Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	church_n	civil_a	ecclesiastical_a	2,893	5	8.1068	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A89754	Considerations tending to remove the present differences, and to settle vnity, peace, and piety for the present and future. Written from the Sommer Islands by R. Norvvood. And sent over to further the reconciliation of his native country.	Norwood, Richard, 1590?-1675.	1646 (1646)	Wing N1378; Thomason E366_5; ESTC R201257	8,470	12

CONSIDERATIONS tending To remove the present Differences AND To settle Vnity Peace and Piety for the present and future Written from the Sommer Islands By R. NORVVOOD And sent over to further the Reconciliation of his Native COUNTRY LONDON Printed by J. M. for M. Spark and are to be sold at the sign of the Blue Bible in Green Arbour 1646. CONSIDERATIONS tending To remove the present differences AND To settle Vnity Peace and Piety For the present and future THE great distractions and dissentions in our dear Native Country and other places thereon depending must needs be very grievous to every Christian heart And if it please the Lord to discover to any man a likely way of reconcilement by just and good means he may not through slothfulness or timerousness conceal it lest he incur that heavy sentence pronounced against the unprofitable servant that hid his masters talent in the ground 2. The ground and cause of the present dissentions and troubles seems to be this That men have been accustomed and do conceive that Magisterial rule and Government in a Christian Commonwealth is of two kinds or sorts namely Civil and Ecclesiastical the one not subordinate to the other or how subordinate to the other and how not And this seems to have been a principal ground and cause of discord in the Church in all ages since Christ 3. This pretended Ecclesiastical Magistracy as it differs from Christian Magistracy called Civil hath in all ages been assumed by the Clergy in some degree And its like it began to work and shew it self even in the Apostles times in the opinions and practices of men in some measure because the Apostle saith the mystery of iniquity doth already work yet it appeared more evidently and eminent when whole Kingdomes and Commonweales embraced the Christian Faith especially when the whole Empire embraced it For then Princes Kings and Emperors and their Republiques out of a pious ignorance or rather an ignorant piousness did condescent to grant this to the Clergy in some large measure which they claimed by divine right to belong unto them and its like they used it moderately at first but afterwards did by it subjugate all other Magistracy and such is the nature of it 4. Now that this pretended Ecclesiastical Magistracy assumed by the Clergy was the thing which the Apostle speaks of 2 Thes 27. when he saith The mystery of iniquity doth already work only he which now withholdeth shal let til he be taken out of the way may appear because he intimates that the Emperor and Magistracy did hinder that mystery of iniquity from taking place For they would doubtlesse have been no hinderers of the Apostacy Idolatry and other Errors accompanying this mystery from taking place therefore it must be this which they were hinderers of And then it will follow that this is it which the Apostle cals the mystery of iniquity 5. And this Ecclesiastical Magistracy assumed by the Clergy remains the same in substance though the subject or persons wherein it is be altered As it was the same in kind in the Apostles time in those persons in whom it was as it was afterwards when it was in the universal Bishop or Pope For the Apostle in his own time cals it the mystery of iniquity and so it was afterwards So that though it may differ in degrees or in respect of the persons in whom it is yet it remains the same in kind 6. Now according to the subject or persons in whom it may be this Ecclesiastical Magistracy assumed by the Clergy seems to be principally of four sorts For either it is 1 In the Pope or universal Bishop and his officers Or 2 In a company or number of Bishops and their officers Or 3 In a company of Ministers and their officers Or 4 In every particular Minister and his officers The first and last of these seem to differ but in this that the first is universal and the last particular the other two also differ in names and degrees not much indeed 7. A Magistrate doth exercise a coercive power by rewards and punishments so that he can say do this good and I will protect and defend thee c. Or if thou do this evil I wil inflict these and these punishments on thee And such a power the four sorts of Clergymen before mentioned have assumed and exercised that is a power of Magistracy 8. Neither doth the differences of the rewards or punishments inflicted by the Ecclesiastical Magistrates cause them to be no Magistrates For amongst those which are granted by all to bee Magistrates there be several forms of proceeding and censuring yet all Magistrates 9. Objection The Ecclesiastical punishment is Excommunication or something of that kind concerning which a promise is made That what is bound on earth shal be bound in heaven So that it may seem to be a spiritual or divine punishment and the release upon repentance a spiritual release Answer So doubtlesse is the sentence of the Civil Magistrate which he gives on earth ratified in heaven else it were in vain for him to sit in judgment Even the sentence of Pilate againstour Saviaur Christ Therefore they are said to be in the place of God and their sentence the sentence of God even as the sentence of Excommunication is and the Malefactor justly sentenced by the Civil Magistrate is so to apprehend it as the sentence of God in heaven extending not to his body only but to his soul also or the whole man and that eternally without repentance 10. So that Excommunication seems principally to be ordained as a supplement or in the defect of Christian Magistracy so as though it seem to be approved by Moses and it may be was in use among the Patriarks from Adams time yet throughout the Old Testament whil'st the ordinary course of Magistracy was in force though we find sundry other punishments inflicted we scarce find any mention of Excommunication or any person Excommunicate In the New Testament we find it was in use among the Jews but then the Jewish Magistracy was disannulled they being under the power and Magistracy of the Romans Our Saviour also allows of it to his Disciples and the Apostle Paul appoints it in the Churches of the Gentiles But stil this was in the defect of Christian Magistracy For every Church is a Society and no Society can wel stand without Magistracy that is without some punishment of evil doers and encouragement for those that do wel Such a cours of Magistracy as is usuall they might not set up lest they shovld seem Rebels to those States and Kingdoms whereof they were subjects It remaineth then that for any great offence obstinatly persisted in especially scandalous they might use this Magisterial sword of Excommunication for this might be done without any the least appearance of Rebellion or offending the Laws or Magistracy of those Estates or Kingdoms under which they lived whether they were Heathen or Jewish but

