Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	authority_n	bishop_n	ecclesiastical_a	2,214	5	8.3845	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A25212	Melius inquirendum, or, A sober inquirie into the reasonings of the Serious inquirie wherein the inquirers cavils against the principles, his calumnies against the preachings and practises of the non-conformists are examined, and refelled, and St. Augustine, the synod of Dort and the Articles of the Church of England in the Quinquarticular points, vindicated.	Alsop, Vincent, 1629 or 30-1703.; G. W.	1678 (1678)	Wing A2914; ESTC R10483	348,872	332

and Christian way then all these put together To bear with one another to leave judging censuring despising persecuting to leave men to those Sentiments which they have contracted from insuperable weakness or less happy Education whilst they are good men good subjects good Christians sound in the Faith and Worship God no worse then the Scripture commands them And he that cannot Indulge his brother sound in the Fundamentals and walking together with his brethren so far as he has attained let him prate of peace till his Tongue akes 't is evident he would not purchase Peace with Shoobuckles The Apostle has recommended this expedient to us by his own example 1 Cor. 9. 20 21. which the Enquirer could see to quote and not to understand Unto the Iews I became as a Iew that I might gain the Iews To them that were without the Law as without Law being not without Law to God but under the Law to Christ that I might gain them that are without the Law To the weak became I as weak that I might gain the weak I am made all things to all men that I might by all means save some It seems the Blessed A postle had not yet learnt to snickle the private Conscience with his publick Authority That which he quotes from Greg. Naz is indeed more considerable to his design Who affirms how St. Basil dissembled the Coesseutiality of the Holy Chost and delivered himself in Ambiguous Terms on that point least he should offend and loose the weak The Reader will conclude by these instances that though the Enquirers designly open to condemn the Dissenters yet his Mediums do strongly plead their Cause We are illustrated with an Apostle with a famous Bishop both eminent for their Condescentions to the weak such as laid not the stress of the Churches Peace upon their own Wills or A postolical power or Ecclesiastical Authority nor defined too severely Controverted points and yet when he comes to the Application the duty of yelding is pressed upon the Dissenters Whose coming up in a hundred points were perfectly insignificant unless they could nick the very 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of Canon-Conformity I would ask the Enquirer whether the Dissenters ever pleaded to be gracified in so weighty a point as the Coessentiality of the Holy Spirit Or whether Ambiguity or a handsome equivocation there must be one of those things we must give for Peace If neither of these he might have spared Bafil if not for our sake yet for his own And out of all these excellent Materials we expected he should have composed a Speech to the Reverend Bishops My Lords I have humbly set before your discerning judgments the great example of the Great St. Basil and the greater instance of the famous Dr of the Gentiles persons whose Authority in the Church and wisdom to manage that Authority was without disparagement equal to the same Qualifications in your Lordships And yet their hearts so humble when their places were so high their Condescentions greater then their Exaltations carries somewhat in it of that Divinity which bespeaks your Imitation They would become all things to all men though sin to none They were ambitious to wi●… the weak by Meekness and not to wound the weak by Majesty The way of Peace lyes plain before you st●…p to them in things Indifferent who cannot rise to you in what they call sinful your yeelding to the weak will be your strength And whilst you gain tender Consciences to the Church you will gain Immortal honour to your selves Let it be the glory of your lives that you have made up our Breaches and not the Epitaph of your Tombs That the way of Peace you have not known He comes now to the Grand example indeed that of our Blessed Saviour which if it be but faithfully alledged and Congruously applyed must silence all dispute and conquer the must restif reluctancy Let us then hear how Christs example leads us to Conform 1. Christ complied with the Rites and Customs he found What right or wrong 'T is true he complied with those he found because he found such Rites and Customs as were warranted by the Law He was Circumcised True It became him to fulfil all Righteousness He did eat the Passeover Very true He was made under the Law He wore their Garments spoke their Language No doubt of it He was a Jew by Birth and approved himself a Minister of the Circumcision for the truth of God 2. He condescended to the very humours of that stubborn people True Not by Imitating them not assuming the person of a Iewish Zealot but mildly reproving their irregularities He came not in the blustering Whirlwind nor in the terrible Earthquake but in the still small voice of Evangelical Meekness He came not to break the bruised reed nor quench the smoaking flax but rebuked his mistaken Disciples that they understood not the spirit of the Gospel nor what a temper it called for that they must needs fetch fire from Heaven to Consume the truly Schismatical Samaritans when they should rather have Castigated their own heats and calmed their own passions which were kindled from a worse fire I expect still how he will accommodate this Condescention of our Blessed Saviour to his purpose for either the Dissenters must be those stubborn people and then if the Clergy will imitate their Lord and Master they must condescend to their very Humours or else Dissenters must in imitation of Christ condescend to the Clergy and then it supposes them to be the stubborn and inflexible party Besides Condescention in Inferiours to Superiours will be very improper Language 3. He used their phrase in his Discourse And the Non-conformists speak as proper English as their Wit serves them that they cannot Adorn their conceptions or cloath their thoughts in thunder 〈◊〉 ping Phraseology may perhaps be their Misery but certainly not their Sin 4. He observed their Feasts We Question it not He came to do his Fathers will and amongst other particulars that also of observing what ever Ordinance was of Divine Institution But the Render must know here 's a secret Argument couch't in these words against Non-conformity which I will ingenuously own and 't is this The Jews had instituted a Feast in Memory of the Dedication of the Temple Now this Festival had not the character of Divine Institution and yet this Feast our Saviour solemnized and who then can be so refractory as not to observe the Holy-Dayes and consequently all other Humane Constitutions which bear no direct Repugnancy to the Law of God I shall neither assert at present that this Festival had Divine Warrant n●…r deny that it was properly of a Religious Nature but this I return That it appears not that our Saviour performed any Act or spoke any Word that may be interpreted or Construed an approbation of that practise All that appears is from 10 I●… 22 23. And it was at Jerusalem the Feast of the Dedication and