Selected quad for the lemma: heart_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
heart_n	believe_v	dead_a	jesus_n	2,761	5	6.4707	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A57090	The reuniting of Christianity, or, The manner how to rejoin all Christians under one sole confession of faith written in French by a learned Protestant divine ; and now Englished by P.A., Gent.	Learned Protestant divine.; P. A., Gent.	1673 (1673)	Wing R1187; ESTC R38033	70,964	276

Ages It was not subjected to the burthensome observation of so many Ceremonies which are as strange habits and ornaments wherewith it has been since cloathed There are to be found amongst us two sorts of Persons which have much contributed to this Evil. The first are those subtil Spirits who besides their own natural wit are still more refined in the Schools of the Philosophers The second are such as are pleased at some showe and appearance who have not yet been able to quit the inclinations which the World has inspired them with for these outward things and who cannot forbear the having some esteem for the pomp of the Jewish and Pagan Ceremonies The first sort have thought that Christian Religion would be much more considered if it should contain many Misteries which were obscure and difficult to comprehend Judging that as plainness causes contempt obscurity would gain it respect and veneration They have formed difficulties upon all the points of Religion to exercise their wits on and to show their skill and learning which they bring with them from the Schools They have caused doubts to arise from the things which are most easy In a word they have changed the Christian School into a School of Branglings and Disputes Which heretofore caused a certain Person to say that the Philosophers had been the Patriarches of the Heretiques The other Spirits who are for having some show in Religion fancy that if the Christian Church were but reduced into the simplicity which it had in its first rise it would have but a few Followers They see that Men naturally do love that which pleases the Senses and which conveys devotion into the heart by the Eyes and Eares It is from this notion that all these several different Ceremonies are crept in amongst us which we see practised among Christians They have retained Jewdaisme nay more they have brought in such Paganisme as they have deemed most proper to imprint by outward objects some inward Motives to Devotion and Zeal They have imagined that they could with profit make use of those things which the others abused They have supposed that that was the way to sanctifie the profane Vessels of the Egiptians and bring back that to its true use which nourished the Pagan Superstition In the mean time how specious soever the Reasons and Pretences are which one and the other alledg in their own favour These are they who have given the first stroke to the Peace and Union of the Church For if at first they had religiously kept themselves to the small number of Rules which the Gospel prescribes us they had never soparated into so many Sects as have been formed concerning such questions as the curiosity of Men has caused to be raised Jesus Christ tells us that his Yoke is easy to bear He invites all even to the very little Children to believe in Him which he would not have done if the Faith had certainly brought with it all those abstruce Rules and Misteries which are proposed to us now The Holy Scriprures do present but very few Doctrines in comparison of the Exhortations to Vertue which are there made us And the Gospel is not given us but that we should believe that Jesus is the Messias and that in believing it we may have life through his Name John 20. To be lawfully Baptized It is sufficient to believe from the Heart that Jesus Christ is the Son of God Acts 8. Saint Paul reduces all his preaching to this only Point That Jesus Christ is the Messias foretold by the Prophets that he was to be crucified and rise again from the dead Acts 17. The same reports that the extent of his knowledg is to know Jesus Christ and Him Crucified The Epistle to the Hebrews requires not more of him that would approach neer to God but the knowledg of two things that there is one God and that he is the Rewarder of those who seek after Him And St. James makes pure Religion and blameless before God to consist in visiting the Widow and Fatherless in their afflictions and in keeping themselves from being defiled by this World As if they would have said that the Principal design of Religion is to bend all ones study to Sanctity to Purity and to Charity The Creed of the Apostles contains whatsoever is Essential in the Rules of Christian Religion And what that teaches us is sufficient for the Consolation of our Souls and to induce us to a holy Life Let us but examine all the Apologies of the first Christians written on purpose to discover their Opinions in Religion They justifie all that which I assert They comprehend but a very few Articles of Faith as concerning the existence of God the Incarnation of our Lord his Birth Life Death and Resurrection Hence it is that they have defended themselves from the accusations which were brought against them that they have resisted the strongest temptations and sustained with courage the most violent Persecutions If they had continued in that course and had not consulted the Schools of Plato and Aristotle concerning the Rules of Religion there had been no change made then had there been no separation in Christianity If the wit of Man had not been ambitious to mix his own with the Divine Oracles the Church would have still been in its innocency and in its purity Such are all these new Opinions which being destitute of the evidence of truth have separated Mens Spirits and caused this unhappy Division And as to this matter of Ceremonies and of the outward show of the Church If they had considered them as simple Ornaments which are nothing of the Essence of Religion If they had not multiplyed them to so vast a number If herein they had kept up themselves to the simplicity of their practice in the Primitive Church They had had no occasion for any contests concerning these things and every one might have easily found wherewithall to be satisfied But since they have without measure increased the number of Ceremonies So that they have not left Christians the Liberty of making the least step in Religion without upholding it by some Ceremony They have put things to a tryal Every one has pretended to have a right to speak his sence thereof which has made many to separate and given occasion of Division CHAP. V. That many do make use of Religion to serve their particular Interests and the advantages of a temporrl Life THe greatest Evil which Reigns in Society is that a right distinction has never been made between the solid and true goods and those which have no foundation but in the imagination of Man We often prefer a Worldly interest before all the advantages of the Soul and the hopes of that which is to come Sometimes also after a most wicked and detestable manner there are those who make Religion and an appearance of Devotion serve for the obtaining or preserving some temporal and passing good Insomuch that as it is

