Selected quad for the lemma: duty_n
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A23672
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A retraction of separation wherein VI arguments formerly erected for the service of separation upon the account of infant baptisme are taken down, and VI other arguments for saints generall communion, though of different perswasion, are erected in their room : together with a patheticall swasive to unity, peace, and concord as our generation-work in speciall / by William Allen.
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Allen, William, d. 1686.
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1660
(1660)
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Wing A1071; ESTC R25232
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56,266
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79
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great breach upon a Christians comfort 10. The more you are for union and reconciliation and making of peace the more you will be like God whose infinite goodnesse and grace inclines him to seeke after those that are at a farre greater distance from him then any of the Saints are from one another He is in Christ reconciling the world unto himselfe 2 Cor 5.19 Yea this is that good pleasure which he hath purposed in himselfe that in the dispensation of the fulnesse of times he might gather together in one all things in Christ both which are in heaven and which are on earth even in him Eph 1.9 10. Sin had divided and scattered his creatures in their affections as well from one another as from him but the soule of the Almighty was so set upon their reconciliation and re-union that he sends his Son Jesus Christ in due time to gather them together into one in Christ as their common head And for that end also he appointed the ministry and from time to time furnisheth them with gifts First to perswade men to be reconciled unto God 2 Cor 5.19 and then to bring them all to unity in the faith and knowledge of the Son of God Ephes 4.11 12 13. This God hath done to procure reconciliation and peace And therefore blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God Mat 5.9 They whose hearts and heads and hands are in it that labour at it with desire to effect it to bring men especially the Saints to termes of peace and good agreement they tread in their fathers steps follow the same work designe affect and labour at the same thing and therefore well may they be called his children and followers of God as deare children Ephes 5.1 And being his children come under a great blessednesse indeed having such a father whose affection and power for their advancement hath no bounds but what an infinite wisdome sets And truely if this will not set our hearts on fire to be at this worke I know not what will If then you desire to make good unto your owne soules the evidence of your Son-ship and relation to God upon the best termes it will not be enough for you to be your selves perswaded to reconciliation and agreement with your dissenting brethren but to be active and busie in procuring it in others where its wanting For otherwise though you may be peace-keepers yet you will have little to denominate you peace-makers 11. It s the way to have God with you and delight in you He is so great a lover of peace and concord that he will alwayes make one at this work you shall be sure to have his company and presence both whilst you abide in it and when you lift up your heart hand and tongue to promote it Live in peace and the God of love and peace shall be with you 2 Cor 13.11 Such shall have God with them as a God of peace speaking peace to them evidencing himselfe to be at peace with them I appeal to their consciences who have knowne the difference of living in a divided state and of living in unity with all Saints and of making themselves servants to so good a worke as to reconcile Saints whether they have not more inward peace from God and a richer testimony of his love in the time of their reconciliation union and professed conjunction with all Saints then they had in the time of their distance from many of them It s most true that he that dwells most in love dwells most with God and God with him 1 Joh 4.12 16. And how they can expect peace from God that doe not live in peace with all those with whom God is at peace I know not Especially considering that Christ hath told them that if they from their heart doe not forgive their brothers trespasses that then neither will their heavenly father forgive theirs Mat. 6.14 18.35 And what kinde of forgivenesse that is that can stand with punishing their brethren for involuntary misprisions with rejecting them from their communion and carrying themselves towards them as if they were none of the same house but children of another father I desire may be deeply pondered by those whom it concernes The Apostle exhorting the Ephesians to this very duty backs it with no lesse then seven motives or reason Eph 4.3 4 5 6. Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace For 1. There is one body and 2. one Spirit even as 3. ye are called in one hope of your calling 4. One Lord 5. one faith 6. one Baptisme 7. one God and father of all who is above all and through all and in you all Each of which have very much in them to prevaile with the divided hearts and unpeaceable spirits of professors to lay aside their warres and contentions which are but the off-spring of their owne lusts James 4.1 3.15 1 Cor 3.3 Gal 5.20 But I would not be tedious and therefore shall not inlarge upon them hoping that what hath been already said cannot but come home to the conscience of all those whose uncharitablenesse hath not exceedingly hardened their heart Neither doe I doubt but that every one will be ready to acknowledge this which I have been exhorting to to be every Christians duty and will professe their great affection to unity and peace But alas experience shewes that it is too commonly with this proviso or inward reserve viz. so as that they may have unity and peace upon their owne termes unity in the truth as they call it and that truth their particular opinion upon which division is built The meaning of which is that they would maintaine peace with all provided that none would oppose them in their opinion but say as they say having that in their mouthes Jer 15.19 Let them returne to thee but return not thou unto them which they wofully abuse whiles they apply it to lesser differences But if unity and peace and communion too were not to be had and held but upon such termes what use would there be in relation to different opinions in lesser matters of those many exhortations of bearing the infirmities of the weake of long-suffering and forbearing one another in love of bearing one anothers burdens of not looking every man on his owne things but every man also on the things of others Rom 15.1 Ephes 4.2 Col 3.13 Gal 6.2 Phil 2.4 A cordiall and peaceable communion and forbearance are not inconsistent Union communion and peace must be kept and maintained upon Christians agreement in fundamentalls of faith and holinesse when in the meane while bearing and forbearing must be exercised in relation to those things wherein they otherwise differ Which being the plain Scripture-road it s much to be lamented that so many who seeme zealous of the Scripture-pattern should misse it Therefore I beseech all those that love the Lord Jesus and that love to doe that which pleaseth him that you suffer not those few and lesser things wherein you differ to prevaile more with you to keep at a distance and to deny your communion to one another then those many great and precious things wherein you are agreed to bring and binde you close together and freely to afford your Christian communion one to another Is it reasonable or hath such a thing been heard of in other cases that the minor vote should carry it against the major Lay aside then all prejudice stiffnesse and selfe-will'dnesse and count it your glory that you can seeke to others to receive you into closer communion before they seeke to you And in your prosecution of this work of reconciling distant brethren doe not be beaten off by others hanging off but reckon it so choice a piece of generation-work in these dividing times as that you can hardly lift up your heart your tongue your hand to such another And you that are Ministers of Christ who is the Prince of peace and of the Gospel which is the Gospel of peace and whose work is to guide mens feet into the way of peace and the end of whose calling is to bring all to the unity of the faith and knowledge of the Son of God be intreated Reverend and beloved to take heed of making the breach wider and by any undue representations or aggravations to frighten Saints of different perswasions from coming neere one another but to perswade to christian moderation and forbearance to a treating one another with a spirit of meeknesse and an over-coming of one another with love and herein to approve your selves as patterns And in so doing you shall finde more peace in your owne soules and procure more in the Churches and finde a greater successe in your Ministry make better tempered Christians and set a more glorious Crowne upon the head of the Gospel then otherwise you are ever like to doe FINIS
A RETRACTATION OF SEPARATION WHEREIN VI Arguments formerly erected for the service of Separation upon the account of Infant Baptisme are taken down AND VI Other Arguments for Saints generall communion though of different perswasion are erected in their room TOGETHER WITH A patheticall Swasive to unity peace and concord as our generation-work in speciall By WILLIAM ALLEN When thou art converted strengthen thy brethren Luk. 22.32 Goe ye and learne what that meaneth I will have mercy and not sacrifice Mat. 9.13 Whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule Phil. 3.16 Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace Ro 14.19 LONDON Printed by M. S. for Henry Crips and are to be sold at his Shop at the entrance out of Lumbard streete into Popes-head-Alley 1660. To the godly READERS both Anabaptists and Pedobaptists THe scope of this little piece being in speciall to close the wound of division that hath been made in the Church of God about Baptism I shall here offer a word to both parts divided First to the Anabaptists for so I call them as being that name whether proper or improper by which they are best knowne among men That which I would briefly say to them partly respects their opinion and partly their separation about it My humble request to them First is That their dissent from other