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	see_v	2,371	5	3.7700	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A37363	A Seasonable advice to all true Protestants in England, in this present posture of affairs discovering the present designs of the papists : with other remarkable things, tending to the peace of the church, and the security of the Protestant relion [sic] / by a sincere lover of his King and countrey.	M. D.	1679 (1679)	Wing D63; ESTC R18433	50,826	67

matter as much Papists as you I am afraid I shall never be able to persuade neither the Pope nor his Jesuits that we of the Church of England are such Friends of Popery as you my Non-Conforming Brethren would have us to be I shall be rather able to make them take us for Turks and Jews than Roman Catholicks Wherefore then will you needs accuse us so falsely against all equity and probability What do you find of Popery in us and our Church Is it the Government by Bishops and their Suffragans It is possible that this Order established in our Church may give occasion to the weaker sort to look upon us near a kin in this respect because they are mistaken in the Notion of Popery and in the chief and essential properties of that Religion God forbid that all Monarchical Government in Gods Church on Earth should be Popish and Antichristian Then we must include the Primitive Churches setled by the Apostles in Asia and the East under the Government of Bishops to be Popish also Then the Grecian Church under the Patriarch of Constantinople The Egyptian under the Arch-Bishop of Alexandria and the Antiochian and Jerusalem Churches and generally all the Churches of Christ in Constantine's days and since were Popish Nay all the Fathers St. Cyprian St. Austin St. Ambrose St. Chrysostom were Papists as well as we and our Bishops Hier. ad Macceb Aug. in Psalm 45. by that reason For all their Churches were governed by Bishops and a Monarchical Authority The Calvinists also whom you say are your nearest Brethren are also Papists if this reason were good for they wish that they might have Bishops to govern them in their reformed Churches and that it could consist with their safety in the midst of their Enemies to have the same form of Government as we have here in this Land Examin but their Letters mentioned by Dr. Durel and a Letter of Peter Martyr to Beza at the end of his Common-places at his return from the Assembly of Poissy concerning the Bishop of Troye in France who embraced the Protestant Religion Peter Martyr pag. 801. and was universally received and acknowledged by all the Calvinists in his Diocess Ministers and others as their Lord and Bishop And you will have no cause to think them to be Enemies of Episcopacy as the Papists and you would persuade us for divers ends But there is a vast difference in the point of Church-Government between the Papists and us They render Homage to the Pope as the Supream Lord of the Church on Earth we acknowledge none but Christ and under him our Lawful Sovereign They differ from us much in their Episcopal Laws which savour of Tyranny and are not so conducing to the Reformation of mens manners and the good of Christianity as ours The Name Prerogatives and Honours of the Popish Bishops are for the most part yet continued to our Protestant Prelates by the liberality of our Religious Kings And is this the cause that you accuse them of Popery Do their Honors and Riches grieve you Are you displeased to see the Rulers of our Church appear with decency splendor and the respect of their Country I am perswaded that if the Kings Majesty would take from them their Lordships their Estates and Dignities and send our Bishops amongst you to beg their bread as the Mendicant Fryers of Rome though then they would be much more like the Papists than they are at present you would scarce take the pains to accuse them for being Popishly affected But I have this Charitable opinion of you my Non-Conforming Brethren that you would never have thought to accuse our Bishops and their Church Government of Popery had not the Jesuitical Party that insinuate amongst you minded you of it for their own ends and out of a displeasure to see the excellent Order Decency and Splendor of our Church free from the abominations of Idolatry and their Monkish absurdities But that you may not be so soon mistaken my Brethren in a matter of so great a moment as Popery and Superstition is I beseech you to understand what Popery is and what not that you may not be so easily cosened and imposed upon by your Enemies and ours in this Nation Popery comprehends all those Heresies and grievous Errors which the Pope and the Court of Rome have delivered as Articles of Faith by which the Popes Authority or rather Tyranny is established in the World contrary to Gods Word and Glory and the Salvation of mens Souls According to this definition if our first Reformers had retained the abuses of Popery the Transubstantiaton Purgatory Images the Merits of Saints Indulgences Pardons and such like follies not warranted but contrary to Christ's Doctrines and Christianity you might then accuse us with reason of being guilty of Popery But shall we for our Conformity to Christs Commands and the Primitive Church in Discipline and Government be accused by you of Popery and Antichristianism What is there in our Government or Church that tends to promote the Popes Interest or to draw men away from Christ and our dependency upon him and his merits If something of the Civil Power be intrusted in the hands of our Bishops I hope none of you will presume to appoint our Wise Princes and Parliaments whom they are to settle in Authority under them That proceeds from our Princes Will who is Gods Vicegerent amongst us For our Articles our Catechism our Rubrick and way of Worship is as free from Popery as our Government and Ecclesiastical Laws For how can that be Popish which opposeth all the Errors and Mistakes of the Papists which Teacheth to implore Gods assistance and direction against the Heresies and Designs of the Pope which was used in the Christian Church before ever the Pope claimed an universal superintendency How can that be Popish which agrees with Gods Word and the Doctrines and Practices of all the Reformed Churches Enemies of Popery and which their most Judicious Divines embrace as most consonant with Faith and Piety Search into every thing Authorized in the Church of England and let the most refined Soul and quickest Eye tell us under what Ceremony or in what Article of our Faith or in what corner of our Rubrick or in what part of our Devotions they perceive any Colour of Popish Superstition I dare affirm and willl engage to prove that most of our Non-Conformists are far more Superstitious and Popish in their Belief and Practice than any in the Church of England In those particulars in which your Conformity is required What is there of Popery of Superstition or contrary to Reason or good manners For if there be nothing to be excepted against Why will you not joyn with us your Brethren You cannot be angry with Set Forms in general because Christ our Saviour recommended one to us as an Excellent Pattern to draw ours by You may be displeased at the reading of our Prayers but if

