Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	bishop_n	church_n	judgement_n	1,426	5	5.8624	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A26958	A moral prognostication I. what shall befall the churches on Earth, till their concord, by the restitution of their primitive purity, simplicity, and charity, II. how that restitution is like to be made, (if ever) and what shall befall them thence-forth unto the end, in that golden-age of love / written by Richard Baxter ...	Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691.	1680 (1680)	Wing B1311; ESTC R5743	36,590	70

securing of a Faithful Ministry and other good Effects will countervail many such Inconveniences 22. No One Church shall have the Government of Another Church And the secular Differences of Metropolitans Patriarcks c. which was set up in one Empire upon secular Accounts and from secular Reasons shall all cease And no Differences shall be made necessary among them which Christ hath not made necessary But Christian Princes shall take warning by the Greek and Latine Churches and by all the Calamities and Ruins which have been caused in the Christian World by Bishops striving who should be the Greatest when Christ decided the Controversie long ago Luk. 22. 23. As Christians hold Personal Christian Communion in their several particular Churches so Churches shall hold a Communion of Churches by necessary Correspondencies and Associations Not making a Major Vote of Bishops in Synods to have a proper Government over the Minor Part. But that by counsel and concord they may help and strengthen one another and secure the common Interest of Christianity And that he that is a Member of one Church may be received of the Rest and he that is cast out of One may not be received by the Rest unless he be wronged So that it shall not be One Politick Church but a Communion of Churches 24. The Means of this Communion shall be 1. By Messengers 2. By Letters and Certificates Communicatory 3. By Synods 25. These Synods shall as to a few Neighbour Churches be ordinary and stated And the Meetings of Ministers in them shall be improved 1. To the Directing and Counselling of one another in matters doubtful especially of Discipline 2. To edify each other by Conference Prayer and Disputations 3. That the Younger may be Educated under the grave Advice and Counsels of the Elder 4. That the Concord of Themselves and the Churches under them may be preserved But if they would grow Imperious Tyrannical Heretical or Contentious the Magistrate shall hinder their stated ordinary Meetings that it be not accounted a thing simply necessary nor used to the Disturbance of the Church or States And all Provincial National and larger Councels shall be held by the Magistrates Consent 26. He that taketh himself to be wrongfully Excommunicated in one Church shall have a Treble Remedy 1. To have his Cause heard by the Associated Pastors of the Neighbour-Churches though not as Rulers of the Bishop or Pastor of that particular Church yet as Counsellors and such whose Judgment bindeth to Concord in lawful things 2. To be admitted by another Church if it appear that he is wronged And 3. To appeal to the Magistrate as the Preserver of Justice and Order in all Societies 27. The Magistrate shall appoint some of the most Grave and Wise and Godly and Moderate of the Ministers to have a general Inspection over many Churches and to see that they be well Taught and Ordered and that Pastors and People do their Duty who shall therefore oft Visit them and shall Instruct and Exhort the Younger Ministers and with the countenance of the Magistrate and their own Seigniority and Ability shall rebuke the Sloathful and Faulty Ministers and perswade them to Diligence and Fidelity But shall Exercise no outward Force by the Sword nor any Excommunication by themselves alone or otherwise than in the fore-said Regular way 28. All Ordinations shall be performed except in case of Necessity either in the Assembly of the Associated Pastors with their President or in the Vacant Church by some of them appointed by the rest Or by the General Visiter last mentioned with a competent Number of Assistants But still an Ordination to the Ministry in general shall not be taken to be formally the same as the affixing him to this or that Church in particular No more than the Licensing of a Physician is the same with the Affixing him to a particular Hospital 29. A Catalogue shall be drawn up of some of the greatest Verities which are not expresly found in the Creed Lord's Prayer or Decalogue which as the Articles of Confession of the Associated Churches of the Nation shall serve for these Three Uses 1. To satisfie all Forreign Churches against any Accusation that they are Orthodox 2. To examine the Knowledge of such as are admitted to the Ministry by but not to be Subscribed unless only as to a general Acknowledgment of the Soundness of their Doctrine without saying that There is nothing Faulty in them 3. To be a Rule of Restraint to Ministers in their Preaching that none be allowed publickly after Admonition to Preach against any Doctrine contained in them 30. The Usurped Ecclesiastical Power of Bishops and Presbyteries and Councils which were co-ercive or imitated secular Courts or bound the Magistrate to execute their Decrees being cast out and all Pastors restrained from playing the Bishops in other Churches out of their own Charge The Magistrate shall Exercise all Co-ercive Church-Government himself and no more trust the Sword directly or indirectly in the Hands of the Clergy who have long used it so unhappily to the Disturbance of the Christian World and the shedding of so much Innocent Blood Where it may be had there shall be a Church-Justice or Magistrate in every considerable Parish who being present shall himself hear how Ministers preach and behave themselves among their People And all Ministers and Churches shall be Responsible to the Magistrate for all Abuses and mal-Administration If any Minister Preach or Pray seditiously abusively factiously railingly against tolerable Dissenters to the destroying of Christian Love and Unity or Heretically to the Danger of the Peoples Souls or shall exercise Tyranny over the People or live a Vicious Life or be negligent in his Office of Teaching Worship or Discipline or otherwise grosly mis-behave himself He shall be Responsible both as afore-said to the Associated Pastors and Visitor or Arch-Bishop and also to the Magistrate who shall Rebuke and Correct him according to the measure of his Offence And it shall appear that the Magistrate is sufficient for all Co-ercive Church-Government without all the Clergies Usurpations which uphold the Roman and other Tyrannical Societies 31. The Question Who shall be Judge of Heresie Schisme or Church-Sins shall be thus decided 1. The Bishops or Pastors of the particular Churches shall be the Judges who is to be denyed Communion in their Churches as Hereticks Schismaticks c. 2. The Associated Churches shall be Judges in their Synods or by other Correspondence who is to be commonly denyed Communion in all their Churches and what Pastors and Churches shall have the Dextram Communionis and who not 3. The Magistrate shall be the only Judge who is to be punished for Heresie or Schism c. with Fines or any Outward Corporal Penalty And no one shall usurp the others Right 32. The Magistrate shall silence all Preachers that after due Admonition so grosly mis-behave themselves in Doctrine Worship or Conversation as to be the Plagues of the Churches