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
A52415	Christian blessedness, or, Discourses upon the beatitudes of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ written by John Norris ... ; to which is added, reflections upon a late essay concerning human understanding, by the same author.	Norris, John, 1657-1711.	1690 (1690)	Wing N1246; ESTC R16064	112,867	310

not as expressing his true natural liking and approbation but only his relation to that particular People whose immediate King and Leader he was But now under the State of the Gospel which exhibits a more genuin Idea of God for the only Begotten Son which is in the Bosom of the Father he has declared him he has changed his Title from the style of War to the style of Peace This indeed was ever his Delight but now 't is his Glory and inserted among the brightest Ornaments of his Crown He is now manifested to be what he ever really was God from all Eternity to all Eternity enjoys a profound Peace within himself and the Sacred Persons of the Trinity are not more one in Essence and Nature than in Will and Inclination Their Moral is as great as their Natural Unity The Kingdom of God is a Kingdom of Peace and Heaven the Throne of his Majesty is a peaceful Region We never read but once that there was any War there and those that caused it were quickly banish'd thence To be short God both enjoys and establishes Peace above he maketh peace in his High-places and he has sent his Son to procure it below to reconcile Men to him and to one another that so both Worlds might conspire in Unity and that this Will of God might be done in Earth as it is in Heaven And therefore since God has shewn himself to be so great a Lover of Peace there is sufficient ground for this particular Prerogative of a peaceable Disposition that it makes those that have it Children of God From which I pass in the third and last place to conclude all with some Reflections on the present Disturbers of the Peace of Christendom 'T is the Observation of a Great Civilian and Moralist that Peace is a state peculiar to Man as he is distinguish'd from Brutes And so indeed it should be But could we suppose a Stranger from one of the other Planetary Worlds to come and take a View of this our little Spot and of the Manners of those that live upon it he would not sure think this of all the things in the World to be the Character of Man For he could not but observe and perhaps it would be one of the first Remarks he would make that there are more Wars and Fightings among Men than among any other sort of Creatures and more among Christians than among any other sort of Men. For at the very first opening of the Scene what a miserable face of things would appear both in Church and State What Wars and Desolations in the one and what Debates Envyings Wraths Strifes Backbitings Whisperings Swellings and Tumults in the other But because most of the Disturbances in the State proceed from those of the Church I shall confine my Reflections to those that disturb the Peace and Order of the Christian Church Where I shall First Point out who these Disturbers are And Secondly Set some such Considerations before them as may make them sensible of their Crime There are I conceive these two general ways of disturbing the Peace of the Church either by imposing unlawful or unreasonable Terms of Communion or by refusing to comply with such as are Lawful and Reasonable That the first of these is a Breach of the Church's Peace there can be no doubt because it introduces a necessity of Separation And that the latter is so is as plain because 't is a Separation without any Necessity for it Either of these is Schism whose Notion as all agree consists either in making a necessity of Separation or in separating without necessity The First of these will fall heavy upon the Church of Rome who as it has been sufficiently made good against her has brought in an Absolute Necessity of Separation by imposing such notoriously unlawful and unreasonable Terms of Communion The latter will light upon all those who separate from such parts of the Reformation where they may lawfully Communicate More especially it will light heavier than ordinary upon all those Sectaries among us who now divide from the Church of England the Terms of whose Communion as has been undeniably prov'd and maintain'd are not only Lawful but highly reasonable and of an excellent Constitution I need not here nor is it my Design to set my self professedly to make out the Charge of Schism against the Dissenters and Separatists from the Church of England It has been done over and over to the utmost Degree of Evidence and the whole Circle of the Reform'd Churches cry out upon them for their unreasonable Separation Only I would desire them to try themselves and their Cause by that one plain Apostolical Canon before mentioned and see whether they can justifie themselves by that single Measure It is this If it be possible as much as lies in you live peaceably with all men If with all Men then certainly much more with Bodies and Societies of Men much more with our Governors and Superiors much more yet with the Church the most Sacred and most Eminent of all Societies And if as far as is possible then certainly as far as is lawful But now I would ask our Dissenters and Separatists this one Question and appeal to their Consciences as well as to their Practices for an Answer Do they live peaceably with the Church of England as by Lawful Authority establish'd as far as is possible and as much as in them lies So far from this that I Might say were I minded to aggravate things that they do the quite contrary and Divide from us as far as is possible and as much as in them lies it being very notorious that they run from us as far as they can measure their Purity and Sanctity by their distance from us and condemn and disuse many things meerly because we approve and use them But I need not take advantage of this tho it be too notorious to be denied as well as too scandalous to be defended I only demand Do they live peaceably with the Church as far as is possible and as much as in them lies They cannot with any modesty say that they do For if they did not to say that they might come much nearer to us than they do they must of necessity conform with us Since as they were never able to shew any thing unlawful in our Communion so they now generally allow it to be lawful and accordingly will afford us their company now and then upon occasion as often as they think fit to do us that Honour Well then if our Communion be lawful then 't is Possible for them to communicate with us and if they do not then 't is plain that they do not live peaceably with us as far as is Possible and as much as in them lies and consequently by vertue of this plain Apostolical Canon stand fully convicted of Schism and let them bring themselves off if they can I am satisfi'd they will