to be reconciled with us and their own duty by all the Reasons and Commands of God and Man You know and may easily discover in your usual hearers if you please to give your selves the trouble several wicked vices as pride selfconceitedness hypocrisie hatred malice envy c. which their Non-Conformity alone hath bred and nourished in their Souls You know that the blessed rules of the Gospel and the sweet temper of Christs Religion requires from you another disposition and other carriage than many of you and most of your followers exprest to us your Brethren and your Christian Governors If you have a sincere regard to Religion and a desire to advance Gods Glory on Earth you will at last endeavour a reconciliation for fear of the mischiefs which our separation from one another is like to bring upon us all Remember that a compliance with your Peoples Non-Conformity is no longer seasonable in regard of the obstinacy of those that continue in it against all Law and Reason You have sufficiently complied with their humors do you now comply with your obligations to God and Man you have had a care of the salvation of their Souls now look to the preservation of your own and run not your selves into the remediless sin of a wilful denial and opposition of God truth to the last The Apostles in their yielding to the Jewish mistakes laboured always to make them sensible of their Error by minding them still that Moses Ceremonies were not needful to be observed and at last told them plainly That they were a denyal of Christs coming in the Flesh Galat. It would become your Learning and Integrity my reverend Brethren to deal thus plainly with your Congregations if you would be true followers of the Holy Apostles Tell them that Conformity to the Church of England is no such a Crime as they have imagined that they are bound to obey Mans Laws when they are not contrary to the Commands of the Gospel That they should be reconciled with our Worship and Church and strive to Conform as near as they can to what is required from them Tell them that Schism and Separation from the approved way is a grievous sin That their Souls are in danger of Damnation by resisting and disobeying the lawful Commands of their Superiors under God That they should take heed of not persisting obstinately in their errors and not to refuse obedience to the least Command of the Gospel when discovered to them Tell them to be more in love with Truth than with Faction more desirous of meeting with the rest of their Brethren in Gods Worship than fond of their private and unlawful meetings where the Gospel may be Preached it is true because it is in opposition to their other Brethren and to the Authority of the Nation they are not warrantable by Gods Word Tell them in short that the Blessed Gospel of our Saviour as well as his Interest and our Glory requires us all to joyn and unite together in all Acts of Piety on Earth that we may avoid the Devils temptations and be more fit to unite together in Heaven to sing oraises to our great God and Redeemer Our Blessed Saviour who is dead for you as well as for us and is gone to prepare a place for us in the glorious Mansions of Eternity intends not to receive you by your selves and appoint your aboads distinct from the rest of Christians why are you so serupulous or so superstitious as for trivial matters now to divide from us in that Worship which is to prepare us for Gods presence O my Brethren did we but consider how ridiculous our Nation appear to our Neighbours and to the Blessed Angels above and how pleasing our Divisions are to our Enemies of Rome we should doubtless blush for shame to have hitherto encouraged a separation so childish and ill grounded for no other cause but the humor and mistakes of the vulgar sort seeing that it renders us liable to the reproach of Men and Angels and causeth us all to be in danger of the ruin of our worldly interest and what mischiefs it causeth to the Souls of men do you judge If the respect to Religion be pretended examin whether this pretence can avail against an apparent Duty or excuse you from a submission to the Laws of God and Man examin whether at present you draw not more evil upon the heads of your Followers and Religion it self by an opposition to Conformity than you would by yielding to Reason and Law and to your Christian obligations I know that some prophane and vicious persons refuse to be conformable for other reasons because they have cast off all respects for their God and Religion I know the Jesuits and the disguised Papists amongst you will not Conform to our Church but exclaim against our Religious Worship because they have a wicked design to manage the ruin of the Nation But I intend not these lines for their benefit and perusal but only for such of our Non-Conforming Brethren whose hearts God may at last move with a sence of their duty to joyn with us in Gods Service They that hereafter shall refuse and continue in an obstinate refusal and in their usual clamors against us may justly be suspected for Papists or some hired to promote the Jesuitical design the overthrow of Church and State Were the differences in Religion between us in the Fundamentals a Separation would be well grounded But we all agree in the chief Articles of our Faith we embrace together the same Religion and Belief we worship the same one God Creator of Heaven and Earth and expect Salvation through the Merits of a Crucified Christ we subscribe to the same Covenant of Grace and acknowledge but two Sacraments as Seals we look upon the Holy Scriptures as the only infallible Rule of our Faith and Practice In a word we agree in all the essential parts of the Christian Religion many of the circumstances in which we disagree are so inconsiderable that if we had not an earnest desire to contend they would not be able to cause any dispute much less to disturb the publick peace The chief differences are about Church Government and Gods Publick Worship for the latter they are so frivolous idle and impertinent that I shall say no more in vindication of our practices than hath been already said but for the Government we agree in the chief Principles and Maxims though we differ in the conclusion For we all say that in all Church Governments amongst Christians that there is a regard to be had to the Models allowed of and appointed by the Holy Apostles and Primitive Fathers That the Rules of the Gospel ought not to be opposed but obeyed in the prescribing of Laws for the preservation of Christian Societies That in all Church Government there is a special regard to be had to the end of all Government which is the safety of the whole to keep it