Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	christian_a	church_n	great_a	1,565	5	2.6950	3	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A56388	A discourse sent to the late King James, to persuade him to embrace the Protestant religion by Dr. Samuel Parker, Late Lord Bishop of Oxford ; to which are prefixed two letters ; the first, from Sir Leolyn Jenkins, on the same subject, the second, from the said bishop, with the discourse ; printed from the original manuscript papers, without observation or reflection.	Parker, Samuel, 1640-1688.; Jenkins, Leoline, Sir, 1623-1685.	1690 (1690)	Wing P461; ESTC R5913	25,687	36

with the Church-Episcopal for it is impossible to be a Member of the Universal Church without being first a Member of some particular Church both because the Universal Church is made up of the Combination of particular Churches and because there is no way of Communicating in the Offices of Religion but under some limited Societies The Bishop then in every Diocess is as Successor in the Apostolical Office Head of the Communion within his own Diocess and for that Reason the ordinary Judge and Guide to all Christians within his Jurisdiction So false is that Calumny of which the Romanists pretend to make so much Advantage against the Constitution of the Church of England that She doth not so much as pretend to any living Judge of Faith For what Judge She owns as to the Catholic Church I may shew in its proper place But as for every particular Christian She commits him to the Care of his Bishop as his ordinary Guide and Governour in the things that concern his Salvation Now if this be the setled Constitution of the Christian Church as it was from the beginning I cannot understand how any Christian can leave the Communion of his own Bishop to communicate with any other without being guilty of Schism against the Church that he lives in For tho he may advise with any other Bishop about the Welfare of his Soul and follow his Advice as a Friend yet by the original Constitution of the Church none but his own Bishop can have any authoritative Commission for his Guidance and Instruction So easie is the Answer to that solemn Question Who is the living Judge and Guide of your Faith For if it be put to a private Christian it is plain that from the Constitution of the Catholic Church as it was setled by the Apostles that it is the Bishop under whom he lives to whom God hath committed the ordinary means of the Salvation of his Flock and promised to be assistant to him and the Successors in his Office to the end of the World This is the first visible Society or Communion of a Christian Church and was evidently laid and design'd by our Blessed Saviour in his Institution of the Episcopal Office The next is founded upon Apostolical Prescription and that is the Association of the Bishops of a Province with their Metropolitan for in the Plantation of Churches as they cut out the Communion of Christians into particular Bishopricks so they again united the several Bishopricks of every Nation into one Communion under one Head who as he is superior to every single Bishop within his Resort so is he is his Synod of Bishops Supreme Judge of all Controversies within the Province These Provincial Assemblies I have shewn were the highest Power of the Primitive Church in all Places neither indeed setting aside the Promise of divine Assistance to them is there need of any further Appeal upon humane accounts for the Controversives in Christianity are not so monstrously difficult but that a competent Number of grave and sober Men may determine well enough without calling together all the wise Men in the World and if Twenty are not sufficient to decide any Controversie I know not what Number is And as this was the standing ordinary Jurisdiction in the first Ages of the Church so the Christians of those Times suppos'd the means of Salvation sufficiently secur'd in such Hands and certainly that which was sufficient to them is so to us And as this was the highest Government in the Church for the first three Hundred Years so those more diffusive Assemblies that were afterward summon'd and that we call general Councils were really of the same nature for as a Provincial Assembly was national so were these Imperial and therefore subject but to one civil Government So that as the Empire was indeed but one great Kingdom so was the Church in it but one great Province they being both under the same extent of Government And this is the true Use of Councils whether greater or less by the Decree of the Representatives of Churches to bind those Churches that they represent And that is but a reasonable thing in all Societies that they should be determin'd by their Governours especially when they are set over them by the appointment of God himself Neither is it so very material how large Councils are as to their Obligation for whether they be greater or less they equally bind all that are involv'd within the compass of their Authority And tho there may be greater Presumption in the Decrees of the greater Councils yet are they for the most part meetings rather of Grandeur than Necessity but especially those that we call General Councils are