Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
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A81577
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A short essay of modern divinity, by Robert Dixon. D.D.
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Dixon, Robert, d. 1688.
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1681
(1681)
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Wing D1748A; ESTC R231408
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33,711
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62
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wrongly as they are not because both cannot be right and wrong But in matters of real Faith as in matters of right Reason they are both so clear the one by Divine Revelation and the other by Divine Instinct and each so firmly and constantly and universally believed and proved by all Faithfull and rational men that they may be said to have no Handle at all much less two one right and the other wrong for they cannot be right and wrong nor believed and proved as right and wrong but certainly are right and cannot be wrong or else our Faith and Reason had no sure Foundation as undoubtedly they have Thus God our Creator and Christ our Redeemer and the Holy Ghost our Comforter and the Catholick Church and the Communion of Saints the Forgiveness of Sins the Resurrection of the Body and the Life Everlasting are most certainly true in themselves as they most certainly are believed and most certainly revealed to us and by Reason imprinted in us without mistakes in the main needing no Judge for them at all for such Spiritual things are Judged of God and are to be judged of no man so carrying the Naked Truth in themselves as to be clear to all men and no Disputes about them at all because they are from God and not from men and true as God is true And Men can no more be deceived in them then they can be deceived in God And therefore there is more certainty in Religion and Reason then there is or can be in any thing else Evidences say all the Mathematicians or Philosophers in the World what they please The Testimony of God is sure and we are all his Offspring and we all know his Will and if we will not believe what we know to be true we are without all excuse Nor can the Revelations of Faith and Impressions of Reason be any more questioned than the Light of the Sun can be questioned to be the cause of life and growth of all the Creatures in the lower World And the evidence of things seen and heard and felt and tasted by the mind is as Scientifical a Demonstration as the evidence of things seen and heard and felt and tasted by the Body To bâ—lieve in God is to believe all that is of God as well Spiritual things as Corporeal and to deny Spiritual things or beings is all one as to deny God's Spirit or God's being As for the Consequences and Deductions from right and true Faith and Reason in their several Modifications and Qualities Consequences I cannot say but that they are and may be wrong and false and so we may be deceived As for instance concerning Faith Justification Regeneration Adoption New Creation Union and Communion with Christ c. These if you will may have two Handles but they are both of our own making not God's the right and the left and the left be sure is the wrong according as our Apprehensions Believings or Reasonings are right or wrong Vide my Book of the differences of the Two Covenants If therefore in any point of Controversal or Consequential Divinity I have taken the left or wrong Handle I am a Man and 't is my mistake as a man and when I am convinced of my Errour I will ingeniously confess it repent of it and mend it if I can But if I have taken the right Handle I must not alter and let Reason be Judge in all men which in some will be for me and in some against me There is no Question to be made of the truth of God of Christ of the Spirit of Regeneration New Creation Union and Communion with God by the Spirit and of Justification Sanctification Election Faith Adoption Presence of Christ that there are such things as all Christians Grant Modes But in the Manner of our Regeneration New Creature Union and Communion with God and of our Justification Sanctification Election Faith Adoption Presence of Christ c. there are too many and great Questions and too many Disputes Pro and Con about them some of them grating too much upon Barbarity and Profaneness as to be Godded with God and Christed with Christ and that there is no other Christ nor Light nor Heaven nor Hell but what is in us and Justification and Sanctification Law and Gospel are blended together and some of those contrary Positions may not be hurtfull on either side and some are But chiefly the manner of Christ's Presence in the Holy Supper is become a bloody Question and in most suspense with least cause in which there are two bold and Magisterial Assertions made de fide of Transubstantiation and Consubstantiation very hurtfull and dangerous to the overthrowing of the Faith of some But still there is a Presence and the Spiritual Presence is safe to be sure that can do no harm and is most profitable and the Carnal Presence can do no good but may do harm SECT II. Liberty of Opining I claim therefore the Liberty of Opining due to all Mankind most modest and safely as they may that differ in Opinion from me and both may be good and both preserve Love and Charity and let Posterity Judge of both and choose which they like best if they be both safe and impinge not upon God nor hurt the Souls Bodies Estates or Honours of Men. The Church of Rome is pleased to call our Differences from them by the odious nick-name as they have made it of Heresies and falls to Persecution of all Dissenters called by them Hereticks as far as de Haereticis comburendis O certainly this is a most inhumane as well as most Unchristian Practice and no true Protestant I am sure will ever follow them in it no not a far off nor come so near as to Plundering Sequestration or Consiscation because by these though they kill not outright as the Papists do yet they starve them by a lingring death which in some sense is as bad or worse And bloody Religions cannot be true The Ventilation of some Problems on both sides if moderately and charitably managed may tend to much Truth Peace and Love But if we come to Railing Fighting Undoing and Killing farewell all Religion Liberty and Peace The Effects of our Faith Justification Regeneration Union and Communion with Christ we know and feel which we call the work of Grace But the Manner how the Causes work such Effects we do not know For the wind of this Spirit bloweth where and when and how it listeth and we know not where it cometh nor whither it goeth and 't is in vain and sinful to pry too far into these Secrets of God's workings and therefore Faith Reverence and silence in these cases is always the safest But still Peace and Charity are to be maintained by all means or else we spoil all In Sum this is all I do but desire to have fair play for my pains and hurt no body And they that do not like my Opinion
