Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	aaron_n	civil_a	moses_n	172	4	7.7928	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89317	Coena quasi koinē: the new-inclosures broken down, and the Lords Supper laid forth in common for all Church-members, having a dogmatical faith, and not being scandalous: in a diatribe, and defence thereof: against the apology of some ministers, and godly people, (as their owne mouth praiseth them) asserting the lawfulness of their administring the Lords Supper in a select company: lately set forth by their prolocutor, Mr. Humphrey Saunders. / Written by William Morice of Werrington, in Devon, Esq;	Morice, William, Sir, 1602-1676.	1657 (1657)	Wing M2762; Thomason E895_1	613,130	518

they must come at Pyworthy where he that tells them so is Pastor of no Church there those that are so told are not the flock of any Pastor there they might as justly call them to Exceter and would they come there they must notwithstanding come under this probation and wait upon their good pleasure and gracious opinion which is the thing questioned and sets the business in the same posture as before after all these palliations So that in the conclusion when they tell us elsewhere he that puts them to prove that persons knowing and not scandalous may be excluded shall hear of their refusal we must say to them we do indeed hear of their refusal but it is onely to prove this not to do it whiles they exclude these whom they dare not say and if they did we should knowingly gainsay that they are ignorant or scandalous To the second that my Concessions look one way my Arguments another as if like the Parthians I turn my face from that mark I shoot at or like Faustus that pretended to write against Pelagius yet half justified him it had been a just debt if not to me that I might see my error yet to themselves that we might see their truth and ingenuity to have instanced in any one argument of mine that pleads against the power and duty of Excommunication No when the Civil Magistrate is become both the Sonne and Father of the Church I doe not think that the opening of his Praetorium should shut up the Ecclesiastical forum exterius nor the exercising of his sword lay the keys aside to rust Let them not be tryed to open other Locks than they were made for that Moses may have no cause to say the Sons of Levi take too much upon them we shall no more repine at Aarons keys or rod than at Moses sword I am sensible these are different Administrations and have several reasons and ways and ends There are some Crimes which need Censure and sometime the Civil Laws take no hold thereof nor can the Civil Courts take cognizance of them and the Magistrate punisheth though the Offender repent and is satisfied when the pain is suffered or mulct is paid whether he be penitent or not The Church hath a contrary method in her punishments and which are not properly punishments but castigations the holy and prudential ends thereof I have elsewhere displayed I do not therefore hold it fit to excommunicate Excommunication though I judge the undue conduct and culpable exercise thereof to be suspended Let it not be 1. too frequently inflicted it being Medicine not Food and Physicians tell us that Medicines lose their efficacy by ordinary use and though Cacochymie give indication yet continual Purgings brings the habitude of the body to a cachexy and in the Timpany to let out all the water without stops and intermissions destroys the Patient 2. Nor too precipitate Nulla unquam de hac morte hominis cunctatio longa est And Avenzoar they say trembled three days before ever he administred a Purge 3. Nor ordinarily until after frequent admonitions afflatur omne priusquàm percutitur let all other good means be used Cuncta priùs tentanda Let it be as Physicians say of Antimony that it must be like a cowardly Captain to come up to the charge last of all and after all others let it be onely upon obstinate impenitence and when it is immedicabile vnlnus then quaecunque medicamenta non sanant ea sanat ferrum as saith Hypocrates 4. Let it not be for any thing but scelus or affine sceleri that which is interpretativa negatio fidei gross abominable iniquities whereby the Church may be defamed and the enemies have cause to blaspheme and such as may be stumbling blocks to other mens Consciences such sinnes as appear omnibus execrabilia as Augustine and are excessus peccatorum as Estius speaks let it be not inflicted for smaller faults which else would be as Parisiensis tells us as if to kill a Fly on the fore-head we should knock a man in the head with a beetle and let not such purity be required from men in order to their safeguard and immunity from this Censure as Anabaptists exact who as Marlorat tells us Marlorat in 1 Cor. 51. Ball tryal of the grounds of Separat c. 10. p. 187. Ante Communionem protestantur se tantam habere Charitatem quantam Christus in cruce pendens 5. Let it be for such Crimes as are notorious by publike notice not if one or other though perhaps the Minister be one of them do know thereof but let them be such as are scandalous in their course commonly defamed by evidence of fact or confession or proof of witnesses and if not by innumeris documentis testibusque as Augustine pleads yet by more than one for uni testi ne Catoni quidem credendum est even when the great cry of Sodom came up yet God went down to see whether they had done altogether according to the cry Si regnas jube si judicas cognosce 6. Let it be done humili charitate benignâ severitate sine typho elationis in hominem cum luctu deprecationis ad Deum Aug. cont Parmen l. 3. c. 2. Tom. 7. p. 13. and as it is said of Augustus Priùs suas lachrymas quàm alienum sanguinem effudit for otherwise hujus enim summi raríque voluptas Nulla boni quoties animo corrupta superbo Plus aloës quàm mellis habet Let it be thus regulated without humane wrong in hypothesi and let it in thes● pass as of divine right The greater Excommunication I mean for as concerning Suspension which they call the lesser Excommunication I am deceived if it may not be called the least in the Kingdome of Heaven the Tree from which that Wood was gathered was of a later rise and spring in the Paradise of God not of the first planting and hath no divine ground to fix its root in if there be any Characters in Scripture asserting expresly or by plain and easie consequence the divine right thereof See this amply discussed or any footsteps thereof in the tract and course of all the ancient Church so as that any were suspended from the Sacrament that were not separate from the body of the Church by Excommunication those characters and footsteps are too small to be discerned by my dimme eyes § 15 without the help of spectacles to be lent me or my Horizon too narrow to reach them unless their hand like that in a margin pointing to the places shall lead me neerer to them Tertullian I am sure defines Excommunication of what kind soever it be à Communicatione Orationis conventûs omnis sancti commercii relegatio I am not ignorant there is frequent mention in the Casuists and Schoolmen of excommunicatio minor but these bear no weight where these men hold the beam yet notwithstanding it may have place and be of