of those Elders Officers or Rulers whose power or authority extends no farther then that Congregation the chiefe honor belongs to the Minister which also may be more or lesse according to the gifts which God hath endued him with all 17. Against what hath been before said it may be objected that Magistrates do often to good purpose joyn a Prophetical or perswasive power with their Magisterial or coercive power laboring to bring men to a right order and obedience by reasons humane and divine without constraint Why then may not Ministers join a magisterial and coercive with their ministerial or prophetical Answ The Prophetical power as we have said is more noble more general hath lesse contraryty to any thing works mord directly and immediately upon the more noble part of man the soul and so doth much advance and further the final scope and end of the Magistrates office without any contrarity to it Moses said would God al the Lords people were Prophets he would not say would they were all Magistrates for that would have bred contrarity confusion which the other would not and therefore is more generally to be used by all Magistrates and others The Magisterial power is not so wherewith if a Minister be invested it doth somthing take him off from his proper office which is more noble Besides it doth something darken it for being clothed with magisterial power it makes him rather a Legal then Evangelical Minister becaus his Magisterial power is far more obvious to the apprehensions of men then his Prophetical which by this means is not apprehended or very darkly and confusedly as the ey being fixed upon some object very visible sees not other things or if it do it is very obscurely and confusedly Besides it makes him of a spirit more Legal lesse Evangelical Therefore our Savior himself in the execution of his Prophetical office laid aside all Magisterial power which he would not have done if it had been profitable So did the Apostles so the Prophets of Old ordinarily and so our Savior seems expresly to command his Apostles and all Ministers in one place where he saith The Lords of the Gentiles bear rule over them and those which are great exercise authority c. but it shal not be so among you c. whereby he prohibits all Ministers from the exercise of Magisterial power as if he should say those which wil be great in the Ministery of the Gospel must be without all Magisterial authority He saith the Lords of the Gentiles becaus the Magistracy of the Iews was void being under the Romans And so sheweth whosoever wil be great in the Ministry must exercise no authority as Magistrates do He is to preach convince c. with all authority that is with all prophetical authority but to have no Magisterial or Coercive authority And so he saith Whosoever wil be great among you let him be your servant whosoever wil be chief among you let him be your servant now who is further from Magisterial power then a servant Even as the Son of man came not to be served but to serve where he proposeth as elswher his own example that he had exercised no Magisterial power And it hath been generally observed in England that when Magisterial power hath been conferred upon Ministers by making them Bishops they were the worse Ministers ever after 18. This Ecclesiastical Magistracy of Clergymen the Church hath had experience of in every kind As in an Independent way in a Presbyterial way in an Episcopal or prelatical way and in the way of an universal Bishop or Pope For whilst the Churches were few and they for the most part separate in place or far dis-joined one from another being under no Christian Magistracy the Government may seem to have been something like that which at present is called Independent But the Churches growing more numerous and neerly conjoyned they found it necessary for peace and unity they should be Governed by the consent of the Presbytery assembled in some such way as is now called the Presbyterian Government But afterwards finding many controversies scisms and strong oppositions amongst these and their followers for their sakes they thought it necessary to set Bishops over them afterwards finding much disagreement among these Bishops and an aptnesse in them to engage States and Kingdomes in their quarrels to the stirring up of sedition and great disturbance they yeelded to admit of an universal Bishop over them all And by this ladder hath the Pope ascended to set himself above all humane powers the first step of which ladder or rather the basis or foundation on which it stands seems to be this that there is an Ecclesiastical Magistracy over the Church belonging to the Clergymen and that jure divino which being granted the rest wil follow and can hardly be avoyded And this in every of these kinds of Government hath always grown prejudicial to the Church and Civil State hence have sprung the principal errors in the Church which almost all make for the ambition and covetousnesse of the Clergy an evident sign that they have been the chief authors and promoters of them this appears in the Church of Rome c. which former times endeavored to redresse by altering the Government from one form to another but all in vain because they were all founded and all of them retained this false principle And if the world should continue so long as to make the like experience of them all again though they should be ordered with as much care and circumspection as might be yet doubtless they would prove as bad as before nay I am perswaded worse seeing we find not the ancient Independents or those which were likest to them did ever when they were at the worst hold any tenents or use any practise so dangerous as these which the Independents of these times do boldly and in a turbulent way bring in now upon their first rising where shal we find more pride more uncharitablenesse they wil vilifie and unchristian the best Christian if he stand in their way and seem not to regard the ruinating of Churches and Commonwealths so they may set up themselves no though it be the wombe that bare them and the paps which they have sucked What may we expect of them if they should be authorized and continued 19. But the universal Bishop being by his foul train of Errors in tract of time brought in discovered to be the Antichrist and his Government Antichristian is now through Gods mercy exploded The Bishops also the principal stirrers up of those grievous troubles and dangers which are stil upon us themselves and their government is cast off as Antichristian for this cause especially because they began of late to assume to themselves an unlimited and Independent power Jure divino or an Independent Ecclesiasticall Magistracy and by that power brought inu sundry Errors endangering Religion and the Commonwealth So that now the great opposition