more resolute and destructive to the course of the world by so much they are the more difficult to be carried on therefore we stand the more in need of the help and concurrence of the Godly every where to carry it on with us to a good issue And by how much our present Leaders in the Cause are less interessed in the Godly Party abroad by so much if they desire to provide in Gods way for the success of the Cause and for their own safety therein they should the more apply themselves to advance a Gospel-interest towards all the Professors thereof and maintain with them to this effect a Religious Correspondency therein For as a man that is in a fight doth not make use of any one of his members alone but all the members of his body are set in a posture to concur supply mutual strength as standing in need of each others help so in this conflict of the Body of Christ against the Powers of the World and the subtilty of Antichrist as all the Churches are aimed at and assaulted so they stand in need of one anothers help and that part of the body which is most violently assaulted standeth most in need of the assistance of the rest for its safety Now it is without all doubt that the Godly Party of this Nation is most in the eye of the Enemie and when the Universal breach which is near at hand between Protestants and Papists shall be made it will be most violently put at therefore it doth stand most in need of help and is bound for its own safety in a Gospel way to endeavour to receive it But the matter of Danger wherein we are more then others is not the onely reason which doth oblige us to procure this Correspondency more then others but the Engagement which lies upon the Godly Party of this Nation more eminently then upon others to procure it is another obligation binding us thereunto This Engagement is eminently apparant in three Declarations of the State First In the Remonstrance of the State of the Kingdome published by the Parliament Anno 1641. Secondly