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Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	apostle_n	church_n	word_n	1,489	5	3.9514	3	false

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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A44308	The non-conformists champion, his challenge accepted, or, An answer to Mr. Baxter's Petition for peace written long since, but now first published upon his repeated provocations and importune clamors, that it was never answered : whereunto is prefixed an epistle to Mr. Baxter with some remarks upon his Holy Common-wealth, upon his Sermon to the House of Commons, upon his Non-conformists plea for peace and upon his Answer to Dr. Stillingfleet. / by Ri. Hooke.	R. H. (Richard Hooke); Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Petition for peace.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Holy commonwealth.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Sermon of repentance.	1682 (1682)	Wing H2608; ESTC R28683	62,409	170

and might learn that the Church in prescribing Indifferent things takes away no man's Liberty The things prescribed are in their own nature and in the Judgment both of the Imposer and the intelligent Observer of them the same they were before Indifferent I obey the Church yet preserve my Liberty still judging the thing Indifferent which it commands and I obey not the Command as any necessary part of Religion but as the Church commands it which I am bound to obey for Decency and Order They that make Laws concerning Indifferent things have no intention at all to meddle with the nature of them they leave that in medio as they found it but onely for some reasons of conveniency order the use of them the Indifferency of their nature still being where it was They are very unhappy in alledging that Scripture Acts 15.28 which concludes directly for the Church against them we may tell them in their own words the Holy Ghost hath there so plainly decided the Point in controversie that it seems strange to us that yet it should remain a controversie they have here thrown down all they have built all their 20 Reasons fall and are broken in pieces as Dagon before the Ark. This Chapter acquaints us that some Jews though converted to the Christian Faith and embracing the Gospel yet thought themselves bound to the Observation of the whole Mosaical Law and they thought the converted Gentiles so bound also and told them that except they were circumcized and kept the Law of Moses they could not be saved Hereupon arises Dissention and Disputation and an Appeal is made to a Council at Jerusalem which upon the hearing and debating the Question determines That the converted Gentiles should not be obliged to Circumcision nor to the Ceremonial Law but in yieldance to the converted Jews who were zealous of the Law and to keep Peace with them they should abstain from some few things in their nature indifferent but necessary in order to Peace and Charity from Meats offered to Idols from Bloud and from things strangled Behold here the First and Greatest Council that ever was in the Christian Church to compose a Difference meets and makes a Law of Abstinence from some things indifferent and otherwise in themselves lawfull This is plainly the Case the Act of the Council and Decision of the Question and yet these men alledge the Act of the Council to prove the quite contrary I am amazed to see how they change and clip the words and pervert the sense of the Scripture they cite for their ends and I fear against their Conscience They say the Apostles and Elders Act. 15.28 declare unto the Churches that it seemed good unto the Holy Ghost and them to lay upon them no greater Burthen than necessary things Do the Apostles and Elders so declare then we yield the Cause Do they not then ought they with Sin and Shame to yield it They leave out the word These because they know it made against them limiting the Churche's Order to some few particular things there presently named Things offered to Idols Bloud c. Now whereas the Church makes a temporary Order for some particular things and declares thus It seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay upon you no greater Burthen necessary besides these things or these necessary things They leave out that word these of main importance and hugely against them and would make a standing Canon of their own and father it upon the Apostles That the Church ought to impose no other then necessary things and yet too by their own confession these things imposed were not simply in their own nature unchangeably necessary but by accident pro tempore loco and whereas they say the Council imposed them because antecedently necessary The contrary is most true These things were not antecedently necessary but onely as themselves say pro tempore for the time There being at this time a difference risen about the Jewish Ceremonies it was not necessary before the Council now so determined That the converted Gentiles should abstain from things offered to Idols strangled and Bloud that Law belonging onely to the Jews never to the Gentiles Behold how rarely well these men argue To prove Church-Governours may not determine in things indifferent for Order and Unity but all ought to be left to their own Liberty They produce a Scripture which proves most