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	true_a	2,382	5	5.8226	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A29214	A sermon preached at the opening of the lecture at Maldon in Essex, lately established by the Lord Bishop of London in vindication of the antiquity of the doctrine of the Church of England / by William Bramston ...	Bramston, William, d. 1735.	1697 (1697)	Wing B4243; ESTC R18304	16,131	26

which belong to God Nay which is apparently to profess Doctrines which 't is impossible they shou'd render a Reason of for without knowledge there can be no Reason given and no Man will pretend to know that explicitly of which he professes purely an implicit Belief nay perhaps which he understands not that he does believe till the Church upon an occasion rubs up his Faith and Memory and tells him he must and he does believe it I am sure this is such a kind of Faith which Christ himself detested to impose for we may observe that he never recommended any thing to the belief of the Jews but what he still confirmed with such Tokens as might convince the meanest Spectators of its Truth nay we find he taught his Disciples many essential Doctrines before his Death which they believed not but did not Anathematize their incredulity till they became able to bear them till they had beheld that most convincing Demonstration then remaining even the irresistible sign of his Resurrection Nay that nothing of certainty might be wanting to the satisfying the Reason of Man even after that glorious Demonstration he humbly condescended to let mistrustful Thomas thrust his Fingers into the very holes of the Nails and behold the Prints in his Side Is here any thing like the imposition of an implicit Faith or such a groundless Belief as obliges us not only to abandon our Reason with all the strongest Convictions of our Senses but also to renounce the helps even of the inspired Writings of that blessed Comforter which was sent on purpose to lead us into all Truth Since Christ himself was pleased thus meekly to condescend in the giving satisfaction to our Infirmities what kind of relation can that Church bear to him which disdains a submission to an Examination either by Reason or the blessed Rule of God's own Word I am sure it must be a shrewd sign that that Church which makes this refusal is reconcileable neither to Reason nor Scripture for were she agreeable to either why shou'd she so imperiously decline a tryal by the two most Godlike Principles we are enriched with which certainly Scripture and Reason may be acknowledged to be neither can it be any great disgrace to the purest Church to be made appear conformable to them I confess I can't but admire the subtilty of the Church of Rome in usurping thus an Authority above all Examination since her Definitions of Faith are such as far transcend the Explications either of Scripture or Reason the clearest measures which God has left us to examine by Is it not much the wisest way to put off such Commodities by the Gross which we are satisfied won't bear a particular inspection Is there not much greater security to such a Cause in an implicit Faith which swallows down all at a lump than such an explicit one as may be curious and inquisitive and desire the satisfaction of Sense and Reason I see no false step here on their Churches side in point of Carnal Prudence and Worldly Policy but methinks that must be an unintelligible Devotion indeed which does thus contentedly ensnare his Soul for a Pig in a Poke for what he is neither to scruple nor yet to understand And thus you see upon what contradictory and irreconcileable positions the Church of England and the Church of Rome are founded at present that they are as far from one another as Scripture and no Scripture Reason and no Reason Antiquity and Innovations Truth and Falshoods and as the Churches stand at variance so have the faithful Members of our Church upon all occasions and opportunities appear'd in defiance of Rome's Corruptions it is not many years since most of us beheld and all of us heard with what steadiness and Devotion with what Resignation to the will of God and disdain to the pollutions of Men the Members of our Church like so many Illustrious Confessors withstood the attempts and sollicitations the threatnings and invitations of the Whorish Woman Withstood them I say even then when many of the Members of our separate Congregations who had before shew'd themselves most uneasie in their fears of Popery gave life and boldness to her growing hopes by their unseasonable Addresses and Compliances I speak not this with a desire to make advantages of the weakness or by way of insult over the inconstancy of our fellow Christians now in Charity I perswade my self they were rather outreach'd by the policies than debauch'd by the principles of Rome and there is nothing we ought all more heartily to pray for or more religiously endeavour than a mutual forgetfulness of all infirmities but I speak it with hopes that as such Protestants must acknowledge their error in siding with Popery then so they will blush when they upbraid our Church as a Daughter of Babylon now if Men wou'd but credit their own eyes or give place to the arguments presented to their own understandings we need not appeal to other than our adversaries themselves whether they can still believe our divine service to be what some people do ignorantly miscall it Popery in English who remember the toleration and liberty given to every Soul to run as far out of our Church and the sound of its divine service as they pleased managed by the artifice set on foot and carry'd on by the influence of the Papists if the way to Rome lies through a Communion with our Church as such Men dream how come the Romanists who are no strangers to their own interests to seduce Men out of our Communion as the readiest road to Popery had they seen with some Mens eyes amongst us and found any thing in our Communion which looks kind and serviceable to the cause of their own superstitions 't is not to be believed they wou'd so publickly have tempted all Men out of our Communion with the alluring promises of the royal favour I take that liberty and toleration then given by the Papistry to be so manifest an argument and declaration of that opposition which our Church in every particular of its constitution bears to Popery which as every eye might discern it so every well-meaning Man ought to be convinced by it and retract his censures The Papists knew well enough there wou'd be no enlarging their own without first thining our Churches that the Mass Book cou'd make no advances whilst the Common-Prayer stood in reputation that the only probability they cou'd have of making any Proselytes must be to get Men as far out of the bosom of our Church as possible Methinks the pretences of some in separation from us who reproach our service for Popish and the practices of the Papists who were for drawing all Men out of our Communion as a bar to Popery are very hard to be reconciled The Conclusion from such considerations must be this Either the Papists understand not what makes up the Popish Religion or the divine service of our Church which they appeared so

