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tradition_n church_n reason_n scripture_n 3,801 5 5.9587 4 true
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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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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