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A54159 Just measures in an epistle of peace & love to such professors of truth as are under any dissatisfaction about the present order practis'd in the church of Christ / by a lover of the truth and them, G.P. Penn, William, 1644-1718. 1692 (1692) Wing P1310; ESTC R31762 7,858 24

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Society and you have the Returns of in the Benefit and Comfort thereof Do you serve or take care of others that before were free of that Engagement Others also are tryed by the same Rules to serve and be concerned for you that formerly owed you no obligation and if you are under the Notice and Reproof of others as to your personal Conduct they are equally under yours upon occasion so that you lose nothing but what you get nor give nothing but what you receive again and to a right Spirit and a good Mind this mutual Service will appear reasonable christian and requisite And as in no Age the Resister and Gainsayers of Care and Order in any of the Lord 's eminent Servants have passed without the mark of God's Rebuke so those that have contested and opposed the Wisdom of God in his faithful Servants have ever failed of their Purpose and been finally manifested to have been lead by a wrong Spirit And as observable it is that those by whom the Lord has eminently appeared and who were the first Instruments of his several Dispensations to the Sons of Men have alwaies exercised that Authority among the People they have gathered and have been constantly preserved from falling away though some or other have rise against them with that clamour as if they had set up themselves and were gone from what they taught or were and took too much upon them But what have they all come to Read and Judge Nor was it ever heard of in the Dealings of GOD with the Sons of Men that he varied or changed his Dispensations in the Life-time of the Instruments of any of them as some have been ready to imagine nor yet in that Age in which he has brought them forth Which engages me to beseech you in the Bowels of the Love of Christ our only Root of Life and Light and Love and Peace that you be like minded with your Friends and Brethren and see that the Life and the Fellowship of the Truth be preserved in the enjoyment and practice of Fellowship which will be if the love of God which first made us love one another be kept in for that is a sovereign Antidote against all the Poyson of Discontent evil Jealousie and the Divisions that are wont to follow And instead of reproaching our Elders and Brethren whom God has honoured and whom we have honoured and could have laid down our Lives for and who know nothing by themselves but that they are as true to the Lord and in as good a condition in the Truth as ever they were and have done and intended in what they have done as much the Benefit of the Lord's People I say instead of reproaching them with Vsurping Authority and taking too much upon them let us consider that those whom we have received with so much reverent Love and as worthy of double Honour in the greater things are not unworthy to be heard and followed by us in lesser matters Let us regard and value their Care and love them for it So true is that Saying among Men That is well spoken which is well taken that the Bent and Purpose of a Man's Spirit is that which gives the Just reason of acceptance or rejection You have dear Friends judged too much after an outward appearance and you may see not truly there neither Open therefore your Hearts your Souls and Spirits and taste with the divine sense of the tender and meek Truth the aim and end of Brethren Herein be a little more truly free and universal in your Minds and you will perceive this Care has a large and a long Prospect for Good The due exercise of your spiritual Senses will answer all your Objections and satisfie every upright Soul among you but if you look out mistake Liberty mistake Imposition mistake Formality mistake the nature and end of things and the Intention of your ancient Friends and Brethren in them you will judge carnally and be ready to think as it outward Rule and Lordliness were aimed at and a departing from the Truth even whilst our Care in the sight of the Lord is for the Honour of it in reference to the young the weak and such as may be careless and ready to fall asleep for such some yet are and such are yet like to be and for their sakes a Discipline as to Conversation must be as well as that there are natural Infirmities as Sickness Age c. that unavoidably call for it Nor did or can ever any Community subsist without it and the Heats Prejudice and Rents that have arisen about the How or Manner of it shew the Opposition not to be right nor of a good tendency the end of that Order in the Minds and Hands of those from whence we joyfully received the Testimony of the Truth being the Glory of God and Good of his People as a Primitive Christian Society To conclude As this