upon whose intercession alone we can rely with faith therefore 't is vain and fruitless to seek or regard the help and assistance of the prayers of the godly To the antient Church I think most authority to be ascribed and greatest reverence to be attributed since streams run purest neer the Fountain and if that which is first be truest what is next to the first is next to truth and ●herefore Sānctorum Patrum constitutiones qui proximiores fuerant Christo ●●●●scames said Nazianzen and those Orders be most pure that come most neer to the example of the Primitive Church said the holy Martyr Sanders Fox Act. ●●on p. ●494 yet the at restation of that Church I grant is but an humane testimony nor perfectly ●●vine but in part as it faithfully testifieth what the Apostles did and said Divine in regard of the matter and thing testified Human in regard of the quality of the Witnesses and manner of testification and therefore formally as such being but an humane testimony can beget but an acquisite faith for no conclusion can be of higher nature than the premises as no water can be made to rise higher than the Spring Picus Mirandula Canus and I grant that Fidei acquisitae quae fulcitur homine proponente non Deo revelante subesse potest falsum and therefore Nunquam hominem quemvis per fidem acquisitam ità existimamus esse veracem quin formidemus cum vel falli posse vel fallere Yet notwithstanding fides acquisita●se habet ad fidem gratuitam sicut praeambula dispositio ad formam disponit animam ad receptionem luminis Alexander Hales all as cited by Dr. F. White 's answer to Fish p. 14. 22. quo assentitur primae veritati propter se dicitur ipsam introducere sicut seta filum and though divine revelation in Scripture be therefore the sole principle immediate motive and formal reason and object of beleeving and last resolution of Faith yet the authority and external testimony of the Church may produce the same as an adjuvant instrumental administring moral cause and subordinate help Prae omnibus si aperta fuerit Scriptura eam ipsam amplector saith St. Augustine and therefore he that will not beleeve Moses and the Prophets it will be in vain to raise any of the dead to perswade him when the Scripture shines out in full brightness omnes Perstringit stellas exortus ut aethereus Sol But when that Sun shines not so clearly as to convince and satisfie contenders who have bad eyes the Fathers as Stars that receive their light from that Sun may reflect some illumination upon us as the Stars are to be seen by day in dark pits and obscure places and though I consent to Augustine Epist. 19. ad Hieron that let the Learning and Holiness of other Writers be never so eminent I will not think it true because they have thought so but because they are able to perswade me either by other Canonical Writers or probable Reason yet I add that I am more confirmed in my perswasion that I rightly hit the sense of Canonical Writers and apprehend the Dictates of true Reason when I conceive the same which I finde that they thought though they are not principles of infallible verity to command beleef yet they are grounds of credibility to sacilitate assent Non domini sed duces to use Seneca's words And I shall more easily embrace that which hath their witness and be more apt to doubt of that which wants their testimony Sola argumenta ex Scripturis esse necessaria Cathol Orthedox Tract 1. q. 10. p. 121. è Patribus autem probabilia saith learned Rivet Their consent I esteem not ut fidei mensuram sed ut testem temporis argumentum historicum which makes certain the matter of fact that such was the doctrine and practice of the first and purer times being registred to us by those that cannot be imagined not to know being so neer nor be suspected to combine falsly to impose upon us being so pious They are not moved to hear men count and call good ways new and the Adversaries of true Doctrine have always loaded it with this Title which confirms them to see the ways of their government have the same lot and therefore this principle of Antiquity yeelds but a popular and fallacious Argument But few I suppose will be moved with this argumentation as not fallacious enough to impose upon popular judgements For First implicitly and interpretatively those good ways are their ways wherein is involved Petitio Principii Secondly if so small a matter confirm their judgement it is suspitious that as small a weight of reason might first settle it Talia sunt alimenta qualia sunt Elementa Thirdly If that be a popular and fallacious argument which is derived from a principle made use of commonly by Hereticks or others thereby to give a specious lustre to their own Opinions and cast an odium on their opposites then Scripture it self may be sentenced to be a principle yeelding onely popular and fallacious arguments for who knows not that most Hereticks have sought to fortifie their Opinions with pretence of Scripture and have upbraided their adversaries with want thereof Fourthly when any pretend antiquity to give countenance to novel and unwarrantable Opinions or Institutions by turning the wrong end of the Prospective to make things at hand seem to be far off the fallacy is not in the principle but the men that abuse and falsly apply it nor lies it in the proposition but the assumption Fifthly seeing as Hierom tells us Mendacium semper imitatur veritatem the argument is the more specious and like to carry more force because subtil falsifiers have assumed it for they being wiser in their Generations would not lay on those colours that had no beauty or lustre nor would they set that stamp on their counterfeit Coyn did they not know it would make it pass more currant Hierom say they is condemned for desiring leave of Augustine to erre with seven Fathers but they dare not nor are willing to give this liberty but yet they take as much when in the question whether Judas communicated of the Lords Supper they mention twelve late Writers and not all of them aut magni aut bonì nominis asserting the negative and ask who would not erre with such as those are But we say though we would not erre with the Fathers yet we less distrust our selves to erre with them or when they are on our side and probably suppose our selves farthest from erring when neerest to them As the Scripture bids us to remember Lots wife so they say to the Pretenders of Antiquity Remember the Gibeonites Had this Memento been limited to false Pretenders of Antiquity it might have been plausible but if themselves had not forgotten to take some of the salt of that Pillar whereinto she was turned to have seasoned their discretions they