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 communion_n schism_n 2,198 5 10.4367 5 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A45585 An humble essay toward the settlement of peace and truth in the church, as a certain foundation of lasting union by Sir Edward Harley. Harley, Edward, Sir, 1624-1700. 1681 (1681) Wing H777; ESTC R11056 25,032 42

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

'T is sadly a Lamentation and God in mercy grant it may not be so any more that the same signs are commanded by one Church as Symbolically significant and in testimony of Odoration and by another Church declared to be insignificant Mat. 2.24 and without any adorable respect yet in both Churches those Rites are Constituted Conditions of Communion though never made so by Christ But Servants that dare to turn their Ministry into Dominion Acts 17.31 and beat and kill their fellow servants must expect their doom designed them by the Lord when he comes to Judge the World in Righteousness The Authority of the Church is pretended for this That Name is highly venerable therefore to abuse it is the greater crime 'T is an Article of Faith to believe a Holy Catholick Church but heinous is the offence to subborn the Name of the Church to destroy the next Article The Communion of Saints without which the Notion of a Church is empty and unprofitable The Holy Catholick Church is the Body of Christ Col. 1.18 the Spouse of Christ Eph. 5.2 Gal. 4.26 't is the Heavenly Jerusalem which is free Heb. 12.22 which is the only Mother of us all Out of this Church there is no Salvation for whoever is a Member of Christs Body Eph. 5.23 to such and only to such Christ is a Saviour Of this Body every vissible Christian Church is an integral Part or Member Visible Church Act. 19. The Articles of Religion describe a visible Church to be a Congregation of faithful Men in which the pure Word of God is Preached and the Sacraments duely Ministred according to Christs Ordinance in all those things that of necessity are requisit to the same Wich such a Church Christ hath promised to be alway even to the end of the World Rom. 3.2 the Authority with which our Lord invested the Christian Church being the same as before to the Jewish that unto them are committed the Oracles of God Mat. 28.20 that is according to his express Commission the teaching to observe all things whatsoever our Lord commanded This is the great Charter of the Churches Liberties and Power Here is no pretence for any Jurisdiction to make other conditions of Communion then of constitution The conditions constitutive of a Church are sufficient for Salvation the End and Perfection of every true Church therefore they are sufficient for the Title of every Member to admission and continuance in the Church This was all was required by Christ and his Apostles Acts 19.31 whereby the Churches were ed fied walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Ghost were multiplied The first trouble to the Church within it self was from the atempt to subvert the Foundation of Christianity by introducing other conditions of Church Communion then Christ appointed Acts 15.24 but that was remedied by the direction of the Holy Ghost in the first Council at Jerusalem The contrary Practice to which in after Ages hath been the great occasion of the confusion and ruine of most of the Christian Churches and still remains like the Womans bloody Issue that wasted all her substance an incurable disease So that it may be truely affirmed the impiety of the Nicolaitans and Gnosticks who reckoned and practised the grossest Immoralities as things indifferent proved less mischeivous to the Christian World then the rigorous exacting and imposing in different things as necessary Upon which account on one side sprang Separations and Schisms and on the other most bloody and inhumane Persecutions for it is convenient that commands not Authorised by right Reason should be enforced with rage and cruelty The conditions therefore and Articles of Peace as they are called in the Church ought not to be any other then such as as are necessary to Salvation Because the Belief and Practice of every Church most be as Homogeneal as are in all Beings Life and Operation According to this rule of Divine Truth the Church of England reformed it self from Popery and upon all occasions justifies the Reformation Because the Union of the Catholick Church depends upon the making the Foundaations of its Being and the grounds of its Communion adaequate So that only these things which ought to be owned by all Christian Societies as necessary to Salvation on which the Being of the Catholick Church depends ought to be the necessary conditions of Church Communion Consequently the proper cause of Schism lies in transgressing those Bounds which observed might through Divine goodness conciliat the universal Peace of Christendome That according to the same Evidence by which the Reformed Churches condemn the Romanists for imposing the Belief of things as necessary to Salvation which are not