Selected quad for the lemma: cause_n

Word A	Word B	Word C	Word D	Occurrence	Frequency Band	MI	MI Band	Prominent
cause_n	great_a	king_n	people_n	5,231	5	4.6713	4	true

Text snippets containing the quad

ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A35047	Reformation not separation, or, Mr. Crofton's plea for communion with the church ... in a letter, written July 20, 1661 ... / by the said R.S. to whom it was written ; unto which, is added the copy of another letter, written on the same occasion and subject.	Crofton, Zachary, 1625 or 6-1672.; P. E., Reverend.; R. S.	1662 (1662)	Wing C7000; ESTC R12168	52,912	78

offer according to the Law of Moses confined his Ministry and Apostles to them till after the vaile of the Temple was rent in token of the expiration of their worship and departure of God accounting them children and all others dogs and charged the Disciples to hear them who sate in Moses seat under all their God-provoking Church annihilating corruptions he neither practised or prescribed a non-communion or separation 1 John 2.6 And in all extreams I desire to make him my pattern and walk as he walked who never went astray Do any stumble at the prophanenesse of the members and the neglect of corrective discipline rudenesse and irreverence in the use of Gods Ordinances Prophadess of members and disorder in Ministration confused method and the disorder of popular acclamations in publick prayer and other acts of worship I wish I could say these stones lay not in their way or that they were in my power to remove them but I think they run on a much greater Rock who run out of Gods Church or from solemn publick worship because thereof for the Church at Corinth was greatly corrupt and provoked the severity of Apostolical reprehension and that once and again 1 Cor. 5.1 2.10.21.11.20.21.14.26 2 Cos. 12.20 21 there being amongst them incest not to be named among the Gentiles and an heaven-daring ostentation in it instead of correction of it a participation with the table of Divels by their attendance on the Idol-feasts of the Infidels a rude and deboist drunken Communion at the Lords Supper intermingled and confounded with the Love-feasts intollerable disorder in their publick Assemblie all speaking at one and the same moment their very women not keeping silence and that in different matters and tongues every one had his Psalm his Prayer his Revelation his Prophesie his gift of Tongues in all which respects they were more confused than our popular acclamations and constrained the Apostles to check them by the nature of God as a God of order and not of confusion in all these the Apostle advised and endeavoured with all authority a Reformation but not separation or non-communion nor transplantation into a new gathered Church I cannot imagine he would make Schism from the Church 1 Cor. 3.4 a signe of a spiritual who judged Schism in the Church an evidence of a carnal mind Do men complain as they have cause that some Roman Rites and order was retained Rom. Rites when this Church was reformed let them consider many pious Kings of Judah have their reforming governments stained with a but the high places were not taken away but the people went thither to worship yet I finde not that any God-fearing Israelite who loathed those Reliques of Idolatry ever barred themselves because thereof from Gods Altar and worship My very soul is grieved to consider Englands back-sliding Backsliding Lukewarmness Indulgence of erronious Doctors and doctrines formality and lukewarmnesse in Religion yet when I observe that Ephesus who lost her first love Pergamus indulging the doctrine of Balaam and the Nicolaitans Thyatira suffering the woman Jezabel who called her self a prophetesse to teach and to deceive Gods people Sardis having a name to live but being dead and Laodicea Englands Counterpart so lukewarm that no good is spoken of her by all which these Asian Churches were rusted and therefore reproved by the Lord yet not rejected but represented to the world as the Starres he held in his right hand and golden Candlesticks among which he walked I dare not disown her relation to God disclaim mine own relation to her nor voluntarily decline communion with her Corruptions are not all alike My good friend all corruptions in Gods Church and worship are displeasing to God and distastful to his people imbracing the simplicity of the Gospel but all corruptions are not alike in operation quality and extent nor of a like influence on Gods Church and worship consider therefore some corruptions are substantial and intrinsecal vitiating the very subject and so universally spread through the worship of God that it cannot be used without sin others are circumstantial and extrinsecal to the same vain needlesse appendants superadded by mans will but which notwithstanding Gods Ordinances remain entire and exactly his and may be used without participation in the affixed corruption Some corruptions incident to Gods Church and worship I say are substantial and intrinsecal not arising out of Gods Ordinance as the genuine product and effect thereof but entring into the very body of the Church and substance of Gods worship Corruptions substantial and intrinsecal as a Spider into wine or venemous Worme into an Apple so as to vitiate the subject that it cannot be used with safety and nullisie the very Ordinances of God that it altereth their very nature to the losse of their efficacie and transmit certain destruction to such as sit under the same yea which is done either