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	just_a	schism_n	2,608	5	10.7463	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61494	A brief but full vindication of the Church of England from the Romanist's charge of schism.	Steward, Richard, 1593?-1651.	1688 (1688)	Wing S5517; ESTC R33857	21,943	36

who was once Rabshakeh was since some tart Pen-man of this latter Century I 'le speak first of that Tax the reproach of Novelty And I beseech you mark how Rabshakeh has here fram'd his Words He strives to lay all upon this Present King Hezekiah took away and Hezekiah said No mention that this Fact was enjoyn'd by Moses aud practis'd too by the Hebrew Church whilst she was the Primitive Thus let but Rabshakeh once tell the tale and a Church larely reform'd shall indeed appear to be but a late founded Church Ignorance may perhaps excuse this Commander here in my Text but some Learned men in our times are more extreamly to blame for you 'l soon see how fond are their main Exceptions do but suppose their Words put into the Mouth of Rabshakeh when as here in my Text at Jerusalem he be-spake the besieg'd men upon the Wall Hear O ye Jews will your aged Synagogue at length turn Novelist Your Fathers worshipp'd in these High Mountains but ye now say Jerusalem's the place where was the Church before Hezekiah Was 't no where or invisible Were your Predecessors blinded with one joint consent Or are ye only become more clear of sight what than Solomon the wise or Asa the religious Does your God sometime forsake his Church or will for Hundreds of Years suffer it to be so constantly obscur'd Let not this pure Prince deceive you still with these fond upstart toys for 't is your Judah's greatest Fame that she 's thought very Ancient What Jew I wonder could this speech move unless 't were to laughter Where was their Church before Hezekiah In the same place and among the same People and 't was still the very self-same Church I say the same in truth of essence for so 's a Thief a True man but not in condition or in quality for formerly it was corrupt now reform'd by the Law of Moses formerly it had heen dangerously diseas'd but 't was now cured by Hezekiah Let them ask Naaman too where was he before Elisha had heal'd him Would he not divide the Question He was long before but he was withal Leprous And Palestine had still a Church but God knows 't was a corrupt one So then he who calls a reform'd Church new because 't is newly reform'd might as well call Naaman a child too because after his cure the Text plainly says his flesh came again like a child's But in earnest is our Age to be accounted from our recovery Or is a man no Older than his Health By this Philosophy they might perswade the Leper that he bore Office in the Syrian Court before he was a year Old. Let therefore the Modern Rabshakeh's cease to upbraid us with such known petty Cavils our Church was no more invisible than that of Judah and might as well be before Luther was as theirs before Hezekiah Secondly They tax us of Schism which is questionless a great sin being in frequent Texts very sharply condemn'd in Scripture 'T is then committed when there is a Scissure a Breach an uncharitable Division made betwixt those men especially which in point of Religion were once joyn'd aud linkt together So that where this Rupture is there is sin without doubt all the Question is on which side the Crime must lie sometimes it may lie on both but it ever lies on him that gives just cause of Division not ever on him that divides Abraham did divide from his Idolatrous Kindred and so did St. Paul from his old friends the Jews The Orthodox Christians were forc'd to do the like when Arrianism did prevail and yet in the opinion of these Rabshakehs themselves neither Abraham nor St. Paul nor those old Christians were Schismatical Thus when Hezekiah once had reform'd the Church of Judea no man can think a Conscientious Jew would at all communicate in the service of these High Places he did divide from it without doubt although before either by custom or ignorance or the like he did it frequently without Scruple And yet might such a Jew be held guilty of Schism no more sure than Hezekiah who both did and enjoyn'd the like and yet the Holy Ghost in this History here does in express terms commend him in the fourth verse of this Chapter he commends him as much for reforming the Church as he does for being like David So that to tax him were indeed to affirm that the Spirit of God commends a Schismatick himself for the very act of his schism Thus then they are not still they who divide but they who give or continue the just cause of Division who are guilty of that sin we speak of But yet since in Church-controversies 't is not so easie to judg what makes that just cause I nam'd and that no wise man can think it fit it should be left to each private judgment since in such divisions as these men are extreamly apt to forget all bonds of Peace and for possession sometimes of a little suppos'd truth quit indeed their whole Estate of Charity therefore the Ancients do oft define schism by these two grand notes or Characters First when men make Divisions in point of Religion against the consent of their lawful Pastors 't is so defined by St. Cyprian and St. Jerom and others Secondly when men cast out of the Church Catholick and so damn to Hell all that hold not their opinions And this St. Austin doth oft times call schism in the Donatists And now take Schism in what sense under what note you please our Mother Church is guiltless of that imputation First takē it for a Division in Gods publick Service She did no more in that point than what was here done by Hezekiah since she had as clear Text and so as just cause To give the Cup to the People to turn their Devotions into a language they understood as this King here had to bring the Jews from their Old Mass in high places unto that one Altar at Jerusalem Nay the cause we had was more just than that of Judah because the corruptions of the Western Church were all backt by Tyranny Men were constrain'd into Errors when yet we read not at all that if a pious Jew would have kept himself unto that one Altar at Jerusalem he was either checkt by their Kings or opprest by their Priests or condemn'd to Tophet by their Sanhedrim Secondly Take Schism for an opposition made against our lawful Pastors and our Church you 'l find was not guilty in this matter neither For at that time when the Reformation was made we were under our own Synods only and with what readiness they joyn'd in this grand Work you have heard in my second General 'T is true that for some hundreds of years we had been under a known Foreign Power but yet such a Power as came not amongst us but by the breach of a great General Councils as is clear from the last Canon of the first of Ephesus A Power I say

