Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A47481	The cause & cure of offences in a discourse on Matth. 18:7 / by R. Kingston ...	Kingston, Richard, b. 1635?	1682 (1682)	Wing K610; ESTC R965	56,152	182

to command your belief yet I hope you will admit them as grounds of credibility to facilitate your assent being handed to us by those that cannot be imagined not to know being so near nor be suspected to combine flalsly to impose on us being so pious And if you want an Example take it from the Disciples who out of a sense of their own wants bespake their Master thus Teach us to pray as John taught his Disciples I beseech you therefore consider in time what you are doing for if Mr. Baxter prophecies right he tells you That Separating will at last ruine the separate Churches themselves for no instance can be given saith he of a separate Church of a hundred years standing To conclude the same Author saith The Protestant Religion must be kept up by the means of the Parish-Ministers and by the Doctrine and Worship then performed and they that think and endeavour that which is contrary to this of what side soever shall have the hearty thanks and concurrence of the Papists O that now my dissenting Brethren you would be perswaded to lay aside all prejudice and partiality self-ends and interests and follow the things that make for peace Suffer your Reasons to awake put on Modesty be clothed with Humility and call no men or decent Custom Popish or Antichristian till you are assured by an infallible signe it is so lest you be found fighters against God and slanderers of your Brethren Be not rash censurers but judge righteous judgment lest you abuse the truth it self and call the Spouse of Christ an Harlot The Church of England is bare-fac'd hath no Idols to obscure no spiritual Cheat with which to delude you for the representing of which we should stand either in need of darkness or a false light we have nothing in our publick profession which the wisest men the most pious Christians may not practice nothing in our Faith which they ought not stedfastly to believe It is onely want of Enquiry and a sober Examination that the purity of our Churches Doctrine is not more generally embraced 't is because the calmness and sobriety of its Devotion the moderation of its Discipline the largeness of its Charity are not more impartially enquired into that men mistake us divide from our Communion trouble the world with their impertinent noise and clamour and administer matter of offence to many thousands in England who are hardened into an utter neglect of Godliness by the unwarrantable Singularities and the scandalous sins especially of those Professors that have been most addicted to sinful Separations without receiving occasion or giving a reason for it And to conclude I am afraid that all those Scruples that have been urged to vindicate a Separation from our Communion will be found too light at the day of the Lord to counterpoise the vast guilt of Schism and Disobedience Could you make it appear that your Salvation was in the least hazarded by Communion with us if you could not have Peace but upon those ill terms of parting with Truth and Holiness could you demonstrate that in any thing we are departed from the true Church your Separation was warrantable but since 't is evident our Church hath preserved intire that Faith which was once delivered to the Saints without any loss or innovation since all the Laws and Rules of holy and Christian life are by our Church taught since men may conform to all the Constitutions of our Church and yet be as holy as the best of Saints in any Age of the world since there is nothing herein commanded that ever God did forbid and since all this we are able to prove by the clearest Demonstrations it must necessarily follow they incur a Wo that call good evil and light darkness 4. 'T is no less a hainous offence also to separate from a true Church under a pretence that notoriously sinful Members are received into Communion with it This is to strain at a Gnat and swallow a Spider and to prevent an imaginary guilt of Pollution by others incur a real guilt of Schism in themselves And though by dispencing with Humility and Charity they magnifie themselves and brand those they separate from with the disgraceful Epithets of ungodly and profane and with the Whore in the Proverbs wipe their mouths and say they have done no harm yet in the judgment of St. Paul the sin of Separation is so dangerously infectious that the persons guilty of it are to be set in the first rate of Offenders and to be shunned as soon as descried Mark them that cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine you have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est attentè diligenter quasi hostes è spicula observetis Biza in loc Divisions are the Intelligences that put the Orbs of Offences into motion and are the prime subversion of the Church which otherwise is rarely endamaged for whilst it is united Satan is not admitted nor Scandals started which makes the Apostle in another place so passionately resent the injury offered to the Church by Divisions that he wishes they were cut off that trouble it by unsetling and removing its Votaries from their first Station 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And you will have no cause to think this a severe process since there is more mischief threatned to the Church of God and less hopes of recovery in a Separatist than a more notified Malefactor A debauch'd man if discreetly reprehended will blush and tremble at his Miscarriage but an Ableptick Schism-Master will disdain insult and spurn at him that by a modest Reproof would turn him from the errour of his way besides a Sect-maker disturbs the peace of the Church tears its Vnity and paves a Causey to destruction whilst the other onely perverts himself and disquiets but his own Conscience But admit some of the Members of our Church were as bad as they would render them it makes no Pallizado for their Conventicle for as long as the Church sojourneth on Earth bad men will be mixed with the good and they deserve a sharp reprehension in the opinion of Mr. Calvin Calvin in Mat. 13.36 that tumultuously depart from the Church or by unseasonable rigidness endeavour to overthrow it And Christ Jesus in propounding this Parable saith the same Author would bridle and moderate their Zeal who think it unlawful to have Communion with none but pure Angels and they that preposterously make haste to root out all that displeaseth them do as much as in them is prevent Christs Judgment and usurp the Angels Office Mr. Perkins tells us Expos on St. Jude v. 9. Amplified on Gal. 1.2 that faults in the manners of Professors is no warrant for our Separation for tho vices saith he appear in the lives of Ministers and People so long as true Religion is taught and the Sacraments duely administred it is a Church and we may not depart from it Mr. Hildersham makes it

