Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	body_n	church_n	member_n	1,786	5	7.7946	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A28276	A sermon preach'd at the Chappel of Brentwood in Essex, October the 7th, 1693, at the visitation of the Right Reverend Father in God, Henry, Lord Bishop of London ... by Ofsp. Blackall ...	Blackall, Offspring, 1654-1716.	1694 (1694)	Wing B3051; ESTC R5712	20,756	34

themselves to and do ordinarily communicate with own the same Scriptures profess the same Creed worship the same God and are in all respects of the same Religion that we are of But if it be so then why do they go from us If they believe that we have the words of eternal life what need they go elsewhere what can they hope for more in the Communion of any other Church than they might have in their own If they are really of the same Religion with us why do they break our Communion why do they make a rent and a Schism in the Church for nothing They indeed that forsake a Corrupt Church or an Idolatrous Worship they that leave the Communion of a Church in which they think they could not be saved act prudently and wisely but to forsake a Church and at the same time to profess that they are still of the same Religion with that Church which they have forsaken is a practice which I think no account can be given of This is certainly to break the Unity of the Church for nothing and needlesly to make a rent and a Schism in the Body of Christ and that very thing which they plead in excuse for their Schism does to my apprehension render it altogether inexcusable For if ever Schism be a sin it is certainly so when there is no cause for it and there can be no just cause to leave that Church which we were bred in and are Members of and to go over to another which professes the same Faith teaches the same Doctrines and agrees in all the Essentials of Worship with that Church which we leave For why should a man leave the Establish'd Church and go to another or set up another against it when by his own confession he does not mend himself by the change but might have been saved as well in that Church which he leaves as in that which he goes to But I know it is pleaded by this sort of Separatists That though they agree with us in the Substantials of Religion they differ from us in the Circumstantials and therefore go for the most part to other Religious Assemblies because there they think God is worshipped after a purer manner than he is amongst us That tho there be in the Established Church all things necessary to Salvation and she has the words of eternal life yet she has also some unnecessary Observances some Rites and Ceremonies which they think might be better omitted and which are not used in those Religious Meetings which they join themselves to But to this the answer is easy Either these Circumstantials of our Worship these Rites and Ceremonies are lawful to be used or not now if they be not lawful to be used if for instance it be unlawful to be present at and to join in those Prayers which the Minister puts up while he is clothed with a white Garment or if it be unlawful to receive the Sacrament upon the Knee why do they ever do these things at all why do they do that to qualify themselves for an Office which if it be a sin they ought not to do to gain the whole world But if these things be lawful and the only thing they have to say against them is that they are in their opinion needless and superfluous Observances what a small reason is this to make a Schism and Division in the Church There can be no end of Separations and Divisions if they may be justified by such fanciful dislikes as these for the Fancies of men are so infinitely different as to such things that 't is impossible that the same should please all people so that either Church-communion is no duty or else such dislikes of the Fancy only cannot be a sufficient ground of a Separation for there is no Congregation where the Minister is not cloathed with some Garment or other and where the Sacrament is not received in some posture or other and there is no Garment or posture which some may not have a fancy against as well as against these and with as good reason Nay not only the Fancies of divers men but even of the same men at divers times are so very different as to such things that what they like one day they oftentimes dislike as much the next so that he who goes from a Pure and Orthodox Church upon such trivial accounts cannot tell himself whither he shall go at last but it is most probable that if he goes on thus indulging his Fancy he will be one day of this Sect another of another and a third of a third till at last having tried all Sects and found in every one something that he disliked he will come to be of no Religion at all Or if not so yet 't is highly probable that while he thus busies himself about the Ceremonies and Circumstantials of Religion he will neglect the substance of it and omit the weightier matters of the law judgment mercy and faith without which all his zeal for the external Purity of the Divine Worship will avail him nothing Thus having as briefly as I could run through all those Particulars which the Text offered to our meditation I proceed in a few words to apply what hath been said and indeed the Application is so easy that I shall not need to be long in it For as it happened to our Saviour in the 1st verse of the Text so it hath happened to this Church whereof we are Members many that formerly joined in her Communion and seemed as hearty and zealous in it as any have of late forsaken her I will not make the application so near as to say that they then followed her for the Loaves and for their temporal Interest tho their leaving her just at this time might well enough make that be suspected neither will I say that the true reason of their leaving her is because her Doctrine is too pure and too good for them But whatever was the motive of their separation 't is matter of fact that there are many now gone away tho God be thanked not near so many as it was bragg'd there would be if ever a Toleration were granted many there are that are gone back and will now walk no more with us But the number of Separatists from any Church is not as I have shewed a just objection against it neither ought it to be any inducement to others to follow their Example for what hath now happen'd to our Church is not near so much as befel our Lord himself who had 5000 Disciples that deserted him at once while only twelve remained with him And what he said to them I may say to you that still continue in our Communion If you are disposed to follow the Example that these have set you you have now free liberty to do it You also may go away if you please there is no restraint now laid upon you by the Laws the whole matter is between God and