godly Christians in the point of Infant Baptisme may be held and managed with much humility and sobriety towards them that differ That reverence which is due to the wisdome godlinesse faithfulnesse and zeal of so great a number as in former ages have been and in this present age are of a minde different from them in this point calls for it The sence of their owne weaknesse and that they are no more infallible then other men calls for it And the peace and undisturbed state of the Church and people of God which every Christian is bound as much as in him lies to preserve calls for it likewise As for those of them that Judge it their duty to uphold a separate state upon account of this difference my humble motion to them is That they would read the ensuing Discourse or any other of like nature with an open and free minde and with that inclination to unity peace and concord that ought to rule in the hearts of all Saints and to give the arguments and considerations which oppose Separation the same law and faire play in their judgements which they have been wont to allow to their contrary and that they would make as much if not much more conscience to lay out and engage their thoughts how to remove objections against generall communion of Saints as to make them Certainly the great cry of the Scripture for unity peace concord and forbearance among Saints and against their dissentions and divisions and the experience of their ill effects is a lowd call to this And so is the law of true Evangelicall brotherly love and the principle of it in whom soever found which is still working if not obstructed towards a kindly closure with all that have the like precious faith and seed of God remaining in them and which makes them desirous and glad of any helpe to remove out of the way what ever keepes them from the closest communion And for those that are or shall be convinced of the unduenesse of this Separation and yet for fear of offending the weake conceal their Judgement my desire and advice is that they would set before them the blame which the Apostle Peter incurred by dissembling his Judgement for fear of offending that sort of believers which were of the Circumcision Gal 2.11 12 13. besides the account which I afterwards give of my owne practice in the contrary My prayer on the other hand to the godly Pedobaptists both Ministers and people is That they would use like moderation and tendernesse towards the godly Anabaptists and not for their different opinion sake in point of Baptisme to set them at naught and represent them to the people and that without distinction as such monsters as some doe nor to make an estimate or representation of the best by the worst there being neer as much difference between Anabaptists and Anabaptists as there is between Pedobaptists and Pedobaptists but to think and speak of them as such who for a considerable part of them at least are truely tender of the glory of the Lord and of the royall authority of his holy Lawes and as desirous to approve themselves with all good conscience both to God and men and as such among whom there are as savoury and experimentall Christians as most in their generation The want of this moderation in many of the Pedobaptists I believe hath had a great hand in the divisions and separations of our times partly by setting them of the other Judgement at a further distance from them then otherwise they would have been and partly by inclining many who have thought them wronged to fall in with them and off from the other Suppose the Anabaptists should be in an errour yet certainly their opinion about Baptisme after faith cannot reasonably be supposed to be of that nature if it should be an errour but that it may well consist with an eminent degree of grace as many I doubt not of different thoughts from them doe sufficiently experience And with what heart then can any who know the worth of grace and how to value persons by it make such to be a gazing stock to the people for a supposed infirmity in judgement Besides the strong probabilities not now to say proofes which they have for their opinion may well bespeake a moderate and sober treatment from such as dissent As to matter of fact what can be said to evince Infant Baptisme a primitive practice but may be so farre counter-argued as to leave an enlightened and tender conscience without conviction in the case And as to the reason of the thing when it shall be argued that to be baptized is to be buried and that buriall betokens or supposeth the person buried to be dead viz. unto sin and how incompetent such a death is to an infant state and how prepostercus it is to bury persons before they are dead is it not very possible that when all is said that can be said to take away the strength of such a consideration that yet so much may be apprehended to remayne by many a wise and holy man as may hold his conscience fast And therefore why should such an opinion that hath so much to be said for it and hard to be answered render its friends so criminall in the eyes in the reports of their brethren as sometimes it does Or if some that be of that opinion have espoused any other opinions of worse import yet why should this be charged upon the whole Tribe See Revel 2.24 3.4 In a word if the godly Pedobaptists and Anabaptists would but charitably consider what