the Scripture The Word of God is outwardly written in the whole Creation To believe and serve God only and not Saints or Angels or Idols is Gods Word To Obey Princes and Priests is Gods Word To Rebell is Witchcraft and the Devils Word Rewards of Grace not Merit is Gods Word Christ the only true Priest and Sacrifice and Mediator is Gods Word No other Name given under Heaven by which we can be saved Baptism and the Lords Supper in both kinds is Gods Word Marriage in all is the Ordinance of God and Gods Word Justice and Mercy to all is Gods Word Religion to be perswaded not forced is Gods word Common Salvation is Gods Word Christ died for all Scriptures common to all Gods Testament Gods Word God no Respecter of Persons is Gods Word These things are good and profitable to all men These things exhort and teach with all Patience and long Suffering Freely we have received freely give If these Doctrines were preached amongst Papists and Protestant Dissenters of unbiassed Spirits they would listen diligently and be pricked in their hearts and cry out Men and Brethren what shall we do But alas the poor well-meaning Souls are led away by the crafty wiliness of those deceitful workers that lye in wait to deceive that make a Gain of Godliness writing and preaching and practising un-Gospel-like things We endeavour and pray and hope and long for this happy Reformation and till it be perfected continue to protest against all that is contrary to sound Doctrine and this is all our Forefathers did or that we can do and God accepts of it and will help our good work and labour of Love And still God and his Truth shall never want their Witnesses When we have tried all the ways we can what ever the Success be it was fairly offered we shall not lose our Reward we have wronged no body our Reward is with the Lord it shall return into our own Bosoms we shall see the travel of our Souls and be satisfied and the work of the Lord shall prosper in our hands Let God do his work in his own time and in his own way we have saved our own Souls Their blood shall be upon their own heads There is set before us Jewish Divinity Heathenish Divinity Popish Divinity Reformed Divinity Try all things hold fast that which is good But above all Stand fast in the Liberty with which Christ hath made you free and be not entangled again in the Yoke of Bondage which neither you nor your Fore-fathers were able to bear SECT VI. If there be Custom Customs or Education or Credit or Interest in the case you may come off from all these for the Gospels sake and for your Souls sake and for Gods sake except ye be Reprobates and will be Reprobates except ye be Barbarous and will be Barbarous The ignorant and slavish Greeks stand off from Reformation by any Copy Greek because they will not alter though for the better lest the Turks under whose Bondage they live should deny them that Liberty they have for siding with their Western Enemies 'T is a sore necessity 't is Barbarism their Forefathers disdained the Title 'T is their greater misery and their less sin by how much the more they are oppressed and by how much the less they understand and by how much the more they would know better if they knew how If they had known the things that we know and were in that Liberty and Plenty that we are in they would do better things than we do No body knows what Slavery is but they that feel it No body knows what Poverty is but they that feel it No body knows what Ignorance is but they that are under it and think there is no other Knowledge Magnum est humanae fragilitatis remedium Necessitas Sen. Customs barbarous Many Customs of Nations though never so Barbarous are diligently observed as lying with Mothers and Sisters among the Persian Magi Prostituting Wives as the Lacedemonians did and Indians do and count it a great honour and civility eating their Old Parents alive so to bury them in their Bowels a great Piety Stealing an honourable employment amongst the Idumaeans and Arabians and Algerines c. ever since Nimrods time the old Thief-hunter Canibals eating of Men. Wives buried or burnt alive with their dead Husbands c. But we are a Civilized as well as a Christianized People and may and do understand and practise better things We know our Masters Will and do it not we deserve to be beaten with many stripes We live not among Turks and Infidels but among Christians We are not Slaves but Freemen We may be wiser and honester if we will for we know better things So that we have no Cloke for our sins we can make no just excuses we can frame no righteous pretenses we are verily guilty for being no better because we are better taught than to be Idolaters Covenant-breakers Murderers Robbers Profane and downright Atheists So making our selves sinful as we are so making our selves miserable as we are and more and more sinful and miserable as we deserve to be even forsaken of God whom we have forsaken and then looking upon one another for help but not upon God SECT VII O the Right Spirit of the Gospel is quite another thing than that which shews it self abroad in the World in our days 1. The Clergy are not to Lord it over the Laity as far as Princes as they do Clergy for they are the Lord's Inheritance 2. The Clergy are not to Lord it over the Clergy as they do for they are the Lord's Inheritance How plain is Christ's Prohibition to the contrary It shall not be so among you My Kingdom is not of this World c. This is unreasonable this is unsufferable I will not say unpardonable whether it be in the Pope as it hath been a long time viis modis God knows how Or whither it be in the Presbyterian Independant Anabaptists or c. as it was for a short time in comparison viis modis God knows how To be sure they all equally claim Infallibility and Supremacy Infallibility and Supremacy if they could catch it and would practice equally Rebellion Murder and Rapine if they durst What else are those indeed and in truth but Simeon and Levi Brethren in Iniquity how true is it that Instruments of Cruelty are in their Habitations how true is it that they have brought a scandal upon the peaceable Gospel of Christ to be the cause of all the Blood that hath been spâ—lt in Christendom and made the names of Christians stink among all the Inhabitants of the World that have heard of their Doctrines and Doings Surely the Lord will be avenged upon some body for these things The true zealous Protestant party wash their hands from this guilt and though they dy Ten Thousand Deaths will never stain their hearts with such Blood guiltiness