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	separate_v	separation_n	2,045	5	10.3917	5	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A65834	An antidote against the venome of The snake in the grass, or, The book so stiled and the Christian people called Quakers vindicated from its most gross abuses and calumnies in certain reflections detecting the nameless author's malice, outrage, and persecution against the said people : unto which is annex'd a brief examination of the author's second book stil'd Satan dis-rob'd : also, some notice taken of his discourse for The divine institution of water-baptism.	Whitehead, George, 1636?-1723.	1697 (1697)	Wing W1889; ESTC R27066	123,381	290

for his Account is almost in every part false containing at least twelve plain Mistakes at best A natural Consequence of being over-officious and medling in other Mens Affairs which he is the readier to let him know that if he will please to appear Face to Face and hath two Ears may be yet better informed by him who is willing to join Issue with him in his great many more Instances as he saith Nath. Marks Among his many repeated Falshoods there is something of Truth hinted about one he calls a Prophet although never so esteemed by us who not keeping in Humility true Fear and Watchfulness as the Light of the Lord would have guided him the Enemy prevailed to hurry him by the shrength of Imagination and a secret discomposure of Mind wrongfully to charge a Person with the Fact for which he has been reprehended and testified against and we desire the Lord may truly humble that Person unto true Repentance Is it just to reproach all for this one Man's Offence Would this Accuser be so dealt by from the gross Miscarriages of many of his esteemed reverend Brethren of the Clergy Or because some of them have run Mad would he and the rest be so deemed We trow not Sn. p. 104 105. These Quaker-Prophets resolv'd to try their Hands round since they had begun and see if they could terrifie some or other to confess their Infallibility Re. What Prophets and how many did so resolve This is a foul Aspersion mix'd with the other false and partial Story to defame us and to invalidate our Christian Testimony which is to the Spirit of Truth and its Infallibility Sn. p. 112. Now it is made apparent that that Spirit which possesses them i. e. the Quakers is the very Spirit of Lies which is the Spirit of the Devil and consequently that their Light within is Darkness and then as our Saviour said O how great is that Darkness Re. What a blasphemous scornful and defaming Wretch is this 1. Thus to defame and condemn a sober religious People as possest with the Spirit of the Devil from some personal Mistakes Failings and Weaknesses 2. Thus to condemn the Principle i. e. our Light within as great Darkness because of some personal Miscarriages or Darkness prevailing through their not walking in the true Light which we profess Sn. p. 113. O therefore let those Christians beware who are led away with pretences to the Spirit in any Men not only against but beside that which is written who break the Vnity of the Church which Christ calls the tearing of his own Body to pieces and forsake the Communion of their lawful Bishops whom Christ has left as his own immediate Representatives and Vice gerents and as the Principles of Vnity in their respective Churches Re. This Story affects all Protestant Dissenters how conscientious soever any of them are as if they were all led by an ill Spirit against Scripture to break the Unity of the Church of Christ and tear his Body to pieces and to forsake the Communion of Christ's own immediate Representatives and Vice-gerents Very high Charges indeed but we deny them he must produce some better Proofs than his own ipse dixit or thus imposing upon Dissenting Protestants And suppose some such Dissenters should deny a Church guilty of severe Persecution to be the Church or Body of Christ and such Bishops as have countenanced Persecution to be his Vice-gerents and therefore cannot in Conscience hold Communion with them or with that Church what proof will he bring to satisfie the Denyers thereof See what follows Sn. p. 115. Sect. 10. Tho' God sent many Prophets to reprove the Kings and the Priests yet they neither rebelled against the Kings nor set up opposite Altars against those of those wicked Priests But AS they paid all dutiful Obedience to their persecuting Kings and suffered Martyrdom under them without resistance SO did they always keep in the Communion of those same Priests whom they had provok'd and reprov'd and paid all due Obedience to their sacred Authority Re. 1st That God sent Prophets to reprove the wickedness of Kings and Priests and the Covteousness Idolatry Prophaneness and Persecution of corrupt and polluted Priests is true and that true Prophets patiently suffered by both 2. But that the true Prophets did always keep in the Communion of those same corrupted polluted and wicked Priests whom they had reproved as asserted we deny for the Holy Prophets had a distinct pure Communion from that of the polluted Priests 3. 