Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	day_n	great_a	king_n	3,238	5	3.5290	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A61558	Irenicum A weapon-salve for the churches wounds, or The divine right of particular forms of church-government : discuss'd and examin'd according to the principles of the law of nature .../ by Edward Stillingfleete ...	Stillingfleet, Edward, 1635-1699.	1662 (1662)	Wing S5597A_VARIANT; ESTC R33863	392,807	477

so much of their Natural Rights as was not consistent with the well being of the Society Secondly a free submission to all Laws which should be agreed upon at their entrance into Society or afterwards as they see cause But when Societies were already entred and Children born under them no such express consent was required in them being bound by vertue of the Protection they find from Authority to submit to it and an implicite consent is supposed in all such as are born under that Authority But for their more full understanding of this Obligation of theirs and to lay the greater tye of Obedience upon them when they come to understanding it hath been conceived very requisite by most States to have an explicite Declaration of their consent either by some formal Oath of Allegiance or some other way sufficiently expressing their fidelity in standing to the Covenants long since supposed to be made To apply this now to the Church We have all along hitherto considered the Church in general as a Society or Corporation which was necessary in order to our discovering what is in it from the light of nature without Positive Laws But here we must take notice of what was observed by Father Laynez the Jesuit at the Council of Trent That it is not with the Church as with other Societies which are first themselves and then constitute the Governours But the Governour of this Society was first himself and he appointed what Orders Rules and Lawes should govern this Society and wherein he hath determined any thing we are bound to look upon that as necessary to the maintaining of that Society which is built upon his Constitution of it And in many of those Orders which Christ hath settled in his Church the Foundation of them is in the Law of nature but the particular determination of the manner of them is from himself Thus it is in the case we now are upon Nature requires that every one entring into a Society should consent to the Rules of it Our Saviour hath determined how this Consent should be expressed viz. by receiving Baptism from those who have the power to dispense it which is the federal Rite whereby our consent is expressed to own all the Laws and submit to them whereby this Society is governed Which at the first entring of men into this Society of the Church was requisite to be done by the express and explicite consent of the parties themselves being of sufficient capacity to declare it but the Covenant being once entred into by themselves not onely in their own name but in the name of their Posterity a thing implyed in all Covenants wherein benefits do redound to Posterity that the Obligation should reach them to but more particular in this it having been alwayes the T●nour of Gods Covenants with men to enter the seed as well as the persons themselves as to outward Priviledges an implicite consent as to the children in Covenant is sufficient to enter them upon the priviledges of it by Baptism although withal it be highly rational for their better understanding the Engagement they entred into that when they come to age they should explicitely declare their own voluntary consent to submit to the Lawes of Christ and to conform their lives to the Profession of Christianity which might be a more then probable way and certainly most agreeable both to Reason and Scripture to advance the credit of Christianity once more in the World which at this day so much suffers by so many professing it without understanding the terms of it who swallow down a profession of Christianity as boyes do pills without knowing what it is compounded of which is the great Reason it works so little alteration upon their spirits The one great cause of the great flourishing of Religion in the Primitive times was certainly the strictness used by them in their admission of members into Church-Societies which is fully described by Origen against Celsus who tells us they did 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 enquire into their lives and carriages to discern their seriousness in the profession of Christianity during their being Catechumeni Who after tells us they did require 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 true Repentance and Reformation of Life 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 then we admit them to the participation of our Mysteries I confess the Discipline of the Primitive Church hath been very much misrepresented to us by mens looking upon it through the glass of the modern practices and customs obtaining among us as though all this onely concerned the Admission to the Lords Supper though that was alwayes in chiefest veneration in the Church of God as being the chief of Gospel-Mysteries as they loved to speak yet I cannot find that any were admitted to all other Ordinances freely with them who were debarred from this but their admission to one did include an admission to all so on the contrary I finde none admitted to Baptism who were not to the Lords Supper and if Catechumeni presently after onely confirmation intervening which will hardly be ever found separate from Baptism till the distinction of the double Chrism in vertice pectore came up which was about Ieroms time The thing then which the Primitive Church required in admitting persons adult to Baptism and so to the Lords Supper was a serious visible profession of Christianity which was looked upon by them as the greatest Evidence of their real consent to the Rules of the Gospel For that purpose it will be worth our taking notice what is set down by Iustin Martyr Apolog. 2. speaking of the celebration of the Lords Supper 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Where we see what was required before Admission to the Lords Supper A Profession of Faith in the truths of the Gospel and answerable Life to the Gospel without which it was not lawful to participate of the Lords Supper And further we see by Pliny that the Christians of those times did make use of some solemn Engagements among themselves which he calls Sacramenta they did se Sacramento obstringere nè funta nè latrocinia nè adulteria committerent nè fidem fallerent c. and Tertullian reports it out of Pliny that he found nothing de Sacramentis eorum as Iunius first reads it out of M. S. for de Sacris after him Heraldus and as it is now read in Rigaltius Edition besides cautelam ad confoederandam disciplinam c. scelera prohibentes which Eusebius calls 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pacta Covenants between them and so Master Selden interprets the place of Origen in the beginning of his Book against Celsus where Celsus begins his charge against the Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where he takes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not as Gelenius renders it conventus but in its proper sense for contracts or covenants that were made by the Christians as by other Societies onely permitted and tolerated by the Common-wealth

