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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	child_n	heart_n	24	3	5.6776	4	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61632	The unreasonableness of separation, or, An impartial account of the history, nature, and pleas of the present separation from the communion of the Church of England to which, several late letters are annexed, of eminent Protestant divines abroad, concerning the nature of our differences, and the way to compose them / by Edward Stillingfleet ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1681 (1681)	Wing S5675; ESTC R4969	310,391	554

present at those assemblies that are held under a Government that we do not approve and that that would be to approve outwardly what we inwardly condemn For besides that it would be necessary to examin well the question whether these oppositions do not proceed from a conscience mistaken by a precipitate judgment since that the best men are often subject to fram to themselves such scruples as are not altogether lawfull at the bottom Further than this it is necessary to distingush three kinds of things the one those which the conscience approves and admits of and in which it does fully acquiesce the other which she looks upon as intolerable and destructive to the glory of God and the true faith or true piety and the hopes of salvation and others lastly which are between these that is to say such as we do not fully approve as to the truth but yet we do not believe them mortal enemies to true piety and salvation in a word such as we look upon as stains and tolerable infirmities I affirm that when we find things of this second rank in any Assemblies or those which the Conscience judges such we cannot be present there and the whole question will be reduced to this to know whether we be not mistaken where we ought to take good heed that we do not make a rash judgment But to imagine that we cannot with a good Conscience be present at Assemblies but onely when we do fully and generally approve of all things in them it is certainly not to know neither the use of charity nor the laws of Christian society This principle would overturn all Churches for I cannot tell whether there be any whose government discipline outward form usages and practices be of such perfection that there is nothing at all in them to blame and however it be as the judgments of men are very different this would be to open the gate to continual separations and to abolish all Assemblies It is therefore certain that Conscience does not oblige us to withdraw from the Assemblies but on the contrary it obliges us to join with them when the things that offend us are tolerable and do not hinder the salutary efficacy of the Word of the Divine Worship and of the Sacraments 'T is the favour of this charitable patience that justifies our being present at those things which we do not perfectly approve See what St. Paul says to the Philippians chap. 3. If in any thing ye be otherways minded God shall reveal even this unto you Nevertheless whereto we have already attained let us walk by the same rule let us mind the same thing This is very far from saying as soon as ye have the least contrary sentiment separate your selves Conscience will not allow you to remain together Consilia separationis says St. Augustin against Parmenian inania sunt perniciosa plus perturbant infirmos bonos quam corrigant animosos malos What deadly effects would not such a separation produce if it were established amongst you As the dispositions of men are one should quickly see to spring from hence a difference of interests of parties of opinions even in respect of the civil society mutual hatred and all the other sad consequences which a division not tempered with charity does naturally produce I let alone the scandal which all the Reformed Churches of Europe would receive by 〈…〉 which their Adversaries would have and we advantages which they would draw from it which in all appearance would not be small I have too good an opinion of those Gentlemen who believe that the Presbyterian Government is to be preferred before the Episcopal not to be perswaded that they make wise and serious reflections upon all these things and many more which their own knowledge furnishes them with and that conscience and the love of the Protestant Religion will always hinder them from doing any thing that may be blamed before God and men For in fine I cannot believe that there is any one amongst them that looks upon your Episcopacy or your Discipline or certain Ceremonies which you observe as blots and capital errours which hinder a man from obtaining salvation even with facility in your Assemblies and under your Government The question here is not about the Esse or the bene Esse but onely about the melius Esse that they dispute with you and this being so justice charity the love of peace prudence and zeal for Religion in the general will never allow that they should divide themselves from you But my Lord since