is not a Plea for Imposition nor Forms of Worship but Forms of Discipline as to the Government and Behaviour of our selves in our Converse both with those that are without and those that are within and that there is no visible Communion or Society in this World of Bodies but what is subject to them and must in some sort subsist by them I beseech you that we as becomes a reasonable and modest People and as dear Children may be of one Heart and one mind and walk together as those that have been Partakers of one Life and that have drank into one Spirit for it is a comely thing to see Brethren walk together in Love O Friends let us labour against secret Animosities watchings for Evil Detractation the Sin that flung the Angels out of their Heavenly Station Let us see to our own Spirits how they are if meek lowly humble tender by which the true and preserving Judgment is only known and felt or if not high fierce hard and prejudiced for a man may come to lose a good frame of Spirit upon very Trifles It is not alwaies what the Matter is the Dispute arises upon but how far the thing is espoused and what place a man suffers it to have in his Mind If Jealousie Reputation Revenge or Contradiction prevail Division must follow Some are apt to resent things too soon and carry it too far even to Obstinacy through the Workings of the Evil One in a Mystery so that though the pretence of the Quarrel may be some Fact or other yet that has the least share oftentimes in the Difference it being enflamed and encreased by the mysterious workings of the Spirit of Strife and Variance in the Mind according to an old Saying The greatest Feuds oftentimes arise from the slightest Causes Let me beseech and prevail with you to read and weigh the Bent and Force of the Apostle's Spirit in Rom. 12. also 14. 19. 15. 4 5 6. and especially 16. 16 17 18 19 20 Verse Likewise 1 Cor. 14. 32 33. weighty places indeed 2 Cor. 13. Ephes 4. 1 2 3 4. Phil. 3. 16 17 18. ch 4. 8 9. Col. 3. 12 14 15 16. 1 Thes 5. 12 13 14. 2 Thes 3. 4 5 6. He often commands Order and Obedience to the Apostolick Tradition in this Epistle Tit. 1. 15. ch 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. Heb. 13. 1. And 1 Pet. 4. 8. All which exhort to Peace Brotherly Kindness to be of one mind to study one thing O follow the things that make for Peace and not to contend dispute and strive one with another A blessed Doctrin and it has a blessed Reward The Lord God Almighty dispose your Minds my Friends to a tender returning state and frighten not your selves with Designs of the Brethren that have no Being but in Jealousie and Misapprehension I beseech you in the Lord lay down every Mark or Ensign of Difference or Separation and behold our Arms as open as ever to receive you and let your Heart be as our Heart and then our Meetings your Meetings Let the Fear and Awe of the Lord the becoming love of his precious Truth which is Christ in us the Hope of our Glory who gave himself for us to redeem us from the Enmity Death and Curse Disobedience had laid us under melt and cement us as one lump Flesh of Flesh and Bone of Bone so shall our Joy exceed our Sorrow and Tears be wiped from our Eyes on this occasion and GOD our exceeding Great and Glorious Rewarder be our Crown Portion and Diadem for ever Yours In and for the Truth G. P.
Just Measures IN AN EPISTLE OF PEACE LOVE TO Such Professors of Truth as are under any Dissatisfaction about the present Order practis'd in the CHURCH of CHRIST By a Lover of the Truth and Them G. P. COL iii. 15. And let the Peace of God rule in your Hearts to the which also ye are called in one Body and be ye thankful LONDON Printed for Tho. Northcott in George yard in Lumbard-street 1692. Just Measures IN AN EPISTLE OF PEACE LOVE c. Friends I Have with a deep Sense and Sorrow often beheld the Distance and Dissatisfaction you are under in reference to your ancient and faithful Brethren and that Fellowship which I am sure was once very dear and valuable with you and I would have the Charity to hope is what many of you desire still And for your sakes that would not willingly think amiss nor differ nor divide from those that otherwise you have an Esteem for and are in Judgment one with as to the Worship and Doctrines of Truth I desire to open my Mind both with tenderness and plainness and if what I say has the Voice and Matter of Peace and Love in it and may be helpful to you in closing with your Brethren again I shall greatly rejoice In which know this I seek you not in the words of Man's Wisdom nor to raise Controversie nor for Victory nor any By ends but for the sake of that precious Fellowship and seamless Garment in which the Truth cloathed us all in the beginning and with which it will cloath and comfort all its faithful Servants and true Friends to the end 1st I shall begin with the Difference and what you have both in Conferrence and Writing alledged for the Ground of your Dissatisfaction and Dissent Next I shall consider the