Name of a Church and boasted to be the Spouse of the Son of God to the utter exclusion of all others They have also gone further for besides the Heavenly Doctrine contained in the Gospel where they have taken occasion of raising disputes They have forged such as have been meerly humane concerning which there hath also been miserable Divisions And as though these Men had climbed up to Heaven to consult the very Mouth of God himself they have Preached up their Doctrines as Oracles and Fundamental Truths After which they have had no great trouble to engage their Followers to suffer the most cruel Torments and even Death it self in defence of their Opinion and after that have confidently enrolled them in their own Legend as Martyrs of Jesus Christ though they suffered only to advance the glory and reputation of some Arch-Heretique So God to chastize the rashness and confound the vanity of their thoughts has permitted that Division should ruine their work as heretofore it defeated the insolent designs of those who would erect the Tower of Babel After that we have once forsaken the Royal Road which God has prescribed us we run into all by paths and separate our selves one from another each of us fancying to be in the most commodious and safest way Can you likewise believe that a separation is sometimes made about Subjects not only light and trivial but in some sort ridiculous and which do redound to the shame of those who made them serviceable to the ends of their Schisme and Division What contentions have there not been among Christians namely on what Day the Celebration of Easter should be observed If in the Communion Bread leavened or unleavened should be made use of If the Body of Jesus Christ was corruptible after its conception or not If we may say that one of the Trinity was Crucified If the Church can condemn and excommunicate one that is dead If the Hallelujah might be Sung in Lent and other Questions of the like nature Behold here what are ordinarily the subjects which cause these most real calamities Behold that which separates those who with one consent should advance the glory of their common Master But to come to our times and more neerly to touch upon the evil which troubles us at present and which has given me occasion of laying open my sence to contribute to a Remedy Is it not a lamentable thing and of sad Example to see Christians so miserably divided as they are at this Day For to let pass the divers Sects of Christians which are in the East and who have more cause to grieve for their lamentable Divisions than for their miserable state under the rigorous Yoke of the Mahometans such are the Greeks of Armenia and Circassia the Nestorians Jacobites Maronites Cophtes Christians of St. Thomas c. People who are looked upon as Hereticks or Schismaticks and who believe that out of their particular communion there is no Salvation to be expected Let us insist only upon this deplorable condition of the Christians of Europe in these Countreys wherein we live There is no heart so hard that does not sigh to behold so strange a dis-union There is no truly Christian Soul that does not grieve to see the effects of the implacable sudes and hatreds which are amongst those who are looked upon as Brethren Since they are thereby exposed to the continual insolencies of the sworn Enemies of Christianity Since this great breach which is made in the Western Church by the separation of the Protestants from the Communion of the Church of Rome what Bloody Wars How many Murders and Massacres What changes and subversions is in States has there not been seen insomuch that they have not stuck to have recourse to the common Enemy to draw in succour against those with whom they should have entertain'd a true Brotherly affection And that which is most deplorable is that this division hath been followed by an infinite company of others and as a fruitful Mother hath produced an incredible number of Monsters which resemble it These two great Branches growing out one from the other have also sprouting out of them a vast company of lesser Branches which although not equal in strength bring forth fruits altogether as dangerous as their Mother Among Protestants how many several Sects in Germany in England in France in the Low-Countreys c. There needs but some diversity in the habits of Preachers some difference in the Ceremonies or in the Ornaments of Churches or of the Government thereof to form a Sect. A simple dissenting in the Liberty which every one gives himself of expounding according to his Fancy the misteries which are above his reach is sufficient to cause a separation The manner of explaining the subject of Predestination and o● Reconciling God's Grace with the Motions of the Will of Man makes us look upon those who are of a different Opinion as such People as are in the high-way of Damnation and with whom we must not enterta●● any Communion Nor may they who have lived in Communion with the Church of Rome insult at this Division of the Protestants and pretend that union and concord have continued amongst them without any division For although they all submit themselves in appearance to the Authority of one only Head and that they look upon him as the Center wherein all the Lines of their Society do meet and are reunited nevertheless we are not ignorant how great the number of their dissentions are and how little the union is amongst their Doctors 〈◊〉 that if the fear of a Superior Authority seems to retain them in one and the same Society their hatreds are but the more fermented within They do not less condemn one another of Heresie and of being out of the way of Salvation And the Ex●mples of our Age have shown us that when oppertunities have been presented of making their aversions appear how far they have carried it being always desirous that their particular Opinions might prevail over all others Therefore it is not any particular interest that I here endeavour to advance But it is the general interest of all Christian Societies It is the good and the union of all those who march under the Standard of the Cross I design to reunite together all the Christians of the East and West Greeks and Romans Catholicks and Protestants and all the divers Branches whereinto these latter are subdivided CHAP. II. The first Effect of this Division Disquiet of Mind and Trouble of Conscience WEre there no other Evil in this Division than the very Division it self and that deformity which it causes in Christian Societies Were there no other harm done by it than the disfiguring the Face of Christianity and the blemishing its beauty that renders it so considerable it would be so great a cause of grief as to oblige us to endeavour with all our power to remedy so great a mischief But besides all this this unhappy