plainly That Church-Governours have and may determine and restrain those under them from the use of things indifferent All the things touching which the Council they produce do give order being indifferent except one Fornication which is of another nature but with these prohibited for that the Gentiles allowed themselves in it and scarce looked on it as a Sin This of their 20 th and last Reason which I have thus at large considered for that they lay so much weight upon it though it prove as the rest light in the Balance I shall for a Conclusion of all clearly evidence the Churche's Power to prescribe external Rites and Ceremonies for Order and Decency and our Obligation to conform unto them from the Judgment of two ancient Fathers for whom I suppose our Brethren have some Reverence and if those cannot move them from the Judgment of a modern Father for whom I am sure they have a high Veneration 'T is St. Augustine's Rule Prudenti Christiano eo modo agendum esse quo agit Ecclesia ad quam devenerit and his Mother having used when she was in Africk to fast on the Saturday and coming to Millan where that Fast was not observed was doubtfull what to doe hereupon her Son consulted Saint Ambrose who thus answered When I am here at Millan I do not fast on the Saturday when I am at Rome I do fast on the Saturday and unto what Church soever ye come keep the custom of it if you be willing neither to give nor take Scandal From which Rule of St. Augustine and Advice of St. Ambrose a Learned person maketh these Remarks 1. That divers Countries professing the same Religion may have divers Ceremonies 2. That in Churches Independent one is not bound of necessity to follow another 3. That 't is the Duty of every private person to conform himself to the laudable Customs and Constitutions of the Church wherein he liveth or wherever he cometh You have heard the Judgment of these ancient Fathers Will you hear your modern Father Mr. Calvin and he delivers his Judgment so fully and with so much strength and clearness asserts the Churche's Power to ordain external Rites and Ceremonies that Master Hooker himself could not say more or better Whereas many unskilfull men when they hear that Consciences are wickedly bound and God Worshipped in vain by the Traditions of men do at once blot out altogether all Laws whereby the Order of the Church is set in frame Therefore it is convenient also to meet with their Errour Verily in this point it

formerly I am to learn they know his late Majesty made to them moderate Proposals but was refused and they confess the Lord Primate of Ireland made moderate Proposals but by them never accepted As to their bold Appeal to all Protestant Churches presuming they will give their Judgments for them and against the Church of England's established Constitutions which they have the huge Confidence to prophesie even of the Judgment of all succeeding ages They might without a Revelation by their Jugdment past and present have foreseen their Judgment for the future The past age hath cryed Grace Grace to our happy orderly and moderate Reformation in Doctrine Government and Worship the Protestant Churches have given us the Right-hand of Fellowship have maintained sweet Communion with us have in Marian Persecution received our Exiles their most eminent Lights have sent us high Congratulations their ablest Ministers have divers of them come over and with Joy beheld our Order and some have lived and died amongst us What Judgment did Mr. Beza give Let himself speak Quod si nunc If now the Reformed Churches of England being underprop'd with the Authority of Bishops and Archbishops do continue as this hath hapened to that Church in our memory That she hath had Men of that Calling not onely most notable Martyrs but also excellent Pastors and Doctors let them truly enjoy that singular Blessing of God which I wish may be perpetual unto her What Judgment did Peter Martyr pass in the Case of Bishop Hooper about the Ceremonies Did he not answer his Arguments vindicate the lawfulness of them exhort him to submit unto them The Judgment of Doctor Moulin you have heard and much more might be told you of the high Honour he had for the Church of England And to come nearer what Judgment the Protestant Churches passed upon your Covenant your Reforming the Church by the Sword and in the Bloud of the Nursing Father and the Prime Pastour of it with many Thousands more you have surely heard Were they not ashamed confounded and astonished at our Schisms and Seditions and Violations of all Authority Sacred and Civil And Have not your Actions in the late lamentable times cast a Blemish upon the Honour of our Nation never to be washed off An English-man daring scarce to look another man in the face in a foreign Countrey being under the Objection and Reproach of Rebellion Murthering their King Changing the best tempered Monarchy in the World into a puny Common-wealth and that swallowed up soon into a Barbarous Protectourship and Abasing the most primitive and venerable Episcopacy into a novel and contemptible Parity and Linsy-woolsey Presbytery made up of Preachers and Lay-elders and that too straight undermined and baffled by a Mushrome Independency Pudet haec Opprobria vobis dici potuisse non potuisse refelli This is the past Judgment of the Protestant Churches abroad