by changing the matter and retaining the essential constitutive form as by a solemne regular cutting off a Dogs head or offering swines blood instead of a Lamb or a Kid a baptizing as some have done by fire i●stead of water or retaining the matter but changing the essential forme as did Jeroboam and the Samaritans worshipping the true God by the very Sacrifices and in the very order himself appointed but before self-devised Symbols Calves to the one and the Dove to the other in a self-appointed place Dan and Bersheba to the one Mount Gerizim to the other and by self-consecrated Priests the lowest of the people and so departing from the Temple in Jerusalem Gods Ark in it and the Tribe of Levi all which were essentiall to the form of divine worship and thus did the Corinthians eating and drinking at the Idol Sacrifices which the Apostle severely corrected with a ye cannot par●ake of the Table of the Lord and the table of Devils ye cannot drink of the Cup of the Lord and the cup of Devils and by pointing them unto the essential form of the Sacrament the Cup of blessing which we blesse is it not the Communion of the blood of Christ and the Bread which we break is it not the Communion of the body of Christ Of this nature is Baptism 1 Cor. 10.16 by a Midwife or any other private hand though with water and in the name of the Father Son and holy Ghost or by water and a lawful Minister but in the name of God the Father of all things and Truth the Mother of all things as I have read some have done Corruptions extrinsecal Corruptions extrinsecal and circumstantial and c'rcumstantial are Ordinances superadded unto and so concomitant with or conversant about Gods Ordinances but enter not into nor do vitiate their subject the which these notwithstanding doth exist in matter and essential form perfect and entire capable of due operation in their own course and nature as stinking fish doth nourish or water pudled or in an unclean

and ordinances and reflectes on the work of reformation it selfe as if their proper genuine and natural parent The reformation of the Church is a duty incumbent on every man and member thereof Reformation must be by lawfull means onely it must be pursued in their places and capacities by just and lawful means without schism from or if possible in the Church or sedition in the Common-wealth both which my soul ever did abhor as disgraceful to Religion dishonourable to God and destructive to Reformation I never did nor yet can allow or advise other means of reformation then Ministerial admonition to the Church Logical dispute and Theological argumentation and redaurgtion among equals humble proposal petition and supplication to superiors with a patient and submisse attendance on their pleasure and on God acting the same such as receive Kings as nursing Fathers to the Church will rejoyce in them as Christians much more as professedly reformed and with all peaceable submission embrace such degrees of Reformation of the extrinsecall order and ministerial method of Gods worship enjoying the substance in the essential form thereof as they will allow untill God encline their hearts to allow what himselfe expecteth and his people desire soberly pursuing the bene esse with joy in the esse of Religion and in communion with the Church waiting on the truth of Gods ordinances quietly attending their Superiors for purity and regularity of dispensation I find not that the men fearing God in Iudah did tumultuously tumble down the high places nor turn away from Gods Temple because of them yet their standing was the stain of Government to their reforming Kings to flye out of Gods house or in the face of Gods Vicegerents because his own appointments are administred by instruments in order to his service unsuitable and to us offensive is a frowardness which God cannot nor will not admit or indulge in any of his children Ministerial reproofs and admonitions and vulgar mournings and murmurations are loud alarums to God and the consciences of men and strong enforcements of Reformation preces Iacrymae ever were and still are the onely weapons of the truly Godly Our state and time calleth for an higher degree of Reformation under and against the oppositions of just authority and lawful Princes such as God hath in his mercy and by his miraculous providence restored to our Church and Nation I am afflicted by and ashamed of the slow progress and shameful retrogradation of Englands Reformation under and against publike national solemn sacred bonds whose obligation will abide before God and conscience though the affirmations thereof may be interdicted by men If Calvini in his days could say If Godly Religion had flourished in England till that day the time of Queen Mary her Raign there ought to have been an order of service better corrected Epistle to the Ch. at Frankford and many things quitte taken away Can we without grief consider our Church hath enjoyed true Religion more then eighty years since that time and yet we ignorantly continue and violently contend for that order of service as if ashamed to give place unto better things yet I dare not deny her to be a reformed Church or as such decline Communion with her in and for whom the Lord hath emminently appeared and out of whom he hath gratiously purged all things venentous and destructive though some things nauseous and distastfull were continued and are returned into her having defended her against the Spanish Ari●ado and Popish Conspiracy by Gunpowder and other agitations and attempts of