you have put the pen into my hand upon this subject I beseech you pardon my freedom if it go so far as to tell you what I think you also ought to doe on your part I hope then that on these opportunities that God presents unto you you will make all the world see and convince the most incredulous that you have piety zeal and the fear of God and that you are worthy labourers and worthy servants of Jesus Christ. This is the tetimony which all good men do already give you and none how spightfull soever he be dares to contradict it and I do not doubt but that you will carry on your calling to the end But besides this my Lord I hope you willnot be wanting in the duties of charity and the spirit of peace and that when the dispute shall be onely of some temperaments or of some Ceremonies that are a stumbling-block and which in themselves are nothing in comparison of an intire reunion of your Church under your holy Ministry you will make it seen that you love the Spouse of your Master more than your selves and that it is not so much from your greatness and your Ecclesiastical dignity that you desire to receive your glory and your joy as from your pastoral vertues and the ardent care you take of your Flocks I hope too that those you have chosen and called to the holy Ministry and those which hereafter you shall with a prudent diseretion call unto it being governed not onely by sweetness but likewise by severity of discipline when severity shall be necessary will tread in your steps and happily follow the example which you shall give them that they may be themselves for an example and edification to the Churches that are committed to them I conclude my Lord with very earnest prayers which I present to God with all my heart that it would please him always to preseve unto you the light of his Gospel and to pour out upon the whole body of your Ministry an abundant measure of his unction and heavenly benediction of which that of the old Aaron was but a shadow that it may be not the emblem and image of brotherly concord like the unction of old but the cause and bond of it I pray him that he would more and more bring back the heart of the Children to the Fathers and of the Fathers to the Children that your Church may

between what falls out through the passions of Men and what follows from the nature of the thing But one of their own Party at Amsterdam takes notice of a Third Cause of these Dissentions viz. The Iudgment of God upon them I do see saith he the hand of God is heavy upon them blinding their Minds and hardening their Hearts that they do not see his Truth so that they are at Wars among themselves and they are far from that true Peace of God which followeth Holiness There were two great Signs of this hand of God upon them First Their Invincible Obstinacy Secondly The Scandalous Breaches which followed still one upon the other as long as the course of Separation continued and were only sometimes hindred from shewing themselves by their not being let loose upon each other For then the Firebrands soon appear which at other times they endeavour to cover Their great Obstinacy appears by the Execution of Barrow and Greenwood who being Condemned for Seditious Books could no ways be reclaimed rather choosing to Dye than to Renounce the Principles of Separation But Penry who suffered on the same account about that time had more Relenting in him as to the business of Separation For Mr. I. Cotton of New-England relates this Story of him from the Mouth of Mr. Hildersham an eminent Non-conformist That he confessed He deserved Death at the Queens hand for that he had Seduced many of Her Loyal Subjects to a Separation from Hearing the Word of Life in the Parish Churches Which though himself had learned to discover the Evil of yet he could never prevail to recover divers of Her Subjects whom he had Seduced and therefore the Blood of their Souls was now justly required at his hands These are Mr. Cotton's own words Concerning Barrow he reports from Mr. Dod's Mouth that when he stood under the Gibbet he lift up his eyes and said Lord if I be deceived thou hast deceived me And so being stopt by the hand of God he was not able to proceed to speak any thing to purpose more either to the Glory of God or Edification of the People These Executions extremely startled the Party and away goes Francis Iohnson with his Company to Amsterdam Iohnson chargeth Ainsworth and his Party with Anabaptism and want of Humility and due Obedience to Government In short they fell to pieces separating from each others Communion some say They formally Excommunicated each other but Mr. Cotton will not allow that but he saith They only withdrew yet those who were Members of the Church do say That Mr. Johnson and his Company were Accursed and Avoided by Mr. Ainsworth and his Company and Mr. A. and his Company were rejected and avoided by Mr. Johnson and his And one Church received the Persons Excommunicated by the other and so became ridiculous to Spectators as some of themselves confessed