necessary to the Being of the Catholick Church There ought not be imposed conditions of Uniformity upon any Member of the Church which were not antecedently necessary for the Being and Unity of the Church the later Imposition being eventually Equivalent with the former because they exclude from the means of Salvation 'T is Murther to mix Poyson with the Diet of the Family and almost as cruel to constrain the Table to any Meat or Sauce against which there is Antipathy Must he starve that cannot Eat Champignons with his Capon Poyson and Famine determine alike How uncharitable then are they who abhor the Roman Poyson yet debar those of the same Houshold of Faith from the Bread of Life by the mixture of some unnecessary Rites their weakness suppose cannot digest They that like Champignons may Eat as they please but 't is inhospitable and barbarous to force them upon those that conceit them Toad-stools It is the Peace and Entertainment of every Civil Table to allow the indisputable Liberty of Tasts and Appetites and to require Uniformity in Eating and Drinking would be most slavish Imposition to disorder and confound Mankind How much worse may any presume to disturb the Table of the Lord the Freedom of which as well as the bounty is the Purchase of his own Blood Nor was there any such custome in the Church of God 1 Cor. 11.16 The Primitive Church continued stedfast in the Apostolical Doctrine and Practice according to which standing fast in the Liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free only necessary things were commanded things indifferent in their Nature being as they ought left indifferent in use and Practice For it is only the Divine Prerogative and not in the power of any Creature to change the Nature of things to be practised in the Worship of God so as to require what is in it self indifferent to be used necessarily as condition of Church Communion The Divine Method to restore and preserve the Churches Peace is to command things necessary and to leave things indifferent to the Arbitrary description of every Christian to perform or not perform as shall seem conducible to present edification Thus Timothy was voluntarily Circumcised by St. Paul Acts 16.3
Church hath no power over Internal Actions Jesuites Morals Page 387. the evident Consequence of which Position overthrows the Foundations of Religion and Christian Piety but other Doctrine cannot be expected where Religion is only an Artificial Worship and the Church only a Politick Guild or Corporation As there is but one God from whom and to whom is derived and directed all true Worship though as St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 8.5.6 There be many called gods whether in Heaven or in Earth 2 Cor. 4.4 and there is the God of this World Gal. 4.26 so there is but one Church the Mother of us all ● Tim. 3.16 the Heavenly Jerusalem Which is the Piller and Ground of truth Joh. 17.17 the Word of God which only Sanctifies Religious Commands to Oblige Conscience Yet there be many Churches some Heavenly some Earthly For beside the Idolatrous Pollutions of some Churches which render them Synagogues of Satan There is also in some Churches a mixture of Civil Policy by which the Word Church becomes a Law Term and signifies a Body Politick endowed with certain Honours Priviledges and Revenues by the Munificence of Kings Such is the Gallican Church and such is Ecclesia Anglicana according to the Purport of several Statutes 26 H. 8. c. 1. in which respect it is a part of the Estates of the Realm 24 H. 8. c. 12. Lord Ch. Justice But all the Priviledges and Dignities given by the Crown to the Church Cook 5. report as it is a Political State in the Realm is in order to and for the sake of those Administrations necessary to its Being as a Member of the Catholick Church Article ●9 that is a Congregation of Believers in which the Word of God is purely Preached and the Sacraments in things necessarily required according to the Institution of Christ rightly Administred It must be therefore altogether Irrational and Unchristian to suborn an Authority in a Political Church to subvert the Essential Liberty of any Member of the Catholick Church If the Reverend Prelates of Christendom would govern their power according to this undeniable Rule of Christianity it would notably conduce even to their own security For if the Ceremonial Accidents in the Church were not necessarily imposed the dignified Accidents therein would be rendred more agreeable to all Christians and Mankind If Religion were cleared from Additional Superfluities which can no otherwise secure and adorn it then Clouds and Mists do the Sun the World might enjoy the desired felicity of our Lords Kingdom the Empire of Light and Love Prisons Fagots Gibbets would be no longer the miserable Propagators of Faith the Benign Influence of Princes would not be Intercepted from their Subjects the Obedience of Subjects would be Conscientious Religion no longer supposed an Awful trick would be embraced and obeyed in the absolute perfection and simplicity