concerning our Church established and you who ruined it till God in mercy restored it For the Churches of succeeding ages I think they will hardly believe the History of ours That such men as you professing highest Godliness should in a pretended zeal for it preach up Sedition and Schism and embroil the Church and Nation wherein you were born and baptized in Bloud and Confusion and which seems more incredible Appeal to all Protestant Churches in your own Justification nay Supplicate the King whose Royal Father was martyred and himself long banished for standing up in defence of the Church which you opposed and by Force destroyed to screen you from the Churche's Power to grant you the chief Benefices in the Church and give you Liberty to be of another Church to enjoy a Worship and Government of your own Mode and Model But my Brethren how come you to make this lowd Challenge Why enquire you or rather Why presume you what Judgment the Protestant Churches will make of our Churches proceedings Sure your mighty Zeal and ardent Affection to your Cause hath clouded your own Judgment and quite bereaved you of your Memory You mention often and with seeming regard his Majestie 's gracious Declaration touching Ecclesiastical Affairs he therein tells you the present Judgment of the Reformed Churches abroad and had you Faith to believe his Royal word you might have spared this Argument and Out-cry which you may blush for and wish you had suppressed Hear his Majesty speaking their Judgment We do think Our self the more competent to propose and with God's Assistence to determine many things now in Difference from the time We have spent and the experience We have had in most of the Reformed Churches abroad in France the Low-countries and Germany where We have had frequent Conference with the most Learned men who have unanimously lamented the great Reproach the Protestant Religion undergoes from the Distempers and too notorious Schisms in Matters of Religion in England And as the most Learned among them have alwaies with great Submission and Reverence acknowledged and magnified the established Government of the Church of England and the great Countenance and Shelter the Protestant Religion received from it before these unhappy times So many of the have with great Ingenuity and Sorrow confessed that they were too easily mis-led by mis-information and prejudice into some disesteem of it as if it had too much complyed with the Church of Rome whereas they now acknowledg it to be the best Fence God hath yet raised against Popery in the World and We are persuaded they do with great Zeal wish it restored to its old Dignity and Veneration You see what Judgment the Protestant Churches have passed upon the Church of England and her former Proceedings and thereby may take an Estimate what Judgment they will pass on her present Proceedings and how the Churche's Cause and yours will be represented to them They will acknowledg and magnifie with great Submission and Reverence the established Government of the Church of England if you dare believe his Majesty and consequently will censure you as Schismatical and Disobedient to refuse to submit unto it But I must not misrepresent you your Submission you profess If after our Submission to his Majesty's Declaration and after our own Proposals of the primitive Episcopacy and of such a Liturgy as we here tender we may not be permitted to exercise our Ministry the Pens of those moderate Bishops will bear witness against you that were once employed as the Chief Defenders of that Cause we mean such as Reverend Bishop Hall and Usher who have published to the World that much less than this might have served to our fraternal Vnity and Peace Ans You before appealed to the Protestant Churches abroad now unto two Bishops of our own and with like Success 1. You say you have submitted to his Majestie 's Declaration you should have instanced wherein His Majesty there declares That having seen all the Liturgies that are extant and used in this part of the World he esteems that of

the World that if the Ministers we are pleading for be laid aside there are not competent men enough to supply their room Ans Their Care that there be a supply of competent men to serve the Church is commendable and pious But why did they not take that Care when it was in their power when themselves laid aside and cast out Thousands to provide competent men to supply their rooms Indeed for competent and great Livings they provided but the places that were poor if empty they filled them not if full by persons never so incompetent they amended it not I believe it is a measured Truth never were so many places unprovided never so many meanly provided as in those times since the first times of Queen Elizabeth when competent Ministers as now required to be qualified could not be had for many places one indeed I have heard of having in Zeal helped to eject his Minister out of a small Living desired the Clerk of the Committee for plundered Ministers to commend a Minister unto them he answered O none of us will accept of that you must provided as you can The 14 th Reason the same as I told you and you may find with the 12 th tels us the Constitutions of the Church are against their Judgment and they have not their Judgments at Command and were they never so willing to believe