Selected quad for the lemma: spirit_n
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A57090
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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.
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Learned Protestant divine.; P. A., Gent.
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1673
(1673)
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Wing R1187; ESTC R38033
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70,964
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276
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to them all This Interest would carry them on jointly to oppose themselves to the Enemies of the Name of Christian and take over them all advantage which reason justice could allow Is it not a strange thing that since the Roman Catholicks the Protestants and the Greeks have so rent and torn each other we see that the Mahometans have made so great a progress amongst them by reason of their Divisions If when the Turks came to fix themselves in Hungary and then afterwards attacqued the State of the Venetians all Christendom with one accord had opposed themselves to their designs Had they reaped those advantages which now they have obtained over those two States Is it not a very astonishing not to say a shameful thing that some neighbouring Countries to those dreadful-Enemies of all Christians do think themselves obliged to treat with them and that also upon disadvantagious Terms meerly out of the Distrusts and Jealousies which they have of other Christians They shamefully make Peace with the Turks to turn their Arms against the Christians esteeming it to be running to that which is the most pressing necessity Thus the common Enemy advances and gets much ground every day by reason of our Divisions To stop this evil I see no other more effectual remedy than to hasten this Agreement of Opinions which without doubt will be followed by that of affections The common People will find herein this satisfaction that they shall no more be troubled in Religion with so great a number of Questions and diversity of Opinions proposed to them as necessary to Salvation Hereby will be banished from hence all those Scruples of Conscience those Troubles those Alarms and those Distrusts so directly opposite to the Genius of Christian Religion and to the Peace which the Eternal Soh of God has procured for us Thus the simple Artificers the Labourers and those who are most unlearned and ignorant would be guided in the way of Salvation and be led to the enjoyment of eternal Blessedness The Doctors by this means would not have any advantage over the people in the Knowledge and practise of things necessary to Salvation It might be said that hitherto there have been as it were two different Religions in one and the same Religion The first is of the learned and Scholars the other that of the common People Women and Children Yet Jesus Christ never had a double Auditory he never instructed the Pharises and the Doctors of the Law otherwise than the common People And when he chose Successors to supply his room they were poor Fishermen who had more concern in the instructing and saving of such as were like them in condition than boasting their subtilty in the Disputes of the Schools and confounding such as thought to have the advantage over others in arguing I am also persuaded that those particularly who are employed in Ecclesiastical Charges and called to teach others will here find great advantage They will no more tread upon those Thorns which heretofore they met with in all those critical and unprofitable Questions They will have no more those Distrusts and Alarms which they gave themselves doubting if they were not in a wrong way and if they misled not others They will not fear the encountring a Doctrine which is truer than that they profess Let them say what they will this thought oftentimes makes their hearts ake who amongst them have tender Consciences Therefore seeing themselves delivered from all those unquietnesses they would acquit themselves of their Charge with much more Joy They would labour with pleasure for the Advancement of the Glory of God They would bend all their thoughts to stir up every one to a good life and they themselves would be Examples to others of Vertue Piety and Charity 'T is often seen that amidst the Contentions which the Doctors raise about some Niceties of Doctrinal Points there is little or no Zeal for the Glory of God They grow so passionate for the getting of some advantage in a Dispute until at last they let themselves be mastered and vanquished by their own Passions Many times strangâ— Controversies make us forget that business that we should have with our selves and some study more how to speak well and dispute well than how to live well Lastly who does not see that if we bring this design about it will prove an excellent means to draw to the Gospell many people who look not upon it now but with aversion and contempt This Simplicity this Beauty and this Facility which is observed in Christian Religion together with the perfect Unity of the Professors thereof will be a powerful Loadstone to attract to it all these who hitherto have rejected it When they shall see that this holy Religion is not made to consist meerly in Ceremonies that