Iohnson and his Party charged the other with Schism in Separating from them But as others said who returned to our Church Is it a greater Sin in them to leave the Communion of Mr. Johnson than for him to refuse and avoid the Communion of all True Churches beside But the Difference went so high that Iohnson would admit none of Ainsworth's Company without Re-baptizing them Ainsworth on the other side charged them with woful Apostasy And one of his own Company said That he lived and died in Contentions When Robinson went from Leyden on purpose to end these Differences he complained very much of the disorderly and tumultuous carriage of the People Which with Mr. Ainsworths Maintenance was an early discovery of the Great Excellency of Popular Church-Governm●nt Smith who set up another Separate congregation was Iohnson's Pupil and went over In hopes saith Mr. Cotton to have gained his Tutor from the Errors of his Rigid Separation but he was so far from that that he soon outwent him and he charges the other Separate Congregations with some of the very same Faults which they had found in the Church of England viz. 1. Idolatrous Worship for if they charged the Church of England with Idolatry in Reading of Prayers he thought them equ●lly guilty in looking on their Bibles in Preaching and Singing 2. Antichristian Government in adding the Human Inventions of Doctors and Ruling Elders which was pulling down one Antichrist to set up another and if one was the Beast the other was the Image of the Beast Being therefore unsatisfied with all Churches he began one wholly new and therefore Baptized himself For he declared There was no one True Ordinance with the other Separatists But this New Church was of short continuance for upon his Death it dwindled away or was swallowed up in the Common Gulf of Anabaptism And now one would have thought here had been an end of Separation and so in all probability there had had not Mr. Robinson of Leyden abated much of the Rigor of it for he asserted The Lawfulness of Communicating with the Church of England in the Word and Prayer but not in Sacraments and Discipline The former he defended in a Discourse between Ainsworth and him So that the present Separatists who deny that are gone beyond him and are fallen back to the Principles of the Rigid Separation Robinson succeeded though not immediately Iacob in his Congregation at Leyden whom some make the Father of Independency But from part of Mr. Robinson's Church it spread into New England for Mr. Cotton saith They went over thither in their Church-State to Plymouth and that Model was followed by other Churches there at Salem Boston Watertown c. Yet Mr. Cotton professeth That Robinson 's Denyal of the Parishional Churches in England to be true Churches either by reason of their mixt corrupt matter or for defect in their Covenant or for excess in their Episcopal Government was never received into any heart from thence to infer a nullity of their Church State And in his Answer to Mr. Roger Williams he hath these words That upon due consideration he cannot find That the Principles and Grounds of Reform●tion do necessarily conclude a Separation from the English Churches as false Churches from their Ministery as a false Ministry from their Worship as a false Worship from all their Professors as no visible Saints Nor can I find that they do either necessarily or probably conclude a Separation from Hearing the Word Preached by godly Ministers in the Parish Churches in England Mr. R. Williams urged Mr. Cotton with an apparent inconsistency between these Principles and his own Practice for although he pretended to own the Parish Churches as true Churches yet by his Actual Separation from them he shewed that really he did not and he adds that Separation did naturally follow from the old Puritan Principles saying That Mr. Can hath unanswerably proved That the Grounds and Principles of the Puritans against Bishops and Ceremonies and profaneness of People professing Christ

que Dieu vous presente vous ferez voir à toute la terre en convaincrez les plus incredulez que vous aves de la pietè du zele de la crainte de Dieu que vous estez de dignes ouvriers de dignes serviteurs de Iesus Christ. C'est deja le temoignage que vous rendent les gens de bien que nul quelque mal intentionnè qu'il soit n'ose contredire je ne doute pas que vous ne poussiez vostre vocation jusqu'an bout Mais outre cela Monseigneur j'espere que vous ne defaudrez point aux devoirs de la charitè de l'esprit de paix que quand il ne s'agria que de quelques temperamens ou de quelques Ceremonies qui servent d'achoppement qui en elles mesmes ne sont rien en comperaison d'une entiere reünion de vostre Eglise sous vostre saint Ministere vous ferez voir que vous aymez l'Epouse de vostre Maitre plus que vous mesmes que ce n'est pas tant de vostre grandeur de vostre dignitè Ecclesiastique que vous desirez tirer vostre gloire vostre joye que de vos vertus Pastorales des soins ardens que vous avez de vos troupeaux I'espere aussi que