they ought to obey them they cannot therefore believe the Impositions lawfull because they would the Intellect being not free Ans What is every body's Argument is no Argument Thus may the Jew the Turk the Papists the Quakers plead for their own and against the true Religion and thus your Independent Brethren have argued in their Pleas for Toleration which once you opposed but now you sharpen your Goads at their Forges You bring an Objection as made by us that we may say 't is your own fault that your Judgments are not changed and that the means have been sufficient to which you shape an Answer such as it is but which may make your selves blush That the Sword can easilier take this for granted than the Tongue or Pen of man prove My Brethren Quorsum haec You might well have spared the mention of the Sword Why do you expose your own Miscarriages to the review of the World Who were those that drew the Sword for Reformation Who called to Arm Who promised Heaven to all that would take up the Sword in that blessed Cause of the Covenant when you were then told of the Word and of the Laws you could answer with that Roman Nunquamne nobis Gladiis succinctis Leges recitare desinetis Tell you us who have our Swords by our sides of the Laws We tell you we have drawn our Swords to cut in sunder those Gordian Knots your Parchment Laws So of late your Heroick Oliver to those who pleaded the Laws and ancient Charters granted and confirmed by our Kings Magna Charta Magna Far But I pray you what Sword do the Bishops whom you plead with use but the Spiritual They are no Popes who challenge Potestatem utriusque Gladii They are no Presbyterians who are Co-ordinate Powers with Kings and Princes and for their Tongues and Pens you must strike Sail till you shall be able to encounter and conquer those Worthies Bishop Whitgift Bishop Bilson Dr. Sanderson Mr. Hooker Mr. Mason and many more such Generals in the Lord's Host with whom your Hildersham Baines Parker Ames Dod Ball Nichols are not to be named the same day 15. We crave leave to ask Whether your selves do not in some things mistake Good Leave have you and you ask a wise Question with a Consequence as wild in your Covenant you yoake Popery with Prelacy and now you wittily and merrily ask the Prelates Whether they think themselves as the Pope Infallible and yet your Party proclaim themselves next to Infallible I need not remember you where they say Loath we are to think that they who are most sound in Doctrine should mistake in Discipline Well but the Prelates will confess they may mistake are not infallible What 's the Consequence If you may mistake in any thing may it not be in such great things as these and in the same breath you say These great things are the smallest Ceremonies and Circumstances of Worship I conceive you speak this Ironically otherwise your Inference is in you a foul mistake understanding men may mistake in great things ergo they may mistake in small things However on this Supposition you destroy all Power in men to make Laws in great or small things because Governours are men and may err and mistake in some things ergo they may make Laws in nothing 16. Whether this be doing as you would be done by would you be cast out for every fault that is as bad as this Put your selves in their case and suppose you had studied conferred and prayed and done your best to know whether God would have you to be re-ordained and to use these Forms Ceremonies Subscriptions or not and having done all you think that God would be displeased if you should use them would you then be used your selves as your dissenting Brethren are now used or like to be Ans This is their strongest and fairest Argument drawn from the general Rule of Equity and Charity and 't is easie to retort it being much more strong on the Bishops part Put your selves in the Bishops case and suppose you had studied conferred prayed and done your best to know whether God would have you to preach Resistence against your Sovereign renounce Episcopacy cast out the Church Liturgy and having done all you think nay are sure for thinking will not doe that God would be displeased if you should doe so would you be used your selves as your party used the Bishops imprisoned beheaded sequestred 17. Reason is drawn from the Divisions caused by imposing things unnecessary and the Unity and Peace which would follow if men might enjoy their Liberty and might have leave to serve God as his Apostles did and upon these they enlarge in four whole Pages Nothing more affecteth us than to think of the lamentable Divisions that have been caused and are still like to be while things unnecessary are so imposed and on the contrary how blessed an Vnity and Peace we might enjoy if these occasions of Division were removed and we might but have leave to serve God as the Apostles did Ans If it affect you so much to think upon the Divisions it should affect you to think that you have been and are the chief cause of them and you might if your Will stood not in your way remove them but you mightily mistake both the Cause and Cure of our Divisions which are the direct contrary to what you surmise The Cause of our Divisions is the Liberty you desire the Cure would be your Obedience to the Churche's lawfull Impositions and this not onely Reason but your own Experience might have