Sin For what think you if the Twelve Apostles upon this leave given them by Christ had gone back with the Five thousand would they not by our Saviour himself at the great day have been judged Schismaticks or Apostates for their so deserting him And yet as Man he gave them leave to forsake him he left it to their choice whether they would stay with him or no he used no Force or Compulsion to keep them against their Wills so that here was truly Liberty of Conscience granted them They might be Christians if they would if not they might return back to the Synagogue or go whither else they pleased Here were no worldly Motives offered to them to induce them either to stay or to go but the whole matter was left to their own Conscience But notwithstanding this Toleration as it may be called it was most certainly their Duty still to adhere to that Profession of Christianity which they had taken upon themselves and if they had forsaken it they would have been guilty of a most inexcusable Sin before God And the Case is the same now Humane Lawgivers may give leave to their Subjects to be of any Religion or to be of no Religion but if they do they can't make it lawful in its self either to be Atheists or to profess a false Religion or to forsake the Communion of the True Church for to believe a God and to Worship him Publickly and to Worship him in the Assemblies of the Faithful are Duties that are laid upon us by a higher than any Humane Authority and therefore no Humane Authority can discharge us from them The Law can take away and discharge us from no Obligation but that which its self laid upon us so that all the meaning of the largest and most unlimited Toleration that the Law can grant is no more than this viz. a Declaration that men shall not be liable to any Temporal Mulcts or Penalties or be any ways punish'd by the Civil Power upon the account of any Differences in Religion or for being of no Religion at all but if antecedently to the Establishment of any Church by the Civil Power and if antecedently to the enacting of any Penal Laws to oblige Men to hold its Communion it was a Schism to separate without cause from that Christian Church whereof we were Members and such Schismatical Separation was a Sin before God then so it will be still notwithstanding any License or Toleration that can be granted by the Secular Power But now That before any Civil Laws were enacted in savour of the Church it was unlawful for any man to separate from that Church whereof he was a Member without cause and that such Separation rendred men guilty of the Sin of Schism and that Schism was a damnable Sin is clearly evident from Holy Scripture For in the Apostles days there was no Civil Establishment of any Church all the Civil Powers then in being were either Jewish or Heathen and Judaism or Paganism were the only established Religions and all Profession of the Christian Religion was strictly prohibited under the severest Penalties but for all that there was a Christian Church even in those days with which all Christians were obliged to hold Communion and from which it was a Sin to separate They continued stedfastly in the Apostles doctrine and fellowship saith St. Luke declaring the Practice of the first Converted Christians Acts 2.42 Even then it was a Sin to forsake the assembling themselves together as you may see Heb. 10.25 Even then it was a Duty to mark them that caused Divisions and Offences contrary to the Doctrine which they had learned from Christ and his Apostles and to avoid them Rom. 16.17 Even then Strifes and Divisions were Acts of Carnality as we are told 1 Cor. 3.3 and Heresy was then one of those Works of the Flesh of which the Apostle says That they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God Gal. 5.20 In a word There was a Christian Church before there was any Christian State and long before there were any Acts of Vniformity made it was an Apostolical Canon Let all things be done decently and in order 1 Cor. 14.40 which obliged both the Bishops and Governors of the Church to ordain such Constitutions as were requisite for the decent and orderly Celebration of the Publick Worship and the People to submit thereunto From the very beginning of Christianity it was a Duty incumbent on all Christians to endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace Eph. 4.3 Rom. 15.6 and with one mind and one mouth to glorify God even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ And it was always against the Nature and Constitution of the Christian Church that there should be Divisions in it or Separations from it Seeing therefore Church-Communion is a Duty laid upon us by God it plainly follows That no Human Authority can release us from our Obligation to it and consequently that these words Will ye go away Or you may go away if you will by what man soever they are pronounced cannot make it lawful for us to forsake the Assemblies of the Faithful and to leave the Communion of that Christian Church in which we were baptized and of which we are Members so long as the terms of her Communion are lawful And so much for the third thing I proceed now to the Fourth and Last thing observable in the Text viz. IV. The honest and discreet Answer that was made by Simon Peter in the Name of himself and the other Apostles when this Option was put to them Will ye also go away says our Saviour Lord says he to whom shall we go Thou hast the words of eternal life From whence we may briefly observe these three things 1. That 't is indispensibly necessary to be of some Church or other this is clearly intimated in the Apostles answer Lord to whom shall we go He takes it for granted as a matter of which there could be no reasonable doubt that in case they had left our Lord they must have betaken themselves to some other guide and that if they had forsaken his Communion they must have gone over to some other Communion he supposes it as a most evident and undeniable Truth as indeed it is That it is not enough for a man to have Faith to himself to adore God only in his heart or to Worship him only in his Closet but that it is also necessary to make a publick Profession of that Religion which he is of and to hold Communion with others of the same Faith and Profession in the Common Acts of Worship and Devotion And this is a Point very needful and well worthy to be considered by a great many that now-a-days do forsake our Churches not to go to any other Religious Assemblies but to spend their time in sleeping or dozing at home or in tipling at the Ale-house If we go