ceux que vous avez choisis appellez au S. Ministere ceux que desormais vous y appellerez avec un prudent discernement reglez non seulement par la donceur mais aussi par la severitè de la Discipline quand la severitè sera necessaire marcheront sur vos traces suiront heureusement l'exemple que vous leur donnerez pour estre eux-mesmes en exemple en edification aux Eglises qui leur sont commises Ie finis Monseigneur par des prieres tres-ardentes que je présente à Dieu de tout mon coeur afin qu'il luy plaise de vous conserver à jamais le flamebeau de son Evangile de repandre sur tout le corps de vostre Ministere une abondante mesure de son onction de sa benediction celeste dont celle de l'ancien Aaron n'estoit que l'ombre afin qu'elle soit non l'embleme l'image de la concorde fraternelle comme cette ancienne mais qu'elle en soit la cause le lien Ie le prie qu'il veu●lle de plus en plus ramener le coeur des enfans aux peres des peres aux enfans afin que vostre Eglise soit heuereuse agreable comme un Eden de Dieu Ie le prie enfin qu'il vous conserve vous Monseigneur en parfait longue santè pour sa gloire pour le bien l'avantage de cette grande considerable pertie de son champ qu'il vous a donnè cultiver que vous cultivez si heureusement Ie vous demande aussi le secours de vos saintes prieres la continuation de l'honneur de vostre affection en vous Protestant que je seray toute ma vie avec tout le respect que je vous dois Monseigneur Vostre tres-humble tres-obeissant Serviteur Fils en Jesus Christ CLAVDE Paris Novemb. 29. Stilo Novo My Lord MOnsieur de L' Angle having given me the Letter which you have been pleased to write me I was surprized to see by that that you had done me the honour to write me another which I have not received and to which I had not failed to make an answer You do me a great deal of honour to desire that I should tell you my thoughts of the difference that has troubled you so long betwixt those they call Episcopal and those they name Presbyterians Although I have already explained my self about this divers tims both by Letters which I have written upon this Subject to several persons and in my Book too of the Defence of the Reformation where speaking of the distinction betwixt the Bishop and the Priest I have said expresly That I do not blame those that observe it as a thing very ancient and that I would not that any one should make it an occasion of quarrel in those places where it is established pag. 366. And though I otherwaies know my self sufficiently not to believe that my opinion should be much considered I will not forbear to assure you upon this occasion as I shall always do upon any other of my Christian esteem my respect and my obedience This I shall do the rather because I shall not simply tell you my private thoughts but the opinion of the generality of our Churches First then my Lord we are so very far from believing that a man cannot live with a good Conscience under your Discipline and under your Episcopal Government that in our ordinary practice we make no difficulty neither to bestow our Chairs nor to commit the care of our Flocks to Ministers received and ordained by my Lords the Bishops as might be justified by a great number enought of Examples both old and new And a little while since Mr. Duplessis that was ordained by my Lord Bishop of Lincoln has been established and called in a Church of this Province And Monsieur Wicart whom you my Lord received to the Holy Ministery did us the honour but some months agoe to preach at Charenton to the general edification of our Flock So that they who in this respect do impute unto us any opinions distant from peace and Christian concord do certainly do us wrong I say Peace and Christian concord for my Lord we believe that the obligation to preserve this Peace and this Brotherly concord which make up the external unity of the Church is of a necessity so indispensable that St. Paul has made no difficulty to join it with the internal unity of the same Faith and the same Regeneration not onely as two things which ought never to be separated but likewise as two things depending the one upon the other because if the external unity be as it were the Daughter of the internal she is likewise the preserver of it Walk says he Ephes. 4. worthy of the calling wherewith ye are called with all lowliness and meekness with long-suffering forbearing one another in love Endeavouring to keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of peace On the one side he makes this brotherly love which joins us one with another to depend upon our common vocation and on the other side he teaches us that one of the principal means to preserve our common vocation intire which he calls the unity of the spirit is to keep peace among our selves According to the first of these maximes we cannot have peace or Ecclesiastical communion with those that have so degenerated from the Christian vocation that one cannot perceive in them a true and saving Faith especially when with mortal errours they