a visible Succession and yet that Church that enjoys it in many respects may be very corrupt and unwarrantable and this I think is sufficiently acknowledg'd by the Church of Rome her self which does so far acknowledge the Succession of the Greek Church as to receive those Ordained by her into her Communion with allowance of Orders received before and yet whoever considers the terms in which the Eastern Church now stands with that at Rome must see little reason to conclude much of its Perfection from the Argument of Succession indeed there cannot be a true Church without true Pastors and Bishops but there may be true Pastors and Bishops i. e. Pastors and Bishops rightly called and truly ordained without a true Church in other respects Such Succession will indeed prove the Antiquity of the Seat and Place and justly denominate it a part of the Catholick Church of Christ but it can be no convincing Demonstration of the purity of its Faith and Doctrines And therefore it must sollow that even from an erroneous Church may be derived a true Ministery and Ordination but yet it can be no greater Argument that such a particular Church namely as the Church of Rome is a pure Church now because an other to wit the Church of England who is really so owes her Orders or first Episcopal imposition to hers than it can be that because such a particular Man for his own personal Virtue and Integrity shall certainly go to Heaven therefore he also shall do so who made him a Christian And this I the gladlier mention because it plainly answers that Sophistical Induction of the Romanists which infer that because we say our Church derives her Orders from her therefore by proving our selves to be a true Church we must necessarily conclude their's to be so which is the same as if a Man in declaring his Opinion of their being Orthodox in some points and particulars shou'd be concluded positively to maintain them to be most regular in all others A more rational Inference from what has been said in this case of Succession must certainly be this that such a Local Succession of Pastors and a settled Establishment from the days of the Apostles to this time is not essential to the constitution of a true Church but rather on the other side whatever Church hath a lawful Ministry and a right Profession of sound Doctrine let her Succession be never so inconsiderable though not exceeding two years must have an equal Right and Title to a Membership in the ancient Body of Christ as any particular Church of the most venerable Succession And the reason of the thing is very plain for if a Church has a true Ministry and a right belief now what signifies it how long she has enjoy'd it she can then want no means to bring Souls to Heaven and what advantage can the ancientest Constitution in the World obtain above her The Seat where the Religion is sixed may be new but the Religion Establish'd as Old as Truth it self And thus I hope the Churches which were the earliest planted in the World were as true Churches the first day after their Plantation as when they had survived various Centuries So that it must be impertinent in our Adversaries to require us to produce a Succession of Protestant Bishops so long as there cou'd be no reason any Bishops shou'd be called Protestant i. e. Such Bishops who protest against Innovations and Corruptions in the Religion of Christ till they had defiled God's heavenly Truths with their Traditionary Pollutions or again so long as we prove our Protestant Faith and Church to be no other but a Professor of that Faith and a Member of that Apostolical Church which they have Corrupted or lastly so long as they are Corruptions introduced by them which we disavow and protest against Let them prove us defective in any one essential point of a true Church and we will yet thankfully receive it but this their own fruitless endeavour towards it may evince they cannot and therefore to talk of Novelty and Innovations where the Truths are as ancient as the Gospel and the Apostles must argue great Folly in them that urge it but more inconsideration in us shou'd we regard it As we are able to justifie our cause from all their foulest Imputations so shall they never be able to prove our Religion a Novelty though its Establishment were but of Queen Elizabeth for it is the Antiquity of true Faith only that we contend for which can never be obscured by the latest Profession because what was truth in the Apostles time must be so now and that Church which cleaves stedfastly to that be its Succession never so late must be both Catholick and Apostolick in the purest meaning After all this stir of Novelty and Antiquity I see no other difference in our case and that of the Romanists but this that our Religion is apparently conspicuous in the best and most Apostolical Centuries and their 's manifest enough in the flourishing Days of Ignorance and Superstition when Scriptures were banished and the least appearance of such Truth as seemed to thwart the progress of an aspiring Monarchy was silenced and disabled That which seems so much to take with inconsiderate Men to wit such Queries as this Had not God his true Church in these days of Blindness and Ignorance which you Protestants allude to if so Then which cou'd be this true Church but that at Rome may easily be removed if they observe First That a local and visible Establishment such as can be pointed to though we have many such to refer to in the Eastern parts of Christendom even in the blindest Ages besides that at Rome is not essential to the proving of a true Church because the true Church of Christ was most illustrious before it had enjoyed any Local Establishment whatever Secondly If we consider that though there were in those times true Christians yet it cannot be imagined that they should have appear'd forward to make Discoveries of themselves in such Seasons when they experienc'd the sharpest Eyes and heaviest Hands ready to destroy them So that though we must believe God had always a true Church yet we stand not necessitated directly to know what numerical and individual People made up that true Church much less to confess it to have been the present Establishment at Rome no we can no more be oblig'd to such a Confession as this than to acknowledge that the visible company of the Jews made up the true Church of God than when they were even swallow'd up of Idolatry and none but the All-seeing Eye of God able to discover the 7000 Knees which had never bowed to Baal it is no Tergiversation therefore it is no Shuffling I say though we can't point to it's individual Members to assert That God had even then a true Church because he has expresly told us he will have a true Church for ever but it must be a