Papall power and Antichristian rage with an Almighty hand and outstretched Arme. I do beleive the infancy of Reformation might rejoice in and grow up under that order of divine service which the adult estate thereof ought to cast off as puerile and unsutable First degrees were matter of Comfort though not of Content to such who seek the simplicity of the Gospell remaining dreggs ought to be discharged and I doubt not God will notwithstanding mens aversness and opposition in due time effect it In the mean time i see no reason to refuse to drink because my waters are pudled or presented in an unclean Vessel and I can come by no purer remaining degrees of Reformation must be so purified that those obtained may not appear to be disowned or despised though our order of Divine Service be a Roman dregge of some dangerous distastfull influence yet it is not Popery shall we not blesse God and rejoyce in England as brought out of Babylon though some Babylonish Vestures Rites and Orders which ought to be abandoned are yet retained I conceive them ingratefull for the purity obtained who run out of Gods house for the Corruptions continued and obtruded I cannot but repute them over forward who shall refuse the Substantials of true Religion and Christs Institutions because of some rude Rough Appendants shall we not acknowledge Gods mercy in affording us and humbly use the truth of Gods word because transmitted unto us with some humane traditions and the substance of his own worship celebrated in a disorderly way and method with some foolish Appendants of mens inventions My good friend my zeal care and contests for Reformation of this poor Church have cost me dear yet if God suffer the Charge to rise as h●g● as did that of my namesake by the unkindness of King Joash not one mite too dear I blesse God however my passions worke I see no cause to repent my bargain I pray God glorifie himself and edifie his people by my bonds onely I must professe to all that fear God I see no sufficient cause to satisfie my Conscience or to plead before my God on which to refuse Communion with her and attendance on Gods solemn publique worship under her rude Ministerial method for that duty is not warantably superseded by the iniquity of another man my sufferings nor other mens sin under which I mourn because I cannot mend it must not turn me out of Gods way to the right or left hand superstition and separation must be shunned as Rocks equally dangerous to Gods Church and worship the prophanesse of this and its Subjects must not drive me nor the pretended purity and piety of the other and its Subjects allure or draw me unto the positive evil of separation or privative evil of voluntary non-Communion I pray and hope God will keep me upright under and against all temptations from falling into the extreams of our unhappy age and Church and yet give me to see the purity of his worship in Union and Communion with his Church here on earth or possesse me with his undefiled unstained glory in Heaven for from the one I dare not depart untill I arrive at the other least by shipwarck I should be deprived of both Fourthly Let it be considered Consi 4th Scandall is an argument of no strength when pleaded to supersede or condemn a positive duty Jobs friends

Separation and thath they would ponder the Honour and Benefit of Non-conformity protesting and practising against Non-communion in this day when its Enemy doth confound and destroy this for the sake and under the name of that But whither am I gone I must come back like a Fool and tell you I could never beat it into my Brains That it was good Policy to run out of an unclean disordered House under pretence of cleansing and regulating the same My little will led me to abide in it and by a Scrub Beesom of a reproving M●nistry such as I can get to bring the Dust about mine Ears I judge it prudent filth which hangs on my Cloaths in a regular endeavour to get it out of my House I am mistaken if ever my House will cleanse it self if I run and call all others out of it Once more and all my wit is wasted I am an Irish man and never yet was so wise to lie in the Field open to cold and wet because the Beasts not only stood but unhandsomly dung d in my lodging Chamber I have been used to Impoliticks but am unwilling to be better advised Impolitick That is nothing Fools may go to Heaven but my Act is impious This cannot be endured without good Evidence it is an high Charge I pray wherein lies its impiety This seemeth contrary to the general nature of the Act for that is a Religious Attendance on the Solemn Publick Worship of the true God in Jesus Christ Irregularity and Disorder may be an iniqui●y in the Administrator but that the Attendance on Gods Worship disorderly dispensed is impious in Gods People my Bible doth not teach lend me yours for I will not persist in any thing that writeth impiety on my Soul my Charity will not allow me to charge them with impiety who voluntarily attend this Service only because they do so misguided Zeal is not alwayes impious I dare not charge our first R formers and Marian Martyrs to have gone to the Stake under the Guilt and in the very Act of impiety and yet many of them went embracing commending chanting and concluding their last Devotion and Breath in the Words and Order of the Common-Prayer Gradual Defect will not acquit their Act from impiety if it now be it then was an Act impious to serve God by the Common-Prayer Our measure of increased light and many Obligations may aggravate our persistance