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	schism_n	separation_n	4,536	5	11.0940	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A45122	An answer to Dr. Stillingfleet's book of The unreasonableness of separation so far as it concerns The peaceable designe : with some animadversions upon the debate between him and Mr. Baxter concerning the national church and the head of it.	Humfrey, John, 1621-1719.; Humfrey, John, 1621-1719. Peaceable design.; Baxter, Richard, 1615-1691. Of national churches.; Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699. Unreasonableness of separation.	1682 (1682)	Wing H3667; ESTC R28713	17,588	40

of it were composed of Scripture-Phrase altogether leaving nothing at all lyable any more to Exception unless the Imposition of a Form only which I doubt not but is also Justifiable by Scripture-Instances as well as Sound Reason it might go near to put an end to all Dissention among the Sober and Peaceable of the Nation It is this I know is apt to recur into the Imaginations of Good Men and forasmuch as there was lately two Bills prepared for Comprehension or Uniting the Protestants and for Indulgence or repealing the Penal Statutes I shall not I hope incur any blame if I apprehend that such Men who are most considerate and intent upon the Interest of God in what they seek do or did look upon either of such Bills as no other than an English Interim preparative to this Higher Concord and Union of the Bishop with his Presbyters according to the Primitive Pattern mentioned as soon as more mellow opportunity and well advised Piety should administer unto such farther Perfection Nevertheless in regard there is no Uniting of a Nation can be supposed by any Model but such as is of H●man Contrivance and there are Multitudes of Holy and Learned Men in this Kingdom that do believe the way of their Gathered Congregations is after a higher Pattern than this of Primitive Episcopacy it self i● there were any hope of the return of it it is manifest that there is no Society which is National in England could be formed on these terms because these Congregational Men can never recede from that which is of Divine Appointment for the sake of any Antiquity whatsoever They do hold Particular Churches to be of Christ's Institution and Diocesan of Ecclesiastical Consent only and under the Notion of Divine Right it is Sin to them to Submit to any Bishop There is another Notion then that must be advanced to take in these Good Men of This Way as well as those of the Parochial and Diocesan Way into one Political Body for the making up the National Church of England whereof the King is Head as I have been speaking and that is by an Act of Parliament Legitimating these Meetings of the Nonconformists so as to become thereby immediately Parts of the Church as National no less than the Parochial Assemblies It was a good thing in the House of Commons that they were about to free many Innocent Men from the danger of the Penal Statutes but the making such Meetings to be Legal is a Design of another Nature of a far greater nobler and vast Importance The Nonconformist as well as Conformist The Congregationalist as well as Presbyterian do acknowledg the King's Supremacy and can take the Oath The one as well as the other therefore do own an External Regiment of the Magistrate over their Churches so as to be punishable by him for any neglect of the Gospel Order which themselves profess or for any Rules they make or Things they do which are repugnant to the Peace of the Kingdom If it shall please the King consequently to commit any part of that Authority of his which he hath Circa Sacra to be exercised by the Bishops as Ecclesiastical Magistrates under him they can submit to a Visitation under them upon that account though they acknowledge them not to be Christs Officers bearing or having any Internal Church-Power from him over them or any other but their own Charge Upon which account it appears further how the outward Dignity and Grandeur of the Bishop need not be Diminished but enhaunced and his Superintendency extended over the Congregational as well as the Parochial Churches Provided only he will but keep within his Line that is the Line of the King and meddle not with Christ's Jurisdiction Neither will they envy him his Barony and sitting in the Parliament And if it should seem farther good here to a Parliament in one and the same Act that Legitimates such Meetings to appoint that unto the two Clerks which are Elected by the Ministers of every Diocess there should be one more chose by the Congregationalists likewise for every Convocation to joyn with them in Consultation that such Canons and such only may be framed as tend to the propagation of Holiness and Peace throughout all the Churches as we●l Congregational as Parochial who does not see how by this means one Organ more should be added to this great Political Society for deriving an influence from this Head to these Parts of the Body as well as others which now seem neglected and to have no care taken of them And this brings into my mind a Text of the Apostle God hath tempered the Body together having given abundant Honour to that part which lacked That there should be no Schisme in the Body but that the Members should have the same care of one another From which Text if I may go a little about to come the nearer home we may understand where the Core of that Evil we call Schisme does lye and that is mainly in the Want of that Love and that Care which the Members owe one to another It will follow that whosoever they be whether Conformist or Nonconformist who do care least for the Concord and Edification of the whole Body those are like to be found most Guilty of that Sin in the Sight of God The Nonconformist Minister does often come to the Parish Church but the Conformist Minister comes never to his Meeting and Which then of the Two is the greater Separatist The Meetings of the one and of the other as they are Particular Churches are Churches of Christ and Parts of the Universal and so of Divine through Quatenus Parochial of Human Institution They both agree in the same Doctrine and the same Sacraments They have one God one Hope of our Calling one Lord one Faith one Baptism They differ somthing indeed in Opinion about the Church as to the external Constitution and Discipline of it and about some Rites and Practices which makes them go into distinct Congregations But is their going only to two Meetings enough to make Both or Either of them to be Guilty of this Sin of Schisme Separation I take it in its self simply considered is neither Good nor Evil and there must be something that makes such a Separation to be Sinful or else it is not to be accounted Schisme If a Man shall Separate from the Parish Church upon the perswasion that those Churches are no true Churches I take such a Separation to be a high breach of Charity which must therefore render it Sinful and Consequently Schisme If any shall Separate out of Pride Contention or any the like Sinful Cause or to any Sinful End as Worldly Gain for to some Gain is Godliness or Vain Glory this will make such a Separation to be still Sinful and so Schisme It were the part then of such a Convocation before mentioned that is of Ministers consisting of both sorts to be sure to agree upon this That