now so difficult to be summon'd that they are become almost impracticable Whilst indeed the Roman Empire stood entire it was not so hard to convene them yet even then was it a Business of so much Time and Charges as made it too burthensom to be born by any thing less than the Roman Greatness and that too in very rare and extraordinary Cases But if so it could never then be intended for the standing and perpetual Government of the Christian Church But now that Christendom is divided into so many civil Governments the Difficulties are so great and so many through the various Interests of Princes either to promote or hinder it as to render it next to impossible Tho if it could be fairly had the Church of England would not refuse her Concurrence in it both as being assured of the Goodness of her Cause in that she owns no other Rule of her Reformation but the Practice of the Primitive and Apostolick Church and as well knowing that the greatest part of the Church of Rome would as willingly rid themselves of those Abuses that have been put upon them by the Court of Rome as we have done And this the Spanish and French Bishops had carried through even in that pack'd Council of Trent had not the Pope poured in a number of Titular Italian Bishops to over-vote them But it is none of my present Business to rake into the Faults of the Church of Rome 't is enough to my purpose to vindicate the Communion of the Church of England Granting therefore the Church of Rome to be a pure and uncorrupted Church yet because it is a Foreign Church no Man can be under any Obligation to leave the Communion of his own to joyn with that In this one point I fix the State of this whole Address and say nothing at present to persuade any Person that lives within the Communion of the Church of Rome to forsake that my only Concernment is with the Members of the Church of England to keep them to their own Church according to the Rule from the Beginning If it be objected That the Church of England be a narrow Thing in comparison of the Catholick Church I answer That the Church of England doth not pretend to be the Church Catholick but

only a Member of it and in that Station it is as large a Church as any were in the Primitive Times Neither then did the Communion of the Catholick Church consist in an Union of all Churches under one Head but in brotherly Love and Correspondence with one another and for that the Church of England is ready to offer it to the Church of Rome or any other upon the old Condition that they will give her leave to admonish them of their Faults and Miscarriages as Churches did one another of old But this is a Civility that the Church of Rome is too proud to accept of it must be all Churches or it will be none at all It allows no Equals in Communion and condescends to no Treaty but upon Terms of absolute Subjection neither is it content to enslave all its Neighbors to its own imperious Decrees unless they be submitted to as the infallible Dictates of God himself Now this seems too much for Men to swallow that have any sense or care of their Salvation for by this means the whole Faith of Christendom shall be left entirely at the Disposal of one single Person and the Pope alone shall be the whole Catholick Church This I say seems too much to venture upon one single Security especially unless it were confirmed by some clearer Commission than those remote and obscure Texts of Scripture that are alledg'd for the Papal Supremacy But to return from the Pope to the Church As the first Constitution of Churches was conform'd to the civil Government so indeed no other is practicable For upon that Supposition that Christianity makes no Abatement as to the civil Rights of Men especially of Princes provincial Churches cannot be justly extended beyond the Dominion of the State because in that case if Metropolitans or Patriarchs have power to call their Subject-Bishops to Councils the King's Subjects may be summoned out of his Dominions without his leave which is not only to diminish but to destroy his Power over his own Subjects for when they are out of his Dominions they are none of his So that the very State of Christianity naturally implies as it would not be inconsistent with it self the Conformity of the Church to the State in its bounds of Jurisdiction And this is the true meaning of that known Saying of one of the Fathers That the Church is in the Commonwealth and not the Commonwealth in the Church for the Civil Government being first constituted and the Church being afterwards taken into it it must for that Reason keep it self within it otherwise it breaks down its old Bounds of Settlement But beside that the Nature of Government confines every Church within the Prince's Dominions in which it is so it is highly convenient if not absolutely necessary to the due and effectual Exercise of Discipline that the Society of the Church be confined within some moderate Circuit of Government for great Governments are slow and unweildy in their Motions the very distance of Place makes all Proceedings uneasie and Determinations difficult and of this our Nation was sufficiently sensible when all Ecclesiastical Appeals were carried to Rome the