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

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A76542	The mystery of phanaticism. Or, The artifices of dissenters to support their schism· Together with the evil and danger of them. Set forth in several letters to a friend. Wherein is made appear, that nothing but the subtilty and cunning of their teachers, doth now hinder the people from conformity. By a divine of the Church of England.	A. B.; Taylor, William, fl. 1698.	1698 (1698)	Wing B23A; ESTC R208943	49,991	144

Crime and Separation from the Communion of the Establish'd Church must be a with-drawing from the Synagogue of Satan If any Church-man shall presume to set forth the heinousness of this Sin or make so bold as to charge Dissenters with it they are taught to call it Railing and instead of reforming the Evil in their own Persons must agree together to run down the Preacher this is too well known in experience to need any proof for none ever reproved this Sin in them but they said he Railed and though it be Zeal and Duty in them to inveigh against the Faults of others yet 't is Malignity of Spirit and Hatred of the Power of Godliness to lay open their Miscarriages But are these Men all this while free from the guilt of this Sin which they are so unwilling to hear of No notoriously guilty of it for a causeless Separation from a true Church is by the Confession of their own Teachers acknowledged to be the Sin of Schism as they often declared in their Arguings against the Brownists of old and the Sectaries of later Days Now the Wisest of them generally own the Church of England to be a True Church and none of them with all their skill have ever shew'd any just cause for Separation from it and therefore breaking from the Worship and Communion of it cannot possibly be excused from Schism How then comes it to pass that their Teachers conceal this from them and not only suffer this guilt to lie upon them but lead and encourage them too in that evil which themselves condemn in others Why the plain Reason is to preserve and uphold the Party for should the People once know the nature and danger of Schism and be sensible how guilty they are of it the Dissenting Cause will fall to the ground and the whole business of the Conventicle be soon at an end and therefore to prevent that the People must be kept in ignorance of their Duty lest they should return to it and not be permitted to know the evil of Separation lest they should turn from it So that Ignorance too is the Mother of these Mens Devotion and they who speak so much of their great Light are merely led on and kept in Darkness But by what Arts do these Men thus hoodwink and blind the Eyes of the People Why To hinder them from the knowledge of Schism they keep them as much as possible from hearing any Discourses of it they permit them not to Read those Books that would discover to them the Evil of it If they hear of any Book written to that purpose or find it put into the hands of any of their Followers they caution them against it as a dangerous Piece and tending to subvert the Power of Godliness Thus do they keep their Followers in Ignorance by the same methods the Romish Priests do theirs If any of their Teachers publish any thing though never so mean to hide the Schism and harden their Followers in it they send it about in Triumph Posting in up like Quack Bills in Market-places and other places of resort thereby spreading it among the deluded Vulgar who are apt to magnifie the Performance to lessen the Sin But if notwithstanding their endeavours the Eyes of any begin to open and they come to see the Error of their ways great care is taken to put out that Light and to stifle such Convictions If by any means they smell out the danger of Schism they make them believe it to be only a Theological Scare-Crow whereby Men in Power would enforce their own Dictates But is breaking the Peace and Unity of the Church a mere Scare-Crow Is the dividing of Christ himself and rending in sunder the Communion of Saints which is the nature of Schism only a Bugbear to fright Fools and Children Certainly they can be no living Members of Christ's Body who are so insensible of these Convulsions But they tell them farther That the Papists charge us with the same guilt and brand us as much for Schismaticks as we do them But Is there the same reason Have not the Terms of their Communion been plainly proved to be Sinful and such as we cannot safely join in And hath this been ever proved of ours Nay Do not themselves own the contrary by their Occasional Communion with us And I hope there is some Difference between a voluntary departing from the Church and being driven from it But to keep them in their Schism they add That the Terms of Communion should be only Scriptural and Unexceptionable whereas Ours are Doubtful and such against which many have great Scruples and Exceptions But is there any thing how wisely soever order'd against which weak and wilful Persons may not entertain some Scruples May not cunning and designing Men raise a mist before the Eyes of the People and keep them from discerning the clearest Truths And must such artificial Doubts justle out a plain and necessary Duty I hope the Wisdom of Superiors may direct and over-rule in case of Doubts and their Authority may carry weight enough to weigh down such Scruples When they are beaten out of these Subterfuges they tell the People That Schism is a falling off from the Communion of the Catholick Church not of This or That particular Church so that they may continue Members of Christ's Church in general though they divide from the National or Parish-Church where they live But is there any Communicating with the Catholick Church without being in Communion with some particular Church Can a Member belong to the Body that is not joined to any part of it No more can any be a Member of Christ's Body that is divided from that part of it where he lives So that if the Church of England be a sound Part of the Catholick Church as is generally owned by all sober Dissenters we cannot divide from it without dividing from the Whole and separating from the Catholick Church of Christ But farther to palliate and propagate their Schism they tell them That 't is no unjust Separation till it proceed so far as to deny the Faith and whilst they keep the Christian Faith they cannot justly be charged with Schism But is there no difference beteween Apostacy and Schism Is it not one thing to deny the Faith and another to forsake the Communion of the Church May not some be pretty sound and tenacious too of the Christian Faith and so be neither Hereticks nor Apostates who yet may Separate from the Worship and Communion of the Church and so be justly branded for Schismaticks Do not all the ancient Fathers in their Disputes with the Hereticks carefully distinguish between these Two May we not see some breaking the Unity and Communion of the Church who yet do not renounce there Creed or deny the Articles of the Christian Faith The confounding these Two hath not only confounded their Notions but brought great Confusion into the Church And yet at other times they would