and I Judge not But I do perceive this that it hath exposed him much and that not only to such a sawcy Man as Mr. Alsop to style him This Weather-Cock but to such a serious Man as Mr. Baxter to drive him into such distress For so long I must still say as the Doctor is engaged to hold the Government of Episcopacy as it is exercised in the Church of England to be of Divine Right he must maintain also her proper Constituting Officers to be of Christs appointment and then find out a Constitutive Head of it or he is gone And seeing he cannot do this but is forced to grant there is no such Head and that there is no need of any it is plain that his Cause is lost I will sum up my Answer again The Doctor 's Determination is We deny the necessity of any such Regent Part. For a National Consent is as sufficient to make a National Church as an Universal Consent to make a Catholick Church It is well he sayes As Sufficient because That may excuse him something if neither of them be Sufficient as it appears they are not without a Head I have distinguished therefore two Consents A Consent that goes to the Making a Society or Church and a Consent for coming into the same when it is Made A Consent that goes to the Constitution and a Consent that goes to put a Man under the Administration When the Doctor Argues from the Catholick to a National Church that As an Universal Consent makes the Catholick Church So a National Consent the National Church he must not be understood to mean it of the Former Consent because there is no such Consent as that imaginable in regard to the Catholick Church There can be no coming together possibly of the Community of the whole Christian World to agree to such a Constitution The Catholick Church is not made by the consent of men but is of God's Ordination altogether Nor can he be understood of the Latter consent because a consent to be a Member of a Church or Society already Made is not that consent which goes to the Making it A consent to be a Christian or of the Church Catholick is to consent to have Christ for my Lord and Head But how a consent to have Christ for ones Head should prove that Consent makes a Church without a Head is a reasoning I am yet to understand For the former consent there is here none of it And from the latter there can be no Argument Again The Catholick Church Visible in its Nature can never be Organical It hath a Head and all the Particular Churches in the Earth are the parts of it Nay there were at first Universal Officers gifted with proper Gifts as the Gifts of Tongues sutable to such an Office But these were only to gather Particular Churches throughout the World and it never was the designe of the Head that there should be a Form of Polity introduced into an Oecumenical Society that by the Organs of Bishops Arch-Bishops Patriarchs General Councils and a Pope a Catholick Visible Government should be Administred so as to make the whole Earth a Political Church And consequently the Doctors Arguing from the Catholick to a National Church cannot be good Not only because there is no such Constitution as this by consent imaginable which I shall say principally as to the Catholick Church The True Head of this Church being not chosen by Man's consent and the False Head I hope we are never like to choose But because upon supposition that the Doctors Consent some way or other as he means did make it he must suppose this Universal Church as such to be on Earth a compleat Organized Body or he must make the National Church an In-organical Body and by either way he drops his Cause I do now wonder therefore at the Doctor what these first Apprehensions of something indeed he knew not what in his mind should mean How a man whose Parts are so great should be so slender in his Reasonings and why he should undertake the Resolution of such a Point as he is no body at at all The Doctor certainly has no reason therefore to insult over any body or contemn any and much less to Pity Mr. Baxter which Pity by interpretation is Slight Mr. Baxter is a man that is not to be Pityed nor indeed to be Envied for we usually don 't aspire to be equal to Singular persons The Doctor has his Excellencies other ways but he hath not Mr. Baxter's The Doctor 's Soul is made of Free-stone you shall have from him Polished Learning Mr. Baxter's is made of Flint you shall have from him Acute Truth It is the Flint not the Free-stone that strikes Light A quick Apprehension a d●ep Judgment a vast Invention Exquisite Notion A Pen consequently that is but turning the cock and it will run at any time a Sermon full or a Book full as he hath Occasion There is a Book I understand of his now sending out which hath been many a year in Study He is usually too sudden it is a Methodical system of Divinity fit for Students at the University I believe that many of our Episcopal-Divines will speak lightly of it but not read it For my part through his having this one Chief Work happily in Latin I rejoyce from my heart that Forreign Divines who are not yet Prejudiced as Ours are will come to know him Above all yet Mr. Baxter is a Holy Man who will be for ever greater in his own Refusing a Bishoprick than the Doctor can be in Getting one if the present ill managing of this Cause does not preclude his having any And now I could not Answer it to my self if I should leave this Discourse without returning to the Matter to make some Improvement of it From this piece of Doctrine then before wherein I wonder how the Doctor should stumble so at noon day that the Church of England is so far Erastian that She will not admit of Two Co-ordinate Powers with respect to the Church and the State of this Nation but doth choose to Own and Acknowledge the KING to be the only Head of Both we have a Dore open'd for Union which hath hardly been thought on by any of those Pious and Learned men whose Souls heretofore have so much breathed after it Archbishop Usher hath left us his Model for an Accommodation And it hath been upon the hearts generally of all Moderate Persons that a reduction of such a Government into our Church as was in in the Primitive Times when there was a Consessus Presbyterorum joyn'd with the Bishop in all his Acts of Ordination and Jurisdiction were the Way and only Effectual Way to our True Happiness and Reformation Unto which if one thing more might be Added that is If the Common-Prayer might be new Cast it being fit that such a Vessel for the Sanctuary should be all of Pure Gold so as the whole