Nature and Merit of it and last of all give my sence upon the whole matter in order to a better understanding for the future That there is a Difference is but too plain for it has in some parts proceeded to a Separation as well to places of Worship as in matters of Discipline The Ground of this Dissatisfaction upon which so great a Distance has been raised you say is Requiring your Complyance with some Practices relating to Discipline particularly Womens meetings and coming twice before Men and Womens meetings about Marriages before they are admitted to be solemnized among us some of you thinking that there is no Service for Womens meetings at all others no Service in their being distinct from Mens meetings at least no necessity for either and therefore no necessary Complyance to be required and insisted upon but every one left to their liberty in Christ lest Imposition and Formality should prevail among us as they have done in other Religious Societies In this I think I have truly and fairly stated the Case on your part and given your Objection to our Practice and the reason why you dissent from it Now Friends I shall consider the nature and merit of this Dissatisfaction and Dissent wherein I beseech your Attention Patience and Candour and I hope you will find that we are clear of the Imposition and Formality you object or fear In the first place I do not find that you have any just cause to fear in general an infringement on your Christian Liberty since it has been and is most sincerely declared by the Brethren chiefly concerned in the good Order and Service of the Church that they have no thought or design of imposing any thing upon the Consciences of Friends or that Friends ought to have now any more than at the beginning any other reason or Measure of Complyance or Conformity in Matters relating to God than the conviction of the Light and Spirit of Christ in every Conscience But there is this distinction to be considered well of That the matters in Difference are not such as require such an Exercise and Conviction of Conscience as is pleaded because they relate not to Faith or Worship Did they require Faith or did they appertain to Worship as if you were obliged to worship God only in such a Place Time Gesture Raiment with such words and forms of Speech c. which has been the case of the Dissenters from the National Church your Objection and Plea were good But this about which your Dissatisfaction arises is purely Discipline in Government and not in Worship Formality in Order and not in Religion It is about methods of regulating our selves as to the civil or outward part of the Church as we are a Society how we may avoid Disorder and preserve the Credit of our Society from Censure and Scandal For instance To keep the necessitous as Poor Aged Sick and Orphans To reconcile Differences To take care of Births Marriages and Burials In fine to prevent rebuke and restore disorderly walkers To all which I conceive there is no need of an Act of Faith or other Exercise of Conscience than as the Apostle exhorts to be ready to every good word and work I mean here is nothing required to be believed as an Article of Faith here is no Novelty or Formality in Worship introduc'd or any thing proposed as an End or Service for our Men and Womens meetings that can reasonably admit of the raising of such a Scruple of Conscience since the things proposed are Duties that all civil Societies as well as Church-fellowships agree in as requisite to the support of the Reputation of Fellowships and Societies Now this being the great and true End Vse and Service of our Men and Womens meetings and that 't is the End that always denotes and constitutes the nature of the means it cannot justly be thought to be of the nature of Imposition and Formality as the words are commonly taken in an i●l sence to expect t●e compliance of Members of a Society to such Methods of Order as the Elders thereof have exhorted to and the generality of the People have embraced and which the most considerable part of those that dissent declare they dissent from rather for fear of suffering an Enfringement of their Christian Liberty than any dislike to the Practice it self I say this cannot be called or accounted such an Imposition upon Conscience because they are Expedients of Order and Methods of Rule about things universally agreed upon The thing will not bear the word for instance Because I may say it is against my Conscience to confess to such an Article or Doctrin of Faith or to worship God after such a prescribed form that therefore it would sound reasonable for me to say it is against my Conscience to submit to the Council of the Church for ending of Differences and it is against my Conscience after having once told the Brethren I intend to marry such a Woman to come again a fortnight or a month after to ask if they have informed themselves of mine and the Womans clearness both towards Parents and other persons before we solemnize it