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	religion_n	1,433	5	5.5815	4	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A53999	Jerub-baal, or, The pleader impleaded being an answer to Mr. Croftons (lately published) plea for communion with the Church under her present corruptions, &c., entituled Reformation not separation by way of humble remonstrance thereunto : shewing, that non-communion with the Church of England in her liturgy and common-prayer, in those that (yet) joyn with her in the substantial ordinances and instituted worship of Christ, is no schism, and that such are unjustly called separatists : in a letter / written by T.P. for the private satisfaction of a friend, and by him published for common benefit.	T. P.	1662 (1662)	Wing P112; ESTC R7299	36,119	58

thankfullnesse under the reception of an Extraordinary Blessing and not as an Act of Piety Necessity or Worship And though I shall not at this time at least go so far as some namely to assert that the Consecrated Bread purposely set before Superstitious Kneelers Protestants and the supposed Transubstantiated Bread purposely placed before Idolatrous Kneelers the Papists is the same In Esse Ad. rabili yet two things I shall say First A Papists Idolatrous Kneeling before the Bread supposed to be Transubstantiated is in some respect more Excusable than a Protestants Superstitious Kneeling before the Bread being onely Consecrated for his Creed doth though not Justifie yet in part excuse his gesture Did I beleeve that the Sacramental Bread is no sooner Consecrated than really Transubstantiated into the Body of Christ I should think I should greatly ●●n if I did not forthwith exhibit Worship thereunto since as the O thodox-Learned generally grant there is Adoration and Worship due to Christ even as Man viz by vertue of the Personal Vnion of his Humane with his Divine Nature Secondly The gesture of Kneeling at the Sacrament c. in the Church of England having Necessity placed in it else why is it imposed and not seft Arbitrary yea and holinesse and worship too as its * The Arch-Bishop of Spalato Dr. Burgesse Dr. Mortoun Paybody c. learned Patrons inform us and so becoming a dangerous piece of Superstition and Will-Worship I am warranted to withdraw and refuse Communion with her therein by a Supersedeas of Mr. Croftons own grant viz in case of Real-Inevitable Necessity with this assurance that God will have mercy and not sacrifice The Sacrament is a Priviledge but Superstition is Sin now I may often warrantably wave a Priviledge but never am I warranted to commit the least Sin and therefore for fear of Poyson I deny my self Food Alas Mr. Croftons Instances in Stinking Fish c. Pudled water c. An Vncleane Vessel c. yeeld not the least satisfaction to me what if there be poyson in the dish though never so well garnished My Dear Friend The case is very hard but what shall I do If I must dye let it be by famine as soon as by poyson If I must be fourty years without a Passeover even as long as the Israelites were in the Wildernesse without theirs The will of the Lord be done I had rather be in the Wildernesse without it than go back to Egypt for it while I know that I am in the way towards Canaan not so getting St. Bernards Maxim Non privatio sed contemptus damnat The want of a Sacrament is my Affliction but the Contempt of it onely under that want is my Sin only my prayer is that God would forgive them Who make the Lords offering to be abhorred Thus Sir I hope you are by this time satisfied in the case namely That Non-Communion with the Church of England in her Liturgy and Common-Prayer as also in the Lords Supper under the present method of Administration in those who yet joyn with her in Prayer Praise The Word Preached Parts of True Solemn Divine Worship as you and I do is no breach of duty but a duty the one being no True Divine Worship but Will-Worship the other being though a Substantial Part of Worship yet Adulterated and extreamly Corrupted Worship therefore no SCHISM which was the thing charged Now give me leave before I conclude this to produce my Warrant and Protection in the case from the Church of Englands own Canon and Constitution namely the 9th made in the year 1603. Entituled Authors of Schisms in the Church of England censured the words whereof are these viz Whosoever shall hereafter separate themselves from the Communion of Saints as it is approved by the Apostles Rules in the Church of England and combine themselves together in a new-Brotherhood accounting the Christians who are conformable to the Doctrine Government Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England Prophane and unmeet for them to joyn with in Christian Profession let them be excommunicated Ipso facto c. Now 1. I separate in case of Real-Inevitable