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	separation_n	2,767	5	10.7643	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A63461	The True cause of all our miseries, discovered in their visible effects as I find it (to my great satisfaction) most manifest, in The lay-man's religion, lately published, licensed, Octob. 1, 1690 : which vindicates the doctrine of the Church of England, (above all others,) to allow liberty of conscience, according to the tenour of the Gospel ...		1690 (1690)	Wing T2593A; ESTC R38360	10,212	10

Disputes long Prayers or fruitless Discourses If these things were laid to heart so as to be well weighed and considered by all sincere and well meaning Christians who now separate from our publick Communion into private Congregations that from thence they might be awakened to examine and with me seriously enquire into the Truth of Things they would soon find how miserably they have been imposed upon and drawn into Prejudice and an ill Apprehension of the purest and best established Religion on the Earth by such designing Leaders as can be contented to sacrifice the Peace and Safety of the whole Kingdom to promote the Interest of a Party in order to gratifie their own Ambition and Worldly Design though under a Disguise of Liberty of Conscience when in truth by Separation from us they do but exchange one Shell of Religion for another for so I reckon and so our Church doth esteem the most resined Discipline or outward Way of Worship to be and lays no more stress in it than Decency and Order requires Therefore it is no wonder that the most Ignorant and Short-sighted and such as look no farther into Religion than the outward Appearance but are never capable of discerning the vital Substance should from the Scandal of some wicked Members from which the Gospel it self was not wholly exempt be so apt to despise our established Discipline and yet at the same time idolize another Form or Way of Worship as if God were more pleased with one Shadow than another Whereas we esteem our outward Discipline no otherwise than as outward Means composed and adapted by the most pious and learned Men from the sacred Fountain of the Scriptures suited to every Capacity through a whole Kingdom the Least Knowing as well as the Most Learned that all may joyn together In which the pious and well-disposed Christian may worship God in the Beauty of Holiness and the Youth and Ignorant as with a Leading-step may be trained up from the first Principles of Religion to the greatest Perfection and whereby also the Profane and Loose are by a venerable Authority influenced and reclaimed at least kept within some Bounds from scoffing at Religion which is daily occasioned by the Separation of such who are still subject with their Neighbours to the same Infirmities attending Humane Frailty as well as to Pride Ambition Self-Love in the inordinate Love of the World Railing at and Censuring of others and yet puffed up with a false Conceipt of their own Way do herd and distinguish themselves under their several Leaders into so many and various Ways Opinions and Persuasions I wish it were not so near a Resemblance of the several Orders in the Church of Rome and all under Conduct of their peculiar Guides From whence it comes to pass that vain and loose Persons beginning first with light Thoughts of Religion and by degrees declining the publick Prayers of the Church and private Family-Duties and from thence giving scope to boundless Lusts at last cast off all Religion and become downright Debauchees and practical Atheists This may satisfie any but such as are in love with a false Persuasion and beforehand resolved to know no better that the Offence is taken and not justly given by those that thus separate from our National Communion especially when they may be all so clearly convinced that the original Cause of Separation from our Communion did not arise from any thing either in our Doctrine or the Discipline of our Church but from what was acted by Temporal Rulers as they were steered by Jesuites and Popish Interests in Ecclesiastical Courts procuring a Toleration of Sports on the Lord's Day and Indulgence to be granted in other Matters which our holy and pure Religion expresly condemns and abhors which could not but be very offensive to many honest and well-meaning Persons especially when so industriously improved by subtile Jesuites and whispering Sectaries the secret Enemies of our Church who insinuated into the Minds of the Easie and Credulous that our Religion did countenance such Evils and thereby drew them into separate Congregations whereby they had opportunity to introduce so many strange Doctrines and variety of Persuasions the Seed and Cause of all our Heats Divisions and Animosities on the one hand and of Practical Atheism Debauchery and Immorality on the other Both which as gross Hypocrisie and bare-faced Impiety do equally expose us to the Divine Vengeance and lay us open to our Foreign Enemies For it is most Plain the Enthusiastick as well as the Debauchee when thwarted in their Designs have an equal Tendency to Rebellion and Treason I say were sincere though mis-persuaded well-meaning Persons but once fully sensible of these great Truths and of the unavoidable Necessity of their Returning into our Communion as the only Means left to unite and save us by restoring True Piety and Christian Charity in Sobriety and Righteousness among us it is impossible they should sleep quietly one Night before they returned into this Bosom of Safety For God knows I fear there is no other Cure left for our universal Distemper and it is high time to begin so happy a Work Wherein their Leaders if they have as they all pretend to have the Spirit of Primitive Christianity may as faithful in God's Vineyard outstrip all our idle Labourers in painful and powerful Preaching and especially by their exemplary and holy Living so influence their Doctrine on the Mind as to reclaim many profane Persons who now take occasion from their Separation into so many Forms and Shadows of Religion to inveigh and rail against them all And the Lay-Menbers if they return into our Communion and live up to what our holy Religion which is defective in nothing but good Living doth most plainly and powerfully teach may boldly reprove by our Church-Authority and put to silence many open Transgressors and Evil-doers who now take occasion from so many Fashions of Religion among us to deride and scoff at all Religion in general and also to their great comfort may thereby shame a scandalous Clergy-Man into a Reformation of his Life by saying with the Spirit of Meekness in the Language of the holy Prophet I have more Vnderstanding than all my Teachers for thy Testimonies are my Meditation Psal 119. And this I bear witness is countenanced by all our reverend and pious Fathers and Pastors who would have all come to the Knowledge and Practice of the Truth and who it is most manifest are willing and ready to comply with any thing that may tend to heal our Breaches and to purchase Vnion with their Dissenting Brethren if desired in such a way and to be done in such a manner as may preseve Peace and Vnity in the Church Which we can never reasonably hope should be done without some orderly Application of such as must own themselves inferiour to those whom the Government under which they live have made their Superiours which nothing can hinder or obstruct but Pride