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	separation_n	3,507	5	10.7526	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A59576	The things that make for peace delivered in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, upon the 23 of August, 1674 / by John Sharpe ...	Sharp, John, 1645-1714.	1674 (1674)	Wing S3003; ESTC R9975	18,272	41

to be is directly contrary to the preserving the Unity of that Body And therefore certainly such a Rent or Separation must be unlawful And if so then it must be unlawful also to joyn with any Congregation of men among us that have made such a Rent or Separation So that let our Pretences be what they will so long as the Fixed Regular Assemblies of the Nation wherein we live do truly belong to the Catholick Church and we can lawfully joyn with them it is certain we are bound so to do and not to joyn with those Congregations that have withdrawn themselves from them for to do this would be to joyn in Society with Separatists would be a partaking with their Sin and a breach of the Apostles Precept of Avoiding those that cause Divisions The third Proposition is That the being a Member of any Church doth oblige a man to submit to all the Laws and Constitutions of that Church This Proposition is in the General so unquestionable that no sober man will deny it And indeed it is the Basis upon which all Societies are founded and by which they do subsist For to suppose a Society and yet to suppose the Members of it not under an Obligation to obey its Laws and Government is to make Ropes of Sand to suppose a Body without Sinews and Ligaments to hold its parts together So that all the question here is concerning the nature and extent of the Churches Power over her Members How far and in what instances she hath Authority to oblige them Which is a question not difficult to be answered if men would come to it without passion and prejudice For it must be acknowledged in the first place that the Church must as all other Societies be entrusted with at least so much power over her Subjects as is necessary for the securing her own Welfare and Preservation For to think otherwise is to suppose God to have founded a Church and intended the Well-being and Continuance of it which are things that every one must grant And yet to suppose that he hath denied her the use of the Means without which that Well-being and Continuance cannot be attained which is monstrous and contradictious Furthermore it must be granted that the Welfare and Preservation of the Church cannot be secured but upon these two Suppositions First That Provision be made for the due and orderly performance of the Worship of God Secondly That there be means of maintaining Peace and Unity among its Members This latter is necessary to the Welfare and Preservation of a Church as a Society the former is necessary to it as a Religious Society Now then this being admitted it follows in the general that what ever Power over her Subjects is necessary in order to either of these things all that at least must be supposed to be lodged in the Church that is to say in Those that have the Government of it So that from hence it is plain in the first place that the Church hath power so far to restrain the exercise of her Subjects Liberty as to oblige them to all such Laws Rules Orders and Ceremonies as She shall establish for the more Solemn Regular Decent and Convenient Administration of Religious Affairs And if it be questioned whether her Appointments do indeed conduce to that end of that She her self is to be the Judge Her Members being no farther concern'd therein than onely before they obey her Impositions to see that they be not repugnant to the known Laws of God This Power the Church must be supposed to have otherwise She will not be enabled to make Provision for the first thing whereon her Welfare doth depend viz. the Performance of Gods Worship and Service in a due and orderly manner Secondly from hence also it is plain that the Church must be furnished with a Power to end and determine Controversies of Religion that arise among its Members that is to say to give such an Authoritative decision of them as that all Parties are bound to acquiesce in it for without this she would be defective in the second thing required to her Welfare and Preservation viz. Maintaining her self in Peace and Unity But here it may be taken notice that this Power of Ending Controversies which we ascribe to the Church doth not imply any Authority over our Judgments or that in vertue thereof she can oblige us to give an inward assent to her Determinations any further than she gives us evidence for the Truth of them which is that extravagant Power the Church of Rome doth challenge to her self but onely an Authority over our Practices that she can oblige us to submit so far to her Definitions as not to act any thing contrary to them A Power in the former sense is not necessary to the Churches peace and the reason is because our Judgments and 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 what ever fancies come into their heads and the Church have no Authority to impose silence upon them it cannot be avoided but she will be overrun with Heresies and embroiled in infinite Quarrels and Controversies to the destruction of her Publick Peace The fourth Proposition is That we can have no just cause of with-drawing 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 we know to be an Error The other is when the Church requires of us as a Condition of her Communion the joyning with her in some Practises which we know to be 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 further 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 Unscriptural Impositions can be a warrantable cause of separation from a Church supposing that by Unscriptural be meant no more than onely what is neither Commanded nor Forbid in the Scriptures For the Actions required by these Unscriptural 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 Unscriptural we here speak of they are down-right 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 Nor secondly can it be true that the Church requiring from us any doubtful or suspected practices as Conditions of her Communion is a just cause of Separation for we must have at least as much certainty of the unlawfulness of the actions enjoyned as we have of our Obligation to the Authority that enjoyns them before we withdraw our Obedience to it otherwise we do not proceed upon safe grounds but now we are absolutely certain that God hath commanded us to obey them that have the rule over us but we are not certain that the actions we here speak of are any where forbid by him for if we were they would be no longer doubtful or suspected they would be certain sins so that if we will follow the surer side as all Christians in these cases are bound to do we must continue our Obedience to the Church notwithstanding we suspect or doubt of the lawfulness of her Commands Neither thirdly can it be true that Errors in a Church as to matter of Doctrins or Corruptions as to matter of Practice so long as those Errors and Corruptions are onely 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 Errors 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 fourth and last place is the enjoying a more profitable Ministry or living under a more pure Discipline in another Church a just cause of forsaking the Communion of that whereof we are now Members The reason is because we are not to commit the least crime for the attaining the greatest good in the World Now it is a crime 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 Ministry or a less pure Discipline doth not make her Communion sinful therefore the enjoyment of a more profitable Ministry or a more pure Discipline cannot make a Separation from her lawful The fifth and last Proposition is That though we have a just cause to refuse Communion with the Church whereof we are Members in some instances yet we are not therefore to proceed to so total a Separation from it as to erect New Churches in contradistinction to it or to joyn with those that do The reason is clear from the foregoing Principles viz. because we are bound to obey as far as we can and where we cannot to suffer but at no hand to disturb the Peace or break the Unity of the Church Though we cannot comply with all that the Church requires of us yet still we must joyn with Her in those other things where we lawfully can Nay though the Church should require those things as Conditions of her Communion so that unless we conform to them we cannot at all communicate with her yet still there is a Passive Obedience due from us We must sit still and suffer and not make a Rent in the Church by setting up one Altar against another This is like the setting up a new and a distinct Government in the Bowels of the State Nothing can justify such a degree of departure as this but onely one thing to wit so great and general a Corruption of the Church both in Doctrin and Practice that the Salvation of all that communicate with her is thereby endangered Which though it be the condition of the Members of the present Church of Rome yet I dare say few among us will affirm to be the case of them that communicate with the Church of England 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 Unity 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 Ancientest 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 Public 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