Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A Word B Word C Word D Occurrence Frequency Band MI MI Band Prominent
cause_n good_a great_a world_n 3,255 5 4.3685 3 true
View all documents for the selected quad

Text snippets containing the quad

ID Title Author Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication) STC Words Pages
A59576 The things that make for peace delivered in a sermon preached before the Right Honourable the Lord Mayor, and the Court of Aldermen, at Guild-Hall Chappel, upon the 23 of August, 1674 / by John Sharpe ... Sharp, John, 1645-1714. 1674 (1674) Wing S3003; ESTC R9975 18,272 41

There are 2 snippets containing the selected quad. | View lemmatised text

For first if what I have laid down be true it cannot be true that Unscriptural Impositions can be a warrantable cause of separation from a Church supposing that by Unscriptural be meant no more than onely what is neither Commanded nor Forbid in the Scriptures For the Actions required by these Unscriptural Impositions are either in themselves lawful to be done or not lawful to be done If they be in themselves unlawful to be done then they do not fall under that notion of Unscriptural we here speak of they are down-right Sins and so either particularly or in the general forbid in the Scripture If they be in themselves lawful to be done then it cannot be imagined how their being commanded can make them unlawful So that in this case there is no sin in yielding obedience to the Church and consequently no cause of withdrawing our Communion from it Nor secondly can it be true that the Church requiring from us any doubtful or suspected practices as Conditions of her Communion is a just cause of Separation for we must have at least as much certainty of the unlawfulness of the actions enjoyned as we have of our Obligation to the Authority that enjoyns them before we withdraw our Obedience to it otherwise we do not proceed upon safe grounds but now we are absolutely certain that God hath commanded us to obey them that have the rule over us but we are not certain that the actions we here speak of are any where forbid by him for if we were they would be no longer doubtful or suspected they would be certain sins so that if we will follow the surer side as all Christians in these cases are bound to do we must continue our Obedience to the Church notwithstanding we suspect or doubt of the lawfulness of her Commands Neither thirdly can it be true that Errors in a Church as to matter of Doctrins or Corruptions as to matter of Practice so long as those Errors and Corruptions are onely suffered but not imposed can be a sufficient cause of Separation the reason is because these things are not sins in us so long as we do not joyn with the Church in them So that so long as we can Communicate with a Church without either professing her Errors or partaking in her sinful Practices as in the present case it is supposed we may do so long we are bound upon the Principle before laid down not to separate from her Neither in the fourth and last place is the enjoying a more profitable Ministry or living under a more pure Discipline in another Church a just cause of forsaking the Communion of that whereof we are now Members The reason is because we are not to commit the least crime for the attaining the greatest good in the World Now it is a crime to forsake the Communion of the Church whereof we are Members so long as her Communion is not sinful But the enjoyment of a less profitable Ministry or a less pure Discipline doth not make her Communion sinful therefore the enjoyment of a more profitable Ministry or a more pure Discipline cannot make a Separation from her lawful The fifth and last Proposition is That though we have a just cause to refuse Communion with the Church whereof we are Members in some instances yet we are not therefore to proceed to so total a Separation from it as to erect New Churches in contradistinction to it or to joyn with those that do The reason is clear from the foregoing Principles viz. because we are bound to obey as far as we can and where we cannot to suffer but at no hand to disturb the Peace or break the Unity of the Church Though we cannot comply with all that the Church requires of us yet still we must joyn with Her in those other things where we lawfully can Nay though the Church should require those things as Conditions of her Communion so that unless we conform to them we cannot at all communicate with her yet still there is a Passive Obedience due from us We must sit still and suffer and not make a Rent in the Church by setting up one Altar against another This is like the setting up a new and a distinct Government in the Bowels of the State Nothing can justify such a degree of departure as this but onely one thing to wit so great and general a Corruption of the Church both in Doctrin and Practice that the Salvation of all that communicate with her is thereby endangered Which though it be the condition of the Members of the present Church of Rome yet I dare say few among us will affirm to be the case of them that communicate with the Church of England Thus have I as briefly as I could represented to you the Particulars of that Duty we owe to our common Mother in the preservation of her Unity and Communion And I hope I have not been so zealous for Peace as to have been at all injurious to Truth I am confident I have said nothing but what is very agreeable to Scripture and Reason and the sense of the Best and Ancientest Christians And I am certain I have not intrenched upon any of those Grounds upon which our Ancestors proceeded to the Reformation of Religion among us And for most of the things here delivered we have also the suffrage of several