of Divine truth and Goodness For therein only may we find a certain Foundation for lasting Union among Christians Force and Violence may under pretence of extirpating Heresie or exacting Uniform Decency and Order determine in a Common Calamity and Destruction by such Course Princes may be deprived of their People and People forced from their Dwellings into Graves or Goals or Wildernesses But that is Desolation not Peace 'T is not Union but Depopulation No Tacit. v●t Agrie Vbi solitudinem faciunt Pacem Apellant the way to find and stablish Peace is only in the way of Gospel Truth which gives Glory to God in the Highest Peace on Earth Good Will toward Men and among Men From which only can be hoped a certain Foundation of lasting Union among our selves For suppose a present Submisson and Compliance unto the Humane Rites and Ceremonies enjoyned as Conditions of Church Communion yet there can be no Certainty such Union shall be lasting because the Terms are Arbitrarily alterable and may with one breath vanish and disappear to make make room possible for shaddows of another Mode but no less troublesome Hath not this been within fresh Memorie misery and almost our ruine But if we consider what is our Defence against the Common Enemie we may find what may be our Cement among our selves Dr. Stillingfleet's Rat. Acct. Page 53. Learned Dr. Stillingfleet in his Rational Account of the Grounds of the Protesant Religion hath excellently demonstrated That the Union of the Catholick Church depends upon the Agreement of it in making the Foundation of its Being to be the Grounds of its Communion For the Unity being intended to preserve the Being there can be no reason given why the Bonds of Union should extend beyond the Foundation of its Being which is the Owning things necessary to the Salvation of All. From whence it necessarily follows that whatsoever Church imposeth the belief of other things as necessary to Salvation which were not so Antecedently necessary to the Being of the Catholick Church doth as much as in it lies break the Unity of it And those Churches who do desire to preserve its Unity are bound thereby not to have Communion with it so long as it doth so These things premised saith he we shall thereby find what the necessary Conditions of Ecclesiastical Communion are and consequently where the proper cause of Schism Lies in transgressing those Bounds and what Foundations may be laid for the Peace of the Christian World Upon these Grounds was the Church of England Reformed from the Idolatrous Superstition of Popery defends it self against their assaults and thereby can only be preserved For the Church which is the House of the Living God can receive no Edification but what is Homogeneal with the Foundation Eph. 2.20 the Doctrine of the Apostles 1 Cor. 3.10 11. Prophets Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone The Sum of all is briefly comprised in the Words of a late Learned and Pious Divine in the Church of England Mr. George Lawson's Coment upon the Hebr. c. 9. N. 5. Printed 1662. viz. He that will not serve a God is a profane Atheist He that serves any but the true God is an Idolater he that serves the true God after his own Fansies and the Inventions of Man is a Superstitious Fool. He that Inventeth Rites and Ceremonies and Modes of serving God and imposeth them on others is a presumptuous Wretch for as God alone doth know what kind of Worship and Service is fittest to be performed unto Him so He only hath Power to Impose it These two Books are lately Printed for Nevil Simmons at the Three Cocks at the West end of S. Paul's and Thomas Simmons at the Princes Arms in Ludgate-street 1681. CHurch-History of the Government of Bishops and their Councils Abbreviated Including the chief part of the Government of Christian Princes and Popes and a true Account of the most troubling Controversies and Heresies till the Reformation Written for the Use especially of them I. Who are ignorant or misinformed of the state of the Antient Churches II. Who can not read many and great Volumes III. Who think that the Universal Church must have one visible Soveraign Personal or Collective Pope or General Councils IV. Who would know whether Patriarchs Diocesans and their Councils have been or must be the cure of Heresies and Schisms V. Who would know the truth about the great Heresies which have divided the Christian World especially the Donatists Novatians Arrians Macedonians Nestorians Eutychians Monethelites c. By Richard Baxter a hater of false History in 4o. A Treatise of Episcopacy confuting by Scripture Reason and the Churches Testimony that sort of Diocesan Churches Prelacy and Government which casteth out the Primitive Church-Species Episcopacy Ministry and Discipline and confoundeth the Christian World by Corruption Usurpation Schism and Persecution Meditated in the Year 1640. when the Et coetera Oath was imposed Written 1671. and cast by Published 1681 by the importunity of our Superiours who demand the Reasons of our Nonconformity By Richard Baxter in 4o. FINIS