't was done as well by teaching truth as by reforming corruptions He took away the High Places and he said Ye shall worship before this altar at Jerusalem First of the Prime Agent Hezekiah the King. But to remove these Abuses here did not this Prince first abuse himself to fit his hands for this work Did Hezekiah the King make his Person no less than plain Head of the Church of Judah Were some Modern Tongues to have supplied Rabshakeh's place this is the Theam and this is the Phrase they 'd have chosen And yet I assure my self this pious Prince would have stood to 't that he was supreme Governour in all Causes and over all Persons so that upon provocation given he could no doubt have depos'd the High Priest as Solomon once did Abiathar But yet I beseech you observe 't is one thing to burn Incense another to enjoin that this Service be still duly done One thing to offer Sacrifice another to command that no Sacrifice be offer'd but on that one Altar at Jerusalem The first of these belonged unto Aaron's Sons the other to the Heirs of David To bar Hezekiah this Power in the Church were to impair his Royalties and to deny that to the Crown of Judah which all Princes have still challenged yea those without the Church the Kings of Nineveh and Monarchs of Assyria Their Swords were Ecclesiastical Thus that King proclaims a Religious Fast Jon. 3. And Nebuchad Dan. 3. 29. Thus from the beginning Christian Princes have still done the like and have let us see by their Laws that in point of Coercive Power they still kept the Church-supremacy as clearly appears in the Theodosian Code and in that of Justinian in the Capitulars of Charles the great and such other collections Justinian in an Ecclesiastical Novel comes fully home in this point Jubemus beatissimos Archiepiscopos Patriarchas i. Senioris Romae Constantinopoleos Novae Romae We command saith he and as some Copies have it under the pain of Deposition too the most blessed Archbishop and Patriarchs i. of Old Rome and of Constantinople then call'd New Rome c. If that Emperor might command all the Patriarchs themselves and that in a business Ecclesiastical too where then lay the Church-supremacy And these Novels of his were in so high esteem with St. Gregory the great that 't is plain in his Epistles he decides Church-causes by them and that with an Ita decrevit Dominus noster Imperator Our Lord the Emperor hath thus rul'd it in his Laws Besides most plain it is that the Old Hebrew Kings held the Work in my Text to belong to them as in chief And this Opinion God himself confirm'd for throughout their whole story you 'l find that Kings only are check'd when the Church was corrupt and they only prais'd when she mended In those Scriptures we read but of Three Noted Reformations and they were all done by their Kings By King Asa by this King in my Text and the last by King Josiah Those High Places alone were pulled down by Asa which were set up to the worship of a false God. Hezekiah goes farther and destroys them too which were set up for the false worship though of the true only Deity Josiah goes on and removes the Groves and such devices as those which Solomon and other Kings having of old set up they were again renew'd in the wicked Reign of Manasseh But grant a Christian Church to be indeed corrupt or that really men think it is so is 't not allowed by Christ's Law either for Subjects or others against the Will of the King into whose care she 's put by force of Arms to constrain or beat her to a Purity A case of conscience you 'l find whereby to resolve this decided by our Saviour's own Mouth in the 9th chap. of St. Luke where entring saith the Text into a Village of Samaria the Inhabitants were so far from receiving the Doctrine he intended to preach that indeed they endur'd not his Person Hence James and John the Two Sons of Thunder begin straight to shew their Temper What! not receive Christ nor the Christian Faith Master shall we command fire from heaven For if Perswasion will not draw men unto the Gospel thou bring'st it must be done by Fire or by Sword. Our Saviour replies Ye know not of what spirit ye are Ye understand not at all what thing 't is to be a Christian. I came not to destroy mens Lives but to save them I came not to plant a Religion in Blood no I leave that to Turks and to Mahomet Had that been my Intent you James and John had been no Apostles for me I would then have made choice of Commanders from an Army not of Fisher-men from their Nets And yet in these times have not we the like Sons of Thunder What I will they not receive the New Holy Discipline the very Scepter of Christ the Throne of his Mediatorship and indeed they could do little if they knew not how to cloath their new Fancies in good Words Lord shall we command Fire from Heaven or if you will Fire from Hell Shall we raise a Rebellion Shall we by a Covenant swear Christ into his Throne or forswear the King out of his What think ye will be replied to these and the like kind of men but ye know not of what spirit ye are It 's not lawful by Blood to bring in Christian Faith and is it lawful by Blood to bring in that thing which they of late call a Christian Government It 's not lawful to plant a Church by such Force and is it lawful thus to reform it They who think it is truly for my part I neither at all know of what spirit they are no nor of what reason neither This I well know of what spirit they are not they are of no spirit Evangelical So then to attempt to reform a Church in despite of the Prince whom God has now placed her under is to invade Royal Power and can be indeed called but a more zealous kind of Rebellion since tôs cure a Church by such drenches as these is no doubt at the same time to give Poyson to a Kingdom and 't was therefore decreed in that most ancient Council of Eliberis twenty years before that of Nice That if in hatred to Idolatry if self a private man would needs pull down Images he should by no means be esteemed a Martyr if he lost his life in that service And the Fathers there give their Reason because we have no example for this either from Prophets or Apostles No 't was their part to preach down High Places or Idols but they well knew 't was the Duty of Kings of Supreme Powers to remove them And he can be no Martyr for the first Table of the Law who is in the same deed a Transgressor of the second nor will God at all thank him as a Reformer of his Church who in the