in it but wi●l not alter the nature of the Act in it self impi●us Conscience bindeth me to be present in the Solemn Convocation and personally attend his Publick Worship the which when I come to it is by the impious Administrator dispensed in a rude disorderly irreverend Mode which maketh it my burden and my Soul to loath what I dare not leave because it is for Matter and essential Form the Lords Ordinance Is this an Act impious Let Brethrens Piety work by Charity to evince the Impiety I will give Glory to God and return till then let me proceed without Censure You specifie some Sequels of this mine attendance on Solemn Publick Worship in this Mode and Order but they are such as will not convince the same of impiety you say I hereby weaken Friends and strengthen Enemies I pray you how and wherein The Friends and Enemies of Non-Communion and Separation from the English Reformed Church never came into the Calender of my Friends or Enemies nor were they ever owned by sober Non-conformists contesting for gradual Reformation If such be hereby strengthned and weakned I bless God that I have done my Duty and that my practice doth edifie whilst I am not permitted to preach I must confess it is one end of my Action I account it mine Honour really to witness against Non-communion in my very Conflicts for Reformation But if Friends and Enemies to that Gradual Reformation incumbent on our age and hands be weakned or strengthned it may be mine Affl ction it is not mine Impiety for this Event is by accident not naturall and genuine the result of weakness in the one and wickedness in the other who consider not that Non-conforming Communion is an indispensable Duty and essential to Church-Reformation I must keep in my house if I will cleanse it though the filth in it is mine Annoyance Circumstantial Defects Redundant Appendants and Disorders will not warrantably discharge mine attendance on the substantial and truly existing worship of God In this Case give me leave to say to stumbling Friends and Brethren you have Zeal but not according to knowledge I must by Union with the Church seek Purity of Ordinances and none but wilful Fools or mad Men will run to the Channel to drink because men at Sea are glad to drink stinking water or deny to wash the Vessel or force all for ever to drink in such unclean Vessels because some through necessity can and do drink in such And yet Brother I cannot but tell you I have the comfort of my own Endeavours to anticipate this accidental Event by those Papers which I passed into the City with an intent to have passed them into the World in which you have my Apology for this Act And in Answer to this Objection I pray God they who stopped their Publication when they might have done it may seriously consider the service they have done the Church of God I could do no more to make even paths to weak feet if those who should would not pave it I cannot help it I am innocent of the blood of all men who stumble at this Act in it self lawful and indispensably necessary because of those accidents which I have done my part to anticipate But you say I hereby undo my good Testimony and give away the Cause in which I appeared This beareth indeed an Aspect of Impiety an Apostate is odious to God and men I have ever resolved and may ere long prove it to dye rather than do this my Conscience beareth me witness All this is come upon me yet have I not dealt falsly in the Covenant Had this been objected by men who knew not Mr. Crofton who never read the Writings for which he suffered it had been a tolerable mistake well may others when my Familiars and Brethren so much mistake my Testimony and misread my Cause well might Thomas Tomkins confound me with our late Usurping Traytors when my Fellow-Presbyters confound me with Separatists I observe you grant my Testimony given is good I wish it had been owned with less fear and shame I had been then more encouraged in it But I pray Brother what was it Was it the Cause of separation from or Non-communion with the English Reformed Church because corrupt or Backslider in its Reformation Have I been all this time a Martyr for Independency nothing less Zachary Crofton a Separatist from or Non-communicant with a backsliding corrupt disordered Church is as great as clear a Contradiction as Zachary Crofton a Traytor to King Charles the Second Which of

the people who sate under my Ministry will say I now undo the good Testimony I gave and give away the Cause for which I appeared Do I now practice otherwise than I have preached Who hath read the Books for which I suffer and will say I by this Act Give away the Cause and undo my good Testimony Read my Bonds pag. 35. Whatever shall be the establishment in the Church though never so corrupt yet whil'st consistent with Salvation though it may occasion to me Suffering and Suspention of my Ministry by Gods Grace it shall not effect in me Schism from the Church Read my Fetters pag. 49 50. This Reformation cannot justifie the Separation for that the Corruptions established were never made a sufficient ground for Separation sober serious Non-conformists who groaned under the burden of th●se Corruptions and for this Reformation were grieved by and greatly contended against this Separation as that which wanted sufficient ground Read again mine Epistle to Mr. Firmins Lyturgical Considerator in pag. 3. I can keep Communion under that Form of Worship whereby I cannot Administer and I can heartily say Amen to the Matter of those Petitions which are put up in an