Religion and the publick order for the service of God an Assembly of select Divines is call'd by special order from the Kings Majesty for debating of the settlement of things according to the Word of God and the practice of the Primitive Church These sate as Mr. Fox tells us in Windsor Castle where as he expresseth it after long learned wise and deliberate advises they did finally conclude and agree upon one uniform order c. No more is said by him of it and less by the late Historian The proceedings then in order to Reformation being so dark hitherto and obscure by what is as yet extant much light may accrue thereto by the help of some authentick MS. which by a hand of providence have happily come into my hands wherein the manner and method of the Reformation will be more evident to the World and the grounds upon which they proceeded In the Convocation that year sitting with the Parliament I find two Petitions made to the Archbishop and the Bishops of the upper house for the calling an Assembly of select Divines in order to the setling Church-affairs and for the Kings Grant for their acting in Convocation Which not being yet to my knowledge extant in publike and conducing to our present business I shall now publish from the MS. of Bishop Cranm●rs They run thus Certain Petitions and requests made by the Clergy of the lower house of the Convocation to the most Reverend Father in God the Arch-Bishop of Canterbury's Grace and the Residue of the Prelates of the higher house for the furtherance of certeyne Articles following First That Ecclesiastical Laws may be made and established in this Realm by xxxij persons or so many as shall please the Kings Majesty to name and appoint according to the effect of a late Statute made in the thirty fifth year of the most noble King and of most Famous memory King Henry the eighth So that all Iudges Ecclesiastical proceeding after those Laws may be without danger and peril Also that according to the antient custome of this Realm and the Tenor of the Kings Writs for the summoning of the Parliament which be now and ever have been directed to the Bishops of every Diocess the Clergy of the lower house of the Convocation may be adjoyned and associate with the lower house of Parliament or else that all such Statutes and Ordinances as shall be made concerning all matters of Religion and Causes Ecclesiastical may not pass without the sight and assent of the said Clergy Also that whereas by the commandment of King Henry 8. certeyne Prelates and other Learned men were appointed to alter the service in the Church and to dewise other convenient and uniform order therein who according to the same appointment did make certeyne books a● they be informed their request is that the said books may be seen and perused by them for a better expedition of divine service to bee set furthe accordingly Also that men being called to spiritual promotions or benefices may have sum allowance for their necessary living and other charges to be susteyned and born concerning the said Benefices in the first year wherein they pay the first Fruits The other is Where the Clergy in the present Convocation Assembled have made humble suite unto the most Reverend Father in God my Lord Arch-Bishop of Canterbury and all other Bishops That hit may please them to be a mean to the Kings Majesty and the Lord Protectors Grace that the said Clergy according to the tenor of the Kings will and the auncient Laws and customes of this noble Realme might have their rowme and place and be associated with the Communs in the nether howse of this present Parliament as members of the Communwealth and the Kings most humble subjects and if this may not be permitted and graunted to them that then no Laws concerning the Christi●n Religion or which shall concern especially the persons possessions rowmes lyveings jurisdictions goods or cattalls of the said Clergy may passe nor be enacted the said Clergy not being made privy thereunto and their aunswers and reasons not heard The said Clergy dò most humbly beseech an answer and declaration to be made unto them what the said most Reverend Father in God and all other the Bishoppes have done in this their humble suit and request to the end that the said Clergy if nede bee may chose of themself such able and diserete persons which shall effectually follow the same suite in name of them all And where in a Statute ordeyned and established by auctorite of Parliament at Westminster in the twenty fifth year of the reigne of the most excellent Prince King Henry the eighth the Cleregy of this Realme submitting themselfe to the Kings Highness did knowledge and confesse according to the truth that the Convocations of the same Cleregie hath ben and ought to be assembled by the Kings writt And did promise further in verbo sacerdotii that they never from thenceforth wolde presume to attempt allege clayme or put in ure or enact promulge or execute any new Canons constitutions ordinances provincialls or other or by whatsoever other name they shall bee called in the convocation oneles the Kings most royal Assent and Lisence may to them be had to make promulge and execute the same And his Majesty to give his most royall Assent and Auctorite in that behalfe upon peyne of every one of the Cleregie doeyng the contrary and beinge thereof convict to suffre imprisonment and make Fine at the Kings will And that noe Canons constitutions or ordinances shall be made or put in execution within this Realme by auctorite of the convocation of the Cleregie which shall be repugnant to the Kings Prerogative royall or the Customes Laws or Statutes of this Realme Which Statute is eftsoons renewed and established in the xxvij yere of the reigne of the said most noble Kinge as by the tenor of both Statutes more at large will appear the said Cleregie being presently assembled in Convocation by auctorite of the Kings Writ do desire that the Kings Majesties licence in writeing may be for them obteyned and granted according to the effect of the said Statutes auctoriseing them to attempt entreate and commune of such matters and therein freely to geve their consents which otherwise they may not doe upon peyne and perill premised Also the said Cleregie desireth that such matters as concerneth religione which be disputable may be quietly and in good order reasond and disputed emongst them in this howso whereby the verites of such matters shall the better appear And the doubtes being opened and resolutely discussed men may be fully persuaded with the quyetnes of their consciences and the tyme well spent Thus far those Petitions containing some excellent proposalls for a through Reformation Soon after were called together by the Kings special order the former select Assembly at Windsor Castle where met as far as I can guesse by the several papers delivered