'T is no better than a piece of Popery thus to plead for keeping Communion with wicked Priests and Obedience to their Authority as sacred when they have no divine or sacred Authority being debased by their own Iniquity This is to make People Vassals to a corrupt Priesthood such as the holy Prophets testified against and as God overthrew for their Covetousness Idolatry and Wickedness the great Corruption of Priests is sufficient cause to dissent and separate from them Sn. p. 124 125. Their Churches have censur'd these Separatists and consequently given Judgment against the Light within particular Persons Re. The Consequence is falsly deduced for where the Separation is a self-Self-separation for which no just Cause is or can be assigned or Corruption charged upon the Society or Church from whom the Separation is made 't is unwarrantable and not arising from the true Light in any particular Persons and therefore the Judgment against such a Self-separation is not against the Light but against a Fruit of the Flesh and Darkness The Lord requires a Separation from the Unclean but not from the Congregation of his People nor from the Flocks of his Companions Sn. p. 128. The Ground of this Persecution against G. Keith was his preaching Christ without or a personal Christ in Heaven besides the Light within which he said was only the spiritual Presence of Christ by his Light and Life in all his Children P. 130. They do not really believe in any other Saviour than their own Light within which they call Christ and so endeavour to amuse us Re. 1. We never understood that G. K. was prosecuted for preaching Christ without in Heaven and only his spiritual Presence by his Light and Life in all his Children seeing this is all still but one and the same indivisible Christ and not two Christs Christ as in the Heavens and as in our Hearts is not divided There were other Matters charg'd against G. K. of his turbulent Spirit and Behaviour making Divisions Parties Separations c. 2. We do really believe in the intire Christ of God who was sent to be the Saviour and Light of the World that enlightens every Man coming into it and he is our Light Life and Salvation and this can amuse none but them that walk in Darkness Sn. p. 140. That G. K. upon the Text 1 John 1. 7. said It ought to be taken literally that it was the outward shedding of Christ's Blood which

with Gross Error but Hypocrisie too The first intends those Books of ours quoted by him in all which there 's Matter sufficient to clear us from his Aspersions as Thomas Ellwood and John Pennington also have well observed in divers Answers to him together with G. Keith's own former Vindications of us as a People and our Principles The latter i. e. Hypocrisie we may suppose must intend our Answer given to the said 7 Queries wherein as in divers other things G. K. hath foully belied us contrary to our own Consciences which are clear in the sight ●f God from Hypocrisie in this Matter as well as in other things And seeing G. K.'s Authority seems to be of some value with the obscure Author of The Snake in the Grass he and his Brethren of the Church of England may take G. K. for their Champion and see what they can make of him for he shews himself now no Quaker but more near to them and where he 'll yet center or settle in what Society or Communion is a great Question Or rather whether he does not aim at setting up for himself as Sect-master if he can draw some sort of People to admire him in his Notions and reproaching the Quakers contrary to his former manifold Vindications of them and their Principles after above 30 Years Conversation and kind Treatment among them The Second Part. Here follows a Catalogue of some of the great Mistakes notorious Abuses and Calumnies in the Second Part of the said Book stiled The Snake in the Grass after the Preface which is bigger than the Book it self THE Controversie with the Quaker-Dissenters has not been pursued by the Church of England with the like Zeal and Pains as those against the Presbyterians Independents and other Dissenters because the Quakers were not so considerable either for their Learning or for their Influence upon the publick Revolutions which the others caused both in Church and State But their numbers whether increased by their being so neglected are now really formidable