and those the most learned and moderate of our dissenting Brethren And now if after this any one be offended as indeed these kind of discourses are seldom very acceptable all I can say is this That the Truths here delivered are really of so great importance to Religion and the Public Peace that they ought not to be dissembled or suppressed for any bad reception they may meet with from some men but as for the manner of delivering them I have taken all the care I could not to give offence to any I now pass on to the second part of my Task upon this Head which is to consider the Duty recommended in the Text with relation to particular Christians our Brethren And here my business is to direct you to the Pursuit of those things that make for Peace as Peace signifies mutual Love and Charity in opposition to Strife and Bitterness and Contentions The things that make for Peace in this sense are more especially these that follow which I shall deliver by way of Rules and Advices The first Rule is to distinguish carefully between matters of Faith and matters of Opinion and as to these latter to be willing that every one should enjoy the liberty of judging for himself This is one thing that would help very much to the extinguishing of those unnatural Heats and Animosities which have long been the Reproach of Christians If men would set no greater value upon their Notions and Opinions than they do deserve if they would make a difference between necessary points and those that are not so and in those things that are not
greater than this that some men in these matters speak more clearly and fully others more imperfectly and obscurely Some men convey their sense in plain and proper words others delight in Metaphors and do perhaps too far extend the Figurative expressions of Scripture Some reason more closely and upon more certain Principles others possibly may proceed upon weaker grounds and misapplyed Texts of Scripture and discourse more loosely But both Parties especially the more moderate of both seem to drive at much what the same thing though by different ways as appears from this that being interrogated concerning the Consequences of their several Opinions they generally agree in admitting or rejecting the same But fourthly another thing that would make for peace is this Never to charge upon men the Consequences of their Opinions when they expresly disown them This is another thing that doth hugely tend to widen our Differences and to exasperate mens spirits one against another when having examined some Opinion of a Man or Party of Men and finding very great absurdities and evil consequences necessarily to flow from it we presently throw all those into the dish of them that hold the Opinion as if they could not own the one but they must necessarily own the other whereas indeed the men we thus charge may be so innocent in this matter that they do not in the least dream of such Consequences or if they did they would be so far from owning them that they would abhor the Opinion for their sakes To give you an instance or two in this matter It is a Doctrin maintained by some That Gods Will is the Rule of Justice or that every thing is therefore just or good because God wills it Those that are concerned to oppose this Doctrin do contend that if this Doctrin be true it will necessarily follow that no man can have any certainty of the Truth of any one Proposition that God hath revealed in Scripture Granting now that this can by just consequence be made out yet I dare say those that hold the foresaid Doctrin would be very angry and had good reason so to be if they were told that they did not no nor could not upon their Principles certainly believe the Scripture Some Men think that they can with demonstrative evidence make out that the Doctrin of Gods irrespective Decrees doth in its Consequences overthrow the whole Gospel that it doth destroy the nature of Rewards and Punishments cuts the very Sinews of mens Endeavours after virtue makes all Laws Promises Exhortations perfectly idle and insignificant things and renders God the most unlovely Being in the world Now supposing all this to be true yet it would be a most unjust and uncharitable thing to affirm of any that believe that Doctrin many of whom are certainly pious and good men that they do maintain any such impious and blasphemous Opinions as those that are now mentioned The sum of all is that a man may believe a Proposition and not believe all that follows from it not but that all the deductions from a Proposition are equally true and equally credible with the Proposition from whence they are deduced But a man may not so clearly see through the Proposition as to discern that such Consequences are really deducible from it So that we are at no hand to charge them upon him unless he do explicitly own them If this Rule was observed our Differences would not make so great a noise nor would the Errors and Heterodoxies maintained among us appear so monstrous and extravagant and we should spare a great many hard words and odious appellations which we now too prodigally bestow upon those that differ from us The fifth Rule is to abstract mens Persons from their Opinions and in examining or opposing these never to make any reflections upon those This is a thing so highly reasonable that methinks no pretender to ingenuity should ever need to be called upon to observe it For it seems very absurd and ridiculous in any Argument to meddle with that that nothing concerns the Question But what do Personal Reflections concern the Cause of Religion what ever it may be to the Reputation of an Opinion I am sure it is nothing to the Truth of it that such or such a man holds it And truly if men would leave this impertinence we