Necessity only therefore not contrary to the Apostles Rules 2. Mine is not Positive Separation therefore no Combination in a New-Brotherhood 3. I am not only a Professor of the same Faith which is all the Canon seems to require but a Partaker in the same Ordinances though not in all with those who are Conformable c. and therefore that very Canon which censureth Schismaticks protecteth Me. Now Honoured Sir Though I perswade my self that your request is satisfied in the case touching Non-Communion c. Yet cannot I satisfie my self unless I give a brief touch upon Mr. Croftons other Considerations and before I come to them assoile what is objected from the High Places amongst the Israelites A Recocta crambe with him and an ordinary Allegation with all that are of his perswasion in the case in hand Do men complain saith he as they have cause Page 39. That some Roman Rites were retained when this Church was reformed let them consider many pious Kings of Judah have their reforming-Governments stained with a But the High Places were not taken away but the People went thither to worship yet I find not that any God-fearing Israelites who loathed those Reliques of Idolatry ever barred themselves because thereof from Gods Altar and Worship Ans 1. The Retention of Jewish Ceremonies in the Christian Church is God knows a just cause of Complaint since by reason of them the condition of the Christian Church is become more intollerable than was that of the Jewish Infant Church the Jews being subjected to Divine Impositions the Christians oh sad to Humane Presumptions the Arbitrary Lawes and Lusts of Men witnesse Sr. Augustine Ad Januar. Epist 119. c. 19. Item Epist 118. c. 2. 2. If the Retention of Jewish-Popish Ceremonies in the Church of England at first when Reformation was but Early was a just cause of Complaint how much more grievous must the Reduction of them after Sacred and Solemn Expulsion be the First compared to that of the last 20 years being as the Twilight to a clear Sunshine It St. Augustine complained of the intollerable burthensomness of Ceremonies in his dayes as in the places before mentioned what cause have we to complain c. in our dayes For if the first Introduction of them into the Roman Church was a Reduction of Judaisme how like does the Reduction of them into the English Church look to the Introduction of Romanisme what and not complain 3. Mr. Croftons alleadged case of the Israelites and their High Places c. is alass infinitely wide of Ours and therefore I marvel that a man of such Parts as he is should once plead the thing For 1. Though the High-Places of old were even under Reforming Governments both retained and frequented which I deny not yet what makes this against me who dispute not about the Retention

Communion is to me an Argument of Connivance Ah! Rom. 14.22 my Good Friend Happy is he that condemneth not himself in that thing which he alloweth How can I countenance or communicate in that Worship whereof I am bound constantly to endeavour the Reformation Yes saith Mr. Crofton very well while the Matter is good the outward Mode or Method only bad This is his Recocta Crambe but he must prove the Whole Frame and Constitution good which as yet he hath not done else 't is but a meer evasion Now let me ask What is it that he is bound to reform Is it the Matter of the Liturgy c. Or the Outward Mode only or the Constitution and Whole Frame of such a VVorship the Whole Frame and Constitution surely a piece of Adulterate Worship else why was it ever wholly exploded and ejected But This Reformation is to be endeavoured only in our several Places and Capacities Truth Buth the Negative Part obliegeth ad semper thus Though I cannot go on yet I am bound never to go back my Progress may be obstructed but my Regress is not the reby warranted If my Sun be hindered in its Course let it stand still rather then goe one much less ten degrees backward My Positive endeavours may be ad extrinseco obviated so that I can not reform but the Moral Obligation cannot be violated so that I must not retreat the Negative is the least that I am in the case oblieged to Now If by Mr. Croftons own Rule Page 28. Error cui non resistitur approbatur the non-resistance of Errour viz. when 't is in our power to give a stop be an Allowance of it and Connivance be an Act and Argument of Affection what must Personal Communion in the Liturgy and Common-Prayer be surely an Act and Argument of Connivance in Allowance of and Affection to it And how inconsistent this is with his alleadged Zeal Care and Contest for and due uninterrupted Endeavours of Reformation c. let the impartial judg Sir I need not to tell you that I am under no Obligation from the Oath commonly called the Solemn League and Covenant I never took That more