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A41563 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. Gordon, Robert, fl. 1669-1675. 1675 (1675) Wing G1291; ESTC R29926 14,410 15

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of Rome from the Tru●h and Order of the Gospel upon this very Principle an External Judge in the Church one or more to have an Infallible Judgment to whom all are to submit though unconvinced the admitting whereof in any Christian-Church is the readiest way I know of to make void their great Principle of Union Conviction and Choice and to introduce the necessity of an Implicit Obedience to all manner of Innovations Church-Rulers shall please to impose without a possibility in the whole Church to remedy it For to add So long as he or they abide in the Conduct of that Spirit in their own particular and so not in a Decay Is no more than what they of Rome assert of themselves and the great question here remains undetermined Viz. Who shall be Judge of the Life or Decay of this one or more Whether the Pope and the Council of Trent or the Dissenting Protestants The very assuming such a Power in themselves at Trent was a sufficient evidence in the Consciences of Dissenting Protestants of their Decay then and it is so now Obj. But if there be no infallible Judgment to be expected now in the Church how are these words of our Lord 's to be understood Lo I am with you to the end of the World the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it And how is the Church the Ground and Pillar of Truth I Answer The necessity of this infallible Judgment in one or more in the Church can no more be concluded from these words than the Pope's Supremacy over Emperours and Kings and the whole Catholick Church from the words of our Lord to Peter Feed my Sheep These Expressions in plainness importing only this That Jesus Christ will be so present with his Holy Catholick Church in the World so long as it shall last that the Gates of Hell shall not prevail against it so as in it the truth of the Gospel shall be preserved and prosessed which is not applicable to any one particular Church for many that were such in the days of the Apostles are long since so far prevailed upon by Heresies Persecutions and Devastations that they have lost not only a Church-State according to the Order of the Gospel but also their very Being in the World yet Christ's Presence remains with his Church so as it continues in the World the Ground and Pillar of Truth against which the Powers of Darkness shall never so far prevail so as it shall not have a Being in the World or shall cease to be the Ground and Pillar of Truth Obj. But if there be no Infallible Judgment now to be expected in the Church will not both the Dissenters they that are dissented from be in the Mist both hitting at Random And will not Religion degenerate into Sceptism I Answer There is no such hazard where the Divine Authority of the Holy Scriptures and the Illumination of the Holy Spirit of God in the understanding of them is owned and preserved and where People are called upon not to imbrace outward Appointments too hastily but wait the Conduct of the Spirit of the Lord to lead into all Truth according to the Scriptures and this can never be the necessary consequence of this Doctrine however these Masters of Order would impose such an Inference upon it but we do indeed then hit at random and are in the mist blindfolded when being denyed the use of our Reason and Spiritual Understanding we are required to submit to outward Impositions to be first blindfolded and then led by such blind Guides is the shortest way I know of to fall into the Ditch Obj. But if any through unclearness or disobedience do not submit is not the Church to deny them her Spiritual Fellowship If in Civil Corporations or Societies they have power to declare the Breakers of the Fundamental Articles of their Society to have forfeited their Right in the Society why should it not be so in Christian Societies without the brand of Tyranny I Answer The chiefest Liberty pleaded for in this Discourse is not on their behalf who break the Fundamental Spiritual Band of the Churches Unity which is the Spirit of God by Conviction and Choice uniting them together in one voluntary joynt Communion neither is it pleaded for on their behalf who break the Fundamental Articles of a Christian Society as such to wit those who walk scandalously in a disordered prophane Conversation unsuitable to the Holiness of the Gospel and those who avowedly maintain and obstinately adhere unto those damnable Heresies as are manifestly inconsistent with the very Fundamental Principles of the Christian Faith from all such as having a Form of Godliness but denying the Power thereof and as having erred concerning the Truth overthrowing the Faith of some in the Apostles days the Christians were to turn from and it ought to be so now in all Christian Societies walking according to that Pattern as is clear in the New-Testament But if Persons make Outward Bands of Church-Unity as necessary Conditions of Church Communion which was not in the first Churches and impose them contrary to the Apostles Rules of Expediency Edification Peace and Charity obliging all persons in the Church notwithstanding any unclearness in themselves to a submissive obedience thereunto as unto the Judgment of the Spirit of God in the Men's and Women's Meetings or be denied the Spiritual Fellowship of the Church In this Case the standing fast to Christian Liberty not to be subject to Ordinances after the Commandments and Doctrines of Men is no breach of the Fundamental Articles of a Christian Society but a necessary Testimony against Introduced Innovations contrary to them for in any Christian Congregation or Church though there be not an Uniformity in Outward Practices because of unclearness in the Consciences of the Disciples in matters that are not plainly manifest to them all to be of that weight as utterly to dissolve the Spiritual Union and break the Fundamental Articles of all Christian Societies as such the Congregation or Church is not to deny the Dissenters her Spiritual Fellowship Christian Liberty was thus allowed of in the first Churches and will be so still where Church Government is not turned into Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction in the hands of a few Church-Rulers to uphold their Authority over all in the Church Neither are Christian Societies like other Corporations because not gathered on the same Grounds nor being gathered preserved by the same Principles nor governed by the same Methods the ground of their being gathered in Societies is their being first joyned to the Lord by his Grace in their Hearts and then a voluntary joyning together for their mutual Edification in the holy things of the Gospel this Principle which first united them and that only preserves them in one joyn● Body in the exercise of that Spiritual Government that is consistent with Christian Liberty in different Outward Practices which Principle of Union and Method of Government no Civil
further this Spiritual Government and Christian Liberty are not only consistent and was accordingly practised in the first Churches but i● 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