Journey was tedious and chargable and by reason of the distance of Witnesses and other Inconveniences Proceedings infinitely dilatory I might say endless Causes depending there from Age to Age this is too notorious from the sad and open Complaints of those Times and I my self enjoy a small Office in this Church wherein my Predecessors had a Suit for a Privilege belonging to it hanging in the Court of Rome for some hundreds of Years till the very time of the Dissolution of the Pope's Power These are intolerable Grievances to Mankind and heavier Burthens than were ever imposed upon them by the most barbarous civil Government If therefore his Holiness will challenge a Supremacy over all Christian Churches let him not exercise his Jurisdiction in ordinary Causes that is contrary to all the Canons of the Church and Quiet of the World We will not contend with him about his Patriarchical Preheminence if that would give him Satisfaction tho we know he hath not the least pretence of any claim to it over us But when under that Pretext he takes to himself the Office of Universal Bishop that is to be all the Bishops of Christendom 't is that exorbitant Usurpation that is not our Complaint alone but the universal Complaint of Christendom it self And therefore if he would keep within his Patriarchical Bounds and Privileges which yet he enjoys not by divine Right but humane Institution we would give him all that Respect and Reverence that is due to the Primacy of his See But if instead of Brotherly Communion with us nothing less will serve his Turn than absolute Dominion over us and if Submission to that must be made our only Title to the Catholick Church as if we had no Right to Christianity but by Subjection to the Bishop of Rome these cannot but seem too hard Terms of Communion or if they are not it is enough that they are unwarrantable or if they are not so it is enough that they are not necessary And that they are not is evident from the Premises where I have demonstrated that the first Duty of every Christian as a Member of the Christian Church is to joyn Communion with his own Bishop as the first Political Society of a Church And that the next is a Combination of all the Bishops within one civil Government under one Metropolitan That this Polity was set on foot by the Apostles themselves and every where put in practice in the Primitive Church that the Ecclesiastical Province cannot extend beyond the Precincts of the Civil without infringing the Authority of Sovereign Princes and therefore that no foreign Prelate can have or exercise any Ecclesiastical Power over his Majesty's Subjects because that would give them Power to command them out of his Dominions So plainly doth the Nature of Civil Government set Bounds to Ecclesiastical Societies which one thing if duely consider'd must cut off all Claims of Papal Supremacy over this Church because by virtue of it he would have such a kind of Power over His Majesty's Subjects as the Christian Religion doth by no means allow any its Officers And as this was the Settlement of National Churches from the beginning of Christianity so is it the present Constitution of the Church of England that is or would be govern'd by its Metropolitan in his Synod of Bishops subject to one Civil Government And as this is all the Political Society that a Christian Church is capable of so all the Communion that it can have with other Churches consists in brotherly Love and mutual Correspondence And this way was the Christian Church in the first Ages of it preserv'd in competent Peace and Unity And whatever other Power was afterward erected in the Church was founded upon humane Institution and therefore is alterable in it self at least not necessary to the

within themselves Of which there were great Numbers in the World and some of as large Jurisdiction as the Patriarchates especially in Asia But as for the Patriarchate of Rome it never extended its Power beyond Italy and its adjacent Islands And therefore it is very observable that the Writers of the Church of Rome care not that it should be known to the Christian World So that hereafter all their Brags of Universal Pastorship when they come to make it out their Manuscripts still fail them Carolus à Sancto Paulo hath taken most Pains of any in this Argument and hath done well enough in other Parts but when he comes to the Church of Rome there his Manuscript is so worn out and defective that it was not worth publishing Now doth not this look oddly that their Books should fail them thus only in their own Cause and doth it not rather give suspicion that themselves are too well aware that they would do them no real kindness However it is a very preposterous thing for a Man to pretend to a Title to a great Estate by virtue of some antient Writings and yet when he comes to try his Title should only plead that indeed such Writings there once were but that they are now so impair'd that they are not legible And yet this is the very Case of the Church of Rome here All Christendom at least the Western Empire ought to be subject to him as their Patriarch Why so Because he ever was so How doth that appear By the ancient Notitiae of the Church Produce them So