might hope for a better issue of our Religious Debates but whilest men will forsake the Merits of the Cause and unmanly fall to railing and disparaging Mens Persons and scraping together all the ill that can be said of them they blow the Coals of Contention they so imbitter and envenom the Dispute that it rankles into incurable distasts and heart-burnings Christians would do well to consider that these mean arts of exposing Mens Persons to discredit their Opinions are very much unworthy the Dignity of their Profession and most of all misbecoming the Sacredness and Venerableness of the Truth they contend for And besides no Cause stands in need of them but such an one as is extremely baffled and desperate and even then they are the worst Arguments in the world to support it For quick-sighted men will easily see through the Dust we endeavour to raise and those that are duller will be apt to suspect from our being so angry and so waspish that we have but a bad matter to manage We should consider that Mens Persons are Sacred things that what ever power we have to judg of their Opinions we have no authority to judg or censure Them That to bring Them upon the Stage and there throw dirt on them is highly rude and uncivil and an affront to Human Society and the most contrary thing in the world to Christian Charity which is so far from enduring Reproaches and Evil speaking that it obliges us to cover as much we can all the Faults and even the very Indiscretions of others The sixth and last thing I shall recommend to you as an Expedient of Peace is a vigorous pursuit of Holiness Do but seriously set your selves to be good Do but get your Hearts deeply affected with Religion as well as your Heads and then there is no fear but you will be all the Sons of Peace We may talk what we will but really it is our not Practising our Religion that makes us so Contentious and Disputatious about it It is our Emptiness of the Divine Life that makes us so full of Speculation and Controversie was but That once firmly rooted in us these Weeds and Excrescencies of Religion would presently dry up and wither we should loath any longer to seed upon such Husks after we once came to have a Relish of that Bread Ah how little satisfaction can all our pretty Notions and fine-spun Controversies yield to a Soul that truly hungers and thirsts after Righteousness How pitifully flatly and insipidly will they taste in comparison of the Divine Entertainments of the Spiritual Life Were we but seriously taken up with the Substantials of our Religion we should not have leisure for the Talking Disputing Divinity we should have greater matters to take up our Thoughts and more Profitable Arguments to furnish out our Discourses So long as we could busy our selves in working out our Salvation and furthering the Salvation of others we should think it but a mean Employment to spend our time in spinning fine Nets for the catching of Flies Besides this Divine Life if it once took place in us would strangely dilate and enlarge our hearts in Charity towards our Brethren it would make us open our arms wide to the whole Creation it would perfectly work out of us all that Peevishness and Sowrness and Penuriousness of spirit which we do too often contract by being addicted to a Sect and would make us Sweet and Benign and Obliging and ready to receive and embrace all Conditions of men In a word it would quite swallow up all Distinctions of Parties and what ever did but bear upon it the Image of God and the Superscription of the Holy Jesus would need no other Commendatories to our Affection but would upon that alone account be infinitely dear and pretious to us Let us all therefore earnestly contend after this Divine Principle of Holiness let us bring down Religion from our Heads to our Hearts from Speculation to Practice Let us make it our business heartily to love God and do his will and then we may hope to see Peace in our days This this is that that will restore to the World the Golden Age of Primitive Christianity when the Love and Unity of the Disciples of Jesus was so conspicuous and remarkable that it became into a Proverb See how the Christians love one another This this is that that will bring in the Accomplishment of all those glorious Promises of Peace and Tranquillity that Christ hath made to his Church Then shall the Wolf dwell with the Lamb and the Leopard lie down with the Kid Then shall not Ephraim envy Judah nor Judah vex Ephraim but we shall turn our Swords into Plough-shares and our Spears into Pruning-hooks and there will be no more consuming or devouring in all Gods Holy Mountain I should now proceed to the second General Point in my proposed Method of handling this Text viz. To set before you the very great Engagements and Obligations we have upon us to follow after the Things that make for Peace and that 1. From the Nature and Contrivance of our Religion 2. From the great weight the Scripture lays upon this Duty 3. From the great Unreasonableness of our Religious Differences 4. From the very evil Consequences that attend them as 1. In that they are great Hinderances of a good Life 2. They are very pernicious to the Civil Peace of the State 3. They are highly Opprobrious to Christianity in general And 4. and lastly Very dangerous to the Protestant Religion as giving too many advantages and too much encouragement to the Factors of the Papacy But I have I fear already exceeded the Limits of a Sermon and therefore shall add no more God open our eyes that we may in this our day understand the Things that belong to Peace before they be hid from our eyes FINIS V. 4. seq Ver. 13 14 15. Ver. 17. Ver. 18. Mr. Hales Eph. 5. 25. Acts 20. 28. Eph. 5. 23. 1 Cor. 12. 13. Eph. 5. 26. Rom. 16. 17.