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	rome_n	separation_n	2,430	5	10.6947	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A60563	A pacifick discourse of the causes and remedies of the differences about religion, which distract the peace of Christendom	Smith, Thomas, 1638-1710.	1688 (1688)	Wing S4226; ESTC R3425	22,287	40

to the first ages are hugely encreased and multiplied as is too too manifest from the present state and condition of the Roman Church and the obscure confessions of other Churches what other effect can we expect should proceed from this mighty industry and zeal but that Christendom being divided into so many parties and factions all just hope of union should be wholly removed and taken away when the effecting of it hereby seems to be rendred morally impossible 3. The arrogant pretensions of the Popes unbounded power contributes not a little to the heightning and augmenting the difference in Christendom It does not seem at this day to comport with the greatness of the Roman Church to be content to be included within the antient limits of the Suburbicary regions For not satisfied with a Primacy of order or with her antient Patriarchate to whose jurisdiction the Britannick Churches were not of right subject or with her other privileges conferred upon her out of a respect to the Imperial city as if the spirit of the old Romans were infused into her she proudly affects an empire over the whole body of Christians throughout the world If the other Patriachs who owe that honour and dignity to the same original the favour of Princes and the decrees and constitutions of general Councils in the assignment of which as it is most evident from the 28th Canon of the Council of Chalcedon they had onely a regard to the privileges and dignities of cities to which the Ecclesiastical government was accommodated defend their rights and liberties against the attempts and encroachments of the Bishop of Rome if they will not submit to a forraign yoke unless they with a base and a most unbecoming flattery adore Rome as their Mistress and Patroness and obey her decrees and orders presently there is an end of them they are arraigned and accused as guilty of schism nor shall they be thought worthy of the honour and favour of her communion When some time after the Empire was divided into East and West there seemed to be a kind of agreement at least and a fair and amicable correspondence kept up the ambition and pride of the Bishops of Rome who would needs busy and interest themselves in the affairs of the Greek Church spoiled all For to no other cause can the original of that sad and fatal separation be ascribed altho it was afterward heightned and the wound festered more and more when the article of the procession of the holy Spirit from the Son was added to the Constantinopolitan Creed without ever so much as consulting the Oriental Bishops who upon the knowledge of it soon after vehemently opposed it justly alledging that it was utterly unlawful so to do it being expresly against the 7th canon of the council of Ephesus But things were more securely advanced and carryed on in the Western Empire by the artifice and policy of the Popes of Rome for the opposition which was made now and then by two or three honest and stout men to their tyrannical and arbitrary proceedings signified little or nothing and was run down with noise violence and power When then they had no regard to the canons of antient Councils by which the Catholick Church was formerly governed when they had trodden under their feet all divine and humane law and right when they had arrogated to themselves the disposition of all Church-affairs and had usurpt a power over all Christians and nothing for the future was to be admitted and believed but what was agreeable to the Bulls and decrees of the Roman Court can any one wonder when things were brought to this pass that Christendom should at last awaken from its deep lethargy and grown sensible of the miserable slavery of its condition should complain of the exercise of this usurped unjust and tyrannical power and seriously think of recovering its true antient original hristian liberty In the mean time what did they at Rome did they enter upon serious counsels and resolutions honestly and effectually to satisfy the requests and demands of Kings Princes and Republicks concerning a Reformation which were continually sent thither by their Ambassadors and Agents did they restore their ill-gotten goods which they had seized upon most unjustly and as unjustly had detained by force and violence I mean the common rights and privileges belonging to the Bishops and to all Christian people nothing less they exclaim they rage they are furious and mad and let fly their thunderbolts of excommunication from the Vatican hill and devote men to hell and damnation only for this unpardonable fault because they were at last quite tyred with and weary of the slavery which they had laboured under for so many years This is that which troubles and grieves them now at Rome and which they are endeavouring with so much art and policy to effect and bring about and this is that which unless God shall vouchsafe to avert the omen and open the eyes of all such who are deluded by the witchcrafts and sorcery of Rome to forsake her communion which is so dangerous to their salvation will make the schism irreconcileable and eternal For as things stand at present there can be no peace and accommodation with Rome unless we part with our liberties and our laws and our consciences and our religion the true Christian religion and every thing which is dear to us nor yet such is the restlesness of that party and especially of the Jesuits that if the counsels of such fiery Bigots may prevail we shall never be at quiet unless we submit our necks once more most stupidly to the Roman yoke which our Popish Ancestors even both before and after they were enlightned with the knowledge of the truths of God threw off with great indignation as not being able to bear it Lastly we are convinced by sad experience that these differences about religion which have divided Christendom into so many sects to the great disturbance of its peace and quiet owe no small part of their original to the great decay of true solid piety through idleness and carelesness and to the departure from the most holy rules of living which Christ our blessed Lord and master has prescribed us which is every where so visible I need not here labour in the proof of this by heaping up arguments when the fact is so evident nor shall I tragically exclaim or inveigh against the unmanly softness the luxury the prophaneness the wickedness of the age and the evil lives of Christians this reflexion deserving our sighs and tears rather than satyre and invective I do not here mean so much those whose wicked corrupt principles and most scandalous lives sufficiently shew that they have no sense of any religion but I chiefly intend such as make a fair shew of Christianity how little of true piety is found about them but how much of superstition and immoderate zeal for the peculiar tenents of their sect by which they