The Mystery of Phanaticism OR THE ARTIFICES OF DISSENTERS To Support their SCHISM Together with the Evil and Danger of them Set forth in several Letters to a FRIEND Wherein is made appear That nothing but the Subtilty and Cunning of their Teachers doth now hinder the People from Conformity By a Divine of the Church of England 2 Cor. 2.11 We are not ignorant of their Devices The SECOND EDITION Corrected LONDON Printed for T. Leigh at the Peacock in Fleetstreet and R. Knaplock at the Angel and Crown in St. Paul's Church-Yard 1698. THE PREFACE THE DISSENTING Cause being in a great measure deserted in Point of Argument is now merely upheld by Artifice and what it wants of Reason and Truth is supplied by Subtilty and Cunning And because the Discovery hereof may help to undeceive and open the Eyes of some well-meaning but unwary People it may not be altogether an unprofitable Task to lay open these Devices that they may the better see how they are gull'd and be the more aware of the Imposture Truth we know is willing to be seen with open Face and hath that Native Beauty and Lustre that needs no Paint or Varnish to recommend it But Error hath so foul and ugly a Complexion that makes it need and covet a Vizor to hide its Deformity and can only be set forth by False and Artificial Colours We read of some mens Works that they cannot bear the Light and therefore come not to it lest their deeds should be reproved Joh. 3.20 Such as these do but act a Part in Religion and only play the Zealous and Devout and are indeed to be shunn'd and detested of all Men as the worst of Impostors for they at once mock God and deceive the People and prostitute the Best Things to the worst and vilest Purposes And that too many such there are our unhappy Age can sadly testifie For may we not daily see the Sons of Craft acting under various Disguises and wheedling the People with their Pious Frauds Do they not work upon the Weakness of some the Wilfulness of others and the Discontents of all to serve their own Ends upon them And like Spiritual Mountebanks cry up their Infallible Medicines for the Cure of Souls merely to draw in and deceive the unthinking Multitude They are sufficiently acquainted both with the Ignorance and the Headiness of the Vulgar and apply themselves to them accordingly following that known Rule Si populus vult decipi decipiatur With this untemper'd Mortar do the Architects of Schism build their Babel laying Hay and Stubble upon the Foundation of Christianity which they at the same time undermine by their Hollowness and Hypocrisie Our Blessed Saviour forewarned his Followers of such false Teachers that should come to them in sheeps cloathing Mat. 7.15 that is with soft and smooth Pretences but inwardly were ravening wolves dividing the Flock that they may the more easily devour them and making a Prey of them whom they pretend to feed These he afterward describ'd by their divided Dialect Matt. 24.23 26 one saying Lo here is Christ and another there And when things come to this pass that one saith Behold he is in the field another he is in the secret chambers a third in the Conventicle 't is time to hearken to our Saviour's Advice Believe them not and go not after them The Apostle likewise foretold of such Seducers that would arise in the latter days Acts. 20.29 30 speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Describing them sometimes by their despising dominions Jude v. 8. 2 Tim. 3.6 and speaking evil of dignities At other times more plainly pointing at them by their creeping into houses and leading captive silly women laden with divers lusts thus beguiling the Weaker Sex who being lead more by their Passions than Reason are more easily seduc'd by them And therefore we are exhorted Rom. 16.17 To mark them that cause divisions and avoid them for they serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and with good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple And as Christ and his Apostles have thus forewarned us of false Teachers who by their subtle Insinuations would if it were possible deceive the very elect so have they foretold the Giddiness and Instability of some among the People who would hearken too much to their false Insinuations and be easily deluded by them These are described by their Vnwillingness to hear and endure sound doctrine 1 Tim. 4.3 and heaping to themselves teachers having itching ears by which means they would turn from the truth and be turned unto Fables Both these Predictions are unhappily fulfilled in our Days which affords too many sad Instances both of the cunning Craftiness of some who lie in wait to deceive and the too great Easiness and Willingness of others to be deceived by them So that we are certainly fallen into those perilous Times in which the Apostle foretold that men should be lovers of themselves 2 Tim. 3.1 2 c. traytors heady high-minded lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God having a form of Godliness but denying the power thereof of whom he wills all wise men to beware and to turn from them Indeed there hath been no Age since the Apostles wholly free from Schismaticks and Impostors but perhaps none ever afforded such Swarms of them as our unhappy days in which like the Flies of Egypt they are still buzzing in the ears of the people and like the Frogs croaking in all corners of the Land It will not therefore be amiss to expose to Publick View the Frauds and Fallacies of false Teachers to lay open the Evil and Danger of them that if we cannot wholly cure the Schism we may preserve as many as possible from the Contagion of it Farewell The CONTENTS Letter I. THeir great Zeal in making Proselytes Page 1 Letter II. Their pretence to greater Light and Knowledge than other men p. 11 Letter III. Their pretence to greater Strictness and Sanctity than other men p. 22 Letter IV. Their pretence to Purer Ordinances and a more Spiritual way of Worship p. 32 Letter V. Of their crying up Peace and Vnity tho' all their Actions tend to destroy and undermine them p. 42 Letter VI. Their Censuring the Lives and Actions of those within the Church the better to commend theirs who Dissent from it p. 51 Letter VII Of their calling the wise Injunctions of our Superiors by the odious Name of Impositions p. 62 Letter VIII Of their keeping the People in Ignorance of the Nature and Danger of Schism p. 70 Letter IX Of their Misinterpreting and Wresting the Scriptures to serve their own purpose p. 81 Letter X. Their confining the Offices of Kindness and Charity to those of their own Sect p. 89 Letter XI Their working upon the Weakness the Wilfulness and Discontents of the People to serve their own Ends upon them p. 97 Letter XII