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	separate_v	1,943	5	9.5273	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A41382	The state of the Church of Christ in its militancy upon earth, and the duty of it, with respect to penal laws in a sermon preach'd at the assizes at Chelmsford in the county of Essex, 8 March 1687/8 / by Richard Golty ...	Golty, Richard.	1688 (1688)	Wing G1022; ESTC R1819	12,225	31

Thirdly Tho it is more generally interpreted that the Servants resolved by the above-mentioned Severity to cut them off from the body of Mankind yet others that they intended only to cut them from the Body of the Church and Lyra and Gorran are of Opinion That the Servants design to gather them up was in such a way as was proper to the Church Separando eos a Communione Ecclesiae by separating them from Church Communion Christ may probably here intend a caution and lenity in that direful and solemn Sentence of Exmunication which is an Amputation or a cutting off from the Body of Christ 't is in the Name and Power of Christ a delivery over unto Satan for the destruction of the Flesh that the Spirit may be saved in the day of the Lord Jesus In comport with the meaning of Christ here it was an old Rule Non Excommunicandam multitudinem that a multitude were not to be Excommunicated There was to be no gathering up in Bundles in this Life the Church did only Legere select one out of many Offenders Vt paena ad paucos esset metus ad omnes tormenta paucorum exempla omnium That the Punishment of a few might be caution to all Dr. Taylor in Duct Dubitant tells us The Judgment of the Church in this Censure is an effective terrible Declaration of the Judgment of God and therefore must not be exterminating and final for things of little concernment The Second Canon of the Council at Worms doth Decree Vt Nullus sacerdotum quanquam rectae fidei homines pro parvis levibus causis suspendat That no Priest tho never so sound in the Faith may suspend Men from Church Communion for a light Cause Dr. Taylor in his Duct Dubitant asserts That no Man is to be separated from the Church but he that separates himself from God and tells us That he who for a trifling cause cuts off a man from Church Communion is like him in the Fable who with an Axe beat out his Neighbours brains that he might brush off a fly which he espied on his Fore-head or like an indiscreet and severe Nurse that to clean the Childs head of the Dandruff fleas off his Skin All endeavours ought first to be us'd that he may be restor'd with the Spirit of Meekness that by Admonition and Reproof to which the Scriptures are profitable he may be reclaim'd and till it appears vulnus immedicabile he is not with that severity to be cut off Fourthly The meaning of Christ may probably be That in the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Religion such as are mention'd Rom. 14. in which the Kingdom of Heaven doth not consist the obligation of Christians is to exercise Charity mutual Condescension and Forbearance one towards another The Apostle there directs to the alloy of all Animosity and Discord about such things and provides that there be no Censuring or Grieving one another and to this purpose he allows a Liberty to Men of either Perswasion informing us That Christ died for both and that God receiv'd both The Controversie in these indifferent things lies not between Wheat and Tares but between Wheat and Wheat and it may be is founded only because one grows in a more fertile Soyl and on a more Florid Stalk or is of a brighter Complexion than the other That the true Corn should thus go together by the Ears we may be sure is assignable to the hand of an Enemy and if our Lord permits the Concrescence of Tares and Wheat much more that Wheat and Wheat grow together 'T is as natural and usual for Christians to differ in their Sentiments in matters of that kind as 't is for Men to be of divers Statures and Complexions wherefore the Apostle telling us That he who doubteth is damned if he eat by Penalties to require a consent in one Opinion in things so indifferent would be as hard as for one to thrust out his Neighbours Eye because not so strong and piercing as his own and would be a barbarity exceeding that of Procrustes the Robber who measured all men by his own bed and would bring them to that dimension either by a Rack or Defalcation he only torturing the Bodies while the other wounds the Consciences and cruciates the Minds of Men. 'T is observeable in this Parable that the Servants entred their Complaint against such as appear'd Tares and it was for the rooting up of them they offer'd their service to which our Saviour answer'd as in my Text Nay c. If they had address'd to their Lord with their Censures of their Fellow Servants and had signified an Inclination because in every trifling punctilio they agreed not with the Complainants that therefore they would go and gather them up our Lord would have given them another kind of Answer If the Pharisees were inexcuseable in their neglect of the great things of the Law through their Zeal in the lesser things of it Christians are much more Criminal in violating the great Gospel Law of Charity and Meekness upon the score of such things as are not at all required by any Divine Law. If it were inimicus homo that sow'd those Tares that endanger'd the Wheat certainly it is inimicissimus homo that would gather up the VVheat instead of Tares 'T is here observeable that tho the Tares appeared to the eys of the Servants yet our Saviour did not adventure the well-doing of his Field upon their hand so as to allow their Eradication if he had given any intimation of the Field being committed to such a Conduct as without possibility of being injurious to the VVheat the Tares might be gathered up the force of the reason of his Prohibition Lest with them ye root up the VVheat would be enervated 'T is probable our Saviour design'd the prevention of this when he respited them till the Harvest well knowing that they may then appear to be Children of the Kingdom which through the passion or inadvertency of his Servants would as Tares have been bundled up for the fire Thirdly In the Accommodation of all this to our use though it may be indecent for me to insist too particularly on the Parallel between the State of the Field and the Condition of the Church of Christ amongst us so as to charge the growth of the Tares to the Supineness or any other default in the Servants or to suggest that those concern'd in gathering the Tares have not with the Servants of the Houshold consulted their Lord nor taken their measures from him Yet I shall adventure to give you the Judgments of such as are of great Honour and Authority upon this Subject and shall close my Discourse with a Recommendation of the Example of the Servants to our Imitation The Authorities of such as have given their Opinion in this Matter The Lord Chancellor Hide his Speech to the Parliament 1660 is fill'd up with the Expressions of his Sense of this Case and Directions