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
A56562	The magistrates authority asserted, in a sermon, preached at the cathedral in Norwich by James Paston ...	Paston, James, d. 1722?	1673 (1673)	Wing P666; ESTC R13819	15,825	32

subject Has God if he has let us know where Is it not rather the secret whisper of fancy or the Itch of vain-glory to be counted sufferers for the sake of Christ Or do we pretend it is the Spirit of God within us that stirs us up to this disobedience and makes us undergo such hardships If we do it is but meerly a pretence For the Spirit of God never contradicts it self And the Apostle St. Paul and other holy Men spake as they were moved by the same Holy Ghost that these Men pretend to be led by and they never told us that we should refuse subjection to such Commands to bring wrath upon our selves But contrariwise the Apostle tells us that for this reason we must be subject that we might avoid the wrath But this is removed at least the effects of it till the great King of Heaven shall render vengeance to all the Children of disobedience But yet there remains a Second Reason of our subjection to Earthly Governours which shall never be removed till the Earth shall be dissolved and the Heavens themselves shall pass away And this also is set down in my Text and that is for Conscience sake out of Conscience we must be subject And that this may appear we must again review those Arguments which prove obedience necessary For if God has commanded subjection if Reason tells us that without it there cannot be Unity and those blessed effects of it to which we are so frequently exhorted That without Subjecton there will be no Order but Confusion that Men are apt to run into Errours And that our Superiours must needs restrain these inclinations If things be thus and thus as by the premised Reasons has been proved then questionless we are bound in Conscience to be subject Nay if not only the Penalties were suspended but even the Commands themselves were so relaxed that every Man might worship God as he pleased nay might choose whether he would worship him or no Yet Justice obliges him to worship him Reason requires that this Worship be performed in Unity And it cannot but appear evident to any that have not wholly disclaimed Reason that should there be such a liberty granted that every Man might worship God as he pleased Men would see such monstrous issues from thence or divisions and distractions such a confusion and disorder and from thence such debate and envy and hatred that all sober good men of what perswasion soever would desire to have some bounds prescrib'd them to keep the Christian World in peace and to limit the extravagancies of Men. So plainly would they see that We must needs be subject even for Conscience-sake But the God of Peace and Unity grant us Wisdom at a cheaper rate and that we may never learn it again by so sad experience And if we would see what manner of posture things would be in if there were no Order appointed in the Worship of God we need not travel far for information we may read enough of it in the sad acts of our late Tragical times to cause Horrour and Consternation in the minds all good Men. Something may be seen in the ruines of the Houses of God in the Land whose rubbish are sad Monuments of unbridled Zeal Sacriledge and Cruelty and Rapine may be glutted if they look back into those days when there was no King or at least no King obeyed in our Israel and every man did that which right in his own Eyes When there were almost as many Modes of Religion as Men and these as variable as the Moon nay as the inconstant hours of Autumn Yet every one at all times pretending to be in the right and all the rest in the wrong So that no Man knew who to trust to or what to hold to That all this tended to the destruction of Peace to the ruine of Humane Society and to the unsetling of all things He that was of one Religion to day to morrow would be of another and the next of a third and at last of none at all As we have seen some who have forsaken the Center and got into the Round and turned from Presbytery to Independency from this to Anabaptism from this to Brownism and from this to Quakerism and so tost about with every wind of Doctrine till at last by the just Judgment of God they have been thrown quite besides all Religion to God or Honesty to man one day denying the dues of the Church the next all other whatsoever for they who at first denyed the Revenues of the Ministry at last proceeded to Opinions that all things should be common and sometimes even to the very practice of Levelling teaching that onely the Righteous should inherit the Earth and all other to be rooted out from the land of the living and themselves though parties chiefly concern'd were Judges and Executioners in the case But I desire that no other use might be made of these sad Memoires than to move us to pity and to pray for those that have been guilty of the sins of Disobedience and Schism that they may repent of them and we may discover what Desolation these Sins have wrought in the Earth that seeing what mischiefs and fatal miseries have proceeded thence we may be convinced that we are bound in Conscience to be subject to prevent such ruine as we may otherwise bring upon our selves and others And thus we see in what things we must be subject In those things which God has commanded and in those things which he has not forbidden for we have neither precept nor example to the contrary No place in the whole Scripture forbids us to obey our Governours neither did ever any of the Martyrs suffer for disobedience in such things Secondly we have also seen the Necessity of our Obedience in such things 1. Because God has so commanded 2. Because Reason also requires it because peace is necessary and this cannot be had without Unity nor will there be Unity without Obedience to those that appoint us the wayes we should observe 3. Because without it there will be no order 4. Because there is a necessity that the Superiour must command Thirdly We have also seen the Apostles reasons why we must be subject 1. For wrath rather submit in such things as God hath not forbidden than incurr the punishment 2. Though no punishment be threatned for Disobedience yet even for Conscience sake we ought to be subject rather than bring such miseries upon our selves and others as are the sad consequence of Disobedience But to conclude all The Providence of the Almighty has plac'd us where there is nothing commanded us contrary to his Will there is not a Circumstance in our Worship not an expression in our LITURGY that God has any where forbidden and therefore questionless we ought to be subject for God has commanded us so to be and if his Word had been silent herein yet Nature and the practice of all Nations has spoken loud enough in the Case because No Worship can be without some Ceremonies No Peace Order or Decency without Unity in those Ceremonies Therefore although it has pleased our Superiours to suspend the Punishment due to Disobedience yet the taking away the Penalty takes away neither the Justice nor convenience of the Command nor the necessity of our Obedience to it if we think we must be subject for Conscience sake If therefore we have any regard to the express Commands of God's Vicegerent who still injoynes Obedience though not upon any penalty if we have any respect to the Will of God himself who has commanded us also for Conscience sake to submit if we have any love to Order to Unity and Peace we must needs be subject if we would not have the most pure Church in the World rent in pieces if we would not have that Religion destroyed which so strictly injoynes Obedience to God Justice and Love and Charity to Man we must be subject There is one thing though not the onely thing which has given occasion to some undiscerning or uncharitable persons to refuse Subjection and that is the wicked lives of some who pretend to belong to our Church But let us endeavour to have our Conversations as unblamable as her Constitutions that the malice of the Adversary may yet have less cause to object and the unwary may not have this for an Argument Your lives are bad therefore your Religion is naught And let such as make this an occasion of their Separation be entreated to consider That they ought not to persecute that Religion with Schism which others have smitten with profaneness for the Religion may be good though the Professors of it be bad and that Christs Religion was never the worse because one of his Apostles had a Devil And let us be entreated by the words of Saint Paul Phil. 2.1 2. If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of Love if any fellowship of the Spirit to fulfill the joy of all good men that we be like minded having the same love being of one accord and of one mind And that we may be so the same Apostle gives a very fit expedient and intreats us to use it Rom. 16.17 Now I beseech you brethren mark those that cause division and offences contrary to the doctrine you have received and avoid them not out of curiosity frequenting the Assemblies of those that divide from us lest God punish our Curiosity by giving us up to be ensnared by their Errours And let us submit to the supream King of Heaven and to the great Bishop of our Souls and to the Powers upon Earth for his sake that at the last day when he shall summon us all to appear before his dreadful Tribunal we may be received where we shall enjoy eternal Peace and Unity and Uniformity together with Angels and Saints who have obeyed him in this and all other his Commands and have been subject not only for wrath but also for conscience sake To which blessed Society may he in his good time conduct us who is the God of peace to whom together with the Son and Holy Ghost be ascribed as is most due all Praise Honour and Adoration hence forth and for evermore Amen FINIS