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	error_n	separation_n	1,422	5	10.7733	5	false

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59549	Fifteen sermons preach'd on several occasions the last of which was never before printed / by ... John, Lord Arch-Bishop of York ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1700 (1700)	Wing S2977; ESTC R4705	231,778	520

Opinions so long as we keep them to our selves cannot possibly cause any disturbance in or do any injury to Society But a Power in the latter sense is absolutely necessary for if Men may be allowed to vent and publish whatever fancies come into their head and the Church have no Authority to impose silence upon them it cannot be avoided but she will be over-run with Heresies and embroiled in insinite Quarrels and Controversies to the destruction of her publick Peace The fourth Proposition is That we can have no just cause of withdrawing our Communion from the Church whereof we are Members but when we cannot communicate with it without the Commission of a Sin For if we are bound to Communicate with the Church when we can lawfully do so as hath been before proved it is plain we are bound so long to continue our Communion with the Church till it be unlawful to continue in it any longer But it cannot be unlawful to continue in her Communion till she require something as a Condition of her Communion that is a Sin So that there are but Two cases wherein it can be lawful to withdraw our Communion from a Church because there are but two cases wherein Communion with her can be sinful One is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion an Acknowledgment and Profession of that for a Truth which is an Errour The other is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion the joyning with her in some practices which are against the Laws of God In these two Cases to withdraw our Obedience to the Church is so far from being a Sin that it is a necessary Duty because we have an obligation to the Laws of God antecedent to that we have to those of the Church and we are bound to obey these no farther than they are consonant or agreeable to those But now from this discourse it will appear how insufficient those Causes how unwarrantable those Grounds are upon which many among us have proceeded to Separation from our Church For first If what I have laid down be true it cannot be true that Vnscriptural Impositions are a warrantable cause of Separation from a Church supposing that by Vnscriptural be meant no more than only what is neither Commanded nor Forbid in the Scriptures For the Actions required by these Vnscriptural Impositions are either in themselves lawful to be done or not lawful to be done If they be in themselves unlawful to be done then they do not fall under that notion of Vnscriptural we here speak of they are downright Sins and so either particularly or in the general forbid in the Scripture If they be in themselves lawful to be done then it cannot be imagined how their being commanded can make them unlawful So that in this case there is no Sin in yielding obedience to the Church and consequently no cause of withdrawing our Communion from it Neither secondly can it be true that Errours in a Church as to matter of Doctrines or Corruptions as to matter of Practice so long as those Errours and Corruptions are only suffered but not imposed can be a sufficient cause of Separation the reason is because these things are not Sins in us so long as we do not joyn with the Church in them So that so long as we can Communicate with a Church without either professing her Errours or partaking in her sinful Practices as in the present case it is supposed we may do so long we are bound upon the Principle before laid down not to separate from her Neither in the third and last place is the enjoying a more profitable Ministery or living under a more pure Discipline in a separate Congregation a just Cause of forsaking the Communion of the Church of which we are Members And the reason is because we are not to commit a Sin for the promoting a good end Now as we have said it is a Sin to forsake the Communion of the Church whereof we are Members so long as her Communion is not sinful But the enjoyment of a less profitable Ministery or a less pure Discipline doth not make her Communion sinful therefore the enjoyment of a more profitable Ministery or a more pure Discipline cannot make a Separation from her lawful Thus have I as briefly as I could represented to you the Particulars of that Duty we owe to our common Mother in the preservation of her Vnity and Communion And I hope I have not been so zealous for Peace as to have been at all injurious to Truth I am confident I have said nothing but what is very agreeable to Scripture and Reason and the Sense of the Best and Antientest Christians And I am certain I have not intrenched upon any of those Grounds upon which our Ancestors proceeded to the Reformation of Religion among us And for most of the things here delivered we have also the Suffrage of several and those the most learned and moderate of our dissenting Brethren And now if after this any one be offended as indeed these kind of Discourses are seldom very acceptable all I can say is this That the Truths here delivered are really of so great importance to Religion and the publick Peace that they ought not to be dissembled or suppressed for any bad Reception they may meet with from some Men But as for the manner of delivering them I have taken all the care I could not to give offence to any I now pass on to the second part of my Task upon this Head which is to consider the Duty recommended in the Text with relation to particular Christians our Brethren And here my Business is to direct you to the Pursuit of those things that make for Peace as Peace signifies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Strife and Bitterness and Contentions The things that make for Peace in this sense are more especially these that follow which I shall deliver by way of Rules and Advices The first Rule is to distinguish carefully between matters of Faith and matters of Opinion and as to these latter to be willing that every one should enjoy the liberty of judging for himself This is one thing that would help very much to the extinguishing of those unnatural Heats and Animosities which have long been the Reproach of Christians If Men would set no greater value upon their Notions and Opinions than they do deserve if they would make a difference between necessary Points and those that are not so and in those things that are not necessary would not rigorously tie up others to their measures but would allow every Man to abound in his own sense so long as the Church's Peace is not hereby injured we should not have so many bitter Quarrels and Heart-burnings among us But alas whilst every one will frame a System of Divinity of his own head and every puny Notion of that System must be Christen'd by the name of an