Order so confused preposterous and indigested that it seemeth to me to be so much below the Gravity of the Church whose mouth I must be the Seriousness of the Office whereby I administer the Sanctity of the Duty I am to perform and the Sacred Nature of the Object to whom they are presented that I dare not stand between God and his people with the same This last is part of my Testimony concerning and against the Lyturgy it self Now Sir What is my good Testimony Wherein is it undone Am I not practising the Cause in the express state in which I stated it It was ever far from mine intentions to be an Advocate much less a Martyr for Non-communion and Separation Non-conformity and Reformation is my Cause hath made my Testimony if I undo or give away this Inculca me tanquam salem insipidum Good Brother read me right and charge me not with Apostacy who drive with all my main my good Testimony against the one as well as the other extream of Reformation You wound your selves and engage Enemies by your Censures to Clamour and call me Apostate But you cannot convince me nor any that know me and my Testimony that I am started one hairs breadth from my Cause this condemned practice is the formal pursuit of my Contest I must therefore see very good grounds before I give back Having answered your Charge of Impolicy and Impiety I must consider your suggested Arguments against mine attendance on Gods Solemn Publick Worship in this place and order And truly Brother these are few and obscure I understand them not You speak of Ordinances which the Brethren think to be materially corrupt I can say no more to this but only to request they will speak out their thoughts and specifie the seeming corrupt matter and then I will judge concerning it And when they come to do this I think they will find Secundae Cogitationes sunt meliores they will find it is the Mode not Matter that is corrupt You say The Matter of Doctrine and Worship of Prayer seemeth not only to be the objectum ad quem I think quod more proper but pro quibus whether things or persons wherein they take it for granted the Common-Prayer is corrupt This I profess I understand not What do you mean by the Matter of Doctrine and Worship of Prayer Are these terms Synonimous Intend you by them Doctrine suggested in and by Prayer Or the Credentials of the Common-Prayer-Book distinct from the Worship of Praye I pray you explain yourself and then know Think so Seemeth so and take for granted may be supposed grounds for your Censures but signifie nothing to my Conviction which must be on certainty if it supersede what I conclude indispensable Duty Indeed your annexed instance maketh me think you mean the Matter of Doctrine suggested by Prayer for you specifie Arch-Bishops and Bishops as a superiour Degree of Ministry and if so you will give me leave to tell you you have antidated your Objection for our Books pray for none but Bishops and Curates or Pastors and Curates so that till the time of change come I may notwithstanding this Exception continue my Communion when the new Book cometh I may consider the weight of this Plea in the mean time I pray you resolve me Will single Errours preached much less suggested in Prayer warrant Non-communion with a true Church Non-attendance on Gospel-Ministry and Gods Solemn Publick Worship What meaneth when bindeth that Rule of our Redeemer Beware of the Leaven of the Pharisees I cannot understand by take heed what you he●r hear not them who teach for Doctrines the Traditions of men May not a personal Dissent be entered to a Petition for a mistaken Object and suggesting an Errour as its Basis Or must the whole Prayer for Matter generally good therefore be disowned This will necessitate and was the first cause of S t-forms of Prayer and require that they composed be not only communicated fratr●bus doctioribus but also to every indiv●dual Member of the Church who must join in Prayer and so Sir we fight well to flie upon by flying from a Common-Prayer Book You add The Brethren think mine attendance on it is aequ● if not aqualiter As if I should read or administer by this Form and that there can be no Obligation of Duty or Edification warranting the one which may not also justifie the other To this I say Th●nk so will not convince but of such who thus think I would enquire Is the common state of a Christian different from the special state of a Minister And so the Capacities Duties and Obligations of each different so that the one may be continued while the other doth cease The one may and must be acted when the other is arrested superseded or violently barred if men of power in the Church will discapacitate me for the one doth it ipso facto discharge me from the other Do our discapacitated Common Councel-men cease to be Citizens Or be they not bound to retain their Relation and participate or communicate in the common good of the City under what they judge to be the rude and disordered Government thereof I do not believe the Obligation of my Minist●y to be aeque or aequaliter necessitous and extensive with that of Christianity I must be and act as a Christian when those conditions are required from me which I cannot yield and without which I may not be permitted to act as a Minister and those conditions will not discharge the Duties of the one nor bar the Exercise of them which do bar the other I a Minister stand in a general and special Relation to the Church and am charged with Duties proper and peculiar to each of these I may be sinfully imposed on and restrained