Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	death_n	life_n	see_v	3,263	5	3.5236	3	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A86000	A form for Church government and ordination of ministers, contained in CXI propositions, propounded to the late Generall Assembly at Edinburgh, 1647. Together with an Act concerning Erastianisme, independencie, and liberty of conscience. Published by authority.; CXI propositions concerning the ministerie and government of the Church.	Gillespie, George, 1613-1648.	1647 (1647)	Wing G749; Thomason E418_3; ESTC R202292	30,071	51

Christian love and prudence contained in the Word of God 55. 'T is true that about the same things the civill Power is occupied as touching the outward man or the outward disposing of divine things in this or that Dominion as was said not as they are Spirituall and Evangelicall Ordinances piercing into the conscience it selfe but the object of the Power ecclesiasticall is a thing meerly and purely spirituall and in so far as it is spirituall for even that jurisdiction Ecclesiasticall which is exercised in an outward court or judicatory and which inflict●● publike censures forbidden from the use of the holy Supper and excludeth from the society of the church doth properly concerne the inward man or the repentance and salvation of the soul 56. Surely the Faithfull and Godly Ministers although they could doe it unchallenged and uncontrolled and were therein allowed by the Magistrate as in the prelaticall times it was yet would not usurpe the power of life and death or judge and determine concerning mens honours goods inheritance division of Families or other civill businesses seeing they well know these things to bee heterogeneous to their office But as they ought not to entangle themselves with the judgeing of civill causes so if they should bee negligent and slothfull in their owne office they shall in that bee no lesse culpable 57. To the object also of Ecclesiasticall power belongeth the assembling of Synodes so far as they are spirituall Assemblies proper to the church and assembled in the holy Ghost for being so considered the governours of churches after the example of the Apostles and Presbyters Acts 15. in a manifest danger of the church ought to use their owne right of meeting together and conveening that the churches endangered may be relieved and supported 58. Thirdly Those powers are differences in respect of their formes and that three wayes For first the civill Power although in respect of God it bee Ministeriall yet in respect of the Subjects it is Lordly and Magisteriall Ecclesiasticall power is indeed furnished with authority yet that authority is liker the Fatherly then the Kingly authority Yea also t is purely Ministeriall much lesse can it be lawfull to Ministers of the Church to bear dominion over the flock 59. Emperors Kings and other Magistrats are indeed appointed fathers of they countrey but the are withall Lords of their People and Subjects Not as if it were permitted to them to bear rule and command at their owne will and as they list for they are the Ministers of God for the good and profit of the Subjects yet it belongs to their power truely and properly to exercise dominion to hold principality to proceed imperiously It is indeed the duety of Ministers and Rulers of the Church to oversee to feed as shepherds to correct and rectifie to bear the keyes to be Stewards in the house of Christ but in no wise to be Lords over the house or to governe as Lords or Lordlike to rule yea in brief this is the difference between the civill Magistrate and the Ecclesiasticall Ministery in respect of those that are committed to their trust that the lot of the former is to be served or ministred unto the lot of the latter to minister or serve 60. Now we have one onely Lord which governes our souls neither is it competent to man but to God alone to have power and authority over consciences But the Lord hath appointed his owne Stewards over his owne Family that according to his commandment they may give to every one their allowance or portion and to dispense his mysteries faithfully and to them hee hath delivered the keyes or power of letting in into his house or excluding out of his house those whom he himself will have let in or shut out Matth. 16. 19. and 18. 18. Luk. 12. 42. 1 Cor. 4. 1. Tit. 1. 7. 61. Next the civill power is indued with authority of compelling But it belongs not to the Ministery to compell the disobedient if any compulsion be in or about Eclesissticall matters t is adventitious from without to wit from the help and assistance of the Magistrate not from the nature of Ecclesiasticall power from which it is very heterogenous and therefore if any Suspended or Excommunicate persons should be found who shall be so stiffe-necked and so impudent that at once he cast off all shame and make no account at all of those censures but scorn or contemn the same or peradventure shall insolently or proudly engyre and obtrude himself upon the Sacrament or being also filled with divelish malice do more and more contradict and blaspheme the ecclesiasticall Ministry in such cases hath nothing more to do by way of jurisdiction But the Magistrate hath in readinesse a compelling jurisdiction and externall force whereby such stubborn rebellious and undaunted pride may be externally repressed 62. Last of all the power of the Magistrate worketh onely politically or civilly according to the nature of the Scepter or Sword maketh and guardeth civill Lawes which sometimes also hee changeth or repealeth and other things of that kinde hee eff●cteth with a secular power But the ecclesiasticall power dealeth spiritually and onely in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and by authority entrusted or received from him alone neither is it exercised without prayer or calling on the Name of God nor lastly doth it use any other then spirituall weapons 63. The same sinne therefore in the same man may be punished one way by the civill another way by the ecclesiasticall Power By the civill Power under the formality of a crime with corporall or pecuniary punishment By the ecclesiasticall Power under the notion or nature of scandall with a spirituall censure even as also the same civill question is one way deliberate upon and handled by the Magistrate in the Senate or place of Judgement another way by the Minister of the Church in the Presbytery or Synod By the Magistrate so farre as it pertaineth to the Government of the Common-wealth by the Minister so far as it respects the conscience for the ecclesiastiall Ministery also is exercised about civil things spiritually in so far as it teacheth and admonisheth the Magistrate out of the Word of God what is best and most acceptable unto God or as it reproveth freely unjust judgements unjust wars and the like and out of the Scripture threatneth the wrath of God to be revealed against all unrighteousness of men So also is the Magistrate said to be occupied civilly about spiritual things 64. Therefore all the actions of the civill Magistrate even when he is imployed about Ecclesiasticall matters are of their own nature and essentially civill He punisheth externally Idolaters Blasphemers Sacrilegious persons Hereticks Prophaners of holy things and according to the nature and measure of the sin he condemneth to death or banishment forfeiture of goods or imprisonment he guardeth and underproppeth Ecclesiasticall Canons with civill authority giveth a place of habitation to the Church in