word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it denotes then any thing done by us whereby another is hindred in his course of piety in his way to Heaven So that to scandalize or offend is to discourage grieve or afflict them to stagger and make them doubtful in their thoughts of Religion and by our Advice or Example to mislead them from vertuous courses and to encourage others in sinful practice What this Woe or Curse was which our Saviour denounc'd against offenders we may easily understand by taking our measures from the sixth Verse For our Saviour could not meet with a Metaphor near home to express the horror of his indignation and resentment by It seems the four Capital punishments used by the Jews 〈◊〉 too ●aint colours to delineate his frightful figure with and therefore borrows a word from the Syriac Tongue whose custom it was in notorious cases to drown Malefactors He that offends one of these little ones saith our Saviour it were good for him that a Milstone was hanged about his neck and be drowned in the depth of the Sea 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 when the repeating the same thing in two Synonymous words much aggravates the sence Thus Aristophanes his Scholiast informs us that the Grecians when they inflicted this punishment put a weight upon the criminals Neck And our Saviour to shew how much he is offended at the offence given to his little ones appoints the weight to be a Milstone of the largest size 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Mola jumentaria such a one as was usually turned about by the help of Asses which might sink him to the lowest Abyss of misery Now this being compared with the words of the Text it acquaints us that the heaviest Woe the bitterest Curse and the hottest place in Hell is appointed for the man by whom the offence cometh For though it must needs be that offences come yet Gods wise permission of them does not hinder his just vengeance upon them as not laying any necessity upon the will of man and consequently not lessening his Guilt or penalty St. Jerom hath told us In Commentar Matth. 18. that this doom pointed at Judas alone by whose suddain and traiterous Plot as our Saviour forewarned all should be offended But what need we settle it upon one man when the foregoing words tell us that the whole world is full of offenders full of offences corporeal offences which holy David was beset with Traps and Snares in his way spiritual offences which the Prophet Malachi spy'd when men were made to stumble at Gods Law These are of two sorts active or passive active of themselves or by accident Of themselves 〈◊〉 when the work and intent both 〈◊〉 vicious So by accident when a good work appears evil or fails in some needful circumstance Passive offences are taken or given Given by the broad offences of others Taken by our own Malice One the offence of the little ones The other the offence of the Pharisees The one attended with a vae the other with a Sinite Wo be to those that give the little ones an offence but if the Pharisee take an offence where none is given wo be to himself To lay open the terms in a word the little one is a weak Christian the offence an obstruction or impediment in the way of his Salvation the wo an endless torment Now to rive this great Block in sunder we shall find several pieces big enough to stumble at big enough to kindle an everlasting fire to bring an everlasting wo upon us whether we consider the deportment of our Tongues or our Lives offences are given by both I will begin with a mad Engine that lies in a wet place yet vomits fire The venome of other creatures are in their Tail but the poyson of man is in his Tongue There are men that have adders poyson under their lips Psal 52.4 whose sole employment is in mischievous words giving a loose to a dangerous precipitancy where they should use the curb of a religious restraint St. James out of our own mouths will inform us that the least part of our selves gives the loudest report The Tongue is a little Member but boasteth great things Jam. 3.5 If the Soul be puffed up with haughtiness it is the Tongue that speaketh proud things and when the thoughts are conspiring into a Mutiny and close Rebellion at last they burst out With our Tongues we will prevail who is Lord over us Psal 30.12 To what unholy and irreligious purposes is that useful faculty of Speech perverted and that which was design'd for the benefit of Mankind become the common disturber thereof that we have great cause to conclude with St. James If any man offend not in word Jam. 3.2 he is fit to be accounted in the number of those that can inoffensively govern the whole body The fairest Garden is spoil'd without an Hedge Had our Grandmother Eve but senced in her Tongue she had not lost her Paradise nor bequeath'd the unhappy Legacy of sin and misery to her Posterity Job obtained a victory over the Devil with silence he that fill'd his body with Ulcers could not blister his Tongue nor exasperate that unruly member to charge his Creator foolishly 'T is the great policy of Satan to continue our Vassallage by the same methods by which he first procured it viz. a phrenetick Garrulity we all fell because Eve could not hold her peace because she would say that to her Husband she had not learn'd of her God When broad chinks and cranneys are seen in the walls of our House we begin to fear its downfal and why do we not as well the fatal Prognosticks of unclosed Mouths How many Christian-souls have been crush'd to death yea sunk down to Hell How many a credulous Ear hath sucked offence in how many Houses have fallen into discord and jars for want of stopping up the gaping chinks and cranneys of a wide Mouth But that I may be a little more particular our Tongues are apt to offend as in many others so chiefly in these things either in the broaching of errour or the concealment of truth or in the rash publication of it by vile Calumny by corrupt Counsel by Flattery or by Filthiness You see what a large Field I am got into and how many stones of offence lie about it and though Solomon says He that removeth stones shall be hurt therewith Eccles 10.9 yet I go on to prepare the way of the Lord and his little ones beseeching you all to remember that you are not at a Musick-lecture to have your Ears tickled but at the Chair and Tribunal of Christ to have your offences arraigned to have your lives bettered And now as I have been always careful not to give offence by making a Satyr on any religious Party the same method I shall still pursue as far as it consists with my duty towards God the peace and quiet of his Church and