I mean for the many Souls seduced by them they not only swarm over these Nations but they stock our Plantations abroad Re. Tho' the first part of this Complaint carries no small Reflection upon the Presbyterians and Independents c. rendring them greatly obnoxious in the Eye of the Government as not only formidable but dangerous which is most proper for them to answer 't is not truly stated as to the Quakers For the Church of England in the two late King's Reigns has pursued them with more Zeal and Pains than any other Dissenters both to stop their Growth and to root them out also tho' not by rationally controverting Matters in difference but by such extream and severe Persecutions as hard Imprisonments Banishments Spoil of Goods c. as no other People of Dissenters have so generally suffered nor to such a degree because they did not stand in a publick Testimony in the Heat of the Day as the People called Quakers have So that 't is not through the said Churches neglect or want of taking Pains to pursue the Quakers that they are so multiplied and increased but rather as the first and chief cause of their Increase was God's Power and divine Providence A secondary Cause was their great Oppressions and Persecutions of which Israel's Oppression and Increase when in Egypt in some sense and degree was figurative or resembling even of the true Churches Sufferings when the more they were oppressed the more they multiplied and grew Sn. p. 4. I find them scoffingly telling of the Rabbies of the Quakers to inherit the Subtilty as well as Heresie of the Arians and Socinians who were the most subtil and hardest to be detected of any of the Christian Hereticks and the Quakers do defend themselves with the same distinctions and even add to their Arts. Re. This Adversary is very much out and maliciously calumnious in this his charging the Heresie of the Arians as well as Socinians upon the Ministers among the Quakers For what was the Heresie of Arius Was it not that he held That the Son of God had his beginning of nothing That there was a time when he was not That he had a beginning of Essence That he had this Essence of nothing That the Son of God was of free Will inclined to Virtue and Vice That he was a Creature and made neither like unto the Father in Substance neither the true Word of the Father by Nature neither his true Wisdom and that the Word of God was not from Everlasting c. These Heresies were charg'd upon Arius and his Complices in the Sy●odical Epistle of the Council of Nice and Bishop of Alexandria lib. 1. cap. 3. Socr. Scol p. 215 216. p. 225. ch 6. Now we challenge this obscure Adversary to prove where ever the Quakers or their Ministers held these blasphemous and atheistical Notions Nay 't is manifest they hold the quite contrary both to Arius and Socinus for the Divinity of the Son of God the Eternal Word as many of their Writings testifie and therefore he is a gross Lyar who charges us with them and highly guilty of Folly and Self-contradiction also in rendring such mad Folks as he deems us so very subtil in Distinctions and Arts. Sn. p. 5. Many of them have really gone off from the height of Blasphemy and Madness which was professed among them at their first setting up in the Year 1650. and so continued till after the Year of the Restoration Anno 1660. Re. We utterly deny this Charge again as a foul Scandal That many of us professed the height of Blasphemy and Madness or that any in Society with us have so done The Man shamefully abuseth the Readers by imposing such lying defaming Stories upon them Sn. p. 10 11. Divers Comparisons made between L. Muggleton and the Quakers as denying all Church-Authority making a dead Letter of the Holy Scriptures and resolving all into their own private Spirit c. That these are Twin-Enthusiasts both born in the Year 1650. Re. His Comparisons herein are unjust and Accusations false 1. We never owned nor had Society with Muggleton but always bore our Testimony against his dark blasphemous Conceits 2. The spiritual Authority of the true Church we always own and esteem 3. The Holy Scriptures i. e. the Holy Doctrin of the Gospel we do not make nor call a dead Letter We distinguish between the dead Letter and the living Doctrin and follow not our private Spirits for the understanding thereof but the Spirit of God the Inspiration of the Almighty which giveth the true understanding Sn. p. 12. I desire before I go farther to obviate a Prejudice which some Readers may take as a little Railery I am forced to use now and then which they may think not becoming the Subject in Hand Re. His said Book of Four Shillings Price has more than a little Railery in 't for 't is stuft with abundance of as shameful Railery