is occupied about the outward man and civill or earthly things about Warre Peace conservation of Justice and good order in the Common-wealth also about the outward businesse or externall things of the Church which are indeed necessary to the church or profitable as touching the outward man yet not properly and purely spirituall for they doe not reach unto the soule but onely to the externall state and condition of the Ministers and Members of the Church 46. For the better understanding whereof t is to be observed that so farre as the Ministers and Members of the Church are Citizens Subjects or Members of the Common-wealth it is in the power of the Magistrate to judge determine and give sentence concerning the disposing of their bodies or goods As also concerning the maintenance of the poore sick the banished and of others in the church which are afflicted To regulate so far as concerneth the civill order Marriages Burials and other circumstances which are common both to holy and also to honest civill societies to afford places fit for holy Assemblies and other externall helps by which the sacred matters of the Lord may be more safely commodiously and more easily in the church performed To remove the externall impediments of divine worship or of Ecclesiasticall Peace and to represse those which exalt themselves against the true Church and her Ministers and doe raise up trouble against them 47 The matter may further be thus illustrated There is almost the like respect and confideration of the Magistrate as he is occupied about the outward things of the church and of the Ecclesiastick Ministery as it is occupied about the inward or spirituall part of civill Government that is about those things which in the government of the common-wealth belong to the conscience It is one thing to governe the common-wealth and to make politicall and civill Lawes another thing to interpret the Word of God and out of it to shew to the Magistrate his duty to wit how he ought to govern the common-wealth and in what manner he ought to use the sword The former is prop●r and peculiar to the Magistrate neither doth the Ministery intermeddle or intangle it self into such businesses But the latter is contained within the office of the Ministers 48. For to that end also is the holy Scripture profitable to shew which is the best manner of governing a common-wealth and that the Magistrate as being Gods Minister may by this guiding Starre bee so directed as that he may execute the parts of his office according to the will of God and may perfectly be instituted to every good work yet the Minister is not said properly to treat of civill businesses but of the scandalls which arise about them or of the cases of conscience which occurre in the Administration of the common-wealth So also the Magistrate is not properly said to be exercised about the spirituall things of the church but rather about those externall things which adhere unto and accompany the spirituall things 49. And in such externall matters of the church although all Magistrates will not yet all yea even heathen Magistrates may and ought to aide and help the Church Whence it is that by the command of God Prayers are to be made also for an heathen Magistrate that the faithfull under them may live a quiet life with all godlinesse and honesty 1 Tim. 2. 1 2. 50. Unto the externall things of the Church belongeth not onely the correction of Hereticlis and other troublers of the Church but also that civill order and way of convocating and calling together Synods which is proper to the Magistrate for the Magistrate ought by his authority and power both to establish the Rights and Liberties of Synods assembling together at times appointed by the known and received Law and to indict and gather together Synods occasionally as often as the necessity of the Church shall require the same Not that all or any power to consult or determine of Ecclesiastick or spirituall matters doth flow or spring from the Magistrate as Head of the Church under Christ but because in those things pertaining to the outward man the Church needeth the Magistrates aid and support 51. So that the Magistrate calleth together Synods not as touching those things which are proper to Synods but in respect of the things which are common to Synods with other meetings and civill publick Assemblies that is not as they are Assemblies in the name of Christ to treat of matters spirituall but as they are publick Assemblies within his Territories for to the end that publick conventions may be kept in any Territorie the licence of the Lord of that place ought to be desired In Synods therefore a respect of order as well civill as ecclesiasticall is to be had And because of this Civill order outward defence better Accommodation together with safe accesse and recesse the consent and commandement of him who is appointed to cake care of and defend humane order doth intervene 52. Moreover when the Church is rent asunder by unhappy and lamentable Shcismes while they who have raised the troubles and have given cause of solemne gathering a Synode whether by their Heresie or Schisme or Tyranny or any other fault of others use to place the great strength and safeguard of their cause in declining and fleeing the tryall and sentence of a free Synode as being formidable to them Who seeth not that they cannot be drawn to a publick and judiciall tryall nor other disobedient persons be compelled to obedience without the Magistrates publick mandate and help 53. The object of Ecclesiasticall Power is not the same with the object of the civill Power but much differing from it for the ecclesiasticall Power doth determine and appoinr nothing concerning mens bodies goods dignities civill rights but is imployed onely about the inward man or the soul not that it can search the hearts or judge of the secrets of the conscience which is in the power of God alone Yet notwithstanding it hath for its proper object those externalls which are purely spirituall and doe belong properly and most neerly to the spirituall good of the soul Which also are termed {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} the inward things of the Church 54. Those things then wherein the ecclesiasticall Power is exercised are the preaching of the Word the Administration of Sacraments publick Prayer and Thanksgiving the catechising and instructing of children and ignorant persons the examination of those who are to come the holy Communion the ecclesiasticall Discipline the Ordination of Ministers and the abdication deposing and degrading of them if they become like unsavoury salt the deciding and determining of controversies of Faith and cases of conscience canonicall constitutions concerning the treasurie of the Church and collections of the Faithfull as also concerning ecclesiasticall Rites or indifferent things which pertaine to the keeping of decencie and Order in the Church according to the generall rules of