then the slavish Engagement which you well know who then can imagine that I should once plead That But had it been my sad Lot to be either through a Precipitant Zeal the Predominant humour of former Times entangled or by the circumventing Perswasives of Covenant-Zealots inveagled into such a Labyrinth and yet free yea forward with Mr. Crofton and other Reverend and VVorthy Presbiters to swallow down Common-Prayer and to proselyte others to Communion therein I should have owned my self a perpetual Debtour to King and Parliament for a Release whose Wisdome judged it fit to open a door of Liberty by disanulling that Oath But I go on Reformation and Separation saith he whereof Voluntary Non-Communion is the Privative Part though confounded Page 30. yet are in themselves vastly different inconsistent and destructive each to other Ans 1. Separation from the Common-Prayer is an Act of Reformation being a Continuation of Reforming Endeavours in this juncture of time wherein Scrupulous Weaklings are loth to contribute to the maintaining of That by their Practice which after Solemn Ejection is returned and retained by Power 'T is Negative Reformation an Act of Primitive Zeal whereby those Persons refuse to conform to what they cannot positively reforme the same Principle oblieging them to decline and disown it when after Expulsion restored that at first oblieged them and possibly Mr. Crofton too to that Expulsion 'T were strange if it should be otherwise 2. Separation sinfull and Reformation are indeed inconsistent and destructive each to other Virtus stat in medio Reformation which supposeth hurch Entity is an Act of Vertue equally opposite to those Extreams Superstition and Separation the Scylla and Charybdis the two Rocks upon either of which the Mysticall Ark the Church is in danger of being split the one being destructive to Church-Purity the other to Church-Vnity as hath been said so that That very Principle which obliegeth to Reformation be it Conscience or Conscience under such or such Enforcements c. doth ipso facto obliege to an Equal abhorrency and detestation of Both And thus Schism I abominate 't is a thing my Soule loathes I desire to keep the Vnity of the Spirit in the Bond of Peace Mr. Crofton wrongs me if he thinks otherwise for I am sufficiently apprehensive how neer Church-Rents border upon Church-Ruine But now That Separation onely is Sinful and Schismatical which is Causelesse and not warranted by the often mentioned Case of Real-Inevitable-Necessity which will acquit me from such an Imputation who communicate with the Church of England in Prayer Praise the Word Parts of True Divine Worship but decline and modestly refuse Communion with her onely in those two things viz 1. Her Liturgy and Common-Prayer 2. The Sacrament of the Lords Supper under the present Method of Administration and Appendices the first appearing to be no part of Christs Instituted Worship the second though for substance a Part of Christs Instituted Worship yet being by Superstition and Adulterate Mixtures of Pharisaical Leaven with the Sacramental Bread c. so extreamly corrupted that I cannot communicate with her therein without sin I cannot partake of the Sacrament but that I must partake of the attending Superstition too I cannot celebrate the Death-memorial of a Crucified Lord but that I must by sin crucifie that Lord afresh and thus Commemorate his Death with his Death I must add 3. There is a Separation Passive whereby Pastors are separated from their People their Charge and a breach made upon their Joynt-Communion Hereby judge who are the greatest Schismaticks Those who are separated being by a Violent Interruption at first driven away and by Prevalent Corruptions at least in the Things just now mentioned kept away and barred from Communion c. or Those who cause that Separation This is a Poenal Evil the Condigne punishment of our Laodicean Neutrality and Lukewarmnesse in the work of Reformation there have been in former times too too many Jehu-like Reformers who have made Religion to stoop to a Carnal Interest to Secular and Selfish Ends and Aimes this hath kindled a fire in Heaven which nothing but Prayers and Tears c. can quench for This Psal 78.21 A fire is kindled against Jacob and anger also is come up against our Brittish-Israel Isa 43.28 Ah! for this hath God profaned the Princes of the Sanctuary I cannot saith he page 31. without trembling consider the Circumcised Sects in the Church of Corinth are charged to have left the Head by leaving the Body Col. 2.19 c. Ans 1. This is a strange Argument to be urged against his censured Non-Communicants unless they be proved to be such as by his own confession those whom the Apostle there taxeth were viz Circumcised Sects or guilty of such Corruptions as will amount to