is to say in outward grimaces which most commonly terrifie and keep off those that are well inclined towards it rather than invite them to follow it When they shall never more hear talk of all those critical and troublesome Questions which are risen up in Christianity When they shall observe no more particular interests predominant in the Spirit of Christians When they shall be convinced that there is nothing but the Love of God Charity towards our Neighbour and the desire of living well which inspires them Lastly when they shall see in the Faces of these Christians the marks of true Peace and Comfort which the Christian possesses within They must have deprived themselves of all sence of Vertue they must have extinguished utterly all sparks of Reason and turn sworn enemies of their own good if they desire not to enter into a Society which hath all these advantages I doubt not also but those blessed Spirits who continually stand before the Throne of God will be concerned in the Advantages of this holy Union for if they so much interest themselves in the conversion of a poor sinner that they rejoyce and sing aloud in the Quire of Glory will they not make a solemn Festival in Heaven for the reuniting of all Christians upon earth I am also persuaded that God seeing we all bend our Course toward him with the same heart and the same affections will certainly come to meet and receive us He will embrace us in his mercies and speak to us in the motions of his loving kindness especially if we say to him with the Author of that Treatise of the Imitation of Christ Lib. 1. C. 3. I am weary with hearing and reading so many things It is in thee alone O my God that all is included which I desire or wish for Let all Doctors hold their peace let all Creatures keep silence in thy presence and be thou pleased alone to speak to me I wish with all my heart that all these considerations may make such an impression upon the spirits of all those who shall read this Writing that every one may afterwards contribute according to his power to the advancement of this great work and that God would favour in such manner our attempts with his Grace that we might suddainly see a happy success therein to his Glory and the good of all Christians And because my voice is too weak to awaken them and draw them out of the estate where I behold them now I wish they would hear that of the great Apostle of the Gentiles whose Voice and Stile all Christians know He calls to them thus in Ephes 4. Be ye kind one to another in love endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of Peace There is but one body and one spirit even as you are called to one hope of your vocation There is but one Lord one Faith one Baptism one God and Father of all who is over all and through all and in you all This great servant of God likewise beseeches them all with words capable to work upon the hardest hearts speaking to the Philippians Chap. 2. If says he there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels of mercy if any compassion make my Joy compleat that ye be of the same opinion having the same charity being of the same courage and acquiescing in the same thing Neither let any thing be done amongst you with strife or vain glory But rather esteeming one the other in humility of spirit more excellent than himself not every one regarding his own particular interest but that also which appertains to others Let there be therefore one mind in you like that which was also in Jesus Christ To whom with the Father be Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS These Books are Printed and Sold by William Gilbert at the Half Moon in Saint Pauls Church-yard Folio THe Annals of the Old and New Testament by James Vsher Doctor in Divinity Arch-Bishop of Armagh Danielis Sennerti opera omnia 3. Tom. Venet. Poeta Graeci Veteres Carminis Heroici Scriptores qui extant omnes 2 Tom. Biblia Graeca Francosurti Book of Martyrs by J. Fox 3 Vol. Alexander de Ales. 4 Vol. Quarto Jani Alexandri Ferrarii Caenobitae Augustiniani Euclides Catholicus sive demonstratio Romanae fidei ex primis certis evidentibus Principiis Mathematica methodo connexis continua seriv propositionibus deducta Regal Protomartyr or the Memorial of the Martyrdom of King Charles the first in a Sermon preached upon that occasion by John Allington Rector of Vppingham Learn to lie warm or an Apology for that Proverb It is good sheltring under old Hedg containing Reasons wherefore a young Man should marry an old Woman Miltons History of England from the first traditional beginning to the Norman Conquest The Way to get Wealth by Gervase Markham Octavo Discourse of Evangelical Love Church Peace and Unity English Rogue or the Witty Extravagant in four parts Hools Greek Testament The last and now only compleat Collection of the newest and choisest Songs and Poems that are now extant at Court Theatres and elsewhere with above forty new Songs never before in Print which are now added to this second part of Wistminster Drollery Duodecimo Hungarian Rebellion an Historical Relation of the late wicked Practices of the three Counts Nadasti Serini and Frangepani tending to subvert the Government of his present Imperial Majesty of Hungary and introduce the Mahometan with their Arraignment Condemnation and manner of Execution By P. A Gent. FINIS