we can for all the other Patriarchates but those that concern the Church of Rome are unhappily lost Are they so Then you have lost the Evidence of your Title and for ought you do or can know never had any But instead of this shifting and prevaricating that we meet with in the Writers of the Church of Rome there is not long since publish'd by a very learned and a very honest Gentleman of our own Church and Nation an accurate Description of all the Patriarchates out of an ancient and authentic Manuscript which reckons to the Patriarchate of Rome only Italy and the adjacent Islands but not a syllable of Spain or Germany or Gaul or England or any other of the large Territories in Europe which if they had belonged to this Patriarchate at that time could never have been omitted in this exact Catalogue that hath so carefully set down every petty City in Italy In this posture stood the Government of the Church for many Years without any considerable Alteration For tho some of the Bishops of Rome would have been usurping upon the Churches of Africa by pretending to a Right of Appeals from them they were repulsed with great Shame and Dishonour And were it not that I am unwilling to trouble Your Highness with any more Disputes than what concerns our own Church with the Church of Rome there is nothing more easie than to shew that this Controversie with the African Churches is a notorious Instance of both the Frauds of the Roman Church and of other Churches abhorring his remotest aim at any Supremacy But tho he missed his design at that time his Successors were ever after watchful of all other Opportunities to compass it And to that purpose they happen'd to have two very lucky Advantages the first was the fatal Division of the Empire into East and West from whence S. Gregory Nazienzen a Man both wise and pious foretold a more fatal Division in the Church and accordingly in a little time it came to pass that the whole Body of it was divided into East and West as well as the Empire and the Division was quickly heightned by the mutual Jealousies of the Emperors who would not suffer the Bishops under one Government to repair to Councils conven'd under the other And that in a short time grew to alienations of Minds so that they kept their Councils apart and if any Bishop of the East repair'd to a Synod of the West and so for the contrary He was look'd upon as a Betrayer of his own Church And this was the occasion of the after-greatness of the Church of Rome in these Western Parts because that alone of all the five Patriarchates happen'd to go along with the Western Empire For having no Competitor for the Supremacy or so much as the equality of Power in the Western Church it was no hard matter to advance it self to any degree of Power that it pleased to challenge especially when the Western Churches were forward enough of themselves to advance its Dignity for the Honor of their own Patriarchate in opposition to that of Constantinople which being the Seat of the Empire and enjoying the Favor of the Emporors soon over top'd all the other Eastern Patriarchates so that all the Competition that remain'd was between Rome and Constantinople Till at last in the Sixth Century Iohn Bishop of Constantinople first obtained of Mauritius the Emperor the Title of Universal Bishop which very Title was quickly and vehemently oppos'd by Gregory Bishop of Rome as a Piece of Antichristian Pride and Insolence But Mauritius being murdered by Phocas and Cyriacus then Bishop of Constantinople being fallen under the new Tyrant's Disfavor for declaring against his execrable Murder the Bishop of Rome seizes that Opportunity to flatter and caress him in all his Wickedness for which Civility the Usurper takes the Title of Universal Bishop and settles it upon the See of Rome And when once they had obtained the Title they resolv'd to make it good by gaining the Power too Tho by what degrees they encroach'd upon other Churches it is not at all to my purpose here to represent it is enough to have shewn the late Original of the Title which was never given them till above 600 Years after our Saviour This then being the true and real state of all the Christian Church the Conclusion plainly makes it self as to any English Christian's Obligation to communicate with the Church of England or the Church of Rome For as it is the indispensible Duty of every Man to joyn in visible Communion with the Society of the Church so is the first visible Society of the Church settled in the Communion of the Bishop of the Diocess And thence evident it is that the first Duty of every Christian as to external Communion with the Church is to joyn in Communion with the Bishop of the Place where he lives For if our Saviour setled the Government of the Church in the Apostles and if the Episcopal Order succeeded them in their Office then hath every Bishop Apostolical Authority And then is every Christian Man bound to submit to his Bishop as to an Apostle from whence the Bishop derives the Succession of his Order and Authority So that the Episcopal Society is the first visible Communion of the Christian Church and a Man becomes a Member of the Church-Catholic by joyning in visible Communion